WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is worried that the Palestinian Authority’s reluctance to confront terrorism and lawlessness in Gaza Strip thwart international efforts to transform the area’s failing economy. There is widespread international agreement that vigorous economic development is necessary for Gaza to function effectively after Israel completes its pullout from the area. The international…
Like most master’s degree students at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, I expected my 32-page thesis to gather dust peacefully on the library’s shelves. Instead, it unleashed a political storm of scurrilous charges of antisemitism against one of the most prominent players in New York City politics — and my main source. Herewith, the…
P.A. Assets Frozen A Rhode Island court froze the Palestinian Authority’s American assets because of an unpaid court order regarding a terror attack. The Palestinian governing body was ordered last year to pay $116 million in damages related to the 1996 shooting of American citizen Yaron Ungar and his Israeli wife, but it has not…
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has agreed to speak to a group of Jewish communal leaders when he comes to New York in September for the United Nations General Assembly. The event was planned after a secret meeting in Pakistan between Musharraf and three top officials at the American Jewish Congress in late May. Invitations have…
At the July 18 reception for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, held at Gracie Mansion, host Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised the organization “for bringing a small measure of justice to the millions of Jews victimized by the Nazis” and the resulting “distribution of over $1 billion… to more than 500,000 Jewish victims…
The controversy over a disputed circumcision ritual could affect the mayor’s race in New York City, as some members of the Hasidic community are promising to protest any restrictions placed on the mohel in question. Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer has been the subject of an investigation by the city’s health department since three infants tested positive…
By most measures, Yisroel Newman, 25, and other young Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis like him are the obvious solution to the army’s severe shortage of Jewish chaplains. These young rabbis are trained by a movement dedicated to reaching Jews wherever they may be, no matter how remote. The peripatetic military lifestyle would not be much more difficult…
Recently, the small city of Provo, Utah, acquired a big distinction: According to a study published this month, it is the most conservative city in America. Based on the voting patterns of 237 major urban centers across the country, researchers at the left-leaning Bay Area Center for Voting Research determined that Provo had the highest…
The August 19 article “Shul Dispute Nears End” erroneously reported that the National Council of Young Israel entered into a contract to sell its building for less than the assessed market value. In fact, the only thing the article should have stated was that before any deal was closed, the proposed buyer was attempting to…
As Pope Benedict XVI paid a historic visit last week to a synagogue in Cologne, Germany, and laid out his agenda for the future of Catholic-Jewish relations, his Jewish partners in dialogue were settling an internal skirmish over titles and authority. Despite the jockeying, Jewish leaders found time to praise Benedict’s speech, which included a…
U.N. Slammed on Banners Members of Congress and Jewish groups are demanding explanations from the United Nations over the use of United Nations Development Programme funds for the preparation of inflammatory banners by the Palestinian Authority in Gaza. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Florida Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Middle East, sent a…
