Advisers To Address Aipac Top foreign policy advisers to both presidential candidates are scheduled to participate in an upcoming conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying powerhouse that is reportedly being investigated by a counterintelligence unit of the FBI. Both National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and the chief foreign affairs adviser…
The 18th-Century German nun whose violent, mystical visions of Jews were the source of several controversial scenes in Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is about to move a step closer to sainthood, despite strenuous objections raised by some Catholic and Jewish communal leaders. Some observers are seeing the Vatican’s scheduled October 3 beatification…
As the push to cut off investments in Israel gains momentum in Protestant circles, Jewish organizations and their allies on Capitol Hill are racing to neutralize the burgeoning divestment movement. This week, following a tense three-hour summit with upset Jewish communal officials, leaders of the Louisville-based Presbyterian Church (USA), with 2.5 million members, said they…
Wexler: Probe FBI Prober Rep. Robert Wexler, a Florida Democrat, sent a letter to President Bush on Wednesday asking him to investigate David Szady, the FBI’s assistant director for counterintelligence, who is leading the investigation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. “Given the fact that no information has surfaced to substantiate the highly incriminating…
An internal Israeli feud over Egypt’s attitude toward peace spilled over onto American shores last week, when two of Jerusalem’s top foreign-policy officials met with Jewish groups here and delivered diametrically opposing views of Egyptian intentions. In the space of three days, members of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations heard from…
Even as Senator John Kerry suggests that better diplomacy could have kept America out of war in Iraq, his advisers are warning that the Democrat could wind up ordering military intervention against another Middle Eastern power: Iran. “John Kerry has been crystal clear that a nuclear Iran is intolerable to the U.S.,” the head of…
WASHINGTON — Congressional Republicans are stepping up their efforts to combat antisemitism through a series of public speeches and legislative maneuvers. Two GOP lawmakers, Senator George Voinovich of Ohio and Congressman Chris Smith of New Jersey, are pledging to lead the fight for a bill requiring the State Department to create a special office to…
Bunk Buster: A Republican Jewish Coalition ad touting President Bush in Jewish newspapers has met a small problem: Its claims are directly contradicted by Bush and the White House. The ad, headlined “President Bush: Working for Peace. Working for a Secure Israel,” claims that an unnamed “historic agreement” concluded by Bush will “provide Israel with…
WASHINGTON — A new study of President Bush’s faith-based initiative has church-state watchdogs warning that the program is being used for partisan gain and is likely to lead to cuts in federal funding to Jewish social service agencies. But the Jewish community’s main network of social service providers is refusing to sound the alarm. The…
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — God’s fury bore down on the hurricane coast of South Florida last weekend with uncanny timing. Hurricane Jeanne arrived with its 100-mile-per-hour winds just as Jewish worshippers in the region were reaching the climax of the prayers marking the Day of Judgment, Yom Kippur.For Jewish worshippers, the intersection of holiday and hurricane…
An old Yiddish ditty advises us about the drinking habits of a yid and a goy: Shiker iz a goy Shiker iz er, trinken miz er, Vayl er iz a goy. Nikhter iz a yid Nikhter iz er, davnen miz er Vayl er iz a yid. But this easy characterization of the drinking habits of…
