WASHINGTON — Former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, known for her fiery pro-Palestinian views, is trying to stage a comeback, and her effort is reigniting debates over the influence of the pro-Israel lobby in American politics. On July 29, voters in the Fourth Congressional District in Georgia will choose the Democratic candidate for the local House…
John-John Ticket: In Senator John Edwards, Senator John Kerry has chosen a running mate who shadowed him to the right on Arab-Israel matters during the Democratic primaries. Edwards scored high marks among pro-Israel Democrats for his forceful anti-terror language in the Iowa debates. The North Carolinian, who enjoyed the staunch backing of members of the…
A lawsuit filed last Friday in Brooklyn, N.Y., federal court alleges that the Arab Bank, a leading Jordanian institution with deep commercial ties in this country, has been using its New York branch to help channel funds to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. The suit, brought by the families of six Americans injured or…
WASHINGTON — Hundreds of American Jewish activists launched a concerted pre-emptive media campaign this week to minimize negative publicity for Israel, as the International Court of Justice in the Hague rules on Israel’s West Bank security fence. The activists set off a newly created network and applied skills that they acquired during a three-day pro-Israel…
WASHINGTON — In a sign of what could be an emerging chill in U.S.-Israeli diplomacy, the Bush administration is expressing disappointment with the slow pace at which Israel’s government is dismantling illegal outposts in the West Bank. The administration also is rejecting an Israeli demand that international financial aid to the Palestinian Authority be conditioned…
NEVEH DEKALIM, Gaza — While politicians and the media debate the threat of violent resistance from settlers when the army comes to evacuate them, residents of this settlement in southern Gaza say they remain convinced that day never will come. The morning after an Israeli army outpost was blown up near here by Palestinian militants…
PRAGUE — On June 29, the Jewish Community of the Czech Republic abruptly dismissed its chief rabbi, Karol Sidon, a playwright and a well-known communist-era dissident, after 12 years of service. Two days later, the Jewish Community named Manis Barash — the longtime Chabad Lubavitch rabbi in Prague, who is a native of New York…
What do Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Britney Spears and Demi Moore have in common? Don’t tell me — yawn! — that all four are practicing kabbalists. That’s old news. No, all four have been spotted wearing bendels. The gossip columnists tell us that the latest to be seen with one is Moore, who has been appearing…
PARIS — In an indication of France’s concern over an upsurge of antisemitic incidents, President Jacques Chirac was to deliver a major speech Thursday calling on French citizens to mobilize against all forms of discrimination. A Chirac aide and a Jewish communal official told the Forward that the president intended to personally call upon French…
Of all the religious rituals in the world, one would think that the mikvah is distinctly Jewish. But that is no longer so. An interdenominational mikvah has opened up in Newton, Mass. It is not for women alone. Now men and children may participate. People are invited to celebrate all sorts of occasions in the…
ARLINGTON, Va. — If President Bush succeeds in increasing his share of the Jewish vote above the estimated 19% that he won in 2000, it will have a great deal to do with his with-us-or-against-us posture on the world stage. True, the Jewish community is sharply divided over the wisdom of the president’s stance. At…
