Here’s today’s press conference at the State Department. Note how firm and detailed Secretary of State John Kerry was in his 11-minute presentation, how poetic Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni’s 4-minute remarks were (starting at 12:15) and how strikingly brief and downbeat Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat was in his one minute and 10 seconds…
The State Department said on Tuesday it was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct by overseas staff including a report that an ambassador patronized prostitutes after a leaked memo said the agency had ignored the misbehavior. CBS News this week reported it had obtained an internal State Department inspector general’s memo that said several investigations into…
From Tuesday’s Yediot Ahronot, as translated in the emailed Daily News Update of the S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace comes a fairly detailed description by Alex Fishman of John Kerry’s game plan for restarting the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Fishman is Yediot’s veteran, impeccably well-sourced military affairs correspondent. He attributes this information to…
The Obama administration delayed honoring an Egyptian human rights activist after discovering tweets on her Twitter feed celebrating a deadly terrorist attack on Israelis. Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman, said Thursday that Samira Ibrahim was on her way back to Egypt and would not participate in a State Department ceremony Friday what will honor…
From nailing pimps to cracking down on forced labor, Israel is doing a much better job of preventing so-called human trafficking, according to a new report by the U.S. Department of State. Trumpeting successes like the convictions of a pimp who sold Eastern European women into sex slavery for $5,000, Israeli officials say they are…
The U.S. State Department has issued its annual [human rights report that detailing arbitrary arrests and killings in the Occupied Territories and discrimination against Arabs and refugees inside Israel. The official assessment, one of nearly 200 country reports](http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/humanrightsreport/index.htm#wrapper), paints both Palestinian and Israeli authorities as failing to live up to international human rights in the…
“Hip-hop goes beyond race, religion or socioeconomic class,” according to Lorenzo “Rennie” Harris, hip-hop dancer and founder of Rennie Harris Puremovement, Philadelphia’s famed hip-hop dance company. “Whether you are from Philly or Cairo, you can connect with African-American arts, because they are about freedom.” His words had just been acid-tested by a month-long tour of…
The wife of Alan Gross, a State Department subcontractor jailed in Cuba, has launched a new strategy to win his release: ratcheting up the pressure on the United States government as well as on the Cuban regime. After fighting for months to persuade the organized Jewish community to rally behind a humanitarian campaign to free…
אויף אַן אָפּשערעניש לעצטנס האָט די משפּחה גערעדט ענגליש און שווייצער דײַטש, אָבער די צערעמאָניע האָט מען געפֿירט אויף ייִדיש
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