The Forward, a Jewish weekly newspaper published in New York, reported on June 25th that: Kerry’s campaign is building national and state Jewish leadership teams “comprised of prominent national and local leaders in our communities,” Kerry’s senior adviser on Middle East and Jewish affairs, Jay Footlik, writes in a letter to supporters. The groups will act as surrogates for the campaign at local events and debates. Attached to Footlik’s letter is a document titled “John Kerry: Strengthening Israel’s Security and Bolstering the U.S.-Israel Special Relationship,” which Footlik asks recipients to e-mail “to friends and neighbors, to synagogues, federations, youth groups, sisterhood and brotherhood groups, study groups, to your personal and professional networks.” Read the text of the position paper here. Read more about Kerry Campaign releases Middle East policy seemingly drafted in Tel Aviv
This week, Senator Kerry sent Florida Congressman Robert Wexler to Israel on his behalf. Wexler, a member of the House International Relations Committee and a close ally of the pro-Israel lobby, has been asked by Kerry to formulate the Middle East policy for the Democratic Party platform. During his visit, Wexler is due to meet with Israeli officials, including prime minister Sharon, Benjamin Netanyahu and Shimon Peres, and, bizarrely, the Turkish Ambassador to Israel, but with not a single Palestinian. A June 25 press release from Kerry’s envoy expresses “unequivocal support” for Sharon’s policies. Read more about Embarrassing America
On June 8, Arab Media Watch correspondent Victor Kattan interviewed British Member of Parliament George Galloway, who is running for a seat in the European Parliamentary elections for Respect-The Unity Coalition on Thursday June 10. Galloway: “…contrary to all the assurances given to Parliament by Mr. Blair, and contrary to assurances given to him by Ariel Sharon, British weapons were being used in the occupied territories… The so-called ethical foreign policy of Mr. Blair doesn’t seem to draw any lines around General Sharon.” Read more about Interview with George Galloway, British Member of Parliament
The head of the American defense contracting firm implicated in the torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison has close ties to Israel and visited an Israeli “anti-terror” training camp in the occupied West Bank earlier this year, EI’s Ali Abunimah reveals. How are US defence contractors, lobbyists and Israel connected in a web of influence, back-scratching and cash? Read more about Israeli link possible in US torture techniques
George W. Bush’s ever more one-sided interventions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, most recently his uncritical backing for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s desired “disengagement” from the Gaza Strip, elicit thinly veiled declarations of dissent from the chanceries of the European Union. “No number of unilateral initiatives on their own can bring about a permanent peace in the Middle East. Everybody knows that,” said Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen, speaking for the EU foreign ministers at a news conference on April 16. Peter Lagerquist analyses EU’s policies vis-a-vis Israel. Read more about False Resolution Looms in EU-Israeli Settlement Trade Dispute
“A few weeks ago, I registered online for the 2004 Israel Solidarity Day featuring the Walk With Israel, sponsored by the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago (JUF)…because I wanted to get on the JUF mailing list, then forgot all about it,” writes EI co-founder Ali Abunimah. So imagine how surprised Abunimah was when a few days before the event received a personal letter from Mr. Jay Tcath, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund of Metropolitan Chicago informing him he was banned! Here is the story, and the exchange of letters between Tcath and Abunimah. Read more about EI's Ali Abunimah banned by Chicago Zionist organization
Two weeks ago, Sharon met George Bush to discuss his plan for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip. On the face of it, this could have been welcomed as a major first step towards peace, that is, if it was not linked with a further intention to retain most of the major settlements in the occupied territories on the West Bank. Adri Nieuwhof and Jeff Handmaker argue that up until now, the European Union has failed to use the means it has at its disposal to enforce respect for international law and human rights. The EU must no longer take the middle ground, merely limiting its role to expressing support for the peace process. They cannot claim that the peace process needs time. In fact, there is no peace process and no time left: we are at the point of no return. Read more about Sharon’s violent policy, a point of no return for the European Union
IAEA Director General ElBaradei will be visiting Israel sometime in the summer, though details have not been finalized. Israel, which has refused to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and is believed to have up to 200 nuclear weapons, is a Member State of the IAEA and it is six years since he was last there. He would intend to use such a trip to promote non-proliferation and a nuclear weapon-free zone in the Middle East, as well as to discuss bilateral cooperation in nuclear sciences and applications. Read more about UN nuclear inspector El Baradei to visit Israel in July
As South Africa celebrates its 10th year of freedom from the repressive policies of apartheid, Israel has intensified its brutal repression of a just cause - now entering 56 years of dispossession and dismemberment. It is strange therefore that a disgruntled former Israeli diplomat in South Africa, has made a desperate effort to ridicule SA’s pro-Palestinian leanings. It is lamentable that Tova Herzl’s term as Israeli ambassador in Pretoria did not teach her any lessons about the stark differences which exist between her country and a post-1994 South Africa. MRN’s Iqbal Jassat comments. Read more about No Need To Embrace Israel
In the past 87 years since Lord Balfour wrote to Lord Rothschild declaring that the United Kingdom favored the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, the world has seen dispossession, depopulation, confiscation, and uprooting. Now with the 15 April 2004 declaration of George W. Bush, Israel’s seizure of large areas of the West Bank and Gaza and the removal of Palestinian inhabitants have been legitimized, ruling out the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state in the areas of Palestine that are populated by Arab Palestinians. Read more about From Balfour to Bush
