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Friday April 20, 2007

Shorts: U.S.

Israeli wins Pulitzer

Oded Balilty, an Israeli photographer working for Associated Press, won the Pulitzer Prize this week for breaking news photography for his image of a female settler fighting with security forces during the evacuation of settlements. — jpost

AJCommittee launches blog

The American Jewish Committee launched a blog that will serve as a forum for its experts from around the world to comment on issues of concern to the Jewish people.

The blog will cover current events, Jewish life, the Middle East, anti-Semitism and energy. It can be accessed at www.ajcblog.org. — jta

GOP candidate Thompson apologizes for remarks

Republican presidential candidate Tommy Thompson told a Jewish group Monday, April 16, that earning money is “part of the Jewish tradition,” a remark for which he later apologized.

“I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money,” Thompson told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition and I do not find anything wrong with that.”

After being made aware that his remarks were problematic, Thompson returned to the podium and told the several hundred activists assembled, “I just want to clarify something because I didn’t in any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances and things.

“What I was referring to ladies and gentlemen is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion and the Jewish people. You have been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that and if anybody took what I said wrong, I apologize. I may have mischaracterized it. You are very successful. I applaud you for that.”

During the speech, the former Wisconsin governor said his was the first state to buy “Jewish bonds” — presumably meaning Israel Bonds — and said his friend who persuaded him to buy the bonds was also a big supporter of the “Jewish Defense League” — probably meaning the Anti-Defamation League, not the militant group. — ap

New Birthright record

Taglit-Birthright Israel is bringing a record 23,500 participants to Israel this summer. The group received 32,500 applications from North America.

Among the Jewish 18-to-26-year-olds taking the free, 10-day educational trip this summer are some 20,000 from North America — the largest Birthright group from that continent. Some 12,000 made the Birthright Israel trip in the summer of 2006, and 10,000 participated in the winter of 2006-07. Registration has been closed for this summer’s trip. — jta

Judge won’t close parts of AIPAC trial

The judge in the classified information trial of two former AIPAC staffers threw out a prosecution request to keep significant portions of the trial secret.

The government proposal “closes significant parts of this trial and fails to pass constitutional muster,” federal judge T.S. Ellis III ruled Monday, April 16, in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va.

The government had proposed using codes to keep information secret from the public and a system that the judge said was overly confusing for the jury. The ruling was a victory for a number of First Amendment protection groups and media outlets that filed an amicus brief.

Steve Rosen, AIPAC’s former foreign policy chief, and Keith Weissman, its former Iran policy analyst, face trial for receiving and relaying classified information. The trial is set to start June 4, almost two years after they were indicted. — jta

2 profs back off from blaming Iraq on Israel

Two professors who published a controversial paper on the “Israel lobby” appear to have backed off from their claim that pro-Israel voices were principally responsible for the Iraq war.

In a lengthy reply to their critics, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Harvard professor Stephen Walt do not acknowledge error in their original paper’s contentions about the lobby’s role in the Iraq war. However, their new conclusion is considerably less definitive.

“Israel’s endorsement was hardly the only reason why the United States went to war, of course, but to say that Israel did not encourage it is wrong,” they now say.

That’s softer than their original contention that pressure from the pro-Israel lobby was “a critical element” in the decision to attack Iraq and that “the main driving force behind the Iraq war was a small band of neoconservatives, many with close ties to Israel’s Likud Party.” — jta

Shawn Green goes to bat for charity

Jewish baseball player Shawn Green reportedly pledged to make a donation to a Jewish group based on his statistics.

The Forward reported that Green, an outfielder who was traded to the New York Mets last season, said he would donate $180 — or 10 times chai — to the UJA-Federation of New York for every run batted in. Chai, which means life in Hebrew, has a numerological value of 18 and the Jewish community often gives gifts in multiples of 18 as a result. — jta

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