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Friday December 21, 2007

Shorts: U.S.

Guilty pleas in terror case

Gregory Patterson, a 23-year-old college student, pleaded guilty this week to charges of conspiracy to levy war against the United States through terrorism and conspiracy to possess and discharge firearms.

He will be sentenced April 14, 2008 and could face up to 25 years in prison.

Last week two leaders of the Muslim terrorist ring — Kevin James, 31, and Levar Haley Washington, 28 — pleaded guilty to charges relating to a plot to blow up synagogues, Jewish community centers and other Jewish or Israel-related sites in and around Los Angeles. — jta

Buchanan: Israel is my model

Buchanan cited Israel as a model to preserve the U.S. “identity.”

“Israel fights ferociously to preserve her religious and ethnic identity,” the three-time presidential candidate and commentator writes in his book released this month, “Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed Are Tearing America Apart.”

“Jews are a people. And Israel is unapologetic about preserving its ethnic and religious character,” he adds.

Buchanan has drawn American Jewish ire in the past for charging that the pro-Israel lobby has a stranglehold on foreign policy and that U.S. forces have fought wars on behalf of Israel. — jta

Bill promotes U.S.-Israel projects

President Bush signed a bill this week that includes a provision for Israeli-U.S. energy cooperation.

The Energy Independence and Security establishes a U.S. grant program in cooperation with the Israeli Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure.

That program would promote solar, biomass, wind, geothermal, wave and tidal energy, as well as advanced battery technology and energy efficiency. Joint ventures between businesses, nonprofits, academic institutions and the federal government in the U.S. and Israel qualify for the grants. — jta

Students hired to promote Israel

StandWithUs, an advocacy group, is hiring students as on-campus promoters of Israel.

The group is offering up to $1,000 a year this semester to 38 Emerson fellows, Jewish student leaders at key colleges and universities targeted by the organization. Their duties will include bringing in speakers and films that show Israel in a positive light.

Officials from StandWithUs told reporters that they gave particular consideration to applicants from “problem campuses” such as Columbia, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Michigan, which the organization identifies as hotbeds of anti-Israel sentiment. — jta

Report clears U.C. Irvine

Federal civil rights investigators say U.C. Irvine officials acted fairly in permitting anti-Israel student activity.

The Zionist Organization of America complained in 2005 about alleged anti-Semitic speeches and actions by Islamic student groups, saying the university discriminated against Jewish students by failing to act against the Muslims.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights says in a report released last week that some Muslim student activities were offensive to Jewish students. But the report concludes the speeches, marches and other activities were based on opposition to Israel policies, not the national origin of Jewish students. — ap

N.Y. deli reopens

After being closed for nearly two years, Manhattan’s heralded 2nd Avenue Deli reopened its doors at a new location — on 33rd Street near Third Avenue.

Most of the menu has been preserved. The $20 Twin Double, consisting of heaping portions of corned beef and pastrami, along with the $21.75 Instant Heart Attack survived the move. The latter arrives in the form of two large potato pancakes with a choice of formidable meat.

The old space on Second Avenue and 10th Street now houses a Chase Bank.

The deli suffered a terrible blow March 4, 1996 when its founder, a Holocaust survivor, was shot and killed while attempting to make a bank deposit. — ap

OU taking teens to South Africa, Swiss Alps

The National Conference of Synagogue Youth has added two new trips to its list of summer programs.

For the first time, high school students can go with the Orthodox Union’s NCSY to South Africa and Israel. The first part of the trip will take participants to the African bush, the Indian Ocean and the Drakensberg Mountains, after which participants will travel to Israel.

Also for the first time, NCSY will merge leadership training with a trip through Central Europe. The Jewish Overseas Leadership Training trip will take teens to Berlin, Leipzig and Hamburg, where they will learn about Jewish leadership and history. They will then camp in the Swiss Alps with Jewish children from across Eastern Europe.

Registration for the two new trips and a dozen others is now open (an early registration discount of $150 is available by applying online before Dec. 31, using the coupon code “early-bird”). For more information or to register, visit NCSY’s Web site at www.ncsysummer.com, call (888) TOUR-4-YOU or email summer@ncsy.org.

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