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Friday January 18, 2008

Shorts: Mideast

Newsweek: Bush ‘disowned’ report

President Bush reportedly “all but disowned” the recent National Intelligence Estimate in private talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, according to Newsweek.

A report by Michael Hirsh in Newsweek’s Jan. 21 issue makes that assertion, attributing it to a senior Bush administration official who accompanied the U.S. leader on his visit to the Middle East.

The article also states that when asked after Bush’s visit if he felt reassured on the Iran threat, Olmert told Newsweek, “I am very happy.”

The anonymous source said Bush briefed Olmert about the NIE, which concluded that Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, a week before it was published and that “Bush told Olmert he was uncomfortable with the findings and seemed almost apologetic,” Newsweek reported. — jta

President admits to Auschwitz error

The United States erred in not bombing Auschwitz during the Holocaust, President Bush said.

Bush made the comment to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice while viewing an exhibit at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem of U.S. aerial photographs of the Nazi concentration camps, according to the memorial’s chairman, Avner Shalev.

Avner reported that the president’s eyes welled up with tears twice during the tour.

“I wish as many people as possible would come to this place. It is a sobering reminder that evil exists, and a call that when evil exists we must resist it,” Bush said.

Wearing a yarmulke and flanked by Israel President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Bush also laid a red, white and blue wreath at the center’s main memorial, a stone slab that covers ashes of Holocaust victims taken from six Nazi extermination camps. — jta

Bush to return to Israel for 60th

President Bush left Israel after pledging to come back to help celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary.

“I intend to come back to help the peace process move forward but also to celebrate Israel’s 60th anniversary,” Bush told Israeli Ehud Olmert and Shimon Peres before boarding Air Force One after completing his first presidential visit to the region.

Israel launches its year-long 60th anniversary celebrations May 8. — jta

Olmert loses coalition partner

Avigdor Lieberman, a key partner in Israel’s coalition, said Jan. 16 he was taking his right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu faction out of the government in light of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s decision to negotiate with the Palestinian Authority on core peacemaking issues.

Lieberman’s walkout, which takes effect Jan. 18, will not immediately topple the government since Olmert’s coalition will still command 67 of the Knesset’s 120 seats.

But it might precipitate similar action by Shas, another right-wing party. — jta

Gaza sniper kills kibbutz volunteer

A Palestinian sniper killed a foreign volunteer Jan. 15 on a kibbutz near the Gaza border.

Carlos Chávez, a 20-year-old man from Ecuador, was shot in the back as he worked in a field at Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the sniper attack, which came from the nearby Gaza Strip at the height of an Israeli army incursion against Palestinian terrorist targets. — jta

Soldier’s story published online

A story written by captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit when he was 11 was published last week.

Shalit wrote “When the Shark and the Fish First Met” for a fifth-grade assignment. Well-known Israeli artists illustrated the book.

Proceeds will go to Habanim, an organization that is committed to freeing Shalit as well as abducted reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

Shalit’s story, as well as the illustrations, can be downloaded from the Habanim Web site, www.habanim.org, in English, Hebrew and Arabic. — jta

American school vandalized in Gaza

Gunmen smashed windows, burned buses and looted computers belonging to an American school in Gaza last week.

A previously unknown group claiming affiliation with al Qaida left leaflets around the school that were signed “Army of Believers, the al Qaida Branch on the Land of Palestine.”

The group didn’t specifically claim responsibility for the attack, but vowed to target “dens of vice and corruption,” naming a number of restaurants in Gaza City. — ap

Program to bring doctors to Israel

The aliyah group Nefesh B’Nefesh, in conjunction with Israel’s ministries of health and immigrant absorption, is attempting to address the doctor shortage in Israel by importing them.

The Physician Aliyah Fellowship is targeting American- and British-trained doctors younger than 40. It will provide an initial grant upon arrival in Israel and monthly supplementary income for the first two years, for a total of about $60,000.

Doctors must be willing to practice at least nine months a year in Israel. — jta

Former Warrior ‘regrets’ behavior

Former Golden State Warriors guard Will Bynum said last week that he did not know if he ran over a man in an accident last week in which he has been implicated, but added that he “regretted” his behavior.

The 25-year-old Maccabi Tel Aviv player is under house arrest after he was held for allegedly running over a disc jockey after leaving a Tel Aviv club. The DJ was seriously injured.

Bynum is permitted to practice with his team and play in local games, but he is barred from leaving Israel for 30 days without a special request for their overseas games. — jta

School to ordain Orthodox women

The Shalom Hartman Institute will begin ordaining Orthodox women as rabbis. It is the first Orthodox institution to do so.

The Jerusalem-based institute, which runs Orthodox middle and high schools for boys, will start accepting women and men of all denominations this fall for a four-year course leading to ordination.

The candidates will be ordained in the streams to which they belong. — jta

Court may allow more Falash Mura

Israel may allow 1,400 additional Ethiopian Falash Mura to immigrate to Israel.

In a court hearing Jan. 13, a panel of judges recommended that Israel bring more Ethiopians to comply with a 2004 government decision to accept more than 17,000 Ethiopian immigrants.

But the court stopped short of explicitly issuing an order, and it also refused to hear a petition that sought to force Israel’s Interior Ministry to screen an additional 8,500 Falash Mura for their eligibility to make aliyah. — jta

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