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Friday February 22, 2008

Shorts: U.S.

Bush asked not to intervene

Congress members are urging the Bush administration not to intervene in lawsuits American terror victims have won against the Palestinian Authority.

In a letter last week to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a bipartisan slate of eight U.S. senators expressed opposition to “government interference with the victims’ legal rights.”

A federal court in December asked the government for its opinion on a Palestinian Authority effort to put aside the awards, collectively amounting to hundreds of millions of dollars, saying it could bankrupt the authority at a time it is facing down extremists and negotiating peace. Reports had suggested the Bush administration was leaning toward intervening on the authority’s behalf. — jta

Sinatra a gun-runner?

Frank Sinatra reportedly played a role in smuggling guns to Israel in 1948.

Brian Greenspun, a son of Hank Greenspun, the Las Vegas media and real estate magnate who helped lead the gun smuggling effort, related the account last week to a Washington fundraising dinner for Israel’s Rabin Center.

Greenspun, who said he heard the story from his father, later confirmed it with Teddy Kollek, the late Jerusalem mayor. In 1948, Kollek was Israel’s point man heading the arms smuggling effort in New York.

Sinatra and Kollek were long-time friends, and the singer contributed to a number of Jerusalem building projects at the mayor’s behest. — jta

Anti-Semitic flier circulated

A Tennessee congressional candidate declined to disavow a flier saying both the incumbent and the Jews hate Jesus.

The flier, which reads “Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus,” is the work of a black minister, the Rev. George Brooks, according to the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

The Appeal slammed the flier as “disrespecting the pioneers who have fought for racial parity.”

Cohen represents a majority black Memphis neighborhood in the U.S. House of Representatives. In 2006, during his freshman run, he was the target of anti-Semitic invective. — jta

Republican ads target Jews

The Republican Jewish Coalition launched an ad campaign titled “I Used To Be A Democrat.”

“The ads reflect the movement we’ve witnessed for years. More and more American Jews express serious misgivings with the direction of the Democratic Party,” said RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks. “They are finding that the Republican Party better represents their concerns, ranging from national security to the well-being of Israel.”

The ads will run in major Jewish newspapers across the country through late spring or early summer. J. is one of the few major Jewish newspapers that has not been approached to run the ads. — jta

Lawyer withdraws Holocaust fees

A Holocaust claims attorney withdrew his request for a fee of $300,000.

Burt Neuborne, a New York University law professor, recently had requested an additional $300,000 in interest, above his fee of $3.1 million, to compensate for a two-year delay in payment.

In a letter to a federal judge, Neuborne said the “petty squabbles over attorneys’ fees” were diverting attention from the “profound legal and moral issues raised by the Holocaust,” according to the New York Sun.

Neuborne has drawn criticism over fees before. His request for the additional interest payment also drew condemnation from survivors and their advocates. — jta

L.A. JCC hit with explosive

A Molotov cocktail was placed or thrown at a Jewish community center in suburban Los Angeles.

No one was injured in the Feb. 18 incident at the Bernard Milken Jewish Community Campus in West Hills, the Los Angeles Daily News reported.

The incident occurred in the back of the building at around 2 a.m., according to Paul Goldenberg, the national director of the Secure Community Network, a nonprofit organization that works as a security adviser for hundreds of Jewish institutions.

Authorities are investigating.— jta

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