For those truly seeking to promote reconciliation, the first step should be calling on the bigots to stand down, not encouraging the moderate Muslims to look uptown.
-- By Joseph K. Grieboski & Shai Franklin --
The motto atop the Anti-Defamation League’s website reads, “To stop the defamation of the Jewish people… to secure justice and fair treatment to all.”What could compel such a venerable institution to set this aside and oppose an Islamic coexistence center and mosque located two blocks from the World Trade Center site?
According to ADL’s National Director, the anguish of those who lost loved ones on 9/11 “entitles them to positions that others would categorize as irrational or bigoted.” America is a free country, where everyone and anyone is entitled to a bigoted position. But the rest of us need not follow or even pre-empt those positions.
While it is difficult to measure how much an organization l... (5002 more chars)
(Tuesday, 29 December 2009) Written by Shai Franklin
J STREET: A TEACHABLE MOMENT
By Micah D. Halpern & Shai Franklin
The rise of J Street has generated a good deal of anxious commentary and criticism in the Jewish community. Instead of seeing J Street as a threat to the American Jewish way of life or to the State of Israel, however, this can become a teachable moment.
Fears that J Street is our new President’s “go to” organization in the community are misleading and counter-productive. Administrations have always played favorites within the Jewish community, based on personal relationships, political support, organizational agendas…and financial contributions. The Obama team is no different. Despite appearances, there is no special loyalty to J Street, or to any other organization.
Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren recently charged that J Street “not only opposes one policy of one Israeli government, it opposes all policies of all Israeli governments. It’s significantly... (4843 more chars)
VIENNA, 22 December 2009 - Judge and European Commission expert Maria Grazia Giammarinaro of Italy has been appointed OSCE Special Representative and Co-ordinator for Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, announced Ambassador Mara Marinaki of Greece, Chairperson of the Permanent Council, today.
Giammarinaro, a judge at the Criminal Court of Rome who has published several works on trafficking in human beings, served from 2006 in the European Commission's Directorate-General for Justice, Freedom and Security in Brussels, where she was responsible for work to combat human trafficking and sexual exploitation of children, as well as for penal aspects of illegal immigration within the unit dealing with the fight against organized crime.
"The OSCE supports the development and implementation of anti-trafficking policies in OSCE participating States, and Mrs Giammarinaro's solid expertise in this area will benefit us all," Ambassador Marinaki said.
Maria Grazia Giammarinaro rep... (76 more chars)
Ethiopian troops have crossed back into Somalia, witnesses in strategic town of Beledweyn and Balanbale in central Somalia said. Ethiopian troops return comes as Islamist rebel group, Hisbul Islam, which controlling towns near at the border of Somalia and Ethiopia started operation in the area.
Residents in Beledweyn told AfricaNews that they saw convey of Ethiopian troops digging trenches in Kalabeyr, a town 22Km (14 miles) from the Somali border and Ethiopia. They said Ethiopian forces left the border town of Ferfer in Ethiopia and entered to Kalabeyr which links central and south regions.
Reports say former Somali government officials in the region are coming with Ethiopian troops. Ethiopian officials could not be reached for comment about the reports but Ethiopia denies frequently that its troops re-entered Somalia.
Ethiopian military crossing into Somalia have started to check and search vehicles moving in the area. Beledweyn resident Amino Ali told AfricaNews by p... (655 more chars)
In a major political setback to President Asif Ali Zardari, the Supreme Court of Pakistan on Wednesday declared the National Reconciliation Ordinance null and void, and ordered that criminal and civil cases withdrawn under this controversial law be restored and proceedings reinitiated against the accused.
Several corruption cases against President Zardari, and thousands of other criminal and civil cases against more than 8,000 others, were closed under the terms of the NRO, decreed by the former President, Pervez Musharraf, in 2007.
A full court, comprising 17 functioning judges of the Supreme Court, passed a short order of the significant judgment late on Wednesday night, following seven days of hearing.
The court also declared the cases against Mr. Zardari in the Swiss courts as pending, as letters from the Attorney-General’s office withdrawing the request for mutual legal assistance and withdrawing the government of Pakistan as a damaged party in the cases, wer... (1361 more chars)
