World
November Vote
Familiar names dot fall election landscape.
Bill Carroll
Special to the Jewish News
V
eteran Republican
• Congressman Joe
Knollenberg of Oakland
County's 9th District easily fought
off a challenge in the Aug. 8 pri-
mary from a female opponent in
his own party, but he doesn't have
much time to rest on his laurels. He
now faces another female oppo-
nent .— in the Democratic Part y
In quest of his eighth term,
Knollenberg, 72, of Bloomfield
Township trounced Patricia "Pan"
Godchaux, 60, of Birmingham,
garnering 70 percent of the vote.
Godchaux, who ran a spirited
campaign, had figured she needed
Lieberman in
after the polls
Connecticut,
closed. Picking
no Oakland
up where
County
Godchaux
incumbents
— termed
were ousted
a liberal by
by opponents
Knollenberg
within their
— left off,
own party
Skinner
The contests
criticized
ran pretty
Knollenberg
Andy Levin
Nancy Skinner
Joe Knollenberg
much true to
for "taking lob-
form — as
byist-paid trips
40,000 votes to win, but got only
did
the
voter
turnout:
only
15.8
to
places
like
Hawaii"
and "voting
half that many. Knollenberg, a
percent
in
the
county,
which
was
for
tax
subsidies
for
the
oil lob-
consistent supporter of Israel
even
lower
than
the
poor
19
per-
byists"
while
backing
the
Bush
during his 14 years in Congress,
cent
Michigan
average.
administration
on
all
issues
98
now faces Nancy Skinner, 41, of
Skinner,
a
former
radio
talk-
percent
of
the
time.
Birmingham, in the Nov. 7 elec-
show host, wasted no time getting
"The fact that Mr. Knollenberg
tion. She was unopposed in the
into
the
campaign
fray
by
holding
had
to attack his opponent to win
Democratic primary
a
news
conference
the
morning
the
primary
speaks volumes for
Unlike Democratic Sen. Joe
Hirschfield
Hungry puppies abandoned by
owners who fled the northern
Israeli town of Acre are fed by the
animal welfare group, Hakol Chai.
the vulnerability and the lack of
confidence the public has in the
current Washington agenda',' she
said.
Blaming the Bush administra-
tion for the high price of gasoline,
Skinner launched a "tank of gas"
program among her supporters,
asking them to contribute to her
campaign at least the amount it
costs to fill up a vehicle.
In response, Knollenberg
spokesman Trent Wisecup said,
"unfortunately, it looks like
Nancy Skinner has just taken a
page right out of Pan Godchaux's
playbook and decided to go nega-
tive" in the November campaign.
"We're hoping she'll refrain from
the negativity characterized in the
Godchaux campaign and stick to
The Pets Left
Behind
Volunteers rescue starving animals
in northern Israel.
Dina Kraft
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Y okne'am, Israel
W
hen tens of thou-
sands of Israelis
fled their homes as
Hezbollah rockets began rain-
ing down on northern Israel,
they left behind not only hastily
locked-up houses but, in many
cases, their pets.
After days and weeks of being
left to fend for themselves, many
of the animals were found starv-
ing and dehydrated in the streets
of northern towns and cities.
Estimates put the number of ani-
36
August 31 . 2006
mals in distress at about 8,000.
Three dogs were killed after
a rocket hit the house in Kiryat
Shmona where their owner had
tied them up and left them. Some
dogs were found wounded, their
bodies riddled with shrapnel.
Many others, terrified by the
sound of rocket fire and artil-
lery blasts, fled their homes and
began living on the streets.
Soon after the fighting began,
Hakol Chai, an Israeli animal
welfare group, began sending
volunteers to feed and water
animals and rescue those in need
of medical attention. Yadin Elam,
the organization's director, finds
it hard to believe so many pets
were left behind.
The owners "probably thought
it wouldn't take so long, think-
ing, 'We'll leave food for our
pets," Elam said. "Some of them
called us.
"I have some issues with those
people, but they're not the same
as people who didn't do anything.
Some even chained their dogs in
the yard."
Largely supported by dona-
tions from American Jews, Hakol
Chai sent 12 tons of pet food,
hundreds of water bowls, medi-
cine and other supplies to the
north during Israel's monthlong
war with Hezbollah.
Risking Katyusha fire, vol-
unteers scattered at night into
the streets of cities like Kiryat
Shmona, Nahariya and Haifa
looking for animals that needed
medical help, and putting food
and water in the streets for the
others.
Noam Vardi, Hakol Chai's vol-
unteer coordinator, started the
job two weeks before the war
began. He wasn't sure how he
would find volunteers; but when
the war started, he was flooded
with calls from people anxious
to help.
The first night, instead of
finding cats to feed in the town
of Ma'alot, volunteers were over-
whelmed by the stench of death.
Many cats already had died.
Feeding Street Cats
Since that night, Vardi and his
volunteers rescued countless
animals by putting out food and
water and finding foster homes
for others. Many of the cats were
street cats that had lived off
residents' handouts and garbage.
With the locals no longer
there, their situation turned des-
perate, Vardi said.
Vardi tells the story of two
large, emaciated dogs his team
found during one of their night
rescue tours. Their owner had
left food and water for a few
days, but had chained the dogs
on leashes so short that the food
was just out of reach.
The dogs were brought to a
shelter in the center of the coun-
try, as was another dog found
with internal injuries after he
tried to make his way into a
bomb shelter. Instead of being
brought to safety, he was attacked
by the people in the shelter, Elam
said.
Meytal Nuriel, a 23-year-old