World

ROUNDUP

Iran's Nuclear Push
Tehran/JTA — Iran has stepped up its

production of nuclear fuel, according to
a report by the United Nations nuclear
watchdog.
The Islamic Republic now has 7,200
installed centrifuges, which reportedly
could fuel two nuclear weapons a year,
at its underground bunker in Natanz,
the International Atomic Energy Agency
reported Friday. But the IAEA found no
evidence that the fuel has reached the
stage where it is pure enough to make a
bomb; that could take several months.
IAEA inspectors for more than a year
have been blocked from visiting an
Iranian nuclear reactor, which could be
modified to produce weapons-grade plu-
tonium, according to the report. The U.N.
Security Council has ordered Iran to stop
enriching uranium.
Iran also has flouted three Security
Council resolutions requiring the nation
to answer questions about reports that its
scientists have researched nuclear war-
head design.

Hotel Approved

Jerusalem/JTA — Israel's Interior Ministry
approved a plan to build a new hotel in
eastern Jerusalem.
Under the plan approved on June 2, an
Arab open-air market and an Arab kin-
dergarten would have to be demolished,
but would be rebuilt as part of a new com-
mercial center.
The 200-room hotel is to be built by the
state-owned Jerusalem Economic Corp.
on city-owned land just outside the Old
City walls overlooking the Kidron Valley.
Its roof, on street level, is planned as a
city observation post, according to the
Jerusalem Post.
The hotel would be part of a complex
to include stores, two kindergartens and a
welfare office, according to reports.
Opponents of the construction have 60
days to oppose the plan.
Planned Jewish construction in eastern
Jerusalem could raise the ire of the United
States, which has called for a total freeze
on building in territories captured by
Israel in 1967. In peace talks, Palestinians
have claimed the eastern Jerusalem for the
capital of a future Palestinian state.

Secular Minority

Jerusalem/JTA — Secular Jews will be
a minority in Israeli primary schools
and among young voters in two decades,
according to a newly published study.
The study, posted on Foreign Policy
magazine's Web site last week, pre-
dicts that by 2030, Arabs and fervently
Orthodox Jews together will make up 60
percent of Israel's primary schools and

A26 June 11 . 2009

victims haunted his uncle for a long time,
Obama said.
Wiesel, a Nobel Peace laureate whose
father died at Buchenwald, said: "Memory
must bring people together rather than set
them apart"
In an interview with NBC, Obama
expressed frustration with Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
who questions the authenticity of the
Holocaust.
"He should make his own visit:' Obama
said in Germany. "I have no patience for
people who would deny history. And the
history of the Holocaust is not something
speculative."

NCJW Installs Board
Bloomfield Hills — The National Council of Jewish Women/Greater Detroit Section
held its Spring Happening at Wabeek Country Club. The luncheon and meeting
included the installation of the organization's new board and officers. The keynote
speaker was Fox 2's Sherry Margolis.
Shown are Marlene Goodman, vice president (Farmington Hills); Susan Marwil,
vice president (Bloomfield Hills); Cathy Cantor, president (West Bloomfield);
Sue Simon, vice president (West Bloomfield); Irma Glaser, vice president (West
Bloomfield).

will be about 40 percent of eligible voters,
though about half of new 18-year-old vot-
ers.
Richard Cincotta, a consulting demog-
rapher to the U.S. government's National
Intelligence Council, and Eric Kaufmann
of the University of London used figures
from Israel's Central Bureau of Statistics to
make their predictions.
The demographers use their study to
try to make sense of the rise of Israeli
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and
his Yisrael Beiteinu Party.
"The party's platform taps into the fears
of the country's demographically ebb-
ing secular middle ground and feeds off
of working Israelis' frustrations with the
country's two most dissonant minorities
— Israeli Arabs and ultra-Orthodox Jews
— both of which are on the demographic
upswing."

Jewish Sites Targeted

Little Rock/JTA — The man charged
with killing a solider in an attack on an
Arkansas military recruiting center on
had been researching Jewish sites.
Abdulhakim Mujahaid Muhammad, an
American convert to Islam who opened
fire on June 1 on the recruiting office in
Little Rock, had conducted research on
other targets, including military sites, gov-
ernment facilities and Jewish institutions,
according to law enforcement officials.
Muhammad had looked at Jewish enti-
ties in Little Rock, Philadelphia, Atlanta,
New York, Louisville and Memphis, the

officials said. They believe he acted alone,
was angry about the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, and said he was targeting
U.S. soldiers "because of what they had
done in the past"
Muhammad pleaded not guilty to one
count of capital murder and 16 counts of
committing a terrorist act. He once was
detained in Yemen for carrying a false
Somali passport and other counterfeit
documents, according to the New York
Times, but the FBI could not at the time
find any connection to extremist groups.

Obama At Buchenwald:

Berlin/JTA — President Barack Obama
visited the Buchenwald concentration
camp site, calling it "the ultimate rebuke"
to Holocaust deniers. Obama joined
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and
Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust memoirist who
was a Buchenwald inmate, on the tour last
Friday, a day after Obama called on the
Muslim world to reject Holocaust denial.
"To this day, there are those who insist
that the Holocaust never happened:'
Obama said at a news conference at the
gates of the camp. Such statements are
"ignorant, baseless and hateful."
Obama said he had wanted to visit this
particular camp because his maternal
great-uncle, Charles Payne, was among
the U.S. soldiers in Infantry Division 89
who liberated the Buchenwald sub-camp
of Ohrdruf in early April 1945. Ohrdruf
was the first camp liberated by American
soldiers. The gruesome sights of burned

Embassy Move?

Washington/JTA — President Obama
extended a waiver delaying the move of
the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
U.S. presidents have routinely waived
the 1995 law every six months, citing
national security. U.S. diplomats fear that
such a move would stir anti-American
feelings in the Muslim world and torpedo
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Obama extended the waiver for the first
time in his presidency on Friday, a day
after he delivered an appeal to the Muslim
world to work together with the United
States to advance peace and cooperation.

Senate Bid Nixed

Springfield/JTA — Illinois Rep. Jan
Schakowsky has decided not to run for the
U.S. Senate.
Schakowsky, serving her sixth term
in the House of Representatives, will
seek re-election to the U.S. House of
Representatives next year instead of seek-
ing the Senate seat now held by Roland
Burris, like Schakowsky a Democrat.
Schakowsky, who is Jewish, said she
believed she could win but did not want to
spend the next year fundraising instead of
being part of a "once-in-a-lifetime oppor-
tunity to make progressive change."
A number of Illinois politicians have
expressed interest in pursuing the Illinois
U.S. Senate seat next year, which Barack
Obama vacated when he became presi-
dent.
Burris was appointed to the position
by Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich after
Blagojevich was arrested for an alleged
pay-to-play" scheme, proposing to pos-
sible appointees that they raise money for
his re-election campaign in exchange for
the position.
Burris, a former judge, has said he did
not raise money for Blagojevich; but tapes
of phone conversations released by pros-
ecutors last month revealed that Burris
did speak to Blagojevich's brother about
raising money for the governor.

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