1 World
ROUNDUP
"Clearly, this is not something that
should have taken place New York
Mayor Michael Bloomberg told the Post.
Nahalal, Nablus, Naples Link
Israeli, Palestinian and
Rome/JTA
Italian students are taking part in a
two-week theater education project in
Naples.
The Tradition and New Creativity in
the Performing Arts Summer School is
sponsored by a Naples theater festival
and local universities. It runs through
June 21.
The 15 participants, drama and
humanities students ages 20-35, include
five Israelis selected by Galilee College
in Nahalal; five Palestinians selected by
An-Najah National University in Nablus;
and five Italians.
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Weizmann Luncheon
The American Committee for the Weizmann Institute of Science Michigan
Region, based in Bloomfield Township, held its Women and Science Luncheon on
Stress and Survival on June 3.
Shown are Bonnie Diamond, vice president national programs, ACWIS;
Pennie Abramson, president ACWIS; Linda Hayman, honoree and Michigan
board member; Dr. Sonya Friedman, chair of the Michigan Region; Dr. Alon
Chen, keynote speaker, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
Not All Jews, Just The Zionists
Washington/JTA Rev. Jeremiah Wright
said he meant to say Zionists rather
than Jews are keeping
him from talking to
President Obama. "I
misspoke," said Wright,
Obama's former pastor,
on Mark Thompson's
Sirius satellite radio
show. "Let me just say
Zionists."
Rev. Wright
"I am not talking
about all Jews, all people of the Jewish
faith;' he continued, according to a
transcript of the interview from the
Associated Press. "I'm talking about
Zionists."
Wright was responding to questions
about an interview he gave earlier in
the week to the Daily Press of Hampton
Roads, Va., in which he said in refer-
ence to Obama, "Them Jews aren't going
to let him talk to me. I told my baby
daughter that he'll talk to me in five
years when he's a lame duck or in eight
years when he's out of office?'
Wright said in the newspaper inter-
view that "ethnic cleansing is going on
in Gaza" and "ethnic cleansing [by] the
Zionists is a sin and a crime against
humanity, and they don't want Barack
talking like that because that's anti-
Israel?'
He also said that "the Jewish vote,
the A-I-P-A-C vote, that's controlling
him — that would not let him send
representation to the Darfur Review
Conference, that's talking this craziness
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A26 June 18 • 2009
on this trip, `cause they're Zionists —
they would not let him talk to someone
who calls a spade what it is?'
In the radio interview, he noted two
books by Jewish authors criticizing
Israel's treatment of Palestinians and
said, "I'm talking about fact, historical
fact. I'm not talking about emotionally
charged words."
Obama broke with Wright a year ago
during his campaign after Wright pub-
licly reiterated his views, which he aired
previously in church sermons and other
venues, that U.S. policies had caused the
9-11 attacks and committed terrorism,
and that Louis Farrakhan is a great man.
Bar Mitzvah Behind Bars
New York/JTA New York City is inves-
tigating how a well-connected inmate
was able to hold a lavish bar mitzvah
in prison.The city's Department of
Investigation is looking into how Tuvia
Stern — who was on the lam for more
than 20 years for stealing $1.7 million in
a financial scam before being extradited
by Brazil and landing in prison — was
able to hold a catered bar mitzvah with
60 guests and a prominent Orthodox
singer, the New York Post reported.
The bar mitzvah, which was held
Dec. 30 in the gymnasium of the Lower
Manhattan jail where Stern is being
held, included several prominent rab-
bis, a band, china and a performance by
Yaakov Shwekey. Stern, according to the
Post, also held an engagement party for
his daughter at the same place several
months later.
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Boy Tortured, Slain For 'Honor'
Ramallah/JTA — A 15-year-old
Palestinian boy was killed by his fam-
ily after being accused of collaborating
with Israel. The victim was tortured
before being hanged, according to the
Jerusalem Post and other reports.
Palestinian Authority police arrested
several members of the teen's family in
connection with the murder, including
his father, uncle and a cousin. The sus-
pects reportedly confessed to killing the
teen for being a collaborator.
Jimmy Carter On Settlements
Israel will not have to
Jerusalem/JTA
withdraw from the Gush Etzion bloc of
settlements, Jimmy Carter said.
"This particular settlement is not one
that I envision ever being abandoned
or changed over into a Palestinian ter-
ritory;' the former U.S. president said
Sunday after meeting with settler
leader Shaul Goldstein, head of the Gush
Etzion Regional Council in the West
Bank settlement of Neve Daniel. "This is
part of the close settlements to the 1967
line that I think will be here forever."
Carter said he was there to "listen to
tte settlers;' and that he "hoped to make
slue they understand my own attitude
toward
Israel and the Jewish population
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114 the world and toward the Jewish set-
tlers," according to Ha'aretz.
Carter was honored Saturday by the
Palestinian Authority during a visit to
Ramallah. In accepting the Palestine
International Award for Excellence
and Creativity, Carter told P.A. lead-
ers that he would continue to fight for
Palestinian statehood.
On Friday, the father of captive Israeli
soldier Gilad Shalit gave Carter a letter
to deliver to his son. Noam Shalit said
he hoped Carter could help the effort to
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release his son, who was abducted by
Hamas three years ago. The elder Shalit,
according to media reports, noted that
Carter is the "only American in contact
with llamas" and that Carter promised
to help. A year ago, the Carter Center in
Ramallah received a letter via fax from
Gilad Shalit and gave it the Shalit family
in Israel.
Sentence Cut In AIPAC Case
A former Pentagon
Washington/JTA
analyst who pleaded guilty to pass-
ing secret information to two for-
mer American Israel Public Affairs
Committee staffers had his sentence
drastically reduced.
Larry Franklin was sentenced to pro-
bation and 10 months of community
confinement, or a halfway house, along
with 100 hours of community service.
In 2005, he had received a sentence of
121/2 years in prison, but was free pend-
ing his cooperation with prosecutors
in the case against the two formers
AIPAC staffers, Steve Rosen and Keith
Weissman.
Federal prosecutors dropped the
charges last month against Rosen and
Weissman for passing classified infor-
mation, saying that restrictions the
judge had placed on the case made the
government unlikely to prevail.
In a June 11 hearing in U.S. District
Court in Alexandria, Va., prosecu-
tors asked Judge T.S. Ellis to reduce
Franklin's sentence to eight years, saying
he played an important role in the case,
but was "not what you'd call an ideal
cooperator?' Franklin attorney Plato
Cacheris said Franklin had "paid his
penalty and suffered greatly," and should
not have to serve any time in prison.
Ellis said he didn't have an opinion on
the dismissal of the case against Rosen
and Weissman, but the fact that the case
was dropped was a significant factor in
the sentencing of Franklin.
The judge also noted in Franklin's
defense that other leakers of govern-
ment secrets in recent years have not
been prosecuted. On the other hand,
Ellis noted that "this case is different
from Rosen and Weissman because Mr.
Franklin is a government official?' For
that reason, Ellis said Franklin's com-
munity service should consist of speak-
ing to young people about the impor-
tance of public officials obeying the law.
Franldin has said he leaked information
to the former AIPAC staffers as well as an
Israeli diplomat because of "frustration
with policy" on Iran at the Pentagon. He
believed that they would be able to relay
that information on Iran to friends on the
U.S. National Security Council.
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