OUNDU

Settlement
Construction
Freeze
Jerusalem/JTA Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu announced
a 10-month freeze on
settlement construction.
Prime Minister
"This is a very difficult
Netanyahu
step for me and my fel-
low ministers',' Netanyahu said in a televised
news conference on Nov. 25. "This is a far-
reaching and painful subject:'
Israel's Security Cabinet had approved the
freeze almost unanimously shortly before the
announcement. "The government of Israel
has taken a very big step towards peace
today;' Netanyahu said
Netanyahu also addressed the Palestinians
directly. "This is the time to advance peace
together',' he said. "Now the Israeli public
expects that you will take a courageous step,
too:'
National Infrastructure Minister Uzi
Landau of the Yisrael Beiteinu party was the
lone dissenter among the Security Cabinet's
17 voting members.
Netanyahu said the freeze would not
include Israeli's "sovereign capital" of

—

Ex-Con Warning

Jewish agencies in the Detroit and Ann Arbor areas
are being warned about a former convict who has been
released from prison. The man sometimes wears a kippah
and tzitzis, although he is not Jewish, and in the past has
preyed upon members of the Orthodox Jewish community.
Gary Sikorski, campus security manager for the
Applebaum and Taubman Jewish community campuses
in West Bloomfield and Oak Park, cautioned that there is
no indication that the former convict has committed any
recent crime.
"He may just be getting his life together [lawfully],"
Sikorski said.
The man is Clifford Benedict Schwartz, age 31, who
has also used the aliases Benjamin Schwartz, Eli Cohen,
Joseph Cohen and Christopher Terrell Parker. He was most
recently imprisoned for a robbery in West Bloomfield.

Jerusalem, including eastern
Jerusalem. It also will not apply to
construction that has been started
or authorized in the West Bank
as well as buildings to allow the
300,000 residents of the West Bank
to live "a normal life including,
he said, "synagogues, schools, kin-
dergartens and necessary public

Secretary of

State Clinton

According to the circular distributed to the agencies,
Schwartz was recently seen at Bais Chabad of North Oak
Park and in Ann Arbor and used the new alias of Eliyahu
Cohen.
In previous years, he claimed to be the orphaned son of
Jewish parents who died in a house fire. "Through this con-
fidence game," the warning said, "he has exploited the char-
acteristic generous behavior of Orthodox families, who have
invited him for meals and allowed him to stay overnight dur-
ing Shabbat and the holidays.
"His gambit leads him to steal from these families and
otherwise take advantage of people and situations."
He has been convicted of vandalism, check fraud, theft,
shoplifting, identity theft and other crimes.
Sikorski warned that the public should not "fixate on one
person or situation, but should always be vigilant."

— Alan Hitsky, associate editor

buildings:'
Palestinian Authority Prime
Minister Salam Fayyad and chief
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat
both told reporters before the
announcement that a settlement
freeze was unacceptable without
a halt to construction in eastern
Jerusalem.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham
Clinton said following the announcement
that the construction freeze would help
advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace pro-
cess.
"We believe that through good-faith nego-
tiations, the parties can mutually agree on an

Roundup on page 28

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26

December 3 = 2009

70 YEARS OF
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