more than 200 private Jewish collections
in German-occupied France and Belgium
between 1940 and 1944. The database
includes photos of the artwork being pro-
cessed and stored.
The Third Reich engaged in a system-
atic campaign to plunder the cultural
property of Europe's Jews through theft,
confiscation and forced sales.
"It is now the responsibility of muse-
ums, art dealers and auction houses
to check their holdings against these
records to determine whether they might
be in possession of art stolen from
Holocaust victims," Claims Conference
Chairman Julius Berman said in a news
release.
"Organizing Nazi art-looting records is
an important step in righting a historical
wrong. It is not too late to restore art that
should have been passed down within
Jewish families instead of decorating
Nazi homes or stored at Nazi sites?'
The records and historical data in the
database had been dispersed among
three major repositories: the National
Archives and Records Administration of
the United States, the Federal Archives
of Germany, and the Archives of the
Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs
of France.
Israel's Foreign Aid
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- A Republican
Congress would seek to remove funding
for Israel from the foreign operations
budget, a GOP leader said.
U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, the Republican
whip and the only Jewish Republican
in the House of Representatives, told
JTA that a GOP-led House would seek
to defund nations that do not share U.S.
interests, even if it meant rejecting the
president's foreign operations budget.
Cantor, of Virginia, said he wants to
protect funding for Israel should that
situation arise.
"Part of the dilemma is that Israel
has been put in the overall foreign aid
looping:' he said when asked about the
increasing tendency of Republicans in
recent years to vote against foreign oper-
ations appropriations. "I'm hoping we can
see some kind of separation in terms of
tax dollars going to Israel."
Cantor's statement was a sign that the
Republican leadership was ready to defer
to the party's right wing on this matter.
Some on the GOP right have suggested
including Israel aid in the defense bud-
get; and a number of Tea Party-backed
candidates have said they would vote
against what is known in Congress as
"foreign ops."
However, until now at least, the GOP
leadership has backed deferring to the
executive branch when it comes to for-
eign spending, albeit after it has com-
pleted budgetary negotiations with the
Congress.
Netanyahu: No Unilateralism
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Prime Minister
Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu called on the
Palestinians to refrain from taking uni-
lateral steps toward achieving a state.
The Israeli leader made his remarks
Sunday a day after a Palestinian official
said in a London-based Arabic news-
paper that the Palestinians could break
agreements signed with Israel.
"We expect the Palestinians to honor
their commitment to hold direct negotia-
tions," Netanyahu said at the beginning of
the weekly Cabinet meeting. "I think that
any attempt to bypass them by appealing
to international bodies is unrealistic and
will not give any impetus to a genuine
diplomatic process?'
Netanyahu said his government is
holding "intensive contacts" with the
Obama administration in a bid to restart
peace talks that began just a month ago
with the Palestinians.
"Our goal is not just to resume the
process, but to advance it in such a way
that it cannot be halted in a few weeks or
months, and will enter into approximate-
ly one year of continuous negotiations on
the fundamental problems in order to try
and reach a framework agreement ahead
of a peace settlement:' he said.
The peace talks halted last month with
the expiration of a 10-month moratorium
on building in West Bank settlements.
The Palestinians have said they will not
return to the table until that moratorium
is reinstated.
Roundup on page 16
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