By SHEERA FRENKEL
McClatchy Newspapers
EFRAT, West Bank -- Efrat, 10 miles outside Jerusalem, has become known for its Anglo-Saxon population.
Nearly 30 percent of the town lies on Palestinian land that was confiscated from the nearby Arab village of al-Khader, according to a survey completed by Peace Now. New York Rabbi Shlomo Riskin and Israeli Moshe Moskovics jointly founded it with money donated by Florida businessman Irving Moskowitz.
If there were any doubt of Benjamin Netanyahu's commitment to the settlement enterprise, he dispelled it this week.
by Gershom Gorenberg
"No Entrance To Bibi's Freeze Inspectors," reads the long, professionally printed banner hanging at the eastern entrance to Ariel. Ariel has a reputation of being a relatively moderate settlement. Its residents are mostly secular suburbanites; its eternally re-elected mayor belongs to Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu's mainstream right-wing Likud. The Ariel finger -- the heavily settled strip of land joining Ariel to Israel -- is one of those blocs that centrist Israeli politicians insist will stay in Israeli hands under a peace agreement.
by Stewart Ain
Staff Writer
The Israeli cabinet's vote Sunday to pour money into 91 outlying West Bank settlements has touched off a fierce debate here about the propriety of funneling resources into settlements that may be abandoned in a peace treaty.
"Any resources you add to the outlying settlements are an obstacle to peace either now or down the road," according to Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of Reform Judaism, a group that has long opposed continuing settlement in the West Bank. "Those settlements have to be removed in order for a Palestinian state to come into being."
APN said it can't support the current sanctions measure without sweeping
revisions "to focus the legislation on smart, targeted sanctions rather
than on 'crippling' sanctions that inflict widespread suffering on the
Iranian people."
NOTE: APN is a signatory to the 'McDermott-Ellison' letter
--------------------------------------------
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Two letters circulating in the U.S. House of Representatives address the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
One letter, initiated by U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), asks President Obama to press Israel and Egypt for "immediate relief" from the blockade of Gaza in place since Hamas' takeover in 2006, and intensified following last winter's Israel-Gaza war.
This is time for Israeli and Palestinian leaders to re-engage, to take
advantage of the leadership that this committed U.S. American
administration is offering and to do what it takes to bring peace to
their peoples.
By Ori Nir, APN Spokesman
Special to WJW
Rightist reestablished rabbinical body says agreement to free hundreds of terrorists for kidnapped soldier is treasonous. Their recommendation: Another war against Hamas, threat to kill prisoners if captive is not returned to Israel
Kobi Nahshoni Published: 12.09.09, 15:42 / Israel Jewish Scene
"If Gilad Shalit, Heaven forbid, is executed or not returned in peace, prisoners will be executed immediately," ruled the court of the reestablished "Sandhedrin" organization, in a ruling published last week on the backdrop of the negotiations to release the captured Israeli soldier.
The measure is "akin to using a chainsaw when a scalpel is in order,"
said APN President and CEO Debra DeLee. "The threat posed by Iran
cannot be bludgeoned away. It calls for a careful and delicate
approach."
