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Academic freedom not in jeopardy, SUNY trustees say

(March 17, 2006) — ALBANY — State University of New York trustees eschewed an "Academic Bill of Rights" being promoted to fight alleged liberal indoctrination in higher education, after a majority of college leaders and instructors told them Thursday such freedoms are not being suppressed.

Carl Wiezalis, president of the University Faculty Senate, said he has not seen evidence of discrimination against students or professors with different viewpoints. "I don't think we need to be lectured by outside agencies," he said.

He was referring to Students for Academic Freedom, a national group founded by David Horowitz, a conservative commentator. The group says the measure is needed across the country because the atmosphere at many schools doesn't encourage intellectual diversity. Liberal arts faculties are "politically and philosophically one-sided," according to the group's Web site. ...

Cara Matthews

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Moves to lift a ban on gay rabbis and marriages has come has proved a sticking point for the leaders of the American Conservative Judaism community convening in an annual meeting in Mexico City....

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Statement of Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) to Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing On the Call to Censure the President:

Mr. Chairman, first, thank you for scheduling this hearing. I know you recognize that this is a serious issue, and I thank you for treating it as such. I want to welcome and thank our witnesses, some of whom – Mr. Fein, and Professor Turner -- were with us just a few weeks ago, and one of whom -- Mr. Dean -- last appeared before a congressional committee in 1974. I am grateful for your participation, particularly given the short notice that you were given of this hearing.

There is a time-honored way for matters to be considered in the Senate. Bills and resolutions are introduced, they are analyzed in the relevant committee through hearings, they are debated and amended and voted on in committee, and then they are debated on the floor. We have now started that process on this very important matter, and I look forward to seeing it through to a conclusion.

Mr. Chairman, I have looked closely at the statements you have made about the NSA program since the story broke in December. We have a disagreement about some things, but I am pleased to say we are in agreement on several others. We agree that the NSA program is inconsistent with FISA. We agree that the Authorization for Use of Military Force did not grant the President authority to engage in warrantless wiretapping of Americans on U.S. soil. We agree that the President was and remains required under the National Security Act of 1947 to inform the full Intelligence Committees of the NSA program, which he refuses to do.

Where we disagree, apparently, is whether the President’s authority under Article II of the Constitution allows him to authorize warrantless surveillance without complying with FISA. You have said you think this is a close question. I do not believe he has such authority and I don’t think it’s a close question. We will continue to debate that I’m sure. But I think the fact that you have proposed legislation on this program undermines your argument that such presidential authority exists. Because if it does exist, then nothing that we can legislate, no matter how carefully crafted, is worth a hill of beans. For starters, your proposed bill may or may not cover what the NSA is now doing. You and I have no way of knowing because we have not been fully briefed on the program, and I am a member of the Intelligence Committee as well. But regardless, if the President has the inherent authority to authorize whatever surveillance he thinks is necessary, then he surely will ignore your law, just as he has ignored FISA on many occasions.

If Congress doesn’t have the power to define the contours of the President’s Article II powers through legislation, then I have no idea why people are scrambling to draft legislation to authorize what they think the President is doing. If the President’s legal theory, which is shared by some of our witnesses today, is correct, then FISA is a dead letter, all of the supposed protections for civil liberties contained in the reauthorization of the Patriot Act that we just passed are a cruel hoax, and any future legislation we might pass regarding surveillance or national security is a waste of time and a charade. Under this theory, we no longer have a constitutional system consisting of three co-equal branches of government, we have a monarchy.

We can fight terrorism without breaking the law. The rule of law is central to who we are as a people, and the President must return to the law. He must acknowledge and be held accountable for his illegal actions and for misleading the American people, both before and after the program was revealed. If we in the Congress don’t stand up for ourselves and for the American people, we become complicit in his law breaking. A resolution of censure is the appropriate response – even a modest approach.

Mr. Chairman, the presence of John Dean here today should remind us that we must respond to this constitutional crisis based on principle, not partisanship. How we respond to the President’s actions will become part of our history. A little over 30 years ago, a President who broke the law was held to account by a bipartisan congressional investigation and by patriots like Archibald Cox and Elliot Richardson and yes, John Dean, who put loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law above the interests of the President who appointed them. None of us here can predict how history will view this current episode. But I hope that thirty years from now, this Senate will not be seen to have backed down in the face of such a grave challenge to our constitutional system.

I look forward to hearing from our witnesses. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

Rabbi Meets Genocide's General



Refugees fleeing . . . from a village called Saleya described how nine boys were seized by the janjaweed, stripped naked and tied up, their noses and ears cut off and their eyes gouged out. They were then shot dead and left near a public well. From the continuing reports from Darfur by Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times

I have wondered what it would be like to be in the presence of Sudanese president General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, the apprentice Hitler of our time, who is responsible for the genocide in Darfur, which is very likely to surpass the Rwanda genocide in the number of slaughtered corpses. Rwanda's atrocities lasted less than a year, but Darfur's started in 2003, and in addition to the killings, more than 2 million black Africans have been displaced from their razed homes and villages.

Recently, however, I talked to an American rabbi who actually has been in the same room with the mass murderer Bashir, members of his cabinet, and other officials.

The rabbi is Mordechai Liebling, vice president for programs at the Jewish Fund for Justice. In June of last year, he was invited by the Muslim American Freedom Foundation to be part of an interfaith, interracial delegation of religious leaders to Sudan....

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by Nat Hentoff

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz blamed the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority on Friday for a suicide bombing the day before that killed four Israelis at the entrance to the settlement of Kedumim.

Mofaz has ordered the Israel Defense Forces and other security services to escalate their activities against terror in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

The IDF tightened its closure on the nearby West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, in response to the attack....

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The judge in the classified-information case against two former AIPAC staffers delayed the trial for a month.

Judge T.S. Ellis III did not explain his order Monday postponing the trial from April 25 to May 23.

However, he also postponed his ruling on whether to dismiss the charges, which had been due Friday, until April 25.

In hearing arguments for dismissal last Friday, Ellis said the constitutional implications of the government’s charges against Steve Rosen, the former foreign policy director for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, and Keith Weissman, AIPAC’s former Iran analyst, were weighty enough to merit serious consideration of the dismissal motion.

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With support for President Bush already at record lows, some Christian conservative leaders say that they are reconsidering their support for the administration's push to democratize the Muslim world.

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By Ori Nir

In a brave move, Russell Feingold offered a censure resolution to hold the President accountable (click here).

The European Jewish Congress is to file a complaint urging the International Criminal Court in The Hague to bring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to trial for incitement to genocide.

According to informed sources, the EJC initiative was adopted by an extraordinary meeting of the EJC’s general assembly meeting Sunday in Vienna, Austria.

Austria currently holds the rotating European Union presidency.

The Iranian President, who was elected last year, made repeated statements in recent weeks in which he denied the Holocaust of six million Jews during WWII, calling it a “myth”, and said Israel should be “wiped off the map.”.....

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By Samuel Laster in Vienna

The Second World Congress of Imams and Rabbis for Peace, a four-day meeting in the southern Spanish city of Seville has called for an end to incitement and religious hatred. The final congress statement also condemned Iran’s call for Israel’s destruction.

The congress was organized by a Paris-based group called Hommes de Parole. It drew some 250 imams, rabbis and academics from 31 countries. The main aim of the congress was to assemble as many delegates as possible so each would have a better understanding of the other’s religion.

The congress was remarkable for the statement released at the end by the delegates. They said: "We condemn any incitement against a faith or people, let alone any call for their elimination, and we urge authorities to do likewise."

"United Nations of Religious Groups"

Yona Metzger, Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi, felt the congress had been extremely conducive and called for a “United Nations of religious groups.” The congress was remarkable for the mostly friendly atmosphere that prevailed at the conference.

A rabbi from Brussels tried to convince a cleric from Indonesia that he was working hard to bring Jews and Muslims closer together in Belgium. The mufti of Britain offered a cup of coffee to the chief rabbi of Austria. An Al-Jazeera journalist took a picture of the chief rabbi of Israel, and an imam from Gaza tried his English out on a rabbi from London.

However, it wasn’t all plain sailing at the congress and politics and anger did sometimes intrude into the atmosphere. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict could not escape the otherwise politics free conference.

Not all friendly

"Unless we get to the core of the issue, we are pussyfooting around," said Nazlin Umar Rajput, chairwoman of the National Muslim Council of Kenya. "It is a fight over ownership of land."

After abruptly changing the schedule when a session dealing with family issues turned heated, organizers again rushed to calm tempers later in the week.

At one point, Muslim delegates stood up and shouted when a moderator tried to halt a Palestinian professor from the Gaza Strip who said life under Israeli occupation was like being in "a large prison."....

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By Ashley Perry

Augsburg Rabbi Henry Brandt is the first Jew to receive the prestigious Muhammad-Nafi-Tschelebi Prize for his commitment to interfaith dialogue – in particular for his rapprochement efforts with Islamic communities in Germany.

The Central Institute Islam–Archive honoured the rabbi with the 2,500 euro award “for the way in which he brought about understanding between Muslims and Jews”, according to the institute’s chairman, Salim Abdullah.

Abdullah called Brandt, “a pioneer”.

“Such dialogue among Muslim communities can not be taken for granted,” writes Chaim Guski of the Jewish monthly Juedische Zeitung (JZ), unlike the 60-year tradition of dialogue between Christians and Jews.

JZ said the challenges faced by Jews and Muslims today were very similar. As far as these two minority groups are concerned, they often share the same problems that arise from religious precepts that are astoundingly similar - from analogous dietary regulations to comparable languages and timetables of prayer....

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By Oliver Bradley

A paper recently co-authored by the academic dean of Harvard's Kennedy School of Government about the allegedly far-reaching influence of an "Israel lobby" is winning praise from white supremacist David Duke.

The Palestine Liberation Organization mission to Washington is distributing the paper, which also is being hailed by a senior member of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist organization.

But the paper, "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy," by the Kennedy School's Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago, is meeting with a more critical reception from many of those it names as part of the lobby. The 83-page "working paper" claims a network of journalists, think tanks, lobbyists, and largely Jewish officials have seized the foreign policy debate and manipulated America to invade Iraq. Included in this network, the authors say, are the editors of the New York Times, the scholars at the Brookings Institution, students at Columbia, "pro-Israel" senior officials in the executive branch, and "neoconservative gentiles" including columnist George Will.

Duke, a former Louisiana state legislator and one-time Ku Klux Klan leader, called the paper "a great step forward," but he said he was "surprised" that the Kennedy School would publish the report.

"I have read about the report and read one summary already, and I am surprised how excellent it is," he said in an e-mail. "It is quite satisfying to see a body in the premier American University essentially come out and validate every major point I have been making since even before the war even started." Duke added that "the task before us is to wrest control of America's foreign policy and critical junctures of media from the Jewish extremist Neocons that seek to lead us into what they expectantly call World War IV."

Mr. Walt said last night, "I have always found Mr. Duke's views reprehensible, and I am sorry he sees this article as consistent with his view of the world."....

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By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the NYSun

If the medium is the message, then U.S. President George W. Bush's choice of forum to launch a new public campaign to defend his beleaguered Iraq policy should be troubling to those, particularly in Europe, who had hoped that his administration was moving toward a more evenhanded stance in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The staunchly neoconservative Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), one of the most hawkish groups on the "war on terror" since it was created two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against New York and the Pentagon, has often taken strident positions against Arab and European allies whose cooperation has been sought by the administration itself.

Part of an interlocking network of neoconservative-dominated groups that include the American Enterprise Institute, the Center for Security Policy, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, and the Committee on the Present Danger, which it founded, FDD has also tried to build support here for "regime change" in Syria and
Iran...

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by Jim Lobe

Kadima, headed by Ehud Olmert, will probably form the next coalition, following its win in yesterday's elections, although it garnered a smaller number of seats than had been predicted over the past weeks.

The Pensioners' list, Gil, was the big surprise of yesterday's elections, according to last night's exit polls, published after the closing of polling stations at 10 P.M. The Pensioners' Party, which did not manage to pass the electoral threshold in the last elections, received eight to 10 seats, depending on the exit poll.

Yisrael Beiteinu, headed by Avigdor Lieberman, also chalked up a major achievement, going from seven seats to an expected 12 to 14; it is now the third largest party.

The Likud was apparently shunted into fourth place with 11 to 12 seats predicted by the exit polls.

Kadima is expected to receive between 29 to 32 seats, down from the 36 to 38 predicted by opinion polls over the past weeks.

The exit polls gave Labor between 20 and 22 seats, slightly better than the polls before the elections. The gap between Labor and Kadima will dictate to a great extent the nature of coalition negotiations, and it was predicted differently by the various TV exit polls. Channel 1 projected the smallest gap - seven seats, while Channel 10 forecast the largest - 11 seats.

Meretz is expected to enter the 17th Knesset with five seats, one less than in the 16th Knesset, while Shas seems to be keeping its number steady at 10 to 11. United Torah Judaism, with five or six seats, may have one more MK in the 17th Knesset. The United Arab List-Ta'al received three to four seats; Hadash, two to three, while Balad is teetering on the brink of the threshold of a seat.

The distribution of seats according to the exit polls show that the National Union-National Religious Party's eight to nine seats will not allow it to form an obstructing bloc even if it were joined by the Likud, Yisrael Beiteinu and the ultra-Orthodox parties.

Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last night that the public had said yes to the convergence plan he presented three weeks ago in the media. He also reiterated that if Israel were not able to negotiate with the Palestinians, it would take its fate into its own hands and act unilaterally.

Labor chairman Amir Peretz said yesterday in private conversation that ...

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By Gideon Alon, Yuval Yoaz and Yossi Verter

To listen to this debate between Ben Ami and Finkelstein on the Israel-Palestine conflict from Democracy Now, click here.

For a transcript, click here.

Click here.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said Wednesday after the swearing-in ceremony for his cabinet in Gaza that the Hamas government is prepared to give negotiations between Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and Israel a chance.

"The problem is not the Palestinian side or its consent to negotiations, but that Israel does not honor commitments it already undertook in negotiations. If the Authority chairman, as the elected president, wants to get the negotiations moving, we have no objection to that. If what Abu Mazen presents to the people as a result of negotiations serves its interest, then we too will redefine our position," Haniyeh said.

The cabinet of 24 (including Haniyeh) was sworn in at a ceremony that took place simultaneously in Gaza and Ramallah by means of video conference. The 14 ministers from the West Bank and 10 from the Gaza Strip will not be able to attend cabinet meetings together because of the Israeli ban on traveling from one region to the other.

By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent, and AP

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After 70 percent of the votes in Tuesday's elections were counted, the Labor Party appeared set to receive 20 seats in the upcoming Knesset.

Following initial exit poll results, Chairman Amir Peretz told supporters at the party's Petah Tikva headquarters that "a real social-democratic movement was established in the state of Israel tonight... We are going to establish a new society."

Despite the relatively disappointing results - Labor had been hoping to win at least 24 seats - hundreds of celebratory Labor activists greeted Peretz with applause and cheer.

"I want you to know I love you," Peretz told his supporters. "Despite the fact that others tried to take the wind from the sails out of the social revolution, it lives and breathes... we are the only party that will make sure the next government will march toward peace and social justice."

Labor figures insisted that the difference between their party's results and those of Kadima - set to receive 28 seats - is negligible. MK Isaac Herzog said, "Before the elections, everyone mourned the Labor Party, but it succeeded in changing the order of the day in the state."

Avishai Braverman, third on Labor's list, also invoked Labor's emphasis on social issues, saying, "We have changed the agenda in the sate. Even after the Yom Kippur war, it took four years for an upheaval to take place. Today, the bang has begun to roll."

In praise of the party's chairman, Shelly Yachimovitch (Labor) called Amir Peretz the "undisputed leader of the Labor Party."

Former prime minister Ehud Barak, who refrained from campaigning for Peretz due to political differences between the two, congratulated Peretz for preserving Labor's strength.

Labor MK Yuli Tamir said that the party will sit in a coalition only if its political and social platform is adopted. "We have clear guidelines for a coalition we're willing to sit in," Tamir said.

Dan Yatom of Labor said the results of the exit polls showed a defeat for Kadima and victory for Labor.

"According to these exit polls this is a severe defeat for Kadima. This is a big achievement for the Labor Party," he said.

"As far as the coalition is concerned, we will wait and see. I am very satisfied with these results."

Meretz disappointed with only five seats
Disappointment was palpable in the Meretz camp on Tuesday night, after 70 percent of votes counted pointed to only five seats for the leftist party, down from six in the 2003 elections.

Speaking before party activists in Tel Aviv, Chairman Yossi Beilin expressed hope that the official results would give the party another seat. Beilin noted that Meretz would be ready to sit in the opposition, and would not be willing to join a coalition government unconditionally.

"We will not sit in a coalition that won't make changes to the welfare system and return some government allowances. We will not sit in a government with the Likud, National Union or Yisrael Beiteinu."

If Meretz does not pick up a sixth seat, Zvia Greenfield, ultra-Orthodox writer, peace activist and doctor of philosophy, will not make it into the Knesset. Greenfield said Tuesday night, "I am worried about the disintegration of responsibility among the public. I'm worried that a party with roots and long-term commitment does not win, while a fake party that nobody has heard of is growing. This is a disconcerting sign of political instability."

Greenfield expressed regret that she would not be a part of the next Knesset.


By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Click here for full article

After Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared election victory early Wednesday, his confidants said Shas and the Pensioners' Party would be partners in the new government. During the course of the day Wednesday, Kadima will set up its negotiating team and begin working to create Israel's next ruling coalition.

The statement by Olmert's associates appears to be the reflection of results in which Kadima won far fewer seats than it had hoped and in which Shas and the Pensioners' Party garnered more than expected.

Kadima member Haim Ramon said Wednesday morning he expects the new government to be presented immediately after the Passover holiday.

Speaking to Israel Radio, Ramon said Kadima will be able to implement a withdrawal from the West Bank with the support of between 70 and 80 Knesset members. He added the Labor Party would be "a possible central partner" in the coalition and emphasized "social issues will not be a hindrance in coalition negotiations."

With 99.5 percent of the vote counted, Kadima had a less than expected 28 seats. Labor held at 20 seats, and Shas rose to 13, making the Sephardi ultra-Orthodox party the third largest faction in the Knesset.

As of Wednesday morning, election observers had yet to count the votes of Israel Defense Forces soldiers, Israeli diplomats abroad, hospitalized patients, incarcerated citizens and Israeli mariners. Their votes could alter the final results slightly.

The Likud had hoped to block a center-left coalition, but with almost all of the votes in weakened to 11 seats, far below the figures the party had hoped and a far cry from the 38 seats it won under Ariel Sharon in 2003.

Avigdor Lieberman's Russian immigrant-dominated faction Yisrael Beiteinu captured 12 seats, positioning itself as the chief opposition party to head the nationalist camp.

In the largest surprise of the night, the Pensioners' Party won seven seats. The right-wing National Union-National Religious Party secured nine seats, with United Torah Judaism at six and Meretz at four. The Arab parties won a total of ten seats.

Exit polls released as polling stations closed at 10 P.M. Tuesday showed center-left parties gaining a total of between 62 and 66 seats, with Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima winning 29 to 32 seats, Labor 20-22 seats, Meretz five and the Arab parties seven to eight seats.

Lowest voter turnout in history
The total voter turnout was 63.2 percent, by far the lowest percentage in Israel's history. The previous low was notched in 2003, when 68 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots.

While the results pointed to a new government headed by Olmert, he would likely seek additional partners to broaden his coalition and shore up support for such policy moves as a further withdrawal in the West Bank.

Netanyahu: Sharon left us a shattered movement
Kadima, which had slipped in polls in recent weeks, was jubilant over the results, as were Labor Party officials.

"Kadima has won today. The next prime minister is Ehud Olmert," said Kadima MK Roni Bar-On, who, like Olmert and a host of other senior political figures, had followed Sharon out of the Likud to found a new centrist party.

Labor Party candidates said their party had won a victory as well, apparently exceeding the predictions of recent opinion surveys.

"I am quite satisfied. This party is now considered a serious party, and this is a success story tonight," said Collette Avital, a senior Labor Party member.

There was dejection in the Likud camp, which had difficulty regrouping after the party split late last year into rival factions headed by Sharon and Benjamin Netanyahu.

"Although the actual results have yet to arrive, we have no doubt that the Likud has sustained a heavy blow," Netanyahu told party activists.

In a direct swipe at Sharon, Netanyahu said the party had already been hard hit when "the former head of the party left it - and left us - a broken, shattered movement."

Netanyahu said he would stay on as party chairman. "We intend to continue along the path we have only just begun in order to ensure this movement is rehabilitated and takes its rightful place in the nation's leadership," he told reporters.

Just before Netanyahu spoke, a buoyed Lieberman told well-wishers that he had no doubt that in the next election, Yisrael Beiteinu would become Israel's ruling party.

Rafi Eitan, leader of the Pensioners party, turned aside questions as to the faction's positions on matters of state. But he was forthright on the goals the party has set for itself, safeguarding the future of senior citizens. "We'll achieve our goals within one year," he said.

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By Haaretz Service

MIAMI - Assuring the judge he is working to become "a new man," disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced Wednesday to nearly six years in prison for committing fraud in the purchase of a fleet of gambling boats.

He will remain free while helping prosecutors with a vast bribery investigation involving members of Congress.

Abramoff, 47, and former business partner Adam Kidan, 41, received the minimum under federal guidelines: five years and 10 months.

By CURT ANDERSON, Associated Press Writer

For full article, click here.

American military hero and Arizona Sen. John McCain will deliver the Commencement message at Liberty University on May 13, at 9:30 a.m., in the Liberty University Vines Center. In addition, renowned Christian conservative leader Gary Bauer will speak during the University's baccalaureate service on May 12, at 7:00 p.m., in the main sanctuary of the Thomas Road Baptist Church.

Sen. McCain is one of America's most recognized Republican lawmakers. He began his political career in 1982, when he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, serving Arizona's first congressional district. Four years later, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, replacing the legendary Sen. Barry Goldwater.

[from Huffingtonpost.com]

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Legislature too wrapped up in religion, Jewish leaders say

The leaders of Louisville's Jewish community have taken Kentucky legislators to task for what they see as an excessive amount of religious overtones to the legislative session and related events.

A letter signed by officers of the Community Relations Council, the public policy arm of the Jewish Community Federation of Louisville, cited as examples bills authorizing the posting of the Ten Commandments and the motto "In God We Trust" at the Capitol; a governor's prayer breakfast at which only Christians spoke; and a church group's survey asking legislators whether they had professed faith in Jesus.

"We believe that our elected officials should focus less energy on legislating religion itself, and should spend more effort on legislating good policies based on the fundamental moral values shared by all our citizens," the letter said in part.

H. Philip Grossman, the lead signee of the letter, said various events created "a whole feeling of perhaps marginalizing not just the Jewish community, but a lot of other communities, and not just Jews and other non-Christians but also certain Christian groups."

"We wanted to speak to that, because it seemed like it was just a freight train running through," Grossman said.

The letter, which also was sent to Gov. Ernie Fletcher and appears on today's Forum page, received mixed reactions in Frankfort and in the state.

"Would I be out of line if I said amen to that?" David Howe of McCreary County said of the letter. "I agree with them wholeheartedly."

Howe, an atheist and son of a minister, was a plaintiff in a U.S. Supreme Court case last year that barred a Ten Commandments display at the McCreary County courthouse. He said he'd willingly be a plaintiff again if the General Assembly inspires more such displays.

But Jeff Sharp of Glasgow disagreed with the council's letter, which criticized a survey organized by Sharp and his church youth class. It asks legislators and their election challengers if they have accepted Jesus as their "Lord and Savior."

"I've felt that there hasn't been enough Christian values shown by our legislators," said Sharp, who also is the county attorney for Barren County. "If it's moving more in the direction of Christian values, I don't see that that's going to harm our state."

Sharp said that 73 of 74 respondents to the survey expressed faith in Jesus. The other respondent was Jewish.

Rep. Kathy Stein, D-Lexington, who is Jewish and who sponsored a resolution calling on legislators to disregard the survey, called the council's letter "right on." The House has not yet voted on her resolution.

The Jewish Community Federation council includes representatives of synagogues, agencies and others in Louisville's Jewish community, the largest in the state at more than 8,000.

Gov. Fletcher's press secretary, Jodi Whitaker, said: "We have received the letter. We appreciate the Jewish Community Federation of Louisville's thoughts, and we are working on an appropriate response to their letter."

John McGary, spokesman for House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green, said the speaker has made an effort to invite people of various faiths, including Jews and Muslims, to open House sessions with prayer.

A spokeswoman for Senate President David Williams said he was busy with budget negotiations last night and could not comment.

The council's letter criticized a proposed state constitutional amendment supported by Williams that would prevent state courts from barring Ten Commandments displays in public places. That measure is pending.

Rep. Rick Nelson, D-Middlesboro -- who sponsored another bill allowing the Ten Commandments and other religious texts in public historical displays -- said he has "not noticed an increasing emphasis on religion in this session as compared to others."

Nelson's bill, which passed and awaits Fletcher's signature, also requires the posting of "In God We Trust" behind the House speaker's dais and would return a Ten Commandments monument to the Capitol grounds.

"I think the majority of people in Kentucky feel issues like this are important to them," Nelson said. "It's part of who they are."

He added that such bills don't "cause us to neglect other issues," noting that legislators deal with "a thousand bills" every year.

Kent Ostrander, executive director of the Family Foundation of Kentucky, which has advocated for Ten Commandments displays, applauded the Jewish council for "stepping forward and voicing their particular concern."

But he added: "Our concern has been on the other side of the issue, that in recent years there have been those trying to censor all religious expression from the public domain."

Kathryn Johnson, president of the Kentucky Council of Churches, however, said she agreed with the Jewish council's letter.

"While we're very devoted to the way faith shapes our citizenship, we also feel called to the creation of a community in which all seek wholeness and faithful living," said Johnson, who also is a professor at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Khalid Kahloon, executive director of the American Muslim Association of Louisville, also agreed with the letter.

He said the Jewish community, because it is long established, represents "the voice of religious minorities in this community. … I'm glad they're doing it for the rest of us."

Surveys indicate the vast majority of Kentuckians identify themselves as Christians, although their practice varies. Nearly 1 million adults worship so infrequently that they're considered "unchurched," according to a survey by the Barna Research Group in 2004.

by Peter Smith

From:
The Courier-Journal

To read full story, click here.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY is distancing itself from a report by one of its senior academics that accuses the Jewish lobby in America of subverting US foreign policy in Israel’s interest.
After a furious outcry from prominent American Jews, Harvard has removed its logo from the study and disowned any responsibility for the views put forward in the working paper, released two weeks ago.



Yesterday it confirmed that Stephen Walt, the co-author of The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy, will be stepping down in June as academic dean of the John F. Kennedy School of Government to become an ordinary professor.

Professor Walt and John Mearsheimer, of the University of Chicago, caused a storm of protest when they published their report, which argued that America’s interests were being manipulated by the pro-Israel lobby, using a network of politicians, journalists and academics. It said that the Jewish lobby was a key factor behind President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and cautioned that the US could be drawn into conflicts against Israel’s other enemies in the region.

No one disputes that the Jewish lobby is an influential force in US politics and that the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) is one of the most powerful organisations in Washington. Aipac is described in the report as “a de facto agent of a foreign government (that) has a stranglehold on the US Congress”. It also challenges the need for America to give Israel $3 billon (£1.73 billion) in aid every year, worth about $500 for every Israeli citizen. It argues that Israel’s critics are routinely branded anti-Semites.

Professor Walt said yesterday that he and his co-author stood by their paper and welcomed “serious scholarly discussion of its arguments and evidence”. Instead, they have provoked an emotional and angry response, including criticism from other scholars at Harvard.

Marvin Kalb, a member of the Kennedy School, said that the report contained factual errors and failed to meet basic academic standards.

Alan Dershowitz, the famous Harvard criminal lawyer, denounced the report as ignorant propaganda, and said that he was writing a paper to refute its claims.

Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat congressman from New York, accused the authors of finding “Jewish conspirators under every bed and controlling every major American institution”.

The report states: “Pressure from Israel and the [Jewish] lobby was not only a factor behind the decision to attack Iraq in March 2003, but it was critical... the war was motivated in good part by a desire to make Israel more secure.

“Equally worrying, the lobby’s campaign for regime change in Iran and Syria could lead the US to attack those countries, with potentially disastrous effects.”

By Richard Beeston

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Pak pamphlets link militants to Hindus and Jews

Reuters
Posted online: Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 0518 hours IST
Updated: Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 1346 hours IST

Tank, Pakistan, March 25: Pakistan's military airdropped pamphlets this week over towns in restive tribal regions near the Afghan border urging tribesmen to shun "foreign terrorists", saying they were part of a Hindu and Jewish plot.

The pamphlets were dropped over Wana, the main town in South Waziristan, and Miranshah in North Waziristan as part of a campaign to win support among tribesmen who have shown sympathy for both Taliban and remnants of al Qaeda living among them.

A Reuters reporter in Tank, a town close to the boundary with the semi-autonomous tribal agency of South Waziristan, obtained one of the pamphlets, bearing the sign-off "Well Wishers, Pakistan's Armed Forces".

Titled "Warning", the pamphlets said the foreign militants were fighting against Pakistan in connivance with "Jews and Hindus", a term that would play on traditional prejudices among the region's Muslim conservatives

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Bush Names Jewish Adviser to Pivotal Chief of Staff Post

WASHINGTON, March 28 (JTA) -- When Josh Bolten walked into his first meeting as a member of President Bush's Cabinet in the summer of 2003, he was asked to lead the president and the Cabinet in prayer. He chose to pray for the welfare of the American government, both in Hebrew and English, a sign of his strong Jewish identity.

Bolten was named Tuesday as Bush's second chief of staff. He succeeds Andrew Card, who served more than five years in the post. The move comes amid low approval ratings for the administration and calls from both parties for new leadership at the White House.

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