pro-Israel

As if applying to college weren’t stressful enough — ask any high school senior currently working on applications — for many Jewish high school students there’s still another factor to consider in their decision.

Is their top college choice pro-Israel, neutral or actively hostile? What should a student do when a professor’s bias against Israel in a Middle East history class creates a chilling atmosphere for Jewish students? How should a Jewish student respond when campus newspapers and student government organizations attack Israel?

Despite a session of raucous testimony on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on July 9, members of the City Council remain "unequivocally pro-Israel," Speaker Gifford Miller told The Jewish Week.
In his first comments on the hearing that lasted more than three hours, and included a call for an "evenhanded" resolution condemning violence on both sides, Miller said there was no place for what he called a "morally relative" approach when dealing with terrorism.

The final status of Jerusalem, Iran's growing missile capability and a declared Palestinian state are likely to become hot-button political issues over the next two years, according to pro-Israel activists looking toward the 2000 Senate campaign.
Although the security of Israel always plays a major role in New York political campaigns, upcoming developments could make the race to succeed retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan a contest of unprecedented attention on the Jewish state.

The Girl Scouts of the USA won’t be scoring any Brownie points with supporters of Israel Sunday.
The organization has banned its uniforms and symbols from this year’s Salute to Israel Parade, citing guidelines against “political” activities. The march takes sides in the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, the group claims.
But at least one troop leader says she and her charges will defy the ban, and quit the Scouts if they continue to “turn their backs” on Israel.

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall, making a rare foray by an American official into disputed Mideast territory, called “incredible” his visit Wednesday to the West Bank community of Beitar Ilit. McCall, who was on a three-day visit sponsored by State of Israel Bonds. spent the morning at the settlement of 17,000, which is about a 35-minute drive from Jerusalem.

On Herbert Zweibon’s cluttered desk lies a Jewish Telegraphic Agency dispatch about this year’s Salute to Israel parade. The report notes that this year’s parade will be combined with an African-American event honoring Rev. Martin Luther King on May 17.
Scrawled across the top of Zweibon’s copy of the article are the words “We Must Stop This!”

In fundraising for Israelife, a network of volunteers that provides lifesaving medical services in Israel, Eli Beer has recently tapped into a pool of Israeli donors.
“I just had a meeting with someone in Israel who gave us a large donation,” Beer reported last week. “There have been hard times for many years, and they still don’t have the capability to give what people overseas can give. But more and more Israelis are learning about philanthropy in Israel.”

Within a month after the Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, North American Jews pledged nearly $300 million — and sent nearly $100 million — to Jewish federations to help Israel shoulder the costs of the conflict, which caused losses in the billions of dollars due to property damage, the loss of tourism and lost income.

In view of this outpouring of money, some Jewish organizations surveyed at random said they were concerned that their general fund-raising campaigns would suffer. Others said they were not concerned.

Two Israeli educators arrived here this week to encourage young Jews to take an interest in Israel as it marks its 60th birthday. Their arrival coincides with the release of a survey that underscores the fact that younger Jews have less of an emotional tie to Israel.

Sri Lankan officials denied reports this week that their country had refused tsunami aid from Israel. The reports triggered criticism of Sri Lanka by the official Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano for declining Israeli assistance because it would have been furnished by the Israeli military.
Compounding the problem, a faulty translation by Catholic World News had led its Web site to run a story saying the Vatican newspaper had criticized Israel for not providing help to tsunami victims in Sri Lanka.