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Senate Confirms Dan Shapiro as U.S. Ambassador to Israel

05/27/2011

(JTA) -- The U.S. Senate voted Thursday to confirm Daniel Shapiro as America’s next ambassador to Israel.

Shapiro was nominated to the post in March by President Obama. At the time he was serving as senior director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Security Council. He had coordinated Jewish outreach for the Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign.

The president’s nomination of Shapiro was praised by a wide range of Jewish groups.

S.F. Archbishop Raps Proposed Circumcision Ban

05/26/2011

(JTA) -- San Francisco’s Catholic archbishop expressed his opposition to a city ballot initiative that would ban circumcision for minors.

Archbishop George Niederauer condemned the initiative in a May 23 letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, his archdiocese’s newspaper reported.

Raise Restitution Issue in Poland, Group Asks Obama

05/26/2011

(JTA) -- President Obama should raise the issue of restitution of private Jewish property during his meeting this week with Polish officials, a Jewish group has urged.

The World Jewish Restitution Organization made the request two days before Obama meets Friday with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski and Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

The request follows a similar one contained in a letter to Obama from U.S. Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.) and U.S. Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.), chairs of the Committee on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission).

U.S. to Help Israel Buy More Iron Dome Systems

05/26/2011

(JTA) -- The United States will help Israel buy four more Iron Dome short-range anti-missile systems, a Pentagon official said.

Lt.-Gen. Patrick O'Reilly, the head of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency, told the Senate Appropriations Defense subcommittee Wednesday that the agency has included in its budget a proposal to pay for four more of the protection systems, which each cost about $50 million.

The system, which has been deployed near Beersheba and Ashkelon, has intercepted rockets fired from Gaza on southern Israeli communities.

Poll: D.C. Trip Sends Netanyahu's Popularity Soaring

05/26/2011

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's popularity has risen dramatically following his Washington trip, according to a poll.

Some 47 percent of Israelis polled believe Netanyahu's trip to the United States was a success and some 10 percent viewed it as a failure, the new Haaretz poll found.

Abbas: Netanyahu Speech Left ‘Nothing to Build On’

05/25/2011

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said there was nothing for peace talks to build on in Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the U.S. Congress.

Abbas, speaking to the Palestine Liberation Organization and also with reporters on Wednesday in Ramallah, asserted that if no progress is made in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians that he will go to the United Nations General Assembly in September seeking recognition of a unilaterally declared Palestinian state.