National News

Rep. Cynthia McKinney, the Georgia Democrat who marginalized herself in the House of Representatives, may be about to do the same again, this time on an even larger stage.
Speaking at the annual legislative conference of the Congressional Black Caucus last week — along with fellow about-to-be-ex-Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan — McKinney blamed the Democratic Party for her defeat, not the Jews who supported her opponent in the last days of the campaign.

Jewish Groups Pressed On Iraq

Pressure is growing for Jewish groups to abandon their deliberately low-profile pose and dive into the intensifying battle over the Bush administration’s plans for a military strike against Iraq.
The mounting pressure comes as Congress considers an administration resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq — and as some Democrats, led by former Vice President Al Gore, try to galvanize a strong opposition movement.

Poll: No Jewish-GOP Surge

Playing Politics With Museum?

Republicans were quick to criticize the Clinton administration for playing politics with appointments to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, but a current member of the panel who had his chair yanked out from under him claims the Bush administration is doing just that.

Jews Duck Iraq Debate

The war drums are beating louder in Washington as the Bush administration thrashes out the details of its expected assault on Iraq. But Jewish groups, which have more reason than most to hope for an end to Saddam Hussein’s blood-soaked regime, have maintained a deafening silence.
While a broad spectrum of Jewish leaders believes the administration is heading in the right direction, many worry that Israel could suffer dire consequences if Washington doesn’t complete the journey.

It’s Still The Economy

By all rights, it should be a hot year in pro-Israel politics. Israel is being pounded by terrorists, U.S.-Israel relations are in flux and the United States is involved in a high-stakes war against terrorism.
But with a handful of high-profile exceptions, foreign policy seems to be the last thing on voters’ minds — including Jewish voters.

Holocaust Museum’s Burial Conflict

Officials of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council are rejecting claims by Rabbi Avi Weiss, a prominent Holocaust activist and council critic, that construction of a new memorial to the Jewish victims of the Belzec death camp in southeastern Poland is resulting in systematic desecration of the site where many thousands of them are buried.

He was a hard-nosed journalist who had more than a passing acquaintance with the furies of the Middle East. But he was also more than that: John Wallach, the former Hearst Newspapers foreign correspondent, craved personal involvement, even when it defied the conventional wisdom of hopelessness.
Wallach died last week at 59 in a Manhattan hospital, after a long battle with lung cancer. A few hundred miles to the north in the woods of Maine, dozens of kids from the Middle East were gathered at the Seeds of Peace camp he created in 1993.

FBI Director Talking

President George W. Bush may be drawing clearer lines when it comes to terrorists and their supporters, but his FBI director apparently hasn’t gotten the message.
Robert S. Mueller, who took over the troubled agency only seven days before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is scheduled Friday to attend the annual convention of the American Muslim Council (AMC).

Two things happened on Nov. 21, 1985. The first produced sensational headlines in a few major newspapers: Jonathan Jay Pollard, a young civilian intelligence analyst for the Navy, was arrested on charges of spying for Israel after he was turned away from the Israeli embassy in Washington, where he had sought asylum.