Yeshiva World News

France is to try three suspects – one of them currently held in the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay – for a 2002 bomb attack on a Tunisian shul that left 21 dead, judicial officials said Tuesday.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is regarded by intelligence experts as the top planner behind al-Qaida’s attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, is one of three men accused of complicity in the Djerba suicide attack. He has been held in the U.S. military facility in Cuba since March 2003 and will be tried in his absence.

Two alleged accomplices – the bomber’s brother, Walid Nawar, and a German Islamic convert and al-Qaida’s alleged leader in Europe, Christian Ganczarski – have been in French custody since 2002 and will appear in court.

The trio are charged with “complicity in attempted murder in relation to a terrorist enterprise.” The trial will take place between Jan. 5 and Feb. 6 in the Paris court specializing in terrorism offenses, an official said.

On Apr. 11, 2002, suicide bomber Nizar Nawar detonated a fuel tanker rigged with explosives outside a historic shul on the Tunisian island of Djerba, killing 14 German tourists, five Tunisians and two French people.

Nawar is alleged to have contacted both Ganczarski and Sheikh Mohammed shortly before the attack. The bomber’s uncle, Belgacem Nawar, has been convicted in Tunisia of involvement in the attack and sentenced to 20 years.

(Source: EJP / AFP)

York University has decided to end a 34-year practice of cancelling classes on Jewish holidays in part to reflect the growing diversity at the booming Toronto campus.

It’s believed to have been the only public university in North America to close down campus-wide for the Jewish holidays each fall: Two days of Rosh Hashana and one day for Yom Kippur.

York officials say they were not reacting to an Ontario Human Rights Commission investigation of a complaint by a history professor that the practice is unfair to students of other faiths who do not get the same consideration on religious holidays.

“The answer is no, we didn’t make the change because of the complaint – but the change does in part reflect the reality of the diversity of our students,” said campus spokesperson Alex Bilyk.

“The reality was, when the policy was designed, a lot of students and faculty members celebrated those dates,” Bilyk explained yesterday.

York adopted the practice in 1974 at a student’s request as a way to respect religious freedom for those whose holy days were not enshrined by law as are two Christian holidays.

“But over the past 10 years, the diversity of our campus has grown and we have really learned how to handle accommodations of all kinds,” said Bilyk, noting York allows any student whose religious holiday conflicts with a class or assignment to make alternative arrangements with their professor.

Although York does not track the religion of its students, one recent study that matched the student body’s home postal codes with census information estimates that almost 6 per cent of its 51,000 students are Jewish, almost 5 per cent Muslim, almost 35 per cent Catholic, 22 per cent Protestant, almost 4 per cent Hindu, 2 per cent Buddhist and 2 per cent Sikh.

Len Rudner of the Canadian Jewish Congress said he understands why York has changed its practice.

“The practice comes from a time when the demographics were different, and as the university has become much more diverse over the years, we’re in favour of a policy that meets the needs of all students – as long as it’s well-known by students and easy to use,” said Rudner.

(Source: Toronto Star)

Police in University City, Mo., are increasing patrols after reports of harassment at Jewish synagogues. Police said more than 10 incidents occurred around worship centers, and some synagogues have added security cameras and officers during services.

Nine of the incidents involved passersby yelling racial slurs, but last month someone threw eggs at a family that was walking to a synagogue.

Karen Aroesty, St. Louis regional director of the ADL, said these incidents should be taken seriously.

“I’d like to think it doesn’t happen that often, (but) I believe there are a lot more incidents that we don’t know about,” she said.

The ADL has been working with police departments and local synagogues.

(Source: KMOV-TV)

Yated Neeman is departing from its usual practice and endorsing Republican candidate Senator John McCain for President of the United States in the November 4 national elections. Senator McCain is an American war hero and a recognized expert on military and foreign affairs. He is a longtime friend of Israel. He is a dedicated reformer who has demonstrated great political courage and independence. He is also a man of great decency and honesty, with a deep sense of personal honor and patriotism.

While the polls and the mainstream media are predicting a victory by Senator Barack Obama, his support appears to be soft, making a coronation premature.

We believe that McCain is better equipped than Obama to lead this country out of the current economic crisis and slowdown, pursue the war against Islamic terrorism, and restore America’s pride and prestige as the leader of the free world. The US should not experiment with an untested leader, such as Obama, at this time of crisis.

Based upon his unique record of bipartisan cooperation with Democrats and independents in the US Senate, McCain, as president, would be more capable than Obama of reaching out across party lines to unite the country to meet these challenges.

McCain has an impeccable record of support for Israel. He has always been committed to the safety and security of Israel, and has long recognized the mutually supportive links between international Islamic terrorism, Palestinian leaders and the rogue states dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

McCain has promised that, as president, he would recognize Yerushalayim as Israel’s capital, keep it undivided under Israeli sovereignty, and relocate the US embassy to the city.

But just one day after Obama told AIPAC that “Jerusalem must remain undivided,” he reversed himself in reaction to criticism from the Arab world and said that he would put the unity and sovereignty of Yerushalayim back on the negotiating table. During the presidential campaign, Obama has often declared his support for Israel, particularly when speaking before Jewish audiences. But according to Chicago media reports, while Obama was an Illinois state senator, he often attended Palestinian and Arab-American community events, and called for a more “even-handed” US government approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We are also troubled by Obama’s rogues gallery of former friends and supporters, and his failure to adequately explain his association with them.

Some of Obama’s most influential foreign policy advisors have openly predicted that he will increase American pressure on Israel for concessions in the peace process once he enters the Oval Office.

Unlike Obama, McCain remains unwilling to negotiate with Iran’s president as long as he remains publicly committed to Israel’s destruction, and can be trusted to take the firm action required to protect Israel from the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Unlike Obama, McCain has a clear strategic vision for defending America’s vital national interests throughout the Middle East, and against the re-emerging threat of Russian imperialism. He is also prepared to use America’s military as well as its diplomatic and economic strength to safeguard this country.

Obama never recognized the threat that Saddam Hussein posed to peace in the region and America’s strategic interests in the Middle East, and opposed the war in Iraq from the outset. By contrast, McCain supported the war, but was one of the first Republicans to criticize the subsequent mistakes which allowed the Iraq insurgency to get out of hand.

When Bush finally proposed the troop surge strategy, McCain demonstrated great political courage by defying popular opinion to support it. He clearly meant it when he said at that time that he would “rather lose an election than see the United States lose a war.” That political courage was ultimately vindicated when the surge proved to be the key to US victory in Iraq. By contrast, Obama has remained stubbornly unwilling to recognize the surge’s success.

With regard to domestic policy, only McCain can be trusted to restore the faith of American voters in the integrity and responsiveness of the government in Washington. Unlike Obama, McCain has gone beyond empty rhetoric to prove, time and again, his determination to expose and condemn such evil practices as earmarked government budget items, and to loosen the grip of corrupt lobbyists, special interest groups and big money on government lawmaking, regulation, spending and the electoral process itself.

With regard to the mortgage meltdown, McCain was one of the first to publicly expose the dangers from the reckless lending policies promoted by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, while Obama was a major beneficiary of their political contributions.

McCain can be trusted to resolve the current economic crisis with necessary reforms that will strengthen the free market capitalism which has always been at the core of American prosperity. Obama’s proposals would lead this country down the road to socialism.

McCain understands the need to cut taxes in order to lead this country out of the current recession, while Obama’s liberal “tax the rich” policies would only add to the burden on the small businesses which create most of the new jobs in this country, and further delay the recovery.

On social policy, McCain is a staunch supporter of traditional conservative moral values, as confirmed by his selection of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate.

McCain can be counted upon to appoint responsible judges to the federal bench and the US Supreme Court who will not seek to impose their personal values on the American people and the US Constitution; judges who will respect our religious beliefs, and who will defend our shared concepts of basic decency and morality.

For all these reasons and more, we endorse John McCain in the upcoming election for president. However, regardless of which candidate ultimately wins the White House on November 4, we pray that the US will remain free and strong, committed to democracy and human rights, and worthy of our loyal support.

(Yated Ne’eman)

DOV HIKIND’S STATEMENT BELOW  Los Angeles, CA – John McCain’s campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release a video of a party for a prominent Palestinian activist that Barack Obama attended in 2003.

The Times described the going-away party for former University of Chicago professor, and Obama friend, Rashid Khalidi, in a story in April. The story reported that Palestinians thought they might have a friend in Obama because of his friendships in that community, despite the fact that his positions have never been particularly pro-Palestinian.

“A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi,” said McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, citing Obama’s friendship with Khalidi, who is now a professor at Columbia University.

He said the video could, among other things, show how Obama responded to a poem recited at the party accusing Israel of “terrorism” and warning of consequences for U.S. support for Israel, which Goldfarb described as “hate speech.”

“The election is one week away, and it’s unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job — make information public,” he said.

The campaign hadn’t previously demanded the video, though conservative bloggers have, and neither other reporters nor McCain’s researchers have been able to dig up a copy.

Khalidi is a controversial figure, reviled by pro-Israel activists, though not a marginal one. A former professor at the University of Chicago, he’s now Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia, and respected by many in academia. He’s been criticized most for saying that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation and has been described as a former P.L.O. spokesman, a label he has denied.

The paper hasn’t explained its unwillingness to release the video, and Peter Wallsten, who found the tape and wrote about it, declined to discuss it with me last night. He forwarded an e-mail that the paper has sent readers who have complained as conservative blogs raise the issue.

“Over six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light,” wrote the readers’ representative, Jamie Gold.

L.A. Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan wouldn’t discuss the decision not to release the tape in detail.

“When we reported on the tape six months ago, that was our full report,” she said, and asked, “Does Politico release unpublished information?”

The answer to that question, of course, is yes — Politico and most news outlets constantly make available videos and documents, while after describing them in part, which is why the Times’ decision not to release the video is puzzling. My instinct, and many reporters’ at this point, is to share as much source material as possible.

Critics have suggested that the Times is witholding the video for political reasons, but there are other possibilities: competitive reasons, or out of tradition. In the internal mechanics of reporting, there’s another possibility as well. The video may have been given to the paper on the condition it not be released, or releasing it could compromise its source.

But the Times hasn’t explained the move, and the McCain campaign is turning up the heat on a story that, whether or not the tape is released, is a reminder that some of Obama’s Hyde Park friends stand well to the left of his stated positions.

UPDATE 5:30PM EST:

Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) today called upon Senator Barack Obama to request the release of a potentially controversial video in which he is featured praising Rashid Khalidi, former spokesman for the PLO and terrorist mastermind, Yasser Arafat. Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and the Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, is a virulent anti-Semite known for his extremist views on Israel. He has called Israel an “apartheid system in creation” and a “racist state” that “brainwashed” Americans do not understand.
 
In 1995, Khalidi, together with his wife, co-founded the The Arab-American Action Network (AAAN), an anti-Israel organization that strongly supports the Palestinian terrorist movement. AAAN considers the creation of the state of Israel a “naqba,” or Arabic for “catastrophe.”
 
Yet, at a 2003 party in his home state of Chicago, Obama spoke effusively about Khalidi, and expressed the hope of continuing their relationship for “many years to come.” The L.A. Times later obtained a videotape of Obama’s remarks, but to date, has refused to share the video with other news outlets.
 
“As a leading media source, The L.A. Times owes a duty to its readers to provide unbiased and informative news coverage. Instead, the paper is failing to exhibit journalistic integrity,” Hikind said. “The American people are entitled to know all the facts regarding Obama, not just the ones his campaign, or those colluding with them, has filtered out.

Why is this video being kept from the voters?” Hikind demanded. “What, if anything, is the L.A. Times trying to hide? For the sake of the American people, Obama should immediately make this video public.”

(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN / Ben Smith for CBS5)