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Shimon Peres Assumes the Office of President of Israel |
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On June 13, 2007, the Knesset elected Shimon Peres to serve as the
ninth president of the State of Israel. The following article is an
excerpt of a speech given by Mr. Peres to the Knesset on July 15, as
he was sworn in.
 I stand here today moved and appreciative of the trust you have
placed in me on behalf of our people. Your trust is of value to me,
it places a great duty on me, one which I, as President of the State,
will carry with reverence and a deep feeling of mission. I shall be
committed to nurture unceasingly those fine threads of fabric, which
weave us together as a nation, when among us there are people with
various opinions who fiercely fight for them. It must always be
remembered that we are the sons and daughters of one Land of Israel.
We do not have, and we are not looking for, another country...
To read the rest of this excerpt, click here.
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Gerrymander program with CLE credit option … JSPAN Program “Limiting Your Right to Vote” |
 On August 22, at the Villanova Conference Center, JSPAN will offer its first program with CLE credits. Entitled “Redistricting: Limiting Your Right to Vote,” the 2-hour course will present Prof. Bruce Cain of the University of California–Berkeley and Montgomery County Legislator Daylin Leach. Joining JSPAN as cosponsors of the program are the Montgomery Bar Association, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania and the Committee of Seventy.
Non-lawyers are welcome. Register for CLE credit with the Montgomery Bar at 610-279-9660 ($70 including credits and breakfast). If you are not a lawyer seeking credits, you may register with JSPAN at 215-635-2554 ($20 including breakfast).
Decennial redistricting is coming, the season when the gerrymander flowers in Pennsylvania. Join this CLE and learn why and what can be done about it!
For more information, click here.
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A Year in Terrorist Captivity |
 A year has passed since the unprovoked abduction of Israeli soldiers, Eldad
Regev, age 27, and Ehud Goldwasser, age 31, on the Israeli side of the
Lebanese border, an action that precipitated widespread confrontation
between Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization. Two
weeks prior to their abduction, on June 25, another soldier, Gilad Shalit,
age 21, was kidnapped, this time on the Israeli side of the border with
Gaza.
In a document released on July 11, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
stated, "To date, no word has been heard from the .... captive soldiers,
and neither their families nor the government of Israel have any knowledge
of their whereabouts or their current state of health. Especially grave is
the fact that these unprovoked abductions were carried out on sovereign
Israeli territory."
In a flagrant abuse of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, international
bodies have attempted to forward messages and letters from family members to
these soldiers and have not been permitted to deliver them. The Israel
Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as the embassies abroad are all active
in efforts to gain the soldiers' release. Emphasis is on the humanitarian
aspects related to the abductions.
JSPAN stands in solidarity with the government of Israel in its firm resolve
to bring its sons Ehud, Eldad and Gilad home swiftly, and pray for their
safe return.
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Fighting the War on Poverty |
 The need to address the issue of poverty across the United States is
increasingly urgent. With 37 million Americans living below the official
poverty line and up to 90 million economically insecure Americans hovering
just above it, a new report suggesting that the United States has the
ability to cut poverty in half in the next ten years was recently made
public by the Center for American Progress Taskforce on Poverty. The
document, entitled "From Poverty to Prosperity: A National Strategy to Cut
Poverty in Half", highlighted four basic principles that must guide this
effort:
- Promote Decent Work.
- Provide Opportunity for All.
- Ensure Economic Security.
- Help People Build Wealth.
From these four principles, the Taskforce recommended twelve policy steps
that need to be implemented to reduce poverty in the nation. These included
raising the minimum wage, guaranteeing child care assistance to low-income
families, promoting early childhood education for all, expanding housing
vouchers, expanding Pell Grants and making higher education more accessible,
and expanding and simplifying Saver's Credit to encourage saving for
education, homeownership and retirement.
To learn more about the report published by the Center for American Progress
Taskforce on Poverty, click here.
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Atul Gawande: "Sick and Twisted" |
 The new Michael Moore documentary film, "Sicko", with its probing
analysis of the American health care system, is attracting much
attention from moviegoers, as well as the press and the media. In
the June 20, 2007 edition of The New Yorker, Dr. Atul Gewande states
that "our health care morass is ... the kind of vast policy failure
that is far easier to get into than to get out of". For the first
time in recent history, however, there is hope for real reform.
Presidential candidates on every side of the issue are positioning
themselves for the expected battle over health care. In Dr.
Gewande's estimation, the debate "will become angry and murky and
mind-numbingly complicated". And it is a debate in which all
Americans must be engaged.
While JSPAN has not yet developed a definitive policy on health-care
reform in the United States, we will be following the issue very
closely in the months ahead and invite comments about Dr. Gewande's
article from our readership.
To read "Sick and Twisted" in its entirety, click here.
To comment, click here.
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British Boycott of Israeli Academics Condemned by Congress |
Representative Patrick Murphy, Pennsylvania congressman from the the 8th
Congressional District, brought a resolution before the Foreign Affairs
Committee in early June which condemns Britain's University and College
Union (UCU) call for a boycott of Israeli academics and academic
institutions. The resolution, urging governments and educators throughout
the world to reaffirm the importance of academic freedom and open dialogue,
was passed out of the Foreign Affairs Committee, clearing a key hurdle in
its path toward a vote on the House floor.
By the time it was brought to the full House on July 11, H. Res. 467 had garnered 70 co-sponsors. The resolution
was Congressman Murphy's first bill to receive a vote on the floor of the
House, and passed with unanimous bi-partisan support, 414-0. Upon the
conclusion of the vote, Rep. Murphy stated, "When the forces of hate attack
Israel, they attack American values - and today we stand up for our ally and
our values."
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Mark Helprin: "Forced to Get Along" |
 Mark Helprin, a fellow at the Claremont Institute and author of, among other
works, "A Soldier of the Great War" and "Memoir of Antproof Case", has
written an op-ed in the New York Times of July 19 which argues that Israel
and the Palestinians have the "potential" right now for a settlement. The
radically changed "politics of the region" as a result of the failed war in
Iraq has placed Israel, the Palestinian Authority, the leading Arab nations,
including Egypt, the Persian Gulf states and Jordan, and the major Western
powers "on the verge of a rare alignment".
Mr. Helprin suggests that if Israel and the Palestinian Authority take the
opportunity before them to "pursue a strategy of limited aims, concentrating
on bilateral agreements, ... they may accomplish something on the scale of
Sadat's extraordinary demarche of 30 years ago".
To read "Forced to Get Along" in its entirety, click here.
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Want to Join?
To become a voting JSPAN member, please go to www.JSPAN.org. On the right side of your screen you will be able to start a secure transaction and become a voting member.
Make all checks payable to:
JSPAN
2033 Walnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19103
JSPAN Officers
Jeffrey Pasek
President
Kenneth Fox
Vice President
Kenneth Myers
Vice President
Joel Beaver
Treasurer
Stewart Weintraub
Secretary & General Counsel
Directors:
Susan Myers, Chair
Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
Irwin Aronson
Deanne Comer
Hon. Ruth Damsker
Marshall Dayan
William Epstein
Helen Fox
Brian Gocial
Brian Gralnick
Jerome Kaplan
Lazar Kleit
Barry Kramer
Judah Labovitz
Ruth Laibson
Rabbi Robert Layman
Spencer Lempert
Herb Levine
Theodore Mann
Rosalie Greenfield Matzkin
Christopher McDonald
Norm Newberg
Ruth Perry
Adena Potok
Randy Schultz
Ruth Schultz
Daniel Segal
Burt Siegel
Jared Solomon
Rabbi David Straus
Barry Ungar
Rabbi Avi Winokur
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