Entries tagged with 'Foreign Affairs'
Omar al-Bashir: Wanted for Genocide
Yesterday, a second arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was issued by the International Criminal Court, for the crime of genocide in Darfur. Back in March 2009, al-Bashir became the first sitting head of state to be charged by...
Netanyahu Meets with Obama: What to Expect
Kerry O'Rourke is a participant in the Machon Kaplan Summer Social Action Internship program, interning at the Religious Action Center. Today, July 6th, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the White House after cancelling his scheduled visit last month due...
Your Advocacy at Work
Yesterday, President Obama signed into law a new Iran sanctions bill that passed the House and Senate with flying colors (408-8 in the House and 99-0 in the Senate) last week. The nuclear non-proliferation community has had quite a year...
A Bona Fide Bipartisan Achievement
Yesterday evening, both the Senate and House passed H.R. 2194, the Iran Sanctions Conference Report, which will enact strong new sanctions against Iran. Demonstrating all-too-rare bipartisanship, the Senate voted 99-0 and the House voted 408-8 in favor of the legislation....
Moving Right Along
Yesterday, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA), the chairs of the Conference Committee charged with harmonizing the language of two independent House and Senate bills on Iran sanctions, announced that they have reached an agreement enabling Congress...
Rule of Law or Rule of Torah?
A religion and state story has managed to eclipse even the latest news on the Flotilla fall-out. For days, Israeli newspapers have focused on the massive protests that erupted last Thursday in response to a Supreme Court ruling that segregation...
Talk to the Rock
This post appeared today in Ten Minutes of Torah. Sign up for Ten Minutes of Torah here. In the beginning of this week's Torah portion, Chukat, Miriam dies, leaving the people to wander without water in the wilderness. Heeding their...
Finding Home on World Refugee Day
June 20th marks a day in honor of a staggering number of people who are often forgotten in the grand scheme of international politics: it is World Refugee Day, a day to call attention to the plight of over 43...
Denouncing Death Threats Against Israeli Arabs
Everyone has something to say about the Gaza flotilla incident, and it comes as no surprise that many of these responses are impassioned and opinionated. However, in recent days, several Israeli Arab Knesset members have been the targets of the...
UPDATED: Abbas, from The Hill
UPDATED: President Obama and President Abbas had a productive meeting this morning, at the conclusion of which President Obama announced $400 million in U.S. assistance for the West Bank and Gaza. These funds will be directed toward infrastructure projects, particularly...
Actions Do Have Consequences
Today, the United Nations Security Council voted to pass a tough new Iran sanctions resolution. President Obama spoke today in response to the vote, which he said will show the Iranian government that "[a]ctions do have consequences." Rabbi Saperstein welcomed...
Iran Sanctions, Onward and Upward
The U.S. is moving forward with a new round of sanctions against Iran, despite speculation that the recent flotilla incident in Gaza might derail this diplomatic effort. This new sanctions package, agreed upon by the U.S., Russia, China, and other...
Oren Weighs In
As one often caught in the constant flurry of Middle East news, I know it's easy to become discouraged by both the content and sheer volume of press coverage regarding the complex and unfortunate Gaza flotilla incident. While the best...
Strong on Sanctions
The full House Committee on Appropriations is poised to consider the FY10 Supplemental Appropriations Bill. In addition to providing funds for a wide range of many of the Reform Movement's top domestic and international priorities, the legislation will include strong...
The Difficulties of Having an "Unambiguous History"
In March of this year, the House Foreign Affairs Committee passed, by the slimmest of margins, a "resolution condemning the 1915 slaughter of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide," which the URJ did, in a strongly worded resolution,...
New Iran Sanctions
This week, the U.S., Russia, China, and other major world powers reached an agreement on a new package of sanctions against Iran. Rabbi Saperstein applauded the announcement in a statement, available below. For more information about the Reform Movement's work...
Religion and Israeli Schools
Golda Meir famously griped that Israelis were angry with Moses for having dragged the Jewish people through the desert to the one spot in the Middle East without oil. Not only does Israel lack oil, but also gas, gold, diamonds,...
Indirect but Right on Track
As of Sunday, proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians are officially underway. The United States' Special Envoy George Mitchell is mediating these indirect negotiations, and the State Department issued a statement about his first visit to the region in...
Thumbs Up for the UN Walk-Out
This morning, the month-long review conference for the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) began at the United Nations Headquarters in New York City. Leaders from the nearly 190 states party to the NPT and representatives from hundreds of non-governmental organizations will...
Happy 62nd, Israel!
Today is Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, which marks the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. Around the world, we celebrate this holiday on the 5th of the Hebrew month of Iyar. Below, I have compiled 62...
The START of Something New
Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START). Upon announcing the agreement, Rabbi Saperstein welcomed this major step forward in advancing U.S. security and ridding the world of the...
START Spreading the News
After a year of international negotiations, today President Obama announced that the United States and Russia have negotiated and agreed upon a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, for short. The treaty, which must be ratified by the U.S....
East Jerusalem and Beyond
Last week, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, issued a strong and nuanced statement regarding the current events in Israel, specifically addressing the East Jerusalem building announcement and Vice President Biden's recent trip to the region....
Reigning in Iran's Dangerous Nuclear Behavior
The following post is the text of a speech that was presented on Monday in the offices of Sens. Blanche Lincoln and Richard Pryor and Congressman Vic Snyder by Zach Goldberg, a member of Congregation B'nai Israel in Little Rock,...
Daily Alert: Mideast News and Views
I've always been an international news-enthusiast (some may say junkie - when cleaning up my childhood room a few months ago, I found articles clipped from New York Times and Wall Street Journal that had fascinated me over the years)....
Close Encounter
Some of you may have read my blog post about my serendipitous celebrity run-in with Justice Sonia Sotomayor while purchasing cucumbers at Eastern Market this fall. Yesterday, as the Legislative Assistant for Arms Control, I was afforded the opportunity to...
Will People Power Prevail? Protests in Iran Reach New Levels
We've been following the demonstrations organized by Iranian reformist protesters, and it's likely that you've read about the heightened violence of the protests in the news this past weekend, too. The reformist movement has been active against the repressive Iranian...
From Copenhagen to Mexico City: Building on (Partial) Success
Read more of our blog posts from and about COP 15 here.The verdict is in, and the UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen was...a partial success. While some are bashing Copenhagen (and the whole UN process for addressing climate change) as...
Faith Voices from Copenhagen
Today is the final day of the UN Climate Change Conference, and there are many lessons to be learned from the event - the difficulty of international negotiations, the complexity of the climate challenge, and the deep engagement of young...
Mr. Obama Goes to Copenhagen
Tomorrow morning, President Obama will arrive in Copenhagen determined to lead the way to an international deal to confront the environmental, economic, and public health challenge of climate change. He, and the hundred or so other heads of state convening...
Hannukah lights in Copenhagen
Sybil Sanchez is the director of the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life (COEJL), one of the leading Jewish environmental organizations in the United States. This piece originally appeared in the Washington Post "On Faith" series. Read more of...
Time for Leadership to Listen to the People
Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith is a sustainability consultant, a long-time Jewish environmental activist, and a board member for Hazon and the American Friends of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership. Dr. Goldsmith will attend the United Nations Climate...
A Great Miracle Happened Here: Addressing Climate Change While Protecting America's Poorest Families
Jennifer Kefer is Senior Climate Advisor at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), where she engages and educates a network of state groups about the need to include consumer relief in effective climate legislation. Jennifer previously served as...
Green Press Round-Up
With the UN Climate Change Conference underway in Copenhagen, the Environmental Protection Agency endangerment finding on greenhouse gas emissions, and the outline of a new Senate climate bill all happening this week, there is plenty of exciting news on the...
Rick Warren's Letter to the Pastors of Uganda
How interesting, and welcome, to see this statement and video from Pastor Rick Warren speaking out clearly and forcefully about the horrific proposed law in Uganda which would impose the death penalty for homosexuality. Some will say that Warren was...
Update: Live from Copenhagen!
The Copenhagen talks are well underway, and we are excited to bring you a live update from the conference next Tuesday, December 15, at 3:30 p.m. EST. We hope you will join us to hear from David Waskow, Climate Change...
Foreign Aid Goes Rogue
In a recent article, Nicholas Kristof wrote of two schools of thought on foreign aid: "One group, led by Bono and the indefatigable Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University," believe that "crucial need is for more money." Another group, "led by...
There's Something Happening There...Student Day Protests in Iran
Beginning Monday, students took to the streets of Tehran, rallying on university campuses throughout the city. These anti-government protests were pointedly planned to fall on an official holiday commemorating the killing of three students by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's...
Copenhagen 1943 and Copenhagen UN 2009
Rabbi Warren Stone is co-chair of the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care and founding chair of the Central Conference of American Rabbis' Committee on the Environment. Rabbi Warren Stone serves as rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland. He...
The Equation for a Healthier Planet
Megan Elsayed is the Social Action Vice President of the NFTY Northwest Region. Learn more about NFTY's activities, and read more of our blog posts from and about COP 15 here.What a fantastic first step! By involving youth, crossing generational...
Expectations Rising at Copenhagen
Arjun Mody is Assistant Director, Government Relations at ONE. He previously worked in the U.S. Senate as a senior foreign policy, energy, and environment counsel, and in the Executive Office of the President as a Presidential Management Fellow. You can...
Copenhagen - The Moment is Now
Read more of our blog posts from and about COP 15 here.It's hard to believe that such a historic day for the global movement for a sustainable future is finally here! Today, leaders from nearly 200 nations gather in Copenhagen,...
If Not Now When? Jewish Community Calls for Climate Action
In just three days, hundreds of world leaders will gather in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference, a critical moment in the global fight for a sustainable, clean energy future. The North American Jewish community is proud to be...
Essential Preparations for Copenhagen - Offsetting My Carbon Emissions
Dr. Mirele B. Goldsmith is a sustainability consultant, a long-time Jewish environmental activist, and a board member for Hazon and the American Friends of the Heschel Center for Environmental Learning and Leadership. Dr. Goldsmith will attend the United Nations Climate...
A Greener Holiday Season
Read more of our blog posts from and about the Copenhagen Climate Talks here. One week ago, as people across the United States were preparing to enjoy a relaxing Thanksgiving, the White House was making news with an encouraging...
Reform Representation at Copenhagen UN's COP 15
Rabbi Warren Stone serves as rabbi of Temple Emanuel in Kensington, Maryland. Nationally known for his leadership on religion and the environment, Rabbi Stone is co-chair of the National Religious Coalition on Creation Care and founding chair of the Central...
UPDATED: Rolling Updates on Iran
UPDATED 11/2/09, 4:30PM There has been a flurry of recent developments concerning Iran and we want to share with you some of the most relevant news articles, specifically as they relate to current legislation and international sanctions. What have you...
Rabbi Eric Yoffie Speaks at First National J Street Conference
Speaking this afternoon to some 1,500 activists at the inaugural J Street National Conference, Rabbi Eric Yoffie, President of the Union for Reform Judaism, called for "a broad, sensible, and inclusive definition of what it means to be pro-Israel." He...
Saving Children's Lives: The Power of Vaccines
Allison Grossman is a Policy Association at Global Action for Children. She is a former Legislative Assistant at the Religious Action Center.Amidst all the attention surrounding the number of H1N1 flu vaccines that will be available in the U.S....
Legislative Success! House Passes Iran Sanctions Bill
If you're receiving our Weekly Legislative Updates (if not, sign up here!), then you'll have read about an impending vote on the House floor on the Iran Sanctions Enabling Act, introduced by Representative Barney Frank (D-MA, and my home representative!)...
Climate Week Roundup
Last week, global leaders began to rise to the climate challenge. Between the UN General Assembly and the Group of 20 meeting in Pittsburgh, representatives from around the world discussed every aspect of the climate and energy crisis, from financing...
It Takes a Movement
Rabbi Marla J. Feldman Union for Reform's Judaism Interim Director of Development. She is the former director of the Commission on Social Action of Reform Judaism. Ache Yehaya and her child are alive because of you. During the month of...
The Jewish Community's Iran Advocacy Day
I'm just back from a few very interesting and very important hours of briefings as part of the National Jewish Community Advocacy Day on Iran. Community leaders from all across the United States (including URJ Chairman of the Board Peter...
R2P ASAP
Famous Jewish scholar and beacon of social justice leadership leadership Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once said "In a free society, only some may be guilty but all are responsible." Last week the members of the UN General Assembly gathered to...
Israel as a Model for Health Care
As Congress is working to reconfigure our country's health care system, many are pointing to health systems overseas as examples. Israel has one of the most advanced health care systems in the world, and rivals the United States on everything...
Ghana and Global Citizenship
President Obama's visit to Ghana this weekend caused much fanfare (both in Ghana, around the world, and in the RAC office, especially since Rabbi Saperstein recently returned from Ghana and the country holds a special place in my heart, having...
Bon Jovi + Iran = Protesting on a Prayer
The best thing to come from the recent elections in Iran might just be a song.Iranian singer Andy (his full name is Andy Madadian) recently partnered with Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora to record a cover of the timeless...
Fasting Together for Darfur
After over 80 rabbis joined together to fast for Sudan on June 18th, they agreed that they wanted to do more to keep the international, and their local, community focused on the humanitarian situation in Darfur. Together they decided to...
Challenging Extremism Everywhere
In Israel's general elections in February, Avigdor Lieberman and his ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party won 15 Knesset seats, eventually becoming the second party in the government coalition with Lieberman as Foreign Minister. Their electoral campaign featured disturbing demagoguery and egregious racism, including...
Free Gilad Shalit
The tweet made my heart skip a beat. Haaretz posted "Palestinian report: Gilad Shalit to be transferred to Egypt within hours http://bit.ly/LnAKL" and for a minute I thought that we could today be celebrating Gilad Shalit's release rather than lamenting the third anniversary...
Burma and Band-Aids, Anyone?
Leah Wald is a participant in the RAC's Machon Kaplan program for college students. She is student at Pitzer College and an intern at the US Campaign for Burma. This is a call to the greater American Jewish community for...
Saperstein Video Blogs About Yesterday's Cairo Speech
Early yesterday morning, President Barack Obama addressed the Muslim community in a speech in Cairo, Egypt. Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the RAC, recorded a video response to the speech for Patheos.com, a newly launched religion website. Check out Patheos'...
McCain Agrees: No Nukes is Good Nukes
While the world's (and my own) attention have turned today to President Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, there's a development back here in Washington that shouldn't pass unnoticed. President Obama set a goal of a nuclear-weapons-free world...
North Korean Nuclear Test Highlights "Global Alarm System"
On Monday, May 25th, officials from North Korea claimed they had conducted a nuclear test, leading to widespread condemnation and forthcoming additional sanctions.Before the official announcement was made, however, 23 seismic monitors in the region had already detected the impact...
Modeling Activism
Yesterday I caught an episode of "MADE" that taught me a thing or two about activism. In case afternoon MTV programming isn't part of your knowledge base, "MADE" is show where young people, usually high schoolers, turn to MTV to...
Mr. Netanyahu Comes to Washington
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is due in Washington this week for his first meetings with President Obama. The meetings will kick off a major diplomatic campaign for the President, who will welcome the Prime Minster, President Mubarak of Egypt...
Reflections on the AIPAC Conference
Rabbi David Jay Kaufman is the rabbi at Temple B'nai Jeshurun in Des Moines, Iowa. All views expressed are his own. There is a false perception that somehow an organization of the political right. Anti-Israel groups have worked hard to...
A Cosmic Peace for a Cosmic War?
On Tuesday afternoon, I headed over to Capitol Hill to meet in the office of Representative Rush Holt (D-NJ) to join a meeting with two religious peacemakers, Rabbi Menachem Froman, and Sheikh Ghassan Manasra.Both men defy stereotypes;...
Smell the Justice of Coffee! And Chocolate! And Flowers!
Special thanks to Legislative Assistant Rachel Cohen for her contributions to this post. This weekend, you can help set a world record AND build a more equitable and environmentally sustainable global economy simply by taking a coffee break. A Fair...
Saperstein and Prendergast: "Going to Jail to Fight Genocide"
Last Monday, Rabbi Saperstein joined other activists and members of Congress in civil disobedience at the Sudanese Embassy in protest of ongoing suffering in Darfur. Rabbi Saperstein and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast wrote a piece for the Huffington Post,...
Saperstein and Lewis Arrested in Darfur Protest
Today Rabbi Saperstein joined Representatives John Lewis (D-GA), Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Keith Ellison (D-MN), Donna Edwards (D-MD) and Jim McGovern (D-MA), as well as Jerry Fowler, Executive Director of Save Darfur and John Prendergast, Co-founder of the Enough Project,...
Obama and Medvedev pledge new nukes agreement
President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in London at the G20 economic summit, and they issued a joint statement announcing that the two countries are renewing talks on reducing the number of nuclear weapons deployed and held by both...
30 Years of Peace between Egypt and Israel
30 years ago today, on March 26, 1979, Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat signed the historic peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, ushering in a new era of security for Israel's southern borders, over which...
Observing an Election; Observing History Being Made!
Ira Youdovin, now retired, lives in Montecito, Calif. When my very significant other, long-time Santa Barbara resident Evely Laser Shlensky, suggested that we volunteer to monitor El Salvador's presidential elections, I flashed back to a New Yorker Magazine cartoon...
Your Phone is Buzzing
My cell phone has been inexplicably vibrating lately. It is new and I haven't gotten a hang of all its features. But if my phone is anything like the human rights junkie its owner is, perhaps it's trying to call...
Avigdor Lieberman and My Jaffa
Rachel Reynolds is a graduate of Sweet Briar college and an intern at the RAC. All views expressed are her own. Though rumors are still swirling that Bibi Netanyahu has yet to give up on a national unity government with...
Leading on Climate Change?
You probably don't read much about the Maldives- a small island nation in the Pacific with less than 500,000 inhabitants- unless, that is, you follow environmental news outlets like ClimateWire. Pacific island nations like the Maldives, along with (once) ice-covered...
Ciao Bella Italia
I've been in love with Italy since I studied in Florence my junior year of college. The art, the history, the language, the food, the culture...I could go on and on. But recent events have provided me two additional reasons...
Darfur on Day 50
Today is day 50 of President Obama's tenure. To mark this occasion, the students of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition have joined together to e-fax the White House a "progress report" of the President's actions for Darfur and genocide prevention. ...
Celebrating Women
Yesterday was International Women's Day, a global celebration of the achievements of women.Thinking about what to say on this International Women's Day - in a year when economic instability across the world is creating a dire situation for many women...
Learning Coexistence
The decisive experience in my childhood that inspired me to become involved in the work of interfaith dialogue and Israeli-Arab conflict resolution was the penny drive held at my synagogue for Seeds of Peace.To this day, the need for Jewish...
What is 'Pro-Peace'?
Rachel Reynolds is a graduate of Sweet Briar College and an intern at the Religious Action Center. All view expressed are not necessarily policy endorsements by the RAC.I spent the year after I graduated from college living in Israel, volunteering...
Confronting Our Demagogue
With the prospects of the formation of an all-right-wing government high, The Forward Newspaper is reporting that "Jewish Leaders Largely Silent on Lieberman's Role In Government, But One Prominent U.S. Rabbi Criticizes 'Hate-Filled Campaign'"That one rabbi is our own Rabbi...
Livni in the lead: now what?
Last week, RAC intern Marc Friend posted a great overview of today's election in Israel. As he wrote, the race for Prime Minister has come down to Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of Kadima and former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of the...
A City of Joy
For over a decade now civil war has been tearing apart the heart of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It's the deadliest conflict since World War II, with over five million deaths - a number quickly rising due...
Those who forget history...
...so the saying goes, are destined to repeat it. In today's column, Nicholas Kristof provides "a two-step proposal" to investigate U.S.-sponsored torture, enabling us to combat the old adage, or in his own words: "for confronting the past without distracting...
A Greener Future?
A slew of stories emerging from Washington and around the world are giving renewed hope to many environmentalists who have been fighting a steep uphill battle in recent years. A combination of bills in Congress, Presidential directives, and global actions...
President Obama's Pragmatic Outreach to Muslim World
Two and a half years ago, I had the fortunate opportunity to attend a symposium on conflict resolution and negotiation in the Middle East. I spent a month in Nicosia, Cyprus, with around sixty other students and professionals, learning about...
"We reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals."
Stop the presses! In an anticipated, but no less exciting, move today, President Barack Obama issued a series of executive orders that will: close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay within one year, effectively and immediately stop U.S.-sponsored torture, determine...
The end is near...
The end of U.S.-sponsored torture that is! President-elect Obama and the team he has assembled have given those of us in the anti-torture movement good reason to hope that he will "move swiftly to reverse [President Bush's] executive orders regarding...
Glimpses of 'smart power' emerge at Clinton hearing
As I couldn't attend in person due to a scheduling conflict, I listened live to the confirmation hearings for Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton. Despite a mind-numbing bombardment of questions (several of which Senator Clinton punted on until after...
Israel: A Light unto the Nations, Even During Conflict
Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Today's news from the Middle East is dominated by the fighting in Gaza. Even during trying times, and perhaps especially at times like these, it is worth reminding ourselves that...
An Interfaith Declaration of Peace
As expectations for a Middle East cease fire increase, so does the conversation about the conflict here in the United States. Of all the various essays, blogs, newspaper columns and white papers I have see (and, in some cases, even...
It's Still Time to Bring Aid to Darfur
Just yesterday, President Bush's National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley announced that President Bush had approved an airlift of equipment to help the peacekeeping mission in Darfur. He even decided to waive a 15 day Congressional notification requirement due to the...
8 Reasons to be a Feminist
The Tygrrrr Express, a conservative blog recently added to The Jewish Journal of Los Angeles website, posted a blog on December 24th titled "Lighting Candles and Smacking Women: 2008 Hanukkah Style." (This particular post has been removed from The Jewish...
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