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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs

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JACPAC's News & Opinion Digest

October 6, 2011 

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Call Rep. Cliff Sterns to strongly disagree with the Oversight & Investigations subcommittee targeting of Planned Parenthood. 

   

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This week's issue highlights the following significant developments here and in the Middle East:
  • Prime Minister Netanyahu reviews the year and what the next steps are in pursuing peace. 
  • The landlord of a clinic whose daughter was targeted by anti-abortion protestors at her middle school has formed his own group, called Voice for Choice.
  • The Supreme Court has declined to hear a case regarding a judge and a 10 Commandments poster.
  • What will the new voting regulations mean for upcoming elections?
  • While some in the Muslim world work to promote Holocaust denial, one group is working to remember it.

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Remember to check out our blog to keep up with current events, op-eds, reproductive rights information, sort fact from fiction in your inbox about Israel, and Presidential Ponderings - Gail's thoughts and observations.

ISRAEL & THE MIDDLE EAST
 

netanyahuPM Netanyahu's Rosh Hashana interview to 'Post'
The most striking thing about meeting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his Jerusalem office Monday afternoon - some four hours after he returned from a grueling five-day trip to New York - was the degree to which he didn't look or act as if he just stepped off a transatlantic flight. He looked relatively fresh and his words were crisp.

More...   

 

No realistic chance of permanent Middle East peace
Speeches at the United Nations only highlight the depths of the divide between the parties.  

More... 

 

Palestine state quest wins first victory in UNESCO vote
Palestine won a first diplomatic victory in its quest for statehood on Wednesday when the UNESCO executive committee backed its bid to become a member of the cultural body with the rights of a state.  

More... 

 

Hamas Shifts to and Outside-In Operational Strategy
Recent arrests indicate that Hamas may be extending its operational reach outside its Gaza base.

More... 

 

Jordan: All Quiet on the Eastern Front?
Progress on the economic and political fronts is helping to insulate the monarchy from the instability currently sweeping the region.

More...   

 

Jewish immigration to Israel increases by almost 20%
Some 21,300 people made aliya during the Jewish year of 5771, the Jewish Agency for Israel announced on Wednesday - an increase of about 19 percent over the previous year.  

More...   

Reproductive Rights
 

Massachusetts Legislature debates archaic law banning birth control for unmarried women  

Today, the Massachusetts Joint Committee on the Judiciary is debating whether to repeal portions of an bygone law regarding women's access to contraception.

More... 


clinicAbortion Clinic Landlord Launches 'Voice of Choice'     

The landlord of a Germantown abortion clinic responded to anti-abortion rallies outside his child's middle school by forming his own group, Voice of Choice.
More...

When I Needed Help, I Got Propaganda Op-Ed 

Defenders of "crisis pregnancy centers" are converging on Capitol Hill this week to lobby for increased support from the government, brandishing not picket signs, but babies.
More...
 
Separation
 

commandmentsBan on judge's Ten Commandments poster stands as Supreme Court declines case  

The US Supreme Court declined Monday to take up a case examining whether an Ohio judge violated the separation of church and state when he displayed a poster in his courtroom that contrasted the Ten Commandments with humanist precepts.
More... 

 

Religious Groups and Bias Get the Justices' Attention 

If laws forbidding discrimination in employment applied fully to religious groups, the government could insist that the Roman Catholic Church allow women to serve as priests. If such laws do not apply to religious groups at all, a church could fire a janitor because he is black.
More...
Political Bytes
 

votingNew State Rules Raising Hurdles at Voting Booth 

Since Republicans won control of many statehouses last November, more than a dozen states have passed laws requiring voters to show photo identification at polls, cutting back early voting periods or imposing new restrictions on voter registration drives.
More... 


For Politics in South, Race Divide Is Defining  

Ten miles south of Ronnie's Steak and Grill, where Johnny DuPree was making a recent appearance before the Rotary Club, lies the lonely road where three civil rights workers were killed by the Klan one June night in 1964 for registering blacks to vote.  The workers' cause won in the end.
More...


The Influence Industry: Revised primary schedule could shield super PAC donors   

Could 2012 produce the first secretly financed primaries? More...
FYI
 

holocaustDistinctive Mission for Muslims' Conference: Remembering the Holocaust  

One afternoon this week, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran addressed the United Nations General Assembly, once again casting doubt that the Holocaust had occurred. Almost exactly 24 hours earlier, an otherwise obscure college student in Morocco named Elmehdi Boudra was convening a conference devoted not to denying the Holocaust but to remembering it.
More...

Bibles rescued from Syria in secret op 
It was a James Bond-style, continent-wide operation with many participants. It began in Syria, continued in the United States and ended in Israel. And yet, not a single word has been published about it - until now.  
More...

Prof. Hossam Haick Na-Nose cancer detection
Wouldn't it be revolutionary if doctors could sniff out cancer? Prof. Hossam Haick of the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering is developing the Na-Nose -- an artificial nose that will be able to detect cancer and other diseases at the early stages. The patient exhales into the device and with an array of nano sensors the non-invasive device will do its life saving work. 
More...

Our members count on JACPAC to provide information on current events, candidates, and elections.  JACPAC depends on membership support to make this possible.

 

If you have not renewed your membership, please consider doing so today, to help us pursue a strong US-Israel relationship, reproductive rights, and separation of religion and state.  Together we can make this a better world!

   

Sincerely,

 
Gail Yamner, President
Marcia Balonick, Executive Director
Joy Malkus, Research Director 

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Joint Action Committee for Political Affairs (JACPAC) is a national network committed to the special relationship between the US and Israel and a social agenda that includes reproductive rights and separation of religion and state.  JACPAC supported US Senate and House candidates who uphold this agenda and maintains ongoing dialogue with those it helps elect.  In addition, JACPAC serves as a political resource for the Jewish community, furnishing information about candidates, elections and issues.

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