The invitation from Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio,) the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress appears to have been very personal, indeed - virtually no one outside the Boehner-Netanayhu circle had any idea it was coming until just before Boehner's announcement this morning. The Anti-Defamation League's Abe Foxman thinks it might also be ill-advised. "This looks like a political challenge to the White House and/or a campaign effort in Israel," he told JTA.

Stabbing on Tel Aviv Bus Breaks a Fragile Calm

A Palestinian man stabbed and wounded up to a dozen Israelis on Wednesday as he rampaged through a bus in central Tel Aviv during the morning rush, the police said. He then fled on foot but was shot and wounded by security forces.

Following the stabbing attack on a Tel Aviv bus, #JeSuisCouteau  (I Am A Knife), began trending in support of the attack.

 UN holds first conference on anti-Semitism

It was a meeting that never should have been called, but on Thursday morning in New York prominent European ministers and diplomats gathered for the first-ever informal discussion on the rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world. Perhaps indicative of how much the UN cares about anti-Semitism, the conference was sparsely attended by member states. The headlining speakers included French philosopher Bernard Henri L�vy, who gave an impassioned speech tracing the history of anti-Semitism to its modern roots, touching on everything from blood libels and Christ killings to the present antipathy against Israel, and how all societies could be affected by this vindictiveness.

 

On the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's landmark abortion rights decision in Roe v. Wade, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 242-179 to pass a bill that would codify a ban on federal funding for abortions. The bill would prevent women from having their abortions covered by Medicaid; restrict a woman's ability to buy private insurance plans that include abortion coverage; and deny small businesses a tax credit, which they currently receive through the Affordable Care Act, if they include abortion care in their health insurance plans. It would also prevent the District of Columbia from using its own local funds to subsidize abortion care.

On January 21, 98 U.S. senators voted to affirm that "climate change is real and not a hoax."  But the media should not misconstrue that vote as evidence that the Republican-led Senate is now seeing eye-to-eye with scientists on the issue. Moments later, 49 senators voted to deny that "human activity significantly contributes to climate change" - the position held by the vast majority of climate scientists.
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President Obama called out Republican lawmakers who claim they aren't scientists when asked if they believe climate change is man-made.

At some day schools, vaccination rates decline even as disease spreads

A recent measles outbreak originating at Disneyland that has infected more than 50 people has returned the issue of declining immunization rates to the national headlines.
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The Internet has changed the way everyone shops by making goods and services far more accessible to far more people. That is often an acceptable thing, except when it comes to the hotly debated area of gun control. In its latest report, released on Wednesday, the gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety found that the online market in Vermont has many buyers who would be barred from purchasing weapons at licensed gun dealers.