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April
29 , 2002 Vol. 4, No. 13
Salute
to Israel Parade: The Salute to Israel Parade will celebrate
the 54th anniversary of the State of Israel next Sunday, May 5,
2002 on Fifth Avenue in New York City. The theme, "Israel
and America, Now and Forever, United We Stand", reflects
the importance of the connection between Israel and the United
States as we pay tribute to our heroes. The parade will take place
rain or shine on Sunday, May 5, 2002, beginning at 11:00
a.m. on Fifth Avenue between 57th Street and 79th Street. For
more info, please go to www.salutetoisrael.org.
More Ways
to Support Israel: There is a new link on the UJC website
for emergency donations to help the Israeli people during these
extraordinarily difficult times. To contribute to UJC's emergency
Israel campaign, please go to https://secure.ujcfederations.org/Form.html?id=296.
Advocating
for Israel: The Anti-Defamation League has a special webpage
that focuses on Israel advocacy and offers suggestions on how
to respond to misstatements about Israel's military operation
in the West Bank. This site is an excellent resource for factual
information about the current situation in the Middle East. To
access the site, please go to www.adl.org/Israel/advocacy/advoc_military.asp?xflag=1.
Mission
to Jenin: A brief editorial in today's Washington Post entitled
Unbalanced Mission to Jenin discusses one of UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan's appointments to the fact-finding mission the UN intends
to send to the Middle East. Cornelio Sommaruga is the former president
of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the organization
that has categorically banned Magen David Adom, Israel's Red Cross
counterpart, from membership for more than five decades. The article
is concise and informative, highlighting the apparent flaws in
the composition of the mission. For the text of the article, please
go to www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/opinion/.
Have you
contacted your Representative yet? Several important resolutions
are currently circulating both the House and the Senate. Addressing
the rising anti-Semitism in Europe, a Senate Resolution was introduced
by Sen. Smith (R-OR), Sen. Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Clinton (D-NY),
and Sen. Hatch (R-UT). Another resolution on anti-Semitism in
Europe has been introduced to Rep. Crowley (D-NY) and Sen. Corzine
(D-NJ), has been in both the House and the Senate (H.RES. 393
and S.RES. 248 respectively). Two resolutions expressing solidarity
with Israel were introduced; one in the House (H.Res. 392) by
Rep. Delay (R-TX) and Rep. Lantos (D-CA), and one in the Senate
(S.Res. 247) by Sen. Lieberman (D-CT), Sen. Smith (R-OR), and
Sen. Daschle (D-SD). Please call your Representatives and Senators
and urge them to sign on to these very important initiatives.
Although news reports indicate that the Delay-Lantos resolution
will not be considered as early as this week, your action is still
warranted.
Movement
on the Farm Bill: On Friday, the House and Senate Farm Bill
(HR 2646) Conferees announced an agreement on a framework for
a final bill. Language from the final report has not yet been
released, but according to Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman
Tom Harkin (D-IA), the package does include food stamp restorations
for legal immigrants who have lived in the United States for five
years. Conferees are currently reviewing the agreement and may
send the conference report to the House and Senate this week.
Please visit www.frac.org for
more information.
Welfare
Reauthorization: This week, two House committees will mark
up welfare reauthorization bills (HR 4090, HR 4092) written by
Representative Herger (R-CA) and Representative McKeon (R-CA).
The Herger and McKeon bills passed the Ways and Means Human Resources
Subcommittee and the Education and the Workforce 21st Century
Competitiveness Subcommittee along party lines on April 18. The
two bills comprise the House Republican welfare reauthorization
plan and are expected to be combined before the full House takes
them up by Memorial Day. In the Senate, the Housing and Transportation
Subcommittee (Chairman Reed, D-RI) of the Banking, Housing and
Urban Affairs Committee will hold a hearing on Wednesday on welfare
legislation that would reauthorize funds for the Temporary Assistance
to Needy Families (TANF) block grant and certain federal housing
programs. Be on the lookout for more information about welfare
reauthorization from the JCPA.
Jewish
Council for Public Affairs
443 Park Avenue South New York, NY 10016
info@thejcpa.org
www.jewishpublicaffairs.org
212-684-6950
212-686-1353 fax
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