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NATION/WORLD Briefs: Bibi Speaks of Peace, Educators Win Bronfman Prize, Donations Help Wiesel

[additional-authors]
April 2, 2009

Bibi Speaks Of ‘Comprehensive Peace’ at Swearing-In

Benjamin Netanyahu told his newly sworn-in Cabinet that Israel is committed to reaching a comprehensive peace with the Arab world.

The largest Cabinet in Israeli history — 30 ministers and at least another six deputy ministers — was sworn in Tuesday in the Knesset chamber.

In his inaugural address, the new prime minister said that “We will not let anyone question our right to exist. Israel cannot afford to treat statements against it lightheartedly.”

Netanyahu’s address, in which he said he would do whatever it takes to bring captive soldier Gilad Shalit home, was interrupted at several points by angry lawmakers.

Shalit’s parents, as well as the parents of Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman, who was kidnapped and killed in 1996, attended the swearing-in.

In his final address, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset, “I haven’t a shred of bitterness or of anger. I’m stepping down with pride, with my head held high and with a deep sense of gratitude for the privilege I have had to lead the State of Israel.”

Olmert defended his tenure, saying that both the Second Lebanon War in 2006 and the recent Gaza operation were necessary, and that the Lebanon War’s outcome was positive; that his government’s peace efforts were recognized by the international community; and that his fiscal policy bolstered the economy. He also asserted that his Kadima Party, led by Tzipi Livni, would be a responsible opposition.

Jewish Educators Win Bronfman Prize

Two Jewish educators won the annual Charles Bronfman Prize for helping low-income students prepare for college.

Mike Feinberg, 40, and Dave Levin, 39, were recognized with the $100,000 award for co-founding the Knowledge is Power Program, a network of tuition-free, open enrollment college prep courses run in 19 states, including three schools in Los Angeles.

While fewer than one in five low-income students in the United States attends college, the program’s college matriculation rate stands at above 80 percent. Some 90 percent of the program’s 16,000 students are black or Hispanic.

Feinberg’s path to education started when he was a teaching assistant at Oak Park Temple in Chicago, and continued when he worked as a volunteer helping new Ethiopian immigrants to Israel. He and Levin met as volunteers with Teach for America.

Feinberg and Levin will share a portion of the award with the Leo Baeck Education Institute to fund the development of a KIPP-inspired program in an underserved community in northern Israel, serving both Arab and Jewish students.

The prize named for Bronfman was established by his children and is given for humanitarian efforts.

After Madoff, Donations Come in to Help Wiesel

Unsolicited private donors are trying to help Elie Wiesel in the aftermath of the Bernard Madoff scandal. The Nobel Prize-winning author, lost several million dollars of his personal fortune and his foundation took a $15.2 million hit in the Ponzi scheme.

In recent months, small and large donations totaling $400,000 have flowed into The Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, the Conde Nast Portfolio business magazine’s Web site disclosed March 26. Some of the money was given directly to Wiesel and his wife, Marion, but the couple turned everything over to the foundation.

“At any moment it would have been an amazing outpouring of generosity,” Marion Wiesel told Portfolio.com, “but specifically in these times it’s so amazing, and it continues.” Donations to the foundation, which supports after-school centers in Israel, international conferences and various humanitarian awards and prizes, have ranged from $5 to $100.

Small contributions came from “people we don’t know, in places we’ve never been to,” Marion Wiesel said.

Two alumni of Boston University, where Wiesel has taught for more than 30 years, launched an e-mail campaign to encourage 1 million people to donate $6 each in remembrance of the 6 million Holocaust victims.

At a panel discussion March 26 sponsored by Portfolio, Elie Wiesel said of Madoff, “We gave him everything, we thought he was God, we trusted everything in his hands.” Wiesel added that he could never forgive Madoff, who is now in jail awaiting sentencing.

Time: Israeli F-16s Hit Sudan Arms Convoy

Unnamed high-ranking Israeli security officials said Israeli F-16 fighters struck a convoy carrying bombs to Gaza in Sudan, according to a Time Magazine report.

The article also confirmed that the United States was not involved in the attack in late January.

One Israeli source told Time that dozens of aircraft, which also included F-15 fighter planes to provide protection during the bombing, were used in the operation against the Iranian convoy. The source said that unmanned drones followed after to film the site and ensure that the convoy was destroyed.

Based on the footage, which showed only partial destruction of the convoy, the site was hit a second time.

There was not an attack on a second convoy, the source confirmed, as was reported earlier this week by media outlets.

The sources also confirmed that the United States was not directly involved in the operation.“The Americans were notified that Israel was going to conduct an air operation in Sudan, but they were not involved,” a source told Time.

Israel pulled the operation together in a week, a source said. The raid came after an intelligence tip-off to the Mossad in early January, the magazine reported.

Iran had previously used the route.

“This was the first time that the Iranians had tried to send Hamas a shipment this big via Sudan — and it is probably the last,” a source told Time.

IDF: One-quarter of Gaza Palestinians Killed Were Civilians

Some 25 percent of Palestinians killed in Operation Cast Lead were civilians, the IDF said.

The Research Department of the Israel Defense Intelligence identified 1,166 Palestinians killed during Israel’s three-week military operation in Gaza. Of them, 709 were identified as operatives of Hamas or other terrorist groups and 295 were identified as “uninvolved Palestinians.” The IDF said another 162 had not yet been conclusively identified one way or the other. Of the “uninvolved Palestinians” killed, 89 were under the age of 16 and 49 were women.

The figures were gathered following the examination of various intelligence sources and were cross-referenced, the IDF said.

Palestinian officials claim that 1,417 people were killed, including more than 900 civilians.

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency

 

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