Britannia Radio

Daily Briefing

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

FEATURED STORY As U.S. stands with Israel at U.N., some warn of looming rift Even as tensions between the Obama administration and the Netanyahu government recede into the background, some observers are pointing to deeper undercurrents of disquiet in the U.S.-Israel relationship.Read more » EDITORS' PICKS Capital J: Obama's U.N. speech, Perry's 'appeasement' attack, rabbis' U.N. protest JTA's Capital J blog has videos of President Obama's speech to the U.N. General Assembly, Texas Gov. Rick Perry attacking Obama's Israel policies, and protesting rabbis getting arrested outside the U.N. Check back with Capital J for updates on the Palestinian statehood push at the U.N. A slew of new High Holiday prayer books A wave of new High Holiday prayer books continues with a Hebrew-English machzor from Israel's Koren Publishers, a revision to Hillel's "On Wings of Awe" and pilot tests of services from the forthcoming Reform machzor. David A.M. Wilensky has a roundup for JTA. BREAKING NEWS President Obama appealed to the United Nations to recognize Israel’s security concerns in considering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Two American hikers who were imprisoned in Iran for two years after they strayed across the border were released on bail. The flagship London branch of Ahava cosmetics is closing, citing biweekly demonstrations that have hurt its profits. Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry blamed the Obama administration for Israel's crises in the Middle East and said he recognized all of Jerusalem as Israeli. President Obama is now expected to meet Wednesday with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in addition to a separate powwow with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Members of a Columbia University international relations group will not attend a dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after the invitation was withdrawn. The deportation order for an accused Nazi from the Detroit area was upheld. Holocaust survivors welcomed Germany's decision to ban one of its largest neo-Nazi organizations. Jewish and interfaith groups are organizing simultaneous vigils in Washington and New York calling for the release of Jewish American contractor Alan Gross from a Cuban prison. An organization of Czech Holocaust survivors is urging that a controversial Czech Education Ministry official be fired because of his links to far-right groups. Thousands of Palestinians rallied in the West Bank city of Ramallah in support of their statehood bid at the United Nations. A coalition of Jewish organizations unveiled a petition opposing the unilateral bid for Palestinian statehood with 100,000 signatures. A small group of rabbis and protesters was arrested for blocking traffic in front of the United Nations. Lawmakers in the U.S. Congress continued to try to head off Palestinian statehood recognition at the United Nations. Hundreds of Jewish settlers and their supporters marched in the West Bank. Jewish support for President Obama continues to drop, but maintains its traditional lead over general American support for the president, a Gallup poll showed. International parliamentarians from Europe, Israel, Turkey and other nations gathered at the site of the Babi Yar massacre in Ukraine. Austria's finance minister apologized for comparing the criticism of bankers to the Nazis' persecution of Jews. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel praised the city's Jewish federation for its work in and out of the Jewish community. Commentary, the seminal neoconservative magazine, has donated its archives to the University of Texas at Austin.