Peres to speak at AIPAC meeting, meet with Obama in Washington
President Shimon Peres, who is scheduled to visit the United States next week to attend the annual AIPAC meeting in Washington, will meet with President Barack Obama on Monday.
Peres will be the first Israeli leader to meet Obama in the White House, preceding Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is scheduled to meet the president in mid-May.
Netanyahu was invited to speak at the AIPAC meeting, but found that he needed time to form government policies on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and the Iranian threat prior to meeting with Obama. He asked Peres to take his place at the AIPAC meeting and postponed his Washington visit. — ynetnews.com
Woolsey, Saperstein, others arrested at Darfur protest in D.C.
A top Reform Jewish leader and five members of Congress, including a Bay Area congresswoman, were arrested for civil disobedience outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington on April 27.
Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, joined other Darfur activists and Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Petaluma), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), John Lewis (D-Ga.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) to protest the Sudanese government’s expulsion last month of 13 international aid agencies and the resulting humanitarian crisis in Darfur.
The group spoke on the steps of the embassy, according to a Save Darfur Coalition news release, and then would not leave the scene when they were asked to by police. Also arrested was Save Darfur Coalition president Jerry Fowler and Enough Project co-founder John Prendergast.
The groups say that the Sudanese decision to expel aid groups will leave 1.1 million civilians without food aid, 1.5 million without health care and more than 1 million without potable water. — jta