Paul McCartney joins peace group
Former Beatle Paul McCartney has been named an honorary member of the international board of advisers of the OneVoice Movement, a peace group working to bring together moderates from the Israeli and Palestinian camps.
McCartney met with representatives of the group for the first time last September during a visit to Israel to perform a concert in Tel Aviv.
“I was impressed, first of all, by the fact that half of the organization is Palestinian and half is Israeli,” McCartney said recently. “They told me that the vast majority of people in both societies are moderates and simply want a better life for their families and themselves. This gave me great hope that one day, people like them will help to bring about a peaceful resolution to the troubles in the area. I am, therefore, happy to lend my support in this way to the cause of peace.”
The international board of advisers includes other celebrities such as Danny DeVito and Jason Alexander, as well as international dignitaries and political figures such as Dennis Ross. — jta
Poll: Jews support strong U.S. peace role
American Jews favor an active U.S. role in the Middle East peace process even if it means exerting pressure on Israel, according to a survey by J Street. The poll also found that that President Barack Obama and his policies on the Middle East garner more than 70 percent approval in the American Jewish community.
The survey of 800 self-identified American Jews by Gerstein Agne Strategic Communications was conducted Feb. 28 to March 8 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percent. J Street is a year-old agency that backs assertive U.S. engagement in the peace process and markets itself as an alternative to the more hard-line views that it claims dominate many other pro-Israel organizations.
Forty-one percent of poll respondents did not favor a military attack on Iran “if they are on the verge of developing nuclear weapons,” while 40 percent supported such a strike. And 39 percent favored “direct negotiations” with the Iranians while 37 percent supported international sanctions.
According to the poll, 88 percent of respondents favored the United States playing “an active role” in helping the parties resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict, with 64 percent of those favoring an “active role” saying they would continue to back it even if it meant “exerting pressure on Israel.” Overall, 57 percent of those surveyed would support such pressure.
In addition, 69 percent said that if Hamas and the Palestinian Authority form a unified government, it would support the United States working with such a government to achieve a peace agreement with Israel. Meanwhile,
75 percent of respondents backed Israel’s recent military operation in Gaza, although just 41 percent said it made Israel more secure. — jta
Interfaith campus planned in Omaha
An interfaith coalition in suburban Omaha, Neb., has proposed building a joint campus to house a mosque, a Reform synagogue and an Episcopal church.
The plan, under development by a local nonprofit called the Tri-Faith Initiative, is searching for a site.
Some members of the Omaha Jewish community have weighed in against the proposal. In a recent letter printed in the Omaha Jewish Press, Phil Schrager, a major donor to local Jewish charities, expressed “strong reservations about the efficacy” of the plan because a Palestinian-born member of the Tri-Faith board had signed on to a cultural and academic boycott of Israel. — jta
Bolten joins board of GOP Jews
Former White House chief of staff Josh Bolten was one of six people recently appointed to the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board of directors.
Bolten was President George W. Bush’s chief of staff from April 2006 through the end of his presidency, and also was the director of the Office of Management and Budget for Bush.
Among the five others named at the group’s annual Winter Leadership Meeting last week in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., was Sam Fox, who returns to the board after serving as U.S. ambassador to Belgium. — jta