By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — The press releases from Washington are forever interesting. For example, astronaut Mark Kelly, the final commander of space shuttle Endeavor, has announced his retirement from NASA to spend more time with his wife, Congressman Gabrielle Giffords, who is recuperating from the injuries she sustained when a madman opened fire in Tucson, wounding her and killing six others. Kelly;s announcement, relayed in a press release from NASA, explained that retirement will enable him and the congresswoman to spend more time together. It is also reported that they will endeavor to write a book about their lives together. Should be a great read.
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There was also a State Department press release about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s memorial tribute on Tuesday to a predecessor, the ever-unconventional Lawrence Eagleburger. She repeated a story told to her about Eagleburger’s trip to Israel in 1991. He and other members of the American delegation “were told that they would be participating in a drill, and they would all have to wear gas masks. … Everyone dutifully put on his or her gas mask except Larry. He lit a cigarette instead. And when his colleagues protested, he pointed out they could not claim that the smoke was bothering them with their gas masks on.”
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On a more serious note, the Congressional Research Service has issued a report that Palestinians have received over $4 billion in bilateral assistance since the mid 1990s from the U.S., making them “among the world’s largest per capita recipients of international foreign aid.” The report went on to conclude that under U.S. law, Palestinians would be ineligible for such aid if Hamas were incorporated into the government without renouncing its terrorism.
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And, Congressman Gary Ackerman, a New York Democrat, announced in a press release that he is circulating a resolution calling for Hamas to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit unconditionally. Similar resolutions were approved by Congress in 2007 and 2010. Said Ackerman: ““I think it is absolutely essential that the United States keep faith with our Israeli allies and stand with them in calling for the immediate release of IDF Corporal Gilad Shalit. The terrorists in Hamas, it should be recalled, snuck into Israel proper and attacked a group of IDF soldiers for the purpose of kidnapping Corporal Shalit in order to hold him hostage. Descending even further into subhuman barbarity, they have forced him to appear in propaganda videos, they have denied him visits from the Red Cross, they have denied him medical attention, and they have prevented him from sending even so much as a postcard to his parents, or allowing them to contact him. Hamas’ stooges can say whatever they want about this blood-soaked bunch of terrorists, but their behavior, in the form of unrelenting violence against Israeli civilians and the disgusting anti-Semitism they spew, shows their true beliefs and their real values. These are not partners for any kind of peace. These are thugs hiding an agenda of hate behind a façade of religious devotion.”
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Besides Ackerman and Giffords, another Jewish member of Congress is sending out arresting press reeleases: U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, for example, has introduced legislation to give the federal government more tools to detect, close, and discourage cross-border tunnels. “On a recent visit to San Diego, I saw a sophisticated tunnel – close to half a mile long – stretching from an abandoned warehouse to Tijuana, Mexico,” Feinstein recalled in a press release. Designed with tracks and pulleys, smuggling tunnels are growing along border states to transport drugs, and can be used to transport weapons and people.” She said her bill would: 1) Make the use, construction or financing of a border tunnel a conspiracy offense; 2) Include illegal tunneling as an offense eligible for Title III wiretaps even when there are not drugs or other contraband to facilitate a wiretap; 3) Specify border tunnel activity as unlawful under the existing forfeiture and money laundering provisions to allow authorities to seize assets in these cases.
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Now I know there’s a difference between “Mosaic” and a “mosaic,” but still it gets a bit confusing, doesn’t it, when in the news they keep referring to the “Surfing Madonna” in Encinitas as a mosaic? In the case of a Mosaic, he was drawn from the water, and in the matter of the controversial mosaic, she was drawn on the water.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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