Compiled by Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO — Freshman Congressman Lee Zeldin (R-New York), the lone Republican Jewish member of the House of Representatives as well as a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, has taken on President Obama’s Iran policy in one of his first press releases.
“I strongly disagree with the President’s continuing effort to win over the Iranian government through acts of kindness,” said Zeldin. “It’s a strategy divorced from the reality that the Iranians do not respect weakness, only strength. When you announce a deal and the Iranian government immediately refutes the terms of that ‘agreement’ then there was no deal in the first place. The President is getting played by the Iranians, which means our entire nation is getting played. The Iranian government has made the strategic decision to continue to pursue nuclear capability and by engaging in talks with the President and his administration, are reaping billions of dollars in economic benefits by securing itself relief from sanctions. We should not be so naive and we shouldn’t be removing sanctions. We should actually be increasing sanctions.”
Zeldin added: “President Obama has already threatened to veto a plan from Congress to issue sanctions on Iran, despite bipartisan support for such a proposal. Providing Iran with relief from sanctions is a serious mistake and I strongly urge the President to reconsider. Iran poses a serious national security threat to America, Israel, and many of our allies. I will continue to stand strong on the passage of these sanctions, fighting in Congress to secure America’s interests abroad.”
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U.S. House of Representatives
SLAVERY — U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel (D-New York), the Ranking Member of the House Foreign Relations Committee, expressed disappointment over the recent sentencing of Mauritanian anti-slavery activist Biram Dah Abeid to two years in prison. “Founder of the Initiative for the Resurgence of the Abolitionist Movement, Biram is a passionate human rights defender, and in 2013 was awarded the United Nations Human Rights Prize and the Front Line Defenders Award for his work combating slavery in Mauritania,” Engel noted. “For his efforts, he has already been arrested several times on trumped-up charges, most recently during a peaceful protest march in November. The arrest and sentencing of Biram Dah Abeid, along with Brahim Bilal Ramdhane, IRA’s vice president, and Djiby Sow, president of the non-governmental organization Kawtal, undermine those who have the passion and courage to speak on behalf of human rights in Mauritania. I urge the Mauritanian authorities to release Biram and allow his organization and others like it to legally register. “Since 1981, when Mauritania became the last country in the world to abolish slavery, its record of punishing slaveholders and ensuring a free society has been appalling. Slavery continues to exist, and perpetrators are rarely prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Instead of addressing these problems, the government has exhibited a pattern of harassment and abuse toward anti-slavery activists like Biram Dah Abeid and refuses to legalize their organizations as a way to silence them. This sentence is not justice. It is a deflection of the real issue at stake, which is equality for all Mauritanians. Slavery has no place in the 21st century, and people like Biram should be celebrated, not imprisoned.”
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U.S. Senate
POST OFFICES — U.S. Senators Bernie Sanders (independent-Vermont) and Al Franken (D- Minnesota) are among a group of senators proposing legislation to impose a two-year moratorium on U.S. Postal Service plans to eliminate up to 15,000 decent-paying jobs, close more mail-sorting plants and end overnight delivery of first-class mail and periodicals. “At a time when Postal Service revenue is increasing, it makes no sense to eliminate thousands of jobs and slow down the mail service that millions of Americans rely on,” Sanders said. “We should be working to strengthen the Postal Service,” he added, “not send it into a death spiral.” He added that The Postal Service already has closed 141 mail-processing plants since 2012. Now it wants to shutter as many as 82 more facilities. Unless Congress acts, he said, the new round of cuts could affect thousands of workers in 37 states.
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California Legislature
REV. MARTIN LUTHER KING— Speaking on behalf of the California Legislature’s Jewish Caucus, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-San Rafael) rose in tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Levine reminded his colleagues of Dr. King’s words that humankind, “must evolve for all human conflict, a method of which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.”
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Local Government
SAN DIEGO CHARGERS — Was it pique, simple rudeness, or a clumsy attempt to establish a pretext for moving the San Diego Chargers to Los Angeles? That is what writers for news organizations, including U-T San Diego, are asking after Mark Fabiani, the attorney and spokesman for the Chargers, blasted Mayor Kevin Faulconer for including former Port Commissioner Steven Cushman on a task force studying a new stadium. In the January 17 edition of the U-T, Lori Weisberg reported that Cushman recently had taken a tour of the San Francisco 49ers stadium, and that apparently had been what set Fabiani off. Faulconer meanwhile continues to say that Cushman will not be on the stadium task force, but he does remain his special advisor on expansion of the San Diego Convention Center. Fabiani and the Chargers have been pushing construction of a new Stadium in conjunction with the convention center expansion.
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. Your comments may be posted in the space provided below or sent directly to the author at donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com