Compiled by Donald H. Harrison
House Speaker John Boehner says that Congress had “every right” to invite Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak to a joint session.
“I wanted the prime minister to come here,” Boehner told an interviewer on Fox News Sunday. “There’s a serious threat facing the world, and radical Islamic terrorists are not going to go away. The president devoted but a few words to it in his State of the Union address. And then when it comes to the threat of Iran having a nuclear weapon, these are important messages that the Congress needs to hear and the American people need to hear. And I believe that Prime Minister Netanyahu is the perfect person to deliver the message of how serious this threat is.”
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The Jewish American Citizen
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Executive Branch
RELIGIOUS FREEDOM —David Saperstein, the U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, traveled with Assistant Secretary of State Tom Malinowski to Iraq, where they met government leaders and representatives of Iraq’s minority religious and ethnic communitis from Feb. 8 through 11. The State Department said their trip “highlighted the importance of promoting human rights in the fight against ISIL. According to the State Department, “members of Iraq’s minority communities, including Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako and Yezidi, Sabean-Mandaean, Shabak, and Kakai leaders, described the need for inter-faith dialogue and reform of school curricula to promote understanding and conflict resolution, promote religious freedom, and to reduce sectarianism. Those displaced from the Ninewa plains area expressed fear to return to their historic homelands, and stressed the need for security, employment and education opportunities, and conflict resolution. Malinowski pressed them to avoid taking revenge against former neighbors suspected of collusion with ISIL, and Ambassador Saperstein pledged U.S. commitment to helping them return to their homelands and to meeting the needs of the displaced.”
TRADE — Charles H. Rivkin, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, will attend a conference in Miaim, Feb. 19-20, to discuss how President Obama’s trade policies are designed to open new marekets to American made goods. He will also visit the Port of Miami, according to a State Department announcement
U.S. Senate
UKRAINE — The Senate has adopted a resolution expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people, condemning the Russian government’s aggressive actions in the Ukraine, and calling for the release of Ukrainian fighter pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who has been held in a Russian prison since July 2014. ““We are deeply concerned for the health and wellbeing of Ms. Savchenko, a Ukrainian hero,” said Senator Ben Cardin (D-Maryland) “Nadiya is yet another victim of the Putin regime’s lawlessness, brutality, and contempt for human life. We need to recognize that this isn’t just about her; it’s a highly visible manifestation of Putin’s contempt for a Ukraine that wishes to remain free, independent, and democratic.”
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COLLEGE EDUCATION—U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vermont) has welcomed President Barack Obama’s proposal to make community college free, but the senator said we must go further. Sanders called for no tuition for the first two years at any public college or university. “We need a revolution in the way higher education is funded,” Sanders said. “In the United States, all people who have the desire and the ability should be able, in this changing economy, to receive all the education they need regardless of their income. This must be done not only to rebuild the disappearing middle class but to make us competitive in the global economy.”
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House of Representatives
VETERANS – U.S. Rep. David Cicilline (D-Rhode Island) brought 4,000 Valentine’s Day cards that were hand fashioned by elementary school students to the Veterans Administration’s Medical Center and to the Rhode Island Veterans Home. ““The ‘Valentines for Vets’ initiative is just one small way to honor our veterans and I’m delighted that so many students from around the District volunteered their time to help our veterans celebrate Valentine’s Day.”
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Interest Groups
ISIS—Responding to the beheadings of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya by ISIS, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) urged the United States to form a coalition with “Europe, Japan, Arab nations, and other like-minded countries” to confront and destroy ISIS. AJC’s Executive Director David Harris said “Jordan and Egypt, responding to direct attacks by ISIS on their own citizens, have taken important actions that others in the Arab world should emulate, making clear that ISIS is their enemy, too.”
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Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. Your signed comment regarding any of these items may be posted in the space provided below or sent to donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com