FEATURED JOBS
Comments (0)The United States launched meetings in preparation for direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton met Tuesday in Washington with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. She was scheduled to meet in the evening with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers.
The leaders were set to meet today with President Obama and launch the talks tomorrow under Clinton’s auspices. That meeting is set to last three hours.
P.J. Crowley, Clinton’s spokesman, said the talks would focus both on logistical and substantive issues. U.S. officials have said intensive meetings are still under way, a signal that the Israeli and Palestinian sides have yet to agree on the parameters for the talks.
“We want to see not just a successful process going forward but an understanding that we will be going forward,” Crowley said.
The Palestinians want to get to final status issues, including borders, Jerusalem and refugees, right away. The Israelis want to discuss security arrangements first.
Additionally, the Palestinians are threatening to withdraw unless Netanyahu extends a 10-month partial moratorium on building in the settlements that expires Sept. 26. Netanyahu is under pressure from within his government to suspend the freeze.
On Sunday night, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly met secretly with Abbas in Amman, Israeli media reported, hours after meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah at his palace. Barak reportedly returned to Israel to brief Netanyahu between the meetings.
Barak and Abbas reportedly discussed an Israeli easing of security measures in the West Bank, and Barak reiterated Israel’s commitment to the success of the talks.
Netanyahu left Israel Tuesday morning for Washington. After meeting Wednesday with Obama, he was to attend a dinner with Obama, Abbas, Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Netanyahu is scheduled to meet separately with each attendee.
Campaign Pushing Yom Kippur as Device-Free Day
A new campaign is promoting Yom Kippur as a day to disconnect from technology.
Offlining, Inc. is the brainchild of advertising and public relations CEOs Eric Yaverbaum and Mark DiMassimo, self-professed children of the Silicon Revolution who launched http://www.offlininginc.com just before Father’s Day in June urging dads to put down their mobile devices, turn off the TV and spend time with their families.
Now they are urging all Americans, Jewish or not, to do the same on Sept. 18.
The two friends created an online campaign to support the initiative. One shows Tiger Woods with his hand on his heart and the slogan “You don’t have to be Jewish to atone for your texts on Yom Kippur.”
Yaverbaum and DiMassimo, who say they make their living by using technology, write on their site that putting away the machines sometimes may be the best way to go.
Visitors to the site are encouraged to sign an online pledge to hold 10 “No-Device Dinners” between now and Thanksgiving, and to use the time they would have spent online to notice the people in their lives.
Wiesel to Teach at Chapman University
Elie Wiesel will be teaching at a Southern California university that features a large bronze bust of the Nobel laureate at its library entrance.
The Holocaust survivor and author was named a distinguished presidential fellow at Chapman University, a private institution founded by devout Christians. Chapman President Jim Doti made the announcement Aug. 25.
Wiesel, a New York resident and professor of humanities at Boston University, will take up temporary residence in Southern California next spring and in each of the following four years to teach at Chapman.
Chapman officials have not yet finalized the extent of his duties or length of stay. However, he is expected to interact extensively with faculty at the university’s Rodgers Center for Holocaust Education and with students in Chapman’s three Holocaust courses and related classes, Chapman spokeswoman Mary Platt said.
According to a Chapman news release, Wiesel noted that “On my two visits to Chapman University I was profoundly impressed by the quality of the students and faculty … and by the way the university is teaching and remembering some of the most tragic events in human history, events that have had such a deep influence upon my life.”
Chapman is located in Orange, some 45 miles south of Los Angeles, and was founded in 1861 by members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). During the 1920s, while located in Los Angeles, it was known as the California Christian College.
Wiesel, the author of “Night” and 50 other books, first visited Chapman five years ago to participate in the dedication of the university’s Sala and Aron Samueli Holocaust Memorial Library. On the occasion, the university unveiled the Wiesel bust.