LA Jews, Muslims open dialogue
Initiative aimed to get Jewish, Muslim leaders to 'see other as friend'
The Journal noted that previous attempts at fostering a good relationship between Jewish and Muslim leaders, launched in the 1990s following the Oslo Accords, was torpedoed by events in the Middle East and finished off by the 9/11 terror attacks .
"Local Jewish-Muslim relations, seen for a brief moment as a paragon of interfaith cooperation, continued to deteriorate to such an extent that a few months ago, much of the organized Jewish community united to protest the honoring of MPAC founder, Dr. Maher Hathout, with a prestigious award from the Los Angeles County Human Relations Commission," the Jewish Journal said in its report.
"When the two groups join together, they will discuss issues ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to immigration to homelessness," the report added.
Aziza Hasan, MPAC interfaith program coordinator, said the program was designed to "encourage a new cadre of Jewish and Muslim leaders to see the 'other' as a friend."
UK: MPACUK described as 'evil face of Islam'
Meanwhile, in Britain , a Zionist leader has described the Muslim Public Affairs Committee in the UK (MPACUK) as "the evil face of Islam," the Jewish Telegraph, which covers northern England and Scotland, reported.
"This is probably one of the most evil public faces of Islam in this country," the Telegraph quoted Leeds Zionist Federation chairman Phillip Margolis as saying.
"Their website preaches hatred of Jews and Zionists and attacks Muslims who do not agree with their extreme points of view," he added.
In the past, the MPACUK website has used materials taken from neo-Nazi websites.
Margolis was reacting to an MPACUK event in Leeds aimed at "empowering Muslims with the tools to be effective in challenging Islamophobia."
US troops surge is 'worry for Israel'
The US's "faltering" attempts to win its war in Iraq are creating alarm among some American-Jewish lawmakers who believe the American efforts are harming Israel's security, New York's Jewish Week said in a report.
One analyst said the American-Jewish community was worried by a perceived lack of an answer from Washington to the Iranian threat, the Jwish Week said.
"Israelis and the American Jewish community are very concerned about Washington's total ineptitude in coming up with a strategy on Iran," Gilbert Kahn, a Kean University political scientist, told the Jewish Week, which also quoted him as saying: "The Jewish community may be holding its powder on the Iraq issue in the hopes it can demand more assertiveness on Iran. Right now, US policy is just a babble of words."
The report added, however, that Jewish leaders did not want to be seen as "cheerleading" for a conflict with Tehran.
One pro-Israel lobbyist said in the report that America 's failed Iraq war could lead Washington to "prod" Israel into "doing its dirty work," in order to distract attention away from Iraq.
