[Jerusalem Post] Haviv Rettig - One of the weathervanes of consensus among American Jews is its senior political umbrella, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Composed of 51 organizations, the Conference represents the broadest consensus among organized American Jewry. Each year, the Conference visits a country in order to meet its leaders and lobby them on issues relevant to American Jewry. The list of recent visits includes Qatar, Azerbaijan, the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Turkey, and, this year, Georgia. "Georgia is a pro-U.S. and pro-Israel country that has resisted anti-Semitism for 2,600 years," explains Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents. More than anything else this visit will be about Iran. "Iran is on the agenda everywhere we go. These countries, which are closer to Iran, feel it more, the possibility that Iran will go nuclear," said Hoenlein. "We'll say that Iran is a leading state sponsor of terrorism, that it's a barbaric regime that executes people in barbaric ways."
2008-02-13 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive