World Briefs

State Ousted Clarke Because of Israel

The first Bush administration forced Richard Clarke out of the State Department in 1992 because it said he ignored Israeli arms transfers to China. Clarke, a White House counterterrorism expert at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, rattled the White House this week with allegations that the current President Bush ignored Clarke’s warnings about Al Qaeda. Clarke moved to the White House in 1992 after leaving the State Department after its inspector general accused him of “looking the other way” when Israel transferred U.S. technology to China, The New York Times reported Wednesday. In 1999, Clarke argued that he had simply refused to go along with a plan to set up Israel in order to pressure it to make concessions in talks with the Palestinians.

Anti-Semitic Attacks Unchanged

More than 1,500 anti-Semitic incidents were reported nationwide in 2003. The Anti-Defamation League’s (ADL) annual Audit of Anti-Semitic Incidents tracked 1,557 reports of Jews or Jewish institutions being targeted, with 40 percent involving vandalism and the rest harassment or threats. New York led 43 states that suffered anti-Semitic acts — 364 followed by California and Pennsylvania. The highest reports of anti-Semitic incidents typically correlate with the states with the most Jews. The frequency of anti-Semitic incidents was slightly higher than in 2001.

“There’s good news that it stayed the same, and bad news that it stayed the same,” ADL National Director Abraham Foxman said. “The levels continue to be disturbing and unacceptable.”

The full audit is available at “>www.scopusfilms.com/haggadah .

Briefs courtesy Jewish Telegraphic Agency.