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Highlights from Sebastian Kurz's Keynote Speech on EU-Israel Relations and Jewish Life in Europe
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Launch of AJC-Inspired “Community of Conscience” Coalition
Twelve prominent Polish community leaders launched the AJC-inspired “Community of Conscience – A Coalition of Mutual Respect,” an interfaith group that aims to fight discrimination against religious, ethnic, and cultural minorities. At the virtual launch ceremony, AJC Central Europe Acting Director Sebastian Rejak, who last year initiated the process to establish the group, said: “Truth and righteousness are like a symphony: many voices, many experiences together form a new whole – a harmony that we hope will transform people’s minds and hearts.”
The Abraham Accords’ ‘Side Deals’
The U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords achieved even more than the historic establishment of diplomatic relations between Israel and three Arab nations. Jason Isaacson, AJC’s Chief Policy and Political Affairs Officer, argues in Newsweek that the agreement’s critical ‘side deals’ ought to be honored. Both the $23 billion sale of F-35 warplanes to Abu Dhabi and U.S. recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over the Western Sahara – with Sahrawi autonomy – will bolster ties with and among these critical allies to promote regional stability, counter extremist forces and address human needs.
Iran Nuclear Talks: 2021 Is Not 2015
Resuming contacts with Iran has become an early foreign policy priority for the Biden administration and Europe. AJC CEO David Harris offers in his latest piece in The Times of Israel six recommendations for any future negotiations with Tehran. Since last year’s Abraham Accords the Middle East has undergone a fundamental shift. Consulting closely with America’s Sunni allies and Israel, President Biden can now rectify the JCPOA’s shortcomings on regional aggression, ballistic missiles, inspections, and the accord’s dangerous sunset clauses, which give the regime a patient pathway to nuclear threshold capability.
Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) Discuss U.S. Policy on Iran
Over 40 legislators, diplomats, and officials from Europe, North America, and Israel gathered for an exclusive Transatlantic Friends of Israel (TFI) online discussion on the Biden administration’s policy on Iran. Speakers included Rep. Ted Deutch, Chair of the US House Subcommittee on Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism, MEPs Anna Fotyga and TFI Chair Lukas Mandl, both members of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, and Mark Dubowitz, CEO of the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Reality Check: Israel, the Palestinians, and COVID Vaccines
Israel is the world’s front-runner on COVID vaccine distribution. It didn’t take long for libelous accusations to surface that the Jewish state deliberately neglected the Palestinians even though the Oslo Accords gave the Palestinian Authority sole responsibility for health care and Ramallah never asked for Israeli help. In this Times of Israel opinion piece, AJC CEO David Harris takes on the journalists, members of Congress, and activists who are propagating falsehoods about Israel and sets the record straight about the Palestinian vaccination program.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day
The AJC Transatlantic Institute partnered with the Mission of Israel to the EU and NATO and the European office of the Konrad Adenaeur Stiftung (KAS) on an online ceremony to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Marking 76 years since the liberation of Auschwitz, European Commission Vice President Margaritis Schinas delivered a powerful address, underscoring the need for Europe to not only remember the horrors of the Shoah but also address all forms of antisemitism. Concluding the moving speech, the Vice President lit a personal memorial candle with the name of one of the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust.
AJC Welcomes EC Handbook for Antisemitism Working Definition
Paris -- January 08, 2021 - AJC Europe welcomes the European Commission’s publication of the Handbook for the Practical Use of the IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism. This new publication offers clear guidance and examples of how the definition is already being used throughout Europe by ...
Two Americans in Paris: A Debate on Race, Identity, and the Fight Against Radical Islam
The American press has been accused of grossly misrepresenting the French political reality, including the concept of laïcité and President Macron’s campaign against radical Islam. Watch this spirited debate on race, identity, and the fight against radical Islam with James McAuley, Paris correspondent for The Washington Post, and Thomas Chatterton Williams, Paris-based contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine, moderated by AJC’s Simone Rodan-Benzaquen.
AJC Condemns EU Court Ruling on Religious Slaughter
Brussels, 17 December 2020 - The AJC Transatlantic Institute condemned today’s decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to effectively ban ritual and kosher slaughter.
“We are shocked by the EU Court of Justice decision, which is nothing less than a frontal...
Have the Transatlantic Stars Aligned on Iran?
Europe and the U.S. have been bitterly divided these past four years on how to counter Iran’s regional and nuclear aggression. Writing in Newsweek, AJC Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal argues that U.S. President-elect Joe Biden now has a unique opportunity to forge a united transatlantic front against Tehran. Germany’s sudden call for a robust follow-up deal to the JCPOA and France’s public censure of the regime for its murder of the journalist Ruhollah Zam are promising signs.