News Brief

The European Union should find a way to talk to Hamas, said France’s foreign minister.

Bernard Kouchner spoke about the challenges facing the Middle East in a wide-ranging public interview Tuesday with Roger Cohen of the The International Herald Tribune during the opening of the Forum for New Diplomacy in Paris.

Though the EU has refused to have contact with Hamas since it is a terrorist organization, Kouchner said he hoped the EU would find a way to talk to Hamas.

“I’m looking for a diplomatic way to say yes,” he said during the conversation.

Kouchner also said he was in favor of Hamas and Fatah holding unity talks.

During the interview, Kouchner said that the United States’ image and standing overseas has taken a beating over the ongoing Iraq war and that “the magic is over.”

A global series of simultaneous pro-Israel rallies are planned for Purim night.

The solidarity rallies on March 20 will be presented live on the Internet by the sponsoring organization, One Family Fund, which supports victims of terrorism. A Web site (www.together4israel.org) created for the event will allow the public to participate.

Alan Dershowitz, the well-known American lawyer, and Irwin Cotler, a member of the Canadian Parliament and a human rights expert, will begin the event from Sderot with residents of the rocket-plagued town.

“The world needs to know that Jews everywhere support Israel’s right to defend itself,” Dershowitz said. “We’re starting in Sderot because the people there live under a constant barrage of Kassam rockets, but our message is that terror cannot be tolerated from anyone.”

The rally will then move to Jerusalem, where psalms will be read at the Western Wall. At the same time there will be a gathering in London followed by rallies in New York City at the Kehilat Jeshuran synagogue, in Los Angeles at the Simon Wiesenthal Center and finally in Australia.