News Brief

The Zionist Organization of America launched an effort to get Condoleezza Rice not to promote Palestinian statehood. The ZOA published a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and other newspapers a month before the U.S. secretary of state convenes a conference aimed at creating a Palestinian state. It outlines in two tablets what the ZOA says are the “Ten Commandments” of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah Party. The “commandments” quote what the ad purports to be the Fatah constitution’s call for armed struggle against Israel and its rejection of Israel’s existence. “Before discussions begin at the November conference, Abbas must first change his pro-terrorist and genocidal constitution against Israel, and fulfill the Palestinians’ commitments under the Oslo and road-map agreements — including arresting terrorists, confiscating terrorist weapons, and ending the incitement of hatred and murder in the PA-controlled media, mosques, schools and youth camps,” the ad says. The ad comes as two members of the U.S. Congress, Reps. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) and Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the minority whip, have introduced a non-binding resolution calling on Abbas to revoke the offensive language in the alleged constitution. Experts on Fatah say they have been unable to track such a document. In an interview with Americans for Peace Now, Nathan Brown, an expert on Palestinian legal issues at George Washington University, says the document originally appeared on www.fateh.net. That Web site is no longer active.

Brown says it is unclear that it was a genuine Fatah Web site or that there is an actual Fatah constitution. Fatah’s current site, www.fateh.ps, does not have the document in question. Brown says Abbas does not have the power to revoke a constitution; that would fall to a party congress. The movement is in the process of convening such a congress, he said.

Argentina’s new president likely will not change government policies toward the Jewish community. The victory by current first lady and senator Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in national elections Sunday will be a continuation of official policies regarding Jewish interests, according to Aldo Donzis, president of the DAIA, Argentina’s Jewish umbrella organization. The government of her husband, Nestor Kirschner, was active in seeking justice for the terrorist attack on the Jewish community building in Buenos Aires in 1994, and initiated projects to fight anti-Semitism, discrimination and xenophobia. The first lady and now president-elect was active in these efforts, according to Donzis. On Monday morning, with 97 percent of the election results calculated, Fernandez de Kirchner had garnered 45 percent of the vote. She needed at least 40 percent to avoid a runoff. In the capital city of Buenos Aires, where most of the Jewish community resides, she received 23 percent of the vote.