Obama and Allies Agree to Exclude Russia from Group of 8

President Obama and the leaders of the biggest Western economies have agreed to exclude President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia from the Group of 8, suspending his government’s 15-year participation in the diplomatic forum and further isolating his country. In a joint the leaders of seven nations announced that a summit meeting planned for Sochi, Russia, in June will now be held in Brussels—without Russia’s participation. “This group came together because of shared beliefs and shared responsibilities. Russia’s actions in recent weeks are not consistent with them,” the statement said. ‘Under these circumstances, we will not participate in the planned Sochi Summit. We will suspend our participation in the G-8 until Russia changes course.”

Israelis, Palestinians Endorse Arab Peace Plan

Jerusalem (AP)—A newly formed group of Israeli and Palestinian politicians has urged the Arab League to renew a comprehensive peace offer to Israel, saying such a gesture would give a much-needed boost to troubled U.S.-backed peace talks. The group called on the Arab League to make a bold statement at its summit in Kuwait this week, saying this would pressure negotiators to consider the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. The landmark plan offered Israel peace with dozens of Arab and Muslim countries in exchange for a withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Known as the Prague Forum, the group consists of Israelis, Palestinians, and other Arab parliamentarians.

Israeli and Palestinian Business Leaders Join Forces

According to the Jerusalem Post, some 200 Israeli and 150 Palestinian business people and civil society leaders have been in long-term dialogue to support political leaders in their aim to reach a two-state solution to the conflict between the State of Israel and the Palestinian people. Four members of Breaking The Impasse, a group of Palestinian and Israeli business people, came to the Jerusalem Press Club recently to explain the benefits to the region if peace is attained and two states lived side by side with mutual respect and cooperation. Stefan Borgas, president and CEO of Israel Chemicals, said he was convinced that if implemented, the two-state solution will stabilize the region, facilitate travel and business exchanges, and open up the Arab world to Israel. It will create new opportunities for all the countries in the region.

EU Ready to Pay Palestinians Who Renounce Right of Return

According to the Times of Israel, the European Union is willing to provide financial compensation for Palestinian refugees and their descendants who renounce their “right of return” in a final peace deal with Israel. Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen, the EU ambassador to Israel, also said that Brussels would be willing to significantly upgrade commercial and trade cooperation with both sides if a peace partnership is signed. That could help stabilize the new Palestinian state, thus preventing a “failed state” that would become a “launching pad” for attacks against Israel, he said.

Body of Missing Father of Seven Found Inside His Car in Upstate New York

Peretz Sontag, 50, of Pomona in suburban Rockland County, was found dead by a hiker in Harriman State Park. The cause of death is not known. Sontag had been missing since March 14 after making references to harming himself before he left home that day, according to reports. Hundreds of volunteers had searched the area, including the park, during the 10 days that he was missing. A friend of Sontag’s told the Journal News that Sontag was upset about a failing business, and that he and his family had returned to the United States from Israel due to financial difficulties.

Hillary Woos the Jews

At a lifetime achievement ceremony, Obama’s former secretary of state defended her policy toward Israel, but also gave verbal support to the Jewish State while many have complained that her old boss did not. Dinner at the American Jewish Congress gala at Cipriani in midtown Manhattan was a thick slice of brisket covered in gravy. The cut was nearly as thick as the encomiums delivered from the dais to Hillary Clinton, the recipient of the evening’s lifetime achievement award. In her more than 20-minute remarks, Clinton left little doubt that she would create distance between herself and Obama in foreign policy should she seek the presidency in 2016, while also issuing the kind of robust verbal support of the Jewish state that some Jewish leaders have felt was lacking in the current administration. “In Israel’s story we see our own,” Clinton told the nearly 400 people assembled. “Israel is more than a country, it is a dream nurtured for generations and made real by men and women who refused to bow to the toughest of odds.”

Spielberg to honor Obama at Shoah Foundation Event

Steven Spielberg will present U.S. President Barack Obama with the USC Shoah Foundation’s highest award, the organization recently announced. The president will be honored by the “Schindler’s List” director as Ambassador for Humanity at the foundation’s 20th anniversary gala event, which will take place in Los Angeles on May 7. “President Obama’s commitment to democracy and human rights has long been felt,” Spielberg said in the announcement. The president’s recent appointment of the first special envoy for Holocaust Survivor Services in United States history demonstrates his staunch commitment to honoring the past while building a better future.”

Top Form

The Jerusalem Municipality has initiated a project to aid the city’s 19,000 Holocaust survivors, with the help of some 1,400 volunteers from across the capital. Condemning the low standard of living and high poverty rates of survivors living in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat called the initiative sacred work. “The Jerusalem Municipality has initiated this important project because it is our moral and human commitment to do all we can to ensure all Holocaust survivor receive proper assistance and have the honor and welfare they so deserve. I want to thank all those who are helping.” According to the mayor, the volunteers have already made contact with the thousands of Holocaust survivors to help them complete and submit applications to ensure they receive the financial aid, disability and welfare benefits they are entitled. As part of the initiative, the municipality is also establishing multiple social centers for survivors, distributing computers to their homes and sending volunteers to chronicle their harrowing stories.

His Story of the Jews

How can one man, or even one documentary, tell the entire story of a group of nearly 14 million people? For Simon Schama, whose new documentary The Story of the Jews elaborates on the complicated history and culture of the Jewish people, it is a matter of looking at trends and misconceptions and using this to build toward a healthy future. Jewish history has been co-opted in many ways, often relegated to the Holocaust-onward and mired in debates on Zionism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But Schama is taking things back a few thousand years to look at some of the most fundamental trends in Jewish history. “The Jewish story is the story of wandering,” Schama says. “It is the story of extraordinary heterogeneous complication.”

“The argument…between those who want a peace with Palestinians…; who want side by side a Jewish state and a Palestinian state are those who feel that the story of the Jews is about finding a place to live with people who are not like you.” This long-standing value, Schama says, gets lost among Orthodox Jews, who the historian believes are “in denial about what the complicated reality of Judaism, as well as Jewish culture, has been.”

Bergen County Exec’s Race

The ongoing legal battle related to the proposed merger of the Bergen County Police Department and the county’s Sheriff’s Office took another twist last week when County Executive Kathleen Donovan, the Republican incumbent seeking re-election in November, attempted to add an ethics complaint against two Democratic freeholders into the police merger lawsuit. Donovan has struggled with the freeholder board over plans to merge the two offices. Donovan is opposed to the plan, while the majority of the freeholder board, now controlled by the Democrats by a 5-2 veto-proof margin, supports the move. The final decision depends on the outcome of ongoing legal battles related to the merger proposal.

Top Dem Questions Christie Lawyers’ Internal Probe That Clears Governor

The team of lawyers Governor Christie hired to handle his administration’s probe of the September lane closures at the George Washington Bridge is going to clear him of any direct involvement, a newspaper reported Monday, drawing immediate praise from the governor’s office and new skepticism from lawmakers conducting their own investigation. A story published in The New York Times and quoting the New York-based attorney leading the probe Christie launched in January is the first hint of evidence to back Christie’s claims that he played no role in the lane-closure plot carried out by a top aide and his appointees at the Port Authority. The story, which included comments from the governor’s communications director, came during a lull in the scandal that threatens Christie’s 2016 presidential ambitions. State lawmakers are awaiting a judge’s ruling on whether three key Christie allies will have to comply with the subpoenas their investigative committee issued several weeks ago. Federal investigators, meanwhile, are conducting their own probe, which has involved subpoenas sent to the governor’s office in Trenton.

NJ Lawmaker Introducing Bill to Legalize Marijuana

If a New Jersey lawmaker has his way, adults in the state would be able to buy up to an ounce of marijuana and grow their own plants all while the state takes its cut in taxes. That’s the plan from Sen. Nicholas Scutari, D-Union, who said too many people were carrying around criminal convictions that carried permanent consequences because of petty marijuana laws. The bill he introduced Monday would legalize marijuana possession and use for those who are at least 21 years old. There is strong opposition from Governor Christie.