News reports suggest the U.S. administration is considering a historic decision to redefine who is and is not a Palestinian “refugee.” I hope the reports are true. A change is long overdue and could actually help the search for peace long-term.
In 2014, Israel and China established the Joint Committee for Innovation Cooperation (JCIC), a mechanism for government-to-government interaction to promote innovation cooperation in a variety of fields. Vice President Wang was in Israel this week to co-host the fourth meeting of the JCIC – which convenes annually, alternating between Beijing and Jerusalem – together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He was also the guest of honor at the prime minister’s Innovation Summit and at the grand opening of an innovation section of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation.
Syria and Iran are entwined tighter than an intricately woven Persian carpet. Unless Syrian President Bashar Assad has a change of heart and decides to expel Iranian forces, his most treasured foreign guests are staying.
Today, AJC maintains a formal partnership agreement with the Union of Jewish Religious Communities in Poland, and AJC’s Warsaw-based Shapiro Silverberg Central Europe Office and Brussels-based Transatlantic Institute engage regularly with Polish officials.
The opening of the Shapiro Silverberg Central Europe Office in Warsaw in March 2017 afforded AJC the opportunity to strengthen its friendship with Slovakia and its people.