Tomorrow our President Shimon Peres will be meeting with President Obama to receive the “Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award will be presented at a gala event (he is evidently not the only one to get it) and we are proud for him. But for us another fact is important. Peres has said he will make personal efforts to persuade President Obama to commute the sentence of Jonathan Pollard who so many years ago gave Israel details of Iraq’s military powers (which did not hurt America or any Americans) and received a life sentence for his “spying”, a sentence much greater than any other American  ever received for a similar crime. This time we are all praying that his appeal will be granted.

A few lines now about Israel’s diplomatic service, because lately, especially in an effort to combat growing anti-Israel sentiments in Norway, the Foreign Ministry has appointed a Druze Arab as ambassador to Oslo, and as his deputy an Arab career diplomat (Naim Araudi) and they will be joined by a Christian Arab who is currently deputy ambassador to Nigeria. Hopefully this will give some idea about the real co-existance between Arabs and Jews in Israel.

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