Terrorism sponsors who fly in for the UN General Assembly. In the decades since the UN’s establishment, we’ve put up with—among others—Muammar Gadhafi, the deceased Libyan dictator, Robert Mugabe, the mass-murderer who still presides over Zimbabwe, and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former Iranian president and notorious Holocaust denier. We do so because, as a civilized participant in the international community, we are compelled to take a deep breath and respect the very same principles of diplomacy that the Iranian regime violated so obscenely when it stormed our embassy in Tehran.
As the State Department’s lawyers deliberate over Aboutalebi’s visa application, hopefully they will bear two key points prominently in mind. Firstly, that former President Jimmy Carter, in his State of the Union address in 1980, categorized the hostage crisis as an act of international terrorism. Secondly, that Aboutalebi, by his own admission, was present at the embassy with other leaders of the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line, the terrorist group behind the hostage taking.

As we get older, we begin to worry about the possibility that we may get sick and end up in a nursing home. Paying for a nursing home can drastically reduce a person’s savings. In New York, the average cost of nursing home care is a little more than $75,000 per year. The cost of better nursing home care is upwards of $170,000 a year.

The fourth of Iyar, the day before Israel’s Independence Day, was declared by the Israeli Knesset to be a Memorial Day for those who lost their lives in the struggle that led to the establishment of the State of Israel and for all military personnel who were killed while in active duty in Israel’s armed forces. Joining these two days together conveys a simple message: Israelis owe the independence and the very existence of the Jewish state to the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for it.

The situation of Jews in Ukraine, and in France; growing anti-Semitism in Europe; the boycott campaign against Israel; and the upcoming 20th anniversary of the AMIA center bombing in Argentina were among the topics discussed by the members of the Executive Committee of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in Paris. The meeting was chaired by WJC President Ronald S. Lauder.