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Jewish leaders say that the Palestinian-Israeli battles ravaging the Middle East have sparked the most intense wave of assaults on Jews and Jewish institutions worldwide since World War II. According to a December 6 Associated Press story, the Los Angeles-based Simon Weisenthal Center reports that more than 50 synagogues have been attacked in France recently, with other assaults on synagogues taking place in Germany, Great Britain, Australia, and throughout North America. Elie Wiesel, Nobel laureate and BU's Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities, says, "It's all over Europe. In France, in Germany, in England, and it is here, too. Especially in Europe; they don't speak of the Israelis. They speak of the Jews." Wiesel also said that in spite of the fact that since World War II outbreaks of anti-Jewish violence have occurred previously during oil crises and the first Palestinian uprisings in the 1980s, "it is much more violent, more concrete, more concentrated now."

Another storm is brewing in the seemingly endless election hurricane in Florida. This time, it is not over absentee ballots or court decisions; it is about the makeup Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris wears. And her outfits. And her false eyelashes. The December 7 Washington Post reports how some media and entertainment figures have put the election results on the back burner of national discussion and shone a spotlight on Harris' image. Reaction to the criticism against Harris has been just as strong and vocal. On the Web site womensnews.com, COM Journalism Professor Caryl Rivers writes: "When women reach middle age and finally have a crack at power and influence, they are struck by the pervasive double standard of aging. Men can look like unmade beds and gain in gravitas while women are judged ruthlessly on their looks and often silenced."

The Post's ombudsman, Michael Getler, responds to journalists' comments on Harris' appearance by stating that it is an example of the arrogance of newswriters that undermines people's confidence in the media, and that mocking someone's appearance is not something that newspapers should do.

A December 4 story in the Boston Herald reports that even if Vice President Al Gore had won the court battle and ultimately a victory in Florida, he still could be the odd man out when Congress counts the electoral ballots. CAS Political Science Professor Michael Corgan says, "If [the count] goes to Congress, it gets to decide the qualifications of the electors. I don't see how Gore can win this one, I really don't." Corgan also says that the way the Constitution is written, it is unclear if the winner is the one who holds the majority of the remaining electors or if the winner still has to achieve the majority of the 538-member Electoral College. "If you can't get a majority for president out of the electors," explains Corgan, "the House of Representatives gets to choose the president." The "fun part" about this scenario, he says, would be in the Senate's election of the vice president. If the Senate is split 50-50, the deciding vote would come from the sitting vice president - Gore. Corgan says, "You could come up with a scenario where Bush could be the president and Lieberman could be vice president. It could happen if the Senate votes along party lines. Lieberman would then become the most ignored vice president in U.S. history."

"In The News" is compiled by Mark Toth in the Office of Public Relations.

15 December 2000
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