In a hearing last week in the case against Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, two former AIPAC staffers, Judge T.S. Ellis of the U.S. District Court in Alexandria ruled in favor of government arguments that recordings and transcripts of tapped conversations involving the defendants include material that would be harmful to the national interest if revealed. Ellis said he would determine what material the defense can use and what material it can not access.

Rosen's lawyer said that despite the ruling, Ellis showed sensitivity to the defense's concerns. "We're pleased that the court understands the complexities involved in providing our clients with the right to a fair trial in the midst of all these classified procedures," Abbe Lowell said.

Because the process of determining what material the defense may see is likely to be long and involved, Ellis pushed back the trial date from early January to April 25.

Protesting budget cuts, but not tax cuts

Several Jewish organizations are reaching out to lawmakers hoping to minimize budget cuts that could hurt the bottom line for numerous Jewish social service programs, but many are avoiding a related fight over tax cuts.

Jewish leaders privately acknowledge that pressure to avoid addressing the five-year, $70 billion tax cut being debated in Congress this year stems from prominent Republican donors in the Jewish community. A plea from the Reform movement last week against the tax cuts was notable for the lack of signatories.

"A number of organizations were not comfortable with the language on tax cuts," said Mark Pelavin, associate director of the movement's Religious Action Center, which initiated the letter to members of Congress.

"After investing billions in the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, many in Congress now say that the federal government must now tighten its belt," the letter said. "We certainly understand the need for fiscal responsibility. However, any claims to fiscal prudence on the part of budget reconciliation's proponents are undermined by the $70 billion in tax cuts proposed alongside the spending reductions."

The RAC letter was circulated to numerous Jewish groups, but only a few major groups signed on, including B'nai B'rith International and the National Council of Jewish Women.

Notably absent among signatories to the RAC letter were two groups actively engaged in poverty and social service issues ‹ the United Jewish Communities federation umbrella organization and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.

Stephan Kline, UJC's director of government affairs, said the federation system has not taken a position on tax cuts in recent years. Instead, he said, the organization is focusing primarily on eliminating an expansion of rules governing the transfer of assets.

Under the proposed law, Medicaid applicants would be barred from receiving coverage for five years after transferring assets; the current law stipulates a three-year period.

JCPA is lobbying to preserve several programs, including the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and the Supplemental Security Income for poor, elderly and disabled people.

Israel aid approved

House and Senate conferees have approved $2.5 billion in assistance for Israel. The approval last week in a voice vote returns the full foreign-operations package to both houses of Congress for final approval before it goes to President George W. Bush for his signature. The package keeps funding to Israel at current levels, but the final votes ‹ likely to take place next week ‹ still could cut foreign aid by an across-the-board percentage because of the cost of recent hurricanes.

The legislation includes an additional $40 million in refugee resettlement assistance for Israel, money that helps absorb Ethiopian Jews, and cuts up to $75 million annually in administrative costs related to the aid, provisions that were included at the behest of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

The package also preserves $150 million in assistance to the Palestinians, as requested by Bush, though the money is subject to tough congressional oversight. Also left untouched is $1.8 billion in assistance to Egypt, despite attempts in Congress to decrease the portion of aid that goes to Egyptian military spending and increase the amount used to encourage democracy.

Praise, suggestion

for U.N.

Sixty members of the House of Representatives are commending United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan for "swiftly rejecting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's virulent and unprovoked threats against Israel."

In a letter to Annan spearheaded by Reps. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.) and Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the members of Congress also told Annan that the U.N. also must "formally respond as an institution and consider all appropriate recourses to rebuke Iran for its actions."

Among the signatories on the letter, all but four of whom were Democrats, were Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Ben Cardin (D-Md.).

Bush told Jews

are 'bellwether'

President George W. Bush heard from Jewish leaders about Latin America's Jewish community on Sunday. In a meeting in Brazil, leaders of the World Jewish Congress and the region's Jewish community stressed to Bush, who has been promoting democracy in the area, that the way Jews are treated can be "a kind of barometer, a bellwether of when things are going badly in South America," said Rabbi Israel Singer, the WJC's chairman.

Singer took part in the meeting along with Jack Terpins, president of the Latin American Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Henry Sobel, leader of Sao Paulo's Congregacao Israelita Paulista, the largest synagogue in Latin America.

Jewish Dems thank Rice

Three Jewish Democrats in Congress are asking colleagues to sign a letter thanking Condoleezza Rice for helping advance Magen David Adom's cause at the International Red Cross. The secretary of state has been instrumental in opening discussions to create the red diamond, a third, neutral symbol that non-Christian and non-Muslim nations can use in addition to the Red Cross and Red Crescent.

"Your personal engagement on this issue has been extremely important and is most appreciated," says the letter circulated by Reps. Eliot Engel and Gary Ackerman of New York and Henry Waxman of California.

Appealing passport policy

Oral arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning at the U.S. Court of Appeals' D.C. Circuit on a case challenging the State Department's refusal to list Israel as a birthplace on passports for American citizens born in Jerusalem.

Represented by Washington lawyers Nathan and Alyza Lewin, the Zivotofsky family, in Menachem Binyamin Zivotofsky v. the Secretary of State, will argue that the district court erred in declaring that the family had no standing to sue because their 2-year-old suffered no injury when Jerusalem instead of Israel was listed as his place of birth.

The Zivotofskys argue that U.S. passport policy is biased, since American citizens born in any other country are permitted to list that country as their place of birth, and an Arab American born in Tel Aviv can choose to have the city or Israel listed as a birthplace.

‹ by Eric Fingerhut, with reports from Matthew Berger and Ron Kampeas of JTA