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Daybreak: Sanctions Bill Passed

Plus the all-religions yeshiva, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
June 25, 2010
Brooklyn’s Hebrew Language Academy.(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/nyregion/25hebrew.html?ref=nyregion)
Brooklyn’s Hebrew Language Academy.(http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/25/nyregion/25hebrew.html?ref=nyregion)

• The Senate and House both passed a reconciled Iran Sanctions Act by overwhelming margins, setting it up for President Obama’s expected signature. AIPAC and J Street praised the votes. More on the soon-to-be law later today. [Laura Rozen]

• Israeli President Shimon Peres argued that the rest of the world should engage with Hamas to press it to renounce terrorism. [WP]

• The Hebrew Language Academy, in Midwood, Brooklyn, is a state-sponsored charter school with many trappings of a yeshiva yet a totally diverse student body, including plenty of Nation of Islam adherents who now can chant Hebrew. [NYT]

• For the first time since the flotilla incident, Israeli planes hit Gaza spots, targeting a weapons cache and smugging tunnels. The strike came a day after a rocket was launched from Gaza into Israel. There were no casualties from either operation. [Haaretz]

• The U.S. State Department took a stand against sea-bound attempts at sending aid to Gaza. “Mechanisms exist,” a statement read. [JTA/Forward]

• The issue of Aharon Barak—the “activist” former Israeli chief justice whom Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has in the past praised—is quickly ballooning into a major potental obstacle on her path to confirmation. Which is both funny and ridiculous. [NYT]

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.