Trump visit causing problems in Israel
JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister on Wednesday rejected Donald Trump’s recent statements about Muslims, saying Israel “respects all religions” as he faced calls to call off an upcoming visit by the Republican front-runner.
Benjamin Netanyahu issued his statement late Wednesday, hours after it was announced that Trump will be visiting Israel at the end of the month.
“The state of Israel respects all religions and strictly guarantees the rights of all its citizens,” the statement said. “At the same time, Israel is fighting against militant Islam that targets Muslims, Christians and Jews alike and threatens the entire world.”
Netanyahu said the meeting with Trump, set for Dec. 28, was scheduled two weeks ago.
He said he meets all presidential candidates who visit the country, and the meeting does not represent an endorsement of Trump.
FBI: Shooters were radicalized for 2 years
WASHINGTON – The two San Bernardino shooters were radicalized at least two years ago and had discussed jihad and martyrdom as early as 2013, one year before they married, FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday.
Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee that investigators believe that Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, were radicalized even before they began their online relationship and that Malik held extremist views before she arrived in the U.S. last year.
He told the panel that the two “as early as the end of 2013 were talking to each other about jihad and martyrdom before they became engaged and married and were living in the U.S.”
The disclosure means that Malik’s radicalization had already begun when she applied for a visa to come to the U.S. to get married, and that the government’s vetting process apparently failed to detect it.
Obama says he will sign education bill
WASHINGTON – Those federally mandated math and reading tests will continue, but a sweeping rewrite of the nation’s education law will now give states, not the U.S. government, authority to decide how to use the results in evaluating teachers and schools.
The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly, 85-12, to approve legislation rewriting the landmark No Child Left Behind education law of 2002. On Thursday, President Barack Obama will sign it into law.
One key feature of No Child remains: Public school students will still take the federally required statewide reading and math exams. But the new law encourages states to limit the time students spend on testing, and it will diminish the high stakes for underperforming schools.
Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who leads the Senate Education Committee, called the legislation a “Christmas present” for 50 million children.
Associated Press
