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Daybreak: Madoff Charities Face Further Trouble

Passport stamps, tales of two birthrights, and more in the news

by
Marc Tracy
August 20, 2009

• Charities that lost money to Bernard Madoff could be subject to “clawback,” under which they will be required to return money they withdrew from their accounts with the financier even before his fraud became apparent. [Forward]
• The United States sharply criticized Israel’s practice of frequently not permitting tourists who enter the Palestinian territories to return to Israel or board flights at Ben-Gurion Airport. [JPost]
• The Taglit-Birthright Israel program hired a U.S. PR firm that has represented Girls Gone Wild and Fannie Mae, as well as several groups with right-wing views on Israel. [Forward]
• Meanwhile, the “Birthright Replugged” program, which is funded in part by the Carter Center, takes Palestinian children into Israel on tours of their ancestors’ old villages. [Haaretz]
• Israeli Arabs’ death rate is 1.5 times that of Israeli Jews, with cardiovascular disease a particularly disproportionate killer. [JPost]

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