Physicist Stephen Hawking Joins Academic Boycott Against Israel

Stephen W. Hawking, the physicist and cosmologist, has pulled out of a highprofile conference to be held in Israel during June in order to support an academic boycott of Israel. Hawking, who is also a cosmologist, astronomer, and mathematician, is the author of books including the best-seller, “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes.”

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Obama in Israel: Jewish State Has Right to Exist

Wrapping up his three-day visit to Israel, President Obama paid respects to its heroes and to victims of the Holocaust, solemnly reaffirm-ing the Jewish state’s right to exist. Accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, Obama laid wreaths at the graves of Theodor Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism who died in 1904 before realizing his dream of a Jewish homeland, and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, who was assassinated in 1995.

The president also toured the Yad Vashem Holocaust [photo] memorial, declaring after that the memorial illustrates the depravity to which man can sink but also serves as a reminder of the “righteous among nations who refused to be bystanders.”

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Biden Reassures AIPAC on Iran

Vice President Joe Biden tried to end any questions pro-Israel activists have about President Barack Obama’s commitment to do-ing whatever is necessary to block Iran’s nuclear program.

Obama’s policy “is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nucle-ar weapon. Period. End of discussion,” Biden told at-tendees at the recent American-Israel Public Affairs Council annu-al conference in Washington. “Prevent — not contain — prevent,” Biden added emphatically. “Big nations can’t bluff and presidents of the United States cannot and do not bluff and President Barack Obama is not bluffing,” Biden declared, in what he said was a pre-view of remarks Obama will make during his planned trip to Israel. “We are not looking for war [but] all options, including military force, are on the table,” Biden said.

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