Researchers successfully treat autism in infants: Playing games that infants prefer can lessen severity of symptoms

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Most infants respond to a game of peek-a-boo with smiles at the very least, and, for those who find the activity particularly entertaining, gales of laughter. For infants with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), however, the game can be distressing rather than pleasant, and they'll do their best to tune out all aspects of it -- and that includes the people playing with them.

That disengagement is a hallmark of ASD, and one of the characteristics that amplifies the disorder as infants develop into children and then adults.

A study conducted by researchers at the Koegel Autism Center at UC Santa Barbara has found that replacing such games in favor of those the infant prefers can actually lessen the severity of the infants' ASD symptoms, and, perhaps, alleviate the condition altogether. Their work is highlighted the current issue of the Journal of Positive Behavioral Interventions.

Lynn Koegel, clinical director of the center and the study's lead author, described the game-playing protocol as a modified Pivotal Response Treatment (PVT). Developed at UCSB, PRT is based on principles of positive motivation. The researchers identified the activities that seemed to be more enjoyable to the infants and taught the respective parents to focus on those rather than on the typical games they might otherwise choose. "We had them play with their infants for short periods, and then give them some kind of social reward," Koegel said. "Over time, we conditioned the infants to enjoy all the activities that were presented by pairing the less desired activities with the highly desired ones." The social reward is preferable to, say, a toy, Koegel noted, because it maintains the ever-crucial personal interaction.

"The idea is to get them more interested in people," she continued, "to focus on their socialization. If they're avoiding people and avoiding interacting, that creates a whole host of other issues. They don't form friendships, and then they don't get the social feedback that comes from interacting with friends."

According to Koegel, by the end of the relatively short one- to three-month intervention period, which included teaching the parents how to implement the procedures, all the infants in the study had normal reactions to stimuli. "Two of the three have no disabilities at all, and the third is very social," she said. "The third does have a language delay, but that's more manageable than some of the other issues."

On a large scale, Koegel hopes to establish some benchmark for identifying social deficits in infants so parents and health care providers can intervene sooner rather than later. "We have a grant from the Autism Science Foundation to look at lots of babies and try to really figure out which signs are red flags, and which aren't," she said. "A number of the infants who show signs of autism will turn out to be perfectly fine; but we're saying, let's not take the risk if we can put an intervention in play that really works. Then we don't have to worry about whether or not these kids would develop the full-blown symptoms of autism."

Historically, ASD is diagnosed in children 18 months or older, and treatment generally begins around 4 years. "You can pretty reliably diagnose kids at 18 months, especially the more severe cases," said Koegel. "The mild cases might be a little harder, especially if the child has some verbal communication. There are a few measures -- like the ones we used in our study -- that can diagnose kids pre-language, even as young as six months. But ours was the first that worked with children under 12 months and found an effective intervention."

Given the increasing number of children being diagnosed with ASD, Koegel's findings could be life altering -- literally. "When you consider that the recommended intervention for preschoolers with autism is 30 to 40 hours per week of one-on-one therapy, this is a fairly easy fix," she said. "We did a single one-hour session per week for four to 12 weeks until the symptoms improved, and some of these infants were only a few months old. We saw a lot of positive change."

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of California - Santa Barbara.

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Journal Reference:

1. L. K. Koegel, A. K. Singh, R. L. Koegel, J. R. Hollingsworth, J. Bradshaw. Assessing and Improving Early Social Engagement in Infants. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2013; DOI: 10.1177/1098300713482977

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/child_development/~3/Sre2VwSLjIQ/130430092511.htm

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France won't block U.S. proposal on Western Sahara: envoys

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France, Morocco's traditional protector on the U.N. Security Council, is unlikely to use its veto to block a U.S. proposal to have U.N. peacekeepers monitor human rights in the disputed territory of Western Sahara, envoys said.

The U.S. proposal was contained in a draft U.N. Security Council resolution Washington circulated to the so-called Group of Friends on Western Sahara, which includes the United States, France, Spain, Britain and Russia, U.N. diplomats said this week on condition of anonymity.

"We don't expect France will block," a diplomat from one of the Group of Friends countries said on condition of anonymity on Wednesday. The diplomat was confirming a French media report. Another U.N. diplomat on Thursday confirmed the remarks.

"It is between the U.S. and Morocco," the first envoy said.

The draft resolution is intended to extend the mandate of the U.N. mission in Western Sahara for another year. It was to be put to a vote in the Security Council this month.

France's Foreign Ministry said negotiations continued.

"We will decide when the time comes," a French diplomat said in Paris.

French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told reporters on Thursday, "We are ready to vote the American text if it is put on the table." He did not indicate how Paris would vote.

A "yes" vote or an abstention would allow the resolution to pass. Diplomats said Morocco, a temporary council member through the end of 2013, would probably vote against a resolution calling for rights monitoring in Western Sahara.

The idea of making U.N. human rights monitoring one of the tasks of the U.N. peacekeeping mission for Western Sahara, known as MINURSO, is something Morocco opposes but rights groups and the Polisario Front independence movement have long advocated.

France, Rabat's traditional protector on the 15-nation Security Council, in the past has been prepared to block such proposals. But that is no longer the case, diplomats said.

ANGRY RESPONSE FROM MOROCCO

The U.S. suggestion for a human rights monitoring component of MINURSO came after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council he advocated "sustained" independent human rights monitoring for the territory.

Morocco was annoyed by the U.S. proposal and canceled planned joint U.S.-Moroccan military exercises in response.

In U.N.-mediated talks, Rabat has tried to convince Polisario, which represents the Sahrawi people, to accept its plan for Western Sahara to be an autonomous part of Morocco.

Polisario instead proposes a referendum among ethnic Sahrawis that includes an option of independence, but there is no agreement between Morocco and Polisario on who should participate in any referendum.

No state recognizes Morocco's rule over Western Sahara but the Security Council is divided. Some non-aligned states back Polisario but France has supported Rabat.

Polisario accuses Morocco of routine human rights violations in Western Sahara and wants MINURSO to have the authority to conduct independent human rights monitoring.

In a report, Ban argued in favor of independent rights monitoring but offered no details on how it should be done.

"Given ongoing reports of human rights violations, the need for independent, impartial, comprehensive and sustained monitoring of the human rights situations in both Western Sahara and the (refugee) camps becomes ever more pressing," Ban said.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris and Michelle Nichols in New York; Editing by Doina Chiacu)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/france-wont-block-u-proposal-western-sahara-envoys-174650896.html

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PFT: Steelers could end up regretting Sanders deal

AP

Titans safety Bernard Pollard likes to talk.? But he won?t be doing any more talking about his most recent team and/or the reasons he no longer plays in Baltimore.

?As far as talking about any disappointments, I?m a Tennessee Titan now and I could really care less about that,? Pollard said, via John Glennon of the Tennessean.? ?I?ve talked about it too much and I?ve answered that question so many times, talking about mutiny and this and that and the Baltimore Ravens.

?Well you know what?? I?m no longer in Baltimore and I?m a Titan now.? [Titans] fans have embraced me.? They?ve been great.? For me, I?m ready to move on.? This is another chapter for me, and it?s going to be fun.?

Pollard previously complained about the perception that he was cut for voicing concerns in response to an invitation from coach John Harbaugh to do so.? As we understand it, however, Pollard?s comments in connection with the incident that a player described to Mike Silver of Yahoo! Sports as ?practically a mutiny? were just one example of Pollard?s habit of complaining too loudly and/or talking too much.

The situation landed on his new team?s radar screen.? ?By the time Bernard came in here, that had all been reported and addressed, but we all talked it over,? Titans G.M. Ruston Webster said, via Glennon.? ?I feel like we?re good there and we?ve covered our bases.? His positives for us would definitely outweigh the negatives.?

Pollard clearly has the ability.? The problem is that he eventually wears out his welcome ? as he did in Kansas City, Houston, and then Baltimore.? With the Titans desperate to win, a one-year gamble on a guy who can perform at a high level justifies the risk.? Especially since the controversy surrounding his departure from the Ravens could prompt Pollard to dial it back a bit.

Then again, Pollard already has no misgivings when it comes to addressing the link between new Titans assistant Gregg Williams and last year?s bounty scandal.

?I?m one of those guys that continues to say you don?t have to pay me to go out there and knock the [heck] out of somebody because that?s something I love doing anyway,? Pollard said.? ?If anything, the club is already paying me to do that.? I?m not saying the club is provoking us to go out there and hit anybody, but just to get things done and to make things happen.?

Pollard is definitely going to make things happen in Tennessee.? Some good, some maybe not so good.? The Titans believe that, for now, the balance will tip toward the things that will help the team win games.

Source: http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2013/04/14/barring-a-long-term-deal-steelers-will-regret-matching-sanders-offer/related/

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A country song, assumptions _ and a racial outcry

FILE - This combination of file photos shows Brad Paisley, left, in Hollywood, Calif. on Nov. 1, 2011 and LL Cool J in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2013. Southern white men don't usually drive racial dialogue. For as long as race has riven America, they have been depicted more often as the problem than the solution. So the country music star must have been unsurprised at the days of widespread criticism of his new song ?Accidental Racist,? which details the challenges facing a ?white man from the southland? and then features LL Cool J rapping a black perspective. (Photos by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - This combination of file photos shows Brad Paisley, left, in Hollywood, Calif. on Nov. 1, 2011 and LL Cool J in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2013. Southern white men don't usually drive racial dialogue. For as long as race has riven America, they have been depicted more often as the problem than the solution. So the country music star must have been unsurprised at the days of widespread criticism of his new song ?Accidental Racist,? which details the challenges facing a ?white man from the southland? and then features LL Cool J rapping a black perspective. (Photos by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP, File)

FILE - Brad Paisley performs during The Inaugural Ball at the Washignton convention center during the 57th Presidential Inauguration in Washington on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013. Southern white men don't usually drive racial dialogue. For as long as race has riven America, they have been depicted more often as the problem than the solution. So the country music star must have been unsurprised at the days of widespread criticism of his new song "Accidental Racist," which details the challenges facing a "white man from the southland" and then features LL Cool J rapping from a black perspective. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

FILE - A member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy collects Confederate flags after the Confederate Memorial Day ceremony at Magnolia Cemetery in Charleston, S.C. on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. Southern white men don't usually drive racial dialogue. For as long as race has riven America, they have been depicted more often as the problem than the solution. So the country music star Brad Paisley must have been unsurprised at the days of widespread criticism of his new song ?Accidental Racist,? which details the challenges facing a ?white man from the southland? and then features LL Cool J rapping from a black perspective. (AP Photo/The Post And Courier, Grace Beahm)

Southern white men don't usually drive racial dialogue. For as long as race has riven America, they have been depicted more often as the problem than the solution.

So after country music star Brad Paisley released his new song "Accidental Racist" this week, what happened next was hardly surprising: days of widespread criticism about his attempt to detail the challenges facing a "white man from the Southland" and his recruitment of LL Cool J to rap a black perspective.

The song sparked a predictable blaze this week on TV, talk radio and the Internet. USA Today asked if it was an "epic fail." At The Atlantic, Ta-Nehisi Coates titled his analysis, "'Accidental Racist' Is Actually Just Racist." More than a few ridiculed it as "the worst song ever."

Some elements of the outcry, however, raise less predictable questions: Where does naivet? turn into ignorance, and then into racism? What is the basis of modern Southern pride? And, possibly most important, should we grade racial attitudes on a curve?

Paisley begins the song with an anecdote about a black man taking offense to his Confederate flag T-shirt. "The only thing I meant to say is I'm a Skynyrd fan," Paisley sings, referring to the pioneering Southern rock group.

That scene actually happened to Paisley in real life, said Charlie Cook, programming director for West Virginia Radio Corp. and a member of the Country Music Association's board of directors, who heard Paisley discuss the song with a group of industry executives.

"He sat down and thought about it from another person's perspective and said, 'If I offended you, it was accidental,'" Cook said. "I think it's really from his heart."

That doesn't matter, say many of the critical voices. They say it's the result that counts ? a song that, to them, turns some of the most stinging flashpoints of American racial history into aw-shucks anecdotes. They are receiving a message very different from the one Paisley intended: the country-music staple of trying to figure out one's experiences through song.

Ignorance is no excuse for Demetria Irwin, who savaged "Accidental Racist" in a piece on the black news and culture website TheGrio.com.

"I think he had good intentions. I think he genuinely wanted to explore a topic," Irwin, who is black, said in an interview. However, "I don't believe he doesn't know what the Confederate flag symbolizes and what it means. There's nothing accidental about that."

"There's also just a general entitlement that some white people might have, the whole white privilege thing, being totally unaware of black culture in a real sense," she added.

The song's black culture was provided by LL Cool J, whose verses were widely panned as shallow. Coates pointed out that while rap is full of artists who are passionate about racial issues, LL is not one of them.

"The only real reason to call up LL is that he is black and thus must have something insightful to say about the Confederate Flag," wrote Coates, who is black. "The assumption that there is no real difference among black people is exactly what racism is."

Choosing LL, he said, is like "assuming that Paisley must know something about barbecue because he's Southern."

Being Southern comes with its own set of assumptions and stereotypes, some of them negative ones created by the low points of the region's history. Southern pride is largely a defensive reaction to such stigmas, said Eric Weisbard, a music critic and American Studies professor at the University of Mississippi.

So while some might see "Accidental Racist" as a ham-handed attempt to start a dialogue, it's part of a long tradition in which Southern musicians "try to talk about who they are in answer to what others dismissively assume they are," Weisbard wrote on NPR.org.

Much of the friction around the song comes from people who don't understand this history, Weisbard said in an interview: "We're as segregated culturally as we often are socially."

Many people are proud of being from the "heartland," New York City or other American places, Weisbard said. But "the South has been branded a problem for the country as a whole at least since the Civil War."

"In every generation, there's a new way in which white Southerners have marginalized themselves," he said, "and the rest of America has to think about what that means."

Paisley gave America something to think about with the chorus of the song: "I'm just a white man comin' to you from the Southland / Tryin' to understand what it's like not to be / I'm proud of where I'm from but not everything we've done / And it ain't like you and me can re-write history."

At the end of the chorus he sings, "Caught between Southern pride and Southern blame."

That's a gray area for Chris Newman, 25, a white West Virginia University graduate student who grew up in Lexington, Ky. He says Southern pride often is "flirting a fine line between being offensive and supporting historical heritage."

Hospitality, driving your truck through the mud, floating down a river or drinking bourbon in Kentucky are great ways to embrace Southern culture, he says. "But I don't run around wearing Confederate T-shirts. I have Lynyrd Skynyrd T-shirts, but they don't have stars and bars on them."

That's a deliberate choice: "If I respect somebody, I'm going to make sure I don't offend them," Newman said.

Newman doesn't believe "accidental racism" exists. But Luke Laird, a Nashville songwriter who has penned many chart-topping hits, has "absolutely" seen it while growing up in a small, mostly white town in western Pennsylvania.

"There were people who said things (that) I know if they actually knew what it meant, they would be horrified," said Laird, who is white.

Back in high school, Laird saw a Hank Williams Jr. shirt with a Confederate flag on it and thought, "that looks cool."

"To be completely honest, and it's probably just ignorance, but growing up I never really thought a lot about that flag and what it meant," Laird said.

"We all want to treat everyone equally, but the reality is we don't always do that," Laird said. "The reality is, it takes more of a conscious effort to try and see where the other people are coming from."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE ? Jesse Washington covers race and ethnicity for The Associated Press. He is reachable at http://twitter.com/jessewashington

___

AP Writers Vicki Smith in Charleston, W.Va. and Chris Talbott in Nashville contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-04-11-Accidental%20Racist/id-9386d7bfed914a179b40962bb1c0ad6b

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Women on the Pill Choose Less Manly Men

Women using the birth control pill prefer men with less masculine faces compared to nonusers, new research suggests.

Millions of women use hormonal forms of contraception, and some studies indicate the pill could affect partner preferences. A new study shows women were attracted to less masculine male faces after going on the pill, while their ratings of the attractiveness of female faces were unaffected. And in couples who first met when the woman was on the pill, the men were less likely to have?manly faces than those who met when the woman was off the pill. If supported, the findings could have important implications for how relationships are formed.

Many factors can influence human attractiveness. Some research suggests that a preference for masculine or feminine traits may be linked to genetic benefits for a couple's offspring, such as strong immune systems. And a few studies have found that women prefer more masculine traits during the fertile phase of their menstrual cycle. The new study investigated how the pill affects these preferences.

Facial attraction

The study, detailed online March 23 in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology, compared the romantic preferences of straight women ages 18 to 24 who were taking oral contraception against those who were not. Researchers showed the women composite images of young male and female faces, which could be manipulated to appear more or less masculine (based on features like cheekbone prominence, jaw height and face width). Scientists then told the participants to alter the male faces so they were most attractive for either a short- or long-term relationship, and to alter the female faces simply to be the most attractive.

The women were tested twice ? once when none of them were taking the pill and again three months after some began using the pill. The women themselves decided whether to join the pill-taking group or not. [7 Surprising Facts About The Pill]

When women were taking the pill, they preferred less masculine male faces (those with more narrow jawbones and more rounded faces, for instance) than before they started taking birth control, the results showed. Being on the pill had no effect on preference for masculinity in female faces.

Choosing a partner

Next, the researchers looked at whether taking the pill influenced women's choices of partners. The scientists compared 85 couples who reported using the pill when they met to 85 couples who reported not using it. Researchers took photos of the faces of the men in each couple and had volunteers judge the manliness of each. The volunteers also rated computer-tweaked versions of the images that accentuated differences in masculinity, for instance making a wide lower jawline (a manly trait) even wider .

Researchers found that the volunteers rated the partners of women who weren't on the pill at the start of their relationships as more masculine than those of women who were on the pill. They rated the computer-manipulated images along the same lines. The link between the pill and facial traits was also confirmed with a mathematical formula.

Even so, the study is correlational and therefore cannot say that the pill, rather than some other variable, causes these mate preferences, said ecologist and evolutionary biologist Claus Wedekind of the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Even though the study is interesting and well done, Wedekend said, it faces limitations because it's not a double-blind experiment, a rigorous condition under which neither participants nor researchers know who's in the experimental group. For example, women who choose to take the pill may be biased toward men who are more "stable" and less masculine-looking, Wedekind said, or "may have an idea already what the pill does to them, and that influences the experiment."

Yet given how widely the pill is used, its potential role in how women choose their partners could have far-reaching effects.

Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter?and Google+.?Follow us @livescience, Facebook?& Google+. Original article on?LiveScience.com.

Copyright 2013 LiveScience, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/women-pill-choose-less-manly-men-211656096.html

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The virtues of Indonesian at Rickshaw Republic | Restaurant ...

Tommy Setiawan wants you to know that the egg noodles that come in a bowl of pempek telor at Rickshaw Republic are always served cold. If you, like a certain unenlightened Yelper he's become aware of, want them warm, he will see that you get them warm. But you should be advised that on the streets of Palembang in South Sumatra where Setiawan's wife, Elice, grew up, they are served cold, and that's the way they serve them by default at the city's newest and only Indonesian restaurant.

The noodles might be cold?more like room temperature, actually?but the yellow spaghettilike tangle is served alongside a hot, deep-fried, sliced fish cake that tightly jackets a hard-cooked egg. And noodles and egg rest in a warm bath of dark, chiled vinegar broth so that each bite is a changeable mix of springy, snappy textures and contrasting temperatures that, unless you're numb to all sensation, will capture and hold your attention.

Setiawan so wants you to understand and appreciate this unusual dish, and the others on the menu, that he's likely to visit your table, unroll a map of Indonesia's 17,000-some islands, and show you precisely where it comes from. And then he might go on to tell you that the food from South Sumatra tends to be spicy, unlike, say, the food of the capital, Jakarta, in western Java, where it tends to be sweeter. And perhaps he'll point out that the potato and beef patty that you're meant to dip in a special chicken soup called soto ayam ?with rice vermicelli and shreds of chewy, batter-fried chicken breast?is called a perkedel, and emerged from the centuries when Dutch colonists occupied the islands. Or that the delicate, crisp crepe pockets called martabak that are filled with egg, ground beef, and onion?and their little accompanying salad of sweet pickled cucumbers?are of Arabic origin, via India.

They don't put lemon in SariWangi tea in Indonesia, but say the word and you can have it.

This sort of intel isn't at all intrusive; frequently it's illuminating. Chicago hasn't had much opportunity to explore this vastly varied and underrepresented cuisine since the short-lived Angin Mamiri closed (though caterers the Rice Table are still around). Setiawan, who used to run a restaurant in Boston with Elice, is joined by his son Oscar in the front of the house, where intricately carved wooden birdcages, parasols, and puppets dangle from the ceilings, and fearsome masks and wood carvings adorn the walls, an environment created by the designer Suhail, whose work you might remember from the late Tizi Melloul, Del Toro, or DeLaCosta.

Elice is in the kitchen with their other son, Emil, preparing the dishes, the majority of which are particular examples of regional street food spanning the archipelago. That means familiar portable things like peanut-sauce-drenched tempeh or chicken satay, along with soy-marinated beef and pork, the latter of which is uncommon among Indonesia's Muslim majority but not on the Hindu island of Bali.

It also means deep-fried snacks, like springy fish cake balls bound with tapioca flour or shattery battered chicken wings studded with crispy garlic and shellacked with a sweet chile-ginger glaze.

More ample dishes, such as chicken curry or beef rendang, illustrate the indispensability of rice all over the islands. The latter is a super-slow-cooked, currylike stew in which the liquid is simmered off until the meat darkens, absorbs the spices, and sizzles in the pan. You can sample either with plain rice or, in an order of nasi lemak, with a perfect cone of coconut-milk-saturated rice that's surrounded by an array of contrasting items: pickled carrot, shredded omelet, fried anchovy, shrimp crackers, peanuts, and spicy sambal. The idea is to customize each bite with fork and knife, not unlike the way one would with Thai shrimp-paste rice.

The everyday menu is tightly focused, and it may not take you long to notice repetitive elements?egg noodle, shrimp crackers, fried stuff. As diverse as Indonesian food is, there are three dishes blanketed by thick peanut or cashew sauce. One such dish, the gado gado, is a smothered-and-covered, hot-and-cold salad of boiled eggs, steamed vegetables, and shrimp chips that might be the most internationally familiar Indonesian dish after satay. And there are three dishes similar to the pempek telor based on springy dumplings formed from minced fish and tapioca starch. One of them, the batagor, is composed of crispy fried dumplings of minced fish and shrimp bound to pillowy chunks of tofu, which are slathered in thick peanut sauce. They're delicious, but heavy and rich, and if you make the mistake of ordering them with the gado gado you might start to feel you've developed a nut allergy.

There's a weekly rotating list of three "Mommy specials" that diversify things a bit. One week it may be the aforementioned soto ayam, and the next a meatball soup, brimming with crispy fried-beef-stuffed wontons and tofu, or deep-fried empanadas stuffed with chicken, boiled eggs, and vermicelli, or a heaping mound of spicy mie goreng: egg noodles stir-fried with finely minced beef balls, chicken, and egg.

For dessert there's a pair of refreshing icy sweets, including a pink rose-syrup slush layered with soft young coconut, jackfruit, and cassava noodles.

Rickshaw Republic is one of the more unique and special places in town, and not just for the singularity of the food. Sure, the Setiawan family have cornered the near-nonexistent market on Indonesian food in Chicago, but they're such earnest ambassadors for it that even if you're a first-timer, you should be evangelizing its virtues after you leave.

Source: http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/mike-sula-reviews-rickshaw-republic-indonesian-restaurant/Content?oid=9050173

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Congressman Paulsen On Israel: Future Is Bright

On the last day of the AIPAC Policy Conference 2013, AIPAC delegates from across the country descending on Capitol Hill. For the first time in AIPAC?s history, delegates lobbied all 535 members of Congress on the same day.

Before he met with the AIPAC delegates, U.S. Representative Erik Paulsen (R-MN 3rd District) met with TC Jewfolk for an exclusive interview. He discussed the future of U.S.-Israel relations, the continuing danger of a nuclear Iran, and what he would like to see from a new generation of leaders in the Knesset.

We asked the congressman to comment on the theme of this year?s conference, ?Building Tomorrow Together.? He said the future for Israel is bright, so long as the United States and Israel maintain the strong friendship they currently have. He said that despite the ?significant challenges? in the Middle East, he is optimistic about Israel?s future.

Echoing some of the comments made at AIPAC by leading congressional Republicans like Rep. Eric Cantor and Sen. John Cornyn, Rep. Paulsen offered a subtle criticism of the Obama administration. ?The United States needs to understand this, our leadership needs to understand this?Israel has a right to defend itself and enact its own policies. And we have to make sure that our country does not tread on? what Israel feels is in its best interest.?

That includes, he said, supporting Israel on the threat posed by Iran. Last year, he discussed Iran at length with TC Jewfolk. When asked if he had anything to add he said, ?I got elected to the congress four years ago; we were talking then about the threat of a nuclear Iran. And here we are four years later and we?re still talking about that same issue.?

He added, ?A nuclear Iran is not in the interests of Israel, and not in the interests of the world.?

Rep. Paulsen insisted that the sanctions on Iran continue to work, and he praised current legislation that will ?enhance the President?s ability, and authorize him to impose additional sanctions on those that have commercial ties to Iran.?

When asked about the recent Knesset elections, he admitted to not having followed them very closely. However, he talked about the three times he?s visited Israel and praised ?the diversity, the energy, the innovation,? of its leaders and people, their ?accepting of other faiths,? which he said has produced a ?thriving democracy.?

He said the perspective he gained by being in Israel, and seeing firsthand how the country reacted to rockets from Gaza, showed him that ?the security threat is very real.? What interested him most, he said, was that regardless of political differences on other issues, all parties could immediately unify around ?the security issue.?

On the recent vote in the United Nations affirming Palestine as a non-member state, he said he worries about the ramifications of the Palestinian Authority?s push to circumvent negotiations with Israel itself.

?The Palestinian Authority has to fundamentally acknowledge Israel?s right to exist as a Jewish state?that is really critical?and until we have that, we?re not going to have the safety and security that we need.?

Filed Under: AIPAC 2013 ? Politics & News

Tags: aipac 2013, Erik Paulsen, featured, Iran, Israel, Palestinian Authority

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TcJewfolk/~3/yGc-DdGet54/

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