Israeli leadership group visits Columbus

Columbus Update. Click here if the video does not show.

A delegation of up-and-coming Israeli Knesset parliament officials and the deputy mayor of Tiberias visited Columbus Tuesday.

The seven-member group reflects both right, centrist, and left-of-center political parties.

Gil Messing, deputy spokesperson for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party told GPB news that Iran was Israel's "greatest strategic problem in the region."

"Wherever we go we stress that we have a strategic problem, that is not an Israeli problem, but an international problem, and this is a nuclear Iran.

"We hope that the United States' activities in Iraq -- however it will end, it's an American affair -- but that our friends in the United States will remember that Israel is under constant threat from Iran, and as days go by, the bad guys are getting stronger, and that the good guys need to stay together and ensure that the free world will remain strong -- and the United States is a major factor in that.

"This is what we say in Washington, and this is what we're going to say in Columbus, Georgia, as well."

The group attended a Columbus city council meeting where they received commemorative keys to the city from Mayor Jim Wetherington and met with local judges and security officials. They also met with Army officers and soldiers at Ft. Benning.

Keren Barak, Likud Party Knesset member
nominee displays proclamation and
key to the city. (Photo: Dave Bender)

The group's visit winds up an 11-day sojourn in the US where they met with administration, senate and congressional officials in Washington, DC. They learned about American government processes and practices, and shared similar experiences from Israel.

Muscogee County Superior Court Judge Bobby Peters and Jeff Breedlove of the Georgia State Senate Research Office hosted the group on the Georgia leg of their stay. Both are alumni of the exchange program.

This was the 16th Israeli group to be hosted in the US by the American Council of Young Political Leaders, an international exchange program.

Muscogee County School Board votes on version of Bible for schools

Muscogee County School Board (Dave Bender)

Muscogee County's School Board voted Monday to use the King James version of the Bible in two elective course teaching the Bible as history and literature for high school students in the fall.

Muscogee's eleventh and twelfth-graders will also use "The Bible and Its Influence" as a secondary text in the courses, covering the Old Testament and New Testament eras. The courses will only be taught if 15 or more students request them.

Board member Dr. Peggy Connell, chief academic officer for Muscogee County says the issue of whether or not to teach the sacred texts wasn't the controversy, but rather which version of them: “There's not any controversy about that. This was passed by Georgia legislators last year, and the state board has approved the curriculum.”

But there were dissenting voices. Rabbi Tom Friedman of Temple Israel in Columbus told the board that teaching the Bible as history was liable to be a minefield of contesting interpretations of even basis concepts. He called for proper oversight of the curriculum.

Friedmann addressing the board.
(Dave Bender)

"The teaching of the Old and the New Testament periods objectively is very difficult and an requires an extensive amount of training, and a great deal of an academic background. Both courses can be taught objectively – with the proper input,” Friedmann told the board.

Muscogee County is one of the first major school districts statewide to adopt the plan, voted in, in the 2006 legislature to allow state-funded courses on the Bible in public schools.