Battalion Of Deborah

Only in Israel

Publisher — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:20:00 -0400

by Sara Yoheved Rigler The joys of living with the family.
Jews in Israel live in the midst of their mishpacha -- their family. We are an unruly, bickering, sometimes dysfunctional family, but we are one family nonetheless. And that family in action shines from these true vignettes.
Only in Israel:
On the minor holiday of Lag B'Omer, almost 10% of the population of Israel flocks to the tomb of the Talmudic sage Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai on Mt. Meron in the north. A few years ago, my friend Uriela Sagiv joined the pilgrimage. Around 9:30 p.m. she caught a public bus for the 3-4 hour trip home to Jerusalem. Confident that the last stop would be Jerusalem's Central Bus Station, from where she would catch a cab to her home, Uriela fell soundly asleep.
Hours later, she was awoken by a voice, "This is the last stop." She looked up. It was not the Central Bus Station, but rather a totally unfamiliar Jerusalem neighborhood.
"Where is the Central Bus Station?" she asked in bewilderment.
"Oh, that was three stop ago," the driver of the now empty bus answered. "The bus is on its way to the yard -- ...

US Secret Service 'raids' Israeli Knesset

Publisher — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:10:00 -0400

A contingent of 30 US Secret Service agents meticulously inspected security arrangements at Israel's Knesset this week in preparation for the upcoming visit of President George W. Bush.
Israel's Ynet news portal reported that the Secret Service insisted that Israel put up a special fence around the Knesset to prevent eye contact between Bush and external elements.
All of the other security arrangement were apparently deemed suitable by the American agents.
Bush is scheduled to arrive in Israel on May 15 to take part in events marking the 60th anniversary of the Jewish state's rebirth, including an address to the Knesset.
Original Source

Should Olmert quit, Kadima and Shas may back Livni to prevent early elections

Publisher — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:07:00 -0400

Attila Somfalvi
Even if most politicians continue to remain silent in front of the cameras when they are asked about the new investigation against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, the question faced by the political system at this time is “what’s going to happen?” The gag order on the affair prevents the politicians from embarking on significant political moves, mostly based on bitter past experience of probes against politicians that started with a bang and ended with a whimper.
Yet everyone knows that soon we may see a political earthquake, particularly if an indictment is served against the prime minister. Should Olmert be forced to leave the Prime Minister’s Office, all eyes will turn to one person: Ehud Barak. If this scenario comes true, the Labor Party’s chairman would have to take a dramatic decision that means early elections.
Labor Party officials estimate that Barak would not be able to miss out on another opportunity to go to elections over a moral issue. He indeed stayed in the government in the wake of the Winograd Commission report, yet shying away from new elections in case the prime minister resigns will place him in the position of being perceived as ...

Some 2,500 emigrants return to Israel

Publisher — Wed, 07 May 2008 02:03:00 -0400

Absorption Ministry's campaign to bring Israelis back results in record-breaking numbers
Itamar Eichner
The Absorption Ministry campaign to return emigrants to Israel ahead of the country’s 60th anniversary has been a great success so far. Since the campaign’s onset, 2,500 people have returned to Israel, the highest number to date. Another 4,500 people are in the process of returning.
In November of 2007, the ministry launched a campaign in an attempt to bring Israelis back to the country. The initiative was launched in correlation with the country’s 60th anniversary celebrations, and those who return will be granted various perquisites.
On the Rise
North American aliyah continues to climb
Jewish Agency anticipates that immigration to Israel from North America will increase by 5 to 10 percent in 2007
Full story
Amongst the benefits are discounts on flights and on the shipment of belongings, a reduction on income tax in the countries from which they came, health insurance, Hebrew lessons, assistance in job placements, business loans, scholarships for researchers and scientists and facilitating in the scheduling of matriculation exams for teenagers.
The Ministry of Absorption presumed that many families that left Israel are just waiting for an ...

Israel: The Gateway of Hope

Publisher — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:17:00 -0400

by Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks
The Jewish connection with Israel goes back 4,000 years to the first recorded syllables of Jewish time.
My great-grandfather Rabbi Arye Leib Frumkin, went to Israel in 1871; his father had settled there twenty years earlier. His first act was to begin writing his History of the Sages in Jerusalem, chronicling the Jewish presence there since Nachmanides arrived in 1265.
In 1881 pogroms broke out in more than a hundred towns in Russia. That was when he realized that aliyah was no longer a pilgrimage of the few but an urgent necessity for the many. He became a pioneer, moving to one of the first agricultural settlements in the new yishuv. The early settlers had caught malaria and left. Rabbi Frumkin led the return and built the first house there. The name they gave the town epitomizes their dreams. Using a phrase from the book of Hosea, they called it Petach Tikva, 'the Gateway of Hope'. Today it is the sixth largest city in Israel.
The Jewish connection with Israel did not begin with Zionism, a word coined in the 1890s. It goes back 4,000 years to the first recorded syllables of Jewish time, ...

Between Qassams and poverty, especially tough times in Sderot

Publisher — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:12:00 -0400

By Fadi Eyadat, Haaretz Correspondent
A man in his 70s picks up one whole chicken, a package of rice, a loaf of bread and fruit and approaches the check-out counter at Super Dahan's grocery store in Sderot. He produces a NIS 100 voucher he received from storeowner Daniel Dahan.
The cashier rings up a total of NIS 240, and the man must return some of the products to the shelves.
The cashier at the next counter catches an elderly customer stealing basic products.
"People are leaving Sderot every day. Those who stay in town are the lowest income earners and now with the rise in food prices they have to steal," says Dahan. He has a drawer full of vouchers he hands out to needy people. "They should come to me and ask before reaching this situation," he says.
Dozens of stores have shut down in Sderot in recent months, leaving an empty space in the town's center. Suppliers are fulfilling fewer orders at local grocery stores, fearing they will not be paid.
Those who have not closed down are hardly making a living. "On days when there's a rocket alert, people stay at home, work goes down ...

ANALYSIS: Is this where it all ends for Ehud Olmert?

Publisher — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:08:00 -0400

By Yossi Verter
When a supporter of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Saturday "That's it, it's over," it was not clear whether he was asking a question or stating a fact. This was a statement repeated in different words over and over during the weekend - by ministers, MKs and political allies. Like everyone else, they were all in the dark, driven by rumors, hints, innuendos, flying through the cellular telephony at tremendous speeds.
Even the more experienced among them, the veterans of past affairs and the two Winograd Committee reports, are sounding defeated. They did not know how to defend themselves against this enormous tidal wave. On the one hand, the law enforcement and the prosecution were leaking that it was a most serious affair that would bring an end to Olmert's tenure as PM; on the other hand, the court is preventing the man under investigation to talk and present his version of the story.
Those on the right who wish for Olmert's fall also found it difficult to come to terms with this upsetting decision. Would an American court prevent president Clinton from responding to the allegations against him in the Lewinsky case? Or president Nixon ...

U.S. envoy cuts short Hebron trip after clash with settlers

Publisher — Mon, 05 May 2008 01:03:00 -0400

By Haaretz Service
William Fraser
The American bodyguards of a Bush administration envoy who was dispatched to the region to monitor the implementation of the road map engaged in a violent confrontation with right-wing Israelis who sought to disturb a visit to Hebron on Friday, Israel Radio reported.
One of the rightists is reported to have driven his jeep into the convoy accompanying General William Fraser. Subsequently, one of the vehicles in the convoy heavily collided with the jeep, according to Israel Radio.
A fracas ensued between the guards and the rightists before the Americans decided to cut the visit short, Israel Radio reported.
Original Source

Proposal: Close Jerusalem's Old City to vehicles

Publisher — Mon, 05 May 2008 00:48:00 -0400

Transportat Ministry to establish committee on readjusting traffic in capital. Amongst recommendations: Turning site into pedestrian street. 'The movement of vehicles in the Old City disturbs tourists,' says Tourism Ministry director-general
Ynet
The Tourism Ministry on Monday announced a plan to establish a combined committee that will work towards modifying the traffic infrastructure in the Old City of Jerusalem to one that is acceptable in major tourist cities around the world, as part of the efforts being made to improve the tourism there.
The committee will be run by the Transport Ministry, and will consist of members from the Tourism and Finance Ministries and from the Jerusalem Municipality.
The committee will discuss the option of turning the site into a pedestrian street. Other options include paving safe inlets on which tourists can walk, expanding existing traffic lanes and paving additional lanes to the Old City.
Transport Ministry Director-General Shaul Zemach noted in a press release that the street and parking systems in the Old City are not prepared to comply with the growing demand, stating that "the movement of private vehicles and public transportation within the Old City cause a great disturbance to tourists and to visitors of ...

Israel launches Amos 3 from Kazakhstan

Publisher — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:19:00 -0400

Yaakov Katz and Jpost.com staff
Israel successfully launched the Amos 3 communications satellite from Kazakhstan Monday morning.
Takeoff had originally been slated for last week, but was postponed until Monday due to a failure in its launching system.
The satellite, which joins the Amos 1 and 2 in space, will provide high-quality broadcasting and communications services to Europe, the Middle East and the East Coast of the United States.
Army Radio reported Monday that Amos 3 will eventually replace Amos 1.
The satellite was built by Israel Aerospace Industries's MBT Space Division and is to replace the Amos 1, which was initially intended to operate for 11 years but has already been orbiting the Earth for 12.
The new satellite has a predicted operating life of 18 years and will carry a 250 kg. payload, compared to 160 kg. for the other Amos satellites. It is to be placed in a geostationary orbit, 36,000 km. from Earth.
In January, Israel launched the TecSar satellite, the first of its kind developed here, and one of the world's most advanced space systems. The TecSar can create high-resolution images using advanced radar technology called Synthetic Aperture Radar.
In addition to the TecSar and ...

Israel facing 'unprecedented' drought

Publisher — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:17:00 -0400

The Sea of Galilee, Israel's main source of fresh water, is dropping rapidly and could reach the dreaded "black line" - below which it is impossible to pump out any more water - in just three months.
According to experts cited in The Jerusalem Post Sunday, this past well-below average winter rainfall, which followed several similarly dry years, and is being aggravated by successive heat waves already experienced this year, is threatening the country with the worst water shortage it has ever known.
Over the week-long Passover holiday the Galilee - known in Israel as Lake Kinneret - dropped by an alarming six centimeters.
Israel's only other fresh-water reservoirs - two mountain acquifers - have also been badly depleted in recent years, and can only go down to a certain level before sea-water pressing in underground from the Mediterranean makes its water brackish and unfit for human consumption.
While Israel is building desalination plants to make sea water palatable, progress on these is painfully slow when seen against the rapidly-growing water need.
Original Source

The Temple Mount is the Jewish people's holiest site.

Publisher — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:16:00 -0400

Likud official infers Temple Mount not Jewish holy place

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Printer-friendly version By Stan Goodenough
October 17, 2007

The head of the Likud Party's foreign relations department gave a massive boost to the claims of Islam - Israel's most implacable enemy - Tuesday when he inferred that Jerusalem's Temple Mount was not sacred to the Jewish people.

Arab and other Muslim leaders and clerics, who assert that the hill is Islam's third holiest site, have long and fiercely maintained that the Jews have no historical connection or claim to the outcrop the Bible calls God's "holy hill."
While secular Jews often appear content to limit their "right" to the Western Wall, Israelis who have the fear of the Lord and who know that their nation's First and Second Temples were built on top of the mount will not agree to relinquishing it to the followers of another god.
Zalman Shoval, a former ambassador to the United States, and traditionally a right thinker on Israeli security issues, told a meeting of the Foreign Press Association that the Likud - which is led by former Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - could allow an Arab or Muslim country to administer the site for ...

Golan Heights suddenly under new threat

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:22:00 -0400

By Stan Goodenough
The future of Israel's Golan Heights appears to be suddenly under renewed threat as reports during the Passover week that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had offered to give them to Syria in exchange for peace were quickly followed Sunday by Syrian demands for an Israeli guarantee of a complete pullout from the plateau.
According to the Qatari newspaper al-Watan, Syrian President Bashar el-Assad told Turkey's prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Damascus demands a written commitment by Israel of the Jewish state's willingness to fully relinquish the Golan.
Assad said Israel's refusal thus far to make such a pledge meant that the time has still not come for peace.
Olmert, who spent some of his Passover vacation on the Heights, refused to deny Syrian claims reported on April 24 that he had messaged Assad via Erdogan that the Golan was up for grabs.
In September 2006, Israeli newspapers quoted Olmert as saying: "As long as I serve as prime minister the Golan Heights will remain in our hands because it is an integral part of the State of Israel."
Biblically part of the Land of Israel, and included in the inheritance of the Israelite half-tribe of Manasseh, the ...

Lebanese buy guns as fear of new war grows. Price of arms soaring as political tension rachets up

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:16:00 -0400

By ALIA IBRAHIM
BEIRUT, LEBANON - Abu Omar, a money changer and father of 11 who lives in Beirut, has bought at least 10 firearms since the beginning of last year. "Everything I can put my hands on and I can afford, I buy. I never sell," he said. "Now is a time for buying arms."
Many Lebanese, increasingly worried about the country's political paralysis devolving into violence, are preparing themselves in the same way. One measure of their anxiety is the price of small arms: An AK-47 that went for $75 to $100 a year ago now costs somewhere between $600 and $1,000.
Even larger, outdated arms are gaining value, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers that were once considered the "garbage of weapons," said Ghassan Qarhani, a former fighter familiar with the arms market. Today, RPG launchers cost $500, up from $50, he said, noting that they are useful for street warfare.
Civil war
Political tension has been rising in Lebanon since 2006, when opposition ministers resigned from Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Cabinet. A stalemate between the government, backed by the U.S. and Europe, and opposition forces led by the Shiite Hezbollah movement, which is allied with Syria and Iran, ...

Moslem Hackers Close Down Bank of Israel Website

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:14:00 -0400

by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The Globes business site informed the Bank of Israel on Friday that its site was reporting anti-Israel messages - and two days later, the site is still down. The extent of the damage is unclear.
Surfers visiting the Bank of Israel's website to check the rise/fall of the dollar or other information are greeted with the message, "The site is temporarily closed." Hackers assumed to be from Algeria broke into the site as early as Thursday, replacing lists of foreign currency exchange rates and other numbers with threatening warnings against the Jews.
Reporters from Globes said they were the first to inform Bank of Israel officials, who were away celebrating the Passover holiday. The site was immediately closed down, and remains that way as of Sunday. Bank of Israel spokesman Yossi Saadon said the site would reopen only after it verifies the source of the hacking and ensures that the attack is over.
The hackers warned that Israel would lose in war against the Muslims, that the "scenario of Chechnya will be repeated and we will drive you out. Millions of young Muslims are willing to die for al-Quds [Jerusalem], which belongs to us."
This is ...

Air Force drill sparks panic in Ashkelon

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:07:00 -0400

Residents alarmed by fighter jet executing complex maneuvers involving pyrotechnics at seemingly low altitude above their houses. Army clarifies pilot was training for Independence Day air show
Shmulik Hadad Published:
Israeli citizens are accustomed to the sights and sounds of fighter planes soaring across the sky, but nothing could prepare Ashkelon's residents for the drama that took place against the backdrop of their city's otherwise blue skies on Sunday afternoon.
Thousands of picnickers making the most of their Passover vacations at the beach and in a nearby national park were caught surprised to see an Air Force fighter jet diving to a significantly low altitude and proceed to carry out a series of flying maneuvers above their heads.
Reports began flooding after the plane dropped several flares (usually used as decoys against anti-aircraft fire) and continued to fly precariously close to the city's skyline.
And eyewitness told Ynet several successive blasts resounded through the national park, stirring an uneasy panic among visitors. "They were hysterical, people started running and yelling that there were Qassam rockets. But because there was nowhere to take shelter, people just ran away," he said.
Another resident, 23-year-old Elad Hatuel, explained that the flares ...

Egyptians arrested for aiding Hamas in developing aerial drones

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 21:56:00 -0400

WND first broke story terror group seeking to acquire pilotless aircraft
By Aaron Klein
BEIT SHEMESH, Israel – Egyptian authorities reportedly arrested members of the Muslim Brotherhood Islamist organization for providing the Hamas terrorist group with components used to build pilotless drone aircraft.
WND first broke the story in May 2006 Hamas was seeking the ability to attack Israel using small pilotless airplanes laden with explosives. Abu Abdullah, a leader of Hamas' so-called military wing, told WND at the time the aim was to fly the aircraft 9/11-style into important targets.
Today the state-run Al-Ahram Egyptian daily quoted security officials stating Egyptian forces detained four people and accused them of plotting to buy fuel and a remote control device for a small pilotless aircraft for Hamas.

The newspaper said some equipment for the aircraft was already acquired and was transferred to the Gaza Strip, which borders Egypt. The goal of the aircraft initiative was to manufacture aerial drones to be fitted with explosives that would be detonated by remote control, Al-Ahram reported.
Two of those detained were Muslim Brotherhood members.
Both the Brotherhood and Hamas officially denied the charges.
Hamas was founded in 1987 as a military offshoot of Egypt's ...

The Story of a Prayer_

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:19:00 -0400

by Sarah Shapiro
A Seder in Bergen-Belsen.
--- as told by Joseph Freuchtwanger, nephew of Rabbi Davids
It was erev Pesach, 1944. The entire Jewish community of Rotterdam -- men, women, and children -- had just been transferred from Vesterbork, a deportation camp in Holland, to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany.
Conditions in Vesterbork had been harsh, but continued religious observance had to a remarkable extent preserved the Jews' dignity and their will to live. Under the leadership of the loved and revered Torah scholar Rabbi Aharon (Bernard) Davids, some semblance of communal cohesiveness and optimism had been sustained. Upon arrival at Bergen-Belsen, however, daily existence took a sudden, overwhelmingly drastic turn for the worse, as most of the things that make a human being feel human were taken away. In what for us -- some 60 years later -- has become a familiar yet impossible-to-imagine scenario, families were divided, people starved, the absurdly hard labor broke body and soul, and disease was spreading fast.
Matzah for the Seder was, of course, unavailable.
Rabbi Davids, then in his early forties -- whose wife and three children had been separated from him upon arrival in the camp -- yearned to ...

Israel's Air Force Chief: Iran Threat Real

Publisher — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 00:01:00 -0400

(CBS) The commander of the Israeli air force takes Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s threats against Israel extremely seriously. Israelis must be ready for anything and ultimately trust only themselves, he believes, and for good reason: his family survived the Holocaust.
Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy speaks to 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon in a story about the Israeli air force this Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT.
"I think it is a very serious threat to the state of Israel, but more than this, to the whole world," Shkedy says of the Iranian leader’s public animosity toward Israel. "They are talking about what they think about the state of Israel. They are talking about destroying and wiping us from the earth," he tells Simon. It reminds him of the Holocaust. "We should remember. We cannot forget. We should trust only ourselves."
The general likens ignoring Ahmadinejad today to the atmosphere that enabled the Holocaust yesterday. "In those days, people didn't believe that Hitler was serious about what he said. I suggest not to repeat this way of thinking, and to prepare ourselves for what they are planning," says Shkedy. "We should be prepared for everything."
Iran publicly professes to be ...

Syria’s Covert Nuclear Activities

Publisher — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:51:00 -0400

Today, administration officials have briefed select Congressional committees on an issue of great international concern. Until Sept. 6, 2007, the Syrian regime was building a covert nuclear reactor in its eastern desert capable of producing plutonium. We are convinced, based on a variety of information, that North Korea assisted Syria's covert nuclear activities. We have good reason to believe that reactor, which was damaged beyond repair on Sept. 6 of last year, was not intended for peaceful purposes. Carefully hidden from view, the reactor was not configured for such purposes. In defiance of its international obligations, Syria did not inform the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of the construction of the reactor, and, after it was destroyed, the regime moved quickly to bury evidence of its existence. This cover-up only served to reinforce our confidence that this reactor was not intended for peaceful activities.
We are briefing the IAEA on this intelligence. The Syrian regime must come clean before the world regarding its illicit nuclear activities. The Syrian regime supports terrorism, takes action that destabilizes Lebanon, allows the transit of some foreign fighters into Iraq, and represses its own people. If Syria wants better relations with the international community, it ...

US: We have the power to strike Iran

Publisher — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:49:00 -0400

The United States has the combat power to strike Teheran if needed, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Friday.
He alleged Iran was ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Teheran's Republican Guard.
Mullen said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate.
He would not detail the evidence, which is expected to be revealed by military leaders in Iraq as early as next week. Another senior military official said it will include mortars, rockets, small arms, roadside bombs and armor-piercing explosives, known as explosively formed penetrators or EFPs that troops have discovered in caches in recent months.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the evidence has not yet been made public, said dates on some of the weapons were well after Teheran indicated late last year that it was scaling back aid to insurgents.
In addition, the evidence will include information gleaned from detainees who were ...

FORUM: Israel's right to defend

Publisher — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:46:00 -0400

By Louis René Beres and Isaac Ben-Israel
April 26, 2008
Israel's Strategic Future, a special report of the Project Daniel Group, was presented to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on January 16, 2003. Among other things, the report asserted that under no circumstances should Iran be allowed to “go nuclear.” This firm position stemmed from our understanding that stable deterrence could never exist with a nuclear Iran led by the current extreme regime, and that Iran's belligerent stance toward Israel had remained openly genocidal.
Iran has advanced steadily with plans to build and deploy nuclear weapons. On April 8, 2008, Iran's “National Day of Nuclear Technology,” President Ahmadinejad announced his intent to install 6,000 additional centrifuges at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Now no serious observer could any longer accept the argument that Iran seeks nuclear power only for peaceful purposes.
International law is not a suicide pact. Every state has not only the right, but also the obligation, to protect its citizens from aggression. This expectation is beyond any moral or legal question when a determined and possibly irrational enemy seeks nuclear weapons.
Ideally, Israel could deter any Iranian WMD attack by maintaining a credible posture of nuclear deterrence. But ...

A Paradigm for Jewish Leadership

Publisher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:13:00 -0400

by Rabbi Zvi Dov Kanotopsky
Moses at the splitting of the sea teaches us the essential qualities of a Jewish leader.
Passover, April 20, 1949 -- If we carefully examine the portion of the Torah that is read in the synagogue on the seventh day of the Passover festival, we will find that it represents, among many things, an almost exhaustive treatise on the manifold relationships between the ideal leader and his people. A careful study of the text itself reveals an analysis of almost all the possible situations that may arise in the normal life of a people to test the quality and to try the endurance of its leader. From the reactions of Moses, the leader of the Jewish People, and from his responses to these different situations and complex problems, we learn the qualities essential to the Jewish leader of any era, from the exodus of Egypt until this very day.
Our biblical text recounts three problems that challenged this great leader, problems that have occurred often throughout the history of our people and that foreshadowed almost all the biblical events that were to follow. First, we find a people surrounded by enemies, physically endangered, realizing that ...

Court applies Law of Return to Messianic Jews because of fathers

Publisher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 00:08:00 -0400

Dan Izenberg
Messianic Jews are entitled to Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return if their father is Jewish, according to a precedent-setting ruling handed down last week by the High Court of Justice.
Fifteen years ago, the court rejected a petition by Messianic Jews who demanded to be recognized as Jews so as to automatically receive Israeli citizenship according to the Law of Return. In that landmark case, the court ruled that Messianic Jews had converted, and therefore were no longer Jewish.
Since then, the state has refused to grant all requests for citizenship according to the Law of Return by Messianic Jews.
Two years ago, however, a number of new immigrants to Israel belonging to the Messianic Jewish community petitioned the High Court after the Interior Ministry refused to grant them new immigrant status and citizenship according to the Law of Return.
These petitioners, represented by attorneys Yehuda Raveh and Calev Myers, argued that they were eligible for new immigrant status and citizenship because they were the offsprings of fathers who were Jewish, not because they themselves were Jewish according to the definition of "Who is a Jew" in the Law of Return.
According to Amendment 4A ...

Jews and Food: The Passover Connection

Publisher — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:47:00 -0400

by Dina Coopersmith
Strengthening the life force of the nascent, fragile nation.
Most of the Passover mitzvot revolve around food. In fact, besides the telling of the story of leaving Egypt, all other commandments are eating-oriented: matzah, maror, the four cups of wine, vegetable dipped in salt water, leaning while eating, etc.
As much as we Jews tend to focus on food on the holidays, there are always other characteristics of the holiday that are more important: shofar on Rosh Hashana, building a sukkah and the four species on Sukkot, lighting the menorah on Chanukah, hearing the megillah and giving charity on Purim, etc. And yet, on Passover, the first holiday in the Jewish calendar, food takes center stage on Seder night.
What is the nature of food and its connection to Passover?
FOOD - THE LIFE-GIVING FORCE
Before eating you may feel weak, indicating a diminishing of life force and energy. Then, as you eat, your strength is restored and the life force is immediately infused into you.
God is the only Giver of life; He holds the key to life and we essentially have no power over His constant giving. Therefore we can deduce that eating most powerfully ...

N. Koreans Taped At Syrian Reactor

Publisher — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:28:00 -0400

Video Played a Role in Israeli Raid
By Robin Wright
A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea's nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel's decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core's design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. It shows "remarkable resemblances inside and out to Yongbyon," a U.S. intelligence official said. A nuclear weapons specialist called the video "very, very damning."
Nuclear weapons analysts and U.S. officials predicted that CIA Director Michael V. Hayden's planned disclosures to Capitol Hill could complicate U.S. efforts to improve relations with ...

Officials: U.S. vital to relaunching Syria talks

Publisher — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:20:00 -0400

By Yoav Stern and Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondents
Tags: Israel, Golan Heights, Syria
Officials following contacts between Israel and Syria say significant U.S. involvement will probably be necessary for negotiations to move ahead, and that Syria is still demanding such involvement.
Both Israeli and foreign experts on Syria told Haaretz Wednesday that a change in the American position was not on the horizon, and that no details on the Israeli position had been included in Wednesday's Syrian media reports on Israel's willingness to withdraw from the Golan Heights.
yrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem said Wednesday that if Israel were serious about making peace with Syria and withdrawing from the Golan, there was nothing to prevent the renewal of negotiations. But he added that Syria was not prepared for talks with Israel that would hurt the Palestinian negotiating track.
Speaking at a news conference in Tehran with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki, Moallem said the Syrian position was that Israel had to withdraw to the lines of June 4, 1967, not the international boundary. His statements were carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to arrive in Damascus over the ...

J'lem fears U.S. hearings on Syrian reactor will unveil classified data

Publisher — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 23:44:00 -0400

By Amos Harel, Shmuel Rosner, and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents, and AP
Tags: U.S., Israel, nuclear reactor
Israel will maintain its official policy of silence regarding the Israel Air Force strike on a Syrian nuclear facility as the American administration is slated to provide Thursday, for the first time, extensive details about the nature of the compound destroyed by the IAF on September 6.
The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday that Congress will hear from the Central Intelligence Agency that the facility destroyed in the Israel Air Force attack was a nuclear reactor for producing plutonium.
Israel, however, does not intend to break the official silence it has maintained on the matter for the past seven months. Security sources told Haaretz on Wednesday night that the government will not go public with new information in the case.
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The Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the matter Wednesday, and referred Haaretz to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's statements last week in his Pesach interview with media outlets, in which he said that "the Syrians know what our position is, and we know what their expectations are."
Thursday's briefings of the Senate and House Intelligence committees, as well as ...

Seeing Doubl and other Ironies of Pesach?

Publisher — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:33:00 -0400

Barbara Bensoussan
When Shakespeare wrote that April is the cruelest month, he sure knew what he was talking about.
In New York, where I live, April showers have less to do with rain than with showers of bills. To begin with, April is the month the IRS expects us to battle with our tax forms (or at least make sure the accountant struggles through them), and then—even worse—grit our teeth and shell out what’s due. On top of that, around April the children’s yeshivas send out letters demanding a few hundred dollars’ worth of registration fees per kid for the coming year—but until you pay up that back tuition, don’t even think about next year!
The summer camps then send letters asking for fat deposits to hold slots for your precious darlings (the grim alternative being to keep them home with you all summer). Your children’s shoes have been destroyed by the winter’s snow and salt and they’ll be needing warm-weather clothing any moment. And Pesach is just around the corner with matzoh at fifteen dollars a pound, and your husband reminding you that last year twenty-five pounds were not enough and you had to go borrow from the neighbors....

We know secret of Joseph's biblical pest control

Publisher — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 23:27:00 -0400

By Ran Shapira, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Joseph, Archaeology
The remains of a burnt beetle found in a grain of wheat about 3,500 years old provided a group of researchers from Bar-Ilan University with a key to a question the Bible left without a definite answer: How did Joseph the Dreamer, who became the viceroy to the king of Egypt, succeed in preserving the grain during the seven lean years and prevent Egypt's population from starving?
According to the description in the book of Genesis, during the seven years of plenty in Egypt, Joseph had all the wheat collected in silos. "And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities; the food of
the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph laid up grain as the sand of the sea, very much, until they left off numbering; for it was without number" (Genesis 41, 48-49).
The stores of wheat and barley served the inhabitants of Egypt during the period of drought and hunger that followed. But how did Joseph and the people of Egypt ...