Haaretz-2009-06-06

Last update - 16:25 06/06/2009

New Yorkers to stroll on Tel Aviv beach - in Central Park

By Shlomo Shamir and Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel News, Central Park

New Yorkers strolling through Central Park later this month will be surprised to find the iconic park pulsating to an Israeli beat. On June 21st, truckloads of sand from Tel Aviv will be poured across sections of the park, bringing the Tel-Aviv beach to Manhattan.

During the day-long project, called "Tel Aviv Beach", "bathers" will be given popsicles and the ping-pang of racquetball will echo through the park, an experience any visitor to Tel Aviv's beaches is familiar with.

Bathers will be able to sample Israeli street food, sold from a number of food stalls set up on the transplanted sands. They will also get an earful of Israeli reggae band "Hatikva 6" and Israeli D.J. Hadar Marcus.

The project is being held in part to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv's founding. It is being organized by the Israeli Consulate in New York, in conjunction with the City of Tel Aviv.

The "Tel Aviv Beach" project was held earlier this month Vienna, where "bathers" were met by protestors who set up a "Gaza beach" demonstration protesting the event.

An additional "Tel Aviv Beach" in Copenhagen will be bring the sunny shores of the first Hebrew city to Scandinavia in July, where, ostensibly, sunscreen may be less of a concern.

According to organizers of the event, the laid-back, care-free atmosphere of Central Park is just like a Saturday afternoon in Tel-Aviv, all that's missing is the sand.

Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush meeting at the White House on Wednesday, April 14, 2004.

(AP)

Last update - 14:20 06/06/2009

Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush's letters in full

Tags: Israel news, disengagement

Text of George W. Bush's letter to Ariel Sharon

His Excellency

Ariel Sharon

Prime Minister of Israel

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

Thank you for your letter setting out your disengagement plan.

The United States remains hopeful and determined to find a way forward toward a resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian dispute. I remain committed to my June 24, 2002 vision of two states living side by side in peace and security as the key to peace, and to the road map as the route to get there.

We welcome the disengagement plan you have prepared, under which Israel would withdraw certain military installations and all settlements from Gaza, and withdraw certain military installations and settlements in the West Bank.

These steps described in the plan will mark real progress toward realizing my June 24, 2002 vision, and make a real contribution toward peace. We also understand that, in this context, Israel believes it is important to bring new opportunities to the Negev and the Galilee. We are hopeful that steps pursuant to this plan, consistent with my vision, will remind all states and parties of their own obligations under the road map.

The United States appreciates the risks such an undertaking represents. I therefore want to reassure you on several points.

First, the United States remains committed to my vision and to its implementation as described in the road map. The United States will do its utmost to prevent any attempt by anyone to impose any other plan. Under the road map, Palestinians must undertake an immediate cessation of armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere, and all official Palestinian institutions must end incitement against Israel.

The Palestinian leadership must act decisively against terror, including sustained, targeted, and effective operations to stop terrorism and dismantle terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. Palestinians must undertake a comprehensive and fundamental political reform that includes a strong parliamentary democracy and an empowered prime minister.

Second, there will be no security for Israelis or Palestinians until they and all states, in the region and beyond, join together to fight terrorism and dismantle terrorist organizations.

The United States reiterates its steadfast commitment to Israel's security, including secure, defensible borders, and to preserve and strengthen Israel's capability to deter and defend itself, by itself, against any threat or possible combination of threats.

Third, Israel will retain its right to defend itself against terrorism, including to take actions against terrorist organizations. The United States will lead efforts, working together with Jordan, Egypt, and others in the international community, to build the capacity and will of Palestinian institutions to fight terrorism, dismantle terrorist organizations, and prevent the areas from which Israel has withdrawn from posing a threat that would have to be addressed by any other means.

The United States understands that after Israel withdraws from Gaza and/or parts of the West Bank, and pending agreements on other arrangements, existing arrangements regarding control of airspace, territorial waters, and land passages of the West Bank and Gaza will continue.

The United States is strongly committed to Israel's security and well-being as a Jewish state. It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.

As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion.

It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities. I know that, as you state in your letter, you are aware that certain responsibilities face the State of Israel. Among these, your government has stated that the barrier being erected by Israel should be a security rather than political barrier, should be temporary rather than permanent, and therefore not prejudice any final status issues including final borders, and its route should take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.

As you know, the United States supports the establishment of a Palestinian state that is viable, contiguous, sovereign, and independent, so that the Palestinian people can build their own future in accordance with my vision set forth in June 2002 and with the path set forth in the road map.

The United States will join with others in the international community to foster the development of democratic political institutions and new leadership committed to those institutions, the reconstruction of civic institutions, the growth of a free and prosperous economy, and the building of capable security institutions dedicated to maintaining law and order and dismantling terrorist organizations.

A peace settlement negotiated between Israelis and Palestinians would be a great boon not only to those peoples but to the peoples of the entire region.

Accordingly, the United States believes that all states in the region have special responsibilities: to support the building of the institutions of a Palestinian state; to fight terrorism, and cut off all forms of assistance to individuals and groups engaged in terrorism; and to begin now to move toward more normal relations with the State of Israel.

These actions would be true contributions to building peace in the region. Mr. Prime Minister, you have described a bold and historic initiative that can make an important contribution to peace. I commend your efforts and your courageous decision which I support. As a close friend and ally, the United States intends to work closely with you to help make it a success.

Sincerely,

George W. Bush

Ariel Sharon's letter to George W. Bush

The Honorable George W. Bush

President of the United States of America

The White House

Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President,

The vision that you articulated in your 24 June 2002 address constitutes one of the most significant contributions toward ensuring a bright future for the Middle East. Accordingly, the State of Israel has accepted the roadmap, as adopted by our government. For the first time, a practical and just formula was presented for the achievement of peace,opening a genuine window of opportunity for progress toward a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, involving two states living side-by-side in peace and security.

This formula sets forth the correct sequence and principles for the attainment of peace. Its full implementation represents the sole means to make genuine progress. As you have stated, A Palestinian state will never be created by terror, and Palestinians must engage in a sustained fight against the terrorists and dismantle their infrastructure. Moreover, there must be serious efforts to institute true reform and real democracy and liberty including new leaders not compromised by terror. We are committed to this formula as the only avenue through which an agreement can be reached. We believe that this formula is the only viable one.

The Palestinian Authority under its current leadership has taken no action to meet its responsibilities under the roadmap. Terror has not ceased, reform of the Palestinian security services has not been undertaken, and real institutional reforms have not taken place. The State of Israel continues to pay the heavy cost of constant terror. Israel must preserve its capability to protect itself and deter its enemies, and we thus retain our right to defend ourselves against terrorism and to take actions against terrorist organizations.

Having reached the conclusion that, for the time being, there exists no Palestinian partner with with whom to advance peacefully toward a settlement and since the current impasse is unhelpful to the achievement of our shared goals, I have decided to initiate a process of gradual disengagement with the hope of reducing friction between Israelis and Palestinians. The Disengagement Plan is designed to improve security for Israel and stabilize our political and economic situation. It will enable us to deploy our forces more effectively until such time that conditions in the Palestinian Authority allow for the full implementation of the roadmap to resume.

I attach, for your review, the main principles of the Disengagement Plan. This initiative, which we are not undertaking uner the roadmap, represents an independent Israeli plan, yet is not inconsistent with the roadmap. According to this plan, the State of Israel intends to relocate military installations and all Israeli villages and towns in the Gaza Strip, as well as other military installations and a small number of villages in Samaria.

In this context, we also plan to accelerate construction of the Security Fence, whose completion is essential in order to ensure the security of the citizens of Israel. The fence is a security rather than political barrier, temporary rather than permanent, and therefore will not prejudice any final status issues including final borders. The route of the Fence, as approved by our Government's decisions, will take into account, consistent with security needs, its impact on Palestinians not engaged in terrorist activities.

Upon my return from Washington, I expect to submit the Plan for the approval of the Cabinet and the Knesset, and I firmly believe that it will win such approval.

The Disengagement Plan will create a new and better reality for the State of Israel, enhance its security and economy, and strengthen the fortitude of its people. In this context, I believe it is important to bring new opportunities to the Negev and Galilee. Additionally, the Plan will entail a series of measures with the inherent potential to improve the lot of the Palestinian Authority, providing that it demonstrates the wisdom to take advantage of this opportunity. The execution of the Disengagement Plan holds the prospect of stimulating positive changes within the Palestinian Authority that might create the necessary conditions for the resumption of direct negotiations.

We view the achievement of a settlement between Israel and the Palestinians as our central focus and are committed to realizing this objective. Progress toward this goal must be anchored exclusively in the roadmap and we will oppose any other plan.

In this regard, we are fully aware of the responsibilities facing the State of Israel. These include limitations on the growth of settlements; removal of unauthorized outposts; and steps to increase, to the extent permitted by security needs, freedom of movement for Palestinians not engaged in terrorism. Under separate cover we are sending to you a full description of the steps the State of Israel is taking to meet all its responsibilities.

The government of Israel supports the United States' efforts to reform the Palestinian security services to meet their roadmap obligations to fight terror. Israel also supports the American's efforts, working with the International Community, to promote the reform process, build institutions and improve the economy of the Palestinian Authority and to enhance the welfare of its people, in the hope that a new Palestinian leadership will prove able to fulfill its obligations under the roadmap.

I want to again express my appreciation for your courageous leadership in the war against global terror, your important initiative to revitalize the Middle East as a more fitting home for its people and, primarily, your personal friendship and profound support for the State of Israel.

Sincerely,

Ariel Sharon

Last update - 12:24 06/06/2009

Israeli officials: U.S. leaves no choice but to okay Palestinian state

By Haaretz Service

Tags: U.S., Israel News

Officials in Jerusalem told Israel Radio on Saturday that there is no alternative but to ultimately agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Israel will be forced to acknowledge the necessity of a future Palestinian state because there are no signs that the Obama administration will yield on this issue, a diplomatic source told Israel Radio.

Government sources in Jerusalem also told Israel Radio that the quicker Israel adopts the road map for peace as the preferred diplomatic initiative, the more likely it will ward off American pressure to concede to a Palestinian state within the framework of an alternative plan that is less agreeable to Israel.

U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Friday that he is dispatching his envoy, George Mitchell, to the region. Mitchell, who is due to arrive on Monday, is expected to meet with President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, according to Israel Radio.

Israeli officials involved in planning the Mitchell visit told Israel Radio that the Netanyahu government will hold firm on its insistence to allow for continued construction in large settlements to meet the needs of the communities' "natural growth."

The officials added that Israel is examining ways to dovetail Jerusalem's needs with Washington's new policy towards the region.

One day after his highly touted speech to the Muslim world, Obama said Friday that the "moment is now" to push forward a two-state solution, adding that both the Palestinians and Israel must get serious and prepare to make some difficult compromises.

"I am confident that if we stick with it, having started early, we can make some serious progress this year," Obama told a news conference in Dresden with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is that each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises," Obama said after talks with Merkel.

Last update - 13:21 06/06/2009

Labor 'rebels' inch closer to ditching Barak for new party

By Mazal Mualem, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Tags: Ehud Barak, Israel News

Four Labor Party "rebels" - members of Knesset who make up the internal opposition camp to Ehud Barak's chairmanship of the faction - are expediting efforts in laying the groundwork for the establishment of a new party.

The four - MKs Ophir Pines-Paz, Amir Peretz, Yuli Tamir, and Eitan Cabel - have all reached the conclusion that they are no longer able to remain in a party under Barak's leadership.

Following Labor's poor showing in last February's general election, Barak angered party members by his insistence on joining a rightist coalition led by Likud's Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his promise that he would "accept the will of the voter" and sit in the opposition.

On Thursday, the rebels met with Labor veterans who no longer hold office, including former MK Danny Yatom and one-time ministers Avraham Shochat and Moshe Shahal. Those present at the meeting said it was clear that the lawmakers seemed intent on forming a new, social-democratic platform.

Haaretz has learned that Pines-Paz and Peretz - the two veteran MKs seen as most likely to head the new party - agreed that the individual who receives greater support in the polls will assume the title of party chairman.

At this stage, however, the four rebels are legally unable to break away from Labor. Israeli law stipulates that a minimum of one-third of the total number of MKs in any faction is needed in order to form a new party in parliament. Since Labor captured 13 seats in the 120-seat Knesset, the rebels would need at least one more Labor MK to break away from the faction.

Labor MK Shelly Yachimovich, another staunch Barak critic, is being lobbied by senior members of Kadima to join the new faction, Israel Radio reported.

Many in Kadima believe a split in Labor would serve their interests, since the centrist party has siphoned votes from the once-dominant movement.

Last month, Peretz did not rule out forming a new faction in the wake of the serious divisions that have pitted Barak against long-time party stalwarts opposed to his policies.

"Perhaps we will have to reinvent a new, genuine labor party, and I don't think that is too far off," Peretz told Israel Radio, hours after the resignation of party secretary general and former Barak ally Cabel.

"Barak is pushing for a split in the party with all his might and if he continues to avoid confronting us then the party members will have to consider their futures," Peretz said. The former defense minister added that Barak is dragging Labor to the right-wing camp rather than its former place in the peace camp.

Last update - 04:23 06/06/2009

EU seeks to increase pressure on Israel for settlement freeze

By Reuters

Tags: Israel news, EU, Obama

The European Union is considering using its trade clout to bolster U.S. pressure for an Israeli freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank, diplomats said on Friday.

The EU is Israel's biggest trading partner and one option it may have is to crack down on fruit, vegetables, olive oil and other farm produce grown by settlers in the Palestinian territories.

Some European governments have long suspected such products are entering the EU at low import tariffs reserved for output labeled as coming from Israel proper.

Aside from the possibility of a concerted push to deny tariff concessions to settlement produce coming into the European Union, diplomats said EU nations also were looking at using economic and scientific research exchanges with Israel as an area where they could apply leverage on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In addition to being Israel's largest market for exports, the EU is its second largest source of imports after the United States.

But diplomats said Europe would follow Washington's lead. Concerted EU action will be difficult because of divisions within the bloc, so piecemeal steps are more likely, they added.

EU members have in recent months said that ties between the EU and Israel depend on the Israeli government's commitment to a two-state solution in the peace process with Palestinians.

Following the three-week-long Operation Cast Lead, diplomatic bodies in a number of European countries called for a freeze on upgrading relations with Israel, citing the pressure of domestic public opinion.

Last update - 03:40 06/06/2009

Obama postpones U.S. embassy move from T.A. to Jerusalem

By Haaretz Service

Tags: obama, jerusalem

United States President Barack Obama on Friday postponed moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem by an additional six months, Israel Radio reported.

A senior White House official said that U.S. policy regarding the status of Jerusalem remains unchanged, and that it is a final-status issue to be resolved within the framework of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

The U.S. Congress approved the transfer of the embassy 14 years ago.

Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that all of Jerusalem would always remain under Israeli sovereignty. Netanyahu said he had made the same declaration during his visit to Washington last month when he met with Obama.

"The new U.S. administration informs us with intolerably ease that we have to give up Jerusalem," the premier said during a May ceremony marking Jerusalem Day.

"With all due respect, the U.S. president sees the American interest and does not know that Jerusalem is not a territorial issue, but a much deeper one - 'the hope of two thousand years/the land of Zion and Jerusalem,'" he said, quoting Israel's national anthem.

Last update - 14:22 06/06/2009

Clinton: No proof Bush administration approved settlement growth

By Haaretz Service and Reuters

Tags: israel news, hillary clinton

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton dismissed on Friday reports that administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush had an understanding under which Israel could keep expanding settlements on the West Bank.

Dov Weisglass, chief of staff to former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, wrote in an op-ed piece published this week in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily that the Bush administration had secretly agreed to expanding Jewish settlements on the West Bank within their existing boundaries.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Clinton sought to undercut Weisglass' argument, saying there was no acknowledgment of any such agreement in the official negotiating record between Israel and the Bush administration.

"There is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements. If they did occur, which of course people say they did, they did not become part of the official position of the United States government," Clinton said at a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

"And there are contrary documents that suggest that they were not to be viewed as in any way contradicting the obligations that Israel undertook pursuant to the road map," Clinton added. "And those obligations are very clear."

Clinton's hard line suggests that U.S. President Barack Obama has no intention of relenting on his call for a settlement freeze by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The United States wants Israel to keep its commitment under the 2003 "road map" peace plan to halt all settlement activity, including so-called "natural growth," under which new homes are built within existing enclaves for growing settler families.

Netanyahu on Monday defied the U.S. demand, saying Israel would keep building in existing settlements on territory Israel captured during the 1967 Six-Day War.

Ex-Mossad chief: Bush showed understanding for Israel's position on settlement blocs

The previous U.S. administration expressed understanding for Israel's demand to retain large West Bank settlement blocs as part of any final status accord with the Palestinians, Ephraim Halevy, the former head of Israel's spy agency, Mossad, told Israel Radio on Saturday.

In the exchange of letters between former President George W. Bush and then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the U.S. acknowledged that the prevailing circumstances on the ground would make it unrealistic to expect Israel to withdraw wholly to the pre-1967 armistice lines, Halevy told Israel Radio.

Halevy added that the road map document includes explicit recognition of the Palestinians' political rights in Jerusalem, according to Israel Radio.

The former Mossad chief added that Israel has no say in determining whether it satisfactorily met its obligations under the road map. The international Quartet - the U.S., Russia, the European Union, and the United Nations - is the only body authorized to make such a determination, Halevy told Israel Radio.

Last update - 19:56 05/06/2009

Obama: Buchenwald is the ultimate rebuke to Holocaust deniers

By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel news, Obama, Holocaust

U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday at the Buchenwald concentration camp that the facility "is the ultimate rebuke" to those who deny the Holocaust.

Obama on Friday visited the Nazi-era camp, where an estimated 56,000 people, including some 11,000 Jews, perished there at the hands of Nazis. He toured the memorial with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and survivor Elie Wiesel. They laid roses at a memorial.

"To this day, there are those who insist the Holocaust never happened," Obama said. "This place is the ultimate rebuke to such thoughts, a reminder of our duty to confront those who would tell lies about our history."

A somber Obama told reporters that his great-uncle had helped liberate a nearby satellite camp, Ohrdruf, just days before other U.S. Army units overran Buchenwald. Obama says his great-uncle returned from war and was unable to speak of the horrible scene.

Obama added that both the victims and the perpetrators of the camp alike were humans and everyone must stand guard against a repeat.

The U.S. President went on to say that today we must reject the false comfort of the belief that others' suffering is not our problem. Wiesel later echoed this sentiment, saying that he was not convinced that the world had learned the lesson of the Holocaust, because if it had, the atrocities in Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia would not have been allowed to happen.

"This place teaches us that we must be ever vigilant about the spread of evil in our own time," Obama added.

It was a pointed message to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has expressed doubts that 6 million Jews died at the hands of the Nazis.

"He should make his own visit to Buchenwald," Obama told NBC in an interview earlier Friday. He added: "I have no patience for people who would deny history."

Wiesel, who flew to the former camp on Obama's presidential helicopter, said "memory must bring people together rather than set them apart."

"What else can we do, except invoke that memory so that people everywhere can say the 21st century is a century of new beginnings filled with promise and infinite hope and, at times, profound gratitude to all those who believe in our task, which is to improve the human condition?" the Holocaust survivor askeed.

Wiesel and his family were deported from what is now Romania to Auschwitz, another concentration camp where his mother and younger sister died. He was then moved to Buchenwald, where his father died three months before the camp was liberated in 1945.

# Earlier Friday, Obama told a news conference in Dresden, that the "moment is now" to push forward a two-state solution, adding that both the Palestinians and Israel must get serious and prepare to make some difficult compromises.

Last update - 16:19 05/06/2009

Bosnia Jew seeks to reverse ban on running for president

By Reuters

Tags: Israel News, Bosnia

A Bosnian Jew and an ethnic Roma have appealed to the European Court of Human Rights to overturn laws that prevent them from running for president.

Under the Dayton peace agreement that ended Bosnia's 1992-95 war, only Bosnian Serbs, Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats may run for the office.

The constitution envisaged 14 years ago sought to stop the war in which 100,000 people died and granted political rights only to ethnic groups that fought each other.

"This closed the door to all those who do not declare as members of one of these three constituent peoples," said Jakob Finci, head of the Jewish community and Bosnia's ambassador to Switzerland.

Minorities and those from ethnically mixed marriages, which were commonplace in Bosnia during Yugoslav times, also do not have the right to run for the national parliament's upper house.

The European Court of Human Rights heard the case this week brought by Finci and Dervo Sejdic, a member of Bosnia's Roma Council, which alleges Bosnia's constitution violates the European Convention on Human Rights and United Nations conventions and international treaties.

"I think it's high time to step away from ethnic patterns that were necessary to stop the war," Finci told Reuters by telephone from his office in Bern. "It's time for Bosnia to enter its European phase."

The court is expected to issue its ruling in September.

The Minority Rights Group International said in a statement the case marked the first time the Strasbourg-based court has considered the application of the Council of Europe's anti-discrimination laws in member states.

"If the court rules in favor of the applicants, it could provide a far-reaching judgment which can be used by other minorities who lack electoral rights in other European states," said Lucy Claridge, the group's legal director.

Minorities and those from ethnically mixed marriages also do not have the right to run for the national parliament's upper house.

Last update - 15:26 05/06/2009

Madoff look-alike lands title role in film on American's most notorious conman

By Hinda Mandell, The Forward

Tags: Jewish World, Bernard Madoff

Watch out, Bernie, your doppelganger is about to make his grand entrance.

Paul Cohen, a Jersey City, N.J., resident and newspaper advertising executive, has been cast as America's most notorious con man in the upcoming feature film "Madoff: Made Off With America."

Cohen, 64, learned in May that he landed the plum role, beating out 45 other Madoff hopefuls. And in doing so, he also landed his first-ever acting gig. The film's director, writer and producer, Edmund Druilhet, told The Shmooze that he feels lucky to have found someone who so closely resembles the Ponzi schemer, who is referred to on the film's Web site as "the Satan of Wall Street."

"[Cohen] had the best lips," said Druilhet, who also produced the film "Polanski Unauthorized." "I have to say he stood out."

Besides an uncanny resemblance to the swindler from Manhattan's Upper East Side, Cohen and Madoff share other commonalities. Both are Jewish, have April birthdays and attended school in the Far Rockaway section of Queens. And they both know how to sell.

"Being a salesman all my life, it's like a first cousin to acting," said Cohen, who sells advertising space at the Hudson Reporter, the Jersey City newspaper that first reported his role in the movie. He will begin filming later in June.

Cohen, who will go by the stage name Paul Cole, learned about Druilhet's movie when he read a Page Six item in the New York Post announcing auditions for Madoff lookalikes. At his wife's encouragement, Cohen sent in photos, and he was later called for a screen test in Los Angeles.

While an acting gig may be new territory for Cohen, he has grown accustomed to being mistaken for Madoff. Recently, as Cohen sat in the waiting room of his doctor's office, another patient's stare made him feel uncomfortable. The man finally apologized to Cohen for staring, but not before asking if his name was Bernie.

Nevertheless, Cohen said he's ecstatic about the gig, even if it interrupts long-standing plans to buy property and retire with his wife to Florida.

Were they, by any chance, looking to lay down roots in Palm Beach?

"No," Cohen said, laughing. "I'm not Palm Beach stock.

Last update - 15:09 05/06/2009

Obama's speech marks a strategic revolution for Israel

By Aluf Benn

Tags: Osama bin Laden, Barack Obama

There have been American presidents who saw themselves as God's messengers on earth. There have been presidents who played the role of warrior on the battlefield of the superpowers. There have been presidents who rose through the political system and could pull the strings in Congress. Barack Obama is a rock star. He has total confidence in his powers of persuasion - if he can just have access to a platform, two teleprompters and airtime. Let him speak to the audience, any audience, and he'll sell them a new, friendly, considerate America. Obama's meteoric rise to the presidency and his massive popularity just go to show that his self-confidence is well founded.

Israel has had just one leader who rose to power and governed by virtue of his oratory, and that was Menachem Begin. But Obama is no Begin, who moved the masses with his fiery tone and impassioned rhetoric: The current American president wins his audience over with the inner calm that he projects, and with his ability to sound candid and spontaneous even when reading a speech that has undergone dozens of drafts, and in which every sentence has been carefully weighed - and then weighed again.

Yesterday, Obama took the stage at Cairo University to deliver his most important speech since taking office. After four and a half months in the White House, the signs of accelerated aging are already apparent: His hair is graying and the lines in his face have deepened. But the audience was going wild over him, interrupting him with applause and whistles. This is not the blank, sterile backdrop that accompanied his speech in Turkey a couple of months ago, a speech that stirred very little interest. This time, public opinion was primed ahead of time for a historic event, for a message that would fundamentally alter American-Muslim relations.

Obama met the oratorical challenge he set for himself: He did not sound insincere or hypocritical when paying homage to Muslim culture and its achievements, nor did he sound apologetic or self-righteous when speaking about the disputes of the past and the need to turn over a new leaf. Obama ascribed the mistakes of his predecessor, George Bush, to the trauma of the September 11 attacks.

Osama bin Laden did not wait for Obama. Before the speech, he issued a taped message in which he accused the new president of "planting seeds of hatred and revenge," like his predecessor did. Obama responded with harsh words against Al-Qaida and its murderousness. But the truth is that Bin Laden won. He succeeded where diplomacy failed: The attacks on New York and Washington, and the wars that followed in Afghanistan and Iraq, compelled America to conduct serious soul-searching concerning its relations with Islam, and to try to comprehend the limits of its power.

Less than eight years after September 11, the Oval Office is now occupied by a president who was raised and schooled in a Muslim country, and who is trying to convince Muslims and Arabs that the United States is not the enemy, but rather a legitimate partner to their interests and aspirations. A president who came to Cairo to promise that from now on, America will treat Islam nicely, and that Bush's "crusade" - and attempt to dictate to the Arabs how to behave and how to govern - has come to an end.

For Israel, Obama's "Cairo speech" marks nothing less than a strategic revolution. During the Bush era, Israel was America's friendliest partner in the war on terror, and enjoyed military freedom of operation against the Palestinians, Hezbollah and Syria, for which it in return withdrew from the Gaza settlements. With Obama, Israel has to undergo a re-education, and will have to once again pass a test of its dedication to U.S. interests in the Middle East.

Until yesterday, Obama discussed the Israeli-Arab conflict in terms of interests, and refrained from speaking about values and ethics. But in Cairo, he used the vocabulary and narrative of the American liberal left, whence he came. He spoke unwaveringly about "the occupation" and about the "Palestinians aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own," and promised that the United States would not turn its back on the Palestinians. He called on Hamas to show responsibility and to recognize Israel's right to exist; he did not call it a terror organization, but a movement that enjoys some popular support.

In addressing the Palestinians, Obama urged that they wage their war without violence, and he compared it to the struggle of black slaves in America to be freed from white domination, to the struggle of the blacks in South Africa, and to the struggles of other nations in South Asia and Eastern Europe. This is not an easy comparison for Israeli ears: In Obama's view, the Palestinians are waging a just struggle for national liberation, which reminds him of past efforts to break free of colonialism and Soviet tyranny. In the same breath, he called upon the Arab world to acknowledge the history of Jewish persecution and the Holocaust, and to understand that Arab anti-Semitism only exacerbates the Israelis' trauma, just as Israel's behavior exacerbates the Palestinian trauma of expulsion.

Obama knows what the solution is: the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. He is not prepared to hear any other ideas. He demands that Israel stop expanding the settlements: "The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," he said, adding that this phenomenon violates previous agreements and undermines peace efforts.

Having proclaimed this loud and clear, there is no way that Obama can still agree to "natural growth" and other tricks designed to increase construction in the settlements. Now his credibility is on the line. It's his word against Israel's resolve to keep building. And this means that if Obama does exhibit the patience with which he promised to deal with the conflict, Israel will be facing a political crisis and a serious internal rift.

Benjamin Netanyahu is on the wrong side of Obama's speech, with his refusal to endorse a Palestinian state and his insistence on "natural growth" in the settlements. He might have been able to soften the blow a bit had he formed a coalition with Tzipi Livni on the basis of the two-state solution. Or if, during his White House visit, he had announced that he was embracing the road map. But that's of no importance now. Before long, Netanyahu will have to deliver a speech in response to Obama, and to declare a historic change in his ideology and policy. Until then, he'll go on hoping for a miracle that will wipe the "Cairo speech" off the agenda and make it disappear into the swirling sands of Middle East diplomacy.

Last update - 15:11 05/06/2009

Iran cleric: U.S. must stop support of Israel to improve ties

By DPA

Tags: Israel News, Iran

The United States must change its policies toward Israel to improve ties with Iran, a senior Iranian ayatollah said Friday.

"Whatever the U.S. president says about forgetting the past and starting a new phase of relations with Iran the first condition should be a policy change toward Israel," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at Friday prayers in Tehran.

The ayatollah was referring to U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world Thursday in Cairo, in which he said instead of remaining trapped in the past, the United States was prepared to move forward in its relations with the Islamic republic.

"The problems we have with the U.S. are fundamental and not minor ones," said Jannati, the head of the senate-like Guardian Council.

"Israel is one of the fundamental issues, and the question is what you - Obama - want to do with Israel. If you continue the support, then there will be the same old story again," added the ayatollah, who is prominent in the country's hard-line faction and close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Jannati further blamed the United States for not acknowledging the results of democratic elections in the Palestinian territories, which the militant group Hamas won, and interfering in Lebanon to get desired election results.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that speeches alone would not change the U.S. image in the Middle East.

"Changes should be made in practice and not by making nice speeches to world Muslims," Khamenei said.

Khamenei, who has the final say on all state affairs in Iran, said that Middle East nations "deeply hate" the United States for its policies in recent years, such as military attacks, political interference and discrimination.

Despite the harsh rhetoric, Ahmadinejad has signaled a willingness to resume talks with what the Iranian government has in the past three decades called the "Great Satan" and enemy of Muslims worldwide.

Ahmadinejad's main challenger in the June 12 presidential election, Mir-Hossein Moussavi, is also in favor of talking to Obama.

The main problem of any bilateral rapprochement and with whatever president, however, is Iran's refusal to suspend its controversial uranium-enrichment program.

The suspension of enrichment is the main demand by not only the U.S. but also the other permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and the European Union.

Both Ahmadinejad and Moussavi said Iran would be willing to assuage Western concerns that the country was working on a secret military program but would not give in to demands to suspend its peaceful nuclear projects, including enrichment.

Last update - 13:05 05/06/2009

Obama: Moment is 'now' to act for Mideast peace

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

Tags: Barack Obama

United States President Barack Obama said Friday that the "moment is now" to push forward a two-state solution, adding that both the Palestinians and Israel must get serious and prepare to make some difficult compromises.

Speaking a day after offering the Islamic world a "new beginning" with the United States, Obama reaffirmed his commitment to the peace process, saying he feared that if action was not taken now Palestinians and Israelis could become too entrenched to return to the peace table.

"I am confident that if we stick with it, having started early, we can make some serious progress this year," Obama told a news conference in Dresden with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"The moment is now for us to act on what we all know to be the truth, which is that each side is going to have to make some difficult compromises," Obama said after talks with Merkel.

"The United States can't solve this problem," the president added. The U.S. can be a "partner" in discussions to provide a framework and support, Obama said, but "ultimately" Israel and the Palestinians must reach a solution on their own.

Obama noted that in just his first five months in office, "we've seen extraordinary activity already on this issue, and that sent a signal to all the parties."

Merkel told reporters during their joint press conference that Germany was interested in having a secure state of Israel as well as a viable Palestinian state.

"I believe with the new U.S. administration, with President Obama there is a unique opportunity to see to it that the negotiation process is revived," Merkel said.

Obama was in Germany on the third stop of a four-country trip that has already taken him to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where he delivered a major address to Muslims on Thursday.

Obama also reiterated that he was serious about engaging Iran in dialogue over its contentious nuclear program, adding that he and Merkel had agreed that Tehran must be stopped before a nuclear arms race breaks out in the Middle East.

Following President Obama's address on Thursday, the U.S. administration is now trying to lower tensions with Israel.

Senior White House officials told Haaretz following the president's speech that "there is no crisis in our relationship with Israel, and we will succeed in reaching understandings on the matter of settlements."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly commended Obama's speech in a statement issued by his bureau. In private conversations, however, he expressed disappointment at what he saw as a soft stance on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Netanyahu watched Obama's speech with his closest advisers in his office in Jerusalem Thursday afternoon. Tension and uncertainty dominated the bureau ahead of the address, but was partly assuaged by a telephone call earlier in the day from Obama's aides to brief the Israeli leadership on some of the details of the speech that pertained to Israel, such as the call for establishing a Palestinian state and the demand for a freeze in settlement activity.

Following the speech, Netanyahu met again with his advisers, and then with ministers Moshe Ya'alon, Benny Begin and Dan Meridor. Also attending the meeting was Dov Weissglas, former prime minister Ariel Sharon's bureau chief, whom Netanyahu has consulted to find out what agreements Israel reached with the Bush administration over the road map peace plan and the settlements.

Saturday evening, after Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak return from their trips abroad, Netanyahu will convene a meeting with them plus Ya'alon, Begin and Meridor.

For all its praise for Obama's address, the skepticism in the statement issued by the prime minister's bureau was unmistakeable. The carefully worded statement expressed hope that "President Obama's important speech in Cairo will lead to a new period of reconciliation between the Arab and Muslim world and the State of Israel. We share President Obama's hope that the American effort will inaugurate a new era that will result in an end to the conflict and in pan-Arab recognition of Israel as the State of the Jewish people, which lives in security and peace in the Middle East."

"Israel is committed to peace and will assist as much as it can in broadening the circle of peace, while taking into account its national interests, first and foremost, its security," the statement added.

Behind closed doors, however, Netanyahu and his aides adopted a somewhat different tone. While expressing satisfaction with Obama's call to the Arab states to recognize Israel and move ahead with normalization, as well as the emphasis on the strong ties between Israel and the U.S., they expressed disappointment with Obama's message regarding Iran and its nuclear ambitions.

Sources close to Netanyahu said that contrary to expectations, Obama did not reiterate the statements he had made in the past about the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear arms, or about the need to reevaluate the nature of dialogue between Washington and Tehran by the end of 2009.

Sources in the prime minister's bureau also said that the tensions with the U.S. over settlements had been aggravated by the Cairo speech.

"There will be no agreement on this unless the Americans soften their stance," a source close to Netanyahu said Thursday.

Nevertheless, a senior White House official told Haaretz that "there is no crisis with Israel. We are working together with the Israelis in order to reach agreements and understandings regarding settlement construction and we will succeed in doing so."

The senior official added that the response of Netanyahu's bureau to the speech showed that "Israel understands that President Obama is trying to further peace in the region. Their response shows that there is a good will and readiness to work together."

"A way must be found to progress on the peace process," the official continued, "but we must emphasize that the president has made clear to the Arab and Muslim world that the bond between the U.S. and Israel is powerful and will not be broken."

Following his address in Cairo, Obama held a 45-minute meeting with seven journalists from Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Malaysia and Indonesia.

In response to a question on the steps the U.S. will take regarding the settlements, Obama said: "It's only been five months for me, Netanyahu has only been in office for two months, we've been waiting 60 years. So maybe we should try out a few more months before everybody starts looking at doomsday scenarios. This is difficult and it is going to take time."

"The Israelis have difficult decisions to make," he continued. "As I said in my speech, these settlements are an impediment to peace. That's not to deny the fact that there are people who are living in these settlements, there is a momentum to some of these settlements, and turning the back on those settlements involves very tough choices. That's why I said that America cannot do this for the parties."

Regarding the ties between the U.S. and Israel, Obama said: "I tried to make very clear in this speech that the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable, [and] will be whether there is a Democratic president or a Republican president, if there is a Democratic Congress or a Republican Congress. The ties are just very deep. So expecting a break between the U.S. and Israel is something that people should not anticipate."

On his relations with Netanyahu, he said, "I have had three meetings with Netanyahu, the first two when I was a senator, and one recently when I was at the White House. In each case I found him a very intelligent person, an excellent communicator."

"Just as so many Palestinians lost confidence and faith that the process can move forward, I think many Israelis lost confidence that they will ever be recognized by Arab states or there will be security," he continued. "So I believe Netanyahu will recognize the strategic need to deal with this issue and in some ways he may have an opportunity that a Labor or a left leader might not have."

On the peace process, the U.S. President said that "what is required is a serious, long-term engagement. We have set up various parameters on how we are going to approach the problem, and my hope and expectation - there is going to be some difficulties, but hopefully both the Israelis and the Palestinians would recognize this is in their interest. That's the main thing I wanted to emphasize in my speech."

Last update - 11:22 05/06/2009

Israel considered two-state solution just after Six-Day War

By Tom Segev

Tags: Two-State Solution

On December 5, 1967, then-chief of staff Lt. Gen. Yitzhak Rabin suggested to prime minister Levi Eshkol that a Palestinian state be established in the West Bank. The minutes of that conversation are kept today in the state archives. Rabin had in mind a state "that would be connected to Israel."

Six months after the Six-Day War, this was not a subversive or particularly "leftist" idea. Rabin, who had commanded the troops during the war and was about to head to Washington as Israel's ambassador, did not want to return the West Bank to Jordan. He looked for a way to overcome the demographic problem: "We are not going to relocate half a million Arabs," he said. Eshkol was dubious. "Will the new state have an army?" he asked. Rabin said it would have a police force, not an army. "Who determines that?" asked Eshkol. Rabin answered: "We do." Eshkol was not convinced and Rabin acknowledged: "It is a matter of a lesser of evils."

The idea somehow faded, emerged several years later and again disappeared. Forty-three years have passed, during which not a single serious new idea was raised that wasn't raised since the first months after the 1967 war; 43 years of going in circles.

Public discourse occasionally did yield some suggestions, such as for a "binational" state arrangement, a "transfer" or expulsion of Palestinians, and even for turning Jordan into a Palestinian state, with or without the West Bank. The ensuing years have not brought peace any closer. In fact, they made peace more remote. In this context, one of the numerous conversations held in the interim between Israelis and Palestinians (usually abroad), is of particular interest.

In January 1990, Maj. Gen. (res.) Shlomo Gazit met in Washington with Khaled al-Hassan, one of Fatah's five founders. Gazit, a former chief of Military Intelligence and the first coordinator of government activities in the so-called administered territories, was by then a private citizen. As was Hassan. Gazit recently found the notes from that conversation; they convey a strong sense of a missed opportunity.

In the meeting, Gazit explained that the conditions which then existed precluded a solution to the dispute; he thought the sides should reach an interim agreement without defining the final settlement. He also said the idea of creating a Palestinian state was "unbearable" for Israel.

Hassan wondered what the problem was: Was it the political leadership? The Knesset? Public opinion? Gazit answered that it was all of them together. He complained that the Palestinians were not doing nearly enough to persuade the Israelis that they sought peace.

Hassan was disappointed. He said the Palestinians had recognized the two-state solution since the 1970s. The two did not discuss borders, or the subject of Gaza. Hassan probably assumed the Palestinians would get the West Bank. Most of the settlements that currently encumber the efforts to reach peace did not exist at that time. Jerusalem would be a capital for the two states, and most of the refugees would be compensated and would not want to return to their old homes, said Hassan. He explained that his people, too, had a problem with their opposition: "We cannot ignore the rise of Hamas. At this point it seems the majority is with us. But what about the future?" He also suggested that Israelis consider the possibility that the United States would not support them forever.

Last update - 07:20 05/06/2009

Why straight people go to gay synagogues

By Jay Michaelson, The Forward

Tags: Gay synagogue, Israel News

In the next few weeks, gay and lesbian synagogues and Jewish organizations will be marching in New York, San Francisco and other cities around the country as part of gay pride parades.

But many of the people marching won't be gay themselves: More and more "gay" or GLBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender) synagogues have significant percentages of "straight allies" among their membership - in some cases, even majorities.

Although there are no precise statistics quantifying this trend, it is unmistakable to anyone who visits one of these congregations, and, in an era of shrinking synagogue affiliation, prompts the question of why these institutions are growing among a population they do not even try to serve. Maybe all of us have something to learn here.

I've visited many of these communities in my job as a GLBT religious activist, and I've spoken to many of the straight-identified people who take active roles, including leadership roles, within them. My reflections on this trend are anecdotal, but I?ve seen at least three major factors in play, all of which have something useful to teach the wider community.

First, because of their community bonds and shared histories of exclusion, GLBT synagogues are often warmer and more welcoming than your average synagogue in the suburbs.

These are communities made up of people who have felt, at times, actively excluded from the Jewish world, perhaps as all Jews used to feel when they were excluded from the mainstream of America. GLBT people have experienced rejection, and so GLBT synagogues work hard to make up for it.

As a result, having spent time in dozens of synagogues as a teacher or scholar in residence, I can report that gay synagogues are among the most proactive in terms of inclusion - both on the formal, structural level (committees, policies, language, accessibility) and the tachlis, practical level (saying hello to new people on Friday night).

What we have recently learned, thanks to a study commissioned by Jewish Mosaic: The National Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity, is that inclusion is a value that transcends subject matter. It was fascinating to listen to panelists discuss the study last April at the JCC in Manhattan, because the GLBT experience was almost identical to the multi-faith experience, and quite similar to what folks from other marginalized groups (for example, Jews of color) have reported for years. Whether it?s gays or multi-faith families or multiracial families or Jews from different economic backgrounds, inclusion is inclusion is inclusion. Synagogues that get it, get it - and those that don?t, don?t.

What the study also found is that policies alone don?t do it: An "open door policy" will not be enough when people are used to having doors slammed in their faces. To be truly inclusive requires proactive steps, like providing visibility for marginalized groups (committees, special programs), explicitly welcoming them in synagogue publications and Web sites, and providing sensitivity training for staff and congregants. For example, please don't ask African Americans, "So, are you really Jewish?" Yes, this actually happens.

Gay synagogues have been at the forefront of all of this. And now, rather like Toyota reaping the benefits of its hybrid car technology, they've created a valuable commodity. The fact is, everyone likes to feel included, not just minorities. Especially outside New York, less-affiliated Jews have felt excluded for many, many reasons - not knowing Hebrew, not feeling religious enough - and what they find at most gay synagogues is a community that welcomes them warmly and effectively, with fewer judgments, raised eyebrows or grumbles about political correctness.

A second reason that gay synagogues are attracting so many straight members is that they are voluntary communities. Their members are people who have every reason to leave the Jewish world and never come back. They - we - have been scorned, vilified, marginalized, reduced to sexual beings, and analogized to perverts and deviants and worse. And that?s just by our rabbis.

Even today, there are foundations and federations to which my GLBT not-for-profit organization is discreetly advised not to apply (rather like Jews were advised not to apply to certain country clubs). Yet despite all this, you can walk into a gay synagogue and find dozens, or hundreds, of people filling the pews and singing at the top of their lungs.

This is inspiring stuff, and if you haven?t seen it, I suggest you check it out for yourself. Straight people have told me that they feel the most joy of Judaism in gay synagogues, precisely because the joy is hard earned. These are people who really, really want to be there - and that is immediately noticeable, regardless of one?s sexuality or gender.

Third, straight people join gay synagogues because there's a refreshing irony to GLBT religious expression. Yes, we understand that for most of Jewish history, Leviticus was read as anti-gay, and that to many people, "gay (religious) Jew" is an oxymoron. But we?re doing it anyway. This means that most gay synagogues approach Jewish ritual and text with a little more critical distance - even a sense of humor. This is deeply relaxing.

Sure, there are plenty of pitched battles at GLBT ritual committees, and plenty of Orthodox GLBT Jews who are righteously uptight about legal minutiae. This comes with the territory. But in general, my straight friends and I have found that queer Judaism is, by nature, just a little more self-aware than the norm. In every gay synagogue I?ve been to, there's an understanding that Jewish tradition is not just available off the shelf, but must be reinvented, re-appropriated and renewed.

Obviously, these values are not limited to GLBT communities. Nowadays, everyone's trying to "reinvent tradition," from Jewish Renewal to Modern Orthodoxy. Notwithstanding this rhetoric, however, countless Jewish communities still nourish remnants of a much older model - the one that says it?s our way or the highway.

It's outdated, it's alienating? and it's alive and well in many congregations, across the denominational spectrum. Yet such a fundamentalist attitude would be ludicrous in a community creating new ritual to celebrate gender transition, or new liturgy for becoming an adoptive co-parent. And as with inclusion and inspiration, this healthy sense of self-awareness is attractive to Jews regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

It's not that gay synagogues are somehow more enlightened about inclusion, inspiration, irony and innovation than straight ones are; it's that they have had no choice but to develop them. By necessity, they've nurtured values and practices that are now hot commodities in the Jewish community at large. Unintentionally, they have become laboratories of the Jewish future.

Today, gay synagogues are at a crossroads. Many are becoming irrelevant, as mainstream synagogues learn how to include GLBT people, and their gifts, more effectively. Many others have become victims of their own success and have lost their distinctive gay identities as more and more straight people have joined.

Yet now is also a time of flowering, and of harvest. The two largest GLBT synagogues in America, New York?s Congregation Beth Simchat Torah and San Francisco's Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, each have recently published gorgeous new siddurim, each of which is a font of innovative liturgy and ritual (not to mention a sociology thesis in waiting). The leaders of these institutions have become influential political activists, particularly in the area of same-sex marriage. And growing gay synagogues around the country are experiencing the same growing pains as ordinary synagogues: breakaway minyans, capital campaigns, you name it.

But I want to end this column far from any sanctuary, in a warehouse space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. I was there a few weeks ago to see Athens Boys Choir, aka Harvey Katz, a transgender Jewish hip-hop artist who was debuting his new video, "EZ Heeb." Katz was great: hilarious, irreverent and talented. And what I suddenly realized was that all of the same factors I've just described about gay synagogues - inclusivity, inspiration, innovation, irony ? were in sharp relief at the show, as well.

The crowd was not your usual pack of yuppie Jews. It was (dare I say it?) a rainbow of gender expression and levels of Jewish affiliation, but - or maybe as a result - it was a warm and friendly audience. Katz had every reason to be bitter, but his songs celebrated his Jewishness: He claimed it, he owned it, he flaunted it. And yet he never seemed to fall into it; there was always some camp sensibility in play, from the video footage of his bat mitzvah party to a transgender man "talkin' bout my bris/before the first kiss." No fake authenticity here, thanks. Katz was an outsider and insider at once, and as such was an ideal emissary of Jewish culture and identity. Which, of course, he never set out to be.

Gay synagogues weren't founded to attract straight congregants with an inclusive, voluntary and healthily ironic approach to Jewish life. But they've done it. Maybe others could as well

Last update - 06:06 05/06/2009

What Obama did and didn't say

By Aluf Benn

Tags: Settlements, West Bank

Settlements

The United States has objected to the settlements since 1967, but its position has changed. The Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations stated that the settlements were illegal. Since the Reagan administration (1981), the U.S. has called the settlements "an obstacle to peace" without referring to their lawfulness.

Former president George W. Bush agreed to Israeli construction in the large settlement blocs in exchange for Israel evacuating the settlers from the Gaza Strip and the northern West Bank, and accepting the "two-state solution."

Yesterday, Obama introduced a new term. He said the U.S. does not accept the legitimacy of "continued settlements" and would see construction as a violation of previous agreements and as undermining efforts for peace. Obama's envoys demanded a complete suspension of building.

Obama's words are compatible with the "Bush letter" to prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004, which recognized "existing Israeli population concentrations" in the West Bank - but not expanding them. Thus Obama refers only to new construction and not to existing settlements.

Occupation

Obama is not the first president to oppose the occupation. Bush called to end the "occupation that began in 1967," and said it was untenable for Palestinians to go on living in squalor and occupation. But Obama compared the Palestinian struggle to other liberation movements from slavery, colonialism and Communism.

Israel

At his meeting with Netanyahu, Obama said Israel was an "independent Jewish state." He did not repeat that phrase, which the Arabs reject, in Cairo, and only spoke about America's recognition of the aspiration for a Jewish homeland after hundreds of years of persecution.

National traumas

Obama said more Jews were murdered in the Holocaust "than the entire Jewish population of Israel today." He vehemently rejected Holocaust denial and called on the Arabs to avoid anti-Semitic statements. Immediately afterward he spoke about the Palestinians' suffering, the Palestinian refugees' "pain of dislocation" and the everyday humiliation of the occupation.

Iran

Obama said he objected to Iran having a nuclear bomb for fear of an arms race in the region. He spoke of "decisive points," but did not explain what they are. He did not issue a threat or warning to Iran, and only stressed that it has the right to "peaceful nuclear power" under supervision.

Arab peace initiative

Contrary to expectations, Obama didn't adopt the Arab peace initiative and said it was only the first step. He is demanding the Arab states accept Israel's legitimacy and help the Palestinians.

Palestinian State

Bush announced in 2002 the vision of "two states living side by side in peace and security." Obama stated simply that there is no other solution than two states and did not speak about the Palestinian state's character or government.

Last update - 11:00 05/06/2009

Netanyahu now faces fight with either Obama or his coalition

By Yossi Verter

Tags: Tzipi Livni

During long, personal conversations with his inner circle over the past week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu admitted that he had no idea what U.S. President Barack Obama would say in his speech in Cairo. "We have no information," he said. He does now.

Netanyahu now understands what he already knew before the speech: The moment of political reckoning that he so feared is now rapidly approaching. The thunder he hears in the distance is the sound of the Likud legions and the West Bank settler hordes rolling down the mountains. The light on the horizon is not that of a new day, but of a train coming right at him - a night train from Cairo.

Netanyahu will have to decide over the coming weeks whom he would rather pick a fight with: the powerful U.S. administration, whose president sees himself in an almost messianic role, or his own coalition and members of his party.

If he aligns himself with the coalition, he will keep his job but risk isolating Israel. The alternative would elevate him to the position of a national leader who puts the nation's interests above his personal ones, but it might destabilize his rightist coalition. On the other hand, one must remember that two of his governing partners, Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu, also sat in former prime minister Ehud Olmert's coalition, which sanctified the two-state solution.

At the moment, Netanyahu is not signaling that he plans a showdown with the illegal West Bank outposts. He cannot even bring himself to utter the words "two-state solution." He seems petrified by party hard-liners like Benny Begin and Moshe Ya'alon. Maybe he is really scared, or maybe this is just a game of pretend, so he can pin the blame on them.

When he formed his coalition, Netanyahu gambled on bringing the Labor Party into his government. "Those who dare, win," he quoted, explaining his decision to invite the left-leaning party into his right-leaning coalition despite the hefty price. But when it comes to diplomacy, the prime minister is not one to dare. He digs in.

Netanyahu has three options. None of them would be easy, but he did not run for office because it was an easy job.

First, he could announce his support for a two-state solution, evacuate the illegal outposts and freeze construction in isolated settlements. That would incur the wrath of hard-liners within Likud and might cause Habayit Hayehudi to resign from his coalition, but he would survive for now.

Second, he could go back to square one and form a new coalition with Kadima. But the political price he would pay in surrendering to the demands of Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni is intolerable to him.

Or, third, he could say no to Obama. And then we would all have to live with the fallout.

Last update - 06:32 05/06/2009

World Bank: Aid isn't enough to spark Palestinian growth

By Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies , By Avi Issacharoff

Tags: Palestinians, Gaza Strip

The massive aid for the Gaza Strip and West Bank has had little effect, as economic growth and development continues to be stymied by Israeli restrictions on Palestinian trade and movement, the World Bank said Thursday.

"In the face of the ongoing economic restrictions imposed by the government of Israel, most of these projects have not gotten off the ground to date," the World Bank said in a report ahead of the donor countries conference.

It cited Israeli roadblocks and checkpoints hindering trade and travel, as well as restrictions on Palestinian building in the West Bank, where the Western-backed government of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas holds sway.

The $5.2 billion promised by the donor countries at the March pledging conference in Sharm el-Sheikh has not been transferred to Gaza, and reconstruction work there following Operation Cast Lead has not begun, the report says.

Due to the growing isolation of the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, residents are becoming more dependent on foreign aid, the report says.

The bank says that even if the required materials for rehabilitation are allowed into Gaza, this would not change the situation there so long as the private sector cannot freely import and export.

The report says that despite the Palestinian economy's considerable potential for growth, the gross national product per capita declined 1 percent in 2008. The private sector's share is diminishing while the public sector is growing, as is the dependence on international aid. Last year, 30 percent of the gross national product was donations.

Last update - 10:28 05/06/2009

Obama emerged in Cairo as a true friend of Israel

By Gideon Levy

Tags: Obama speech Cairo, Egypt

Neither Tel Aviv nor Ramallah held their breaths Thursday as the American president gave a speech in Cairo; the traffic in both crowded cities continued normally. Tel Aviv was indifferent, Ramallah sunk in desperation: Both cities have already had their fill of nice, historic speeches.

Nonetheless, no one can ignore the speech given by Barack Obama: The mountain birthed a mountain. Obama remained Obama. Only the Israeli analysts tried to diminish the speech's importance ("not terrible"), to spread fear ("he mentioned the Holocaust and the Nakba in a single breath"), or were insulted on our behalf ("he did not mention our right to the land as promised in the Bible"). All these were redundant and unnecessary. Obama emerged Thursday as a true friend of Israel.

The prime minister ordered the ministers to say nothing, but of course they could not help but invade the studios. Uzi Landau said that a Palestinian state is tantamount to an "Iranian state." Isaac Herzog appeared even more ridiculous when he said that the problem with the settlements is one of "public relations." In essence, both were busy with the same problem: How can we manage to pull the new America's leg as well? Israeli politicians have never before appeared as pathetic, as small as they did Thursday, compared to the bearer of promise in Cairo.

Indeed, there was promise in Cairo, of the dawn of a new age. A U.S. president talking about negotiations with Iran without preconditions or tacit threats, even willing to accept Iran having civilian nuclear capability; a president who talked about Hamas as a legitimate organization that represents part of Palestinian society, but that needs to relinquish violence; who spoke with empathy about Palestinian suffering; who spoke, believe it or not, about security not only for Israelis but also for Palestinians; who said that all the settlements are illegal; who called for nuclear disarmament of the entire region. All are sensational messages, headlines whose significance cannot be exaggerated, even if there are those who desperately tried to argue yesterday that "there was nothing new in his speech."

Not enough? Obama also spoke in Cairo (!) against denying the Holocaust, about the rights of women and Copts, and on the need for democracy tailored to each society's culture.

This is the thinking of a great leader, who walked with wisdom and sensitivity between the Holocaust and the Nakba, between Israelis and Palestinians, between Americans and Arabs, between Christians, Jews and Muslims. How easy it is to imagine his predecessor, George Bush the Terrible, in the same position: a complete opposite.

Our right-wingers were disappointed that he did not approve at least of Gush Etzion, and the peace lovers were disappointed that he did not offer a timetable. But a speech is just that, and the time for carrying things out is still to come.

But why waste words? Israeli news shows still opened Thursday with the Dudu Topaz story; that is what really interests Israelis. Never mind Obama; Israel has its own concerns.

Last update - 11:24 05/06/2009

Post-Obama speech, U.S. seeks to reduce Israel tensions

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies

Tags: obama speech Cairo

Following President Barack Obama's address in Cairo Thursday, the U.S. administration is now trying to lower tensions with Israel.

Saturday evening, after Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Defense Minister Ehud Barak return from their trips abroad, Netanyahu will convene a meeting with them plus Ya'alon, Begin and Meridor.

Sources in the prime minister's bureau also said that the tensions with the U.S. over settlements had been aggravated by the Cairo speech.

"There will be no agreement on this unless the Americans soften their stance," a source close to Netanyahu said Thursday.

Following his address in Cairo, Obama held a 45-minute meeting with seven journalists from Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, the Palestinian Authority, Israel, Malaysia and Indonesia.

Last update - 00:34 05/06/2009

U.S. Jews split over Obama's Israel remarks in Cairo speech

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz U.S. Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Jewish World

Leaders of Jewish organizations in the United States were divided Thursday in their reactions to comments that President Barack Obama made on Israel in an address to the Muslim world in Cairo.

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Dovish pro-peace lobby J Street applauded the address, in which Obama reaffirmed U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and called on Israel to halt settlement building.

"The President was clear. Palestinians must renounce violence and accept Israel's existence, Israel must stop settlement activity and end the humiliation of the Palestinian people that comes with their occupation, and the broader Arab world must step up to a more constructive role as well," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, J Street Executive Director, in a statement.

Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu is at odds with Obama on the issues of West Bank settlement construction and Palestinian statehood; he has said construction would continue in existing settlements has not publicly endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The National Jewish Democratic Council, meanwhile, praised Obama's commitment to Israel's security in the speech.

"The President made very clear to the Arab world that he was going to continue to prioritize Israel's peace and security, and that the U.S. and Israel have an 'unbreakable' bond,'" said Ira Forman, head of the group.

But the address drew fire from across the aisle, with the Republican Jewish Coalition criticizing the U.S. leader for placing Israel and the Arab world on an equal footing.

"President Barack Obama, in his major speech in Cairo this morning, struck a balanced tone with regard to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that's what was wrong with this speech," said Director Matthew Brooks, Republican Jewish Coalition Executive.

"American policy should not be balanced - it should side with those who fight terror, not those who either engage in it or are too weak to prevent it."

The Israel Project, an organization that seeks to educate the media on Israel, both welcomed the address and expressed concern over some of Obama's remarks.

"President Obama's speech was historic in its bold outreach to Muslims and in its dramatic move for peace. There is a lot in the speech for Americans and Muslims to celebrate," said Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, the group's founder and president.

She added: "While we knew Israelis would feel pressured about implementing a two-state solution and stopping settlements, I am very concerned about President Obama's comments that Iran has a right to nuclear materials for energy given the dangerous fact that some of those materials could get into the hands of terrorists including Iran?s proxies, Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad."

Last update - 22:00 04/06/2009

UN investigator 'shocked' by scale of destruction in Gaza

By The Associated Press

Tags: UN, Gaza, war crimes

The head of a United Nations team investigating possible war crimes by Israel and Hamas during the Gaza war said Thursday he had been shocked by the scale of the destruction in the Palestinian areas.

South African Judge Richard Goldstone spoke at the end of a four-day fact-finding trip to Gaza, during which his 15-member team interviewed dozens of witnesses and visited sites damaged in Israel's three-week offensive against Hamas that ended Jan. 18.

His team hoped to visit Israel and the West Bank as well, but Israel has refused to cooperate, citing alleged anti-Israel bias by the U.N. Human Rights Council, the probe's sponsor.

Goldstone said he hoped Israel's refusal would not weaken the final report, due in early September, adding that it would not keep the team from investigating allegations against both sides.

"If we haven't dealt with facts that Israel would like us to deal with, I think we can hardly be blamed for that," he said.

The team announced Thursday that it will hold public hearings with the war's victims later this month in Gaza and Geneva.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said he did not anticipate a

change in Israel's stand toward the investigation or the Human Right Council, which has a record of criticizing Israel for its treatment of the Palestinians.

"They should call us the day the Human Rights Council decides on a human rights inquiry on some other place around the globe," he said, mentioning Darfur and Sri Lanka. "After that, we may start to be convinced that they are not singling out Israel."

Israeli, Palestinian and international human rights groups began calling for war crimes investigations soon after the 22-day war ended in January.

Israeli launched the war to stop eight years of Hamas rocket fire on Israeli towns.

Palestinian human rights groups say more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed, most of them civilians. Israel says around 1,100 Gazans were killed and that most were militants. Thirteen Israelis were also killed, three of them civilians.

Goldstone refused to comment on the ongoing investigation's content. But human rights groups have said Israel used disproportionate force and failed to protect civilians. They say Hamas fought from civilian areas and is suspected of having used human shields - all of which can be violations of international law.

Goldstone, who previously investigated war crimes in Rwanda and the former

Yugoslavia, said the public hearings in Gaza and Geneva later this month would allow the voices and the faces of victims to be seen and heard by the whole international community.

He said both Palestinians and Israelis would be invited to speak in Geneva.

Last update - 20:00 04/06/2009

EU donates millions to preserve Auschwitz

By The Associated Press

Tags: EU, Auschwitz, Nazis

The European Union will give 5.9 million United States Dollars to help preserve Auschwitz, the former Nazi death camp which, more than six decades after World War II, is in a state of serious disrepair.

Rafal Pioro, who heads Auschwitz's conservation department, said the EU recently promised the money to fund badly needed repairs to the camp's structures.

Museum officials and others are struggling to preserve Auschwitz - a vast complex of barbed wire, gas chambers, barracks and watchtowers, that stands as historical evidence and as a symbol of Nazi evil. The site gets about 1 million visitors per year.

"[The grant] is significant and will let us get started on our complex work on the camp," Pioro said Thursday.

But he estimated the total preservation project will cost about 200 million zlotys ($64 million). Work is scheduled to begin this August.

More than 1 million people, mostly Jews, died in the gas chambers or through forced labor, disease or starvation at the camp, which the Nazis built after occupying Poland.

The camp was liberated in January 1945 by Soviet troops.

Officials at Auschwitz also announced Thursday they have reached a settlement with the son of a Holocaust victim over a suitcase that had belonged to his father before he was murdered in the camp.

Michel Levi-Leleu had demanded the return of the suitcase, which bears a tag with his father's name and former address: 86 Boul, Villette, Paris Pierre Levi. The Auschwitz museum, however, argued that the suitcase was a key part of its collection and belongs there.

The suitcase was lent to the Shoah Memorial Museum in Paris in 2005, and the settlement involves leaving it there on permanent loan. In exchange, Levi-Leleu has renounced his family's claim to the suitcase, Auschwitz said.

Last update - 19:31 04/06/2009

Woman sues Sacha Baron Cohen over 'Bruno' skirmish

By The Associated Press

Tags: Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat

Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie is not in theaters yet, but it is already producing the same sort of buzz and legal backlash that his last hit, "Borat," created.

Richelle Olson sued the 37-year-old actor and NBC Universal on May 22, claiming an incident at a charity bingo tournament that was filmed for the upcoming "Bruno" left her disabled.

Olson claims she was severely injured after struggling with Cohen and his film crew at the event, held in Palmdale, Calif., two years ago. The lawsuit states she now needs a wheelchair or cane to move around.

he lawsuit seeks unspecified damages of more than $25,000.

Phone and e-mail messages sent to publicists for Cohen and NBC Universal weren't immediately returned Wednesday.

Cohen's 2006 film, "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," produced numerous lawsuits by people claiming they were duped and humiliated by his antics. A New York judge last year threw out claims by a driving instructor and two etiquette teachers after determining they signed agreements releasing filmmakers from liability.

It was unclear whether the incident involving Olson will appear in "Bruno." The lawsuit mentions contracts that Olson apparently signed, but claim they were entered under "duress" and included several misrepresentations.

"Borat" was a surprise box-office hit, earning more than $125 million in the United States.

In "Bruno," scheduled for release July 10, Cohen plays a flamboyantly gay Austrian fashionista. Much like in "Borat," Cohen's humor depends on cajoling people to let him into events and he then tapes their reactions to his outlandish behavior.

Olson's lawsuit contends Cohen has 30 sham companies that help him pull off his ruses and that is how the comedian and his camera crew gained entry into the Desert Valley Charities' bingo tournament in May 2007.

Cohen was invited to the event because his handlers identified him as a "celebrity" who was filming a documentary on bingo, the suit states. The event was to raise money for nursing students.

According to the lawsuit, Cohen?in character as Bruno?started using vulgarities while calling the second bingo game in front of a mostly elderly audience.

A struggle ensued after Olson tried to grab the microphone away from Cohen. She claims he then called his camera crew over, who attacked her for at least a minute, hoping to "create a dramatic emotional response."

Olson's suit states she ran from the stage and was found moments later by a co-worker, sobbing uncontrollably. She then fell to the floor, hitting her head on a concrete slab.

The suit states she suffered brain bleeding as a result.

The lawsuit, filed in Lancaster, which is about 70 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Last update - 19:00 04/06/2009

Israel warns Belarus against ties with Iran

By The Associated Press

Tags: Belarus, Iran, Lieberman

Foreign Minister Lieberman on Thursday strongly cautioned Belarus against developing relations with Iran.

Lieberman said that Iran poses a major threat to stability in the entire Middle East. He told reporters that Israel expects Belarusian officials to take its concerns into account and promised to intensify ties with the ex-Soviet nation.

Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko has developed close ties with Iran, calling the Islamic republic a key partner. He and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have exchanged visits and warm words of solidarity.

While trade between Belarus and Iran only amounted to $93.8 million, according to official Belarusian statistics, some media and Belarusian opposition activists had alleged that Belarus could have served as a corridor for covert supplies of Russian weapons to Iran. Officials in Russia and Belarus have dismissed the allegations.

Lieberman, who arrived in Belarus after visiting Russia, harshly criticized the Iranian president for sponsoring an annual conference denying the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad, who has repeatedly questioned the extent of the Holocaust and called for Israel to be wiped from the map, said Wednesday that the Holocaust was a deception.

"We can't tolerate a country which is a member of the United Nations holding a conference on Holocaust denial on annual basis, Lieberman said. "Any attempts to rewrite the World War II history, including the Holocaust denial, are unacceptable."

Russia has been Belarus' main sponsor, but Lukashenko recently has sought to improve Belarus' ties with the West amid a cold spell in relations with Moscow which worsened over economic and financial disputes.

He urged Israel Thursday to help Belarus normalize its ties with the United States and EU nations, which have been strained over the Belarusian authorities' crackdown on dissent and free media.

Lieberman said that Israel is ready to consider the extension of ties and said that it would invest $500 million into the development of Belarus electronics industry.

Before the war, about 1 million Jews lived in Belarus and 800,000 of them died in the Holocaust. Today they number 27,000 in the country of 10 million.

Belarusian authorities have paid lip service to Holocaust victims while at the same time allowing the destruction of Jewish cemeteries. In 2007, Lukashenko compared Jews to pigs, drawing a sharp protest from the Israeli government.

Last update - 19:08 04/06/2009

ANALYSIS / Obama put Arabs and Israel on an equal footing

By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent

On June 4, 2009 a new chapter began in the trilateral relations between the United States, the Arab world and Israel. One day before Israel marks the 42nd anniversary of the Six-Day War, U.S. President Barack Obama declared before the entire world, upon an Arab-Muslim stage, that the time has come to end the era of Israeli occupation in the Palestinian territories. Moreover, Obama announced that he was taking responsibility for doing so. The imbalance in the unequal U.S.-Israel-Arab triangle was replaced Thursday by an Isosceles triangle.

Join the debate on Obama's speech on the Haaretz.com Facebook group

bama was careful to quote equally from the Koran, Talmud and Torah in order to emphasize that what is at stake is not only merely transient interests, but a deep moral approach as well as his own fundamental values and those of the American nation. He even compared the Palestinians to black slaves in the U.S. and effectively offered them the opportunity of following in Dr. Martin Luther King's footsteps and obtaining their rights without resorting to violence.

The equal treatment of Jews and Muslims touched upon more than the history of the peoples of the Middle East. Alongside the prominence assigned to the Holocaust and America's commitment to its longstanding alliance with Israel, Obama also grouped Israel with the rest of the region's nations, including Iran, with regard to the issue of nuclear arms. Without naming Israel, Obama made it clear he is not opposed to peaceful nuclear programs, but was firm in his insistence that all nations operate within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Israel has refused to sign the treaty, while Iran, who has signed it, does not abide by it.

Obama did not detail his plan for realizing the two-state solution and did not give a schedule. However, his unusual visit to Riyadh and Cairo, which came shortly after a visit to Turkey, another Muslim country, could be a source of disappointment for Israel, which had hoped that the economic crisis would distract Obama from foreign policy in general, and the Middle East in particular.

Obama's address placed the ball in Israel's court in a number of ways: First, it gave a clear and unequivocal endorsement of the two-state solution and the establishment of a Palestinian state with a reasonable time frame. Arab sources claim that Obama has committed himself to ending the Israel-Palestinian conflict by November 2010 - the halfway mark of his term in office. Second, it gave a clear directive to Israel's government and military to ensure the cessation of settlement expansion and to prepare for dismantling illegal outposts. Third, it emphasized Israel's need to open the Gaza border crossings to a wide range of supplies and make good on its promise to dismantle West Bank checkpoints.

Last update - 00:32 05/06/2009

Israel: We hope Obama speech heralds new era in Mideast

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies

Tags: Israel News

The Israeli government praised U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world Thursday, saying it shared his hopes for Middle East peace, but stressed that Israel's security interests remained paramount.

"We share President Obama's hope that the American effort heralds the opening of a new era that will bring an end to the conflict and to general Arab recognition of Israel as the nation of the Jewish people that lives in security and peace in the Middle East," an official statement said after Obama's address in Cairo.

The statement made no mention of settlements, which Obama said should not be expanded, nor Palestinian statehood.

At odds with Obama, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that construction would continue in existing settlements in the West Bank and he has not publicly endorsed a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Netanyahu's bureau also released a statement Thursday affirming Israel's desire to pursue peace, but in accordance with its national interests.

"Israel is committed to peace and will do all it can to expand the circle of peace while considering its national interests, first and foremost being security," the statement said.

Later Thursday, Defense Minster Ehud Barak echoed the comments in welcoming Obama's address and reiterated Israel's desire to pursue peace talks.

"In the speech there is reinforcement and encouragement for moderate elements and supporters of peace; there is also outspoken criticism of terrorism and [its] origins of violence and extremism that are threatening the stability of our region and the entire world," said Barak in a statement.

He added that Israel lauded Obama's commitment to its existence and security, and his calls for the country's integration in Middle East.

"Israel is committed to advancing negotiations with the Palestinians, based on agreements that have previously been committed to," he said. "We hope that the Arab world will heed the calls of President Obama to put an end to terror and violence and forge peaceful relations with Israel."

Earlier in the day, Daniel Hershkowitz, chairman of the rightist Habayit Hayehudi party, said that Obama ignored the fact that the Palestinians have yet to renounce terror.

"The Israeli government is not an American surplus," he said during a tour of Hebron. "Our relations are based on friendship, not domination, and we've got to draw a line when it comes to natural growth in the settlements."

Kadima MK Ze'ev Boim said that "Obama's speech is yet another proof that Netanyahu miscalculated the foreign policy of the new American administration."

"The president's take on the Palestinian question is similar to Kadima's, and it's a shame that narrow political considerations prevented the Israeli government from espousing the two-state solution which is the only one that can ensure a Jewish and democratic existence in Israel."

Kadima MK Yohanan Plesner said that "Israel could benefit from the America's improved image in the Arab world and leverage it to forge a regional coalition, together with the moderate Arab countries, to counter Iran, but instead the government is engaged in marginal debates on outposts."

Minority Affairs Minister Avishay Braverman (Labor) said that Obama was right that the world's common enemy is extremism and that finding a common strategy is the way to defeat it.

"We should adopt a similar strategy in Jewish-Arab and religious-secular relations, as well as vis-à-vis the Palestinians," Braverman said. "We are committed to the two-state solution."

Meretz leader Haim Oron, for his part, welcomed Obama's speech. He said it was filled with inspiration, optimism and vision.

"The speech is the feat of enlightenment," he said.

An Israeli settler spokeswoman dismissed Obama's speech in Cairo as naive and out of touch with reality.

Aliza Herbst, a resident of the Ofra settlement, said modern history has shown that the Muslim world is at war with the West. She added that Obama's vision of peace sounded nice but was not realistic.

Peres: Obama visit is a rare opportunity for peace

President Shimon Peres praised Obama's Mideast speech as a historic opportunity in a guest column in The Times.

Obama's journey to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, Peres wrote, "reflects both the need for an historic change in the Middle East and a unique chance of achieving it."

Peres said that the international options that are being discussed - the Saudi peace initiative as well as the so-called "57-state solution" proposed by King Abdullah of Jordan - could create a favorable momentum that would lead to the resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict.

He called on Arab countries to engage in bilateral negotiations with Israel while espousing a regional process of normalization.

"Support from the entire Arab world will provide legitimacy for the Palestinian Authority as it approaches the difficult task of making and then implementing historic compromises. At the same time it may reassure Israel that the painful concessions it will make will be rewarded by a broader, more enduring comprehensive peace across the region," Peres wrote.

Peres said Obama's fervent commitment to changing American foreign policy in the Middle East is a rare opportunity.

"The regional leaders have to treat these options seriously - not as another photo-opportunity but in a substantive discussion aimed at opening the door towards comprehensive peace and regional economic development," he concluded.

Last update - 13:32 04/06/2009

Obama in Cairo: Israelis can't deny Palestine's right to exist

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Tags: Israel News, Barack Obama

In his long-anticipated Cairo address to the Muslim world, U.S. President Barack Obama reaffirmed Washington's strong backing for a Palestinian state, using the term "Palestine" numerous times to highlight his administration's commitment to follow through on a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

While reaffirming Washington's "unbreakable bond" with Israel, Obama said that there can be no denying of the right of "Palestine" to exist, and that he would "personally pursue" the realization of a Palestinian state "with all the patience that the task requires."

"Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestine's," Obama said.

The president also issued a blunt repudiation of Israel's settlement enterprise in the West Bank, an issue that has strained Washington's ties with Jerusalem.

"The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements," Obama said. "This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop."

"The obligations that the parties have agreed to under the Road Map are clear," obama said, referring to the multi-stage peace plan agreed to by Israel and the Palestinians during the Bush presidency. "For peace to come, it is time for them - and all of us - to live up to our responsibilities."

"If we see this conflict only from one side or the other, then we will be blind to the truth," Obama said. "The only resolution is for the aspirations of both sides to be met through two states, where Israelis and Palestinians each live in peace and security."

"That is in Israel's interest, Palestine's interest, America's interest, and the world's interest," the president said.

Obama said his government will close the gap between public pronouncements and difficult truths that are often acknowledged behind closed doors in the halls of power throughout the Middle East.

"America will align our policies with those who pursue peace, and say in public what we say in private to Israelis and Palestinians and Arabs," Obama said.

Obama urged Muslims around the world to acknowledge Jewish suffering and to repudiate Holocaust denial. The Arab and Muslim world ought to reconcile with the existence of Israel, the president said.

"Threatening Israel with destruction - or repeating vile stereotypes about Jews - is deeply wrong, and only serves to evoke in the minds of Israelis this most painful of memories while preventing the peace that the people of this region deserve," Obama said.

The president also noted the plight of the Palestinians, who "have suffered in pursuit of a homeland" and who "endure daily humiliations ... that come with occupation."

"Many wait in refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead," Obama said. "So let there be no doubt: the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. America will not turn our backs on the legitimate Palestinian aspiration for dignity, opportunity, and a state of their own."

The president urged the Palestinians to use the example of African slaves in the United States, arguing that a "peaceful and determined insistence upon the ideals at the center of America's founding" had led to their gaining civil rights.

"Resistance through violence and killing is wrong and does not succeed," Obama said. "For centuries, black people in America suffered the lash of the whip as slaves and the humiliation of segregation. But it was not violence that won full and equal rights."

Obama said the Palestinians "must focus on what they can build." He urged Hamas to accept the Quartet's preconditions for international recognition - recognition of past signed agreements with Israel, recognition of Israel's right to exist, and a renunciation of violence.

"I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world, one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect," Obama said.

Obama offered the Arabic greeting of assalaamu alaykum, or "peace be unto you", in the early part of his speech. He also quoted a passage from the Koran and cited his father's Muslim background in a bid to highlight his sensitivity to Islamic grievances against the West.

"America is not and never will be at war with Islam," Obama said. "We will, however, relentlessly confront violent extremists who pose a grave threat to our security."

"The relationship between Islam and the West includes centuries of co-existence and cooperation, but also conflict and religious wars," Obama said. "Violent extremists have exploited these tensions in a small but potent minority of Muslims."

"Much has been made of the fact that an African-American with the name Barack Hussein Obama could be elected President," Obama said. "But my personal story is not so unique."

Prior to the speech, Obama met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a key American ally, at his palace in the capital.

"We discussed how to move forward in a constructive way to bring peace and prosperity to people in the region," Obama told reporters after talks with Mubarak, who has ruled Egypt since 1981 and kept a tight lid on opposition.

"I emphasized to him that the U.S. is committed to working in partnership with countries in the region so all people can meet their aspirations," he said before heading to a mosque in a quarter of Cairo that is full of Islamic architectural gems.

Last update - 00:32 05/06/2009

Hezbollah official: Muslims don't need sermons from Obama

By News Agencies

Tags: Israel News, Haaretz TV

A lawmaker belonging to the Hezbollah militant organization on Thursday dismissed a speech given by United States President Barack Obama earlier in Cairo as being like a "sermon," without signaling real change.

"The Islamic world does not need moral or political sermons. It needs a fundamental change in American policy," said Lebanese MP Hassan Fadlallah.

In the address, Obama said he sought a "new beginning" in relations between the United States and the Muslim world on Thursday, addressing grievances over the Arab-Israeli conflict, two U.S.-led wars and tensions over Iran.

A spokesman for Hamas, however, said there was change in tone in the address. But he complained that Obama did not specifically mention the suffering in Gaza following the Israeli offensive against the Islamist group this year that killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.

"There is a change between the language of President Obama and previous

speeches made by George Bush, he said. So all we can say is that there is a

difference in the statements, and the statements of today did not include a

mechanism that can translate his wishes and views into actions," said Fawzi Barhoum, whose group the U.S. considers a terrorist organization.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Obama's speech to the Muslim world was a "good start" towards a new U.S. policy in the Middle East,.

"His call for stopping settlement and for the establishment of a Palestinian state, and his reference to the suffering of Palestinians ... is a clear message to Israel that a just peace is built on the foundations of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital," said the spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeineh.

"President Obama's speech is a good start and an important step towards a new American policy," he said.

Mahmoud Ramahi, a legislator from Abbas rival Hamas, offered qualified praise for the speech.

"I have followed the speech closely. There are many positive points," he said.

"There is a difference between his policy and Bush's policy. I see a change in the U.S. foreign policy discourse. But the problem is still on the ground."

"Would they achieve a Palestinian independent state? If he does that, that would be a relief and good for all parties."

Iraq welcomed Obama's comments.

"The speech was historic and important and reflects a positive direction for the new administration [in Washington] and it is a new start," Iraqi government spokesperson Ali Al-Dabbagh said.

"The use of Koranic sayings plays a big part in a positive change of picture, but there is a necessity for action."

"The government of Iraq is comfortable with the clarity of the president in respecting commitments to Iraq and the timetable for withdrawal stipulated in the security pact."

"I think there is clear support of a right for a Palestinian state, and their right for a life, but Arabs are waiting for pressure to be exerted on Israel so it can stop its violations in Gaza and the West Bank."

Iranian leader: Speeches alone won't change U.S. image

Iran on Thursday said speeches alone would not change the image of the United States in the Middle East.

"Changes should be made in practice and not by making nice speeches to world Muslims," Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said hours before Obama's Cairo address.

"The new U.S. administration wants to change this image, but I'm telling them that this does not become feasible just by giving speeches," he said at a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the death of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The ceremony was also attended by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his main challenger in the June 12 election, Mir-Hossein Moussavi.

Both Ahmadinejad and Moussavi want to resume talks with the Obama administration but have called on the U.S. president to prove his promised changes in practice.

Last update - 12:04 04/06/2009

'Obama met Muslim Brotherhood members in U.S.'

By Avi Issacharoff (Cairo) and Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Israel News, Barack Obama

U.S. President Barack Obama met with members of Egypt's Islamist opposition movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, earlier this year, according to a report in Thursday editions of the Egyptian daily newspaper Almasry Alyoum.

The newspaper reported that Obama met the group's members, who reside in the U.S. and Europe, in Washington two months ago.

According to the report, the members requested that news of the meeting not be publicized. They expressed to Obama their support for democracy and the war on terror.

The newspaper also reported that the members communicated to Obama their position that the Muslim Brotherhood would abide by all agreements Egypt has signed with foreign countries.

Obama landed in Cairo on Thursday to deliver a conciliatory speech as part of his outreach to the Arab and Muslim world.

The Muslim Brotherhood is considered a Sunni-dominated fundamentalist Islamic organization that has spawned numerous factions across the Arab world that have engaged in terrorist activity, including the Palestinian rejectionist group Hamas.

It is also the main opposition bloc to Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose regime is viewed favorably in the West due to its adherence to the thirty-year-old peace treaty between Israel and Egypt.

The Cairo University setting in which Obama will make his Middle East speech is spectacular and will accommodate a highly unusual audience.

Israel's ambassador to Egypt, Shalom Cohen, who had been specifically invited by the White House, will be seated not far from Iran's representative and the 11 members of the Egyptian Parliament who belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Also present will be a group of Egyptian artists who oppose normalization with Israel, including film stars Adel Imam and Leila Alawi.

Just hours before the speech, the hall in which Obama will speak was nearly filled to capacity.

Egyptian sources said Ambassador Cohen was invited by the president of the university, Prof. Hossam Kamel, who told journalists the instruction to invite Cohen came from "on high" and was "impossible to refuse." The White House constructed the guest list together with the director-general of Mubarak's office, and the Egyptian president personally authorized the result.

The Muslim Brotherhood MPs had requested an emergency debate in parliament on the invitation of the Israeli ambassador, and university lecturers threatened to block Cohen from entering the campus. However, the protests were said to have subsided when the Muslim Brotherhood MPs found their names on the guest list as well, along with the name of recently released opposition activist Ayman Nour.

Last update - 11:02 04/06/2009

Report: Indirect talks for Shalit's release have resumed

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel News, Hamas

The pan-Arab newspaper Al Hayat reported on Thursday that the indirect talks for the release of the abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Gilad Shalit have resumed.

The paper said that the head of Hamas military wing, Ahmad Jabari, had visited Cairo to carry on with the negotiations for the release of the Israeli soldier, who was captured by the Islamic group three years ago, in exchange for hundreds of Hamas prisoners incarcerated in Israel.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Israeli negotiator Hagai Hadas met earlier this week with Shalit's father, Noam, and said he would do his utmost to secure Gilad's release.

"We are firmly committed to our soldiers, and this devotion is the principle that guides me," Hadas told Shalit.

Gilad's grandfather, Zvi Shalit, fiercely criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week, accusing him of not making enough effort to release his grandson.

"Gilad Shalit's fate is in the hands of one person, and the prime minister has yet to give it adequate attention," Zvi Shalit said.

On Wednesday, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan (Likud) said that Israel should free convicted terrorists to secure Shalit's release.

Obama's Cairo speech is already the talk of the coffeehouses

By Haaretz Correspondents and Agencies , By Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff

Tags: Israel news, mideast, cairo

U.S. President Barack Obama began his visit to the Middle East Wednesday with a stop in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King Abdullah ahead of his much anticipated address to the Muslim world from Cairo University today.

White House officials said that meeting with the king focused on prospects for resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict, but also included Iran's nuclear ambitions as well as the impact of rising oil prices on the world economy.

Major Arab satellite television stations from North Africa to the Gulf are devoting a large portion of their coverage to President Barack Obama's visit. The tone is mostly positive and commentators seem optimistic.

In coffeehouses and teahouses in Beirut, Damascus, Baghdad, Riyadh and Cairo Wednesday everyone seems to be preoccupied with Obama's visit and the speech in the Egyptian capital later today.

The editor-in-chief of the Saudi daily Al Watan, Jamal Kashoggi, says he likes what he sees.

"[The visit] is good news. It is different from what we have had with Bush. Our cartoon, our caricature, tomorrow, in Al Watan tells the story. Obama is being received with flowers and he is saying 'Why they love us,' while George Bush is saying 'Why they hate us.' So, Obama is changing the subject, Obama is not going for confrontation; he is into reaching out to the Muslim world. I think the public in Saudi Arabia is very much welcoming his visit," Kashoggi said.

Kashoggi believes Obama and King Abdullah, as well as many other Arab leaders, want to put an end to the era of confrontation between cultures and religions.

In Damascus, top Syrian political analyst Imad Fawzi Shueibi thinks President Obama is trying to demonstrate his that administration is different from that of his immediate predecessor in the White House.

"I can only say that this visit is good, because maybe Mr. Obama can say something against the bad reputation of the Bush administration, and maybe he can make a plan for peace in the region," Shuebi said.

But he is disappointed that Obama is visiting Saudi Arabia and Egypt but not Syria.

In Beirut, Haigazian University President Paul Haidostian thinks many Arabs are looking for something fresh and different from Obama, along the lines of what he promised the American people in his election campaign.

"People would expect President Obama to bring something fresh to show that his perspective and his background, his personal background, and his discussions and talks during his campaign would come true and bring something that is more peaceful, that is more evenhanded, that looks at the sufferings of all the peoples of the Middle East and not only part of the issue," Haidostian said.

Hamas dismisses commanders on Iran order

By Avi Issacharoff

Tags: Israel News, Gaza, Hamas

Hamas political leader Khaled Meshal recently relieved two brigade commanders in the Gaza Strip on Iranian recommendations, Palestinian sources said Wednesday. The two officers, Bassam Issa and Imat Aakel, were removed from their positions following the recommendation of Iranian Revolutionary Guard officials who participated in the investigation of the perceived Hamas military failure during Operation Cast Lead. The two officers have been known to lead military wing formations in two of the Strip's refugee camps, Nuseirat and Bureij, and became brigade commanders when the Hamas regular military force was established.

During Operation Cast Lead, Hamas forces avoided confrontation with the IDF and did not incur great casualties among the Israeli troops. Because of the perceived failure, the organization's leadership decided to initiate a thorough investigation of the conduct of its men during the operation.

Palestinian sources said Meshal consulted Hassan Mahdawi, commander of the "Jerusalem Column" in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, a unit stationed in Lebanon. After the investigation was concluded, the Hamas leadership decided to change the organizational structure of the military wing and remove a number of field commanders.

Issa and Aakel have also recently been at odds with Hamas' new interior minister, Fathi Hammad, who had tried to extend his authority over the organization's military wing. The ongoing disagreements between the Hamas government and senior commanders in the military wing resulted in the unauthorized firing of a Grad-type rocket at Ashkelon about three months ago. The launch was carried out as a protest by the military wing against the constraints set by the government.

Palestinian sources said Hammad decided to prosecute any persons involved in criminal activity, including activists from the military wing. He also banned the use of dark windows in all Gaza vehicles - popular among Hamas activists. The sources said Hammad enjoyed the support of the commander of the military wing, Ahmed Al-Jabari, while some local commanders, like Aakel and Issa, disagreed. Fatah sources claim Hamas' internal crisis was further aggravated by other senior leadership figures, who blame their lack of recent promotion on Hammad.

Last update - 04:17 05/06/2009

Future of Mideast is a domestic American issue

By Gideon Levy

Tags: Israel news, Gideon Levy

Benjamin Netanyahu can keep pretending it's just rain and Interior Minister Eli Yishai can continue berating the Obama administration for its "unacceptable" policies. National Union MK Michael Ben-Ari can keep shouting hysterically about our soldiers, and the settlers can keep putting us all in danger. But the issue has been settled in Washington.

Peace lies with them - U.S. decision-makers, led by Barack Obama. In other words, the future of the Middle East is a domestic American issue. Since Henry Kissinger determined that foreign policy is merely an extension of domestic policy, his maxim has never had such tremendous potential impact.

Washington will decide the fate of the West Bank settlements, and we can only hope it insists on their evacuation. Obama standing firm beside the revolutionary Mideast policy he has begun will light the torch of hope here, too. The battle of the titans, Netanyahu and Obama, is little more than a farce - let us recall the fable of the elephant and the bee, or the frog and the ox. Not all creatures can become as great as they think.

Let's also be realistic: An Israeli prime minister has no option of saying no to America once Washington has dug in its heels. Netanyahu knows this better than anyone, and the time has come to explain as much to his "patriotic" coalition allies.

Israel's only real existential danger is losing U.S. support. Yes, there is no Israel without America - not only the $3 billion annual defense aid (without which the IDF would be a shadow of itself), or the market for one-third of Israeli exports, but also international support. Israel, which has become a leper in many circles, is lost without Washington's sponsorship. There is no alternative superpower - having Micronesia alone on our side at the UN will not get us very far.

A green light from America on changing the regional status quo will also encourage a bumbling Europe to begin taking practical steps. Never have so many eyes looked to one man, who will today lay out the principles of his Middle East doctrine in Cairo.

The American president has the power to end the Israeli occupation within months. The conquest of the "Third Kingdom of Israel" following the 1956 Sinai Campaign collapsed within weeks. We could return to that situation, despite the stumbling blocks of the settlements, with a clear timetable for evacuation, severe sanctions for noncompliance and generous assistance for those staying the course. The tailwinds Obama is enjoying have already changed the prevailing tone toward Israel, even among its traditional "supporters" - those who so blindly and irresponsibly endorsed its occupation and wars.

The tools in Obama's kit are varied: A congressional delegation visiting here recently entertained the idea, in private conversations at least, that the U.S. prohibit Israel from using American weapons in the West Bank; someone suggested levying strict limitations on Israelis entering America. But perhaps it would be enough to simply retract the automatic U.S. veto at the UN - and this is without mentioning stopping the flow of aid.

Any of these punitive measures would be efficient and just, in the interest of saving Israel from itself. But Obama's initial steps are not enough - they are likely, perhaps, to topple Netanyahu, but peace will not necessarily follow. Israel must be demanded to now make a series of practical steps, like evacuating the Maoz Esther outpost, which could pave the way for ending the occupation.

As the odds of Israeli society coming to its senses and fighting for its destiny have become infinitesimal, the arena for ending the occupation and pursuing peace has moved stateside, and Jewish America is itself beginning to undergo a revolution. One line of thinking goes like this: If Obama succeeds in dealing with GM, he will also win public support in dealing with Yitzhar and other settlements like it. If he can convince American supporters of Israel that relations with the Jewish state have become dishonest, the sky's the limit. Americans must understand that without changing relations with the Arab and Muslim worlds, the world itself will become a more dangerous place, and that improving relations with those people need not be at Israel's expense, but to its benefit. Time is short but the keys are in the ignition, President Obama. Drive on to peace.

Last update - 09:20 04/06/2009

ANALYSIS / Netanyahu will comply with Obama's demands

By Aluf Benn

Tags: settlements, Netanyahu, Obama

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will back down. Another week, another month, and he will give into American pressure and will be forced to accept the two-state solution and also agree to some sort of concessions on settlements. So far there has been no real negotiation between Israel and the Obama administration, just an exchange of declarations. There are no personal links between the Prime Minister's Bureau and the White House. Only after Thursday, following the "conciliatory address" of U.S. President Barack Obama to the Arab and Muslim world in Cairo, will the real discussion begin. Or maybe not, and Israel will continue to be hit in the head until Obama is satisfied.

The Americans are demanding complete cessation of construction in the settlements, or in the language of President Obama, "no settlements." Netanyahu insists on "natural growth," but has no troops. Not one of Israel's supporters in the U.S. has stood up against the popular president to defend the construction of a new neighborhood in Ma'aleh Adumim or a home for a young couple in Itzhar. At most, they might ask Obama to be a little more gentle and not bash Israel.

The repetition of statements by Obama and senior administration officials, calling for complete cessation of settlement activity, have placed the president in a position from which he will find it difficult to pull back. Henceforth, every approval of a construction plan in a settlement will be regarded as a personal challenge to the president, just about equivalent to the North Korean nuclear tests.

Obama believes in interests, and his supreme interest is the rehabilitation of ties between the U.S. and the Arab and Muslim worlds. George W. Bush was perceived to be a pawn in Israel's hand, and Obama must show he is not like his predecessor. A freeze on settlements is his gift to his Saudi and Egyptian hosts. Enforcing the freeze will be his test of credibility.

The overt dispute with Israel is meant to bolster his image in Arab eyes. If Netanyahu would have agreed immediately to his demand, Obama would have lost points. He wants to come to Cairo after being seen as having hit Israel's right-wing prime minister on the head.

The American determination caught Netanyahu and his aides by surprise, and they were neither party to the drafts of the president's speech nor were they able to influence its content. The PM's Bureau is finding it difficult to function and is barely able to respond to telephone calls, much less put together a counter-spin. Netanyahu sent the "dovish" ministers, Dan Meridor and Ehud Barak, to the U.S. in an effort to explain it was not possible to freeze it all because that is not realistic. The Americans have not budged.

The relatively good news for Netanyahu this week came in an interview Obama gave to the BBC, in which he discussed a return to the road map and made demands of the Palestinians and the Arab states. Obama said patience is needed, and essentially granted Netanyahu a chance for another meeting, at which the prime minister will have to accept an American diktat.

It will not be simple. From Israel's point of view freezing the settlements is not merely a slogan but raises real complexities, even before the protests begin and the settlers and rightist parties begin their resistance. The government is finding it difficult to evacuate outposts, so how will it enforce a freeze on construction?

Netanyahu will do everything to avoid this confrontation and will therefore have to give up his many years of opposition to the idea of a Palestinian state. He will then hope that Arab refusals will bog the entire process down and will save him the trouble of having to discuss really difficult issues like evacuating settlements, Jerusalem and the refugees.

Obama to tell Israel, Arabs to change their approach to peace

By Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya

Tags: Israel news, cairo, Obama

In his Cairo address Thursday, U.S. President Barack Obama will call on Israel and the Arab states to change their approach to the Middle East peace process. A U.S. source says the president will encourage the Arab world to change its attitude toward Israel and embark on "normalization."

Obama, meanwhile, will stress that Israel needs to change its attitude toward the Palestinians and cease construction in the West Bank settlements to enable a two-state solution.

Wednesday, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he "does not share the assessments" that Obama seeks to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government through extraordinary pressure, as some pundits have claimed.

Barak added that after a series of meetings in Washington, "I am more optimistic - certainly more optimistic than the way things have been presented in the media."

Obama will make his speech at Cairo University before a group of 3,000 invitees, including senior Egyptian officials, academics and diplomats. The address, stressing a "new beginning," is scheduled for 1:10 P.M., and will be broadcast live on all major news networks.

Obama is expected to focus on conciliation with the Muslim world in light of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq initiated by his predecessor.

A senior political source in Jerusalem said Wednesday that the White House did not consult with Israel on any aspect of the address, and the Prime Minister's Bureau has no official information on the issues Obama will raise.

The Prime Minister's Bureau declined to comment on Obama's speech; officials said they would respond after they had studied it.

A senior political source said Netanyahu is "very troubled" by the state of relations with the United States and is very tense ahead of Obama's address.

Overall, there is a great deal of discomfort over the messages senior administration officials have relayed to Israel, mostly through the media. "The number of exchanges in the media needs to be reduced," said a senior aide to Netanyahu. "We must go back to talks behind closed doors and make progress." Barak had similar things to say to U.S. officials during his meetings on Tuesday in Washington.

In a telephone interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Obama said one of his messages will be the need to "keep on telling the truth until it stops working - and nowhere is truth-telling more important than the Middle East."

Obama told Friedman that "there are a lot of Arab countries more concerned about Iran developing a nuclear weapon than the 'threat' from Israel, but won't admit it."

The president added that many Israelis also "recognize that their current path is unsustainable, and they need to make some tough choices on settlements to achieve a two-state solution - that is in their long-term interest - but not enough folks are willing to recognize that publicly."

Meanwhile, Barak said the freezing of settlement construction had been mentioned in talks with administration officials and Congressmen. But there were no doubts about the need for the large settlement blocs to remain part of Israel in a final settlement with the Palestinians.

Israelis said Washington had adopted its tough stance on settlements ahead of Obama's Cairo address, "and it will not really demand that children born in settlements will have to go to kindergarten in Holon," as one Israeli put it.

Barak, meanwhile, refused to describe the stance of the U.S. administration as "applying pressure" on Israel.

"I suggest that the public disagreements be minimized," he said, adding that "direct and personal conversations" will help resolve disagreements.

Last update - 00:07 04/06/2009

Barak: We don't agree with U.S. on everything

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Barak, Iran, Israel news

Defense Minister Ehud Barak addressed recent tensions between Israel and the United States in a press conference he held in Washington on Wednesday, saying that Israel doesn't agree with the U.S. about everything.

"I'm not saying that we agree with the Americans on every point at the moment," Barak told reporters.

"We have a young government that is still formulating its policies and the American administration is at the beginning of its term. We announced that we were committed to previous agreements, and we've created an extensive willingness to cooperate with the Americans," Barak continued.

"It's not over yet, and there are still some issues to iron out," Barak said. "I don't think that the U.S. is looking for practical solutions for unpractical problems. Every option will have to be weighed, while contributing to the initiative to restart the diplomatic effort and veering away from the role of a naysayer."

Barak met with senior U.S. officials during his visit to Washington, among them U.S. envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, National Security Adviser Jim Jones and even U.S. President Barack Obama, who unexpectedly joined Barak and Jones during their meeting.

The defense minister, who aimed to appease the U.S. following recent tensions between Israel and the Obama administration over the evacuation of West Bank settlements, concluded that "I emerged optimistic from the meetings ? much more optimistic than it would seem based on reading the papers."

According to Barak, the disagreement between Israel and the U.S. is merely an illusion that stems from the fact that both countries' governments have not been in office long. "There is total agreement [between Israel and the U.S.] on matters of general security," Barak explained, adding that "there is a deeper agreement on the situation in Iran than it may appear, and we have similar understandings on Hamas, and what is happening in Lebanon and on a long list of issues pertaining to the diplomatic process."

Barak admitted, however, that disagreements do arise, saying "contention on certain topics is natural with a new administration in place. We must allow the internal discourse moderate or dissipate a large portion of the disagreements, and that is what we will try to do in the coming weeks."

"I'm not saying that there won't be any friction," Barak added.

To the question "Does Obama intend to take down Netanyahu's government?" Barak replied "I do not agree with those estimates. I think the Obama administration is forming a vision for itself as to how to deal with the challenges facing the Middle East, including cooperation with Israel, moderate Arab nations and even countries such as Russia and China."

"Israel won't do anything to stop the American dialogue with Iran, but we do think it needs to be accompanied by a clear schedule and harsh sanctions, and the main thing being that Israel is retaining all the options on the table."

Asked whether the U.S. was pressuring Israel, Barak said "I propose to reduce the public discord. There is not one side yielding to another. Those issues will be solved through dialogue."

Barak described Obama as very warm and open, saying that their meeting lasted only 15 minutes as the U.S. president was preparing to leave for the Middle East.

Last update - 17:33 03/06/2009

Ahmadinejad: Israel is abusing 'big deception' of the Holocaust

By The Associated Press and Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel News, Holocaust, Iran

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has once again called the Holocaust a big deception in his latest denunciations of Israel and its allies.

The comments come amid a fierce election campaign in which his firebrand style has come under attack from challengers.

Ahmadinejad's main pro-reform rival, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has said the president's constant questioning of the Holocaust has undermined Iran's international standing.

Ahmadinejad told a gathering of international scholars Wednesday that Israel uses the "big deception" of the Holocaust to sway allies in the West.

Late last week Ahmadinejad told a radio program in Tehran that "the Holocaust is the West's Achilles heel and its biggest weakness," Israel Radio reported.

"We will never surrender to bullying powers, and those who think that we might make any compromise and give in to Western pressures and psychological war are badly mistaken," Ahmadinejad said.

"The West has taken the issue of the Holocaust to expose a hypocritical innocence and oppress other nations, but I have effectively attacked this weak point of the West."

Remarks by Ahmadinejad such as eradicating Israel from the Middle East, relocating the Jewish state to Europe and the United States and questioning the historic dimensions of the Holocaust caused widespread international condemnation.

Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second four-year term in next month's vote, also rejected any compromise with world powers in the nuclear dispute.

Last update - 16:35 03/06/2009

Iran mulls sending top diplomats to Obama's Cairo address

By The Associated Press

Tags: Israel News, Barack Obama

The Egyptian hosts of President Barack Obama's upcoming Cairo speech invited Iran's top diplomat, an Iranian diplomat said Wednesday.

Including the Iranian in the list of guests to Obama's highly anticipated speech to the Muslim World is significant as Tehran and Washington do not have diplomatic ties and officials from both countries usually avoid direct encounters.

The Iranians, however, would not say whether they would be attending Obama's address to the Muslim world Thursday at Cairo University.

"A decision to attend is currently being made by the Foreign Ministry in Tehran," Aboul Qassim Zakeri, an Iranian official in Cairo, said.

If Hussein Rajabi, the top Iranian diplomat in Egypt, attends, it would be the first time Obama addresses a gathering in the presence of Iranian officials, following his promise to engage the country diplomatically.

Al-Azhar and Cairo University are co-sponsoring the speech and sent invitations to hundreds of Egyptians and foreign diplomats, to attend.

The move follows a State Department cable to all U.S. embassies and consulates late last week saying that U.S. diplomats could invite their Iranian counterparts to Independence Day parties hosted on or around July 4th.

The overture comes amid the administration's ongoing efforts to engage Iran in variety of venues, including formal diplomatic meetings over its nuclear program, violence in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan.

Obama and other U.S. officials have said they do not expect to see much movement from Iran until after the country holds presidential elections in the middle of the month, but have sketched a rough deadline of the fall by which they hope to see positive responses to their overtures.

Last update - 16:06 03/06/2009

Hezbollah camp gaining ground ahead of Lebanon vote

By Reuters

Tags: Israel News

Hezbollah and its Christian allies are expected to gain a slim advantage in Sunday's Lebanese parliamentary election, erasing the Western-backed anti-Syrian coalition's majority, pollsters said on Wednesday.

With most of the 128 seats decided by sectarian voting patterns and electoral pacts, the race will focus on some 30 seats. The Christian vote is seen as the main deciding factor.

"In the end, I imagine that the opposition will win the majority by a very slim margin -- two or three seats extra," Abdo Saad, director of the Beirut Center for Research and Information, said.

Rampant vote-buying and the unprecedented number of expatriates flying in or being flown in to cast their ballots may also affect which way the tightly contested seats will go.

A victory by Hezbollah and its allies will not necessarily align Lebanon squarely with the militant Shi'ite group's backers Iran and Syria. Nor will the West necessarily cut off its support for the fragile country.

Analysts say a national unity government is the most likely outcome, partly due to a rapprochement between Syria and Saudi Arabia, who back opposing factions in Lebanon, and the United States' recent policy of engaging with Syria and Iran.

Bellwether District

Rabih Haber, the head of Statistics Lebanon, did not rule out a comeback by the ruling coalition but he also said he expected a narrow opposition win.

"My overall expectation is the opposition will win by a very slim margin, by two or three seats maximum," he said.

The anti-Syrian coalition, led by Sunni Muslim Saad al-Hariri, gained a majority in parliament in a 2005 election riding on a wave of support after the assassination of his father, former premier Rafik al-Hariri.

The alliance, named March 14, includes Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, and Christian leaders Samir Geagea and Amin Gemayel.

Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun, who currently holds the largest Christian bloc in parliament, has sided with Shi'ite Muslim factions Hezbollah and Amal.

That makes the 7-seat electoral district of Zahle, with a combination of Sunni, Shi'ite and Christian voters, particularly difficult to call and widely seen as the bellwether for the election.

"Whoever wins Zahle will win the majority... Zahle is the decider," Saad said.

In the last election Aoun won Zahle by a wide margin. However shifting political alliances has meant that at least three seats could swing in favor of the Hariri alliance.

Haber said he expected March 14 to win four seats in Zahle, with an electoral "battle".

Other areas where competition is heavy include the northern Christian districts of Batroun, Koura, and Metn.

Haber and Saad both said there is no data on the thousands of expatriates who are expected to vote, which will make some seats too close to call. Expatriates, who number in the hundreds of thousands, cannot vote outside Lebanon.

Saad said the only way to alleviate the effects of vote-buying would be to have proportional representation with the whole of Lebanon as one electoral district.

Some 150 international observers are monitoring the poll.

Last update - 16:02 03/06/2009

Bowing to U.S. demand, Israel to rewrite aviation safety law

By Zohar Blumenkrantz, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, FAA, U.S.

The Israeli government on Wednesday released details of a proposed law that could restore its aviation safety record.

The Civil Aviation Administration released the text of the new bill whose passage is demanded by the United States government as a precondition for restoring Israel's airport safety ranking to the highest level ? Category 1.

Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz said the new bill will be submitted for approval by the ministerial committee on legislation by August 1 in an effort to expedite the ratings process.

Late last year, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration reduced Israel's aviation traffic safety ranking to Category 2, which is on par with developing countries. The FAA found numerous safety lapses, including outdated regulations that were originally introduced during the British Mandate period.

Last update - 20:33 03/06/2009

Two elderly Israelis arrested in 12.5 ton marijuana bust

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Drugs, Crime, Israel News

Two elderly Israeli men were arrested by British police Tuesday night for attempting to smuggle 12.5 tons of marijuana into the country, the Sun reported on Wednesday.

Moshe Kedar 81, and his younger accomplice Mordechai Hersch, 67, were arrested after Kedar was reportedly caught on surveillance video receiving a cell phone and $10,000 cash from members of a London drug gang.

According to the Sun, police needed six sessions in a special incinerator to dispose of the marijuana, valued at around $50 million.

The Sun calculated the haul as enough to make 36 million marijuana cigarettes ? or one for every man and woman in Britain.

Kedar has no previous criminal record and a police representative is quoted by the Sun as saying "Maybe he turned to crime very late in life, or maybe he simply never got caught before. Either way, his luck has now run out.

Last update - 00:09 04/06/2009

Lieberman: Israel has no plans to attack Iran

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Tags: Israel News

Israel's foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said on Wednesday his government has no plans to attack Iran.

"Israel is not planning to bomb Iran," Lieberman told reporters in Moscow. The foreign minister is currently in Moscow for talks with Russian leaders.

The new Israeli government headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has placed the Iranian nuclear program at the top of his agenda.

Netanyahu views the prospect of Iran attaining a nuclear military capability as an existential threat to Israel, thus raising fears worldwide that Jerusalem will resort to military action to halt or delay the Islamic regime's plans.

"We do not have a need" to carry out attacks on Iran, he said. "Israel is a strong country and we can defend ourselves."

Lieberman added that Iran is the main factor behind instability in the Middle East, adding: "This is not an Israeli problem."

"But the world should understand that the Iran's entrance into the nuclear club would prompt a whole arms race, a crazy race of unconventional weaponry across the Mideast that is a threat to the entire world order, a challenge to the whole international community," he said. "So we do not want a global problem to be solved with our hands."

The comments appeared to be a slight softening from recent statements made by Netanyahu's government that have suggested Israel might be forced to take military action against Iran.

On Tuesday, Moscow said it will demand that Iran commit to utilizing its nuclear program for civilian purposes only.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Lieberman on Tuesday that his government will insist that Tehran utilize its nuclear program for peaceful purposes.

"We have confirmed the need to assure the international community of the exclusively peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear program," Lavrov said, according to the RIA Novosti news agency.

Lieberman expressed concerns about Russian arms supplies to Iran, and said that he had been assured such sales would only take place if it did not affect the "regional balance of power."

Lavrov said the new U.S. administration's approach to Iran has increased chances of resolving the standoff over its nuclear program, but gave no indication of whether Moscow would increase pressure on Tehran.

Speaking after meeting with Lieberman, he also ceded no ground publicly over Russia's engagement with the violent group Hamas, which has angered Israel.

Lieberman also met with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev on Tuesday in the Russian capital.

During Lieberman's meeting with Lavrov earlier, the Russian foreign minister said his government would demand an explicit Iranian commitment that its nuclear program be geared for civilian purposes only.

Lieberman's talks focused on the Iranian nuclear program given the fact that Russia plays a key role as the primary supplier of nuclear equipment. In addition, it is currently opposed to levying additional sanctions against Tehran.

The foreign minister said that if dialogue with the Tehran regime fails, then the international community will have to employ more aggressive means to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Israel wants Russia to use its close relationship with Iran to pressure Tehran to stop nuclear activities it believes are aimed at developing weapons.

Lavrov said he told Lieberman about steps Russia is taking along with other UN Security Council members and Germany, but he said nothing about any efforts by Moscow itself.

He said Russia and the other nations "expect a constructive answer" from Tehran on proposals aimed toward reviving negotiations.

"We really have a very good chance now, in part due to the position of the new U.S. administration," Lavrov said.

Last update - 11:09 03/06/2009

Hezbollah No. 2: We don't want Iran-style theocracy in Lebanon

By The Associated Press

Tags: Lebanon, Hezbollah, Iran

Hezbollah's No. 2 leader, confident of victory in Lebanese weekend elections, said Tuesday the Iranian-backed group would invite its pro-Western opponents to join a national unity government if it wins.

Sheikh Naim Kassem rejected accusations that a government of Hezbollah and its allies would try to implement an Iranian-style Islamic state. In an interview with The Associated Press, he shrugged off warnings about boycotts and insisted Western nations are willing to talk to the new government irrespective of who wins.

But the unity government proposal shows Shiite Hezbollah's concern that if it tries to govern Lebanon outright, it could risk international isolation and possibly another war with Israel, much like the Iranian-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

Vice President Joe Biden, on a visit to Lebanon last month, warned Washington would reassess aid to Lebanon depending on the next government's makeup and policies. The U.S., which considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization, has provided about $1 billion in aid since 2006.

"After June 7, there will be a new scene," said Kassem, who leads Hezbollah's election campaign. He said Hezbollah and its allies "will work to form a national unity government. How much we will succeed is up to the other side."

He spoke Tuesday at a secret location in the Hezbollah stronghold of south Beirut. Out of security concerns, AP reporters were driven in a minivan with black-draped windows to an apartment building basement. There, they were transferred to another minivan with black-draped windows to block the view and driven to another building, where Kassem later showed up for the interview.

The vote for parliament pits Western-backed factions that have dominated the government for the last four years against a coalition led by Hezbollah and its ally, Christian leader Michel Aoun.

Hezbollah has had veto power over government decisions for the past year as part of a national unity government formed after its gunmen overran Beirut Muslim neighborhoods in May 2008, bringing Lebanon to the verge of another civil war.

So far, the election has been considered too close to call and the pro-Western coalition has also predicted victory. But if Kassem's predictions materialize, it would be the first time Hezbollah is positioned to play a major role in the formation of Lebanon's government.

Kassem predicted his alliance would pick up between three and six seats over the 64-seat margin to have an absolute majority in the 128-member legislature.

The country's sectarian-based division of power and complex alliances across sectarian divides make it hard for any single party to govern alone and without consensus. Under the system, Christians and Muslim equally share the Cabinet and the legislatureLebanon's legislature has been sharply polarized between the two camps since 2005, paralyzing state operations. The majority currently has 70 seats and the minority, including Hezbollah, has 58.

Political turmoil and instability have buffeted the country since the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Hariri's supporters blamed the bombing on Syria. Damascus denied the accusations, but mass protests in Lebanon and U.S.-led international pressure forced Syria's army out of Lebanon, ending 29 years of dominance.

In addition, Hezbollah fought a devastating war with Israel in 2006.

Lebanon is still trying to chart its own direction after the Syrian pullout. The election of Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies would mark a resurgence of Syrian influence.

That has raised U.S. concerns, particularly because Washington considers the heavily armed Hezbollah with a long history of anti-Israeli activities a terrorist organization. The U.S. has been at odds with Damascus over Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinians.

Kassem predicted some factions from the pro-Western coalition would opt to join the new government. But one major faction has already said it won't.

He accused the U.S. of last-minute attempts to influence the vote, but said they would not work. President Barack Obama is addressing Muslims in a speech from Cairo Thursday, days before the Lebanese election, in his latest overture to improve relations with the Islamic world

GM as parable, and Israel's sudden choice: Obama or Kahane

By Bradley Burston

Click here for more articles by Bradley Burston

Even in Israel, the bankruptcy of General Motors has much to teach.

In fact, it seems oddly fitting that a month which may recast the direction of the Middle East, and of the future of Israel [see below], opened with an event which until recently would have redefined the unthinkable: an African American president of the United States discussing the impact of the collapse of what was once the world's largest company, and warning that it would take "a painful toll on many Americans."

The bankruptcy of General Motors bears a number of lessons Israelis would be well advised to consider, especially in view of Barack Obama's imminent overture to the Muslims of the region.

One has directly to do with a society's most fundamental and protected of sacred cows, in Israel's case the settlements and their outlaw spinoffs: Sacred does not mean immortal. Nor, in an atmosphere of moral bankruptcy, does sacred necessarily mean moral.

Another lesson is this: Choices which may have for decades seemed indefinitely far in the future, may suddenly and unavoidably become the province of the here and now.

And one more, for the settlers, especially: Do not underestimate Barack Obama. If the untouchable General Motors has been toppled, can the sacred cow of unfettered settlement be far behind?

For Israel, the choice of paths is becoming clearer by the day. There is the way being pointed by Obama, characterized by an intensive search for creative ways in which the main players in the conflict are to receive long-desired benefits in return for sacrificing certain - often self-destructive - policy platforms and practices.

The other choice, it develops, is that of Rabbi Meir Kahane, the man who first embodied what might be called the disgracist strain of hardline Israeli politics: In all things, act and speak so as to belittle, besmirch, and disgrace Israeli Arabs, Palestinian Arabs, and Muslims in general, couching all of it in the baldfacedly bogus guise of an imperative of Jewish law or in Orweillian demands for Stalin-worthy fealty to a theoretical, on-the-books reality.

In recent weeks, we have seen the hideous markers of the Kahane approach, notably in the legislative proposals highlighting Jewish insecurity over the "Jewish Zionist" future of Israel, and a we-have-much-to-hide attitude toward the circumstances of Israel's birth. Kahane's legacy is even more evident in the current eruption of violence in settler outposts, with masked Jewish youths hurling stones and other objects at passing Palestinian motorists. We have watched these "most excellent of our youth" as they fight Israeli police and soldiers who have the temerity to enforce Israeli law and are thus routinely branded as Nazis by the pro-outpost hoodlums.

Disgracism, as an ideology, extols the settler hotheads' and rabid rightist rabbis' brand of abject disloyalty to strictures imposed by the state, even as it condemns Israeli Arabs for suggesting that members of a minority should be able to simultaneously hold both citizenship and their own opinions.

In the end, the disgrace shown the Arabs does deep disgrace to the perpetrator, but, more importantly, does the deepest disgrace of all to the State of Israel.

At the same time, we have seen the indications of an effort to stem the tide of unfettered and illegal settlement in the West Bank. This, despite the blackmail of religious and right-wing politicians, who brandish the third-act pistol of coalition demolition every time they take an oath to support a new government.

The most applicable lesson of GM's fall might be gleaned from studying perhaps the most honored misquote in history. Until now, the settlers and their supporters have insisted by word and deed that what is good for settlement is good for the State of Israel.

But the original quote bears repeating. In 1953, facing a Senate hearing over his nomination for secretary of defense, then-General Motors president Charles Wilson came in for questioning over the large amounts of GM stock he owned. Given his investments, he was asked, could he make a decision as defense secretary that would hurt the company?

"I cannot conceive of one, because for years I thought what was good for our country was good for General Motors and vice versa. The difference did not exist. Our company is too big. It goes with the welfare of the country."

Wilson, it should be underscored, sold his shares. It is time for extremist settlers and their blind supporters to sell theirs - to be willing to make sacrifices for the good of the country, rather than expecting the country to sacrifice itself for them.

A partial calendar of a potentially fateful month:

June 2: Civil defense exercise of unprecedented scope in Israel

Scenarios include of hundreds of missiles thundering into Tel Aviv, chemical warheads striking the north of the country. News of the exercise prompts neighboring Arab armies to go on alert.

June 3: Obama visits Saudi Arabia

The president is expected to ask Riyadh as well as moderate Gulf states for preliminary steps toward normalization of ties with Israel. The measures may include granting a limited number of business and perhaps tourist visas to Israelis, anchorage rights for Israeli vessels, mutual air space rights for Israeli and Arab airliners, and opening interest offices.

June 4: Obama, in Cairo, addresses the Muslim world

The speech will be closely watched, intended as it is to quell the seething enmity between the Bush administration and Muslims around the globe.

June 7: General elections in Lebanon

The strongly pro-Iranian and Syrian-allied Hezbollah could win the crucial contest, tilting the precarious balance of power in the Mideast.

June 12: Presidential elections in Iran

If incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins a second term, he is seen as likely to leverage the victory into more authoritarianism at home and a clear endorsement of hardline foreign policies, in particular the drive for nuclear capability and upgraded intercontinental ballistic missiles, support for, and perhaps instigation of, proxy wars on Israel's borders with Gaza and Lebanon, as well as steps to undermine the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.

Throughout the month: Outpost razings and the looming indictment of Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman

Two severe tests of the resolve of the Netanyahu government. If Lieberman is brought to trial on a range of money-laundering and other charges, the nation's spearhead of disgracism would be blunted if not rendered moribund.

If the government can survive outpost removals, perhaps by trading rightists for the centrist Kadima, the peace process and Obama's new diplomacy will have a chance.

If not, elections in Israel will have to be added to the calendar in a few months' time.

Last update - 05:49 03/06/2009

Poland and Ukraine resist restitution of heirless Holocaust property

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Tags: Jewish World, Israel News

Just three weeks before an international conference on Holocaust assets, Jewish and Eastern European delegates are still debating whether countries like Poland and Ukraine should give back heirless property that belonged to murdered Jews.

While those countries have opposed restitution of property whose owners left behind no heirs, Jewish representatives of the Holocaust Era Assets Conference, scheduled to open in Prague on June 26, say such property should go to Jewish organizations in lieu of heirs.

"Until now, certain countries have resisted restitution for lost heirless property, citing laws that state that such property should go to their treasuries," said David Peleg, the newly appointed director of the World Jewish Organization for Property Return. "We don't agree with this assertion."

Peleg estimates the value of heirless Jewish property in Poland alone at billions of dollars.

"The reason there's so much unclaimed property is because the Nazis killed off whole families," he said.

The conference, which will bring together representatives of some 50 countries and 30 non-governmental organizations, is the first wide-scale forum involving assets from several countries to convene in over a decade, since the Washington Conference of 1998. Israeli officials say the conference may be the last opportunity to set principles that could lead to wide-scale compensation for lost Jewish property.

Asked whether he thought the recalcitrant Eastern European countries would eventually come around, Peleg would only say that "this is achievable." He said the U.S. State Department's involvement in the issue "has been very helpful."

Former Mossad official Reuven Merhav, who will head Israel's delegation to Prague, called the negotiations "intensive" and "delicate."

Last update - 05:30 03/06/2009

Climate change could prompt Israel to resist Golan pullout

By Reuters

Tags: golan heights, israel news

DAMASCUS - Climate change could spark "environmental wars" in the Middle East over already scarce water supplies and dissuade Israel from pulling out of the Golan Heights, according to a Danish-funded study released this week.

The report said Israeli concerns about "food security and reduced agricultural productivity could shift the strategic calculation on whether to withdraw" from the Golan Heights.

"The expectation of coming environmental wars might imply that the way to deal with shrinking resources is to increase military control over them," said the study by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, an independent organization headquartered in Canada.

The Golan supplies 30 percent of the water for Lake Kinneret.

The report also said the rise in sea level a result of climate change threatened to contaminate Gaza's sole aquifer.

The coastal aquifer, which is shared by Israel, is the only source of fresh drinking water for Gaza. The report said its water quality was abysmal.

Israel also draws water from most aquifers shared with the West Bank and restricts Palestinian water use.

Climate change will diminish water resources across the Middle East, found the report, which was released this week at the Danish Institute in Old Damascus.

The study comes ahead of a major United Nations conference in Copenhagen in December that will discuss a new treaty to deal with climate.

"In a region already considered the world's most water scarce, climate models are predicting a hotter, drier and less predictable climate," it said. "Higher temperature and less rainfall will reduce the flow of rivers and streams, slow the rate at which aquifers recharge, progressively raise sea levels and make the entire region more arid."

The study, which focused on the Levant - Syria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories - raised the specter of water shortages and climate-induced crises hitting the economies of those areas by 2050.

Last update - 16:33 03/06/2009

Sonia Sotomayor - a poster child for Jewish-Hispanic relations

By The Jewish Journal

Tags: Jewish World, Israel news

Jewish groups don't endorse U.S. Supreme Court nominees, at least in writing.

The tears and choked sobs when Sonia Sotomayor accepted President Obama's nomination on Tuesday told another story.

Packed into the room along with Sotomayor's family, friends and colleagues were representatives of Jewish groups that have consulted with the White House about prospective replacements for David Souter.

The story of her life - the daughter of a Puerto Rican single mother from the Bronx, N.Y., whose ambitions knew no bounds - resounded with a community that has made the story of immigrant triumph over struggle a template of Jewish American success.

Last update - 04:21 03/06/2009

ANALYSIS / Obama plans to teach Netanyahu tough love

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

Tags: Israel News

Two weeks after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's trip to Washington, on the eve of U.S. President Barack Obama's speech to the Muslim world from Cairo, matters are becoming clearer. Israeli-American relations are entering their most serious tailspin in a decade - the decade since Netanyahu's previous term as prime minister.

Bad news from Washington is plaguing the prime minister one piece after another. Immediately after the report that Obama was considering rescinding the United States' almost automatic support for Israel in the United Nations, Obama said the time had come to be honest with Israel. The United States' attitude to Israel so far, he said, had often damaged the interests of both countries. There's no doubt about it: Obama plans to teach Netanyahu about tough love.

The tensions are not just the outcome of the gaps between the right-wing Israeli government and the Democratic administration in the United States. It's also a question of timing. Obama came to the White House determined to generate profound change in a great many areas. Between his victory in November and his inauguration in January, he had time to plan the implementation of his programs.

Netanyahu, meanwhile, came out of Israel's February election without a clear mandate to lead, and his government was sworn in at the end of March. Looking back, it seems he was not quite ready for the shock that awaited him in Washington. It turned out that some of the good English-speakers around Netanyahu are wonderfully suited to fruitful dialogue with the Americans, as long as it's with the Bush administration. Honey, they switched the presidents.

What is Obama asking when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian track? It's still too early to tell if the leaks about his desire to achieve a regional peace agreement within two years are well-founded. The administration contains various views.

The State Department, of all places, which traditionally is less sympathetic to Israel than the White House, is more realistic. Special envoy George Mitchell sounded doubtful to his interlocutors (American Jews and and Israelis) about the chances for a two-state solution. It seems that inside the Beltway there is more enthusiasm for change than in the administration itself. Israeli visitors to the American capital are scolded for their exaggerated pessimism and are asked to stop being such killjoys. The New York Times is already publishing opinion pieces calling for Obama to meet Iran halfway and agree to "special relations" with Hezbollah and Hamas.

The president probably knows that things won't be easy. His global agenda is overflowing: Dealing with North Korea, Afghanistan-Pakistan and Iran trumps dealing with Israel by a long shot. In contrast, it's easy for the administration to focus its disagreement with Israel on halting construction in the settlements. Rahm Emanuel does not mind seeing Netanyahu sweat. Under certain circumstances, the White House would probably shed no tears if the current Israeli government collapses under American pressure.

But settlements are not the only obstacle to peace in the Middle East. What will happen the day after Netanyahu buckles under and announces a complete end to construction in the West Bank? Hamas will continue ruling in Gaza, Hezbollah will keep getting stronger in Lebanon, and Iran's influence in the region will not change. Tehran's race to nuclearization will not stop even if a reformist president is elected there on June 12.

Israel and the Palestinians will get no closer to a final-status agreement under Netanyahu than they were under his predecessor, Ehud Olmert. The parties were never near peace. The gaps on the questions of Jerusalem and refugees were too wide.

Meanwhile, the U.S. administration is paying a hefty tuition to understand the region. Vice President Joe Biden's visit to Beirut just before the Lebanese elections were seen as a glaring attempt at intervening in the democratic process; it played right into Hezbollah's hands. Obama's avoidance of a specific date for ending the dialogue with Iran is perceived in some moderate Arab countries as a mistake and display of weakness. Will Obama's charm also stand him in good stead tomorrow in Cairo? Perhaps. But the president might wake up on Friday to find that his country is still extremist Islam's greatest enemy.

Last update - 08:04 03/06/2009

Israeli silence and the Lebanese 'spy rings'

By Amos Harel

Tags: Israel espionage, Israel New

Watching the Arab television networks, which are extensively covering the uncovering of the "Israeli espionage network," is not a particularly heartwarming experience these days. One after another, Lebanese army and police officers, some of them high-ranking, are being brought in for detention and questioning. Advanced electronic equipment has been confiscated. The heads of Lebanon's counterintelligence are proud of their successes in breaking the Israeli code.

Looking on from Israel, it is very difficult to gauge the true dimensions of the affair. It is clear there is more than a little exaggeration, mixed with a pinch of Oriental fantasy and the paranoia of a small state that for years has feared its secrets are being exposed to its powerful southern neighbor. The timing of the publication, too, is far from coincidental: Lebanese parliamentary elections are scheduled for June 7, next Sunday. The investigation reports reinforce the standing of the pro-Syrian, pro-Iranian radical alliance led by Hezbollah.

On the other hand, even judging from the little that Israel itself has reported, along with reports from foreign media sources, it is clear that Israeli intelligence racked up more than a few achievements on the northern front in the past decade. Operation Specific Gravity, in which the Israel Air Force knocked out Hezbollah's medium-range missile launchers with a high degree of accuracy on the first night of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, would not have been possible without excellent intelligence information. Hezbollah also attributes to Israel the assassination of many militants in the terror organizations in Lebanon before that war, culminating with the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus about 18 months after the war ended.

Getting worse?

Do the reports from Lebanon mean things are getting worse for Israel? Is this another foreign espionage fiasco, like the 1954 Lavon Affair in Egypt? Israel's publication policy in this area has not changed over the years: No information is offered, good or bad. Israel will not provide its enemies with official declarations indicating whether they hit their target or missed it completely. The average Israeli, as a media consumer, therefore never knows the genuine extent of the damage, if any.

This stems not only from Israel's policy of silence and nonresponse. In a slightly surprising development, the defense establishment is enjoying particularly good public relations - precisely in the years following its relative failure in the Second Lebanon War. In many areas, the rehabilitative work done since that war is truly impressive. But who could have predicted that the Mossad head and the Israel Defense Forces chief of staff would be competing for the title of media man of the year? It seems more appropriate to a Soviet-era Eastern European state.

It is quite clear that the Israeli public is tired of hearing about the screw-ups of its military forces. The people oppose the hostile media? Then most media outlets will change accordingly.

The upshot of these trends is increasingly less public supervision of the defense establishment. For example, is there anyone, regardless of events in Lebanon, who is examining the jurisdictional boundaries between the various intelligence agencies? Who should be utilizing agents, and do the units assigned to a mission have the skills necessary to carry it out?

In the past, a subcommittee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee played a significant role in overseeing sensitive issues. The Netanyahu cabinet includes at least two ministers with great experience in these areas, in addition to Defense Minister Ehud Barak: Intelligence and Atomic Energy Minister Dan Meridor, and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon (a former IDF chief of staff and head of Army Intelligence). One must hope that the figures holding these important positions know enough about current events and are determined enough to make sure that mishaps are fully investigated, and that Israel, which is once again confident in its military capabilities, is not confidently marching toward new entanglements.

Last update - 16:57 03/06/2009

Obama to tell Israel: Form new peace policy by July

By Barak Ravid, Natasha Mozgovaya and Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Israel News

United States President Barack Obama intends to give Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu four to six weeks to provide an "updated position" regarding construction in West Bank settlements and the two-state principle.

Obama made a surprise appearance on Tuesday at a meeting Defense Minister Ehud Barak was holding in Washington, shortly before the U.S. leader was set to leave on a five-day trip to the Middle East.

Obama spoke for about 15 minutes with Barak, who was meeting with National Security Adviser General Jim Jones at the time. While Obama's official schedule did not include a meeting with Barak, he has in the past dropped into other officials' meetings with international figures. Advertisement

According to an official Israeli source, Obama wants to complete the formulation of a preliminary six-month plan for progress toward a Middle East peace agreement and to present it in July.

The U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, will arrive in Israel next Monday night. He will meet with Netanyahu the day after in a bid to obtain clarifications regarding the U.S. demand to stop construction in the settlements and on the principle of two states for two peoples.

According to the Jerusalem source, Mitchell is expected to seek answers to questions raised during his meeting with the prime minister's advisors last week in London as well as to issues raised by senior administration officials following their meeting with Barak on Monday.

Mitchell is to visit the Palestinian Authority on Wednesday to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Barak and Jones met for more than two hours privately and discussed the settlements controversy. Obama arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, and is expected to continue on to Cairo to deliver a much-anticipated speech Thursday aimed at repairing frayed relations with the Muslim world.

While in Riyadh, Obama is expected ask Saudi King Abdullah to give a green light to other moderate Arab countries, particularly the Gulf States, to take steps toward normalization with Israel, such as the opening of diplomatic missions or public meetings with senior Israeli officials, in exchange for a freeze on settlement construction. It is unclear whether the Saudis will cooperate.

Before Obama left for the Middle East he sent messages to both Israel and the Arab countries via interviews he to the BBC and National Public Radio.

Part of being a good friend is being honest," Obama told NPR regarding relations with Israel. "

"I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests," he said.

Obama also said he did not rule out future talks with Hamas, but only if the organization met demands to recognize Israel, disavow violence and honor existing agreements.

Tensions between Israel and the U.S. are making pro-Israel Congress representatives uneasy. Last week 329 representatives sent a letter to Obama outlining the "right way" to peace in the Middle East, calling on Obama to be an honest broker and also a friend to Israel.

Despite tensions over the settlement issue, Israel and the U.S. are to begin high-level consultations next week on the Iranian nuclear program and the dialogue between Washington and Tehran. The Prime Minister's Bureau declined to comment on the consultation.

A government source said that the meeting would be the first of a joint working group on the Iranian issue, decided on during Netanyahu's visit to Washington. The aim of the working group is to coordinate moves on the Iranian nuclear issue and update Israel on U.S. intentions in its dialogue with Iran.

The Israeli delegation to the group is expected to be led by National Security Council head Uzi Arad and is to include officials from the Defense MInistry, the Mossad, Military Intelligence, the Foreign Ministry and the Atomic Energy Commission.

The U.S. team will probably be headed by Deputy National Security Adviser Tom Donilon.

The first meeting is expected to deal with the upcoming elections in Iran and the possible opening of U.S. dialogue with Tehran after a victor is declared.

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman met yesterday in Moscow with Russian President Dimitri Medvedev and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and stressed the need to stop the Iranian nuclear program.

Last update - 02:47 03/06/2009

Key U.S. Jews wary of Netanyahu's unbending policy on settlements

By Nathan Guttman

Tags: israel news, jewish world

For the first time in America's decades of jousting with Israel over West Bank settlements, an American president seems to have succeeded in isolating the settlements issue and disconnecting it from other elements of support for Israel.

It is a disentanglement now seen most clearly in Congress, which in the past served as Israel's stronghold against administration pressure on the issue. But when Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu came to Capitol Hill for a May 18 meeting after being pressed by President Obama to freeze the expansion of West Bank settlements, he was "stunned," Netanyahu aides said, to hear what seemed like a well-coordinated attack against his stand on settlements. The criticism came from congressional leaders, key lawmakers dealing with foreign relations and even from a group of Jewish members.

They included Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Democrat Carl Levin of Michigan, who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee; California Democrat Howard Berman, chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and California Rep. Henry Waxman, a senior Democrat.

The Jewish lawmakers among them believed "it was their responsibility to make him [Netanyahu] very, very aware of the concerns of the administration and Congress," said a congressional aide briefed on the meeting. The aide, who declined to be identified, stressed that despite the argument on settlement issues, members of Congress remained fully supportive of Israel on all other issues, including the need to deal with Iran and the concern over Hamas and Hezbollah's activity.

In their meetings, according to the congressional aide, lawmakers rejected Netanyahu's call for Palestinian reciprocity on terrorism as a precondition and kept pressing him on the need to stop building in settlements.

Another staffer on Capitol Hill however, stressed that the heated atmosphere should not be interpreted as a sign of a breakdown in relations. "Jewish members," the staffer said, "express their views very freely" when meeting with Israeli leaders, and did so with Netanyhau's predecessors as well.

The Israeli prime minister also found little support for his position on settlements from the organized Jewish community. Jewish communal groups have largely remained silent and did not spring to Netanyahu?s defense.

"Even the most conservative institutions of Jewish American life don't want to go to war over settlement policy," said David Twersky, who was until recently the senior adviser on international affairs at the American Jewish Congress. "They might say the administration is making too much of a big deal of it, but they will not argue that Jews have the right to settle all parts of Eretz Yisrael [the Land of Israel]."

The single voice backing Netanyahu's policy among groups with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations - the umbrella organization of Jewish groups - was that of the Zionist Organization of America, which denounced the administration's demands as "illogical, unjust and dangerous."

The renewed clash over settlements surfaced following Netanyahu's May 18 meeting with Obama, when it became clear that the new administration was trying to redefine the discussion at a time when pro-settler political parties play a prominent role in Israel's governing coalition. Obama sought a comprehensive settlement freeze from Israel as part of a White House effort to restart a dormant peace process, which, in turn, is part of a larger strategic project: bringing together Israel and its Arab adversaries to resist a threat from Iran as it pursues nuclear capabilities.

Netanyahu rejected this linkage and America's demand for a settlement freeze, arguing that it should not include "natural growth" - defined as population growth from within and territorial expansion by already established large settlement blocs expected to remain under Israeli rule in a final-status agreement.

But a recent report by Israel's Peace Now organization, which monitors settlement activity, found that more than a third of new units built in established settlements in recent years are used to absorb newcomers rather than to accommodate internal growth.

Obama did not address the natural growth dispute publicly after his meeting with Netanyahu, but a harsh and clear statement by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in an interview with the Al-Jazeera network made it clear that Netanyahu's view was unacceptable. "We want to see a stop to settlement construction, additions, natural growth - any kind of settlement activity," she said.

The position was not new. The so-called "road map" peace plan - a broad multi-step process first outlined in 2002 - calls for a complete settlement freeze by Israel, "including natural growth of settlements" as one of the first steps to be taken.

Netanyahu was publicly silent on the issue during his stay in Washington. But on returning home, he defiantly told his Cabinet, "The demand for a total stop to building is not something that can be justified, and I don't think that anyone here at this table accepts it."

That was certainly true for Defense Minister Ehud Barak of the usually more dovish Labor Party.

"We need to find a way to explain to the Americans that there is no link between outposts and Iran," Barak told Israeli reporters. "It's not as though the minute an illegal outpost is dismantled, the Iranians will abandon their nuclear aspirations. Therefore, these issues must not be directly hinged on one another."

On May 26, Netanyahu sent a team headed by Cabinet minister Dan Meridor to convey this message to American special envoy George Mitchell and to offer a new deal in which Israel will dismantle illegal outposts in return for American consent to continue building for natural growth needs.

Israel first promised to dismantle the illegal outposts in 2003, when then-prime minister Ariel Sharon gave a similar commitment to Bush.

Contact Nathan Guttman at guttman@forward.com.

Last update - 02:23 03/06/2009

Four men charged over botched plot to bomb N.Y. synagogues

By Reuters

Tags: Israel News, Synagogue attack

Prosecutors unveiled new charges against four Muslim men suspected of a plot to blow up two New York synagogues and shoot down military planes with stinger missiles in an indictment unsealed on Tuesday.

The men were arrested in May and accused of plotting to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of New York's Bronx borough. They were charged then with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction against the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles.

In the indictment, the men now face additional charges of attempting to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and attempting to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, as well as conspiracy and attempting to kill officers and employees of the United States.

The four men - James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Haitian citizen Laguerre Payen, - were arrested after they had planted what they thought were bombs in cars outside two synagogues, authorities said.

The suspects then intended to shoot down planes with guided surface-to-air missiles, but the explosives and the missiles, which had been sold to the accused plotters by an FBI informant, were deactivated, police said.

None of the men is believed to have links to Al-Qaida. Lawyers for the men would not comment or could not be immediately reached.

Last update - 04:02 03/06/2009

Obama: Iran's energy concerns are legitimate

By The Associated Press

Tags: Obama, Iran, Haaretz TV

United States President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy - provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.

"Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," Obama said in a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday.

The U.S. leader also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic

weapons.

The comments echo remarks Obama made in Prague last month in which he said his administration would support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat.

Iranian state television described the news as Obama recognizing the rights of the Iranian nation, a phrase typically used to refer to Iran's nuclear program.

The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international

sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage.

"Although I don't want to put artificial time tables on that process, we do want to make sure that, by the end of this year, we've actually seen a serious process move forward. And I think that we can measure whether or not the Iranians are serious," Obama said.

Obama's interview offered a preview of a speech he is to deliver in Egypt this week, saying he hoped the address would warm relations between Americans and Muslims abroad.

"What we want to do is open a dialogue," Obama told the BBC. "You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of the Muslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."

Obama leaves Tuesday evening on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at

reaching out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He is due to make his speech in Cairo on Thursday.

Obama sounded an optimistic note about making progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although he offered no new ideas for how he might try to secure a freeze on new building of Israeli settlements. The United States has called for a freeze, but Israeli leaders have rejected that.

Asked what he would say during his visit about human rights abuses, including the detention of political prisoners in Egypt, Obama indicated no stern lecture would be forthcoming.

He said he hoped to deliver the message that democratic values are principles that they can embrace and affirm.

Obama added that there is a danger when "the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture.

Last update - 18:38 02/06/2009

Preparations for Obama visit in full force in Egypt

By Haaretz Service and Agencies

Tags: Israel News, Egypt

Egyptian security services are in the midst of feverish preparations for U.S. President Barack Obama's highly anticipated visit to Cairo on Thursday.

According to the pan-Arab newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, Egyptian authorities are being selective in determining which students will be allowed in the audience during the president's speech at Cairo University.

The newspaper reported that students are being vetted according to their political affiliation. Obama's speech in Cairo is expected to be Washington's olive branch to the Muslim world after eight contentious years of the Bush presidency.

The United States can be a "role model" to the Muslim world, Obama said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday.

"The thing that we can do most importantly is serve as a good role model," he told BBC television in an interview on the eve of a trip to Europe and Egypt, where he plans to deliver a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world.

He said he hoped his visit would begin a new relationship between America and the wider Muslim community.

"Democracy, rule of law, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, those are not simply principles of the West to be hoisted on these countries - but rather what I believe to be universal principles that they can embrace and affirm as part of their national identity," Obama said.

He said the danger was when the United States or any other country thought they could impose these values on another country with different histories and cultures.

"(But) absolutely you can encourage and I expect we will be encouraging," he added.

Asked whether he regarded Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country Amnesty International claims holds thousands of political prisoners, as "authoritarian", Obama said: "I tend not to use labels for folks.

"I haven't met him, I've spoken to him on the phone," Obama added. "He has been a stalwart ally, in many respects, to the United States. He has sustained peace with Israel, which is a very difficult thing to do in that region."

Asked about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's defiance of Obama's call for a settlement freeze, the president said: "it's still early in the conversation."

He noted he had only met Netanyahu once, at the White House in May.

"I think we have not seen a set of potential gestures from other Arab states, or from the Palestinians, that might deal with some of the Israeli concerns," he said.

"...But I do think we're going to be able to get serious negotiations back on track ... because not only is it in the interest of the Palestinian people to have a state, it's in the interest of the Israeli people to stabilise the situation there.

"And it's in the interest of the United States that we've got two states living side by side in peace and security."

Last update - 11:20 02/06/2009

Egyptian police kill African migrant along Israel border

By News Agencies

Tags: Israel News, African Refugees

An Egyptian security official says border police fatally shot an African migrant trying to cross into Israel on Tuesday.

The official says police first fired a warning shot into the air as the man tried to get across the barbed wire border fence at dawn.

When the migrant failed to stop, he was shot dead. The dead man did not have identification papers but was believed to be African. He was shot in the head, the sources said.

The sources said a second man, a 20-year-old Eritrean, was shot in the back and was in a critical condition in a hospital in el-Arish in the north of Sinai peninsula.

A routine Egyptian border patrol spotted the two men at dawn near the border with Israel and ordered them to stop, opening fire when they did not heed the warning, the sources added.

Six African women were also arrested before they were able to reach the border fence.

Dozens of Africans have been killed by Egyptian guards in the past two years trying to get to Israel in search of jobs, drawing criticism from rights groups.

However, the number of migrants killed at the border has dipped since last year, when at least 28 were killed. The latest incident is the second such case this year.

The killings on the border have been a concern in the past to the United States, which has expressed worries about rights issues in Egypt. U.S. President Barack Obama visits Egypt to deliver a speech to the Muslim world on Thursday.

Last update - 17:38 02/06/2009

Obama: U.S. will be 'honest' with Israel on settlements

By Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondents

Tags: Israel News

The United States will be more blunt in raising objections to Israel's settlement policies in the Palestinian territories than previous administrations, President Barack Obama told a U.S. radio network in an interview on Monday.

"Part of being a good friend is being honest," Obama told National Public Radio. "And I think there have been times where we are not as honest as we should be about the fact that the current direction, the current trajectory, in the region is profoundly negative, not only for Israeli interests but also U.S. interests.

"We do have to retain a constant belief in the possibilities of negotiations that will lead to peace," he added. "I've said that a freeze on settlements is part of that."

When asked about Israel's refusal to commit to a complete settlement freeze, the president told NPR it was still too early to determine what measures the administration could take to pressure Jerusalem.

"It's still early in the process," Obama said. "They've [Israel] formed a government, what, a month ago?"

"We're going to have a series of conversations," the president told NPR. "I believe that strategically, the status quo is unsustainable when it comes to Israel's security," Obama said. "Over time, in the absence of peace with Palestinians, Israel will continue to be threatened militarily and will have enormous problems on its borders."

Tensions between the Obama administration and Benjamin Netanyahu's government are nearing crisis levels after senior American officials harshly criticized the prime minister and his settlements policies on Monday.

"The Israelis apparently wanted to check if we are serious on settlements, and they found out that we are," a senior official told Haaretz. "This has nothing to do with the speech in Cairo, and it's going to be our position after the speech in Cairo, because we believe it's in Israel's long-term security interests."

Last night Defense Minister Ehud Barak met in New York with the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell. The American told Barak that the U.S. was no longer willing to return to the understandings between the Sharon and Olmert governments and the Bush administration, which allowed continued settlement construction.

Mitchell said the administration was particularly unhappy about the Netanyahu government's unwillingness to recognize the principle of two states for two peoples.

Mitchell also emphasized that the U.S. does not accept the concept of "natural growth" for the settlements.

"We did not hear from the Bush administration about any of these so-called understandings with Israel on the settlements - all of which were supposedly oral understandings between different people every time," said one senior American official.

"But we've never heard a thing about them - they certainly weren't formal agreements between our governments. "The Israelis want us to commit to oral understandings we have never heard about, but at the same time they are not willing to commit to written agreements their government has signed, like the road map and commitment to the two-state solution."

The disagreement over the understandings concerning the settlements produced an embarrassing encounter in London last week during a meeting between Mitchell, Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor and a number of Netanyahu's advisers.

At the meeting, the Israelis claimed there was a letter between former president George W. Bush and former prime minister Ariel Sharon stating that the settlement blocs would remain in Israeli hands, so construction is permitted there. Mitchell showed the Israelis that one of the letter's sections discusses the principle of two states for two peoples. "That is also written in the letter - do you agree to that?" he asked.

Despite the growing American pressure, which also came out in the leak to the New York Times that the U.S. intended to end its support for Israel in UN debates, Netanyahu continues to say he will not agree to a total freeze of construction in the settlements.

In a meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, Netanyahu said that "we will agree not to take any new territory, but we will not agree to freeze life in the settlements."

Last update - 21:08 01/06/2009

IMF blames Arab donors for Palestinian cash crisis

By The Associated Press

Tags: Fatah, IMF, Hamas

The Palestinian Authority faces a serious cash crisis after receiving only half of the aid money it needs to function every month, the International Monetary Fund said Monday, blaming delinquent Arab donors.

At risk are the salaries of around 150,000 Palestinian civil servants, who support most families in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Many economic analysts say Arab donors are reluctant to pay up because of

alestinian infighting between Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah, which controls the West Bank, and the Islamic militant Hamas, which overran Gaza two years ago.

Arab donors believe if they withhold cash, it will pressure the two parties to reconcile, said Samir Hazboun, head of the Bethlehem Chamber of Commerce.

But IMF official Oussama Kanaan warned that everyday Palestinians are getting caught in the middle.

"Arab donors should be aware that if they don't pay, they are not punishing one party or another. The average Palestinian will be hurt," he said.

The Palestinian Authority needs around $120 million dollars in aid to balance its monthly budget, but is receiving only around $66 million.

At a summit in 2000, Arab countries pledged to give around $50 million a month to the Palestinian Authority, but they have sent only $77 million altogether this year, Kanaan said, or a little more than a quarter of the amount they promised.

European countries and the United States have largely fulfilled their aid

pledges, economists said.

The Palestinian Authority owes around $530 million to local banks in loans to make up the shortfall, said Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in a statement.

Kanaan said it was unlikely banks would keep extending credit to the

Palestinian Authority

Last update - 12:12 02/06/2009

'Proud Hungarians must prepare for war against the Jews'

By Yehuda Lahav

Tags: Jewish World, anti-Semitism

"Given our current situation, anti-Semitism is not just our right, but it is the duty of every Hungarian homeland lover, and we must prepare for armed battle against the Jews."

This quote appeared in a newsletter published by an organization calling itself "The trade union of Hungarian police officers prepared for action".

Hungarian law allows police officers to organize in trade unions of their own. The union - by its own definition - aims to protect the professional interests of those unionized, and not to partake in political activity.

However, the law does not prevent the union from distributing a newsletter, the content of which is at the discretion of its editor, and its editor alone.

The editor of the "prepared for action" union, Judit Szima (who also serves as the secretary-general of the union) didn't see anything wrong with the content of the article quoted above. It is little wonder, given the fact that the union has signed a cooperation agreement with the radical right wing Hungarian party "Jobbik" (Movement for better Hungary) which backs and operates the extremist paramilitary movement "Hungarian Guard" and warns against the "gypsy crime" - in effect trying to terrorize Hungary's gypsy community, as well as its Jewish community or anyone else they don't like.

Szima is the Jobbik candidate in the upcoming election for the European Union parliament, to be held June 7.

She has been removed from her post in the police force ahead of the election, but continues to serve as the union's secretary general.

The author of the article, which focuses on the duty of every Hungarian patriot to adopt anti-Semitism, did not stop at one.

The following issue of the newsletter included another of his articles, in which he argued "I am in favor of peaceful solutions. But a peaceful solution could only be implemented if our Zionist government were to relocate to Tel Aviv, as it is them who are calling for war."

"A crumbling country, torn apart by Hungarian-Gypsy civil war, could easily be claimed by the rich Jews," the article went on to say. "That is why we should expect a Hungarian-Gypsy civil war, fomented by Jews as they rub their hands together with pleasure."

This article elicited an official complaint filed with the prosecution, arguing that it contained incitement against minority groups. The prosecution rejected the complaint, stating that it did not call for violence against Jews or Gypsies, but rather called to defend against these groups' probable attack.

The "prepared for action" union affair is a testament to the state of racist incitement and anti-Semitism in Hungary. It has emerged that the union boasts more than 4,000 members, some 10 percent of the total number of police officers in Hungary. It is believed that in Budapest, the capital, the numbers are higher. This is not to say that all the union members harbor the same racist views held by its primary spokespeople and leaders - in most cases members join the union simply to protect their personal rights - but the Hungarian government and justice system can't, or won't, take action to separate the union's lawful protection of policemen's rights and its detestable political activities.

For example, after the recent resignation of prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, one of the candidates for the post was Gyorgy Suranyi, formerly the governor of the Hungarian Central Bank, a brilliant economist, and (unfortunately) a Jew.

The extreme right Hungarian Justice and Life party published on the front page of its newsletter a picture of Suranyi's face inside a yellow star of David (reminiscent of the yellow patch from the days of Fascism) with the following caption: "Suranyi is actually the candidate backed by the elderly [Israeli President] Shimon Peres. The takeover deal announced by the Israeli leader has now reached the stage in which a Jewish Hungarian prime minister is required. The deal has been in the works for many months." (The Forum referred to the unfortunate remark made by Peres recently, when he described the success of Israel's economy by saying "we are buying out Manhattan, Poland, Hungary...")

One of the two main reasons for the Hungarian authorities' failure in the face of racism and anti-Semitism is the fact that there are many right-wing elements within the government, who secretly or outright support the racist views and refuse to battle their perpetrators seriously. The other reason is that during the regime change of the 90s, the lawmakers viewed freedom of speech and expression as an absolute priority, and to this day don't provide protection to the victims of the misuse of this freedom

Last update - 22:47 01/06/2009

Barak to UN Chief: Probe Hamas rockets, not Israel 'war crimes'

By News Agencies

Tags: richard goldstone, gaza

Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday told the United Nations secretary general during their meeting in New York that the international body's investigation of alleged Israeli war crimes in the Gaza Strip was misguided.

Rather than question Israel's military activities during the Gaza war earlier this year, Barak told Ban Ki Moon, the United Nations should investigate why militant rocket fire has yet to stop after eight consecutive years.

"I don't think Israel has to - or will - cooperate with this interrogation," Barak said.

The defense minister described as "very good" his general discussion with Ban, that centered around the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the situation in Lebanon as it prepares for general elections and the impact of North Korea's nuclear test on the rest of the world.

United Nations human rights investigators began work in the Gaza Strip on Monday to try to determine whether war crimes were committed during the offensive Israel launched in the Hamas-ruled territory last December through January.

Israel said it would not cooperate with the four-member team, headed by South African jurist Richard Goldstone, which entered the Gaza Strip via Egypt.

"We have come here to see, to learn, to talk to people in all walks of life; ordinary people, governmental people, administrative people," Goldstone told reporters.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government believed the committee had been told "to find Israel guilty even before the investigation begins".

Welcoming the investigation, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement: "We hope to see the leaders of the Zionist enemy brought to justice as soon as possible as war criminals in the international courts."

The investigators plan to spend a week in the Gaza Strip. Goldstone said the group would probably visit again later in the month and submit a report in early August.

International human rights groups have called for a credible independent investigation of the conduct of Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, looking at the destruction of several residential areas and firing of artillery shells containing white phosphorus which can cause severe burns.

According to a Palestinian rights group, 1,417 people including 926 civilians were killed during Israel's Dec. 27-Jan. 18 offensive in the coastal enclave of 1.5 million people.

Israel lost 10 soldiers and three civilians in the fighting, which it launched with the declared aim of halting cross-border rocket fire by militants. It says 1,166 Palestinians were killed, 295 of them civilians.

Israel says an internal probe by its armed forces last month found no evidence of serious misconduct by its troops.

Last update - 13:00 01/06/2009

Lebanese army colonel arrested on suspicion of spying for Israel

By The Associated Press

Tags: israel news, lebanon, spying

Lebanese security officials say they have arrested an army colonel on suspicion of spying for Israel, the second high-ranking military official detained in less than two weeks.

The officials say the colonel was detained a few days ago as part of a stepped-up campaign against suspected spies on behalf of Israel that has produced about three dozen arrests.

The first high-ranking military official arrested was also an army colonel who served as a commando officer.

The officials did not provide details on the second colonel arrested. They spoke anonymously on Monday because they were not authorized to release information.

Lebanon considers itself at war with Israel, and spying for or collaborating with it can be punishable by death.

Lebanon is currently holding approximately 30 suspects in what security sources say is a widening investigation.

At least 21 of the suspects have already been charged, some in absentia, and several have confessed, the authorities said. Israel has not commented on the arrests.

Last update - 03:37 01/06/2009

Barak heads to Washington in bid to soothe tensions with U.S.

By Akiva Eldar, Barak Ravid and Natasha Mozgovaya

Tags: Israel News, U.S., Ehud Barak

Defense Minister Ehud Barak headed for the United States on Sunday night in an attempt to ease the bilateral tension that has erupted over Washington's demand that Israel freeze construction in the settlements.

Barak will also have to deal with American demands that Israel open its border crossings with the Gaza Strip to facilitate the Strip's reconstruction following Operation Cast Lead in January.

Barak will probably not have an easy time resolving tensions over the settlements, because Barack Obama's administration has already rejected Israel's contention that the president's predecessor, George W. Bush, had agreed to expansion of the settlement blocs that Israel hopes keep under any agreement with the Palestinians.

The administration also told both Congress and American Jewish organizations not to bother entertaining hopes that Barak will budge Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton from their demand for a complete halt to settlement construction.

Over the weekend, the London-based Sunday Times quoted senior administration officials as saying that Obama "has given himself two years for a diplomatic breakthrough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians," despite Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's opposition "to America's minimum demand for a freeze on all settlement building in disputed territory." The White House declined to comment on the report.

Saudi Arabia and other Arab states have also made it clear to Washington that they view a settlement freeze as a precondition for any move toward normalization with Israel.

The U.S. administration does not accept Israel's argument that "natural growth" in the settlements must be accommodated, as it believes that agreeing to this would give a kind of legal seal of approval to Israeli construction in the West Bank.

American officials have also told their Israeli counterparts that Bush's letter to former premier Ariel Sharon in April 2004 does not even constitute acquiescence to the existence of the settlement blocs, much less expansion of them; it merely states that during Israeli-Palestinian negotiations on a final-status agreement, the U.S. will support an Israeli demand that the existence of Jewish population centers in the West Bank be taken into account.

However, it also stresses that any agreement will require the consent of both sides.

The administration decided to insist on a complete settlement freeze after examining aerial photographs and reports from the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which showed that Israeli construction in the settlements had continued even after the Annapolis summit in November 2007 - although former prime minister Ehud Olmert had pledged at this summit to refrain from expanding the settlements.

According to data published by Peace Now, much of this construction has taken place outside the settlement blocs and with no connection to the issue of "natural growth."

Last update - 18:24 31/05/2009

Egypt: Mideast peace more pressing that Iran nukes

By The Associated Press

Tags: Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Iran

Egypt does not agree with Israel's point of view that Iran's nuclear ambitions are a higher priority for the region than Mideast peace, a spokesman to President Hosni Mubarak said Sunday.

Israel is looking to rally moderate Arab nations around the idea that Iran is the common danger to the whole region. The comments from presidential spokesman Suleiman Awwad, however, indicate that Egypt refuses to let Israel side step the issue of the peace process.

His remarks come just ahead of President Barack Obama's visit to the region and a high profile speech expected to address the faltering peace process.

"With regard to attempts to say Iran is a common danger, President Mubarak's and Egypt's priority is on the Palestinian issue," he told reporters in Cairo. "This will remain the priority regardless of the numerous dangers and threats in the Middle East."

Awwad added that Egypt will keep pressing for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have refused to endorse the two state solution to the peace process and instead tried to shift the regional focus to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The Israeli view is that the international community must deal with Tehran first, saying it poses a threat not just to Israel but also to Arab nations in the region.

That view is not finding much support in the Arab world.

While Sunni Arab governments agree Shiite Iran is a potential threat they are reluctant to be seen as joining Israel against another Muslim nation.

Arabs also fear that a focus on Iran will derail efforts to commit Obama to the two-state solution.

In a much-anticipated speech in Egypt on Thursday Obama is expected to stress a commitment to strengthening U.S. ties to the Muslim world.

On Wednesday he arrives in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to meet with King Abdullah, the sponsor of the 2002 Arab peace plan which calls for normalizing ties with Israel in exchange for land seized during 1967's Six Day war.

Last update - 19:12 31/05/2009

Study: 64% of Turks don't want Jewish neighbors

By News Agencies

Tags: Turkey, Milliyet, Israel News

A new study published in a Turkish newspaper Sunday said 64 percent of Turks would not want Jewish neighbors.

The study also suggested Turks had a low tolerance for diverse lifestyles in general, as three in four respondents said they would not want to live next to an atheist or anyone drinking alcohol.

The study by Istanbul's Bahcesehir University was meant to gauge radicalism and extremism in Turkey.

Results published in Sunday's Milliyet also stated that 52 percent would not want Christian neighbors, 67 would not want to live next to an unmarried couple and 43 percent would not want American neighbors.

Religious extremism and nationalism have remained level in Turkey this decade, although anti-Israeli sentiment was on the rise, said Yilmaz Esmer, a professor of political science at Bahcesehir who led the study.

Israel is the most unpopular foreign country, followed by Armenia and the United States, the study revealed. Israel is also seen as most responsible for the world's problems, followed by U.S. and EU policies, according to the survey.

A majority of Turks support their government's bid to join the European Union, the study revealed, but most say the bloc views it with prejudice because Turkey is a Muslim nation.

Three out of four Turks believe the EU is trying to divide Turkey and 81 percent believe the bloc's goal is to spread Christianity, said the study.

Despite this, 57 percent want full EU membership for Turkey.

"A majority of Turks still want EU membership, but a larger majority has very serious doubts about the EU's intentions towards Turkey," Esmer said.

One out of four Turks thinks Turkey is either already a full member of the EU or is unsure of its status, he said. Turkey has in fact been an official candidate for EU membership for 10 years and has completed only one of the 35 'chapters' in the accession process.

Sixty-two percent of Turks said religion was their priority, followed by 17 percent who said secularism was. Democratization was the top priority for 15 percent, followed by smaller numbers who cited ethnic identity and financial gain.

"The main issue for Turks is religion and secularism," Esmer said.

About 18 percent of respondents said they felt discriminated against, the highest rate in Europe, Esmer said. Still, most respondents felt that religious and ethnic diversity enriched life, rather than threatened national unity, he said.

The survey is based on interviews with 1,715 people selected randomly from 34 cities between April 12 and May 3. No margin of error was given.

Last update - 12:16 02/06/2009

U.S. to invite Iranian officials to 4th of July parties

By The Associated Press

Tags: Israel News, Iran, July 4

In a new overture to Iran, the Obama administration has authorized U.S. embassies around the world to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties they host on or around July 4th.

A State Department cable sent to all U.S. embassies and consulates late last week said that U.S. diplomats could ask their Iranian counterparts to attend the festivities, which generally feature speeches about American values, fireworks, hot dogs and hamburgers.

The notice, sent on Friday, said that the posts may invite representatives from the government of Iran to the events, a State Department official said Tuesday, quoting from the document. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an internal communication.

It was not immediately clear how many embassies and consulates would actually invite Iranian diplomats to the July 4 parties or whether any Iranians would accept the invitations.

The cable was first reported by The New York Times.

The move comes amid the administration's ongoing efforts to engage Iran in a variety of venues, including formal diplomatic meetings over its nuclear program, violence in Iraq and the situation in Afghanistan.

But Iran has given mixed responses to the overtures, which began early in the Administration's tenure when President Barack Obama recorded a videotaped greeting to the Iranian people and its leaders for their new year.

Since then, the administration announced that it would be a full participant with Iranian officials in six-nation talks aimed at getting Iran to address concerns about its suspect nuclear program. The U.S. and others accuse Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran maintains it is only interested in a civilian atomic energy program and has refused to accept a package of incentives offered by the U.S. and its partners to get it to stop enriching uranium, a process that can produce the fuel for a nuclear weapon.

The U.S. also ensured that Iran was invited and attended an international conference on Afghanistan at which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke and an Iranian official had a brief exchange with a senior American diplomat.

During that meeting in The Hague, U.S. delegates passed an informal note to Iranian officials seeking information about three Americans then missing or detained in Iran.

Last month, Iran released one of the Americans, Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was tried and convicted of spying for the United States.

Last update - 14:35 31/05/2009

Israeli ministers: No West Bank settlement freeze

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies

Tags: Israel news

Senior members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet reiterated Sunday that the government has rejected a U.S. demand to halt all activity in West Bank settlements, despite strongly-worded demands from the Obama administration to do so.

"I want to make it clear that the current Israeli government will not accept in any way the freezing of legal settlement activity in Judea and Samaria [West Bank," Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz told Army Radio.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Eli Yishai of Shas told his fellow cabinet ministers Sunday that the U.S. demand on settlement activity was tantamount to "expulsion."

President Barack Obama and his secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, have both made very public calls for Israel to institute a total freeze on construction in all West Bank settlements. Tensions between Washington and Jerusalem have been growing as a result.

Israeli political officials have accused the administration of taking a preferential line toward the Palestinians on this issue.

Some officials expressed disappointment after Tuesday's round of meetings in London with George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Middle East. "We're disappointed," said one senior official. "All of the understandings reached during the [George W.] Bush administration are worth nothing."

Another official said the U.S. administration is refusing every Israeli attempt to reach new agreements on settlement construction. "The United States is taking a line of granting concessions to the Palestinians that is not fair toward Israel," he said.

The Israeli officials attributed the unyielding U.S. stance to the speech

Obama will make in Cairo this Thursday, in which he is expected to deliver a message of reconciliation to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Mitchell was joined at the London talks by his deputy David Hale, Daniel B. Shapiro (the head of the National Security Council's Middle East desk), and State Department deputy legal adviser Jonathan Schwartz.

The Israeli delegation consisted of National Security Adviser Uzi Arad,

Netanyahu diplomatic envoy Yitzhak Molcho, Defense Ministry chief of staff Mike Herzog and deputy prime minister Dan Meridor.

Herzog spoke to Mitchell and his staff about understandings reached by former prime ministers Ehud Olmert and Ariel Sharon with the Bush administration on allowing continued building in the large West Bank settlement blocs. He asked that a similar agreement be reached with the Obama government.

Meridor spoke of the complexities characterizing the coalition headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and said Washington's demands of a complete construction freeze would lead to the dissolution of the Netanyahu government.

The Israeli delegates were stunned by the uncompromising U.S. stance, and by statements from Mitchell and his staff that agreements reached with the Bush administration were unacceptable. An Israeli official privy to the talks said that "the Americans took something that had been agreed on for many years and just stopped everything."

"What about the Tenet Report, which demanded that the Palestinians dismantle the terror infrastructure?" said the official, referring to former CIA director George Tenet. "It's unfair, and there is no reciprocity shown toward the Palestinians."

The Israeli envoys said the demand for a total settlement freeze was not only unworkable, but would not receive High Court sanction. Tensions reportedly reached a peak when, speaking of the Gaza disengagement, the Israelis told their interlocutors, "We evacuated 8,000 settlers on our own initiative," to which Mitchell responded simply, "We've noted that here."

Defense Minister Ehud Barak will travel to Washington on Sunday in an attempt to put further pressure on the Obama administration.

"We want to reach an agreement with the United States on ways to advance the peace process," said a senior Jerusalem official. The U.S. stance, he said, "will stall the process and bring about tension and stagnation, which will hurt both Israel and the United States."

Last update - 14:40 31/05/2009

Merkel to accompany Obama on visit to concentration camp in Germany

By DPA

Tags: Barack Obama, Buchenwald

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will accompany U.S. President Barack Obama on a visit to the former Nazi concentration camp of Buchenwald later this week, a German government spokesman said Sunday.

Obama will also tour the cultural attractions of the German city of Dresden and visit the U.S. military hospital in Landstuhl, where soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan are undergoing treatment.

Berlin is not on the president's itinerary for the June 4-5 visit, which will also include political talks with Merkel, followed by a news conference.

U.S. officials proposed the visit to Buchenwald, where 56,000 prisoners died through execution or maltreatment before the camp was liberated by US forces in April 1945. A great uncle of Obama was in the U.S. infantry regiment that liberated a sub-camp of Buchenwald named Ohrdruf.

The idea for the visit is believed to have come about from a meeting Obama had with Jewish writer Elie Wiesel, a survivor of Buchenwald.

Wiesel, a Nobel laureate who has written extensively about the Holocaust, is expected to join Merkel and the U.S. president when they tour the camp, located near the city of Weimar in Thuringia province. The two leaders also plan to meet other Holocaust survivors there.

Obama is flying to Germany from the Egyptian capital of Cairo, where he is due to deliver an address to the Muslim world. Despite Egypt's proximity to Israel, the U.S. leader won't be going to the Jewish state.

Analysts said this was because of differences with the new administration of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on what steps should be taken to promote the Mideast peace process.

With his visit to Buchenwald, Obama nevertheless wanted to stress his solidarity with Jews worldwide, the analysts said.

Obama's first presidential visit to Germany was for a NATO summit in April. In mid-summer 2008, during his election campaign, Obama had visited Berlin where his keynote speech drew a crowd of 200,000.

From Germany, the U.S. president travels to France where he will attend ceremonies in Normandy marking the 65th anniversary of the Allied D-Day landings, which brought about the end of World War II in Europe.

Last update - 12:40 31/05/2009

Arab airlines vie to take over the skies

By The Associated Press

Tags: Israel news, Arab world

Arab sheikdoms eager for higher international profiles are ratcheting up their aviation race despite the global economic slump.

On Monday, the city-state Dubai plans to launch its second government-run

airline - the third major carrier this decade to spring from the United Arab Emirates, a country of less than a million people. The new low-cost airline will cater to budget travelers in a region better known for opulence than bargains.

Unlike their counterparts elsewhere, other Persian Gulf airlines vow to stick to plane delivery schedules, as their deep-pocketed patrons push ahead with ambitious airport expansions. The head of one Gulf carrier has even hinted at another headline-grabbing order at the upcoming Paris Air Show.

The climb to the skies reflects the Gulf nations' drive to re-brand themselves as more than just oil-rich monarchies. Qatar for example is morphing into a research hub because of its natural gas wealth, while Abu Dhabi aims to become a cultural capital on the back of its petrodollars.

But concerns are growing - particularly now that the global economic downturn has undermined demand for long-haul and premium air travel. Some analysts wonder if the region's airlines are stuffing their fleets too quickly with too many planes, much like Dubai's overzealous developers raced to build luxury apartment blocks that now largely stand empty.

"Absent continuing growth in construction and services, you really don't need all those seats," said Bob Mann, an independent airline consultant. "It's the rate of capacity growth that's the question."

The rapid expansion is redrawing the world's air routes: It is now easier to fly from Houston to Dubai or the Qatari capital Doha than to Rome or Beijing. Gulf carriers, which typically boast more generous in-flight services than Western competitors, enjoy increased business even as traffic falls most everywhere else.

The International Air Transport Association said demand in the region grew 11.2 percent in April, extending a rare winning streak.

Still, the trade group expects Middle Eastern carriers to lose a combined $900 million this year as traffic gains are overshadowed by even larger increases in capacity. In effect, the region is gaining market share but flying emptier planes.

"In the short term, that's a bit of a mismatch," Mann said.

The pace of expansion has been phenomenal, both for the airlines and their suppliers. Gulf oil money has added tens of billions to Boeing Co. and Airbus' order books, helping to preserve thousands of U.S. and European jobs for years.

Among the carriers, Dubai's Emirates, the market leader, has grown in under 25 years from a humble short-hop airline into one of the world's biggest international passenger and cargo haulers. It now operates more than 130 planes flying to six continents, carrying more passengers abroad than any U.S. carrier except American Airlines.

New planes arrive on average every three to four weeks, among them some of the 58 double-decker Airbus A380s Emirates has ordered - the most booked by any airline anywhere.

The carrier uses its hometown Dubai, which has little oil of its own, as a global hub linking east with west and north with south - much like Chicago's rail yards and airports turned that city into a U.S. transport mecca.

Emirates recently posted what it said was its 21st straight year of profits - although the earnings were 71 percent lower than a year earlier.

A second Dubai airport, slated to eventually become the world's busiest, is due to receive its first flights next year - even as expansion at the original airport moves ahead.

The success has bred competition, with multiple carriers now flying similar routes in the tense airspace around Iran and Iraq. The overlap may help drive down prices, but also leads to unnecessary duplication, analysts say.

Tiny Qatar is quickly scaling up its national carrier, Qatar Airways, which flies to more than 80 cities. It is also building a new airport on reclaimed land along the crystal blue Gulf.

"Who told you it is a tough market for us?" Qatar Airways' head, Akbar al-Baker, recently said after outlining plans for at least half a dozen new routes in the coming months.

Al-Baker said the company plans to make further announcements at the Paris Air Show in June, suggesting it could add to plans for more than 200 planes worth over $40 billion in the coming years.

In Emirates' own backyard, the neighboring sheikdom of Abu Dhabi is pumping its vast oil wealth into Etihad Airways - which it pointedly dubs the seven-state federation's national airline. The six-year-old carrier made waves last year with an order for at least 100 planes. It recently announced a $70 million revamp of its first-class cabins.

Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates' chairman and chief executive, said he sees little reason to worry about having so many well-funded rivals based a quick drive or shuttle flight away.

"The competition will always be there, in good times and bad times," he said in a recent interview.

But some industry veterans have doubts.

"What's happening at the moment is a little artificial," Stelios Haji-Ioannou, the founder of European discount carrier EasyJet, said during a recent visit to Dubai. "The fact that a tiny, tiny little city like Dubai ... can actually justify an airline the size of Emirates is a little risky.

The problem with a hub-and-spoke airline like that is that you're competing with every other hub-and-spoke airline in the world, he said.

Gulf carriers have not been immune to the economic downturn, to be sure.

Emirates replaced two of its Airbus A380 superjumbo jets on the high-profile New York-Dubai route with smaller planes less than eight months after starting service because of weak demand. It also started offering unpaid leave to some of its 48,000 workers to cut costs, and said the economic outlook for the coming year is not improving.

Qatar Airways is pulling plush front-of-plane lounges from some of its

aircraft and replacing them with coach seats, while Etihad is offering

cut-rate promotional fares to certain destinations. Return flights between Abu Dhabi and London were recently selling for as little as $195 before taxes and fees.

Etihad CEO James Hogan summed up the industry's challenge earlier this month. Filling seats isn't the issue, he said. The issue is yield, or how much money each passenger brings in.

Still, Gulf states are pressing ahead.

Dubai will launch its new airline, FlyDubai, with daily flights to Lebanon and Jordan this week. Service to Syria and Egypt will be added later. The airline will compete not only against full-service carriers but also against Air Arabia, a budget airline operated out of Dubai's neighboring emirate Sharjah.

Both discounters have big plans. FlyDubai has some 50 new Boeing 737s booked at a cost of about $4 billion at list prices.

And Air Arabia late last year ordered 10 more Airbus A320s - on top of a

previous order for 34 of the single-aisle planes. It just opened a second hub in Morocco in April, with its sights set on the European market.

Last update - 04:48 31/05/2009

ANALYSIS / Congress gives Obama green light to squeeze Israel

By Aluf Benn

Tags: Israel News, Barack Obama

United States President Barack Obama lays out long-term visionary goals, such as Middle East peace, but he moves with political pragmatism in advancing them. This is as true of his domestic and economic objectives as it is of his complex approach to Israel.

His statements are carefully tailored to the measure of Congress' support for Israel. Congressional representatives are committed to preserving Israel's security and dealing with Iran, but do not support strengthening the settlements. So Obama stresses his support for Israel's security, but is willing to confront Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the settlements.

This strategy, echoed in every statement by administration officials about the Middle East, was probably formulated by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel. Obama reiterated it at his meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Thursday. Obama demanded that the Palestinians stop their incitement against Israel and said he would not talk to Hamas until it recognizes Israel. Congress supports these positions strongly, but they have a price. On the eve of Obama's "reconciliation" speech to the Muslim world in Cairo, scheduled for this Thursday, he has one main demand from Israel - stop the settlements. That was his little gift to the Arab world.

The U.S. administration understands this demand as the total suspension of construction in the settlements and the evacuation of the illegal outposts. Netanyahu is willing to evacuate the outposts but insists on building to accommodate "natural growth" on the basis of the understandings reached with former president George W. Bush: construction within built-up areas in settlements beyond the separation fence, expanding settlement blocs inside the barrier beyond the built-up area and unlimited construction in Jewish neighborhoods in East Jerusalem.

Obama insists on a complete halt in construction. He is not bound by Bush-era understandings. A State Department spokesman hinted that Obama is also not bound by the "Bush letter" to Sharon of April 2004. The letter, seen as recognition of a future annexation of settlement blocs to Israel, was given in exchange for the disengagement from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.

Netanyahu sent a dovish member of his cabinet, Ehud Barak, to the U.S. to explain that a total construction freeze was neither practical nor moral - in other words, the world will have to accept the settlements and their development as faits accomplis. If even Barak says so, there is no chance of the Israeli political system accepting the freeze.

The Americans are insisting that Israel must deliver on its commitment in the road map to a halt in all settlement construction.

Netanyahu faces a difficult dilemma, whose outcome will also affect his coalition's fate. He does not have too many cards to play with, but realizes he must give the Americans something. In the coming weeks he will try to concoct a formula that will keep his coalition and party intact, and satisfy Obama as well.

Last update - 14:31 31/05/2009

'Obama wants Mideast breakthrough within next two years'

By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Mideast peace

U.S. President Barack Obama has given himself a two-year deadline to reach a breakthrough on a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, The Sunday Times reported.

The administration has been firm in its declarations that it would pursue a two-state solution and Obama has vowed to "change the conversation" with the Muslim world in order to widen the diplomatic circle involved in the peace process.

Obama will visit the Middle East this week for talks in Riyadh and Cairo, where he is expected to unfurl his long-awaited plan for expanding Muslim diplomacy.

Meanwhile, tensions between Washington and Jerusalem are growing after the U.S. administration's demand that Israel completely freeze construction in all West Bank settlements.

Israeli political officials have accused the administration of taking a preferential line toward the Palestinians with this regard.

Some officials expressed disappointment after Tuesday's round of meetings in London with George Mitchell, Obama's envoy to the Middle East. "All of the understandings reached during the [George W.] Bush administration are worth nothing," said one senior official.

The Israeli officials attributed the unyielding U.S. stance to the speech

Obama will make in Cairo this Thursday, in which he is expected to deliver a message of reconciliation to the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Last update - 18:52 30/05/2009

Hamas: Abbas mustn't relinquish our rights for a 'U.S. illusion'

By DPA

Tags: Israel news, Hamas, Obama

Palestinian factions in exile in Damascus on Saturday warned Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas against giving up on the "rights of the Palestinian people" in exchange for a "U.S. illusion."

In a joint statement sent to reporters after a Saturday meeting of political leaders from Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Damascus-based factions, the groups said they would reject any international agreement Abbas might strike "on behalf of our people that would target our people's rights under the guise of peace."

Abbas, speaking to reporters on Saturday after briefing Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on his recent meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, said he fully supported the U.S. administration's emphasis on the importance of establishing an independent Palestinian state and a halt to the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Issuing comments following Abbas' trip to Washington, the groups warned against the "U.S. illusion of a new settlement under the slogan of a 'two-state solution'," given what they called "the extreme racism" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and "the escalation of the Israeli position."

The groups called for an end to the two-year-old blockade of the Gaza Strip and to what they called the "Judaization" of the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Last update - 00:08 31/05/2009

Abbas: U.S. is committed to ending settlement construction

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel news, Arab

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Saturday, and briefed him on his recent trip to Washington, saying that the U.S. was committed to bringing about an end to Israeli construction in the West Bank settlements.

In a joint press conference following the meeting, the Palestinian president said that "when the American administration talks about Israel's duty to stop the settlements - including natural growth - it is a very important step."

Abbas added that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu must recognize the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before peace negotiations, which began at the U.S. Annapolis conference, could resume.

"The Israelis seem to have not completed their plan and their vision, and thus, contacts are ongoing, but they will not take months, but weeks. Something must be achieved by the beginning of July," Abbas added.

Addressing the issue of preconditions to peace talks, the Palestinian president said that "the Israelis said that they don't want preconditions, as if what we demand and what the U.S. demands are preconditions. The two-state solution, and halting settlements are not preconditions, but rather established terms of the Road Map plan, so we are not demanding anything new, but rather the implementation of what has already been agreed upon."

In regard to the Arab peace plan, which calls for normalization of ties between the Arab world and Israel in exchange for Israeli territorial withdrawal, Abbas said that he rejects any call to amend the original plan, explaining that he felt that U.S. President Barack Obama and his administration seemed very serious about an agreement.

"We proposed implementation of the Arab Peace Initiative and the Road Map plan, which is simply based on Israel?s withdrawal from occupied Palestinian and Arab territories, and then all Arab and Islamic countries can normalize relations with Israel. The plan was published on Friday in the Washington Post. Arab countries, however, need to see practical steps taken by Israel before they take any decisions," Abbas reiterated.

The Israelis, Abbas went on to say, have now proposed another point to stall the talks: incitement against Israel. "We want to remind them that it was proposed ten years ago and it was agreed in the Wye River Memorandum in 1998 that an American-Palestinian-Israeli committee will investigate all incitement-related claims. The committee operated for a while, then stopped."

"We are demanding now that the committee resumes its tasks to examine Israeli claims about incitement against Israel, as well as our claims as we too think there is incitement in Israel against us through [Israel's] educational curricula," Abbas explained.

Last update - 15:48 30/05/2009

Gates calls for tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran

By Haaretz Service and The Associated Press

Tags: israel news, north korea

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Saturday compared North Korea's nuclear program to Iran's and called for tough sanctions against both countries that bring home real pain for their failure to adhere to international norms.

Gates said that Pyongyang's nuclear program is further along than that of Tehran, and insisted that the United States would respond quickly if moves by North Korea's communist government threatened America or its Asian allies.

"We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in the region - or on us," Gates told an annual international meeting of defense and security officials from Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Gates called North Korea's nuclear program a harbinger of a dark future but said he does not consider it a direct military threat to the United States at this point.

Gates offered no specifics on how the U.S. might respond to North Korea, militarily or otherwise, and has said there are no current plans to deploy more U.S. forces to the region.

At the conference, concern over the nuclear threat served to unify the region's sometimes diplomatic adversaries.

Chinese Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian said Beijing is resolutely opposed to nuclear proliferation and called for nations to remain cool-headed and take measure to address the problem. South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee called the tests a serious challenge to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty.

Gates' speech delivered his harshest words to date to North Korea since Pyongyang detonated an underground nuclear device Monday, followed by several short-range missile launches over the last few days.

The Pentagon chief focused most of his comments on U.S. priorities like high-seas piracy and the war in Afghanistan. Despite his warning, he appeared to take care in the half-hour speech to avoid ratcheting up the rhetoric in the weeklong war of words between North Korea and nations alarmed by its show of weaponry.

The UN Security Council is considering tough sanctions to punish North Korea for its nuclear test. In turn, North Korean leaders said they would respond in self-defense to the as-of-yet unspecified sanctions but did not say how.

Gates' call for tougher sanctions was echoed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso, both of whom "have agreed on the need to respond seriously to the recent North Korean nuclear test," according to a statement released by the Kremlin on Saturday.

Last update - 05:49 03/06/2009

Poland and Ukraine resist restitution of heirless Holocaust property

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Tags: Jewish World, Israel News

Peleg estimates the value of heirless Jewish property in Poland alone at billions of dollars.

"The reason there's so much unclaimed property is because the Nazis killed off whole families," he said.

Former Mossad official Reuven Merhav, who will head Israel's delegation to Prague, called the negotiations "intensive" and "delicate."

Last update - 18:04 02/06/2009

Jewish ghetto survivors from Holocaust win German pensions

By DPA

Tags: Jewish World, Holocaust

Three Holocaust survivors won clearance Tuesday from a German social-welfare tribunal to claim old-age pensions on account of work they were forced to do by the Nazis.

All three were confined in ghettos, the cordoned-off and starvation-ravaged zones where Jews were corralled by the Nazis in eastern European cities in the months and years before being sent to death camps during the Second World War.

Their claims for labor-related pensions had previously failed because they did not receive any wages from the German occupiers.

But the tribunal in the central city of Kassel ruled that receiving food and other gratuities for their work as electricians was also remuneration and qualified them for the pension scheme.

In a series of cases in recent years, elderly Holocaust survivors have won German pensions, which continue for life, unlike lump-sum compensation paid once only by Germany to former slave labourers.

The judges ruled that an employment relationship existed even when it was forced and when the sole remuneration was in goods, no matter how scanty. Employment also existed when a third party received that payment.

The Jewish claimants, two men and women, are now aged between 80 and 87. They were in ghettoes in Poland and Belarus and worked in the German army postal service, a leather factory and the state-owned Hermann Goering industrial group.

Their sole remuneration was meals at work, some food to take home or ration coupons, and occasional cash gratuities.

The Nazis extensively exploited forced labour because a large part of the German male workforce was doing military service

Last update - 12:00 02/06/2009

High-powered U.S. lawyer Eizenstat to head Jewish policy institute

By Raphael Ahren, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Jewish World

Stuart Eizenstat, a prominent lawyer and former U.S. under secretary of state, has been appointed to chair the Jewish People Policy Planning Institute in Jerusalem. The Harvard-educated Atlanta native, who served as U.S. ambassador to the European Union from 1993 to 1996, replaces Dennis Ross, who resigned in January to join the Obama administration.

Eizenstat was also President Jimmy Carter?s chief domestic policy adviser and served under President Bill Clinton as deputy secretary of the treasury.

"Ambassador Eizenstat's experience in public service, which spans three U.S. administrations, and his profound commitment to the Jewish people made him the best candidate for this position," commented JPPPI Director-General Avinoam Bar-Yosef.

Last update - 16:23 29/05/2009

Spanish prosecutors seek arrest of three former Nazi guards

By DPA

Tags: Nazi war crimes, israel news

Prosecutors at Spain's National Court on Friday sought international arrest warrants for three alleged former guards of Nazi concentration camps.

The three suspects, now in their 80s, are being investigated after Spanish survivors filed a complaint against them.

The suspects are Anton Tittjung, of Kewaunee, Wis.; Josias Kumpf, who lives in Racine, Wis.; and Johann Leprich, who lives near Detroit.

A fourth suspect in the Spanish probe - John Demjanjuk - was deported from the United States to Germany earlier this month.

The three allegedly committed genocide and crimes against humanity between 1942 and 1945, according to the prosecutors.

The suspects have been living in the United States, which stripped them of citizenship.

The Spanish complaint was filed by survivors who were in the concentration camps of Mauthausen, Sachsenhausen and Flossenburg.

More than 7,000 Spaniards are estimated to have been at the camps during World War II. More than 4,000 of them died.

Last update - 08:35 29/05/2009

From Soviet secularism to Israeli ultra-Orthodoxy

By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Ultra-Orthodox, Jewish World

On Lag Ba'omer, a group of merrymakers squeezed around a traditional holiday campfire in a patch of garden between two buildings in Rishon Letzion. They roasted potatoes, like everyone else, and burned an effigy of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, like everyone else. David Schechter, who served as an advisor to former minister Natan Sharansky, said he can't remember what else went up in smoke, because "the vodka flowed like water."

The guests at this campfire were all immigrants from the former Soviet Union who have become observant Jews and wear skullcaps. They are doctors and lawyers, journalists and businesspeople, and fathers and sons who meet regularly at the local synagogue, where about a quarter of the congregation is Russian-speaking. Every couple of months, they are joined by a new worshipper with the same background.

Schechter, who became religiously observant while still living in Moscow, before immigrating to Israel in 1987, is called the "rabbi of the brigade." This is a slight exaggeration, although Schechter occupies a significant role in encouraging the phenomenon of returning to religion among immigrants. And even if the trend is no tidal wave, it contradicts a stereotype.

"There are no exact data, but according to my research, about one-fourth of these immigrants will become religious," says Dr. Ze'ev Hanin, a Tel Aviv University sociologist, who is himself an immigrant and wears a skullcap. "As is customary among Russians, it's reasonable to assume that some of them will go to extremes."

Although there are no exact figures on the number of immigrants from the former Soviet Union who define themselves as traditional or strictly observant Jews, Hanin estimates their number at 50,000, not counting Jews from Bukhara and the Caucasus, who are nearly all religious anyway.

It's hard to know just where Menahem Tschotschopaka's private journey will end. Right now he's teetering on the edge, donning a large black skullcap, but still listening to Pink Floyd blaring in his car. His father was a Cossack descended from an ataman, a Cossack chieftain. His mother was a Jew. He was born in Ukraine, became a veteran tennis coach, married a beautiful Ukrainian woman, and fathered Roman and Natasha.

He immigrated to Israel five years ago and later became religious, while his wife did not. Natasha became Nehama and married the ultra-Orthodox Aviezer, also of Russian background; they live in Beitar Illit, a Haredi settlement in the West Bank. Roman remained Roman, and right after being discharged from the army, married the young Ukrainian woman whom he took along with him to Israel.

In Israel, Tschotschopaka was pushed out of his profession. He earns his livelihood by working in a phyllo dough factory, and finds comfort in religion. His close friends are Russians who have also turned to religion. "I have something to tell you all," he says. "My Cossack grandfather was an non-believer," he laughs. "We need to go back to God, and spread [faith] among all nations. That's our task in Israel."

Vadim and Lev Leibman couldn't agree more, except for the matter of "all nations." They only want to attract Jews - in particular Russian Jews - to the small Chabad center they've opened in the heart of Rishon Letzion. Until not so long ago, they led completely different lives. Vadim, 51, worked at a high-level job in high-tech, and his wife, an eye doctor, enjoyed a good income, too.

In Moscow they lived in an exclusive neighborhood, close to the president's residence. They knew nothing about Judaism. They decided to immigrate to Israel in 1990, when Lev was eight years old. The men in the family underwent circumcision, but they didn't start down the road to ultra-Orthodoxy until the preparations for Lev's bar mitzvah.

By that time, many friends from Russia had joined them in Israel. Thanks to his high-tech job, Vadim had a car at his disposal. On Saturdays, friends would ask him for help moving from one apartment to another, until he became tired of it. "I told everyone that I was no longer traveling on Shabbat, and stopped working in the moving business," Vadim says.

Shortly afterward, signs of his becoming more Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) began to show in his dress: First he wore a knitted skullcap, then switched to a black one, and later added a caftan, too. Meanwhile, Yossi was born; today he studies in a heder, an ultra-Orthodox elementary school.

Lev attended the secular Shevah Mofet school but upon completing 10th grade, he decided to transfer to a yeshiva in Kfar Chabad, where, he was nicknamed "the Russian." A flute-player, he was also the first Russian Haredi to attend the Tel Aviv Music Conservatory, and is now working on a book about the place of music in Chabad life. Lev completed his studies in a Brooklyn yeshiva, was ordained a rabbi and appointed a Chabad representative in Rishon Letzion. One of the common jokes of Vadim and Lev is that "Chabad and Coca Cola are everywhere."

Drawn to the extreme

Truthfully, the job of being a Chabad emissary in Rishon Letzion sounds tougher than being sent to a remote African tribe - in part because immigrants from the former Soviet Union loathe brainwashing above all. "They are afraid," Lev sighs.

Still, 20 families have already been enlisted in the rebbe's army. Boris, a historian by profession and once an enthusiastic communist, enters the room where Vadim and Lev spend many hours. A skullcap on his head, he avidly listens to Lev, who shows him sources from a Chabad book on Jewish history. Late at night, Boris-Benjamin Malkhozov visits the center. Malkhozov has only recently become observant and now wears a stiff black beret of the kind once worn by Bolsheviks. The outfit is a reminder that Chabad originated in Russia, and so, after all, the movement is being restored to its former status.

Researchers studying the phenomenon agree that due to their mentality, immigrants from the former Soviet Union who become religious are drawn toward religion's more extreme manifestations. It's a fact: in Rishon Letzion they are already calling Schechter a "shaygetz," the Yiddish term for a non-Jewish man. He responds, with some contempt, that the others are "messianic." Lev says it's not a matter of fanaticism, but rather a search for the truth by people who were raised in an atmosphere of lies.

"Russians and Israelis who become religious are not coming from the same place," he explains. "The Russians I know are better educated, so the process comes from a deeper place."

Which just goes to show that Russian-born immigrants, whether secular or religious, may not be so willing to let go of their inner feeling of cultural superiority.

Chabad doesn't recognize the State of Israel, but in former Soviet Union, it teaches Zionism

By Amiram Barkat

Ilya Pozhidayev, 13, immigrated to Israel several years ago with his parents from Lugansk, an industrial town in eastern Ukraine. However, about a year ago, employment problems forced his parents to send their only son back to Lugansk to be raised by his grandmother. The grandmother, who works for the local branch of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, registered Pozhidayev at the private Jewish school Or Avner, which is run by Chabad movement rabbis, emissaries of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS.

Conditions at the school are much better than at Israeli state schools. There are between 10 and 12 children per class. The school day ends at 3 P.M. in the lower grades and at 5 P.M. in the upper grades. Schooling is free and parents are not required to pay fees for such extra expenditures as school books and class trips.

In a conversation with him last week at his school, Pozhidayev said that being an Israeli gave him an edge over local students. "When they teach Hebrew or about the State of Israel, then obviously I know better than everyone, almost as much as the teachers."

Besides the government school program, Or Avner pupils get six to eight hours a week of studies in Hebrew, Jewish tradition and geography of the Land of Israel. The State of Israel is felt almost everywhere in the school. At the entrance to the building stands an Israeli flag, and the hallways are adorned with pictures from Israeli life - soldiers praying at the Western Wall, coffee shops in Haifa and the Eilat beach.

So striking an Israeli presence is not a negligible matter in an ultra-Orthodox non-Zionist school network. The late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, forbade the government to give the Arabs any part of the Land of Israel, but was careful to refrain from showing sympathy for the state and recognizing its institutions. The president of the FJC CIS, tycoon Lev Leviev, speaks cautiously when asked about the role Israel plays in the curriculum. "We teach about the Land of Israel and love of Israel because we believe it is a central part of Jewish identity," Leviev said during a visit to the school in Lugansk last week.

Leviev, himself a Chabad disciple who received the blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, founded the Or Avner network in 1995 to fight assimilation in states of the former Soviet Union. "The criteria for success from our standpoint is stopping assimilation," said Or Avner Director Rabbi David Mondshine. "We will be delighted if our graduates will be religiously observant, but even if that doesn't happen it will be alright, so long as they marry Jews."

There are 14,000 Or Avner students enrolled at some 100 schools across the former Soviet Union. According to Leviev, the fathers of over 90 percent of the pupils are not Jewish. The Zionist organizations operating in the CIS, the Jewish Agency and the Nativ liaison agency, previously viewed Or Avner as a rival element that was encouraging Jews not to move to Israel. Today, some Or Avner schools have Zionism teachers who are employed by the Jewish Agency and Israeli Education Ministry.

In recent years, hundreds of Or Avner students have come to Israel on annual organized trips. The ministry program, known by its Hebrew acronym Heftziba, takes the visiting students to Jewish holy sites, but also on jeep and kayaking trips, and even to experience Bedouin hospitality.

This past year, the Jewish Agency expanded its cooperation with Or Avner to other areas. JA Chair Ze'ev Bielski likes to say that as far as he's concerned, Or Avner is a Zionist entity.

Or Avner officials explain that familiarity with Israel is the best way to strengthen the students' Jewish identity. "In the students' eyes, the Israeli flag is the most Jewish thing there is," said Rabbi Pinchas Vyshedsky, FJC-Ukraine representative to the city of Donetsk. "We were very pleased with our students' visits to Israel. The visit worked miracles in terms of their interest in Judaism and desire to belong to the Jewish community."

This is important as Or Avner schools face competition from non-Jewish private schools that have cropped up in recent years across the CIS, catering to the nouveau riche.

Last update - 23:34 08/03/2008

'WE need Judaization'

By Anshel Pfeffer

Tags: Israel, London, Tycoon

MOSCOW - Two weeks ago oligarch Boris Spiegel, a senator and an influential figure in Russian politics, who is also the president of the World Congress of Russian Jewry, celebrated his 55th birthday at a well-attended party in a luxurious venue in this city. In honor of Lev Leviev's arrival, the organizers arranged for a special table with kosher food only.

Leviev claims that Jews have to demonstrate their Judaism proudly, and is convinced that most Israelis are ashamed of their Jewishness. He even attributes the rise in anti-Semitism to that.

"We're ashamed of what we are," he says. "That's why we feel that we have to get rid of the values of our glorious history and run to learn from other, new nations. Don't I look to you like a man of the world? Don't I speak to the leading businessmen in the world? And it's no problem that I'm a Jew, and a proud Jew who wears a skullcap everywhere, and that's my symbol and my identity. There were Jews who told people here [in Russia]: Don't wear a tallit (prayer shawl), don't walk around like Jews, keep quiet. But that's what brings anti-Semitism: when a Jew tries to resemble a goy. When a Jew behaves like what he is - a Jew - a goy begins to respect him, too. When he is not ashamed, then he is respected. I come to eat with very important people in the world, and I say 'only kosher,' and always with a skullcap. I don't recall that my business ever suffered from that."

Two months ago the Israeli media were full of reports about Leviev leaving the country. He did, in fact, buy a palace in London for 35 million pounds sterling, and moved his wife Olga and his three youngest children (out of nine) there. But for over a decade it has been hard to say that Leviev was truly living in Israel. At most he's there on weekends. The main "victims" of his family's move to London are a handful of Israeli aides who traveled around the world with him. Now on their way home on Fridays they are forced to fly on scheduled flights instead of in the boss' private plane. For Leviev business is business, and now he has to supervise at first hand the huge Africa-Israel stock issue on the London Stock Exchange.

How did you feel about the media preoccupation with your move to London?

Leviev: "I don't feel anything. I know that I have my own mission and I know that life, unfortunately, is short: I have a limited time and we have to get as much done as possible, and that's that. And we have to preserve our health."

The media have bestowed on Leviev the title of the richest man in Israel: On the Forbes magazine list of billionaires he is located, with $1.4 billion, after Shari Arison and Stef Wertheimer, but that list refers only to his public holdings, in the context of Africa-Israel; the diamond and gold businesses he controls further increase his wealth, which TheMarker estimates at $5.6 billion.

Leviev is not satisfied with just being wealthy, he also has a public role: president of the Association of Jewish Communities in Russia. The offices of the association are located in a place that is still an important center of his life, and where a large part of this interview was conducted: the Moscow headquarters of the educational organization Or Avner, named after his father. At a time when the new Israeli billionaires are discovering philanthropy and are starting to donate money to Israeli society, Leviev focuses his donations and his time on Russia and other countries that have arisen on the ruins of the Soviet Union.

Don't you feel that you are swimming against the tide?

"Our worldview is mistaken. First of all, it is written that 'All Jews are responsible for one another,' and a Jew who lives in Siberia or in Kamchatka is just as good as a Jew who had the good fortune to be born in Jerusalem. The person who was born and grew up in Kamchatka, because Stalin didn't like his father and sent him there, grew up as a child who didn't know he was Jewish. We as Jews are obligated to take care of every one of our own, including him. It is written that all of Israel is part of God above, we are part of the Holy One, blessed be he - so for me there's no difference between a Jew in Israel and a Jew abroad. I give money for which I work very hard, and I believe that as a Jew I am obligated to do so. We have dozens of institutions, associations, areas in which we are active, and it costs us hundreds of millions of shekels of our own money. We did not take public money."

Covering a wall in the room where the interview is taking place, which senior staff at Or Avner call the "war room," is a map of the former Soviet Union. With the pressing of a switch hundreds of green bulbs light up, extending from the island of Sakhalin in the Far East, near Japan: Each represents a place where representatives of the organization live. Red bulbs symbolize the 75 Jewish schools that have already been built. Leviev, a reserved person, has difficulty concealing a smile of satisfaction.

Is it possible that because of your large investment the lives of Jews here are so comfortable now that they have no desire to come to Israel?

"That question reflects a mistaken worldview, because the moment a Jew's Jewish soul is poor, of course he won't come to Israel. We want to give him content. My dream is for that to be the job of the Israeli Education Ministry. If not, we have to call it the Ministry of Knowledge. Because there's a big difference between education and knowledge: The moment we don't invest in educating Jewish children according to the roots that were the basis of our education for thousands of years, we are knowledge-givers rather than educators. My vision is that we will live in a Jewish state where 'the Jewish state' won't be written only on the flag, because soon they'll be saying that we have an Arab majority and it won't be nice to write that we're a Jewish state. Just as a Muslim studies Islam, the Jew has to study Judaism. Everyone has to learn the heritage of his family and the history that dates back thousands of years.

"Arik [former prime minister Ariel] Sharon said to me: 'You're giving the Jews a good life and they won't come to Israel.' I was very surprised. I said to him: 'I didn't come to get a medal for my investment in Diaspora Jewry, when I'm actually doing your job, but at least you should express your gratitude rather than criticizing us.' The fact that he spoke that way shows that Arik Sharon didn't receive a Jewish education either."

But in the 1990s millions of immigrants came here, without any of the Jewish education that you're talking about.

"They came because the gates were closed, and then they opened. And the State of Israel missed the opportunity and didn't absorb them properly, and then they stopped coming even when the gates remained open. There is almost no Jew here who hasn't visited Israel; they saw that the absorption is not good, that there's no work, etc. When the aliyah stopped 10 years ago, and they made such a major effort to bring over non-Jews from here, too, I was opposed."

Don't 300,000 Jews who are not Jews according to halakha [Jewish law] deserve to have a solution found for them?

"Prime minister Sharon asked us at the time to set up conversion institutes. I told him, what are we, a factory? Go to the rabbis. If you need a don

ation I'm here. But to decide who is a Jew and who isn't a Jew - I'm not qualified for that. Just as I'm not qualified to fly the plane to Russia, even if I think I may have the ability. Who is a Jew? Neither a prime minister nor a president can determine that; for that there are experts in the rabbinate."

In the business world Leviev is described as a creative person, a revolutionary. The man who turned the international diamond industry on its head when he made alliances with the Russian government and with African countries for the mining and polishing of diamonds, to break the monopoly of the De Beers corporation. This is how he made the billions that enabled him to acquire the Africa-Israel company and through it establish an intercontinental real-estate empire. He thinks that we are all losing because we don't follow his Jewish path: "Why aren't we in the State of Israel living in peace? Why do we have problems and wars, and all this mess? If we were to live as Jews, according to the Torah, we would be the wealthiest, the most peaceful people, in the safest country," he says.

And why doesn't that happen?

"Because of our behavior, our assimilation, our denial of our Judaism. Every Jew in Israel or in the Diaspora has to know what our roots are, what his ancestors' tradition is, and anyone who thinks otherwise - I say he's simply unfortunate."

But Jews have always tried to be part of a wider world. You in effect want to combat globalization.

"We have become completely confused. We are discussing something that we don't have to discuss - globalization, democratization. We need Judaization. First of all to know that we're Jews and that Jews have to live. And the moment we understand what our internal values are, everything will work out for us."

But who decides what Jewish values are?

"What do you mean? We have our sacred books. We have our history and our tradition."

And what about secular Jewish culture?

"What is secular Judaism? Are you familiar with such a thing?"

An entire encyclopedia, "Zman yehudi hadash" ("New Jewish Time," in Hebrew) has recently been published, about secular Jewish culture.

"As far as I'm concerned, what was now published and what was published in Cuba are the same thing. There a writer wrote and here a writer wrote, I don't pay any attention to it."

Is there a future for the secular version of Zionism?

"The moment you ask a child in Israel what Yom Kippur means to him, and he answers the Yom Kippur War, or a fun day on a bicycle - then I don't know if that is Zionism or whatever you call it, but it has certainly become bankrupt. And for that we are to blame, first and foremost, the moment we try to import the new American religion, and concentrate only on the new things that are being invented in our generation, and shrug off our Judaism."

What is your opinion of the Zionist attempt to create a new Jew who will not arouse anti-Semitism?

"The books left to us by our ancestors tell us exactly how a Jew should live and behave, what kind of insurance we should prepare for ourselves and our families. It says 'And Esau hated Jacob.' The nations of the world don't need a reason. Even if we walk around with a skullcap, without a skullcap, with long hair, if we paint ourselves in different colors - we are Jews, and Esau hated Jacob, that is apparently the way of the world. We're talented, we're good-looking, we're diligent, we're pioneers in everything - and they don't like us, that's a fact. Everywhere in the world Jews arrived last and they are always the first in economics, in education and in everything; it's our genes. We have to understand where these things come from, we don't have to be ashamed. The same younger generation that thinks it will change the face of Judaism - you have to understand that it is destroying Judaism: Anyone who denies faith will not remain a Jew in the coming generations."

Lev Leviev, who considers himself a man of the world, was never involved in the Israeli business community, and expresses uncomplimentary opinions of his colleagues-rivals only after announcing "this is off the record." In London he is not involved either, not even in the Jewish community. The neighborhood of Hampstead, where he lives, is full of synagogues, but he prefers to pray in one that he built inside his new house. Even in Moscow, where he fits into the business community in the most natural way, he does not behave like an oligarch.

Two weeks ago, a bar-mitzvah ceremony was held in the Jewish community center in Moscow, for the son of Russia's chief rabbi, Berel Lazar. One after another, Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Maybachs crowded into the narrow street, each of them accompanied by a black security jeep. One by one, the oligarchs and the "minigarchs" - those worth only a few hundred million dollars - got out, carrying presents in elegant wooden crates, surrounded by black-clad bodyguards. Although Rabbi Lazar is considered his protege, Leviev did not arrive early to rub shoulders. He wears conservative suits and travels on the city streets in a black Mercedes; he also has a pair of bodyguards, but they don't wear dark suits and they manage to blend into the crowd.

He refuses to disclose how much money he has invested to date in his philanthropic activity, or the annual operating cost of his 75 schools in the former Soviet Union, to which additional institutions have been added in recent years in Israel, Eastern Europe, Germany and even in areas in which Russian Jews live in the United States.

"I'm not asking the country to join me," smiles Leviev when asked about it. "I'm not asking for money. Thank God, every year it grows and I'm very happy."

For Leviev, Judaism has one meaning: Chabad. Before he began to develop his diamond business in Russia in the late 1980s, he traveled to New York to ask for the blessing of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. The rebbe gave his blessing, but told him that he also had to take care of the Jews. Since then he sees his business and his philanthropy as intertwined. His most loyal aides are hundreds of Chabad emissaries who are scattered today all over the former Soviet Union, and who operate the educational institutions he funds.

In the ultra-Orthodox community they say that not a single yeshiva student has emerged from all your schools.

"You are confusing two things: You are used to the ultra-Orthodox man in Israel, who never works and studies in yeshiva all the time, and says that one needs only study, from childhood. There is no religious Jew abroad who doesn't work. I support professional training for the ultra-Orthodox, I've given a lot of money for that and I will continue to help establish such programs and to provide work, because in my opinion a Jew has to make a good living and not be in need of donations."

But the ultra-Orthodox rabbis are opposed to letting the yeshiva students go out to work.

"It's not all the rabbis, it's a certain segment; these are not mainly Hasidim, they're Lithuanians. If a Jew thinks that a good Jew can only be an ultra-Orthodox Jew, then he has to repent: He has wasted his time all his life in vain if he hasn't understood that. If a Jew who calls himself ultra-Orthodox thinks that a Jew who is not ultra-Orthodox is not a Jew, then he has to be reborn, because in my opinion he is a damaged Jew."

Does the ultra-Orthodox public bear part of the blame for the fact that many Israelis take no interest in their Judaism?

"There are closed Hasidic courts, which have decided to isolate themselves and to concern themselves with the internal growth of their own population. They marry one another, they have their own institutions. That is exactly the opposite of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who said that we are not permitted to take care only of ourselves, but are responsible for all the Jews everywhere in the world. That's why he sent his finest sons around the world, the young guys that you meet everywhere, who run around and work for the sake of heaven."

Do you feel that you are an emissary of Chabad?

"I feel like a Jew who is obligated to do this and I thank the Lubavitcher Rebbe who told me to do what I'm doing. I didn't believe that it would grow to such dimensions, all the businesses. I'm a very big believer in the idea that if a Jew lives like a Jew and, as it is written, sets aside tithes or a fifth of his income - then the Holy One, blessed be he pays him back. I know that from my personal experience. The more I give every year, the more I have. I give charity, the Holy One blessed be he pays me back. I give 100, I get back 1,000."

Leviev was born in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan. His father, a Chabad Hasid, was a mohel (ritual circumciser) in secret. He himself immigrated to Israel at the age of 15. "It's true that Eretz Israel is acquired through suffering, as it is written. My father of blessed memory used to say that you have to perspire a lot. When they threw us into Kiryat Malakhi, on the fourth floor, and we had to live 11 people in 60 meters, my father would sit and kiss the floor tiles and say, 'Eretz Israel, the holy land.' But that's because he was a devout Jew all his life. What will a professor from Novosibirsk who lands in Israel think, when he has no work and he has to sweep streets?"

The Association of Jewish Communities in Russia, of which Leviev is president, was established 10 years ago and is considered very close to the administration, and particularly to former president and now Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The chief rabbi of the association, Berel Lazar, has been criticized for this in Jewish circles all over the world. This week presidential elections were conducted in Russia. The success of Dmitry Medvedev, Putin's candidate, was guaranteed in advance.

You have excellent relations with outgoing president Putin, although he is seen in the West as a kind of dictator. How would you sum up his term in office?

"I think that Putin was a wonderful leader when it comes to faith and freedom of religion, for all the nations here. He encouraged Islam and Judaism and Buddhism, and in every statement always said that every nation has to respect its values and its roots, and if it doesn't, that's a sign that it doesn't respect itself. I think we should be happy that the leader of such a big country thinks and speaks in such a way. After all, let's not forget that Putin is a product of a Soviet school, and in spite of the education he received, he speaks like that, and everyone follows his example and helps the Jewish communities."

What is your opinion of his designated successor Medvedev?

"Just as Putin was a wonderful president for the Jews, I think that Medvedev will be one, too. On his own initiative he asked to visit the Jewish center, spent two and a half hours there and showed great interest. And because he was raised on the ideal of democracy, I don't think that we'll feel any difference in attitude, but will continue in the same way."

What do you think of the rumors that he's Jewish?

"If you weren't recording me, I would give you an answer. But he is a creature of God, a wonderful man. By the way, Putin always says: I'm proud of the fact that I have so many Jewish acquaintances. I wish the Jews themselves would appreciate the Jews the way Putin knows how to appreciate them. That's our problem in Israel."

As an Israeli citizen, do you accept with equanimity the way in which elections in Russia are run?

"I don't live in equanimity with the fact that in Israel we don't have a prime minister, because he's under investigation all the time. Not this prime minister, not the previous one and not the next one. That's a result of the fact that we have become somewhat confused in our democracy, we've forgotten that in order to have a prime minister in the country, we have to let him lead the country. When he finishes his term, investigate and try him, he's not running away anywhere. He's a prime minister, you elected him, the people elected him, for good or for ill you have to respect that. He's a king, you have to let him work and not drink his blood day and night in investigations."

If you're so concerned about the way in which the government in Israel is run, why don't you enter the political arena, or contribute to one of the parties or to a candidate who will promote your ideas?

"If I even try to do that, I'll immediately be called in for an investigation for giving bribes to get some business, or some falafel stand. That's why I don't plan to be there."

You have solid political opinions, but you have always refused to spell them out.

"I still refuse. I have no political opinions about how to run a city, or how to run some ministry or other. I'm talking about matters of principle for the Jewish people."

You are accused of making all kinds of deals with local leaders to promote your Jewish education network in the former Soviet Union.

"Of course, if a Jew in any country has a problem, I'm proud to help and to be at the forefront, why not? In Israel you don't have to make deals? Besides, I have long since stopped getting upset about what people say. I know that we have a goal, that our deeds have to be for the sake of heaven, and I don't do it to get a prize. I don't intend, as opposed to what they wrote about me, to be a prime minister or a mayor or a member of the local council in some city or other. It doesn't interest me. I don't want any position, and I don't want any honor. I do what I do and invest a great deal in it, thank God, because I believe that is the right way, that a Jew has to do justice with his money - that's tzedakah (charity). They're always searching for reasons [and asking] why does he help? Why does he act?"

Leviev's anger, among other things, stems from Education Minister Yuli Tamir's refusal to implement an agreement he says was made about introducing into dozens of secular elementary schools a curriculum, developed by his foundation and that of his wife Olga, called Zman Masa (Travel Time). The program includes explanations of prayers and of Jewish history and values, from an Orthodox point of view. The chair of the Education Ministry's pedagogical secretariat, Prof. Anat Zohar, decided that the program is not suitable for state schools, because it does not include pluralistic views of Judaism that are appropriate for students who come from nonobservant homes. In spite of the opposition, the program is being used in state schools in Givatayim and Petah Tikva, and is taught by religious women who are studying to be teachers.

Leviev claims that he has not encountered any opposition to the program. "I saw that 99 percent, even more, of the students and the parents are all happy," he says. "Everything continues to operate as usual. Why reject an act of patriotism? Because we are proud Jews, we didn't ask to introduce Buddhism into the school. Had I asked for that, they would have welcomed it. Nor is it a religious program at all. The goal is to teach each child concepts in Judaism. To make him proud of the fact that he's a Jew, to understand our tradition. To know what to say when they ask what a Jew is. Some people think that our ancestral tradition is like dangerous drugs for a child; there are parents who are simply unfortunate, who think that if a child studies [Jewish] tradition, it drives him crazy. That if the child comes home and says, Mom, let's recite kiddush on Shabbat, let's wash our hands before meals - they're shocked and begin to send letters everywhere, and the journalists encourage them and say that something bad has happened: A child washed his hands before meals."

As a person who considers the Jews in Jerusalem and those in Kamchatka equal, what is your opinion of the proposal by the president of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor, to give every Jew in the world the right to vote in Israel?

"In my opinion, a Jew who doesn't live in Israel has no right to decide its future. Only Jews who live in Israel do, for good or for ill."

Recently several leading Jewish personalities said that a discussion of basic issues such as the future of Jerusalem is a matter for all the Jews in the world.

The prime minister apparently thinks otherwise.

"Then he has a problem. It's a betrayal of the Jewish people if the prime minister thinks so."

In recent weeks there have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations in New York and London, calling to boycott Leviev's jewelry stores because of the construction being done on the other side of the Green Line by the Danya Sibus firm, which is owned by Africa-Israel. Leviev suspects that financial interests are behind the demonstrations. "I don't know what this is - after all, if they want to demonstrate, why against us? After all Dor Alon, in which Africa-Israel owns 26 percent, is the only company that sells fuel to the Palestinians. I think that it's more groups that are funded by business competitors."

Do you have a problem with building in the territories?

"Not if the State of Israel grants permits legally. But Danya Sibus is only a subcontractor; I didn't even know it was building there."W

Last update - 08:09 31/05/2009

How a Cornell professor became prime suspect in an anti-Semitic murder

By Natasha Mozgovaya, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel news, Wesleyan

For weeks, Stephen L. Morgan, Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality and a professor in the Department of Sociology at Cornell University, has scoured the Internet in order to remove his picture from the news sites, search engine caches and blogs, where it was mistakenly used to represent another Stephen Morgan - the alleged killer of the Jewish Wesleyan University student Johanna Justin-Jinich.

On the day on which the police announced a national manhunt for 29-year-old Morgan, who escaped after fatally shooting Justin-Jinich in Connecticut, Prof. Morgan of Ithaca, NY, was shocked to discover that an old picture taken for his driver's license in Massachusetts in 1998 appeared almost everywhere, used in the story of the fugitive suspect who shares his name.

"The first time we heard about it was from my former student, who called my department and said that she saw a picture of me on MSNBC. She wonderd if I could have possibly shot someone. She said "But how could that it be? He is such a nice guy. But the picture looks so much like him, and it is his name.'" Prof. Morgan recalls.

"It turned out that the police in the very early stages of the investigation pulled my driver's license picture form the Massachusetts database , and they claim that they sent it to Wesleyan only so that Wesleyan could use it to to check the photo against their internal database."

"But Wesleyan sent it to their students and put it on their website for the world to see. The local media picked it, and the next morning it was on CNN, with voiceovers from the police chief and the mayor of the town. The story went out over the AP with my picture, and then it was everywhere. Lots of blogs picked it up, in addition to more traditional news outlets."

The publication of excerpts from the diary of Stephen Morgan the suspect, in which he threatened Jews, only made things more uncomfortable for Stephen Morgan the professor of sociology.

"The ADL [the Anti-Defamation League] sent my picture to synagogues in Connecticut, and to be the apparent subject of a manhunt as someone who had committed a hate crime was quite shocking," he says. "Of course, it's nothing in comparison with what the real victim of this horrible crime suffered. But it was very bizarre and uncomfortable to deal with."

When the suspect killer was still at large, Stephen L. Morgan found himself having to discuss with his wife how best to deal with the situation in which they had found themselves.

"Luckily, the real suspect turned himself in pretty quickly; otherwise we'd really have been concerned for my security. But we still were concerned somewhat for a couple of weeks, because the picture still popped up in every Google search for Stephen Morgan the killer; it took only a day or so to remove it from most major news sites, but it took almost two weeks to get it removed from all of the blogs and from one of the AP stories that made it on to Google news. .."

CNN aired a correction of the story after a few hours ("But we didn't want them to show my picture again"), and the ADL issued a correction to the synagogues. But, despite having the real suspect behind bars, Prof. Morgan admits that some tension still remains.

He recalls an episode in which he saw an unmarked jeep approaching his house. "No one usually gets to our driveway; we live in a very remote area," he says. "I ran up and locked the door... Fortunately, it was someone delivering flowers for my wife. So there was a certain amount of discomfort. And the picture is still on a couple of the automatic news blogs that are aggregating AP news stories, and I'm still trying to figure out how to take it off."

Prof. Morgan is grateful to Cornell University for acting so quickly on his behalf. "They called many, many media outlets. They discovered it earlier than me because I was out for lunch when CNN first called them to ask how to contact me to discuss how to issue a correction. Frankly, I never felt more protected by an institution. Wesleyan University called to apologize, and they have indicated that they never intended to bring me into this situation. Still, they have placed blame for the mishap on the policy, and I am not sure that is the entire story."

While trying to assess the impact of the picture, Prof. Morgan read almost every article about the suspected killer. "He seems like an abysmal person, and it's embarrassing for all Stephen Morgans in the world to be associated with this horrible crime by name," he says. "The hate crime motive makes it all extremely despicable."

Like many media outlets, Haaretz.com also ran the incorrect image on its homepage for a short period of time. We apologize unreservedly for any discomfort this may have caused Professor Morgan and his family.

Traditional tikkun kicks-off weekend activities

By Zafrir Rinat, Zohar Blumenkrantz and Yair Ettinger

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis are expected to take part in the traditional nighttime Torah studies for tonight's tikkun leil Shavuot.

Synagogues, private homes and scores of community and study centers, both religious and secular, will run all-night learning programs examining a variety of subjects. In Jerusalem, many of the programs will culminate in processions to the Western Wall, for the celebratory morning prayers.

The rest of the spring holiday, a traditional time for travel and picnics, is expected to offer mild and pleasant weather. Temperatures are not expected to rise until Saturday. Today and tomorrow weather will be fair, with temperatures in the range of 26 to 27 degrees Celsius, rising slightly above 30 in the Jordan Valley.

The environmental agencies, including the Jewish National Fund and Israel Nature and Parks Authority, will be conducting a large number of events centered on either the holiday or the environmental. The JNF will organize walking trips around Jezreel Valley's Solelim forest on Friday, as part of the Days of Milk and Honey festival. On Saturday, a walking tour that will explore cooking with local herbs will be conducted in the Tzippori forest.

The Israel Airports Authority said some 36,000 passengers are expected to pass through Ben-Gurion Airport today, about half of them departing to enjoy the long weekend. Tomorrow the number will sharply decline and will remain at about 7,000 a day for the remainder of the holiday.

Some 20,000 passengers are expected to fly to Eilat over the holiday, and the hotels in the southern town are expected to be completely booked. Despite security warnings, some 14,000 Israelis are expected to cross to Sinai and Egypt through the Taba terminal between today and Sunday.

Last update - 12:03 28/05/2009

What does a Jewish-Kashmiri dialogue group have to talk about?

By Aatif Ahmad and Alex Stein

Tags: kashmir, israel news

When we tell people about the Jewish-Kashmiri Dialogue-Group (JKDG), their reaction is usually one of bewilderment. "There are Jews in Kashmir?!?" they say. Or, "Where's Kashmir?" At best they ask, "What do Jews and Kashmiris have to talk about?" The answer is: A lot. One of us, Alex Stein - an Israeli - traveled to Kashmir during his post-army trip to India. While there, he wrote an article about the Kashmiri struggle for independence from India on The Guardian's Web site, attracting attention from local people who were heartened by outsiders supporting their call for autonomy. This prompted Alex to forge a connection between Kashmiris and Diaspora Jews.

Kashmir, the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent, has been a melting pot for millennia. Culturally and ethnically, it is a mixture of the ancient Persian civilization of Central Asia and Indian civilization. Kashmir was an independent kingdom throughout most of its history; from 1845 to 1947, it was ruled by a maharaja (king) under British protection. After the British left India in 1947, a dispute arose between the two successor states of India and Pakistan over Kashmir. Following a war between these newly independent countries two-thirds of the region coming under Indian rule, with the rest going to Pakistan.

The catalyst for establishment of the JKDG came in November 2008, after the horrific terror attacks on Mumbai, one of whose targets was the Chabad House. After he wrote an article on the subject, Alex was contacted by Aatif Ahmad, a London-based Kashmiri lawyer, who wrote: "The people in Kashmir are horrified by the targeting of Jews ... Nothing could be more against Kashmir's cultural ethos and its tradition of coexistence than the heinous actions in Mumbai." Although Aatif was expressing his own personal opinions, they are shared by many Kashmiris: An ethnic Kashmiri has never committed a Mumbai-style attack anywhere in the world.

Alex was heartened by this unequivocal condemnation of the terror attacks. As our correspondence continued, we both decided that it was important to formally establish a group that would promote dialogue between Jews and Kashmiris around the world. It met for the first time in February in London, at the Moishe House, a Jewish community center dedicated to innovative educational programming. At that meeting we explained our traditions to each other and discussed Jewish and Kashmiri history, as well as the current situation in the Middle East and Kashmir. The encounter was challenging and valuable, and both sides learned a great deal.

Our group aims to meet twice a year in London, and to help raise awareness about the Kashmiri issue in the Jewish world. Further down the line, we also hope to provide services to Jews and Israelis visiting Kashmir, such as home hospitality and guided tours.

As Aatif writes, Jews are and always have been welcome in Kashmir. Israelis have for a number of years constituted the largest number of foreign tourists there. Unlike many Muslim countries where Jews face hostility, they have been met with only hospitality and tolerance in Kashmir. In fact, in 1991, when Jews were taken hostages by Islamist militants in Kashmir, it was a local group - the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (or JKLF, which supports a secular independent Kashmir) - that rescued them.

Kashmir's fabled natural beauty and its relative proximity offer Israelis tremendous opportunities for tourism. Since the incident in 1991, Jewish tourists have visited the region for years and have not faced any problems there. Our group aims to strengthen this link, to encourage more Jews to visit and perhaps, one day, to stimulate Kashmiri travel to Israel as well. Kashmir's handicrafts and other exports have yet to be fully marketed in Israel.

There is another dimension to Jewish-Kashmiri cooperation, stemming from the similarities in the cultures and various traditions, which claim that one of the lost Tribes of Israel ended up in Kashmir. While scholars have yet to unearth solid evidence to substantiate this claim, there is nothing fantastic about the possibility of ancient connections between the two civilizations. Kashmir was, after all, located on the Silk Road, and Jewish communities flourished along that route and in Central Asia as late as the 20th century. Kashmir is also famous for its unique culture of tolerance and for the peaceful coexistence between its various communities, known as Kashmiriyat ("Kashmiriness"), which underlies its nationhood.

The national poet of Kashmir, Mahjoor, once wrote: "Muslims are milk, Hindus are sugar." While the rest of the Indian subcontinent was consumed by violence between Hindus and Muslims after 1947, Kashmir was one of the few places where the Hindu minority lived safely. The recent upsurge in religious fundamentalism has threatened the cultural values of Kashmiriyat, but they have not destroyed it, and these values are witnessing a revival. It is these values that enable Jews to feel at home in Kashmir.

Naturally, the rights of the Palestinian people and their struggle for self-determination are dear to the hearts of the Kashmiri people. However, true to their ethos and principles, Kashmiris believe that tolerance and coexistence, values embodied in Kashmiriyat, are the best means for fighting injustice and achieving national independence. The JKDG aims to promote such goals.

Aatif Ahmad is a Kashmiri lawyer living in London. Alex Stein lives in Tel Aviv and currently works in fundraising. He blogs at http://falsedichotomies.com. For more information on the Jewish-Kashmiri Dialogue Group, e-mail: alex.stein@talk21.com

May 31, 2009

erusalem & Babylon / Conversion is not a political football

By Anshel Pfeffer

Tags: israel news

The Book of Ruth that will be read in synagogues tomorrow morning, like everything else in the Tanakh, can be interpreted in various, often contradicting, ways. But in my eyes the prevailing message will always be one of human compassion, told through the story of an unbreakable bond between two widows and the acceptance of an alien woman into a tribal community.

It would be pointless to pontificate the yawning chasm between the tolerance Ruth encountered upon joining the Jewish people and the walls of antipathy the religious establishment has erected in the face of those who would join us today. Any such comparison disregards the fact that not only are we separated from Ruth by some three thousand years, but also rabbinical Judaism today, for better or worse, is a religion totally different from whatever they were practicing all those years ago in the fields of Bethlehem. Today's rabbis would never admit it, but nothing Judge Boaz might have done back then could ever have any relevance regarding their rulings.

The issue of giyur (conversion) is upon us once again, and not because it's Shavuot. The two recent Supreme Court rulings, one ordering the government to explain in ninety days why a beth din (rabbinical court) revoked thousands of conversions performed by a special conversion court headed by Rabbi Haim Druckman, and the other mandating that the private Reform and Conservative giyur academies receive the same level of government funding as the Orthodox ones, elicited the expected reactions. The chief rabbis, along with the ultra-Orthodox parties, criticized yet another Supreme Court intervention in religious affairs and called for all giyur activity to be concentrated within the Chief Rabbinate, which for years has been under the sway of the strictest leaders of ultra-Orthodox stream.

The Reform and Conservative movements naturally rejoiced over their victory, but it is a hollow one. Even if their private academies receive government funding - and with United Torah Judaism's Moshe Gafni at the helm of the Knesset Finance Committee, it's doubtful - this will not help even one of their graduates to be recognized as a Jew by the relevant authorities. They still have the option of reviving their old petition to the Supreme Court, demanding that the Interior Minister register Reform and Conservative gerim (those seeking to convert) as Jews. If successful, this would be a landmark decision, and lead to a major crisis between state and religion.

But in the end, little of significance will change. As long as only the Rabbinate has the authority to marry Jewish couples, they will remain the sole arbiters of who can become part of the Jewish people - and they will never recognize Reform and Conservative gerim. The political landscape doesn't leave us with any illusion that this stranglehold will end in the foreseeable future. Any feasible coalition is reliant on the ultra-Orthodox parties as well as Avigdor Lieberman's Yisrael Beiteinu, which purports to represent the 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union who are not Jewish by rabbinical law.

Yisrael Beiteinu is proposing two amendments. The first is to allow municipal chief rabbis to perform conversions for their local residents. But this will not lead to any liberalization of the tortuous process, as nearly all the rabbis serving in cities with large communities of Russian immigrants are beholden to the ultra-Orthodox establishment for their appointments. The second initiative is a very limited form of civil marriage which will allow couples in which both partners are not Jewish according to halacha, to marry. This is meaningless; it will only help a very small number of couples and anyway, proving that you are not really Jewish is almost as difficult as proving that you are.

In 2008, giyur was down by 25 percent; the process is just too difficult. Emboldened, some rabbinical courts have even started revoking conversions retroactively, after receiving information that the new Jews weren't observing a strictly religious lifestyle.

So is there hope for any middle ground? This week, Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman addressed a gathering of national-religious organizations trying to liberalize giyur. He had a radical proposal: "We will take dozens of rabbis who served in the IDF and appoint them to special conversion courts where they will serve voluntarily." This is a variation on an idea that's been floating around for the last couple of years, whereby Orthodox rabbis would set up a new, more user-friendly giyur framework - one which would challenge the Chief Rabbinate's control. Many ultra-Orthodox rabbis of course will regard the gerim of these courts as no better than Reform, but it would be enough for even one local rabbi to recognize them and agree to officiate their weddings, thereby shattering the ultra-Orthodox monopoly.

To many this is an attractive idea and it might even work. Just one note of warning. In his address, Neeman said the giyur crisis is "the number one national problem facing Israel, greater than the Iranian threat, to ensure that we stay a Jewish and democratic state" and stressed that conversions are the key "to ensuring the Jewish majority." Whether this line of reasoning makes any political or moral sense is a matter for another column, but if that is Neeman's true objective, he has lost sight of the genuine meaning of giyur.

Converting to Judaism is an intimate and personal transformation, not a political football. If Neeman and others see converts merely as more numbers in the demographics game, they will ultimately fail. A real change in attitude toward those seeking to be accepted into the Jewish people can only happen when we begin treating them as individuals with aspirations of their own. The story of Ruth, Naomi and Boaz teaches us no less

Last update - 19:18 27/05/2009

Austria MP who accused Jewish leader of 'leftist terror' told to resign

By DPA

Tags: Austria, Israel News

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann on Wednesday called on far-right legislator Martin Graf to step down as deputy president of parliament after his verbal attack on the leader of Vienna's Jewish community.

Graf had blasted Jewish leader Ariel Muzicant for his critical stance towards his party.

In a commentary published in the newletter of his Freedom Party (FPOe), Graf said many Austrians were asking themselves whether Muzicant was "fostering anti-fascist leftist terrorism" and "a climate of political brutality."

The dispute surrounding the contentious rightist politician marked a new low point in Austria's election race for the European Union parliament that has been dominated by the FPOe's anti-foreigner campaign targeting non-Christians, rather than by European issues.

"I expect someone who commits such a lapse to take the necessary steps and resign," Austrian press agency APA reported the social democratic chancellor as saying in Brussels.

His call was echoed by Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger, whose mainstream conservative People's Party forms a coalition with the Social Democratic Party.

Graf's comments likely referred to leftist activists who staged a partially violent counter-demonstration when the Freedom Party protested a new Islamic cultural centre in Vienna in mid-May.

Muzicant had said shortly afterwards that the Freedom Party's tone reminded him of Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler's propaganda minister.

Campaigning against Turkey's joining the EU in the runup to the union-wide polls, the Freedom Party chose a slogan that calls for keeping the "occident in Christian hands."

Martin Graf is a member of a right-wing union that has contacts with neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers. The Freedom Party, led by Heinz-Christian Strache, won 17.5 per cent in the parliamentary election last autumn.

Last update - 10:18 27/05/2009

Beirut shul to be refurbished, and even Hezbollah's on board

By Yoav Stern

Tags: Israel News, Magen Avraham

The ruined main synagogue in central Beirut is due to be renovated in the coming weeks, after an agreement between various religious denominations and permission from the Lebanese government, planning authorities and even Hezbollah. Several dozen Jews still living in Lebanon will fund the project, along with others in the Diaspora.

Renovations will include mending the gaping hole in the Magen Avraham synagogue's roof and repairing the chandeliers that once hung from it. The Torah ark and prayer benches will also be refurbished to their former states.

eople involved in the project told Haaretz Tuesday by telephone that renovations were scheduled to begin "within weeks."

The job will be funded by a $200,000-donation from private donors, as well as $150,000 from Solidere, a construction firm tasked with rebuilding central Beirut from the destruction of the 1975-1990 Lebanese Civil War. The company is privately owned by the family of Rafik Hariri, the former prime minister assassinated in 2005.

The project received the green light after political officials and community leaders became convinced it could show that Lebanon is an open country, tolerant of many faiths including Judaism.

Solidere's reconstruction contract stipulates that any places of worship must not be razed, but remain under the ownership of the religious community it serves, people involved in the renovation told Haaretz. The company has budgeted $150,000 for the rebuilding of each house of worship.

Lebanon's Jewish community is one of the country's 17 officially recognized faiths. The several dozen people in its remaining Jewish community hold few religious activities other than prayer services during the High Holidays. Many Jewish residents are in middle age or older, and affluent. Many live outside Lebanon, mainly in Europe.

"The Jewish community never served as a target for anyone in Lebanon. All the Jews who left the country did so of their own free will. We're not talking about renewing prayer in the synagogue, but only about renovation as a symbol of the great diversity of Lebanon and the history of the community," one source said.

Yitzhak Levanon, a Herzliya-based writer and translator who studied at the American University in Beirut in the late 1920s and early 1930s, told Haaretz: "The story of the Jews in Lebanon is over. It cannot be returned."

Since it was built in Moroccan style in the 1920s, the synagogue has served as a focal point for Lebanese Jewry.

Levanon said the Wadi Abu Jamil area once held eight synagogues, and Magen Avraham was by far the largest. But over the years the community dwindled due to emigration, including to Israel, and the synagogue was seriously damaged in fighting between Muslim and Christian forces during the civil war. Looters stripped the building of its Torah ark and prayer benches, and even gutted its electrical system.

New York's Ultra-Orthodox community torn apart by sex abuse scandal

By Rebecca Dube, The Forward

Tags: Jewish World, Israel news

Inside the grand ballroom of the Midtown Hilton in Manhattan, Agudath Israel of America's annual dinner was unfolding according to plan. Men and women dressed in traditional yet elegant clothes dined on salmon and listened to Senator Charles Schumer and Mayor Michael Bloomberg pledge their fealty.

Outside, a storm was brewing.

A dozen protesters stood in front of the Hilton's parking garage and waved signs that said "Agudah: Stop protecting pedophiles."

Most attendees waved off the protesters or ignored them with a look of distaste.

But Agudath board of trustees member Israel Lefkowitz rolled down his car window to chastise the protesters.

"I am against sexual harassment for all the children," Lefkowitz said. "But you don't do this in public."

The angry exchange outside the annual dinner May 15 for Agudath Israel, a national ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, encapsulates the escalating battle within the Orthodox community over sexual abuse of children by rabbis, yeshiva teachers and other religious authority figures. On one side, a band of loosely organized victims of sexual abuse and their supporters are crying out for community leaders to take a tougher stand against pedophilia. On the other side, many powerful leaders regard any public airing of sexual abuse allegations in the Orthodox community as hillul Hashem, a desecration of God's name.

One of the protesters, Mark Appel, yelled at Lefkowitz in his car: "Your children are being molested, and you know that [officials from Agudath] are not doing anything about it."

"Why are you so angry?" Lefkowitz asked.

"What is Agudah doing to my molester?" asked Joe DiAngelo, who says he was raped as a child in a Brooklyn mikveh.

In his defense, Lefkowitz replied that he booted out a principal who was molesting boys at his son's school.

"What happened to him? Why wasn't he arrested?" asked Levi Goldberg, a soft-spoken young man wearing a traditional black suit, hat and peyes.

"I do not know," Lefkowitz said. He called the protest "a desecration of a Godly institution."

The protesters' ire was aimed at Agudah's opposition to a bill now before the state Legislature that would extend the statute of limitations for civil and criminal claims of child sexual abuse and create a one-time, one-year "window" during which victims of crimes committed beyond the statute of limitations could file civil claims against their alleged abusers and the institutions that harbored them.

The bill appears stalled in the state Assembly a few weeks before the legislative session adjourns.

Agudah's official position is that it supports lengthening the statute of limitations, but opposes the one-year window because it could allow plaintiffs to file decades-old claims.

"Reasonable people can disagree on this," Agudah spokesman Rabbi Avi Shafran said inside the dinner hall. "We have no problem with extending the statute of limitations, we have no problem with anything preventative, we only have problems with the so-called 'window' provision."

Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, the Novominsker Rebbe and Rosh Agudath Israel of America, took a harsher tone in his dinner address, chiding "the bloggers and the picketers, presumptuous promoters" for the notion that "they know better [than Agudah's Council of Torah Sages] what is good for the Jews."

Perlow called child sexual abuse "a serious issue." He acknowledged a need "for correcting the past - and for addressing the future, creating means to guide against wrongdoing to children."

The protesters find Agudah's statements short on specifics.

They accused Agudah of a conflict of interest. The organization is named as a defendant in sex-abuse lawsuits involving Rabbi Yehuda Kolko, accused of molesting dozens of students, including boys at an Agudah-run summer camp, and would likely face more lawsuits if the window legislation passes.

Appel, one of the protesters, is founder of a Jewish community group called Am Echad aimed at promoting Jewish unity and supporting social services. It is New York-based with chapters in other cities.

"I've met kids who have been abused [recently] by people who were abusing kids 30 years ago," said Appel. "These guys [Agudah] are just stalling ? they?re emotionless on this issue. So they're going to sit here tonight and have a nice collective meal, and meanwhile their community is being torn apart."

Elliot Pasik, a director of the Jewish Board of Advocates for Children, a group in favor of the window legislation as well as mandatory fingerprinting of private school teachers, said he's disappointed by Agudah's response

Last update - 08:02 26/05/2009

Dutch-Jewish poet masks Israeli roots to win Arab prize

By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haaretz Correspondent

Tags: Israel News, Jewish World

One name sticks out from the list of winners in the prestigious El Hizjra poetry competition intended for Dutch Arabs, which was announced two weeks ago - Tuvit Shlomi, press officer for Holland's largest Zionist group.

For this reason, Shlomi - who works for the Center for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI) - submitted her two winning poems written in Dutch under an Arab pseudonym. "I did it to ensure my work is judged on content, not background," she says, in reference to the often-tense relations between local Jews and Dutch Arabs.

Although the competition is intended for Arabs, it is open to anyone. Past winners include renowned Dutch authors such as Abdelkader Benali, Mohammed Benzakour, and Rashid Novaire. Shlomi and six other winners received the award last Sunday in Amsterdam. She informed the panel of her true identity ahead of time.

The winning poems by Shlomi deal with immigrant identity and search of roots in Holland. She is the daughter of a Jewish-Dutch mother and an Israeli father who immigrated to Holland. Her parents met in Israel after her mother immigrated here. The couple then moved to Holland to study and ended up staying.

"Winning the competition is an opportunity for me to show that I'm rooted in the Middle East just as much as the other applicants. That Israel is for me what Morocco is for them," said Shlomi, who had lived in Israel for a year, frequently visits the country and speaks fluent Hebrew.

One of her poems, "A house of language," begins with the words: "I hate the Netherlands. Take only the language, which is so barren." But near the end of that poem she writes about that same language: "I have made a house of language, where I can live."

Shlomi, whose poetry has received several other awards in the past, says that the fact that her works were selected out of dozens of entries shows how much the immigrant community shares with the substantial Israeli community in Holland, and with the Jewish population as well.

The pseudonym which Shlomi selected was Wallada bint al-Mustaqfi, an opinionated 11th century Arab-Andalucian poetess and proto-feminist who spurned the hijab, kept multiple lovers and embroidered fragments of her poetry onto her clothes. "Her message is something well-worth remembering, especially today," Shlomi said

In Israel, Adam Lambert would have won

By Bradley Burston

Click here for more articles by Bradley Burston

If it had been up to Israelis, "American Idol" runner-up Adam Lambert would have won.

Not because he's Jewish. And not because the vote may have been rigged. Because he can sing.

Israelis keep asking me why Adam Lambert, whose gargantuan talent clearly places him in the category of Touched By God, didn't win. Here is one reason:

Because many, many Americans don't want to think that God works that way.

I should state at the outset that is not a column about music. This is, at heart, about deviance, and how societies respond to the deviants in their midst - whether with fascistic denial ["In Iran, we don't have homosexuals"], or with an unease that spurs them to seek desperate refuge in the bland.

Seldom has a singing contest been so clear-cut a case of no contest. In a final duet alongside eventual winner Kris Allen, Adam Lambert sang him off the stage. And no one knew that better than Kris Allen.

So what was it about Lambert that moved tens of millions of Americans to make sure that he would not win?

Some, at least, decided to take a stand. It was time to cast a vote against deviant behavior. Against men who keep their eyeliner thick and their sexual preference determinedly indeterminate. Against a polite, generous, fearsomely gifted deviant.

Adam Lambert performing in the 2009 American Idol final (Reuters)

When the internet brimmed with photos of what appeared to be a femme Adam kissing men, his response was one which triggered every trip wire of passive-aggressive American grundyism. "I have nothing to hide," he said. "I am who I am."

Through no fault of Kris Allen's, who, by all accounts, is exactly the unassuming, more-surprised-than-anyone small-town Arkansas guy he appears to be, many Americans seem to have viewed him as holding the fort against the darkness of diversity and/or non-Christianity.

"The battle of good versus evil, dark versus light, played out in the context of a culture war," wrote Danielle Berrin in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. "The nation's conservatives changed the game by voting their conscience, not their common sense. And in the end, 'Idol' viewers proved that they're not that interested in the best singer. They don't even care about electing a star. All that matters is that they get to worship their Idol, the one who is just like them."

Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly, while declaring that the best man should win, displayed a bowdlerized version of the photographs, and could not resist asking a guest expert: "Can illegal aliens vote in this?"

Which brings us to Israel. Soon after the Idol finale aired in the Jewish state at the weekend, the crowning segment of Israel's version of "Survivor" was broadcast live from the ancient Roman amphitheater in Caesarea.

Perhaps the most telling moment in the broadcast was a look at the daily life of Arik Alper, a slight pediatrician with deer-in-headlights eyes, who would go on to survive all other contestants and win the million shekel grand prize.

"I wasn't one of the more popular kids in the class," Alper said, on a filmed visit to his boyhood school. "I was on the sidelines. I was different. I was in the closet. I was the ugly duckling."

The day before, the mass-circulation Maariv newspaper published an extensive article detailing how "Over the past decade homosexuals have turned from an exotic detour on [talk-show host] Dan Shilon's panel, to the kings of prime-time." Among the gallery of famous gays were two of the 20 Survivor contestants, one of them Arik Alper.

"To me," he told the camera, "being the last survivor is to be the most popular kid in the fourth grade, which I never was."

Say what you will about Israel, this place has developed an exceptional tolerance for behavior traditionally deemed deviant. One of the judges on Kochav Nolad (A Star is Born), Israel's version of American Idol, is Dana International, a post-op transsexual singing star whose unapologetic exuberance persuaded Israelis to choose her as their representative to the 1998 Eurovision Song Contest, in which she took first place.

Perhaps a certain tolerance, or predilection, for flamboyantly deviant behavior devolves from the way Israel is itself seen as deviant in its region and in the world. In this world, all Israelis have a certain otherness about them, a statistical minority status.

Certainly, any American in Israel can relate. All American Jews who live in Israel are, by definition, deviants, no matter how conventional their lifestyle may be. They have done what only one out of 100 American Jews does - and, for that matter, just 0.02 percent of all Americans chooses to do - live in Israel.

On the surface, the choice of Kris Allen - not unlike the choice of George W. Bush - suggests that the more unreliable America seems, the more unsafe, the more threatening it gets, that is, the more diverse it gets, the more the people who used to call themselves Real Americans, that is, Christians, are going to look for a Kris Allen to soothe them.

"Though never referenced on the show," the Associated Press commented, "Allen's religious background may have also played a role. Allen has worked as a worship leader at his hometown church, traveling on mission trips around the globe."

It could be that the fight over separation of church and state is giving way to a struggle over separation of church and gays, one in which - as in the California referendum which successfully outlawed gay marriage - Christian churchgoers of all colors and cultures band together in common cause against societal acceptance of what they view as deviant sexuality.

The trend in Israel, meanwhile, may be just the opposite. A recent online poll commissioned by Channel 2 Television showed that 52 percent of all Israelis (and 76 percent of secular Israelis) favor civil marriage for gays; 51 percent of all Israelis back full equal rights for gays and lesbians; and 80 percent of all Israelis would be willing to be neighbors to gays and lesbians.

The military in Israel has also shown more openness to gays than its American counterpart. As one observer noted, "The policy in the IDF is, 'Don't ask, and nobody cares.'"

In the end, after a campaign year in which "Hollywood" was one of Fox News' favorite epithets, a euphemism for the unfair dominance of social mores, cultural attitudes, and political behavior by a small claque of non-Christians, is it any wonder that a starry-eyed, showbiz-bred Pacific Coast Hebrew should rub Bible Belters the wrong way?

So, from one Southern California Jewish deviant to another, I'd like to extend Adam Lambert an open invitation to come visit a world fountainhead of deviance.

Don't be shocked if you feel oddly at home.

May 25, 2009

Claim: Israeli rep at reparations summit will leave survivors 'voiceless'

By Cnaan Liphshiz, Haarez Correspondent

Tags: Claims Conference

Prominent figures involved with restitution warn that heirs of Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust will be "without representation" next month in Prague, at what could be the last international conference on Holocaust era assets.

These people, including former Knesset member Michael Kleiner, complain that the nomination of Reuven Merhav from the Claims Conference to represent Israel at the Prague meeting constitutes a "conflict of interest" and will mean heirs will remain "voiceless."

"As a representative of the Claims Conference, there has to be a conflict of interest in Merhav's nomination to represent Israel in Prague," said Martin Stern, who initiated the compensation process for holocaust era insurances in 1996. A representative of holocaust survivors from Holland, Eldad Kisch, voiced similar concerns.

Merhav told Haaretz his nomination is strictly professional and that he is committed to helping heirs reclaim property.

Kleiner - founder of the Generali Fund for restitution - bases his concerns on the fact that Merhav, a former senior official at the Foreign Ministry and Mossad, is also Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.

The Claims Conference is an organization representing world Jewry in compensation talks with Germany, and the world's richest restitution body. "This organization is withholding inheritance money from heirs of people who had been murdered in the Holocaust, spending money on other Jewish causes instead," Kleiner told Haaretz.

"Because the state will be represented by a man who belongs to the Claims Conference, heirs will be made voiceless at what could be their last chance to demand restitution," said Kleiner, a long-time critic of the Claims Conference who chaired a Knesset committee on insurance.

Merhav rejects this assertion. "What belongs to heirs needs to go to heirs. The remaining money needs to go to people in need and to Jewish causes," he said. Merhav also said he is working to increase the representation at the conference of the International Organization for the Return of Jewish Property (ILAR).

Uriel Palti, the ministry's coordinator for the Prague Holocaust Era Assets Conference said the ministry's legal department has concluded Merhav's nomination does not constitute a conflict of interests. Merhav's position with the Claims Conference is voluntary and he does not receive a salary. His role in Prague is also voluntary.

The Prague Conference will include some 50 countries and will take place on June 26, and will assess the progress made since the 1998 Washington Conference on Holocaust Era Assets in recovering looted art and objects of cultural, historical and religious value.

Last month, the Movement for Quality Government in Israel complained to the Foreign Ministry that Merhav's nomination constituted a conflict of interests and demanded Merhav ? who was appointed by former foreign minister Tzipi Livni - be replaced.

"The Claims Conference has been rebuked for its handling of money intended for Holocaust survivors and it seems that its positions on restitution of Jewish property do not necessarily match Israel's approach," said the letter of complaint, noting that the Claims Conference is currently being reviewed by a parliamentary committee of inquiry.

Colette Avital, a former ambassador and Knesset member who headed a committee of inquiry on restitution, said Merhav's appointment "is not necessarily a case of conflict of interest." She added, however, that "it could be problematic," depending on what Merhav says in Prague.

"If he says all property needs to be returned to the claims conference and not to heirs, then there's a conflict of interest," said Avital

Last update - 17:10 24/05/2009

An Orthodox woman rabbi by any other name

By Anthony Weiss, The Forward

Tags: Israel news, orthodox jews

Plans for a new school to train Orthodox women as clergy are pushing the issue of the role of women in Orthodox Judaism to a new and untested frontier.

Avi Weiss, a leading advocate for a more liberal Orthodoxy, and Sara Hurwitz, a protege of Weiss, are now taking inquiries and applications for Yeshivat Maharat, a four-year program set to open this fall to train women as "full members of the Rabbinic Clergy," according to an e-mail announcement. But they will not, as of yet, be called rabbis.

"We're training women to be rabbis," Hurwitz told the Forward. "What they will be called is something we?re working out."

The move appears to place Weiss and Hurwitz at the precipice of what is possible under traditional Orthodox law without actually jumping off. In striking that balance, they are risking the possibility of alienating those to the left who want an equal rabbinical role for women and those to the right who argue that spiritual leadership is incompatible with the place of women in Orthodox society.

"My best guess is that we are seeing further evidence of a coming division in Orthodoxy between left and right," said Jonathan Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. But, he noted, "Rabbi Weiss has not only been able to push the envelope, but to do so successfully."

Though the Reform, Reconstructionist and Conservative movements all have ordained women as rabbis for decades, and have long viewed men and women as having all the same rights in religious matters, the Orthodox world has continued to maintain limits on the communal functions women can perform. According to Halacha, traditional Jewish law, a woman cannot sign a marriage or divorce certificate, preside over a conversion or be counted as a member of a minyan.

Indeed, Orthodox rabbis note that it is not merely the title of "rabbi" that is controversial so much as the actual roles women can and cannot play in the community.

A number of advocates for the rights of Orthodox women have been steadily pushing for several decades to expand the education and role of women in Orthodoxy. One major trend in recent years has been a greater emphasis on Jewish education for Orthodox women through such programs as the Drisha Institute for Jewish Education, which has offered intensive programs in Talmud study for women. Women have also taken on more high-profile instructional roles at Jewish day schools and some have taken official spiritual roles within synagogues. Though there have been only a few reported instances, some women have even been privately ordained as Orthodox rabbis.

Indeed, the new program has already spurred criticism that it will make women?s roles in Judaism a more charged issue.

"I don't see how this promotes the growth of women's learning,' said Rabbi Yosef Blau, spiritual advisor of Yeshiva University's rabbinical seminary. "It makes it more controversial and more difficult for women who are ready and who are committed to learning."

He added: "There are already programs of advanced study for women. If any women showed interest, or if shuls showed interest, in something like this, they would be doing it."

But Weiss has experience in successfully pushing the boundaries of Orthodox liberalism while still remaining a respected, if controversial, member of the Orthodox world. His recently established Yeshivat Chovevei Torah has become an important training ground for progressive and social activist Orthodox rabbis who, despite resistance from a number of prominent leaders, have found jobs and roles in mainstream Orthodox institutions.

Weiss told the Forward that unlike existing institutions, the new women's yeshiva would be focused on the development of practical pastoral skills, including textual study on common communal issues, pastoral psychology and training, and internships at schools and synagogues. The program will be modeled after the five-year course of study that Hurwitz recently completed under Weiss?s tutelage, after which he conferred on her the newly invented title of "Maharat."

Weiss stressed that the halachic limitations on women would be observed, and thus some functions still would need to be performed by men. But that did not mean that women were fulfilling any less of a leadership role, he said.

"The Orthodox model is not the Conservative and Reform model, where the roles of men and women in general and in leadership are identical," Weiss told the Forward. "In Orthodoxy, the roles significantly overlap, but there are very clear distinctions."

Blu Greenberg, a leading Orthodox feminist, praised the yeshiva initiative as a "path-breaking and revolutionary" extension of long-standing efforts to advance the role of women in Orthodox society. She said that the title of "rabbi" might have been preferable, but added, "There's nothing like facts on ground. The power of one model or 10 models is worth more than a thousand discussions or arguments on the subject."

The school has already received "close to 10" inquiries, according to Weiss, and it will likely open with a small handful of students this fall at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, Weiss's synagogue in the Bronx. But it is unclear exactly, for what the women will be training. Weiss said that graduates could serve as leaders at schools and on campuses. But women already hold leadership roles both at Orthodox day schools and at Hillel Jewish student centers on campuses around the country. Meanwhile, the number of Orthodox congregations prepared to accept a woman as a member of the clergy, in the way that the HIR has accepted Hurwitz, appears, at present, to be extremely limited.

That practical reality might limit not only on what graduates can do, but also who may apply to the school in the first place.

"The fact of the matter is, if you have a situation where you can only go so far and you can't go to the top, what you're going to lose is the people who want to go to the top," said Rabbi David Silber, the founder and dean of the Drisha Institute.

Ultimately, Silber said, the limitations on the role that women can play as spiritual leaders are inseparable from the limitations on women in Orthodoxy in general.

"I think it's a much bigger question, which is the entire status of the woman," Silber said. Referring to the separate seating for the sexes in Orthodox synagogues, he asked: "What if she should be a rabbi in a big synagogue and she sat in the balcony. What would she do, slide down a fireman?s pole to give the sermon?

Last update - 13:12 23/05/2009

Politicos, religious leaders show solidarity with New York synagogue

By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

Tags: Riverdale Temple

Top U.S. lawmakers joined rabbis and imams at a special ceremony on Friday morning at Riverdale Temple, the synagogue which was allegedly targeted in a bomb plot involving four American Muslims earlier this week.

The four men were arrested after planting what they thought were explosives near two New York City synagogues. The suspects were "eager to bring death to Jews," a federal prosecutor said Thursday as the men appeared in court for the first time.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after planting a 16.78-kilogram mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Riverdale Jewish Center, another synagogue a few blocks away, authorities said.

Representatives of key American Jewish organizations also participated in the gathering, which was an impressive and moving display of solidarity by political and religious leaders with the Jewish community of Riverdale.

Judy Lewis, who serves as the congregation's rabbi, told Haaretz that it was difficult to understand why the temple, whose membership totals just 200 families, was picked as a terrorist target. With a touch of irony, Lewis added that the congregants primarily held left-wing political views.

The synagogue's president, Rachel Radna, posited that the alleged terrorists felt the temple was a convenient target due to the fact that it was located in a quiet area with little traffic, thus increasing the chances that the perpetrators can carry out their act undetected.

Riverdale Temple, which was founded some 60 years ago, was for many years the first and only synagogue serving the Bronx neighborhood. Lewis, whose synagogue is affiliated with the Reform stream of Judaism, said that the Jewish community in Riverdale is now comprised of an Orthodox majority.

The Riverdale Jewish Center also houses an Orthodox synagogue, Lewis added

Last update - 13:03 22/05/2009

Jews talking about talking about Israel

By Keith Kahn-Harris

Tags: Israel, Diaspora Jews

It's a question at least as old as the Jewish state: how should Diaspora Jews talk about Israel? The argument is still often made that Diaspora Jews owe support to Israel and have no right to engage in criticism of a country they do not live in.

But in the last few years this argument has been increasingly challenged. Even the Jewish Agency recognises that Diaspora Jews need a space in which to talk openly about Israel, and its Makom project (a joint partnership with Haaretz.com) encourages meaningful engagement with Israel rather than simply uncritical support.

On Monday, a discussion organized by the Jewish Community Center for London entitled "Can We Talk about Israel?" illustrates just how much the Diaspora debate on Israel has changed.

All the panellists were of the left, all opposed the occupation, all were horrified by Avigdor Lieberman and all agreed that it was important to talk about Israel critically rather than give it unqualified support.

Yet there were still massive differences between the panelists: Guardian and Jewish Chronicle columnist Jonathan Freedland argued that Diaspora Jews have a particular responsibility to critique Israeli actions, but to be effective, to be heard by Israelis, criticism has to be prefaced by expressions of love and care for Israel. Academic and one-time proponent of the academic boycott, Jacqueline Rose, took issue with this emphasis on love of Israel, and instead emphasised the greater need to express love universally. Sociologist David Hirsch, the founder of Engage, which campaigns against academic boycotts of Israel and leftist Judeophobia, emphasised the importance of "responsible" speech on Israel that avoids the anti-Semitism inherent in treating Israel as uniquely evil.

No one questioned the premise that the occupation was wrong, nor was there much discussion of the rights and wrongs of Zionism per se. As far as could be made out, the panelists and most of the audience appeared to agree on the pragmatic necessity of a two-state solution, even if many were not optimistic about its chances. Of course, those at the debate were not necessarily typical of the British Jewish community as a whole, but in the U.K. - as elsewhere in the Jewish world - there is a substantial constituency that is concerned about Israel's current course and seeks to find a way to influence Israeli policy and effect change.

The debate also illustrated how questions of strategy, tactics and above all language are the source of much of the divisiveness that characterises debate on Israel.

While there are huge differences of opinion between the pro-settlement Israeli right on one hand and one-state Islamists on the other, bitter disputes also divide even those whose long-term visions for Israel-Palestine are relatively similar.

This divisiveness can only get worse. The Gaza War and above all the prominence of Lieberman in the Israeli cabinet have provoked many people who have never before criticised Israel in public to feel compelled to do so. The proactive stance of Obama towards the Netanyahu administration has seen a tough counter-response develop from right-wing Diaspora Zionist groups who will not be silenced if any of the settlements are abandoned or if Iran develops nuclear weapons.

I have been working on a project called New Jewish Thought, which aims to improve the quality of dialogue on Israel among British Jews. The project was inspired in part by the U.S.-based Jewish Dialogue Group, which has pioneered "constructive conversations" about Israel in the North American Jewish community.

Israel has become the major source of dissensus in the Jewish world, bringing with it real threats to Jewish peoplehood and community. Jews urgently need to find a way to talk to each other on hugely divisive issues without abuse, recrimination, bitterness and hate. And that means working on the language we use to talk about Israel.

Dialogue is hard, many people are simply not interested, and talking is no panacea. However, it is one of the few ways of addressing a problem that, if it is not checked, could devour the Jewish world in a way that no dispute in Jewish history has done.

Last update - 07:27 22/05/2009

Israel to honor Philippines for sheltering Jews during Holocaust

By The Associated Press

Tags: Jewish World, Israel News

More than 1,000 Jews fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany found refuge in the faraway Philippines, thanks to the government's "open doors" policy that Israel plans to honor with a monument next month, officials said Friday.

The modern structure of three steel doors, frames and marble floor tiles commemorates the "courage, hospitality and the determination" of the Philippines to give humanitarian support for European Jews seeking refuge from the Holocaust, the Israeli Embassy said in a statement on its Web site.

"The warm hospitality of the Filipino people undoubtedly shed light to one of the darkest and most difficult periods in Jewish history," the embassy said.

The "Open Doors" monument, designed by Filipino artist Jun Yee, is scheduled to be unveiled June 21 at the Rishon Lezion Holocaust Park in central Israel.

The idea came from Holocaust survivor Frank Ephraim's book "Escape to Manila," published in 2003. It details the author's and 35 other Jewish refugees' journey to the Philippines - then a U.S. commonwealth - just before it fell to the Japanese during the mayhem of World War II that left the capital, Manila, in ruins.

The Berlin-born Ephraim and his parents fled to the Philippines in 1939, when he was 8, taking advantage of President Manuel Quezon's decision to welcome Jewish refugees.

Preparations were made to accept 10,000 Jews a year, but only 1,200 made it to Manila. Sixty-seven Jewish refugees were among the 100,000 Manila residents who died during the 1945 U.S. liberation of Manila and heavy bombing that preceded it, which also destroyed Manila's only synagogue, Temple Emil

Last update - 23:23 20/05/2009

Jerusalem Day - an everlasting battery for Diaspora Jews

By Zev Eleff

Tags: Jerusalem Day, Israel News

Many of us Jewish college students and recent graduates have memories of time spent in Israel. Some Jewish youth leave for Israel after high school and immerse themselves in the study of Talmud and community service. Others have volunteered their summers to work at Israeli camps or worthwhile internships. Yet, an even larger cohort participates on Taglit-Birthright Israel.

And, while these experiences are all vastly different, they are each deeply passionate ones that lead to a magnificent romance with the Holy Land.

Of course, most of the Diaspora Jews who are fortunate enough to visit Israel share another bond: they return home.

Surely, this is not an easy transition. Much ink has been spilled by sociologists of American Jewry regarding the so-called "year in Israel" and students' struggle to relocate their attentions back to American life. As well, I have witnessed the scene of Birthright Israel participants awaiting their flight back across the Atlantic.

Indeed, the sight of these college-age students - many of them experiencing Judaism and Zionism for the first time - sobbing as they prepare themselves to say goodbye to their Israeli chaperones at Ben Gurion International is most humbling.

In fact, I vividly recall one Birthright participant, wearing a Texas A&M sweatshirt and baseball cap, pacing back and forth in the Tel Aviv terminal as she deliberated whether or not to cancel her flight!

However, for those of us who have paraded through Jerusalem's Old City on Yom Yerushalayim en route to the Western Wall may be better prepared to re-enter Diaspora life.

We can recall the lessons of a people who are familiar with the feeling of returning to a home after a long time separated. We can recreate the energy felt while dancing on the Jerusalem stone in our blues and whites in our local American communities.

And most of all, whether we feel it our mission to return back to Jerusalem when the timing is right or whether our life's mission is here in the Diaspora, Yom Yerushalayim can serve as our everlasting battery.

As Louis Brandeis articulated long ago, Jerusalem - and more broadly, the entire Israel - in the hands of the Jewish people provides the rest of the Jews in the Diaspora with a greater sense of security against anti-Semitism.

Although most agree that Brandeis was speaking about the physical safety of the Jewish people against its enemies, for religious Zionists, we may expand his viewpoint to the spiritual realm, as well.

At Yeshiva University, we are in constant contact with Israeli leaders and politicians. They come to speak in our forums and answer our pointed questions.

Our student leaders and Israel Club work tirelessly to find ways to fundraise for Sderot and other Israel-minded initiatives. Similar programs are being run by our friends at other universities, including Columbia, Maryland and Penn.

Many of these students plan to stay here and become American doctors, lawyers and rabbis. However, they are deeply committed to the notion of a Jewish future in a united Jerusalem - and find ways to help out; ways in which others living in Israel cannot assist.

In a way, these students follow the lead of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik. It is well known that shortly after the Six Day War, when Golda Meir was Israel's Prime Minster, "the Rav" was vocal about his criticism of several of the Israeli government's programs.

At a Mizrachi conference, he turned to an Israeli delegate in the audience and demanded that delegate relay his remarks to Prime Minister Meir.

"After all," Rabbi Soloveitchik is said to have quipped, "who do you think is making Aliyah from America and raising money for Israeli institutions? My students and their communities - that's who!"

Clearly, Rabbi Soloveitchik was encouraged by the prospect of a united Jerusalem and felt that he and his American cohort were joined in the Zionist dream.

The same is true today when, we, the young future of Judaism, are empowered by the beauty of Jerusalem and seek to partner with our Israeli brothers and sisters in building the Jewish state. To this end, nothing energizes us better than the unity personified by Yom Yerushalayim.

The aroma of that day perfumes our love for Israel and informs are mission.

With just a moment of silence and pinch of imagination, we return to a day when we saw Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jaffa and Efrat ascend to Jerusalem. All the parts of the Holy Land seem to collapse into Jerusalem on its historic day. And we too recall that magnificent romance and use it to improve upon tomorrow.

A graduate of Yeshiva University, and the most recent recipient of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship, Zev Eleff was editor-in-chief of Yeshiva College student newspaper, The Commentator, in 2008-09. He is also a published author, having written two books, including "Mentor of Generations: Reflections on Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik" (Ktav Publishing House).

Last update - 16:32 20/05/2009

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn to play Nazi hunting rockstar

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Paolo Sorrentino, Nazi

Oscar-winning actor Sean Penn has agreed to take on the starring role in a film about a retired musician who sets out to find his father's Nazi executioner, according to media reports.

Penn is to play an ageing wealthy rocker who grows bored of his retirement and goes on a quest to find his father's killer, an ex-Nazi war criminal taking refuge in the U.S.

The screenplay of "This Must Be the Place" was co-written by Sorrentino and Umberto Contarello, and marks Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's English-language feature debut.

Penn will take on the new role once he has completed filming for his current three projects - "The Three Stooges", "Cartel" and "Fair Game".

Penn took home his second Best Actor Oscar last year after starring in the title role of "Milk", as San Francisco's first openly gay Jewish councilman.

Last update - 20:46 19/05/2009

High Court rules in favor of Reform conversions

By Tomer Zarchin, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

Tags: Jewish World, Orthodox

In a historic ruling, the High Court of Justice on Thursday ordered the state to allocate resources to organs affiliated with non-Orthodox streams of Judaism who perform conversions.

"All streams of conversion have the same purpose - the cultural and spiritual incorporation of Israeli citizens and residents into the society and community in Israel," Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch wrote in the ruling.

The panel of judges - which included Beinisch, Miriam Naor, and Edna Arbel - heard a petition which was filed by the Movement for Progressive Judaism, which specializes Reform conversions.

The MPJ argued that the Absorption Ministry has discriminated against it in its stringent criteria that it uses to determine who is entitled to monetary grants. The state's grant policy is more lax when dealing with private bodies that perform Orthodox conversions, the movement told the Court.

A committee formed in 1997 by the current justice minister, Ya'akov Ne'eman, recommended that an institution for the study of Judaism be established so as to prepare would-be converts for the necessary procedures in the rabbinical courts.

The state sought to accomodate the large number of new immigrants who arrived in the country during the 1990s. Despite holding Israeli citizenship, it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of olim are not considered Jewish by religious law.

The Ne'eman committee proposed that the new Judaism institute recognize the three main streams - Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative

Last update - 14:24 18/05/2009

An American Jew's guide to living in Israel

By Elliott Antman

Tags: Israel news, Jewish World

When my grandmother first visited Israel in the 1970s, she was eager to practice her dormant Yiddish speaking skills. She was shocked to learn that no-one, from the bus driver to the shopkeeper, could speak a bisel of Yiddish.

Likewise, there are certain flavors of Judaism that are completely new to an American Jew like myself residing in Israel. I am quickly acquiring a taste for these new flavors, but nostalgia for the comforts of my Jewish upbringing in the United States still remains.

The common thread that binds all Jews together is very much alive in Israel, but I would like to alert my fellow Diaspora Jews to some of the differences they might encounter here in our homeland.

No points for being a 'member of the tribe'

Although camaraderie amongst Israeli Jews is evident on the national scale, don't expect to receive discounted prices or that high-profile job because you have a Jewish mother or had a bris. I'm not sure if it's the demographics or the cynicism in Israel, but somehow getting special treatment from fellow Jews is quite rare.

No Kosher aisles

Living in the Diaspora leaves many Jews restricted to a small selection of available food, usually placed in a dark, dusty corner of their local supermarket. In the modern Jewish state, we have entire city blocks of open-air markets dedicated to offering the best in kosher delicacies. We are no longer shackled by the choice of fish in a jar or powdered hummus. The countless options of kosher foods from all over the world means we cannot only compare tastes, but also prices - both activities which can make for a full day excursion.

Falafel vs. the matzah ball

The falafel has swiftly replaced kneidelach as the ball of choice for the modern Jew. Barely 61 years of Jewish self-determination and already, matzah ball soup seems like a ritual from the Second Temple. With falafel stands on almost every corner in Israel, there is little room for delicatessens with matzah ball soup on the menu. While falafel is delicious and filling, Jews visiting Israel should not expect this spicier ball to carry the title of "Jewish penicillin" that matzah balls proudly bear.

Hanukkah lights aren't a political statement

During the holiday season in the United States, many Jews feel compelled to counter the shine of Christmas lights with our blue-white glow of dissention. This electric display of religious alliance is quite unnecessary in Israel. Call it old-fashioned, but a hannukiah serves just fine for a little holiday cheer.

No Black and White Cookies

The famous dessert pastry, loved by American Jews and immortalized by Seinfeld, is harder to come by in Israel than a lasting peace agreement. It could be the chocolate and vanilla frosting living side-by-side in harmony that doesn't ring true in this part of the world, but for one reason or another, this deliciously diverse cookie is still amiss here.

Politicians aren't 'bad for the Jews' - they are simply bad Jews

At some point during an election year in the U.S. or other democratic countries, a politician might strike a tone that doesn't exactly resonate with the Jewish minority. Inevitably, and quite swiftly, I might add, this individual will earn the stigma of being "bad for the Jews."

Politicians who have garnered this title (according to my grandmother) include notable figures such as former President Jimmy Carter. In the Jewish state, we can skip the preposition when describing out unpopular politicians and just label them "bad Jews."

The paddle-ball (matkot) craze

Somewhere between Exodus and the Balfour Declaration, the people of Israel decided that paddle-ball would be the official sport of the beach. This is quite different from the popular beach sport Ashkenazi Jews from the Diaspora are accustomed to - applying more sunscreen.

Token Jew

Jews in the Diaspora are surely familiar with the phenomenon of being the 'token' Jew in the room. This situation naturally arises in places where Jews are not commonly found, such as wrestling tournaments or KFC. While being the token Jew in the room can be fun and/or life threatening - depending on where you are - Jews in Israel seldom worry about this situation occurring.

Funny, you don't look Jewish

Over the years, Diaspora Jews have refined their ability to identify Jews and non-Jews. For some of us, this skill is most often employed while dining out. We can usually figure out where the Jews are in the room, judging by the looks of a person or how annoyed their waiter is. While visiting Israel, Jews might find themselves saying: "Funny, you don't look Jewish." As Israel is the melting pot for Jews from all over the world, one quickly discovers that Jews come in all shapes and colors.

There are no themed Bar Mitzvahs

The grandeur of Bar Mitzvah receptions seems to grow with every new generation of Jews in the United States. A standard Bar Mitzvah in the U.S. now might include an MC, DJ, lighting effects, fog machine, live animals from the endangered species list, and, of course, a theme.

These themes - once as simple a sport or film - have now reached the same level of importance as the buffet meal. As with other aspects of Judaism, Israeli Jews have chosen to forgo the frills of this age-old tradition. Bar Mitzvahs here in Israel are much more to the point: Torah reading. Food. Checks.

It is true that Jews in the Diaspora might find themselves experiencing a slight case of culture shock when they step off the plane. But anyone arriving in Israel will quickly see that it is a wonderful melting pot of cultures from all corners of the planet. So, if there is something missing in Israel, one should not be afraid to fill the void in this ever-evolving culture. It might just be the next big thing.

Interior Ministry refuses to recognize marriage of Nigerian converts

By Dana Weiler-Polak

Tags: Nigerian Jews

A Nigerian couple that wed under rabbinate supervision in Israel last year is continuing to push for official recognition after being told by the Interior Ministry that the wife underwent a private conversion to Judaism that cannot be recognized.

Chai-Ben Daniel and Michal (Grace) Agimora wed last July. Daniel, 35, the head of Israel's tiny Nigerian Jewish community, moved to Israel 17 years ago. The two met and fell in love following Agimora's arrival in the country four years ago as a refugee, and they decided two years ago to get married.

But the couple was later told by the Interior Ministry's Ramle branch that their documentation was not valid because it was a private conversion, one that the ministry says is not recognized by the rabbinate.

"I stood there, with a marriage certificate in my hand, and they told me that the certificate is worth nothing and that neither is our marriage," Daniel said.

"Grace converted, we married and now they tell me that it isn't valid. This is simply racism."

Agimora - who is not an Israeli citizen - had received documentation of her successful conversion from the Haredi court, just as Daniel had done years earlier.

When the Interior Ministry turned to the Ramle rabbinate, it received the response that the two were married based on an approved conversion. The rabbinate added that "If you think we made a mistake, we will accept that and apologize, God will protect us from errors."

Attorney Eyal Shmulevitz petitioned the Tel Aviv District Court in December 2008 to enable the couple to be added to the marriage registry and to grant Agimora Israeli citizenship.

In March a judge ordered the Interior Ministry to treat the couple as if their marriage was valid, saying that the Interior Ministry was not authorized to rule on the legal validity on their marriage.

But a week later the Ministry sent a letter to Daniel telling him that it was weighing up appealing the legal ruling and that in the meantime it would not take care of the case.

The Interior Ministry Sunday repeated its claim that Agimora underwent a private conversion that is not recognized by the state. The matter remains under review

Nigeria's Ibos: Members of the Tribe?

By Marc Perelman

LAGOS, Nigeria - Efraim Uba was born and raised Catholic in southeastern Nigeria, the homeland of the Ibo ethnic group. He spent 17 years as a Pentecostal preacher before joining a messianic congregation where members wore yarmulkes and tallits but praised Jesus. In 1999, one congregant traveled to Israel and came back claiming that the Ibos were Jews. He convinced the whole congregation to embrace Judaism.

"We believe we are from Israel, and we only recently discovered that so many old Ibo traditions were in fact Jewish ones," said Uba, 60, who was wearing a large silver Jewish star around his neck. In 1999, he founded the Association of Jewish Faith in Nigeria, an organization with some 20 congregations, most of them in his native region. He is one of an estimated 30,000 Nigerians - a fraction of the nation's 135 million people - who claim to be Jewish. In recent years, they have abandoned the Christian faith of most southern Nigerians and are longing for official recognition by rabbis and by Israel. Just this summer, four members of the community were the first to formally convert to Judaism.

Following the examples of Ethiopia's Falashas, the Lembas of South Africa and Uganda's Abuyudaya, the Nigerian Jews are part of a growing number of sub-Saharan Africans who have embraced Judaism. Nigeria's Jews, like the Falashas, claim to be descendants of some of Israel's lost tribes who settled in what is now southeast Nigeria. By comparison, the Abuyudayas do not claim to have blood ties to the ancient Israelites and converted by following a local leader.

"There is a real phenomenon of construction of a Jewish identity in sub-Saharan Africa over the last few decades," said Edith Bruder, a French researcher who recently published "The Black Jews of Africa: History, Religion, Identity" (Oxford University Press). "You have a belief among some local communities that they are descendants of Jewish communities who settled there since ancient times. This phenomenon has accelerated recently with the Falasha precedent and the globalization of information."

The Nigerian Jewish claim was bolstered several years ago with the discovery in the area of an onyx stone reportedly bearing the name "Gad" in ancient Hebrew. In addition, the Ibo Benei-Yisrael, as they sometimes call themselves, have traditions bearing some resemblance to Judaism. Among them are the circumcisions of newborn males on the eighth day, the separation of women during the menstrual cycles, the mourning period resembling a shiva and the prohibition of eating the meat of an animal that was not blessed. There is also the blowing of a ram's horn, akin to blowing of the shofar.

Reluctant to convert

But to be officially recognized as Jewish is a tedious process. Israel granted that recognition to the Falashas only after careful vetting. The Abuyudayas underwent a conservative conversion six years ago, a path the Ibos are reluctant to embrace. Their reasoning is simple: To convert would undercut their claim to be Jewish by ancestry. "We are Israelites. This is our identity, and our religion is Judaism, so being denied inclusion into the Jewish family makes us feel lost," said Michael Ginika, a 53-year-old accounting teacher. "We are trying to come back to Judaism. We were lost for a long time through drifting and scattering, and we are just reaching out to be educated. There is no yeshiva, no rabbi here, so we are in a dungeon."

Help from abroad to practice Judaism and for recognition as Jews is crucial for these far-flung communities. For the Ibos, it has come in the person of Howard Gorin, the conservative rabbi of the Tikvat Israel Congregation in Rockville. Gorin first became involved in African Jewry in 2002, when he found himself at the helm of the conservative beit din - or religious court - that converted some of the Abayudaya Jews from Uganda. A friend then sent him an e-mail from a Nigerian interested in Judaism. Two years later, he landed in Lagos. He has visited Nigeria several times since, handing out prayer material and, more importantly, providing advice about the best way to earn official recognition.

Gorin has been designated chief rabbi of Nigeria, which is both recognition of his dedication and a savvy move to help legitimize the community here and abroad. Last July, four Ibo Jews traveled to Uganda to attend the installation of that country's first rabbi. They used the occasion to undergo a formal conversion before a panel of three conservative rabbis, the first time that Nigerian Jews had taken this step. The conversion process included an interview, a symbolic circumcision and the ritual cleansing. "I keep telling them that this is a step they need to take if they want to be recognized, and I hope this will trigger a move by others to follow suit," Gorin told the Forward. The next step, he added, would be to bring Conservative rabbis to Nigeria to perform conversions with the help of Nigerians who could sit on the three-person panel.

The Ibo Jews contend that their 60-million ethnic brethren, who are overwhelmingly Christian, are aware of their Jewish origins but refuse to acknowledge them. In Nigeria, the Ibos are often identified with Jews because of their business acumen, their attachment to family and education, and the discrimination to which they have been subjected, most tragically during the Biafran civil war of the late 1960s. During that war, they received Israeli military aid, fueling speculation of secret ties between the Ibos and the Hebrews.

Judaism via messianism

The path of those Ibos who have chosen to espouse Judaism has invariably involved a passage through one of numerous messianic congregations that have sprouted in southern Nigeria over the past two decades. Some of those churches mix Christian and Jewish rituals, and so a few of their attendees have decided to explore Judaism exclusively, in most cases after some interaction with Israelis or other Jews.

For instance, there's Anderson Olidike. He was born an Anglican in the southeastern state of Anhambra 32 years ago. A decade ago, he arrived in Lagos and met an Israeli engineer who brought him to a local Jewish congregation, which he began to attend regularly. At that time, he changed his name to Harim Chevron Levy (the middle name is in reference to the Israeli town of Hebron and not the oil giant) and learned how to lead prayers.

With his beard, black suit, black hat and ritual fringes, he elicited some puzzled looks when he met this reporter at a hotel in Lagos and recited some prayers in Hebrew to demonstrate his fluency.

"When people see me with those clothes, they think I am part of a secret organization and they change sidewalks," he said, smiling. The following Saturday morning, he led the services, as usual, for the Shuva Letzion congregation. Ten men wearing tallits and reciting familiar prayers gathered in the living room of a house on a quiet street - a luxury in this bustling town. From behind a wooden panel, five women could be heard praying along. They prayed fervently and asked me to recite the prayer for the wine before passing around a glass of Manishewitz.

Levy explained that the community was encountering a series of material obstacles to live a full Jewish life. "We eat kosher, but we don't have a kosher slaughterhouse," he said. "We don't have a mikveh [ritual bath]. There are no recognized authorities to officiate for weddings and bar mitzvoth. We need to share tefilin because we don't have enough of them. What we want is a rabbi to come here and elevate a Torah."

By arrangement with the Forward.

May 19, 2009

Funded by U.S. neocons, think tank researchers now carving Israeli policy

By Ofri Ilani

Tags: neoconservative U.S.

The rooms at Beit Nativ, the Jerusalem building that houses the Shalem Center, have been gradually emptying in recent months, with fellows at the neoconservative research institute taking their leave one by one. But rather than signaling a slump, the depletion is actually a sign of the think tank's unprecedented success, because instead of writing scholarly books and articles, the Shalem fellows are now sitting in government offices, helping turn abstract research into concrete policy.

The picture looked quite different a year ago.

At that time, economist Omer Moav, a senior fellow at the center's Institute for Economic and Social Policy, was still busy writing an article for the Shalem journal, Azure, called "Who Needs Employment Security," which argues that worker protections sometimes hurt weaker segments of society. Now he heads the Finance Ministry's Council of Economic Advisers. Another senior fellow, historian Michael Oren, was busy critiquing "You Don't Mess with the Zohan," an Adam Sandler movie about an Israeli soldier who fakes his death and becomes a hair stylist in New York, which Oren, the author of "The Making of the Modern Middle East," described as a complete renunciation of the Zionist idea. He has been selected as Israel's ambassador to Washington.

And Shalem distinguished fellow Moshe Ya'alon, a former Israel Defense Forces chief of staff who wrote a recent Azure article whose Hebrew title was "The diplomatic process can wait," is now the minister for strategic affairs. Natan Sharansky, another distinguished fellow and the chairman of the Shalem Center's Institute for Strategic Studies, is awaiting his appointment as chairman of the Jewish Agency. His 2004 book "The Case for Democracy: The Power of Freedom to Overcome Tyranny and Terror," which was published through the center, hit the headlines when George W. Bush publicly recommended it. The book was co-written with Ron Dermer, who now heads the information directorate in the Prime Minister's Office.

When the Shalem Center was established in 1994 with the aim of bringing neoconservative thinking into the Israeli political and cultural discourse, along the lines of American think tanks it was thought to be on the margins of Israeli intellectual life. Yoram Hazony, the center's provost and one of its founders - who is also one of Netanyahu's friends and former advisers - said when the center was established that Israel was in the midst of an "ideological degeneration" that had to be stopped. The institute was founded with the aid of American Jewish donors, including the Bernstein family, Sheldon Adelson, George Rohr and Ron Lauder.

In the United States, research institutes like this serve as the intellectual hinterland of Republican administrations, leading critics of the Bush administration to argue that the White House was in effect being run by neoconservative intellectuals from think tanks like the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research and the Project for the New American Century.

'Politicians don't read philosophy'

There is no think tank today with as much influence on the Israeli government as the Shalem Center, which has extensive resources, despite being a small institute.

"Had I not been in the Shalem Center, I wouldn't be an adviser today to [Finance Minister] Yuval Steinitz," said Moav. "What is special about the Shalem Center is the attempt to influence policy and not merely to deal with academic research. I always had an interest in economics as academic research, but I cared a great deal about the State of Israel and it was important for me to have an influence. The Shalem Center gave me a good platform to invest in research about policy."

Moav is skeptical about the claim that the research center exerts sway over the prime minister, but said, "Netanyahu and the Likud party are sympathetic to the Shalem Center because they share a similar economic and political ideology. The economic agenda is liberal, and that is very convenient from my point of view."

Ofir Haivry, an associate fellow at Shalem's Institute for Philosophy, Political Theory and Religion, said the Shalem researchers' role in the government can be linked to the center's emphasis on practical policy.

"People like Omer Moav and Michael Oren are our success stories," said Haivry. "We give these researchers the tools that free them to do research studies dealing with policy, and to make the politicians aware that they exist."

He said the researchers will differ from most political appointees. "Usually most politicians or directors general who are responsible for economic or diplomatic policy do not read philosophy," said Haivry. "They do not sit down and read Milton Friedman. Therefore translating the ideas into policies must be done by someone who can digest this and turns the ideas into something user-friendly."

Money, money, money

What is the secret that has made the Shalem Center so much more influential than similar research institutes? Sarit Ben Simhon, a Tel Aviv University researcher who studies the role of think tanks in Israel, says the key word is money.

"The order of magnitude of the funding they received is one of the highest in the country," she said. "There is no other institute of this kind that can compete with them from the budget perspective."

The funding discrepancy has a significant effect on the think tanks' ability to influence policy, said Ben Simhon.

"There is a direct connection between the mode of funding of institutes of this kind and their ability to influence," she said. "Most of the institutes in Israel that deal with social and economic policy can be placed on the left side of the map, but they get very limited budgets. The left-wing institutes cannot spend time on formulating and promoting their world view because they don't have the money. Because of lack of resources, they write paper after paper, but their influence is limited. The Shalem Center has such large budgets that it can encompass large numbers of fields and employ people on a daily basis for a prolonged period. The Shalem Center funded the research carried out by Moav, Oren and Sharansky for a good few years. Other institutes are unable to do so."

Bringing intellectual prestige to the right

"The American right understood that it had had political successes, like Bush and Reagan, but that it did not have intellectual prestige," said political analyst and literary critic Nissim Calderon. "That is why they decided to circumvent institutionalized academic knowledge and set up these think tanks. The same is true of the Shalem Center, which zealously supports a market regime and an aggressive and armed concept of propagating democracy. The neoconservatives in the U.S. brought disasters to the world, and now they are doing the same in Israel."

But Moav said not all the Shalem researchers share the same political views.

"On the average, people in the Shalem Center have right-wing views," he said. "But this is not a right-wing institute by definition. I personally am a supporter of the 'smaller' Land of Israel as opposed to others at the center who support the settlers. But in Israel, the typical intellectuals are very left-wing politically and economically, and that is why they don't like the Shalem Center."

"The Shalem Center's founders understood very well the role that could be played by intelligence in politics and the formulation of policy in Israel," said Ben Simhon. "The message that Yoram Hazony and Daniel Polisar [Shalem's president and one of the founders] brought with them was long-term work. They define themselves as marathon runners and say that their vision is for another 50 years ahead. They want to train people in Israel who will go into the media, politics and the business world and will be decision makers in years to come, with the world view of the Shalem Center being neoconservative, Zionistic and based on Jewish culture. These are neoconservative concepts that they brought with them from the U.S. and adapted to Israel."

Haivry said the Shalem Center's people are already looking forward to the young generation of the center's graduates who are gradually getting involved in making policy.

"Many of our graduates now have junior positions in the treasury, the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign Ministry," he said. "When they hold discussions, I hope they take with them a little more understanding and deeper principles."

Writing two years ago in Haaretz, Calderon said: "The aim of the Shalem Center - unlike that of the intellectuals of the left - is to conquer the Knesset rather than the universities." Calderon believes that his prophesy has been fulfilled, albeit earlier than expected.

But he notes that though the Shalem Center may have been modeled on American neoconservative think tanks, its rise is corresponding with their decline.

"This is happening at a time when in the United States itself, [President Barack] Obama is trying to make up for the neoconservative experience, which tried to do away with the welfare state," said Calderon, "and the idea that the Islamic world is one big axis of evil on which the values of the democratic capitalistic world must be imposed."

Last update - 10:07 18/05/2009

German Jews see cultural revival as proof 'Hitler didn't win'

By DPA

Tags: Israel News, Hitler

A country once booming with Jewish life and culture is finally seeing a renaissance after decades of post-war fear.

Munich's new synagogue, museum and community center, unveiled in the heart of the city in March 2007, is a prime example of the resurgence of Jewish centers of life and worship across Germany.

The cities of Ulm, Potsdam and Cologne are all due to open new Jewish centers, while the town of Erfurt is currently renovating a synagogue dating back to the year 1100.

At the same time, these German centers of Jewish life are protected by bollards and permanently guarded by policemen, for fear of neo-Nazi attacks, exemplifying the delicate status of Germany's Jewish revival.

After 1945, some 12,000 Jews lived in Germany, a mere 2 per cent of the 600,000 living in the country before World War II.

Charlotte Knobloch, the President of Germany's Central Council of Jews, is one of the few who survived the war and stayed. Born in Munich in 1932, the lawyer's daughter was hidden on a farm where she was passed off as the illegitimate child of a Catholic woman.

"I didn't want to return to Munich. I wanted to leave this country immediately because I couldn't imagine the times would change," Knobloch said in an interview with DPA.

After the war, a small number of other survivors returned from the concentration camps and from exile abroad.

For years, Germany's Jewish community remained small, visible only in cities such as Munich, when tight-knit groups of men in top hats and black coats could be glimpsed on their way to Friday evening prayers.

Knobloch said there was a general lack of information. "People asked me, 'we know that Jews live in Munich, but where are they?' Certain prejudices arose," she added.

With the collapse of Communism after 1989, all that changed. Germany opened its doors to Jews living in the former Soviet Union, in a bid to revive Jewish life in Germany whilst offering refuge from growing Russian anti-Semitism.

A special ruling enabled 190,000 Jewish immigrants to reach Germany between 1989 and 2005, of whom more than 80,000 were integrated into Germany's Jewish communities. These now make up the vast majority of around 106,000 Jews living in these communities.

This wave of immigration, which injected new life and turned Germany's Jewish population into one of the fastest-growing in the world, has not been without difficulty.

While the eastern immigrants arrived with skills and education, few could speak German and also had to relearn Jewish religious expression and customs suppressed under communism.

Having witnessed the process after 1945 by which people had gingerly sought out a new, common identity, Knobloch is convinced the recent wave of immigrants can be successfully integrated.

"It is important, however, not to force anyone into a religious identity, rather they must accept it with enthusiasm - then we have succeeded," Knobloch said.

The 76-year-old with an unmistakeable Bavarian lilt insists that, as elected head of Germany's Jews, she is able to speak for the community with one voice, although her views are more outspoken than some of her predecessors'.

Although Germany's Jews are one minority amongst many, Knobloch says they mustn't forget the shadows of the Holocaust.

"Because of the history, the fact that Jews are living in this country at all has a special status," Knobloch said.

"Such a crime against people who simply had a religion and were murdered for it, excluded, humiliated, driven away, just because they were Jews, has to stay in the memory of generations," Knobloch added.

Echoes of the past are still contained in the neo-Nazi threats which flare up in Germany from time to time. Although this is a tiny extremist fringe, reports of desecrated Jewish cemeteries and anti- Semitic paroles often catch international attention.

"It's a shame for this country, which has made so many efforts over the decades, if the appearance from abroad is that Germany could be dominated again by neo-Nazis," Knobloch said.

"There are problems that still need to be solved," she said. "In

light of the current economic crisis we need to make sure these Nazi

gangs don't reach a status that can't be revoked," Knobloch added..

Nevertheless the leader of the Jewish Council warns against exaggerating the threat, as modern-day Germany is a different country to the 1930s.

"We are a solid democracy. Weimar didn't collapse because of the Nazis but because there were too few democrats," Knobloch says of the regime which brought Hitler to power.

Knobloch believes that Germany's Jewish community plays a crucial role in the country, simply by showing, with developments such as Munich's Jewish cultural center, that Hitler didn't win.

May 19, 2009

Five arrested in Argentina for attacking Jews at Israel day rally

By Haaretz Service

Tags: Israel News, Jewish World

Argentine police arrested at least five people Sunday that attacked Jews attending an event to mark the 61st anniversary of Israel's creation, Army Radio reported Monday.

The attackers waved anti-Semitic signs opposite the scene of the event - being held in a government building in the capital Buenos Aires - before attacking attendees, according to Army Radio.

As a result of the disturbances, police were forced to escort Israeli Ambassador Daniel Gazit away from the scene.

Argentina's Jewish community - the largest in South America - has been targeted by two deadly terrorist attacks in the past.

Eighty-five people were killed when a van packed with explosives blew up on July 18, 1994 at the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires. Two years earlier, 29 people were killed in an attack on the Israeli embassy.

Last update - 04:35 18/05/2009

French priest interviews Hitler's willing executioners in Ukraine

By Cnaan Liphshiz

Tags: jewish world, Holocaust

A horrific page of history unfolded last Monday in Ukraine. It concerned the gruesome and untold story of a spontaneous pogrom by local villagers against hundreds of Jews in a town south of Ternopil in 1941.

Not one, but five independent witnesses recounted the tale, recalling how they rushed to a German army camp, borrowed weapons and gunned down 500 Jews inside the town's Christian cemetery. One of them remembered decapitating bodies in front of the church.

The man heading the research that led to this discovery discussed it in Israel last week; Father Patrick Desbois was in Pope Benedict XVI's entourage.

Desbois is a French Roman Catholic priest. His team has been investigating mass executions in the former Soviet Union during the Holocaust for more than six years. In 2004, he founded Yahad-In Unum, a Paris-based organization devoted to Christian-Jewish understanding.

Oral testimonies from these events in Ukraine and Belarus are but a part of Desbois' research. Using metal detectors, his team uncovers German-made cartridges and bullets as well as victims' jewelry from killing pits. The findings are transferred to an archive in Paris, where the testimonies are translated.

Earlier this year, Desbois helped start the first Holocaust masters program at the Sorbonne, focusing on the extermination in the former Soviet Union.

To Desbois, there are two holocausts: a western one and an eastern one. The western holocaust was more organized, whereas the eastern one, "the one that happened away from Berlin," was chaotic, decentralized and undocumented.

"German officers wanted to appear efficient, so they documented one mass grave and declared the place judenfrei. In reality, the killings went on for years," he says. "The only way of documenting these [other] graves is asking the locals. Time's running out, and we're the only organization on the ground there."

The Ternopil story is not unusual because of its extreme cruelty but because it's so rare for perpetrators to openly admit playing a voluntary role. Most stories Desbois hears are from people who claim that the Germans forced them to take part in executions. "[Securing testimony from five participants in] a pogrom is a historic achievement," Desbois told Haaretz.

He notes how "we couldn't have achieved this a few years ago. We didn't have the skill." He says his team's success reflects the ability to keep a poker face.

"If I react with shock, it's all over," he explains. "Often I don't react at all to what the witnesses say. I just give them an interested expression and ask very technical questions about where they stood, where the victims lay, the time of day. I keep them talking and it pours out."

Desbois' full-time, nine-member team includes a cameraman who films the testimonies, while the others listen to stories of murder and human degradation.

But sometimes the poker face cracks, he says. For instance, when one woman described how her mother would "finish off" wounded Jews with a shovel blow to the head before burying them. "My team started to react, so I kept her talking, asking in a matter-of-fact way how exactly her mother would administer the blows."

Often with local help, the Germans killed nearly 1.5 million Jews in Ukraine after their invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941. Most of that history has gone untold. Unlike in Poland, where Jews were killed in death camps, in the Soviet Union most were mowed down and dumped into open mass graves in woodlands.

"I understand those who ask if Ukrainians and Poles were willing allies in the extermination of Jews," he says. "But I don't ask myself that, since most people I interview were children at the time. I'm only concerned with reconstructing the crime and knowing where the bodies are."

Desbois says one of his most surprising discoveries is institutionalized sexual slavery. In several interviews, he found witnesses who said German soldiers would set up houses in ghettos where they raped Jewish women. The Germans and their accomplices usually executed the women near the end of the war.

This discovery challenged perceptions that ideologically-motivated Germans would not sexually exploit a member of what the Nazis termed an inferior race.

Such accomplishments landed Desbois an honorary doctorate last week from Bar-Ilan University.

He says he arrives at a small town with five researchers and an interpreter. One approaches elderly people, who often lead the team to unmarked mass graves.

He began working in Ukraine in 2002, when he traveled to the village of Rava-Ruska. He went there in the footsteps of his paternal grandfather, who was deported to a prison camp for French soldiers.

Having researched the fate of French prisoners, Desbois discovered that 10,000 Jews had been killed at Rava-Ruska, but the town's mayor said he knew nothing.

So far, Desbois' organization has interviewed nearly 1,000 witnesses. His team has dug up mass graves only in one locale, at the request of the French Jewish community: "We do not uncover graves because of Jewish religious restrictions."

For the witnesses, the return to the killing ground is often the first time back in decades. "There, they recall more details," Desbois says. "Where the Germans stood, where this or that family was gunned down, a woman who couldn't walk and was dragged to the killing pit, or a woman who wouldn't take her clothes off."

Debois says easterners are more eager to talk about the Holocaust than westerners. "People in Ukraine want to talk. They wait on benches to be interviewed and filmed. They take us to grave sites, they welcome us into their homes - homes that used to belong to Jews," he says. "Imagine what would happen if I went around churches in Munich asking people if they helped kill Jews?"

Not another John Paul II

According to Father Patrick Desbois, the disappointment with the pope's speech at Yad Vashem -which officials at the memorial authority described as "lacking compassion" and "too general" - stems from a misunderstanding of the Holy See.

"People were expecting another Pope John Paul II. But Benedict is very different," Desbois says. After teaching mathematics as a French government employee in West Africa and working in Calcutta for three months with Mother Teresa, Desbois joined the priesthood. His secular family was horrified.

When he first began researching the extermination of Jews in the former Soviet Union, he preferred to keep it a secret for a long time. "A priest, a goy, a Catholic who does what I do.... I was afraid people would call me a fool," he says.

Last update - 03:55 18/05/2009

Justice Minister pushes bill to extend rabbinical courts' authority

By Yair Ettinger

Tags: rabbinical court

Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman is moving forward with a government bill that would significantly expand the rabbinical courts' authority.

Under the bill, the rabbinical courts would have sole authority to hear any suit stemming from divorce agreements signed in a rabbinical court, including both financial and custody disputes. Currently, suits stemming from a divorce agreement must be filed in civil court, so the bill would essentially transfer this power from the civil to the rabbinical courts.

The Justice Ministry is also considering giving rabbinical courts sole authority to hear suits against husbands who refuse to grant their wives a divorce, thus depriving these women of their current right to file such suits in civil court.

The bill stems from verbal promises that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party made to Shas during the coalition negotiations. It is now in the final stages of being drafted, after which it will presumably be submitted to the Knesset.

For years, rabbinical courts did decide disputes stemming from divorce agreements, until the High Court of Justice ruled a few years ago that they lacked legal authority to do so. Proponents of the bill say this ruling created an absurd situation, in which the rabbinical courts approve divorce settlements but then have no power to enforce them. Opponents of the bill argue that granting the rabbinical courts such broad powers would essentially create two parallel court systems, one religious and one civil, and would violate the status quo on questions of religion and state. They also say this would seriously undermine women's rights, especially of women whose husbands refuse to divorce them.

The previous government had also promised Shas that it would pass such a bill, but drafted a less extensive proposal - and even this was ultimately shelved due to public pressure.

The Justice Ministry responded that it had "no intention of commenting on leaks."

Last update - 06:26 17/05/2009

Liverpool cuts funding for festival that includes 'anti-Semitic' play

By Cnaan Liphshiz

The city of Liverpool decided last week to cut funding for a cultural festival featuring the highly controversial play "Seven Jewish Children." The move came after the festival's producers rejected the inclusion of a response piece.

Since its February debut, Jewish leaders have condemned "Seven Jewish Children" as anti-Semitic. The play is said to tie the Nazi murder of Jews during the Holocaust with the killing of Palestinians in Gaza by Israel. It also depicts an Israeli's decision to tell a child not to feel sorry for dead Palestinians.

The play by Caryl Churchill - an accomplished English dramatist and patron of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign - is scheduled to be performed at the city-funded Writing on the Wall Festival in Liverpool on Tuesday, followed by a fund-raiser for Palestinian causes.

The city said it will halt funding for the festival after the organizers rejected to include a response play to "Seven Jewish Children," entitled "Seven Other Children" by Richard Stirling of Evergreen Theatrical Productions.

Stirling's play uses the same format as Churchill's, but attempts to "help give more context to the debate," as he told Haaretz Saturday. This includes references to the decision by Arab nations and ordinary Palestinians to wage war against Israel in 1948 and in 1967.

In explaining the rejection of Stirling's play, the festival's development coordinator Madeline Heneghan said: "The program is planned months in advance." The request was "unrealistic at this point", she added.

The request to stage "Seven Other Children" came from Jonathan Hoffman, co-vice chair of the Zionist Federation, after a festival spokesman told the Jewish Telegraph that organizations wishing to have a "profile" would be welcome at the event's "open" evening.

Stirling - who like Churchill is not Jewish - said: "I would've preferred my play to run alongside 'Seven Jewish Children' rather than having funding cut. I understand there's too little notice, but in light of the public controversy that 'Seven Jewish Children' has aroused, I'd be surprised had the programmers not expected some kind of comeback."

He also said that by not allowing a response piece, the organizers had adopted an attitude which was "at best incautious and at worst severely one-sided."

Hoffman said that "Seven Other Children" "has given us the political ammunition to take on 'Seven Jewish Children' wherever it is performed." Proceeds from "Seven Other Children" will go to OneVoice, a nonprofit committed to a two-state solution while "ensuring Israel's safety and security."

Asked how he feels about his play being used for political purposes, Stirling said: "I am glad certain elements of the Jewish or Israeli community take interest in my piece, but I myself did not start it for the Zionist Federation." Stirling also noted that Churchill is quoted by the Jewish Chronicle and other media as defining her play as "not just a theater event, it is a political event."

Hoffman told Haaretz that "the existence of 'Seven Other Children' was key to Liverpool Council's decision on funding 'Writing On The Wall' and will make other city administrations and funding bodies think hard about sponsoring 'Seven Jewish Children' without a performance of 'Seven Other Children.'"