Druze Religious Leader Commits to Noachide "Seven Laws"
(IsraelNN.com) Several weeks ago, the mayor of the primarily Druze city of Shfaram, in the Galilee, also signed the document.
The declaration includes the commitment to make a better "humane world based on the Seven Noachide Commandments and the values they represent commanded by the Creator to all mankind through Moses on Mount Sinai."
Behind the efforts to spread awareness of the Torah’s Seven Universal Laws is Rabbi Boaz Kelly, of the directors of Chabad-Lubavitch institutions in the Krayot area of Haifa and the chairman of the Worldwide Committee for the Seven Noahide Commandments. The recent signature by Sheikh Tarif is part of Rabbi Kelly’s ongoing efforts among Israel’s non-Jewish community. In the past few years, Rabbi Kelly’s organization has placed roadside ads in Arabic calling for observance of the Noahide Laws, as well as distributing Arabic-language pamphlets on the subject among Arabs in Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
According to the Torah, all humankind (the offspring of Noah, or Bnei Noach) is subject to seven Divine commandments. They are: to refrain from idolatry; to refrain from sexual immorality; to refrain from blasphemy; to refrain from murder; to refrain from theft; to refrain from eating the limb of a living animal; and to establish courts of law.
Support for the spread of the Seven Noahide Commandments by the Druze spiritual leader contains within it echoes of the Biblical narrative itself. The Druze community reveres as a prophet the non-Jewish father-in-law of Moses, Jethro (Yitro), whom they call Shu’eib. According to the Biblical narrative, Jethro joined and assisted the Jewish people in the desert during the Exodus, accepted monotheism, but ultimately rejoined his own people. The Tiberias tomb of Jethro is the most important religious site for the Druze community.
Shfar'am: A Jewish Town Populated by Arab Late-Comers
by Hillel Fendel
(IsraelNN.com) The city of Shfar'am (pop. 34,000), ten miles east of Haifa, is known today as an Arab city in the Galilee - but it was not always that.
Though today it is nearly half-Christian, a third Muslim, and the rest Druze, it was for many years a large Jewish city - and boasted a significant Jewish presence for centuries on end.
In a project recounting the Jewish origins and history of many towns in the Land of Israel that are today considered "Arab," historian Dr. Rivka Shpak-Lissak shows that Shfar'am was populated by Jews from the days of Joshua bin Nun, and from the times of the Mishnah up until only 88 years ago.
Dr. Shpak-Lissak told Israel National News that she was surprised to learn that Arabs began to settle in many towns that re today considered "Arab" only 300 years ago. "I started to investigate these towns," she wrote on the Omedia site, which is publishing her series in Hebrew, "in order to see if it was true that the Arabs of the Galilee are actually descendants of Jews who converted to Islam. I never imagined that I would find that in most of the towns, the Arabs started to move in only in the 17th and 18th centuries" - well after the Arab conquest in the 7th century.
Shfar'am rose to the headlines in the summer of 2005 when a soldier killed four Arabs in a bus, and was then himself killed in a lynching (though the soldier was seen handcuffed and in police custody before he was killed).
Hebrew Name Changed to Arabic Located along the ancient highway between Acco and Nazareth, Shfar'am is named in Hebrew based on the Hebrew words shofar [ram's horn] and am [nation]. Many centuries later it was given the Arabic name Shfa-Amar, for the "health of Al-Amar," referring to an Arab who conquered the city.
During the period of the Jewish rebellion against the Romans, at the end of the Second Temple period, Shfar'am was one of the largest Jewish cities in the Galilee. It was later mentioned in the Talmud, and the Sanhedrin (Supreme Jewish Court) was headquartered there during the 2nd century C.E.
Christians began to move there during the ensuing centuries, and Moslems moved in after the Muslim conquest in the 7th century. Centuries later, when the Crusaders passed through the Holy Land, Arabs from Shfar'am used their town as a kick-off base to attack them. Later, however, the Crusaders were able to build a fortress in the city.
Jews continued to live there, and records show that Sephardic Jews began to move in towards the end of the 15th century. Subsequently, Bedouin gangs began to gain more power, which they greatly abused, and Christian and Jewish residents began to leave. After the Ottoman Turks conquered the Land in 1516, Jews began to return.
In 1525, three Jewish families were listed as living there, and this number grew to 10 within a decade. Jews from Tzfat later moved to Shfar'am, and in the 17th century a synagogue was built on the ruins of an ancient one.
Last Jew Left in 1920 In 1761, Shfar'am was conquered by a Bedouin, Dahar Al-Amar, who renamed the city after himself. Over the course of the next century, travelers such as David D'Beth Hillel reported on Jewish life in the city. During the First World War, Jews began to leave because of various difficulties, and Avraham Al-Azri, the last remaining Jew in Shfar'am, left in 1920.
Twenty years later, Shfar'am became a base for anti-Jewish Arab forces, and in the War of Independence in 1948, Israel's new army captured the area for the newborn State of Israel.
Foreigners vs. Jews in the Holy Land The bottom line, Dr. Lissak told Israel National News, is that the Arab claim that they have been here for "thousands of years" is far from true. "The goal of all the rulers of the Holy Land, from the times of the Romans and onward, was always to rid the Land of the Jews," she said. "Finally, they succeeded. Many Jews simply left the Land rather than convert to Islam."
Other once-Jewish cities in the Land of Israel include Bir'am, Sakhnin and Pekiin.
Rare Iraqi Jewish books
'surface in Israel'
The volumes are part of a massive collection of books
confiscated by Saddam's secret police
JERUSALEM (AFP) —
Some 300 rare and valuable books confiscated from Iraq's Jewish community by Saddam Hussein's regime have been secretly spirited into Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported on Friday.
The books include a 1487 commentary on the biblical Book of Job and another volume of biblical prophets printed in Venice in 1617, the Haaretz daily said.
The volumes are part of a massive collection of books confiscated by the secret police of the executed Iraqi dictator and stored in security installations in the
Iraqi capital until the US-led invasion of 2003.
Many volumes were damaged during the bombing of government buildings in the opening weeks of the war, and after the fall of Baghdad most of the books were sent off to be temporarily stored at the Library of Congress in Washington.
Others however ended up in the hands of private dealers.
"We bought them from thieves," Mordechai Ben-Porat, an Iraqi-born Jew and the founder of Jerusalem's Babylonian Jewry Heritage centre told the newspaper, adding that the foundation paid some 25,000 dollars (16,000 euros).
In the beginning, Ben-Poratsent an emissary to Baghdad who shipped the books directly to Israel, but once the Americans caught wind of his activities they forbade further shipments, forcing him to smuggle the rest, he said.
Iraq once hosted a thriving 2,600 year-old Jewish community that numbered some 130,000 people at the time Israel was created in 1948.
But after Israel came into being and into conflict with its Arab neighbours, Iraqi Jews began to suffer discrimination and were often accused of being agents of the new Jewish state.
By 1952 more than 123,000 had left the country, and 20 years later there were no more than 500 left.
Many more left the country following the 1991 Gulf War and today, after the chaos unleashed by the US-led invasion and the overthrow of Saddam, only some two dozen are believed to remain.
Will Israel Strike Iran?
a Report from CBS
More from FOX and CNN
Getting in touch with your roots, Jerusalem style
In the heart of Jerusalem, one man seeks to resolve a lack of understanding
between Jews and Christians that has lasted 'for 2,000 years.'
By Edward Malnick
Moshe in his shop.
"Let me tell you what we have, then I am going to ignore you," the shopkeeper tells a group of tourists who wandered into his store. To tourists accustomed to the boisterous sales pitch of most vendors in the Old City of Jerusalem, Shorashim (the Hebrew for the word roots) is a very different type of shop.
The premises themselves are small and unassuming, with little to distinguish them from other stores in the Jewish Quarter. Standing in the center of Shorashim, one is surrounded by the usual stock of jewelry, religious paraphenalia, and Biblical imagery - but Moshe the shop owner has more important issues on his mind than the number of mezuzot you wish to buy for the folks back home.
Discussions and debates have become a part of Shorashim, and many of Israel's tour guides working with groups of Christian visitors (the majority from the U.S.), know Moshe well. Often, a visit to the shop appears to be a part of the tour schedule devised by these guides, many of whom the shopkeeper knows by name. They know that the group will get the opportunity to question and discuss fundamental issues of religion with the Orthodox Jewish proprietor. "Ask him anything you want!" instructs one (particularly fierce) guide.
And Moshe obliges. He speaks with a tireless enthusiasm, although not to the point that he tires his customers. He has ideas that he wants to convey, but not necessarily an "agenda."
When a group enters (an event which occurs on average, four to six times every day), Moshe or his brother close the shop door, so that the session is not interrupted. He distributes the plastic stools stacked around the shop for the purpose, then begins his "spiel" on the questions he thinks are most important to his visitors, but which they might otherwise be reluctant to bring up.
Moshe reflects on the huge change in the shop since its birth 23 years ago, shortly after his arrival from Canada. The types of visits paid to his shop have evolved from the "encounter" he first envisaged (if he does have an agenda, then this is it). From the outset, however, he wanted his customers to have a deeper experience than simply exchanging money for goods. This evolution is not based on Jewish attitudes, the price of a tallit or the scenery of the Old City, but a change in Christianity.
With the fall of the Iron Curtain 16 years ago he says, the prophecy in Isaiah 49, that "...these will come from the north..." was seen to be fulfilled. The "these" in this case are the Soviet Jews who were free to make their way to Israel at the end of the last century. At this point, Moshe says, the Church began to examine its "Hebraic roots," asking itself new questions about its relationship with Israel.
Christians are now wearing the "mantle of humility that they haven't worn for a long time", he tells another group of American Christians, who respond with nods of the head. "Because of this we find we can talk to each other."
A lack of understanding, he says, has "been killing [Jews and Christians] for 2,000 years."
During the "spiel" that Moshe gives as an introduction for each group, he examines the core beliefs of Judaism and Christianity, focussing on those where there are similarities. He uses the examples of the respective beliefs in heaven and the idea of a "relationship" with God (for Jews the latter is questionable), to point out that what appear as differences are often mutual beliefs.
It is a significant responsibility taken on by one person to represent Orthodox Jewry to groups of people who have not had a chance to question someone of his religious position in the past. There is naturally room for Moshe to be criticised by his own community for "misrepresenting" their beliefs and practises.
Moshe's response to his critics is that he has spent a lot of time making sure that he is representing Jewish thinking ("which doesn't necessarily represent Jewish people").
Moshe sees himself and his visitors as two parallel lines, which only God can - "in an infinite way" - bring together. And whether you choose to call it "discussion," "language" or "dialogue" - it is people of two religions, of many denominations and backgrounds, coming together to exchange ideas.
A Russian MK
is hard to find
By Lily Galili
Forget about Bar Refaeli and leave Marina Kavishar to her own devices. The most desired woman in Israel today is MK Marina Solodkin of Kadima.
The hottest guys - Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Lieberman and oligarch Arcadi Gaydamak - are courting her enthusiastically. Solodkin, in the way of women who know their worth, is maintaining the right suspense; she isn't counting anyone out, but she isn't making any commitments either.
In recent weeks - in rapid succession - she has met with Lieberman, Netanyahu and Gaydamak. At their initiative. All of them, after all, are familiar with Solodkin's painful history with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who didn't appoint her as a minister.
It must be said that there are few politicians who have eked out of a successful cabinet term as much political capital as Solodkin has extracted from her non-appointment.
In particular, she has implanted the idea among Russian speakers that it isn't personal: It isn't that she herself is a rejected woman, it's that the entire community is rejected.
That a noble act will bring gentleman callers not only to Solodkin but to the entire community of Russian speakers.
2,000-year-old seed yields date palm ancestor in Israel
Washington, June 13 (ANI):
Israeli experts have grown a 4-foot-tall plant from a 2,000-year-old seed in a protected laboratory in Jerusalem, and thus made a record of sprouting the worlds oldest seed.
Project leader Sarah Sallon, an expert at the Hadassah Medical Organization, has revealed that the plant they have grown is Methuselah, an ancestor of the modern date palm.
She has also revealed that the seed from which the young plant was coaxed out in 2005 was recovered in 1963 from Masada, a fortress in
present-day Israel where Jewish zealots killed themselves to avoid capture by the Romans in A.D. 70.
She insists that the food stores that the Jews left behind show that they did not starve to death, and thus the exact age of the seed is not a big surprise.
“(But) I was surprised that we were able to grow it,” National Geographic News quoted her as saying.
Sarah points out that Methuselah has beaten out the previous oldest-seed record holder, a lotus tree grown from a 1,300-year-old seed in 1995 by botanists at the University of California, Los Angeles.
She and her colleagues had tried to germinate three palm seeds from all botanical discoveries from Masada, but only one yielded a tree.
Experts believe that the Israeli seedling may advance medicines, and reveal genetic relationships between ancient and modern date palms.
Sarah revealed that her team was hoping to germinate more date seeds.
She, however, said that there were no plans of celebrations if and when a first date appears.
"We will celebrate when there is peace. We will celebrate when all people in this region can plant these trees together, and share any medicinal benefits it brings,” she said.
A study on Methuselah has been published in the journal Science.
The Dead Sea: Place of healing
The lowest place on Earth is tops in health tourism
JESSICA RAVITZ 6/14/08
EIN GEDI, Israel - Southeast of Jerusalem, past fields of date palms, majestic Judean Desert mesas, a couple of security checkpoints and, if you're lucky, some goat-herding Bedouins sits one of the must-see destinations for any tourist in Israel. Glistening beneath a sun that shines about 330 days a year is the Dead Sea, the lowest place on Earth, which happens to also be one of the highest when it comes to restorative value.
The healing and therapeutic powers of its mineral-rich water - estimated to be as much as 10 times saltier than the ocean - combined with the dry and highly oxygenated air, heat, lack of pollution and low atmospheric pressure make this place tops in health tourism. People from across the globe take trips (sometimes on health-insurance dimes) to treat skin conditions, such as psoriasis, and other maladies including arthritis or bronchial ailments. Plenty of Israelis make regular visits as part of their wellness plans.
Given its salinity, there's a famous buoyancy to this sea. The most popular photos taken by tourists include the ones of people comfortably kicking back while reading a newspaper, floating effortlessly. Even the nonswimmer can enjoy this oddest of sensations. Though it does the body good, there are dangers in these waters. You don't know sting until you've gotten the Dead Sea in your eyes or a cut. Watch out for the visitor who races from the water for a frantic freshwater shower rinse.
It's not just about the seawater, though. The thermal sulfur pools from mineral springs may stink and the vats of mud - meant to be slathered on and baked in the sun - might cause the squeamish to cringe, but step right in for a soak and play like a kid.
There are plenty of stopping points along the shoreline, from simple beaches to places like the Ein Gedi Spa, where visitors can treat themselves to services such as massages and facials, or lounge around a freshwater pool if the salt becomes too much. And while all of this is tripworthy on its own, there's plenty else going on in the region: first-class hikes and historical and religious treasures.
Bordered by Israel and the West Bank on one side and Jordan on the other, the Dead Sea, which is fed by the Jordan River, is about 40 miles long. But the shores are receding each year, at a rate of about three feet annually, as incoming water - in a part of the world where water is gold - is now largely being diverted elsewhere by Israel, Syria and Jordan.
Efforts have been taken to find ways to save the Dead Sea, among them a proposed "Two Seas Canal," which would pump water from the Red Sea's Gulf of Aqaba in Jordan - and at the southern tip of Israel - into the Dead Sea. This idea was born out of an exploratory agreement signed in May 2005 by Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority.
But concerns - environmental, political and archaeological - are keeping this at bay. As is the case with so much in the Middle East, solutions don't come easy.
Getting there and around
* The most frequent direct bus service to the Dead Sea region is out of Jerusalem's central bus station, but there are also direct buses from Haifa, Tel Aviv, Be'er Sheva, Arad, Dimona and Eilat. For a bus schedule and fares, visit www.egged.co.il/Eng/. Buses stop at all the major sites along the shoreline, but keep your eyes open as drivers may speed by the one you want. To be safe, check in with the driver so he/she knows where you're going, or ask an Israeli to help you out.
* From Jerusalem, a visit to the Dead Sea is an easy day-trip (about 50 miles one way), but if you're interested in a predawn - necessary to beat the heat and catch the sunrise - climb up Masada before rejuvenating with a dip in the sea, you might consider staying in the area the night before. The options range from youth hostels to the luxurious resort hotels of Ein Bokek, rooms at the popular Kibbutz Ein Gedi or the desert floor near Masada's base where backpackers, legally or not, are known to gather. Visit www.deadsea.co.il for details about accommodations.
* If you head to the Ein Gedi Spa, entry is free for guests at Kibbutz Ein Gedi, about $16 for others (there are student discounts), and additional fees apply for cosmetic or massage treatments, which should be booked in advance by calling 011-972-8-659-4813. You can learn more at www.ngedi.com.
* Visitors also may consider any number of desert hikes in the region. One of the most popular is the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, a canyon rich with trees, flowers, wildlife, streams and waterfalls. Entry fee is about $6 for adults, $3 for children.
* Want to bring some of the Dead Sea home? Visit the Ahava Factory & Outlet Store, about six miles north of Ein Gedi, for hair and skin products made with the sea's famous minerals.
For more info:
To learn more about the Dead Sea area - events, places to see, hike, stay, eat and helpful contact information - visit www.deadsea.co.il.
Some tips for Dead Sea dip
* Drink lots of water and be prepared for the sun and heat.
* Though it's harder to get sunburned at 1,370 feet below sea level,
it's not impossible: Wear sunscreen.
* If you have any cuts, know that the water will make them sting.
The bigger the wound, the bigger the pain. For this reason,
hold off on shaving till after your float.
* Wear water shoes, if you have them, as the salt deposits on the sea floor
and shores can be jagged.
* Don't splash or attempt to full-on swim. This is not water you want
in your mouth or eyes.
* Float on your back, read a paper if you like and simply relax.
This conversion row could hit us all
By Anshel Pfeffer 5/30 2008
The controversy over conversion in Israel, which culminated last week in the dismissal of the head of the Conversion Authority, Rabbi Chaim Drukman, is more than just another dispute between religious viewpoints. Drukman’s firing, shortly after the Supreme Rabbinical Court ruled that his conversions were invalid, is a cultural and political debate that will determine the shape of the Jewish people for decades.
Over 300,000 Israelis, born in the former Soviet Union, cannot get married in Israel and have to be buried in separate cemeteries. While they are eligible, thanks to their Jewish ancestry, to Israeli citizenship, they are not descended from Jews through the matrilineal side, and so are considered non-Jewish by religious standards.
Two government commissions and millions of shekels spent on streamlining the preparation courses and making the rabbinical courts more user-friendly have failed to make a significant change. Only a paltry 2,000 or so immigrants are converted to Judaism each year.
Successive governments have not had the political willpower to order the rabbinical judges, who are government employees, to show any flexibility towards the prospective converts. Their insistence that a Jew from birth remains one, even if he observes none of the mitzvot, while a convert must observe a full religious life according to Orthodox standards, remains an insurmountable obstacle.
The intransigence of most of the dayanim on this requirement, as ordered by the senior strictly Orthodox rabbis, is coupled with the inquisitiveness of most marriage registrars whenever a convert applies for a wedding permit. In many cases, if the dayanim whose name appears on the conversion certificate are suspected of being too easy-going, they turn them down.
In a country which by law has no civil marriage, the registrars, who take their orders from the rabbis and not from the authorities who pay their salaries, have absolute powers. It takes over a year of rigorous study and major changes to the candidate’s way of life before he or she can appear in front of the conversion court.
Little wonder that few immigrants embark on this long and arduous road in the knowledge that they could well be turned down, for reasons that, to them certainly, seem arbitrary.
Demographic changes in the Jewish people have turned this into an international issue. The two fastest-growing sections in Israel and the US, as well as in smaller communities like Britain and Germany, are the ultra-Orthodox community and mixed-marriage families.
In previous generations, Orthodox rabbis were capable of showing more flexibility, but the current ultra-Orthodox establishment, lead by the 98-year old hardliner, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv, has succeeded in bringing most rabbis in line with the strictest definitions of giyur.
The Rabbinical Council of America has recently ended the practice whereby local rabbis could perform conversions, and agreed only to an approved list of rabbis, vetted by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, itself beholden to the ultra-Orthodox leadership. As for Britain, the London Beth Din has long been regarded the most conservative over conversions, fully in step with the rabbis of Jerusalem.
But while weak politicians in Israel and an indecisive leadership in the diaspora have allowed an ultra-Orthodox hegemony on conversion, the growing constituency of Jewish family members, both spouses and children, not Jewish according to the rabbis, but eager to be part of their Jewish communities, creates a critical challenge.
Their numbers give them political power in Israel and an incentive for dwindling communities around the world to find a way to accommodate them.
The Reform and Conservative (Liberal) rabbis have their own, more flexible conversion processes, but while these movements remain largely powerless outside the United States, they are not a solution. Moreover, they only serve to highlight the threat of a split between two parts of the Jewish people: those who welcome newcomers on their own terms, and the club with exclusive membership rules.
The hardliners insist they are only adhering to the strict rule of halachah. But enough historical precedents exist, from the time of Abraham to the last generation, of different attitudes toward gerim. There are still Orthodox rabbis who believe that. Rabbi Drukman is one of them, and this belief, not the ridiculous technicality that he has reached the mandatory retirement age, was the real reason that lead to his abrupt dismissal last week.
There is a firm belief among some, but not all, Orthodox circles that if they heighten the walls around their insular communities, maintain high birth-rates and persist with their kiruv (outreach) efforts, the remaining secular Jews will dwindle through intermarriage and assimilation into irrelevancy.
Opening the gates of conversion will thwart these hopes. Those rabbis who still believe in finding a golden path of inclusion are steadily growing isolated, and what’s worse, in Israel and abroad, not receiving any backing from the political leadership.
Many secular Jews believe that conversion is a religious racket, of no concern to them. But the battle over who controls the gateway to the Jewish people will have a profound effect over the nation they belong to.
More East Africans visit Israel
By David Sseppuuya
in Tel Aviv, Israel 6/13/2008
KENYA and Israel plan to reinstate air links between the two countries.
Direct flights between Nairobi/Mombasa and Tel Aviv were suspended in 2002 following an abortive rocket attack on an Israeli chartered flight in Mombasa. This forced El Al, the Israeli national carrier, to suspend flights to Kenya. There is still no indication whether El Al will return to the East African route.
“There is a strong interest by Kenyan airline firms to resume direct flights. The relevant Israeli authorities are in the process of checking the security aspects. We regard the resumption of direct flights between Kenya and Israel as one of the highest priorities in our workplan to enhance relations between East Africa and Israel,” the Israeli embassy in Nairobi, said.
The Kenyan envoy to Israel, Felistas Kyayumbi, lamented the drop in business since 2002.
“The business community has complained because of having to be re-routed through Europe. What used to be a four-and-a-half hour journey is now much longer. Tourists have reduced,” she told East African journalists in Tel Aviv earlier this month.
The number of visitors from East Africa to Israel dropped in the immediate aftermath of the terror attack. The number dipped to 445 visitors in 2002, after the attack, down from 722 the year before.
However, the figure has surged, hitting a peak of 1,039 visitors in 2007. From January to mid-May, 486 guests were registered, a trend, which should set a new mark by the time the year is through.
Most of the visitors are pilgrims to the Holy Land, though many are agricultural tourists, Khayumbi said. Khayumbi sees many more business opportunities with the Jewish state.
“Israel is a leader in information technology and road construction, where we are already working together. But there are opportunities in irrigation, and in horticulture – carnations, pineapples. A market in pineapples had been identified, but because of inspection (quality control) problems at our end (in Kenya), it (a potential deal) was called off. We need to get serious.” The Israeli embassy in Nairobi concurs on the opportunities.
“Our MASHAV - international cooperation agency - has been receiving trainees from East Africa from the agricultural and irrigation, water management, health, local authorities and environment sectors and sending experts for on-the-spot courses in East Africa in the same areas.
“We are putting a lot of effort in enhancing business relations in the IT, security, agricultural and water management sectors by inviting businesspeople and officials to Israel for trade fairs, tours and meetings.” Bilateral trade between Israel and Kenya saw a big jump from about $80m in 2006 to $130m in 2007, while direct trade between Tanzania and Uganda, and Israel has dwindled in the last few years - just above $10m a year, according to figures issued by the Israeli embassy.
The Kenyan embassy in Tel Aviv recorded unfavourable terms of trade with Kenya, which imported goods and services worth $97m, while exports were valued at $33m last year.
Israeli imports from East Africa are mainly tea, coffee, fish and fish products, arts and crafts, while exports consist of agricultural equipment and chemicals, seeds, IT products, equipment and software, and security equipment. Israel also has substantial investments in East Africa, especially in agriculture - flower farms.
Israel
to
Add
Housing
In
East
Jerusalem
JERUSALEM -- 6/13/2008 -- Israel announced plans Friday to build 1,300 more homes in east Jerusalem, further angering Palestinians who warned ongoing construction threatens efforts to work out a peace deal by the end of the year.
The announcement by Israel's Interior Ministry brought to more than 3,000 the number of homes Israel has approved for construction on land that Palestinians want for a state since the renewal of the U.S.-supported peace talks late last year.
Israel insisted Friday that most of the building -- in east Jerusalem -- is on land the state has already annexed and thus it doesn't violate its commitment in negotiations not to build on disputed land. The comments by government spokesman Mark Regev suggested that Israel won't be deterred from further building in the city.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Sabine Hadad said Friday new apartments were approved for construction in the ultra-Orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighborhood to help alleviate a housing shortage in Jerusalem.
The fate of the holy city, site of shrines sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, lies at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make east Jerusalem the capital of their future state, and say continued Israeli construction there makes it difficult to persuade ordinary Palestinians to support peace talks and not violence.
"We firmly condemn this project, which reveals the Israeli government's intention to destroy peace," Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Israel has committed under the 2003 "road map" peace plan to halt all settlement activity. But the country insists it has the right to build housing for Jews in east Jerusalem because it annexed that sector of the city shortly after capturing it in the 1967 Mideast war. By contrast, it never annexed the adjoining West Bank, which the Palestinians also claim for their hoped-for state.
Seven
earthquakes
shake
northern
Israel
within
two
days
6/13/2008
Two consecutive earthquakes shook northern Israel on Friday, causing no casualties or damage.
Israel's Geophysical Institute stated that the tremors, which were felt by many northern residents, had a magnitude of 3.8 and 3.9 on the Richter Scale. Their epicenter was in southern Lebanon.
Friday's tremors came a day after five quakes jolted Lebanon in the space of three hours. Two of the quakes had a magnitude of over 4, and were felt in parts of northern Israel, especially in Kiryat Shmona.
A recent report by the Health Ministry indicates a series of serious failings in the structure of hospitals in northern Israel. The report states that in case of an earthquake, there will be no hospital to treat the wounded.
None of the recent quakes have caused injuries or damage. But in the past, earthquakes have caused serious damage to
Safed, Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Nablus, and have damaged holy sites, including the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, sacred to many Christians as the site of Jesus' crucifixion and burial.
The last major earthquake to strike the area was in 1927. It had a magnitude of more than 6 and killed 500 people. Israeli experts say that because of population growth and high-rise construction, an earthquake of the same magnitude today would kill more than 18,000 people.
After
five
months
of
suspense,
the
hoopoe
is
crowned
Israel's
state
bird
The
wait
is
over:
after
five
long
months
of
campaigning,
the
hoopoe
has
beat
out
nine
other
finalists
to
secure
the
title
of
Israel's
state
bird.
The
winner
was
announced
on
Thursday
at
the
President's
Residence
in
Jerusalem.
The
hoopoe
(duhifat,
in
Hebrew)
won
35
percent
of
the
votes,
beating
out
the
warbler
(ten
percent)
and
the
goldfinch
(9.8
percent).
The
national
bird
selection
process,
sponsored
by
the
Society
for
the
Protection
of
Nature
in
Israel
(SPNI)
began
about
five
months
ago.
Voters
chose
from
a
list
of
10
species
on
the
SPNI
website.
Surveys
show
that
46
percent
of
the
votes
for
the
winning
bird
came
from
Israel
Defense
Forces
soldiers.
Rabbi Ovadia Yosef
Yosef:
'Conversion Courts
are too stringent'
Preeminent Sephardi halachic authority Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said this week that conversion courts were being too inflexible and stringent with potential converts, according to sources close to the Shas mentor.
"Accepting the yoke of the commandments is essential for conversion," Yosef reportedly told a small group of Shas MKs and officials. "But we must not push off converts too much. It is not right to cause them pain by rejecting them."
According to the party's MK Haim Amsalem, who was present when Yosef made the comments, Yosef quoted from the Babylonia Talmud to prove that rabbis should be lenient and welcoming with potential converts.
The Talmud (Sanhedrin 99-100) relates that the patriarch Abraham rejected Timna, who wished to become his concubine. Instead, Timna married Eliphaz, Abraham's great-grandson through Esau, and gave birth to Amalek, the Jewish people's archenemy.
Yosef said that from this passage in the Talmud we must learn to be more accepting of gentiles who wish to become a part of the Jewish people.
Yosef's comments come as a group of haredi Ashkenazi rabbis have launched an attack on the state-sponsored Conversion Authority for being too lenient.
Chief Sephardi Rabbi Shlomo Amar, who is responsible for conversions in the Chief Rabbinate, has also been severely criticized by the haredi community for backing the Conversion Authority.
Amar, one of Yosef's protégé's, has been under pressure to adopt more stringencies with respect to the acceptance of converts. However, Yosef's stance will give Amar the rabbinic backing he needs to stand up to this pressure.
Yosef's position also underlines differences in approach between Sephardi rabbis, who tend to be more lenient in their halachic rulings than haredi Ashkenazi rabbis.
UN Involved in "Israel Bashing"
The United Nations Human Rights Council, charged with addressing human rights abuses around the world, has been accused by US government officials of “bashing” Israel.
Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, says that the US will withdraw from its seat on the Council, and will only deal with the Council when matters of “deep national interest” are in question. The Council was formed in 2006, as a replacement for the discredited Human Rights Commission.
