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1. Chief Sephardic Rabbi: Bolt Coalition if Conversion Law Fails
by Gil Ronen
Rabbi Shlomo Amar, the Chief Sephardic Rabbi, said Sunday that in his opinion, the religious parties in the coalition should leave it if a proposed law regulating conversion to Judaism (giyur) is not passed.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Sunday morning that he opposes the proposed law formulated by MK David Rotem (Israel Our Home). Rotem had obtained the agreement of key religious authorities from different Orthodox streams for the bill.
The bill would determine, for the first time, that the Chief Rabbinate of Israel is the sole body authorized to deal with conversions, so that all recognized Israeli rabbis could perform conversions, they could not be nullified, but that conversions would be Orthodox i.e. will be carried out after the convert “accepts the burden of Torah and commandments according to Jewish Law.”.
"If they were to listen to my advice,” Rabbi Amar told Hareidi-religious radio station Kol BaRama, “they would all stand as one person with one mouth and one heart and tell [Netanyahu]: it's either the Conversion Law or we leave.”
"The Reform Jews are using the diplomatic situation to threaten the Prime Minister,” the Chief Rabbi said. “They sit there [abroad] and they want to dictate our lives [in Israel]. I told the Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, that if G-d forbid the High Court allows a Reform conversion, we will be splitting the nation into two parts.”
"The result would be that one part of the nation would not marry the second part,” Rabbi Amar explained. “This is not a game... this is not a social crisis. This is a tearing apart of the nation into two nations, and the ones who will lose by it are the ones who do not abide by the Torah and commandments. We will not be able to marry them. Such things have happened in the past.”
2. Obama Official Delivers Pro-Israel Speech, Hails 'Iron Dome'
by Hillel Fendel
A top U.S. State Department official said the U.S. has tremendously increased its defense aid to Israel in light of increasing threats the Jewish State faces.
The message was delivered in a rare speech on Friday by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Andrew J. Shapiro. He said that U.S. President Barack Obama has asked Congress to allocate $205 million to accelerate development of the “Iron Dome” anti-rocket system – and that the House of Representatives has already done so.
One reporter at the State Department press briefing on Friday referred to Shapiro’s “Obama Administration loves Israel; please vote Democratic in November” speech. The Associated Press similarly reported that “the election-year message of increased U.S. aid to Israel seems aimed at assauging [sic] the concerns of many Jewish voters that Obama remains committed to Israel's security.”
"As surely as the bond between the United States and Israel is unbreakable, our commitment to Israel's qualitative military edge has never been greater," Shapiro said.
The $205 million for Iron Dome is “above and beyond the $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing that the Administration requested for Israel in fiscal year 2011,” Shapiro said. In 2010, he said the administration requested $2.775 billion from Congress in security assistance funding specifically for Israel, the largest such request in U.S. history.
Shapiro noted that one of his colleagues in the Bureau of Political-Military Affairs “recently had a chance to see the Iron Dome training battery while in Israel for bilateral consultations, and was able to witness a simulation of the system’s promising new capabilities.”
The Iron Dome is designed to stop short-range rockets, such as the more than 8,000 used by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, and another 4,000 launched from southern Lebanon, against Israel in recent years. Experts say, however, that it cannot stop rockets fired from a distance of under five kilometers, making it ineffective in protecting towns directly adjacent to the border.
“U.S. support for Israel’s security is much more than a simple act of friendship,” Shapiro said. “We are fully committed to Israel’s security because it enhances our own national security and because it helps Israel to take the steps necessary for peace. As Secretary Clinton has suggested, we cannot entrust Israel’s future to the status quo. And the most certain way to ensure Israel’s future as a democratic state is through a sustainable regional peace.”
The aid package, which is the most extensive in U.S.-Israel history, does not come without strings attached. “It is our hope that the Administration’s expanded commitment to Israel’s security will advance the process by helping the Israeli people seize this opportunity and take the tough decisions necessary for a comprehensive peace,” Shapiro said.
In a related item, Indian Ministry of Defense officials are in Israel to negotiate the purchase of Israeli-made David's Sling system, designed to intercept medium-range missiles (70-240 kilometers range). India is also reportedly interested in buying an Iron Dome system when the system is ready.
3. Israeli Businessman Feared Kidnapped in Mexico
by Maayana Miskin
Israeli businessman Shai Golan is feared to have been kidnapped in Mexico. Golan went missing on Friday in the city of Cancun.
An associate of his told Channel 2 News that as he spoke with Golan on the phone, he suddenly heard gunshots and people yelling in Spanish and Hebrew. The call was cut off, and since then he has not been able to reach Golan, he said.
One possibility is that Golan was targeted due to competition between various groups that market Israeli products in foreign malls.
The Israeli consul in Mexico said Israel would make an effort to help Golan “regardless of whether or not he was kidnapped.” He declined to give details, citing the sensitivity of the case.
Earlier this month, the Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned of a “very high concrete threat” against Israelis abroad, and called on Israelis to reject unexpected invitations or offers and avoid suspicious or unexpected visitors.
4. Perlman Appeals to be Allowed to Meet with Lawyer
by Hillel Fendel
The Perlman-Shabak struggle continues to be waged on two fronts, legal and psychological. Perlman's friends release another tape.
Chaim Perlman, a 30-year-old father of three under arrest on suspicion of killing four Arabs 12 years ago following a wave of terrorism, has filed an appeal against the order initiated by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency, or Shin Bet) preventing him from meeting with a lawyer.
The temporary order against meeting his lawyer is set to end at midnight tonight. Such orders are often automatically extended, however, and therefore Perlman and his lawyer - Adi Keidar of the Honenu legal rights organization – want their appeal to be heard as immediately as possible. Despite this, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal only on Wednesday morning at 9:00 – 33 hours after the expiration of the order.
Perlman has also asked to have the court venue moved from the Petach Tikvah Magistrates Court to Jerusalem, where the crimes he is accused of committing were perpetrated. It is widely felt that the Shabak enjoys a type of "home court" advantage in Petach Tivkah, where the court invariably rules in its favor.
Attorney Keidar says that the charges against his client have not been specified, and that he has asked the court to check whether Perlman was a minor when they were committed. Perlman is 30 years old, and the murders allegedly happened 12 years ago.
Another Arrest
In addition, the Shabak has announced that another arrest has been made in connection with the case. It released no details, other than to say that the new arrestee would also not be allowed to meet with his lawyer – Adi Keidar. Keidar asked the court if there was any problem of conflict of interest in him representing both Perlman and the new arrestee, and was told that there was not.
Given this response, sources close to Perlman say, it is not clear why the Shabak says the two are connected – other than to exert further pressure on Perlman and to create an atmosphere against him. "The Shabak is frightened that we will reveal more tapes," a source said.
Confession Under Duress?
It was implied that the only evidence against Perlman is a possible confession he might have made; sources close to him said that if so, it was extracted under pressure.
A tape of a Shabak agent meeting with Perlman several weeks ago and enticing him to kill Islamic Movement chief Raed Salah was released to the media last week, prompting tremendous criticism of the methods of the Shabak's Jewish section. "It's one thing to try to get information in a clandestine manner," it was said, "but to actually try to provoke a crime is to cross all red lines."
Another tape has meanwhile been released, in which Perlman is heard admitting to having fought physically with Arabs on occasion.
Out in the Cold
Last Friday, in yet another front between the Shabak and Perlman, sources close to the latter said he was being held in near freezing conditions, in temperatures of between 5 and 8 degrees Centigrade (41-46 Fahrenheit). His family sought to send him warm clothing, but the security forces did not allow it. "This is yet another red line that has been crossed," sources close to Perlman said.
5. Netanyahu Digs in on Conversion Law
by Hillel Fendel
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said, "I will not lend my hand to any legislation that will cause a split in the Jewish People." The Chief Rabbi has said that not passing the bill will cause the split.
The reference is to a bill that passed in the Knesset Law Committee last week, after having previously passed its first reading in the full Knesset, regulating the conversion of non-Jews to Judaism.
The bill is championed by Law Commmittee Chairman MK David Rotem, a religious observant member of the Israel Our Home party. It makes it technically easier to convert to Judaism in Israel, but stipulates that this must be done under the auspices of the Chief Rabbinate and according to Jewish Law.
How to Define "Split"
Both opponents and supporters of the bill threaten that if their view is not accepted, a split in the Jewish People is likely to result - but they appear to have different definitions of the word "split." When Netanyahu said at the Cabinet meeting on Sunday that the bill's passage would cause a split, he meant that Reform and Conservative Jews would be angered and resentful at having their own conversions to Judaism not recognized.
However, Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar explained that the "split" to be caused if the bill is not passed, and if Reform conversions are recognized in Israel, would be quite tangible. "If the Supreme Court gives a green light to Reform conversions, Heaven forbid, the nation will be split in half," the Chief Rabbi said. "Half the nation won't marry the other half. It's not a game. It's not just a 'social situation' - it will literally tear the nation apart. And the ones who will lose the most will be those who don't observe the Torah and its commandments, because we simply will not be able to marry their children."
Interior Minister Eli Yishai, leader of the Shas Party, and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman's Israel Our Home party – which was established to aid new immigrants, mainly from the former Soviet Union – have formed an unlikely alliance on this issue.
Yishai said that if the bill does not pass, “it will force [religious] families to keep family trees, and will lead to a deep split in the people. Not passing this law will lead to a grave spiritual danger for the Jewish nation.”
Rotem Against Netanyahu
MK Rotem attacked the Prime Minister, saying, “he is mistaken and is misleading others. This law does not divide the nation. It has nothing to do with conversions performed abroad. It rather comes to make it easier for new immigrants to convert here, adding courts and the like. Reform and Conservatives have been exerting pressures on everyone during the past two weeks, and suddenly Netanyahu gives in. He is the one who asked me to come to an agreement with the religious parties on conversion, and that is what I did. Now he forgets about all that, and opposes the law without even having read it seriously.”
Despite this, Rotem said that he will not raise the bill for a final vote in the Knesset unless Netanyahu supports it. If the bill is not voted on this week, it will have to wait until three months from now when the Knesset Members return from their summer recess.
6. Half the Public Wants to See Holy Temple Rebuilt
by Hillel Fendel
Half the Israeli public wants the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash) to be rebuilt. This is the main finding of a poll commissioned by the Knesset Television Channel and carried out by the Panels Institute.
The poll was taken in advance of this Tuesday’s national day of mourning, known as Tisha B’Av, on which the two Holy Temples in Jerusalem were destroyed, 2,000 and 2,500 years ago, respectively.
Forty nine percent said they want the rebuilding of the Holy Temple, while 23% said they do not. The remainder said they were unsure.
The public is about evenly split on whether they believe it will happen, with a slight edge – 42% to 39% – to those who believe the Third Holy Temple will be rebuilt.
Should the State of Israel take active steps towards the reconstruction? Forty-eight percent said no, while 27% said yes.
The complete results of the poll will be broadcast on Channel 99, the Knesset channel, on Monday night at 9:30 P.M., right after the traditional evening prayers and mournful recitation of the Book of Lamentations in synagogues throughout the country.
Given the current political climate, the onset of construction of the Beit HaMikdash, and possibly even a poll on the subject, is not likely to go over quietly in the Islamic world, which currently has day-to-day control over the Temple Mount. A mere visit to the holy site in the year 2,000 by then-Opposition Leader Ariel Sharon is blamed by Arabs for having sparked the Oslo War, a terrorist onslaught that claimed nearly 1,000 Israeli lives in just over four years – although in truth, the war was planned by leading Palestinian Authority figures for months beforehand.
7. Tisha B'Av Tips on Safe Fasting
by Gil Ronen
The fast of Tisha B'Av (Ninth of Av) will begin at 7:42 P.M. Jerusalem time Monday and ends at 8:15 P.M. Tuesday. In the Jewish calendar, Tisha B'Av is a day of lamentations that marks the anniversaries of the destruction of the First and Second Temples by the armies of Babylon and Rome, respectively.
The Magen David Adom emergency service has published the following guidelines for a safe fast during these days of intense summer heat:
Sick and elderly people: MDA recommends consulting a doctor before fasting. People with kidney problems, heart conditions, arteriosclerosis, problems with the coronary arteries, cancer, and recipients of kidney, heart or liver transplants should continue to take their medications as usual or risk worsening their conditions.
Pregnant women in the third trimester should not fast, according to MDA. Rabbinic opinions regarding fasting during pregnancy vary, with many rabbis suggesting that women attempt to fast but end their fast early if they experience symptoms of dehydration.
People who fast should try to remain in shaded and air conditioned places. The extra-high temperatures expected throughout Israel Tuesday mean that there is a heightened risk of dehydration. The first signs that the bodily systems are adversely affected because of lack of fluids are headaches and blurry vision. More advanced signs are difficulty in passing urine and, in some cases, pain indicating a kidney stone.
During the day that precedes the fast, large amounts of fluids should be taken in. Immediately before the fast, one should drink at least 1½ liters of liquid but limit the intake of caffeine, which is present in coffee, cocoa, cola and tea. Sweet drinks that increase thirst should be avoided, as should salty food like pickled vegetables and salted nuts. Complex carbohydrates with proteins and vegetables are recommended for those wishing to delay the onset of hunger.
Breaking the fast should be done with a light meal. MDA recommends starting with a lukewarm drink and a slice of simple cake, or two slices of bread with cheese. One hour later, a light meal can be eaten.
In case of general weakness, signs of dehydration, chest pain, increased sweating or difficulty breathing, dial 101 on your land line or cellular phone for MDA.
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