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Newsletter : 8fax0723.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN July 23, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 130
For Your Information
Israel Faxx Staff Report
The word "Judah"/"Judea" appears in the Bible -- Tanakh and New Testament - 877 times, "Samaria" appears 123 times, and "Israel" appears 2405 times. "Palestine" doesn't appear at all. "Philistia", appears 10 times, and refers to the area occupied by the Philistines, a non-Arab people who moved into the area from present-day Greece/Crete in the 12th century BCE.
Archaeologists says Mt. Sinai is in Negev
By IsraelWire
Archeology professor Emanuel Anati claims that Mt Sinai is in the
Negev and not in the Sinai Desert. Anati said he believes Mt. Sinai
is located in the southern Negev between Mitzpei Ramon and Eilat.
He is in Israel on an archeological dig sponsored by an Italian
university.
Anati said. "On this mountain were found thousands of small areas
of ritual worship, altars, and stone markers. The mountain was holy
in the Bronze Age, 4,000 years ago. We found at the foot of the
mountain over 150 areas of inhabitation from that time period,
which is the assumed time period of the Israelites journeys through
the desert.
The findings, coupled with the biblical text, prove that Mt. Sinai
is Mt. Karkum, and not Jabl Musa in the Sinai Desert, as has been
assumed."
In the recent dig, he unearthed an altar with a stone engraving of
a half-moon. "The half-moon was the symbol of the Babylonian god
'Sine," explained Anati, "which explains that Mt. Sinai meant 'the
mountain of the god Sine."
Anati's conjecture has been met with disbelief in the scientific
community. Archeology professor Moshe Kochavi of Tel Aviv
University stated, "This theory doesn't have a leg to stand on.
True, Anati found a holy site in the Negev, but the site is from
too early a time period to be the Exodus from Egypt."
Swiss President Demands Clinton Block Bank Boycott
Israel Faxx Staff Report
Swiss President Flavio Cotti urged President Clinton Wednesday to block threatened U.S. sanctions against Swiss banks over Holocaust-era accounts.
In a personal letter to Clinton, Cotta said his government and the
Swiss people were deeply concerned by boycott threats that he said
undermined the traditionally good relations between Switzerland and
the U.S. Cotti repeated Berne's view that plans by several U.S.
cities and states to withhold business from Swiss banks were
"unjustified, unlawful and counter-productive."
Driving Tester Exonerated
By IsraelWire
Last week, we reported that a Ministry of Transportation driving
tester was under fire for having refused to test a driver's license
applicant, who he said was immodestly dressed. The news made
national headlines and the tester was condemned across the
political spectrum.
An investigation by the director-general of the Ministry of
Transportation, Nachum Lengental, decided that the tester did
indeed act within his rights to refuse to test the applicant, who
in the opinion of the investigation committee was dressed in a less
than modest fashion and unacceptable for a public building.
The committee supported the tester, explaining that an employee
need not provide service to a person if it is against his
conscience and/or values. The committee did stress however, that in
this case, a substitute tester would have to be provided.
Cemetery Added for Non-Jews in Etzion Bloc
By IsraelWire
In a Judea cemetery a new section was recently added for the burial
on non-Jews and for Jews who will request in writing to be buried
next to their non-Jewish spouse.
This new section was requested by the rabbis in the Etzion Bloc
area who were concerned about burial for non-Jews, many of them
immigrants from the former Soviet countries who have refused
conversion to Judaism. The request was forwarded to the Chief
Rabbis and the Ministry of Religion. The interesting feature of
this decision is the chance for couples who intermarried while
still in Russia to choose to be buried together.
Thieves Direct Motorist to ER and Steal his Car
By IsraelWire
Car thieves in southern Israel have devised a new method of
stealing vehicles. Anonymous persons phoned 60-year-old Shlomo
Cohen on Sunday night, telling him to immediately go to the
emergency room of Beersheva's Soroka Hospital.
"I asked him what had happened," said Cohen. "The man told me he
was a clerk in the emergency room and was unable to tell me any
details on the phone. I thought the worst and immediately drove to
Soroka."
After about 15 minutes in the emergency room, he understood that no
member of the hospital staff phoned him. When he returned to the
parking lot, he found his Mazda 626 had been stolen.
About 20 minutes later, police phoned Cohen's daughter to report
that his Mazda broke through a police checkpoint and the driver was
heading towards Dahariya, almost running over two policeman. No
explanation was given why police failed to take action to apprehend
the car at the checkpoint.
