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Newsletter : 8fax1126.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Nov. 26, 1998, Vol. 6, No. 214
Netanyahu Meets with Chabad Leaders
By IsraelWire
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with leaders of the
Chabad/Lubavitch movement at his Jerusalem office. He said that he
respected and admired the movement, which has demonstrated great
love for the Land of Israel. The Prime Minister rejected all
attempts to blame the entire movement for a single isolated event,
which is still under investigation. He was referring to the arrest
of Rabbi Shabtai Bloch of Safed, who is now under house arrest and
suspected of conspiring to harm the prime minister.
Levy May Return to Likud Cabinet
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, under attack from far-right
politicians for peace moves with Palestinians, is trying to broaden
his government. Netanyahu is inviting the centrist former Foreign
Minister David Levy to return to the ruling coalition.
Israel Radio says Netanyahu has struck a tentative deal under which
the politically-moderate former foreign minister and his small
Gesher party will rejoin the government. Levy had walked out of the
coalition in January complaining of the deadlock -- at the time --
in peace efforts with the Palestinians.
The peace process has been put back on track with the signing of
the U.S.-brokered Wye River agreement and Israel's withdrawal last
week from a large section of the West Bank.
The Moroccan-born Levy, a champion of working-class Israelis with
origins in the Arab world, is expected to be offered the cabinet
post of national infrastructure minister, while his party would be
folded into Netanyahu's Likud bloc. The political deal will require
the approval of the Knesset and cabinet in a process that could
take several days.
Conference Planned on Nazi-Era Art
By IsraelWire
An upcoming conference on Holocaust-era assets will address the
problems of tracking and identifying billions of dollars worth of
art stolen from Holocaust victims and how to deal with art bought
in good faith.
Undersecretary of State Stuart Eizenstat said the conference "has
the potential to rank...as a landmark event that should serve both
to complete the international historical record on several key
assets confiscated by the Nazis as well as to forge an
international consensus on steps to take to secure justice."
Fifty-seven delegations from 44 nations and 13 non-government
organizations will take part in the four-day conference, which
opens Monday and will be held at the State Department and the
Holocaust Museum.
The Nazis, beginning in 1933 in Germany, looted an estimated $9
billion to $14 billion in art and other assets from Jews in 20
countries or regions they occupied. The current value of the assets
is estimated at $90 billion to $140 billion.
Switzerland's two largest commercial banks recently agreed to pay
$1.25 billion to Holocaust survivors and their heirs for lost
assets.
In addition to looted art, the conference will deal with unpaid
life and property insurance claims and the return of communal
property owned by synagogues, cemeteries, hospitals and other
facilities.
"Having the return of these properties is tremendously important ...in reviving religious life in countries where religion was either formally or informally prohibited as a matter of practice during the communist era," said Eizenstat.
Eizenstat said the conference would try to get a better idea of how
much art was confiscated and how much remains unreturned. He has
previously estimated that 220,000 pieces of art were taken from
Jews, about one-quarter of the art in Europe at the start of World
War 2.
"What we would ultimately like to have...is one central website
where families can try to identify art that they believe may have
been claimed," Eizenstat said at a briefing.
He said he expected the delegates to draft guidelines for galleries
and auction houses for dealing with art that may have been stolen by the Nazis.
Eizenstat noted that the return of communal property is a
complicated issue because the property may have been converted to
public or private use, raising questions about whether to dislodge
or compensate the current occupants.
Another difficult issue is determining what to do when buyers have
no reason to believe they have bought looted art.
Wife Finds Incriminating Video of Husband
By IsraelWire
When a northern area karate instructor decided to video himself in
bed with his lover, he never dreamt that his wife would one day
discover the tape. About 2 months ago, the 45-year-old wife was
cleaning the family's home when suddenly she discovered a video
tape buried in the corner of one of the rooms.
She decided to see what the tape was, and was shocked to see her
husband having relations with another woman. She immediately filed
for divorce and demanded a monthly alimony payment of NIS 15,000.
At the time of this report, the case is still pending.
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