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Newsletter : 8fax1228.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Dec. 28, 1998, Vol. 6. No. 227
Car Insurance Rates Increasing for Divorcees
By IsraelWire
Divorcees are being called upon to make annual car insurance
payments amounting to NIS hundreds. Those innocent persons who
check the box "divorced" on their insurance application will find
themselves paying NIS 500 a year more than their married
counterparts. The A.I.G Insurance Company said family status was
one of the factors in determining the premium rate of an client
and was relevant to the statistics indicating one's likelihood of
being involved in an motor vehicle accident.
Are Elections a Ploy to Avoid Scheduled Jerusalem Talks?
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu faces a splintering of
his right-wing Likud party as he gears up for early elections
expected in April.
Netanyahu remains the front-runner to be his party's candidate for
prime minister. But the Likud -- which was the core of Netanyahu's
right-of-center coalition -- is showing signs of internal strain
and losing members on both its right and left flanks.
The prime minister got some good news Sunday when the popular mayor
of Jerusalem, Ehud Olmert, decided not to challenge him for the
party leadership.
But the chairman of the powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense
Committee of the parliament -- Uzi Landau -- said he would try to
wrest control of the party away from Netanyahu. Landau accused
Netanyahu of undemocratic tactics and of straying from the
right-wing movement's core principles.
Landau also alluded to Knesset member Ze'ev "Benny" Begin, a Likud
defector and son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin. He has
split with likud and is to announce Monday a run for prime minister
as the head of a new right-wing party.
The Likud Central Committee was told by Foreign Minister Ariel
Sharon that he does not want to be prime minister. "I do want unity
in the Likud and support from a large number of voters around the
country."
Moderate former Finance Minister Dan Meridor broke from Likud ranks
last week to form a centrist party, which he hopes will be joined by
newly retired army Gen. Amnon Lipkin-Shahak, who the polls
indicate is currently Israel's most popular political figure.
The other top contender is opposition Labor party leader Ehud
Barak, who is already busily campaigning with aid of three U.S.
political advisers including former Clinton strategist James
Carville.
The Knesset voted last week to move elections forward by a year
and a half, after Netanyahu lost the support of far right members by
agreeing to cede more land to the Palestinians under the Wye
River accord.
Russian Anti-Semitism Surfacing
By Peter Heinlein (VOA-Moscow)
Russia has recently been wracked by controversy surrounding
anti-Semitic and xenophobic statements by leading Communist
politicians. And Russia's Jewish minority is watching developments
with a nervous eye.
In recent weeks, two Communist members of parliament have made
speeches expressing concern about the excessive influence wielded by
Jews in Russia's government. Victor Ilyukin, influential
Communist chairman of parliament's Defense Committee, said at a
videotaped hearing this month that Jews surrounding Yeltsin were to
blame for what he called "the genocide" of the Russian people.
The chairman of the Rabbinical Alliance in Former Soviet States,
Rabbi Berel Lazar, says the statements have added to the worry
about rising levels of Russian nationalism. Lazar says flareups of
anti-Semitism are common at times of financial crisis.
"The shocking part of it is that today such things are being said
without any problem in saying it, and they find a reason to say it.
Number-one they find a reason because of the economic crisis. They
have who to blame for when something goes wrong. And the worst
part is, these people know nothing is going to happen to them."
But Ilyukhin says his remarks in parliament are not a condemnation of Jews, but simply a criticism of the lack of ethnic and regional balance in the Yeltsin administration. Ilyukhin describes as "unfounded" the accusations of anti-Semitism against him. He says his comments in parliament were simply an attempt to stand up for the rights of the Russian people.
"If Russians, the biggest nation, announced they must take care of
themselves, protect themselves from destruction, from genocide,
from the Yeltsin genocide, then suddenly everyone takes this as
damage to other nations, especially to the Jewish nation."
Such remarks worry members of Russia's tiny Jewish minority. Rabbi
Lazar say comments by senior Communist leaders, whether they
realize it or not, serve to legitimize more open anti-Semitism and
xenophobia in the general public.
"If anybody would feel harassment and problems it is us, because
our synagogue was bombed twice in the last two years, and we felt
what it means when there is an anti-Semite who wants to hurt the
Jews."
But Lazar believes even in these times of economic hardship, there
are few signs of deepening anti-Semitism in the general population.
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