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Newsletter : 9fax0106.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Jan. 6. 1998, Vol. 7. No. 3
Chief Rabbi: Always Carry a Skullcap in Your Pocket
By IsraelWire
In accordance with a High Court of Justice decision stating that
all those appearing before rabbinical courts must wear a
head-covering, Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau recommends that men
who usually go bareheaded carry a skullcap with them for events of
a religious nature, such as circumcisions, weddings, funerals, and
memorial services. The High Court of Justice ruled that covering
the head before the rabbinical court judges was a sign of respect
and not religious coercion.
Poll: Israelis Resigned to Creation of Palestinian State
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
A new opinion poll in Israel suggests that most Israelis are
resigned to the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, along
with further handovers of West Bank land to the Palestinians. The
peace process is expected to dominate the campaign for Israel's may
17 election.
The peace process with the Palestinians has effectively been frozen
in place for the duration of the election campaign. But a new
survey from Tel Aviv University's "Steinmetz Center for Peace
Research" suggests that most Israelis do not think it will remain
frozen for long.
The poll indicates that 63 percent -- nearly two-thirds of voters
-- believe that whatever government is elected will ultimately
reach a permanent agreement with the Palestinians that will include
further handovers of land and recognition of a Palestinian state.
Professor Ephraim Ya'ar -- who oversees the monthly "Peace Index"
opinion survey -- says there appears to be a steady trend toward
acceptance by Israelis of the notion of Palestinian statehood.
He says Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat might make a tactical
error, if he follows through with threats to declare a state May
4 in the midst of the campaign. But even this, he says, will not
affect the trend:
"The Israeli public, the majority of the Israeli public, are not any longer, you know, frightened or shocked by such an idea. I think, as I said, most of them accept it. I think it would be tactically difficult, not very wise on behalf of Arafat, but I don't that it will be determining factor."
Ya'ar says that while many people in both Israel and abroad
considered the right-wing government of Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu hostile to the peace process, it accepted the 1993 Oslo
Peace Accords and made territorial concessions to the Palestinians
three times. He says this had the effect of increasing the
acceptance of the peace process among voters of the Israeli right:
"I think that the Likud government has legitimized, at least among
parts of the moderate voters on the right, the very agreement and
its processes. Indeed, we do our monthly surveys -- our surveys on
the monthly basis -- and we detected a consistent pattern according
to which the increase in the overall support for the peace process
came from moderate voters of the right."
The new poll indicates that 55 percent of those who identify with
Netanyahu's Likud party think there will be a Palestinian state
compared, to 76 percent of those aligned with the other main party,
Labor.
Demand: Stop Student Trips to Poland
By Arutz-7 News Service
The Coalition for Jewish Concern, headed by Rabbi Avi Weiss, is
attempting to convince the Ministry of Education -- via a Supreme
Court suit -- to stop sending student groups on educational
Holocaust-related trips to Poland. The Coalition is protesting what
it calls the "Christianization of Auschwitz," and demands that the
trips stop until the Polish authorities remove the church and the
crosses from the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp area.
Weiss said that the Polish government is in violation of
international law by allowing a church to be situated in Birkenau.
"Poland signed a UNESCO agreement in 1972 forbidding any religious
structure from being built on the sites of the Auschwitz-Birkenau
camp," he said. "They enjoy the benefits of our trips to Poland,
and I think this will cause them to rethink their policy."
Weiss said that he believes the Education Ministry can teach a
critical lesson to Israeli youth regarding the sacredness of the
memory of the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis. "I see no reason
why Israel should not supervise what is the largest Jewish cemetery
in the world," he said. "There are precedents for this: The British
are in control of a cemetery on Mt. Scopus, and the Americans
supervise a World War 2 cemetery in Paris."
Weiss said that people mistakenly think that the main problem is
the "forest of crosses there. What is much worse, actually, is the
church that is situated in the very building that was the German
headquarters of the Birkenau camp, where the orders to kill Jews
were given...In 100 years, if people come and see a church and the
crosses, they'll think one of two things: Either that it was
Catholics who were persecuted and killed here, or that the Vatican
protected and came to the aid of the persecuted Jews."
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