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Newsletter : 9fax0224.txt
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>Israel Faxx
>JN Feb. 24, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 38
Three Israelis Killed, Five Wounded in Lebanon
By David Gollust (VOA-Jerusalem)
Israeli military leaders are assessing what went wrong after three
officers from a commando unit were killed and five wounded early
Tuesday in a clash in southern Lebanon with pro-Iranian Hizbullah
terrorists.
It was the biggest Israeli casualty toll for any single engagement
in Lebanon in 18 months. And it prompted renewed debate here about
the wisdom of Israel maintaining its self-declared security zone in
southern Lebanon.
According to Israeli military sources, Israeli commandos ran into
the terrorists as they ventured north of the security zone on a
patrol early Tuesday.
The three Israeli officers -- including the commander of the unit,
a major -- were at the head of the column and were shot to death at
the start of a 15-minute firefight. Israel responded with strikes by
helicopter gunships and warplanes against suspected Hizbullah
positions in the area, near the southern edge of the
Syrian-controlled Bekaa Valley.
Hizbullah, which gets weapons from Iran and logistical help from
Syria, has been fighting for more than a decade to drive Israel
out of the security zone, which Israel staked out to protect its
northern settlements in 1985.
A Hizbullah statement in Beirut said the men ambushed an Israeli
patrol with machine-guns and grenades as the patrol apparently
moved northward.
Tuesday's clash was the most costly for Israel since september
1997 when 12 navy commandos died in a botched raid along the
Lebanese coast.
Israeli analysts believe Syria is using the terrorists as a lever
to try to force Israel back into negotiations that broke off three
years ago on a peace treaty and the return to Syria of the Golan
Heights.
Tuesday's deaths sparked bitter political exchanges here. Left-wing
legislators accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of
squandering chances for making a deal with Syria, while his
defenders said things in Lebanon were no better when the
left-of-center Labor party ran the government and there were talks
with the Syrians.
Labor Knesset member Ephriam Sneh, a former senior military
commander, told Israel Radio he expects talks with Syria to resume
after Israel's May election -- with Lebanon at the top of the
agenda.
Netanyahu, who visited wounded soldiers from the clash at a Haifa
hospital, said he too believes dialogue with Syria will begin again
after the election. But he cautioned that Syria will go into talks
with far-reaching terms, and he said he will resist demands that
Israel give up strategic assets. He also said Israel is ready to
leave Lebanon, but on its own terms.
Special High Court Hearing On Conversion Issue
By IsraelWire
A panel of 11 High Court justices is hearing a petition calling for
the recognition of conversions of babies adopted outside of Israel,
and who underwent a conversion by rabbis of the Conservative
Movement in Kibbutz Hanaton.
The petitions, which have been pushed off several times in the
past, are now being heard and the children in question are
nine-year-olds.
To date, conversions are not recognized in Israel unless performed
in accordance with Orthodox law, rejecting those carried out by
spiritual leaders of the Conservative and Reform Movements.
Want Disability? Prove You Can't Peel Potatoes
By IsraelWire
Housewives requesting disability compensation from National
Insurance are asked to prove their handicaps in a series of tests
including peeling potatoes, washing floors, and hanging laundry.
Only after a rehabilitation worker certifies that a housewife is
unable to perform such duties, can a housewife claim disability
insurance according to law. In most other cases of workers claiming
disability, no tests are made, and a doctor's certification is
enough.
This matter was revealed Sunday on a radio program during which
housewives who have claimed disability told how they felt degraded by
the process. The National Insurance responded that the law
states that a housewife is eligible for compensation if she is
unable to perform household tasks, and the testing is necessary in
order to determine the extent of disability.
Hedva Almog, director-general of the Na'amat woman's organization,
stated that it is chauvinistic and discriminatory that housewives
must prove their disability by being tested, while construction
workers, for example, are not tested.
During the discussion it was revealed that the handicapped who
need special disability compensation to help them with the most
basic levels of functioning are also tested.
Moses' Day
Israel Faxx Staff Report
Tuesday, the 7th of Adar, was the anniversary of both the birth and
death of Moses. To mark the date, dozens of yeshiva students
crossed into Jordan to pray near the traditional burial place of
Moses near Mount Nevo. Since the Torah records that Moses' exact
burial place is unknown, a long-standing custom has developed of
praying at the gravesite of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai, located in
Meron.
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