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Newsletter : 9fax0924.txt
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>PD
>Israel Faxx
>JN Sept. 24, 1999, Vol. 7, No. 177
Israeli Physicians to Quake-Stricken Taiwan
Arutz-7 News Service
Seventeen Israeli doctors have left for Taiwan, where they will deliver medical treatment to victims of the earthquake that hit the country earlier this week. The mission, including some of the most advanced medical equipment, is being coordinated by the Foreign Ministry and El Al Israel Airlines.
Arafat Addresses the U.N.
By Max Ruston (VOA-United Nations)
Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat is calling on Israel to immediately halt its settlement policies, which he says are destroying any chances of achieving peace in the Middle East. Arafat issued the call in an address Thursday to the United Nations General Assembly.
Arafat blamed the government of former Israeli Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu for setting back progress towards Middle East
peace. He expressed hope that the current Israeli government will,
in his words, open the door that the former government closed
in the face of all serious efforts aimed at achieving real peace.
Speaking through an interpreter, Arafat outlined a series of
changes in Israeli policy he would like to see. "The Israeli
Government is called upon, forthwith, immediately and decisively to
cease all measures aiming at violating international resolutions,
law and covenants and which destroy the chances of achieving peace.
At the forefront of these are the settlement activities and the
confiscation of land, especially in Al-Quds Al-Sharif, Jerusalem
regions and its surroundings, the siege of the city of Bethlehem
and the rest of the Palestinian territories."
Arafat also called for measures that would allow the return of
Palestinians living in exile, saying peace cannot be achieved until
they return to their homes.
Reform Marriage Takes Place in Beersheva
By IsraelWire
A wedding conducted by religious leaders affiliated with the
Reform Movement took place in a Beersheva catering hall parking
lot, despite objections by members of the local Orthodox Religious
Council.
According to persons involved in the wedding, the local rabbinate
last week threatened a catering hall with revocation of its kosher
certificate if it permitted the Reform wedding. The rabbinical
council backed down from its threats when leaders of the Reform
Movement threatened to take the case to the High Court of Justice.
Rabbi Uri Regev, a leader of the Reform Movement, told Israel Radio
that the High Court has already ruled that a rabbinical council may
not threaten revocation of a kosher certificate for infractions not
related to the handling of food. He called the wedding a
significant victory for the Reform Movement in Israel.
Jakob the Liar
By Alan Silverman (VOA-Hollywood)
Robin Williams mixes comedy and tragedy in his new film: a
bittersweet story set in a Polish Jewish ghetto in World War 2 --
Jakob the Liar.
Jakob Heym has a problem: when he passes along news overheard on a
German officer's radio, his fellow Jews mistakenly believe that
it's Jakob who has a secret receiver. Under Nazi occupation,
that's a crime punishable by death; but when he sees how any hope,
even false hope, lifts spirits in the ghetto, Jakob starts lying,
making up optimistic broadcasts.
"This is the one subject that was always daunting. From the very
first time I read the script there was a certain amount of fear
about how to handle this with respect and yet still honor the
memory in being as dark and ironic as they were. That was the test.
You do it by doing all the research you can possibly do and then
try to put yourself in that place. You shoot in Poland in what was
the Jewish ghetto in Pyotrikov. You have a director who has a
sensibility that can handle it and you hope for the best. You work
like crazy to try to achieve a level of reality; but even then you
realize that it's only this much compared to what they endured."
Like last year's Italian hit "Life is Beautiful." "Jakob the Liar"
has the audacity to present humor in the midst of this great human
tragedy; but researching the role, Williams says he found journals
filled with sardonic jokes that helped the captive Jews keep their
spirits alive.
"For them it was a necessity. It's a necessity any human being has. In any situation where there is that type of horror, usually somebody will find something to keep going in the face of it. It isn't just humor. It's a memory... A connection... The littlest thing to keep you going. It's a human instinct. It's how we do it. Once you get over the shock, you have to be a survivor; and a survivor does anything to keep going. You can't be saying: 'Oh my God, look what happened to that poor person.' You don't look over there or you get shot or beaten; so you just carry on... and Jakob was just carrying on, being as ordinary as he possibly could to say: 'OK I'll go on.'"
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