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Newsletter : 2fax0114.txt
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>JN Jan. 14, 2002, Vol. 10, No. 9
Tourism Ministry Appoints 200 "Ambassadors"
By IsraelNationalNews.com
Two hundred students from New York's Yeshiva University will arrive in Israel Monday for an intense training program, Operation Torah Shield, on how to inspire and market U.S. tourism to Israel.
"You are modern-day versions of the biblical Calev ben Yefuneh and Joshua Ben Nun," Tourism Minister Rabbi Benny Elon told the group, referring to the two agents sent by Moses to spy out the land.
"You see that the land is good, and you are returning to tell the news to your brothers and sisters."
Sharon Reprimands Ministers
By VOA News
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has clashed with members of his coalition government, after some cabinet ministers criticized a decision to demolish homes in a Palestinian refugee camp last week.
Sharon sharply reprimanded Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Science and Culture Minister Matan Vilnai Sunday for statements saying the demolitions were poorly handled.
Military officials said it bulldozed 21 abandoned buildings in the southern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian snipers to fire on Israeli troops guarding a border crossing into Egypt.
But Palestinians and international aid workers said more than 50 inhabited dwellings were destroyed and nearly 600 Palestinians were left homeless, including scores of children.
Meanwhile, Iran has again denied any military link to the Palestinian Authority, and said it had no involvement in a huge arms shipment bound for Palestinians that was seized at sea 11 days ago by Israeli agents.
Last week, the U.S. State Department said Israeli intelligence had convinced Washington that the weaponry had come from Iran. But on Sunday, Iran's Foreign Ministry said Washington should base its comments on reliable information rather than Israeli fabrications.
Israeli missiles slammed into a Palestinian naval base in the Gaza Strip Saturday in retaliation for the weapons smuggling operation and a deadly attack on Israeli troops. Israeli warships launched shells at the harbor in Gaza destroying a patrol boat and a fuel tank, sending flames leaping into the air. Navy commandos also blew a hole in a Palestinian vessel that was docked there.
Israel Encourages French Jews to Emigrate
By Lisa Bryant (VOA-Paris) & IsraelNationalNews.com
The government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has accused France of having the worst record of anti-Semitism in the West. But the French government and some prominent French Jews disagree with the allegations. Sharon's government is trying to encourage French Jews to resettle in Israel.
Just more than a year ago, unknown vandals torched the neighborhood synagogue of Trappes, a small town outside of Paris. But the Jewish community rallied, and they raised funds from as far afield as Los Angeles to rebuild their house of worship. And in December, they obtained a new hall, free of charge, from the mayor of Trappes.
But Michel Mimouni, head of Trappes' tiny Jewish community, says many Jews live in fear of future assaults. Last month, Mimouni's 35-year-old son decided to emigrate to Israel. Now, Mimouni says, he is considering following his son. His decision would be welcomed by Sharon's government, which hopes to draw a million or more Jews to Israel in the coming years.
This month, Israeli officials announced new financial incentives for French Jews to repatriate. The lump sums - nearly $10,000 for a family of four - are part of a special, so-called absorption package, to ease the financial burden of moving to Israel. Only Jews from Russia and, more recently Argentina have been eligible for the special assistance.
Sharpening the incentives were charges by Israel's deputy foreign minister, Michael Melchior, last week that France led Western nations in anti-Semitic aggression.
Dov Poder, the Paris representative for the Jewish Agency, which oversees immigration to Israel, said those accusations are separate from Israel's immigration drive. Nonetheless, he said, the new financial aid may offer fearful French Jews another reason to emigrate. "We understand that in France you have some problems," he explained. "A new form of anti-Semitism. We know that the decision and act to go to Israel and to try to live in Israel is a decision that is not so simple in a human point of view."
During the past 15 months, France has been shaken by a wave of attacks on Jewish schools, synagogues and shops. Many are blamed on disenfranchised, French-Arab youths from housing projects, who identify with the Palestinian cause. So a slice of the spiraling Middle East violence has been transplanted to France, home to some 600,000 Jews and to 6 million Muslims. Accusations of anti-Semitism stir up painful memories in France, where the Vichy government collaborated with Nazi Germany during World War II.
"Everybody in France knows there is anti-Semitism except Jacques Chirac," said Olivier Guland, editor of France's largest Jewish newspaper, Tribune Juif.
Guland described his conversation with Chirac, during which the French president denounced reports of anti-Semitic incidents in France. "It's not true. It is just a rumor."
