There was such a crush of people at the gas-mask distribution center in Tel Aviv\’s Central Bus Station this week that a portable fence had to be set up at the doorway — just to keep people from pushing their way in.
For the record, the Netanyahu administration is expecting business as usual from President Clinton, despite his troubles with the likes of Monica Lewinsky.
Today it is rapidlybecoming clear that Israel has atomized into a number of \”tribes\” –Sephardim, Russians, Ethiopians, ultra-Orthodox, national Orthodoxand secular Ashkenazim.
The list of potential insurgents includes every senior figurein the Likud: Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert, Infrastructure MinisterAriel Sharon and every other Cabinet minister and Knesset member inthe party.
On Tuesday afternoon, Nov. 4, about 100 people stood around the black stone sculpture. Some knelt and lit candles. The memorial was covered with flowers and wreaths. One was inscribed, \”Remember, and sound a warning.\”
De\’or and Bar offer more than just technical mastery of their musical genres. Their performances evoke a sense of prayer, soul and expression that stir the heart.
A key element in Labor Party leader Ehud Barak\’s strategy tobecome prime minister is to win support from Orthodox andultra-Orthodox (haredi) voters, who backed Binyamin Netanyahuoverwhelmingly in the last election. Now Barak is faced with adilemma: The price of wooing Orthodox votes is apparently his supportfor the Conversion Law, which is fast approaching decision time inthe Knesset.
Over the High Holidays, somebody scrawled Nazi swastikas and the epithets \”Cursed evildoers\” and \”Evildoers, you will die\” on the front door of the Reform movement\’s Har-El Congregation synagogue in midtown Jerusalem.This was only the latest act of vandalism against Har-El, Israel\’s oldest Reform synagogue, in recent months. Over the summer, someone smeared human excrement on the synagogue door. On two other occasions, somebody poured acid on the synagogue garden, turning the grass yellow. All these incidents took place when the building was closed.
On Sept. 10, the day Secretary of State Madeleine Albright arrived in Israel, the country became preoccupied with another event: the disappearance of Ya\’acov Schwartz.
A spokesman for the Jerusalem police confirmed that the fire was caused by arson, and that the connection Sorek spoke of was one of the possibilities being investigated. The spokesman said that he did not want to elaborate, \”because this is a very sensitive matter.\” He added that no suspects had yet been arrested.
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