Syria & Jordan

HA'ARETZ 1/29/99: "Jordan is worried that opposition groups, including Syrian agents and supporters, will try to test the power and authority of the new crown prince, Abdullah.

Supporters of the Syrian Baath party have a special influence on concentrations of Palestinian refugees. Syria has been conducting subversive activity in Jordan for years. Leaders in Damascus who were busy this week with the reelection of President Assad for another term, refrained from commenting on the dramatic turn of events in Amman.

Other Arab leaders expressed their support of King Hussein and have sent their blessings to Abdullah. There is a widespread feeling in Amman that if the king does not recover, the kingdom could fall into instability because of Abdullah's lack of experience.

The managing director of one of the kingdom's largest financial companies said yesterday that the main danger was that of a rift in the Hashemite family, that would be exploited by parts of the Palestinian opposition, Islamic fundamentalists and others.

The social structure in Jordan is tribal and family-based, and integrates various Palestinian sectors. The Hashemite palace is the balancing and compromising factor among them, and its unity is an essential condition for the stability of the regime - and perhaps for its existence.

Against this backdrop, Abdullah must demonstrate the family's unity. In the past two days he has appeared everywhere accompanied by a large group of relatives who stood by him as he shook the hands of thousands of well-wishers.

Almost all of the family members hold government positions. Most of them received an elitist education in prestigious institutions in Britain and the United States and they have political experience.

Abdullah will need their help and public support when he starts, soon, to seek solutions for the difficult problems: the crisis in Iraq, the shaky economy and the permanent settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, in whose design Jordan wants to take part..."

Shahak doldrums

THE JERUSALEM POST 1/27/98: "Amnon Lipkin-Shahak's requests to meet with key individuals in both the US and British Jewish communities did not receive many positive responses, The Jerusalem Post has learned from sources in both countries yesterday.

Indeed, such was the apathy in Britain that Shahak, the center party No. 2, canceled his planned trip there on his way back from the US.

"The main fundraisers in London think Shahak and the other political leaders are on an ego trip," said one British source. "They don't want to fund ego trips, which are not for the good of the country."

Shahak's center party staff yesterday refused to give any details of his visit to the US. A Shahak spokesman also refused to say whether the UK was on the original itinerary but just said "Shahak will be traveling directly back from the US to Israel."

Immediately after Monday night's news conference, which proclaimed the party's leader as Yitzhak Mordechai, Shahak left for the US. He will be there until Sunday for what his office described early yesterday as a "flexible" program. Later in the day, even the word "flexible" was replaced with a flat "no comment."

Political sources both here and in the US told The Post that Shahak was not being well received in the US and was finding it difficult to fill his timetable. Some even suggested that Shahak delayed his trip by two days to allow his staff to fill up his program.

However, party workers said he decided to postpone the visit because of Mordechai's decision to join and the negotiations this entailed..."

Golan bill

THE JERUSALEM POST 1/27/99: "After a five-year campaign for the people to determine the fate of the Golan Heights, the Knesset yesterday passed a law requiring a vote supported by 61 MKs, followed by a majority in a referendum, before territory under Israeli sovereignty can be ceded.

The requirement for holding a referendum will only take effect after the next Knesset legislates a basic law for referendums. The 53-30 result reflected a show of unity in the coalition and the absence of most Labor Party MKs.

The MKs who voted against included dovish Labor MKs such as Shimon Peres and Yossi Beilin, and those from Meretz, Hadash and the Democratic Arab Party...

The vote came after MK Salah Salim (Hadash) proposed turning it into a motion of no-confidence in the prime minister. However, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu asked for the vote to be held as an immediate vote of confidence in himself.

This prompted ex-defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai to refrain from voting. Yet, he also announced yesterday that his center party competing in the upcoming elections is willing to make territorial compromise in the Golan.

Fellow center party members Haggai Merom and Nissim Zvilli, still officially Labor MKs, voted against the bill. Labor MKs such as party whip Elie Goldschmidt, who had previously come out firmly behind the bill, absented themselves, apparently due to concern for their outcome in the party primaries.

Labor Party leader Ehud Barak also absented himself. Meretz leader Yossi Sarid said the law is the "same as the one that had banned meeting with members of the Palestine Liberation Organization." He said the Golan Heights law "would have the same fate, and end up in the graveyard of legislation."

Third Way leader Avigdor Kahalani said yesterday's vote is "only part of the process needed to support the Golan Heights." He said his party would work to ensure that the referendum legislation is completed and that communities on the Heights continue to enjoy support. He said the party would launch a massive effort during Pessah to bring people to the Golan..."

Vote on Religious Councils

THE JERUSALEM POST 1/27/99: "In a setback for efforts by the Reform and Conservative movements to obtain equal status with the Orthodox, the government-sponsored bill aimed at blocking them from religious councils was passed into law by the Knesset yesterday, albeit by only one vote.

The 50-49 outcome, with one abstention from Knesset Speaker Dan Tichon (Likud), culminated an acrimonious, 10-hour debate on hundreds of reservations to the bill that began on Monday night and resumed yesterday morning.

The government drafted the legislation as part of a coalition demand from religious parties, after the High Court of Justice ruled that non-Orthodox members must be allowed on the councils. The bill requires religious council members to sign an oath of allegiance to the rulings of the Chief Rabbinate.

United Torah Judaism made the passage of the bill a condition for its support of the 1999 state budget and economic arrangements bill. UTJ's Avraham Ravitz, chairman of the Knesset Finance Committee, suspended deliberations on the budget until the bill was approved.

Ex-defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai, the leader of the new center party, voted in favor of the bill. MK Dan Meridor (Likud), who also has joined the center party, was absent.

MK Alex Lubotzky (The Third Way), who has joined the center party and has been working to reach compromises on religious issues, voted against the bill. He said he did not know why Mordechai had supported the bill...

According to a reservation approved to the bill, an amendment to the Religious Services Law, those who do not keep to the oath of allegiance lose their membership in the council.

Opponents of the law were furious that the efforts to enlist a majority to foil the measure, including many members of the coalition, failed by only one vote. Yisrael Ba'aliya MKs and ministers, whose faction decided to vote against the bill, were furious when renegade MKs Yuri Stern and Michael Nudelman absented themselves from the vote.

The passage of the law was also blamed on no-shows from the Labor Party, including renegade MK Rafik Haj-Yihye and Rafi Edri, who is not seeking re-election. Gesher's three active MKs also absented themselves..."

Mordecai’s vote on Religious Councils

HA'ARETZ 1/28/99: "...The chief executive of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, Rabbi Tony Bayfield, said Mordechai's vote suggests a stance that is anything but centrist.

"The vote in the Knesset blocking the Reform and Conservative movements from representation on religious councils in Israel is nothing short of deplorable - it is a disgrace," he said.

"As a cynical exercise in rabbinical power politics, it is matched only by the venality of certain politicians selling their votes or abdicating their responsibility by staying away.

Quite how Mr. Mordechai will now expect to serve in a 'centrist' party defies belief." Paul Usishkin, who heads the Israel action division of Great Britain's Reform synagogues, said he would use every democratic means at his disposal to change the situation in Israel.

British Reform leaders said their relations with Israel have been seriously injured. Attempts by Israeli politicians to solicit campaign donations from British Jewish philanthropists would almost certainly be refused, they said, and other philanthropy to Israeli causes could decline as well.

Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who heads the Reform movement in North America, joined the chorus of Reform leaders decrying Mordechai's move. "Is his vote in the Knesset a hint as to how he intends to treat the Reform movement in the future?" Yoffie asked rhetorically.

"Does he plan to sell us to the Orthodox in Israel?" Yoffie said that someone who aspires to be prime minister of Israel must understand that the role also calls for acting as the leader of the Jewish people.

Yoffie is slated to meet with Shahak during the latter's ongoing New York visit. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with a delegation of 33 North American Reform rabbis, including seven women, at the Knesset on Monday.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, who heads the Association of Reform Zionists of America, said the delegation is seeking but has not yet been promised an audience with Mordechai. The group is scheduled to meet with Barak, Dan Meridor and Roni Milo."

Reform and Conservative leaders to fight the Religious Councils law

HA'ARETZ 1/27/99: "Reform and Conservative leaders in Israel said last night they would fight the new Religious Councils law not by appealing to the High Court of Justice, but by instructing non-Orthodox Jews abroad to withhold donations from those Knesset members who supported the law.

Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, who heads the Israel Religious Action Center, said the MKs who voted for the law "would get theirs," and would soon find themselves boycotted by Diaspora communities.

Rabbi Ehud Bandel, who heads the Conservative movement in Israel, said Diaspora Jews would withhold campaign contributions from those Israeli politicians who voted for the law.

Regev and Bandel yesterday sent their colleagues in the U.S. a list showing how each MK voted on the new law...Regev said that should the councils refuse to fund Reform and Conservative organizations, the United Jewish Appeal would likely divert money of its own to those organizations.

"We will have to refer the needy who currently receive funds from the UJA to Ravitz," he said, referring to Knesset Finance Committee Chair Avraham Ravitz, of United Torah Judaism.

The Reform and Conservative representatives embroiled in the controversy over sitting on the religious councils in Haifa, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Arad and Kiryat Tivon said they would sign the loyalty oath.

Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau said he did yet know whether the Rabbinate would authorize Orthodox representatives on the religious councils to sit down with non-Orthodox representatives, now that the law has passed.

But Haifa Chief Rabbi Shear-Yashuv HaCohen ruled that the "mixed seating" was permissible..."

Original clauses of the Religious Councils Bill

HA'ARETZ 1/27/99: "The Knesset passed a series of amendments to the Religious Councils bill yesterday between votes on the second and third readings, making the version finally passed far stricter than the bill's original incarnation and encoding halacha as the guiding law for local religious councils.

The original version included two main clauses:

1. Religious council members will be required to declare their intention to uphold the Religious Services Law:

That law will be amended so that religious councils will have to follow the Chief Rabbinate's rulings "on all Halachic [Jewish law] matters."

The version signed into law yesterday included three key additions:

1) Council members will have to sign their declarations of fealty.

2) Any council member who violates his or her oath will be expelled from the council. (The law does not say who determines whether the oath has been violated.)

3) The council will have to follow the Rabbinate's rulings not just on Halachic matters, but on "any issue within [the council's] jurisdiction."

And so it was yesterday that local religious councils became the first public institutions for which halacha is officially law, period - even when it comes to purely administrative matters.