c.1997 N.Y. Times News Service<
JERUSALEM—Angering Conservative and Reform Jews here andabroad, the Israeli Parliament gave preliminary approval on Tuesdayto a bill that would give Orthodox rabbis sole authority to conductconversions to Judaism in Israel.
The bill, submitted by the government under coalition agreementswith Orthodox parties, passed the first of three required votes 51to 32 with seven abstentions, and was sent to a parliamentarycommittee for further drafting.
But under a deal with secular coalition parties that hadresisted the legislation, the bill is to be frozen pending acompromise, provided the non-Orthodox movements suspend litigationto recognize their conversions. The movements, a small minority inIsrael, said on Tuesday night that they would comply only if asatisfactory compromise was reached.
Despite the prospect that there may be no further action on thebill, its first passage set off a storm of condemnation fromConservative and Reform rabbis in Israel and abroad who assertedthat the legislation delegitimized them and would alienate thenon-Orthodox majority of Jews from Israel.
``I think that the Knesset today opened a deep, unbridgeablerift between the State of Israel and the Jews of the diaspora,''said Rabbi Ehud Bandel of the Conservative movement in Israel,using the Hebrew name for Parliament.
``The Knesset preferred the wholeness of the coalition over thewholeness of the people. I'm fearful of the implications this willhave for the attitude of diaspora Jewry to Israel—politicalsupport, financial support and its identification with the State ofIsrael.''
Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union of American HebrewCongregations, which represents about 900 Reform synagogues inNorth America, told Israel army radio: ``If Reform rabbis in Israelare not rabbis and their conversions there are not conversions,that means that our Judaism is not Judaism, and that we aresecond-class Jews. This is absolutely unacceptable to AmericanJews.''
Rabbi Ismar Schorch, chancellor of the Jewish TheologicalSeminary in New York, which ordains Conservative rabbis, called theconversion bill ``a tragedy for Israel and a tragedy forIsrael-Diaspora relations.''
Schorch said the bill would leave Israel facing the socialproblem of as many as 250,000 immigrants from the former SovietUnion who feel excluded because they are not recognized as Jews bythe Orthodox rabbinate.
The bill was initiated by the Orthodox parties in response to anIsraeli Supreme Court ruling in November 1995 that Orthodoxconversions were not required for official registration as a Jew.The bill states that ``conversion of a person in Israel will beconducted according to the law of the Torah'' and can only beauthorized by the Orthodox rabbinic establishment. It does notapply to non-Orthodox conversions abroad, which are recognized inIsrael.
Defending the bill in Parliament, Moshe Gafni, a member of thestrictly Orthodox Torah Judaism party, accused the Conservative andReform movements of sanctioning conversions in violation of Jewishreligious law. ``They are going to turn the most sacred thing tothe Jewish people, the basis of our existence, into alaughingstock,'' he said.
In practice, non-Orthodox conversions in Israel are already notofficially recognized, but the bill tries to enshrine this in law.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argued that the legislationmerely affirms the existing so-called ``status quo'' in religiousaffairs.
``This law changes nothing essential and real in our relationswith Jewish communities in the world, because their ability toconduct Reform and Conservative conversions in the United States oroutside it that will be recognized in Israel is preserved,'' hesaid.
Former Prime Minister Shimon Peres, the current leader of theopposition Labor Party, said that he felt ``deep sorrow'' over theresults of the vote. ``I think Israel is going to be isolated,'' hesaid. ``The Jewish people should not be divided.''
c.1997 San Francisco Examiner<
SAN FRANCISCO—You won't see me in church on Easter, and I saythat with the utmost respect. I admire persons of kind andsustaining faith, because I never had such a faith.
If I had to have a religion, I wouldn't want one invented 20years ago by a couple named Bo and Peep. So many people, especiallyin California, are willing to give up tried beliefs, ones deeplyrooted in culture, for bunkum.
When I was a little kid, my family went to church only onEaster, which I thought was either 51 Sundays too few each year, orone Sunday too many.
I loved the old hymns and the feel of rebirth, but I had no ideawhat the minister was talking about.
Because my parents wanted me to get some religious education,they sent me to Sunday school at the age of 12. The Biblefascinated me then, and I was baptized in the Episcopal Church ayear later.
To be honest, I hated giving up Sundays of fishing and sandlotball to dress up and go to church. It also felt hypocritical topartake of religion when I didn't really believe in it.
Not that I don't believe in God. I simply believe that if Godexists, man would not have the capacity to understand Him. As shownin Rancho Santa Fe, man can't even understand himself.
If I wanted a religion, I'd choose one that doesn't promise easyescape from earthly troubles. I'd want a religion with leaders ofdepth and intelligence and no New Age babble, UFO-ontology orsalvation sales pitch.
Atheism is another faith I distrust. As a student, I met MadalynMurray O'Hair, the professional atheist who filed the lawsuitresponsible for eliminating prayer in public schools.
She was on a campus speaking tour in 1965, just two years afterthe landmark Supreme Court decision. O'Hair was bright, charismaticand entertaining in an abrasive, profane way. But she was a truebeliever in nonbelief, and her son who was her acolyte had acertain locked stare.
I had met my first leader of a cult, a cult of no God.
Now O'Hair has mysteriously disappeared with her son andgranddaughter, allegedly taking with her more than a half-milliondollars, each marked ``In God We Trust,'' belonging to two atheistgroups.
If she left on a spaceship, it apparently was one that couldtransport a Mercedes and a Porsche, and one that accepts AmericanExpress. The O'Hair family's credit card bills still are beingpaid, presumably not by a higher power.
Atheism can lead to its own hypocrisy, just like any religion.
Even as a student in the '60s, I hated the Marxist cliche aboutreligion being the opiate of the masses, especially since Marxismwas a cyanide of the masses.
My grandparents found great comfort in religion. If that's whatyou call an opiate, well then, you're probably in favor of pain.
After the deluge of stories and images from Rancho Santa Fe, Iworry about religion as a hallucinogen of the people—certainpeople, anyway.
With the continuing news of religious fanaticism out of theMiddle East, Asia and parts of Europe, an even bigger threat isreligion as the PCP of the people.
Murdering for one's God is as old as religion, but it has becomemore popular with the widespread distribution of the AK-47,originally intended as a weapon of godless communism.
Something is badly wired in the hardware of the human brain, andthousands of years of upgrades in cultural software have not fixedit.
The human need for transcendence produced Bach's ``ChristmasOratorio'' and Blake's luminous engravings and poetry, but it alsocan kill. We're the scariest animals in the kingdom. Woe to thelion and the lamb who lie down with us.
It's worth noting that William Blake talked to angels, foughtfor earthly justice, and his chariots of fire were certainly fueledby manic-depression.
Blake is the most famous visionary touched by madness. Now wehave a madman touched by visions, one Marshall Herff Applewhite,aka Bo.
Like Blake, he showed that religion and madness are not farapart in the brain's wiring. Unlike Blake, his mad visions werepathetic, unpoetic and fatal.
For some reason he collected followers. You'd think the menwould draw the line at being castrated, but some of them didn't.
This is a weird world. If you don't have faith in establishedreligion, and you don't want to escape on a UFO, how do yousurvive?
It helps to have a family with a sense of humor, firmrationality and humane values, even if they don't care to go tochurch.
It is very important to be able to say ``B---s---'' when someonestarts talking about Internet postings about a UFO following acomet across the sky. Leave that to Pierre Salinger.
Here in Northern California you hear people spouting all kindsof crap about inner selves, outer space, cyberspace, conspiracies,goddesses and angels. How many times have you heard someone sayB---s---?
It's the basic American critique, good for theology, art orpolitics. It's time we bring it back.
PAKISTAN LEADER MOVES TO CHANGE CONSTITUTION NEW DELHI, India (NYT)—Less than two months after winning alandslide victory in a general election, Prime Minister NawazSharif of Pakistan moved decisively on Tuesday to eliminate acrucial vestige of the country's years under military rule: thepower of the country's appointed president to dismiss electedgovernments and to appoint armed forces chiefs. Sharif announced in a television address on Monday night that heintended to repeal key parts of the Eighth Amendment to Pakistan'sConstitution, then moved within 12 hours to introduce legislationimplementing the changes in parliament. Both parliamentarychambers, the National Assembly and the Senate, approved thechanges unanimously on Tuesday afternoon. The speed with whichSharif acted, and indeed the fact that he made the move at all,surprised many in this nation of 130 million. Sharif did not makean issue of the presidential powers during campaigning for theFebruary election, leading many Pakistanis to conclude that hewished to avoid a confrontation that could lead to his beingdismissed again as prime minister, as he was when he led thegovernment previously in 1993. Sharif and his arch-rival, Benazir Bhutto, have alternated asprime minister for the past eight years, with three successivegovernments being dismissed under the now-defunct presidentialpowers. The two leaders were able, however briefly, to find acommon purpose on Tuesday, when they united in striking down thepowers. CHINA AGREES WITH SOME OF WHAT GINGRICH SAID BEIJING (NYT)—The government indicated Tuesday that it wasessentially pleased with remarks over the weekend by Newt Gingrich The one-China policy has been at the heart of relations betweenthe United States and China since President Nixon established tieswith Beijing in 1972. In signing the Shanghai Communique then, theUnited States and China effectively deferred the issue of aresolution to the simmering civil war that has kept Taiwan and themainland divided since 1949. In the meantime, a robust economicboom in the region has drawn the two enemies close together. At a news briefing Tuesday, Shen Guofang, China's ForeignMinistry spokesman, said of the house speaker's visit: ``Mr.Gingrich mentioned several times in Beijing that he opposed Taiwanindependence and approved the principle of one China. WEST BANK VIOLENCE CONTINUES TO DEGRADE POLITICAL EFFORTS JERUSALEM (NYT)—The early-morning thuds of would-be suicidebombings in Gaza and the fatal shooting of two Palestinians in theWest Bank gave fresh impetus to the spiral of violence on Tuesday,even as the political front continued to crumble. With Washingtongiving no sign of new ideas on how to break out of the dangerousimpasse, the Israelis and Palestinians seemed unable to do morethan trade blows and recriminations and brace for more troubles. A resolution of Arab League ministers recommending that Arabstates retreat from relations with Israel and resume economic andpolitical boycotts, though threatening few immediate consequences,added to a sense of a Middle East fall back to the dismallyfamiliar state of confrontation. The bombings in Gaza occurred 15 minutes apart near Jewishsettlements inside the Gaza Strip and along roads used by theIsraelis, at an hour when children were about to set off in schoolbuses. Both exploded when no Israeli vehicle was passing and theonly casualties other than the bombers were several Palestinians ina taxi. DEPARTURE OF BOSNIAN MUSLIM CHILDREN STIRS MIXED FEELINGS INGERMANY BONN, Germany (NYT)—Hugging toys, dolls and pillows forcomfort, 30 Bosnian children were sent back home on Tuesday, fiveyears after they were plucked from the siege of Sarajevo under firefrom snipers who shot two dead. While the special flight fromBerlin was not a formal expulsion, the children's departure stirredanger and sadness among Germans who had cared for them in threeorphanages. It also played into a growing dispute here amongpoliticians over the stated intention of immigration authorities todeport tens of thousands of Bosnian Muslim refugees whose homes nowlie in territory controlled by Bosnian Serbs. The children's odyssey from war to peace and back to a broken,divided land has been dogged at each step with contentiousness. Thetwo state legislators from Saxony-Anhalt in eastern Germany whoorganized the rescue in 1992 were accused of publicity-seeking,recklessness, and irresponsibility; and those who arranged theirreturn on Tuesday were assailed by one of the same legislators asheartless. Workers from the German orphanages where the children grew upwiped away tears as they delivered their charges to the airport.But state officials insisted that the children's guardians inSarajevo had repeatedly pressed for the children to return home. Aprevious attempt to return them last October was halted on shortnotice because Bosnia seemed to German officials to have fewfacilities to receive them. ISRAELI PARLIAMENT STIRS ANGER ON CONVERSION ISSUE JERUSALEM (NYT)—Angering Conservative and Reform Jewishleaders here and abroad, the Israeli Parliament gave preliminaryapproval on Tuesday to a bill that would give Orthodox rabbis soleauthority to conduct conversions to Judaism in Israel. The bill,submitted by the government under coalition agreements withOrthodox parties, passed the first of three required votes, 51-32,with 7 abstentions, and was sent to a parliamentary committee forfurther drafting. But under a deal with secular coalition parties who had resistedthe legislation, the bill is to be frozen now pending a compromise,provided the non-Orthodox movements suspend litigation to recognizetheir conversions. The movements said on Tuesday night that theywould comply only if a satisfactory compromise was reached. Despite the prospect that there may be no further action on thebill, its first passage set off a storm of condemnation fromConservative and Reform rabbis in Israel and abroad who chargedthat the legislation deligitimized them and would alienate thenon-Orthodox majority of Jews from Israel. ``I think that theKnesset today opened a deep, unbridgeable rift between the state ofIsrael and the Jews of the diaspora,'' said Rabbi Ehud Bandel ofthe Conservative movement in Israel, using the Hebrew name for theparliament. c.1997 N.Y. Times News Service< In the modern annals of political warfare, no leader had beenmore effective than Yasser Arafat. He used its techniques andstrategies to achieve major goals against an enemy far strongermilitarily. But despite his successes, once again his character andambitions have led Palestinians to the brink of disaster. The Arafat techniques include an international propagandacampaign that made much of the world accept as truth the fictionthat a part of Jerusalem is already a city in itself, with an Arabmajority, belonging to Palestinians by history and right. ArabJerusalem, or East Jerusalem, they call it. Any action by Israel to defend its interests and sovereignty inthat fictitious city, like opening a second door in anarcheological tunnel or building apartments for Jews, is denouncedby Arafat and countries around the world as provocation andjustification for Arab riots and terrorist murders. Terrorism is a built-in part of Arafat's political warfare. Thetechnique is to promise to give it up as a weapon against the Jews.Collect for the promise. Then break it when necessary to put morepressure on Israel. Make the promise again. Collect. The overall strategy is to take every concession provided underthe 1993 Oslo agreement to negotiate a peace, and bank it. Then useterrorism, police firepower, anti- Jewish vilification (Israelisinjected HIV into 300 Palestinians, proclaimed a high Arafat aide)and the threat of military conflict to obtain what had not beenagreed to—like Palestinian statehood, control of the whole WestBank or rule over Jerusalem in stages. Now Arafat has taken a step that could be a prelude to Arabattack, or at least will convince Israelis that Arab commitment topeace is fleeting and reversible. He got Arab states to announcesuspension of diplomatic ties and resumption of the anti-Israelboycott. Since 1993 the Arafat construction of strategy and techniqueshas won Palestinians the attributes of a sovereign nation—controlof territory and population, an army, a functioning administration.The Rabin-Peres Labor government provided him with all that _probably irrevocably. The propaganda about Arab Jerusalem was a textbook triumph overreality and history. For only 19 years had there been an Arab majority in easternJerusalem. This came about after the Arab nations, with Jordan asspearhead, seized the eastern sections of Jerusalem rather thanaccept Israel's existence and, as Israel did, agree to the U.N.plan for partition and an internationalized Jerusalem. Jordan created the Arab majority in eastern Jerusalem—bykilling or driving out all Jews, while its soldiers entertainedthemselves burning 58 synagogues and defecated on Jewishtombstones. Since 1967, when Jordan and allies were defeated in anotheronslaught on Israel and lost their occupied territory on the WestBank and Jerusalem, the Arab population in Jerusalem has grown 154percent, from 68,000 to 174,000. Jewish population increased moreslowly, but enough to keep the majority it has held for a century. Arafat sympathizers abroad cry ``provocation'' about thebuilding of apartments for Jews in ``Arab Jerusalem.'' But moreapartments for Arabs were built there than for Jews; Oslo did notforbid either. Much of the Western press charges that Prime Minister BenjaminNetanyahu and the landslide majority of Jewish voters who electedhim over Labor last year do not want peace. That is as much a lieas the AIDS-injection story. But they will not surrender the wholeWest Bank and Israeli territorial security to get it—nor bargainaway Jerusalem slice by slice. Unless under American pressure Arafat abandons political warfareagainst Israel, Israelis one day will say no more talk—this wewill give, this not. If Palestinians continue to use terror againstIsraelis and their security, they will confront Israeli militarypower or the Arabs may attack for the fifth time in Israeli'shalf-century of independence. Palestinians have proved their national identity and courage.Now they face proving their wisdom, by rejecting war in favor ofbuilding peacefully on their gains. No evidence exists that Yasir Arafat will lead them to thatchoice. c.1997 The Boston Globe< (begin itals) Q. Who made us? A. God made us. Q. Who is God? A. God is the Supreme Being, infinitely perfect, who made allthings and keeps them in existence. Q. Why did God make us? A. God made us to show forth His goodness and to share with usHis everlasting happiness in heaven. <(end itals) And now we reach a point where 39 people kill themselves aftertrying to hook up with God via a UFO. At the edge of Easterweekend, the tremendously disturbed cult members in Rancho SantaFe, Calif., seem to have attempted to establish a sense ofcommunity through a computer and, when their efforts failed, theytook themselves right off the court, choosing group suicide overany further interaction with society. That they were strongly insane is not even to be debated. Thattheir isolation might be a symptom of some sprawling, potentiallylethal disease afflicting our faithless culture is, however, analtogether different issue, one perhaps worthy of discussion. This morning, millions will rediscover religion in the samemanner a housekeeper traces a finger across dust gathered on top ofan end table. The table, of course, is right there to be seen, yetit occasionally requires attention to look its best. And if Christmas is Christianity's Super Bowl, Easter is itsWorld Series, a lengthy ritual encompassing weeks when, ideally,self-absorption yields to self-analysis. But while the world spins faster and faster, its centrifugalforce often wrenching older, established orders from familiarroots, today's celebration offers the peace of permanence andreliability in institutions whose rules do not bend with thefleeting winds of each passing trend. The Lord's Prayer did notchange in response to the popularity of the Beatles or theemergence of Apple Macs. Another reminder of this cement-like order took place lastweekend inside an old brick church built in 1868 by poor people whoarrived here from Ireland. There, they had been starved intosubmission by the English, who attempted to strip them of theirlanguage as well as their faith but succeeded only in inspiringgreat resentment that has not abated across a whole century. Thechurch was St. Augustine's in South Boston, and the event was afuneral Mass for a man stabbed to death earlier in the week on asidewalk outside a tavern. The service was both inspiring and familiar. It offered comfortto the survivors and hope to those who simply came in off thestreet to worship. It was blunt, beautiful and left nobody witheither a sense of blame or shame. And it was conducted a day after many Christians recalled, insilence, that time on Good Friday when Christ died on a cross Heaccepted, then carried through city streets where spectatorsgathered to laugh whenever He fell beneath the weight. Christ was apoor man raised by his mother and a foster father. And on theafternoon He was crucified, He was accompanied in death by twoother men, both convicts, who were executed at the same time. Christ sure does seem to have been quite a guy. Dying, he stillfound it within himself to offer comfort to those alongside,choosing not to judge either man. And the strength of His actionsthen is incredible; they have endured for nearly 2000 years andhave had far more impact than any single sneaker or beercommercial, any work of literature or politician's words, anymovie, technological invention or any other human being you canthink of today. So we are left to wonder, how would the crowd react to Christ ifHe were to walk among us now? Would we glibly link Him to RanchoSanta Fe cultists? Call Him a nut? Crucify Him in print? Would He be vilified on talk radio simply because His basicmessage revolves around the universally despised: the pauper, theprisoner, the AIDS patient, the convicted, the doomed, the hopelessas well as the homeless? Would He be made a laughable figure by thechoir of crickets who need to see a sampling of favorable publicopinion before they speak out or stand up? Or would He simply beignored because He had no money? <(itals) Q. Who made us? A. God made us. <(end itals) (Mike Barnicle is a columnist for the Boston Globe.) Go back to SOCIOLOGY 265 -- News Articles Page If you have any questions or comments please email:WORLD NEWS IN BRIEF
c.1997 N.Y. Times News Service<
,who said last week during a visit to China that he accepted aone-China policy but asserted that the United States would defendTaiwan militarily if it was attacked.
By A.M. ROSENTHAL<
By MIKE BARNICLE<