The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition: Israeli court axes military exemption

This article is from the February 24 issue of The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition. To subscribe for $4.50 a week, visit http://smh.com.au/digitaledition. Ethan Bronner JERUSALEM: The Israeli Supreme Court has invalidated a law that exempted from military service ultra-Orthodox Jews engaged in religious studies, adding a new urgency to the government’s negotiations with religious parties over a more equitable distribution of the burdens of citizenship. The 6-to-3 decision, handed down late on Tuesday, declared the Tal Law unconstitutional at a time of growing tension over the place of the ultra-Orthodox . The law, in effect since 2002, granted exemptions to tens of thousands of religious academy students. It was widely viewed as a failure and the Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, had already said it would not be renewed when it expired this summer. Still, the ruling will force the government to come up with a new way forward, one that will be strongly resisted by religious party coalition members.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Masorti Australasia

Israel Update 22 Feb

Hasbara Israel Updates

Zionist Council of NSW | Level 3, 146 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst NSW 2010

t: +61 2 9360 6300 | f: +61 2 9360 6004 | e: natalie@zionistcouncil.com.au

w: www.zionistcouncil.com.au | b: www.ozi-zion.com

If Egypt changes treaty, Israel may rule out future deals

If Cairo unilaterally decides to alter the peace treaty with Jerusalem, Israel will ask why sign agreements with other neighbors if these accords are not kept, Intelligence Agencies Minister Dan Meridor said Monday.

Meridor, speaking at a press conference organized by The Israel Project, said that "objectively" there is no reason for either Israel or Egypt to change the peace agreement that has served both sides for more than 30 years.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Masorti Australasia

Yup. It's a whole different approach. Masorti.

Sent from my iPad

Posted by Masorti Australasia

Daniel Gordis: ‘Surplus Jews’

A Dose of Nuance: ‘Surplus Jews’ - JPost - Magazine - Opinion
http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Opinion/Article.aspx?id=258124

The phrase is used with no hint of embarrassment, no expression of responsibility.

We Jews permit ourselves degrees of intolerance towards each other that we would never exhibit toward others outside our community. The settings are numerous – theology, Halacha, denominations, politics and more.

But nowhere are the vehemence and the inability to actually listen to those with whom we disagree more pronounced than with regard to the State of Israel.

The great irony of our age is that arguments about how to safeguard the Jewish state are a significant part of what now threatens to destroy any semblance of unity among the Jewish people. It is therefore helpful to have periodic reminders of just how much is at stake in the survival and flourishing of this state.

This week affords just that opportunity, for we are just days shy of the 70th anniversary of the sinking of the SS Struma. Few people today remember the Struma or its story; the young among us cannot even imagine the Jewish existential condition that it reflected, a condition that the state has, thankfully, completely eradicated.

The story begins in 1941, when it was clear to many Eastern European Jews that they were destined for a horrific end. In Romania, several Zionist organizations, Betar among them, commissioned a Bulgarian ship to transport almost 800 Jewish passengers to Palestine – the Struma.

Like Europe, however, the Struma was a disaster waiting to happen. The ship was barely more than a floating tub, 61 meters in length and six meters wide, which had been built in 1830 for shipping cargo; it had subsequently been used to transport cattle. It was powered by a motor that had apparently been salvaged from the bottom of the Danube River. The immigrants aboard had, according to some accounts, but a single bathroom.

Their only sources of comfort were the knowledge that they were finally succeeding in fleeing a burning Europe, and that the whole trip to Istanbul, the first leg of their journey, would take merely 14 hours.

The Struma set sail on December 12, 1941, but the engine gave out almost immediately. The tugboat that had towed them out of the harbor eventually sent its navigator and engineer on board, but they would only fix the engine for a large sum of money. The passengers, however, had given all their money to the Romanian customs officials. So they parted with their gold wedding bands in return for the repairs.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Masorti Australasia

Article: The Silence of the Greens | J-Wire

http://www.jwire.com.au/news/the-silence-of-the-greens/22685

The Silence of the Greens

February 14, 2012 by J-Wire Staff

Melissa Parke, the Federal Labor Member for Fremantle moved a motion in Parliament last night on the subject of Human Rights in Iran. The Liberal Member for Higgins Kelly O’Dwyer, brought into play President Ahmadinejad’s views on Israel, the Holocaust and questioned the silence of the Greens.Kelly O’Dwyer’s full speech to the House:

Kelly O’Dwyer

“I stand today in support of the motion of the member for Fremantle. I stand together with somebody from the opposite side of the chamber in condemning the abhorrent and repugnant human rights abuses that are currently occurring in the so-called Republic of Iran. There must be no more serious and heinous act in this world than a government turning on its own people and committing violent atrocities on its own citizenry. The very institution that is designed to defend the rights of its people turns persecutor on those that it is expected to protect.

Read the rest of this post »

Posted by Masorti Australasia

Masorti Australasia

Join Mercaz-Masorti Australasia

Some basics...

Australian Masorti Links

Halacha - examples of the Masorti approach

Israel Masorti Links

International Masorti Links

American Masorti Links

Tags

Archive

Contributors

The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition: Israeli court axes military exemption

Israel Update 22 Feb

Yup. It's a whole different approach. Masorti.

Daniel Gordis: ‘Surplus Jews’

The phrase is used with no hint of embarrassment, no expression of responsibility.

Article: The Silence of the Greens | J-Wire

The Silence of the Greens