Knesset Member Yuval Shteinitz (Likud) criticized the Foreign Ministry and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday, saying the ministry had suppressed a video showing Egyptian police assisting Hamas terrorists involved in smuggling outlaws and goods into Gaza. The
The IDF obtained videotaped evidence of Egyptian policemen helping nearly 80 Hamas terrorists.
recording was originally sent to the Israeli Embassy in Washington and would have convinced the US Congress that Egypt is not capable of defending the border ahead of a crucial Congressional vote on foreign aid, he claimed. American legislators penalized Egypt anyway.

Minister Livni herself criticized the Egyptian security forces for failing to secure the border. Speaking before a Knesset committee on Monday, Livni said, "Egyptian actions in the war against smuggling in the Philadelphi Corridor are terrible and definitely have implications for future problems in the region, such as the arming of Hamas in Gaza."

The IDF obtained videotaped evidence of Egyptian policemen helping nearly 80 Hamas terrorists cross illegally into Gaza through a hole in the border fence. Other evidence indicates that the Egyptians have been assisting Hamas in smuggling weapons from the Sinai through tunnels under the Philadelphi Route and into the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.

Despite her criticism and the evidence provided by the IDF, Livni rejected Shteinitz’s complaint, telling him “every move must be calculated.” Israel should carefully consider the options before risking its ties with Egypt, she said. “Some things are done behind the scenes,” she added, refusing to give a more direct explanation for her ministry’s decision. Defense Minister Ehud Barak is expected to raise the issue with his Egyptian counterparts when he visits Cairo on Wednesday.

US Withholds Egyptian Aid; Israel Blamed
Despite the Israeli government's official hesitation in presenting its recording of Egyptian security forces' collusion with Hamas, the US Congress has decided to suspend part of America's annual military aid to Egypt. The 2008 foreign aid bill legislators approved on Sunday would hold back $100 million out of a $1.3 billion allocation on condition that Egypt takes certifiable steps to "detect and destroy the smuggling network and tunnels that lead from Egypt to Gaza." According to the draft legislation, the US Secretary of State has the discretion to release the withheld money within 45 days.

Egyptian officials blamed Israel for the unique Congressional move. "We are not revealing a secret when we say that the pro-Israel lobby (inside the Congress) has played a role in issuing this decision to achieve its well-known objectives and interests," said Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossam Zaki. “The Egyptian people and national powers, who are committed to Egypt's freedom in taking its own decisions, will categorically reject this bill,” Zaki said.

In reaction to the claims that Egypt is not fighting cross-border smuggling between Egypt and the PA, the Egyptian government claims that its manpower is limited by the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty. In the fall of 2005, just weeks after the last Jew was forcibly removed from Gush Katif and other areas in Gaza, Israel transferred control of the Gaza-Egyptian border to Egypt. The agreement stipulated a 750-man Egyptian border force patrolling the border line known as the Philadelphi Route. This was contrary to the Israeli-Eyptian peace treaty of 1979, which banned any armed Egyptian presence in the Sinai Desert. Egypt announced last week that its forces had discovered two smuggling-tunnels.

The last Nefesh B'Nefesh chartered flight of the civil calendar year 2007 is set to touch down on Thursday, bringing 191 new Jewish immigrants to Israel from North America.

The El Al plane will be greeted at Ben-Gurion International Airport by the head of the IDF Manpower Division, Major General Elazar Stern, Director General of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption, Erez Halfon, other officials and show hosts of IsraelNationalRadio.com. Hundreds of family members,
Over the course of 2007, more than 3,000 North American and British Jews immigrated to Israel through Nefesh B’Nefesh.
friends, well-wishers and previous Nefesh B'Nefesh beneficiaries are expected to be on the tarmac to greet the newcomers.

The Thursday flight includes immigrants from the United States and Canada. The oldest immigrant is 96 years old, while the youngest was born just three months ago. According to Nefesh B'Nefesh, the new immigrants will be moving to over 27 cities throughout Israel. Popular destinations for North Americans who made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in recent years include Beit Shemesh, Modi'in and Jerusalem.

Over the course of 2007, more than 3,000 North American and British Jews immigrated to Israel through Nefesh B’Nefesh, on eight specially-chartered planes and eight Aliyah group flights. About 10,000 Jews made Aliyah through Nefesh B'Nefesh since 2002.

Nefesh B’Nefesh is an organization dedicated to revitalizing North American and British Aliyah by removing or minimizing the financial, professional, logistical and social obstacles to coming to live in Israel. The organization provides comprehensive emotional and material support for immigrants before and after their Aliyah. Among other efforts, Nefesh B'Nefesh offers financial assistance, employment resources, social services and guidance through governmental absorption procedures. Although a private initiative, Nefesh B'Nefesh worked with the Jewish Agency until earlier this year.

Originally focused on North American Jews, in 2006, Nefesh B'Nefesh extended its efforts to the United Kingdom. In September of this year, the organization was in discussions with Latin American Jewish community leaders regarding assistance for Jews in that region who were planning Aliyah.

Click here for a photo essay on the previous Nefesh B'Nefesh flight landing.

Islamic Jihad has fired six Kassam rockets so far Tuesday morning towards Ashkelon and the western Negev, causing no casualties or damage.

The morning began around 7 AM with a burst of 2-3 Kassams towards open areas in the northwestern Negev.  Shortly before 8 AM, with Sderot's streets filled with children on their way to school, another two were fired off towards the city – just north and south of Sderot - but landed with no physical damage. An hour later, the Gaza terrorists fired off yet another rocket, this one towards Ashkelon; it, too, caused no damage.

Two other Kassams over the past two days did cause damage – to a wall near the police station in Sderot, and a factory in southern Ashkelon. No one was hurt, however.

Kassam rocket attacks generally lead to predictable reactions in Israel: Calls from the left-wing for increased reinforcement and shelters, and demands for a large-scale military offensive into Gaza to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure from the political right.

Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and Shabak chief Yuval Diskin oppose the government's new trend towards easing up on criteria enabling the release of terrorists.

While most ministers apparently support the idea, Mofaz, Diskin and others don't like the process the government began on Monday to ease up on criteria defining which terrorists can be released from prison. 

Until now, the government has been steadfast in refusing to free terrorists who have "blood on their hands" – i.e., were involved in murderous attacks – in the framework of prisoner releases.  There were many who objected to even this relatively strict definition, saying that terrorists who tried to murder Jews but, for one reason or another, failed, should not be eligible for freedom.

The Issue is Shalit
However, the government is now leaning towards relaxing the criteria even further – apparently because otherwise, a deal for the release of captive soldier Gilad Shalit might not be possible. On Monday, a ministerial committee convened for the express purpose of narrowing the term "blood on their hands," thus enabling the release even of terrorists who had a role in murdering Jews.

Foreign reports have it that a deal is in the works for Corp. Shalit.  It would involve the exchange of some 500 Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel – including some who are currently categorized as having "blood on their hands" – in exchange for the captive soldier's return home.

Shalit was captured a year and a half ago by Hamas terrorists who crawled through a tunnel under the Israel-Gaza border.  The kidnappers also killed two IDF soldiers in the attack.

The Committee
Staffing the committee dealing with the possible change are Vice Prime Minister Chaim Ramon, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Public Security Minister Avi Dichter, Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, and Minister Without Portfolio AMi Ayalon, a former GSS Director.  Ramon, Ayalon and Dichter have already expressed support for the new definitions.  Another meeting is planned for Wednesday, when the security establishment's position will be heard.

GSS head Yuval Diskin is reportedly strongly against the new tendency, and will make his opinion heard at the next committee session.

Also against the idea is Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Tzachi HaNegbi (Kadima), who said, "I'm against the release of murderers, and I don't understand this whole thing of changing the criteria."

Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilnai, on the other hand, feels that as Shalit was captured as a representative and emissary of the entire country, and therefore everything must be done to bring him home.     

The Almagor Terror Victims Association and MKs Aryeh Eldad, Benny Elon and Yuval Shteinitz are all against the move.  Eldad said Prime Minister Olmert will be responsible for those murdered by the terrorists to be released, while Elon decried the "moral, legal and military bankruptcy" involved in such a decision.  Shteinitz said, "With all the flexibility and pragmatism, the Government of Israel is aiding terrorism and harming the international war against terrorism."

Shifra Hoffman of Victims of Arab Terror (VAT International) said this would be another good opportunity for the right-leaning Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu parties to quit the government, "or else they will be guilty of having blood on their hands in allowing past and future murderers to be released."

IDF soldiers opened fire on two Arab men on Monday night near the hareidi-religious city of Beitar Illit, a few miles south of Jerusalem. The men were attempting to infiltrate the city and were assumed to be terrorists. One of the suspects was wounded and taken to a
Soldiers noticed that they were attempting to set fire to car tires
Jerusalem hospital. The second suspect managed to escape.

The two men attempted to enter Beitar Illit near Lubavitch Street and soldiers noticed that they were attempting to set fire to car tires at the edge of the town. IDF forces opened fire, hitting one of the men.

A military response team dispatched to the scene of the incident could not locate the suspected infiltrators. One of the wounded men was reportedly taken to a nearby Arab village in a private car, and from there he was evacuated in a Red Crescent ambulance to a hospital in Bethlehem. He was subsequently transferred to a hospital in Jerusalem. Arab sources quoted by the YeshaNews service reported that the wounded man is an Israeli citizen.

Arab sources initially claimed the wounded suspect was in critical condition. However, Israeli sources have rejected the claim, saying that the would-be arsonist is suffering from light gunshot wounds to his arms.

Bus Driver Injured
In other Arab attacks on Jews, a bus driver suffered light head wounds when he was attacked by rock-throwers near the Jewish community of Tzufim, in Samaria.

A group of Arabs also stoned an Israeli bus on Monday night near the village of Beit Furik, southeast of Shechem. The bus was damaged, but no injuries were reported. Another bus was damaged earlier in the day in a similar attack near Karmei Tzur, in Gush Etzion. A private vehicle was also damaged by rock-throwing Palestinian Authority Arabs Monday evening. The targets of the attack were driving in the Jewish quarter of Hevron at the time.

PA terrorists in Gaza also continued their attacks on Jews in the western Negev. Attackers launched two Kassam rockets at the city of Sderot on Monday night. No injuries or damage were reported.

Four months after an inter-ministerial committee submitted its recommendations regarding the state-sanctioned conversion process, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called for those bodies involved in the matter to draw up an agreed-upon plan of action. The objective,
Approximately 1,300 (immigrants) decide to convert every year.
Olmert's Cabinet Secretary wrote in a letter to government officials, is “to improve, streamline and expand Israel's conversion system."

In his letter, sent on Monday, Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel said that representatives of the relevant government ministries, of the Chief Rabbinate, of the IDF and of the Jewish Agency will be called upon in coming days to meet and agree on operative recommendations for the prime minister to review. Yehezkel's letter was sent to more than a dozen officials, including Absorption Ministry Director General Erez Halfon, who headed the conversion committee, Rabbi Haim Druckman, head of a conversion administration in the Prime Minister's Office, and Major General Elazar Stern, head of the IDF Manpower Division.

The Halfon Committee, established in March 2007, submitted its final report in August. Among the committee's recommendations were consolidating state-sanctioned conversions under a single Conversion Authority. The authority, which would be overseen initially by Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar, would include conversion classes and rabbinical courts dedicated to conversion matters. In addition, the committee recommended increasing the number of rabbinical court judges involved, with 10 more posts and the option of adding volunteer positions, as well.

Aside from the structural issues, the Halfon Committee also addressed some of the rabbinical court requirements currently enforced on would-be converts. Rabbi Amar was asked to reconsider the demand that converts transfer their children to religious schools and that the convert's spouse adopt a religious lifestyle as well. Earlier this month, Jewish Agency Chairman Ze'ev Bielski sent a letter to Rabbi Amar asking him to forgo the requirement that Ethiopian children attend religious schools while their parents are converting to Judaism.

In August, a panel of three rabbinical judges was assigned to address the issues of religious law related to the process of conversion to Judaism in Israel. Chief Rabbi Amar decided to establish the panel in anticipation of the Halfon Committee recommendations. The rabbis are charged with organizing and clarifying the rules governing the procedure.

Approximately 300,000 people who immigrated to Israel in recent years, most of them from the former Soviet Union, are not Jewish. Approximately 1,300 decide to convert every year.

Several government officials have blamed the rabbinical courts for the fact that most non-Jewish immigrants choose not to convert, saying that if the courts were more lenient there would be many more converts. Sources in the Chief Rabbinate argue that their standards are based in Jewish law, and say that most non-Jewish immigrants are simply not interested in becoming Jewish.

Reform Movement Petitions Court Over Conversion
In a related development, the Reform Movement in Israel has filed a court petition against the Jerusalem Religious Council, saying the council discriminates against those who wish to convert according to Reform and Conservative standards. Would-be Reform converts
The lawsuit against the Jerusalem council would be the first in a series.
who identify themselves as such are turned away from public mikvaot (ritual baths), which are used in the final stage of the conversion process according to Jewish Law.

The Israel Religious Action Committee (IRAC), the Reform movement’s legal wing, filed a suit in 2006 with the High Court of Justice over the policy at the nation's mikvaot. The Supreme Court told the group to petition against individual religious councils. IRAC officials said the lawsuit against the Jerusalem council would be the first in a series of similar petitions.

Rabbi Menachem Blumenthal, the head of public mikvaot in Jerusalem, confirmed that the religious council only grants access to converts approved by the Chief Rabbinate. Mikvah employees do not check for identification at the buildings’ entrance, he said, and only those who identify themselves as planning a Reform or Conservative conversion are denied access.

IRAC lamented that the intense “involvement of the Chief Rabbinate and rabbinical courts in the conversion process.“

Over 1,000 people took part in a joyous relocation celebration of the Disengagement-destroyed N'vei Dekalim Yeshivat Hesder to its new (temporary) Ashdod quarters.

The Hesder Yeshiva (combining Torah study and army service in a 5-year program) of N'vei Dekalim, which was dismantled in the summer of 2005 in Ariel Sharon's Disengagement expulsion/withdrawal plan, has now taken up new quarters in the city of Ashdod.  Over 1,000 people took part in the joyous celebration last week in its new home.

The yeshiva was well-known for its unique Jewish Star structure, built in the form of a six-pointed Magen David.  It originally started in Yamit, in northern Sinai, and was headed by Rabbis Yaakov and Yisrael Ariel, two brothers who now serve as Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan and head of the Temple Institute, respectively.  The yeshiva was later relocated to Gush Katif in 1982 when the Begin-Sharon government dismantled the Jewish towns in the Yamit region and gave the area to Egypt as part of the 1978 peace treaty. 

The N'vei Dekalim yeshiva structure also featured an impressive display of glass, rocks, and miniature models of houses memorializing the Yamit withdrawal; the modern city of N'vei Dekalim was reflected in the glass, to show the rebuilding that had come in the place of Yamit.

Click here for photos of the Yeshiva before it was destroyed, and here for post-Disengagement shots.

The building, and its display, was destroyed by Arab Palestinian vandals shortly after the Disengagement.

Meanwhile, the yeshiva resumed studies in Kfar Maimon, not far from Sderot.  Over the course of the past year, Yeshiva Dean Rabbi David Gavriel weighed two options: relocating to Nitzan, where hundreds of former Gush Katif families now reside, or Ashdod, and he finally chose the latter.  "Despite all," he told the crowd at the ceremony, "we will not disengage from our nation and from our country.  Just like in the famous King Solomon case of the two mothers, we refuse to cut a living organism by making a split between ourselves and our nation."

The day before the commemoration, 100 of the yeshiva's students traveled to the now-closed Kisufim checkpoint - the former entrance to Gush Katif - to express their longing to return to Gush Katif.

The new, temporary quarters are adjacent to the site where the new yeshiva building is to be constructed. 

The salary crisis of Religious Council employees has once again raised its head - and well over 400 workers nationwide are again not being paid. 

No one in the country is accepting responsibility for the fact that religious councils' employees go for months at a time without receiving their salaries.  In Elyakhin, near Hadera, workers have gone unpaid for four months, while in Givat Ze'ev, Hatzor and Emanuel, salaries have not been paid for thee months.  In six localities, religious council workers have gone unpaid for two months.  Council employees in ten other towns have missed their last paycheck, with no certainty in sight as to the next one.

In Lod, burial workers took the extreme step of refusing to bury three people - including an 85-year-old woman doctor whose son-in-law is a city councilman - who died over the weekend.  However, on Sunday evening they finally carried out the burials, after they said some progress had been reached with the municipality on salary issues.

In Bat Yam, religious council workers arrived at work, but instead of their usual routine, the females began distributing pamphlets explaining their straits, while the men sat on the floor and recited Psalms. 

"If these sanctions don't work," say Bat Yam employees, "the next stage is to burn tires and block the road in front of the religious council office.  We have no other choice; we don't know who to turn to. Each body throws the responsibility on the other one.  The national authorities says the problem is with the Finance Ministry, and the Finance Ministry says it's the religious councils' fault.  Even the Cabinet minister who has been entrusted with this matter has no authority to make decisions.  It's been five years already, and we see no end; the situation is just getting worse. Our debts are simply growing bigger. Most of us are over age 50 and we don't have any other options. We can't even quit because there's no money for pensions."

The critical situation in the religious councils can be traced back to the Sharon-Shinui-NRP government of 2003 and even before.  The Ministry of Religious Affairs was dismantled during that government, by demand of the anti-religious Shinui Party and acquiescence of the National Religious Party, and ever since then, the religious councils have functioned whilst falling between the cracks.

MK Yitzchak Levy (National Union) was essentially Israel's last minister of religious affairs; he was a Deputy Minister in the above government, with responsibility for what has been in the purview of the Religious Affairs Ministry.  Contacted by Arutz-7 for his opinion, Levy said, "The government then violated the spirit of the religious precept forbidding one to raze a synagogue before building another one in its stead.  At the behest of (Kadima MK) Avigdor Yitzchaki, who was then Sharon's top assistant, the whole system of religious councils and the ministry was destroyed, without preparing a substitute or alternative... Now, of course, the problem has gotten worse; the Finance Ministry, as usual, doesn't want to have anything to do with anything that costs money, and provides only patchwork solutions."

Yitzchaki, contacted by phone to explain his view of the situation, would not speak with Arutz-7. 

Asked what he would propose now, Levy said, "The government must convene for a special session and make decisions.  I prepared a comprehensive solution and presented it to Ariel Sharon and his government, but it was not adopted.  It stipulates basically a cutback in the number of religious councils from over 100 to about 30 or 32; there's no reason to have one in every little town.  In addition, the funding must come from the national government, with only a little participation on the local level."

The Knesset Audit Committee held a session on the matter last week, at which it became clear that no real recovery program for the religious council is in effect.  Committee Chairman MK Zevulun Orlev (NRP) said that he plans to summon Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to another committee session on the issue.  The Prime Minister's Office is currently officially responsible for the provision of religious services.

"The picture that has been drawn for us," Orlev explained afterwards, "is one of severe faults in the provision of religious services, and especially in the payment of salaries.  The Prime Minister is the ultimate authority for religious services, and we will therefore summon him to a committee session."

A7 Radio's "Yishai Fleisher Show"

Hear Rabbi Lawrence Kelemen recount the relatively unknown and shocking truth about Christmas. Also: Rabbi Danny Cohen of Hebron explains why some Chassidic religious Jews do not learn Torah on Christmas Eve.

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