Hamas and Fatah officially signed a power-sharing agreement Saturday. Norway became the first country to announce its recognition of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority unity government. Hamas continues to refuse to recognize Israel or renounce terrorism.

Norway was home to the original back-channel talks between left-wing Israeli politicians and the PLO when it was still illegal to meet with the terror group.  Later, Norway hosted the Ill-fated Oslo Accords, which called for and enabled the arming of the Palestinian Authority.

Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said Saturday that the new PA government is "taking steps toward complying with international demands… Norway will thus, on this basis, re-establish political and economic relations with the Palestinian governmen. We've resumed normal political relations.”

The move is expected to renew some of the foreign aid cut since Hamas won a landslide victory over Fatah in parliamentary elections over a year ago.

Army Radio quoted diplomatic sources saying Spain and Ireland may be next to embrace the new PA government. France has invited PA officials on an official visit and Britain plans on interacting with the government through its non-Hamas members.

Among members of the "Quartet" - the United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - the latter two have responded most positively to the new PA government.

"It is inarguably an important event in terms of consolidation of the Palestinian ranks," a statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

The European Union said it “welcomes the formation of a Palestinian Government of National Unity pursuant to the agreement reached in Mecca on 8 February 2007, which lays the foundation for Palestinian reconciliation.”

The EU stopped short of pledging renewed support, pending an assessment of the government’s compliance with the Quartet’s principles. "The Presidency of the EU recalls the readiness of the EU to work with and to resume its assistance to a legitimate Palestinian government adopting a platform reflecting the Quartet principles,” a statement read. “The EU will carefully assess the platform and actions of the new government and its ministers.”

The US said that it stands by the unmet demands of the Quartet that the PA renounce terrorism and recognize Israel.

Israel announced that it will boycott the new cabinet, though continue to conduct meetings with Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.

Cabinet minister Raleb Majadle called upon the government to launch talks with the new PA government. Majadle argues that half of the members of the PA cabinet already signed agreements with Israel under the Oslo Accords and other agreements. These agreements do not bind the Hamas members, however, according to the position taken by Hamas.

The radical northern branch of the Israeli-Arab Islamic Movement congratulated both Hamas and Fatah on the new power-sharing agreement and expressed its hope that the arrangement would serve the interests of Muslims living in Israel as well as in PA-controlled areas. The group appealed to the new government to make Jerusalem and the Temple Mount its top priorities.

Impatient with Jonathan Pollard's continued incarceration - he has been in US prison for over 21 years - a yeshiva high school class is setting off on a three-day march to Jerusalem this week, calling for his release.

Some 25 junior-year students in the ORT Yeshiva High School in Tiberias are in the midst of final preparations for the march, which will take them along a unique historic route from Petach Tikvah to Jerusalem.

Rabbi Avichai Golan, the school's projects director, explained to Arutz-7, "Every year, our 11th grade sets out on a long trek - but this year, with Pollard in jail for his 22nd year, the students decided that they want it to be on behalf of Pollard. We'll be starting out on the first day of the month of redemption - Nissan; there is no reason that Pollard should not be home in time for the holiday of redemption, Passover, which falls in the middle of Nissan."

"The students feel that it seems now to be an et ratzon - a time of good will - given the several projects that are underway on Pollard's behalf," Rabbi Golan said. "Now is the time to wake up the country to demand that our government submit an official request to the US for his release."

Jonathan Pollard, granted Israeli citizenship in 1996, has also been granted honorary citizenship of several Israeli towns.  In yet another move showing the broad support Pollard has amidst the Israeli public, the National Religious Party is now initiating a move to have the city of Jerusalem grant this status to Pollard. 

'From Bondage to Freedom'
The high school march, entitled "From Bondage to Freedom," is scheduled to begin near Petach Tikvah, and will end 85 kilometers (52 miles) later, at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The students will stop at various historic sites along the way, such as the Burma Road dug out for the convoys during the War for Independence, Latrun, the battle sites of the Maccabees, the Bnei Brit cave in Kislon, and more. The marchers will spend the first night in Kibbutz Shaalvim, and the second in Kibbutz Tzova."

"We hope to attract many other high school students from all around the country to join us on the last day as we make the ascent to Jerusalem," Golan said. "You can imagine what an impact it can have if hundreds of youths waving Pollard banners and wearing Pollard shirts walk along the final trek of the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway to the nation's capital."

If that grandiose plan does not work, the original group of students will march into Jerusalem on their own, wearing Pollard shirts and carrying Pollard banners, meeting up with hundreds of other students and Pollard supporters at the US Consulate at 4 PM. Once there, they will present a petition signed by close to 8,000 students demanding clemency for Pollard. The marchers will end their trek at 5 PM at the Western Wall.

With the recent statement by former CIA head James Woolsey on Arutz-7 in favor of clemency for Pollard, following years of CIA antipathy towards him, it is now felt that many Americans who feared that supporting Pollard would bring on dual-loyalty accusations can now be more open about their true feelings.

For several weeks, a massive call-in campaign to the White House in favor of clemency for Pollard - backed by major American-Jewish organizations - has been underway.

Finally, last month, two of Israel's top Torah sages took the unusual step of writing a brief but powerful personal letter to U.S. President Bush, asking him to pardon Pollard. The letter by the two rabbis, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv of Jerusalem and Rabbi Aaron Leib Shteinman of Bnei Brak, was indicative of the concern felt by Jews around the globe for Pollard's fate.

Israel's first Muslim Arab government member - Minister of Science, Culture and Sports Raleb Majadle - refuses to sing Israel's national anthem, HaTikvah.

Majadle, a long-time member of the Labor Party, defended his decision, saying he does not believe that “enlightened and sane Jews” would request a Muslim to sing a song which speaks to the Jewish people. “The Arabs are not in a mood to sing right now,” the Arab minister commented.

The new minister said in an interview with the newspaper Yediot Acharonot, “To the best of my knowledge, the law does not require me to sing the anthem, but to honor it.” He said he expresses his respect by standing up when the anthem is sung.

“Of course I would not sing the anthem in its current form," Majadle said. "But before we talk about symbols, I want to talk about equal education for my children. It’s more important that my son would be able to buy a house, live with dignity.”

Majadle’s announcement led to protests from National-Religious camp and staunch support from Israeli-Arab Knesset Members.

MK Aryeh Eldad (NU/NRP) explained that he does not desire to force Majadle to sing the anthem, but believes that someone who does not identify with the character of the state as expressed by the national anthem should not be serving as a minister.

MK Zevulun Orlev (NU/NRP) expressed concern that Majadle’s refusal might be a violation of his declaration of loyalty to the state, and requested that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ask Majadle if he is loyal to Israel as a Jewish state.

Arab MK Ahmed Tibi (United Arab List) responded, “The attacks on him from the right-wing are hypocritical, self-righteous and ridiculous.” MK Tibi added that he, too, never sings the anthem.

“HaTikvah’s words cannot be sung by any Arab citizen,” he pointed out. “Lately we have witnessed a torrent of anti-Arab statements and this should be understood in this context,” he said.

At least 25% of registered Jewish immigrants from Russia are not Jewish - leading to the formation of a council to verify Jewishness.

Approximately one million new immigrants have arrived in Israel from the former Soviet Union since 1990. Interior Ministry statistics indicate that of them, 290,000 are not Jewish.

However, Russian Aliyah experts tell a different story. Some of them say that of the million new Israelis, more than half of them - up to 550,000 - are not Jewish. This means that over a quarter-million of the 710,000 who are listed as Jews by Israel's Interior Ministry are actually not Jewish. Others say that the numbers are not that high, but that as many as 25% of those listed as Jews are actually not.

The problem has hit even the hareidi-religious communities. For instance, an outwardly-religious family living in a hareidi city for over 12 years was found to be not Jewish; when they were found out, they quickly converted to Judaism. In another case, of eight immigrants from Russia in a prestigious religious high school senior class, two were found to be not Jewish.

The source of the problem is apparently a well-oiled apparatus that forges papers on a very high-quality level, fooling rabbis both in Russia and Israel.

Based on findings such as the above, a project has been started to verify the Jewishness of immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Zalman Gilechinsky, who immigrated to Israel in 1989, is the founder and head of a body known as the World Council for the Verification of Jewishness of Immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The council, which makes it checks based on documents, ancestry, and personal interviews, has the blessing of rabbis from various streams of Orthodox Judaism.

Gilechinsky, who immigrated to Israel from Kishinev, told Arutz-7, "Up until 1990, there were practically no verifications of Jewishness, not by the Jewish Agency nor Netiv [the "Russian Desk" of Israel's Foreign Ministry]. 1990 was, in fact, the year in which the most Russian Jews came to Israel - some 200,000 - so that year is therefore the most suspect. By the end of that year, they started checking... I myself came in '89, and underwent a check myself - twice - as did my wife."

Gilechinsky said that his group is consulted by many religious councils around Israel. "Though we are more stringent, in a sense, we have helped many who were rejected - or given no answer - by other bodies... We are also faster; we can come up with an answer in a week, as opposed to two months that are bodies sometimes take."

Unfortunately, Gilechinsky says, he has found that Judaism is not such an important value for some non-religious Jews: "Many mixed Israeli-Russian couples come to us, hoping to prove that the Russian side is Jewish so that they can marry here in Israel. When I ask the secular Israeli partner what he or she would do if it turns out that the Russian is not Jewish, in many cases I hear that they would marry anyway..."

In addition to maintaining order and truthfulness in the Jewish People, the council's verification work provides another benefit: "When someone who knows nothing about his Jewishness comes to us and finds that his mother was Jewish, and his mother's mother was Jewish, etc. etc., it provides a strengthening of his Jewish identity - and he comes away with a heightened sense of pride, and often, a desire to learn more about his Jewishness."

The Knesset is expected to vote Sunday evening on a draft bill that would expand the jurisdiction of the Israel Rabbinic Court to include civil and financial disputes.

Under the current law, the Rabbinic Court may only judge in cases of marriage and divorce, and in determining personal status under Jewish law.

Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann will present the proposed legislation, which is identical to one which was proposed by his predecessor, Chaim Ramon, and rejected by the cabinet in July 2006.

A ruling by the High Court of Justice in April 2006 that stated the Rabbinic Court could not mediate issues that did not fall within its specific purview, such as financial disagreements, provided the impetus for the first draft of the bill.

Divorce negotiations in Jewish law [Halakhah] often include resolution of financial issues within the framework of determining alimony and child support.

The High Court ruled in 1994, in the Bavli vs. the Rabbinic Court of Appeals case, that the division of property in divorce negotiations must be determined in accordance with state law, rather than Halakhah.

The proposed legislation would change that, giving the Rabbinic judiciary the authority to use Torah law to rule on all aspects of divorce as well as civil matters that are brought before its bench.

The bill faces opposition from groups such as the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) and the Reform Movement’s Israel Religious Action Center. They maintain that the proposal violates the status-quo agreement. Women’s groups are also opposing the measure out of concern that women who want a Jewish divorce will face financial extortion.

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Renowned terror expert Dr. Walid Phares, author of “The War of Ideas: Jihadim against Democracy,” explains why there is a confrontation between the various Jihadi (Islamist) groups and democracies in many countries and on many continents.

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