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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (57897)	11/19/2002 10:26:27 PM
From: Bilow	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 281500

Hi Nadine Carroll; Re: "Yes, Moslems or Christians can get married in Israel. What the article is talking about is the lock the Orthodox Jewish establishment has over Jewish practices, a considerable sore point with the majority of Israeli Jews, who are secular." I'm still grappling with what I'm learning here. You didn't quite answer one of my questions which was this: "Can a Moslem and a Jewish person get married in Israel?" If I'm not being clear, let me reword it this way: "Is it okay for a Moslem to marry a Jew in Israel?" I know that it can happen in the US. Can it happen in Israel? Has there been a recent law change? From looking for links in the Jerusalem Post, I now want to add another question: "Are marriages between non Jews recognized by the State of Israel?" That is, if two people get married, maybe one a Jew, is their marriage recognized by the State of Israel for tax and various other purposes? All these links (none older than 5 years) are from the Jerusalem Post, but the laws they describe seem like they belong to a Jewish Fundamentalist state, not a secular democracy: Chief rabbis ready to consider civil marriage in some cases The Chief Rabbinate would not object to a system of civil marriage in cases where neither partner is recognized by the rabbinate as Jewish or in which one of the partners is not halachicly able to be married, Sephardi Chief Rabbi Eliahu Bakshi-Doron told MKs yesterday. jpost.com Consular marriages: An unorthdox solution Halacha does not allow a Jew and a non-Jew to marry. And since marriage and divorce are under the sole jurisdiction of the religious authorities, M. and Y. could not marry here. jpost.com FROM A DISTANCE: What religious women want Today, on the Fast of Esther, religious women are gathering outside Ma'asiyahu Prison to make a point: every Jewish woman who marries according the present halachic ceremony acceptable in Orthodox Judaism is a potential prisoner. The current state of Jewish divorce all over the world is a disgrace, and should a husband choose to lock his wife into a marriage she wishes to escape, she might as well be behind bars with a life sentence. jpost.com Melchior backs civil-marriage reform If Barak has his way, the civil marriage reform will extend to all people in Israel, Jews and non-Jews alike. However, the Chief Rabbinate and religious parties would limit it to non-Jews. A senior official in the Chief Rabbinate said it would accept the proposal if the reform applies only to non-Jews, intermarriage, and Jews who cannot be married according to Halacha, such as a kohen (member of the priestly class) marrying a divorcee. Unholy alliance of religion and state "Each state, party to the present covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all individuals Š the rights recognized in the present covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status" - from Article 2 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). This month, the United Nations Human Rights Committee will hear Israel's first report on the implementation of this covenant. Israel's representatives are certainly going to face serious challenges when they address this country's conduct in the territories, minority rights, women's rights, and other issues. Israel signed the covenant in August 1991 but while doing so, entered a reservation on matters of personal status. This reservation is designed to save Israel from criticism for imposing religious law in this area, primarily in matters of marriage and divorce. ... It is precisely because Israel chose to enter a reservation in the arena of religion, as did some other countries such as Kuwait and Libya, that it is important to see which values and international obligations are recognized in this field. ... Moreover, both freedom of religion and freedom from religion are violated by the fact that civil as well as non-Orthodox religious marriage is not legally recognized. These are but few examples that arise when one takes full stock of the unholy alliance of religion and state in Israel. ... (The writer is a rabbi and attorney who serves as the executive director of the Movement for Progressive Judaism's Israel Religious Action Center.) jpost.com -- Carl P.S. I really don't know what to say. Is there something in the water that makes people in the Middle East into religious bigots?

To: Nadine Carroll who wrote (57897)	11/20/2002 5:59:55 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 281500

UPI Hears ... Nov. 19 From the International Desk Published 11/19/2002 7:52 PM Insider notes from United Press International for Nov. 19. Afghanistan's cash-strapped government is planning to hold a second international meeting on financial aid as a follow-up to the Tokyo Conference earlier this year. A senior Afghan official says the meeting will have two main aims: to drum up more cash from a broader base of donor countries, and to nudge earlier contributors into living up to the pledges they made in Tokyo. The Afghan government has seen less than half of the $4.5 billion promised in Tokyo for reconstruction. Several European governments are among the slow payers. Senior Afghan officials complain that most of the money already donated was channeled to humanitarian aid rather than reconstruction, making it impossible to start important infrastructure projects. But even with all the pledges in, the money is far short of the $20 billion that most experts believe Afghanistan will need to recover. On Friday, the U.S. Congress passed the Afghan Freedom Support Act giving the battered country $3.2 billion in financial aid over the next four year. Of that, $1 billion is earmarked to pay for the International Security and Assistance Force. This is the strongest indication yet that the Afghan government will get its wish to extend ISAF's area of operations to other Afghan cities besides Kabul. -0- In another sign of the new coziness between India and the United States, U.S. and Indian troops will hold a joint jungle warfare exercise in the northeastern state of Mizoram in March 2003. Indian Army officers said the exercise would be coordinated by the Army's Counter-insurgency and Jungle Warfare School in Vairangte, Mizoram. Nothing too extensive at first, say the Indians: between 50 and 150 men training to be jungle warfare specialists. But the Indians consider it a good beginning. The U.S. Army has not been exposed to jungle warfare since the Vietnam War nearly 30 years ago and needs some training in this kind of fighting, Indian defense officials said. Recently, Indian troops have undergone high-altitude warfare exercises with U.S. forces in Alaska, but in small numbers. Still, both sides expect more of the same. -0- Communism may have seen better days elsewhere, but in Bengal the party is still inventing new survival strategies. The Matar Benoy Party Educational School in Burdwan is an updated version of the old indoctrination camps called "Lenin schools." Not that you hear much about Lenin these days. Instead, the school teaches courses in how workers can survive in a globalized world dominated by big capital. The location of the school is no coincidence. Burdwan, an affluent agrarian district, has long been a "red" bastion where innovation can go just so far. Some of the diehard older members flinched when the school commissioned a study from McKinsey, the management consultancy firm, for a critical re-evaluation of Bengal's agri-economy. -0- Osama bin Laden's audiotape threats -- pronounced authentic by the Bush administration -- have stepped up U.S. efforts to track down the al Qaida network in Pakistan, which they believe distributes the tapes. After the latest bin Laden tape was delivered to the al Jazeera television office in Karachi, FBI teams in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and the northern tribal areas of Pakistan increased their scanning efforts of cellular telephones. The Feds made themselves thoroughly unpopular when their advanced and powerful equipment disrupted normal cellular service in a number of areas. Worse, the FBI -- aided by experts from the National Security Agency -- then played havoc with the land-based telephone system, fax messages and the Internet. Oh, and there's still no trace of bin Laden. -0- While Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon continues to talk tough, more and more Israel Defense Forces personnel are voting with their feet, prompting concerns among the top brass about a rising desertion rate. In an interesting spin, the IDF says that most of the deserters are reservists, and that the most common explanation for their actions is Israel's deteriorating economy. Last week, the Military Police put the number of deserters at 2,616 -- 67.2 percent higher than the same week a year earlier. Both conscripts and reservists have expressed concerns about supporting their families in tough economic times. About 20 percent to 30 percent of IDF combat soldiers receive financial assistance from the IDF. Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon is expected soon to approve a program, known as Gahelet ("ember") that is designed to stop the desertions. The stick-and-carrot recommendations include tougher disciplinary measures, more education, and better handling of complaints relating to the soldiers' service conditions. -0-