Help olim join the Jewish people

Some 300-350 thousand non-Jewish immigrants live in Israel today, mostly people who emigrated from the former Soviet Union under the Law of Return. They are all Israeli citizens; most of them well integrated in Israeli society. Many serve in combat units in the IDF. Under Israeli law and the famous Status Quo arrangement, the Orthodox establishment monopolizes the conversion process in Israel. Non-Jewish immigrants can die for the country, but cannot marry a Jewish citizen in Israel.

Two months ago an urgent meeting took place in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset. Its chairman, MK Menachem Ben-Sasson, convened the meeting following a preposterous case that took place in the Rabbinical Court of Ashdod. At the end of a simple divorce case, the court retroactively revoked the wife's conversion - which took place 15 years earlier - declaring her marriage null and void and her children gentiles. The decision not only canceled the woman's conversion, but also discredited some 15,000 conversions preformed by Rabbi Haim Druckman, former head of the State Conversion Authority.

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Freedom of expression?

In the midst of the tough public debate on what Israel's reaction to the attacks from Gaza should be, Oded Tira (who previously served as Head of Israel's industrialists' Association) published in Ha'aretz (14.2.08) a paid, quarter page length ad attacking one of Israel's most prominent writers and intellectuals - Amos Oz.

The reason for Tira's fury: Amoz Oz dared to express his opinion (obviously opposed to Tira's point of view) about the course of action to be taken in Gaza.

Since when, writes our good industrialist, can Oz make any such pronouncements - who "gave him the authority, him and his writer friends, to advise the people of Israel on strategic matters"?

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Get the ball rolling

Those of us who favor the renewal of the political process in our area welcome president Bush's short visit to our area.

Any visit of an American President to Israel can only be a source of joy and pride for us, but in this particular case the visit goes beyond bilateral relations.

The bonds between the US, a superpower, and the small, young State of Israel are without precedent in the history of international relations.

It is said that the then Secretary of State William Rogers told the late Lea Rabin that the special relations between the US and Israel only fall behind the very deep ties that bind America with Great Britain.

While this may have been true then, it seems that over the past decade US-Israel relations have surpassed them in closeness and intensity. Yet, as mentioned, the purpose of President Bush's visit this time is not the deepening of bilateral ties.

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