Israel Line
 
 
29 Nov 2005
* PM's adviser: Peres quitting Labor
* Kadima platform: Jewish majority in exchange for territorial concessions
* Compensation approved for Israelis wounded in anti-Semitic attacks 
* Shinui founder joins Sharon's party
* 3 million tourists expected in 2006
* Jewish group seeks Michael Jackson apology
 
 

PM's adviser: Peres quitting Labor 
Shimon Peres has decided to leave the Labor Party and join Ariel Sharon's next government, YNET reported. Peres adviser, Lior Horev said "He will leave the Labor Party and will join the Sharon government and deal with the development of Galilee and the Negev." Peres was in Barcelona on Tuesday and could not be reached for comment. His spokesman, Yoram Dori, declined comment when asked whether Peres has made a decision. "I'm not prepared to discuss it," Dori said. Earlier Tuesday, Labor MK Dalia Itzik, announced she is joining Sharon's new party.

Itzik is close to Peres, and a senior Labor official said her departure signaled that her mentor Peres would do the same. "It looks like a package deal," party secretary-general Eitan Cabel told Army Radio. "We spoke about their remaining (in Labor) and not defecting to another party, but apparently things were already sealed, and the talks with us were nothing but a smokescreen." Peres lost the leadership of the Labor Party earlier this month and has not said if he would leave the party for Sharon's ahead of March 28 elections. "The decision is a tough one for me," he said in remarks broadcast Monday before leaving Israel for an EU-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona, Spain. "It will take another day or two before I decide." 

Kadima platform: Jewish majority in exchange for territorial concessions
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party released the main points of its national agenda - preserving a Jewish majority in exchange for territorial concessions, keeping Jerusalem and large settlement blocs, and establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state devoid of terror, HAARETZ reported. Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who announced these points at the party's second faction meeting in the Knesset, presented the list she had drafted to her 17 MK colleagues. "The Israeli nation has a national and historic right to the whole of Israel," the draft said. "However, in order to maintain a Jewish majority, we must give up part of the Land of Israel to maintain a Jewish and democratic state."

The draft also said that the national agenda will be the road map, and that the process to end the conflict and achieve two states for two nations will be carried out in stages: dismantling terror organizations, collecting firearms, implementing security reforms in the Palestinian Authority, and preventing incitement. The Kadima platform also will propose a change in the government's system. While these changes are taking place, legislative proposals will be made to increase the MKs' commitment to enable the public's bypassing central committees and vote contractors.Kadima MKs who had quit the Likud said this would bring an end to the tyranny of the Likud Central Committee. One possibility discussed was holding regional elections, which would end partisan wheeling and dealing.

Compensation approved for Israelis wounded in anti-Semitic attacks 
Israelis who are victims of anti-Semitic attacks abroad would receive compensation under a new law approved Monday for a final vote in the Knesset, THE JERUSALEM POST reported. Israelis who were caught in international terror attacks targeting Israeli nationals, such as those in Mombasa, Kenya in 2002, already receive compensation, but not those in attacks aimed at Jews generally. The National Insurance Institute told the Knesset's Labor, Social Affairs and Health Committee that 10 Israeli victims of anti-Semitic attacks abroad have asked the government for compensation. Most of those requests came in the wake of the double synagogue bombing in Istanbul in 2003.

The law would provide NIS 50,000 a year, though the duration of payments would depend on the victim's condition. Those wounded in attacks dating back to the year 2000 would be eligible, though they wouldn't be able to receive back payments for the past five years. Only residents of Israel who happened to be abroad, as opposed to those living abroad long-term, would be eligible.

"The State of Israel is responsible when there's an anti-Semitic act" to help its citizens, said MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism), who proposed the measure. "It's part of the obligation of Israel as a Jewish state."

Shinui founder joins Sharon's party
Professor Uriel Reichman, founder of the Shinui movement and president of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, announced today that he will join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new party Kadima, YNET reported. Reichman received an offer to join the party as its candidate for education minister. He is expected to be involved in efforts to change Israel's governance system, according to the party's platform. Due to Reichman's educational experience and rich academic experience, Kadima officials decided that he would be the party's candidate for education minister. Reichman was one of the main supporters of changing Israel's election system to direct elections, which totally failed in Israel and were changed back to the old system a few years later. He now supports a presidential rule. Reichman has been negotiating with Sharon for a long time. His aides told Ynet that "he is not interested in a Knesset seat. He wants to contribute on the national level." Reichman founded the Shinui movement, and was the person who recruited former journalist Yosef Lapid to head the movement in 1999. He still serves as president of Shinui. Political sources estimated that Reichman's move to Sharon's party will constitute a heavy blow to Shinui's public status.

3 million tourists expected in 2006
Tourism Minister Avraham Hirschson said today that some three million tourists are expected to visit Israel in 2006, but warned Israel faces a severe shortage in hotel rooms for the rising number of tourists, YNET reported.

"The tourism industry can currently handle between 2.4 and 2.7 million visitors per year," he said." But all signs point to more than 3 million tourists coming to Israel next year."

Hirschson said the biggest shortage in the industry was in the hotel sector, where an additional 7,900 hotel rooms nationwide are needed to meet rising demand. According to statistics released by the tourism ministry, the southern resort city of Eilat faces the most serious shortage, requiring an additional 1,800 rooms to meet demand. Next on the list is Tel Aviv, 1,700 rooms short, followed by Jerusalem (1,500), Tiberias (1,000), and the rest of the country (1,900).

According to a position paper to be released Wednesday by the Israel Hoteliers Association, the industry lacks 2,500 professional staff, and estimates that the next two years will see a shortage of some 9,000 workers in the tourism industry.

"The growth in the tourism industry will require a 20 percent increase in our work force each year. We are looking at adding 9,000 workers, about half professionals, half non-professionals," said a report released by the Association's economics department.
 
Jewish group seeks Michael Jackson apology
The Anti-Defamation League demanded an apology from pop star Michael Jackson after a report he referred to Jews as "leeches" in a telephone message to a former business adviser, YNET reported. "Michael Jackson has an anti-Semitic streak, and hasn't learned from his past mistakes. It seems every time he has a problem in his life, he blames it on Jews," Abraham Foxman, the group's national director, said in a statement. The ADL statement cited tapes of a 2003 voice mail message aired on Tuesday on ABC's "Good Morning America" in which Jackson was heard saying: "They suck ... . They're like leeches. ... I'm so tired of it. ... It is a conspiracy. The Jews do it on purpose." ABC News said it obtained the messages placed by Jackson to a former adviser who has filed a lawsuit against the singer. The ADL castigated Jackson in 1995 over lyrics in his song "They Don't Care About Us": "Jew Me, sue me, everybody do me. Kick me, kike me." The pop icon apologized and changed the lyrics.

"We had hoped that Jackson would have learned from his mistakes," Foxman said. "It is clear now that he never was able to completely remove the bigotry from his own heart."The statement demanded an apology to Jews everywhere and fans who have been offended by Jackson's words.

[Today's Israel Line was prepared by Hili Sharon at the Consulate General of Israel in New York.] 

Reproduced by permission of Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem.

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