Land Of Israel

A LOT OF people were appalled last week when Israel's Likud party declared there should never be a Palestinian state. Likud, which is the largest coalition of Israel's right-wing, ultranationalist factions, made this declaration following the exhortations of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu, a former prime minister and one of the slipperiest characters ever to occupy that office. The party acted against the stated wishes of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has said he accepts the inevitability of a Palestinian state.

Finally, there are holiday videos for kids who don't celebrate Christmas.The Children's Television Workshop, the makers of "Sesame Street," have created "Shalom Sesame." This 11-part video series chronicles the lovable "Sesame Street" gang's travels to Israel, where they share songs, games, matzah and menorahs with their Jewish counterparts.Bet you didn't know that Oscar the Grouch had a cousin named Moishe Oofnik in Tel Aviv.This grouchy gourmet cooks up some jellyfish donuts in "Chanukah," the fifth show of the series.

OFRA, West Bank -- The fruit of Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory will appear in a field now thick with only brambles and weeds, the Jewish settlers believe.They envision 35 duplex homes arising from the field -- already sown with underground water and power lines -- to house new settlers coming to Ofra.The Labor Party's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin blocked the construction plans to expand the settlement when he won election in 1992, and his successor, Shimon Peres, did the same. The settlers expect Netanyahu to give the go-ahead.

SHVUT AMI OUTPOST, West Bank -- For two months, Jewish youths have been renovating an old stone house on this muddy hilltop in the northern West Bank. The house is not theirs, however. It belongs to a Palestinian family. And their seizure of it, along with the land around it, for a new settlement outpost is a violation of Israeli law. The police have evicted the group five times, but they keep coming back. Yedidya Slonim, 16, one of the renovators here, who grew up in another West Bank settlement, Tzofim, said of the police: "We come back straight away, as soon as they've gone.

JERUSALEM -- In a direct challenge to Bush administration calls for his government to stop building settlements in occupied lands, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declared defiantly yesterday that "this construction will continue, and no power in the world will prevent this construction."His finance minister went a step further, saying that if the United States insisted on a settlement freeze as the price for $10 billion in U.S. loan guarantees that Israel says it needs to absorb new Jewish immigrants, he would rather forgo the assistance, no matter what the economic consequences.

Mission: To preserve and interpret regional American Jewish history and culture. Located in East Baltimore, where Maryland Jewish history began, the museum holds more than 1 million photographs, papers and objects in addition to changing exhibits. The building is situated between two landmarks that were saved by the museum - the Lloyd Street Synagogue, built in 1845, and the B'nai Israel Synagogue, built in 1876.Latest accomplishment: In March, the museum more than doubled its size with the opening of the two-level, 12,000-square-foot Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Building.

* Jay Blackton, 84, a musical director whose Broadway successes were followed by an Academy Award for the 1955 film Oklahoma!," died Saturday in Los Angeles. Mr. Blackton was conductor for a string of hit Broadway musicals, starting with "Oklahoma!" in 1943 and followed by "Annie Get Your Gun" in 1946, "Call Me Madam" in 1949 and the stage version of "Snow White" in 1959. He wound up competing against himself for the 1955 Oscar for best motion picture musical score when both "Guys and Dolls" and "Oklahoma!

The recent election of Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu as the top opposition leader in Israel's government leaves an already weakened Prime Minister Ehud Olmert increasingly vulnerable on the peace front. Mr. Netanyahu, an articulate and outspoken former prime minister, has built his reputation as a hard-liner who supported Israeli settlers in the West Bank and opposed the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. His stated intention to return to the prime minister's office should guarantee his role as provocateur in any attempt to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Palestinians.

Every Spy a Prince: The Complete Historyof Israel's Intelligence Community.Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman.Houghton Mifflin.466 pages. $24.95. It is an exaggeration to claim that this excellent history of Israeli Intelligence is complete. For in order to meet this description, the authors would have to write several books.The authors use as their point of departure the creation of Israel's various intelligence agencies, foreign, domestic and military. This was after the formation of the state in 1948.

JERUSALEM - Three Israelis and three Palestinians died yesterday in a series of attacks that pushed the issue of Jewish settlements to the forefront of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and efforts to end it. Settlements are the focus of much of the fighting and the deepest source of Palestinian grievance. Since the conflict began, more Israeli civilians have died in the West Bank and Gaza than inside Israel itself. Many of the Palestinians killed have died in clashes with Israeli soldiers protecting settlements.