State Of Israel

THEY ALL CAME -- the presidents of the United States and France, the prime ministers of Britain and Russia, the chancellor of Germany, more than 40 world leaders to mourn the murder of Yitzhak Rabin and, by their presence, to pay a remarkable tribute to the modern state of Israel. Yet the most significant visitors by far came not from the big powers but from Arab states hostile to Israel at its founding.President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt was there, walking in the footsteps of his martyred predecessor, Anwar Sadat, who defied the whole Islamic world and endured its ostracism in making peace with Israel.

In January, four longtime Israel bashers were invited to the University of California, Los Angeles, to analyze the human rights conditions in Gaza, and used the stage to attack the legitimacy of Zionism and its vision of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. They criminalized Israel's existence, distorted its motives and maligned its character, its birth, even its conception. At one point, the excited audience reportedly chanted "Zionism is Nazism" and worse. Jewish leaders condemned this hate-fest as a dangerous invitation to anti-Semitic hysteria.

Leon UrisBaltimore native Leon Uris wrote prolifically on war.His first novel, "Battle Cry," gained him rapid success. It involves World War II Marine training and fighting.Uris' "Exodus" details European Jewish history in the establishment and defense of the state of Israel."Mila 18" deals with Warsaw ghetto uprisings against the Nazis in 1943. "The Haj" depicts the lives of Palestinian Arabs from the World War I to the Suez war.-- Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature and Benet's Reader's EncyclopediaPub Date: 04/11/99

Israel must use force to stop terror attacks Once again, the tiresome phrase "disproportionate use of force" was used by The Baltimore Sun to describe Israel's recent military response to years of unremitting terror inflicted on its citizens by missiles fired by Hamas ("Ground war in Gaza," editorial, Jan. 7). After years of bombing empty buildings and the homes of terrorists, Israel has finally decided that it must act in a manner that it believes will truly defend its citizens by crippling the Hamas terror network.

Perspectives from the Israeli and Arab media on Israel's 60th anniversary: "Have we gone mad? Has something gone wrong with our collective mind? The state of Israel is about to mark 60 years of independence in an atmosphere of bitterness, depression and public reluctance 'to waste the money on celebrations.' The state of Israel, whose existence, growth and prosperity are perceived by so many in the world as one of the most impressive and influential successes of modern times, is sinking in melancholy as if it were a total failure.

One of Israel's two chief rabbis took a detour last night from his diplomatic mission to Washington to stand in the dining room of an Upper Park Heights home, fold his hands over the back of a chair and talk to about 150 people who crammed the living room to hear him.Rabbi Avraham Hacohen Shapira said he had kept diplomats waiting in order to come to Baltimore.He spoke in Hebrew. The English translation, provided by an interpreter from his entourage, was mixed thoroughly with common Hebrew terms.

Contrary to your editorial (''Fooling With the Peace Process,'' May 28), there are cogent reasons for moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem immediately.For more than 45 years we have questioned the sovereignty of the state of Israel by keeping our embassy in Tel Aviv while the seat of the government is located in Jerusalem. To do so has been an insult to Israel, particularly in light of the constant support that this country has given us in all international bodies, including being our most consistent friend in the United Nations, as indicated by its voting pattern.

Fifty years ago today, a group of more than 4,500 Holocaust survivors aboard the Exodus 1947, a converted Chesapeake Bay steamer that had sailed from Baltimore, engaged in a showdown with the British navy in international waters off Egypt.The refugees were hoping to slip by a blockade to enter British-controlled Palestine. The furor after they were rebuffed and sent to detention camps in Germany eventually resulted in the creation of the state of Israel.Today at noon, members of the Jewish Museum of Maryland and the Baltimore Zionist District will unveil a historical marker commemorating the event at the Waterfront Arcade of the World Trade Center in the Inner Harbor.

Abo, Finland. -- The United States Holocaust Memorial, prominently situated near the Mall in the nation's memorial corridor, makes a powerful symbolic statement that America mourns the mass murder of millions of Jews in World War II Europe. American Jewry's obsession with remembering the catastrophe, to the near-exclusion of all else, comes to triumphant conclusion. With Holocaust Museums and memorials established in every sizable city in this country, American Jews have made their statement to the country.

JERUSALEM -- Israel's new government took office yesterday with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledging to carry out his plan for a substantial withdrawal from the West Bank. "The borders of Israel that will be shaped in the coming years will be significantly different than the territories now in Israel's hands," Olmert said as he presented his Cabinet to parliament. Olmert has said that he intends to set Israel's final borders by 2010, removing dozens of Jewish settlements from the West Bank while annexing three major settlement blocs to Israel.

Israel and Hamas ignored a United Nations cease-fire resolution yesterday as the Israeli army attacked 70 targets in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of rockets at southern Israel from the beleaguered seaside enclave. Fighting in Gaza continued for a 14th day with little indication that the international community or an Egyptian-backed peace initiative would bring a quick end to hostilities. Hamas officials said they would not heed a resolution they were not consulted about.

JERUSALEM - Israel will have to give up "almost all" of the West Bank areas it occupies and accept the division of Jerusalem in order to take advantage of a rapidly closing window of opportunity for peace with the Arabs, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in an interview published yesterday. "The decision we are going to have to make is a decision we have been refusing for 40 years to look at open-eyed," the Israeli leader told the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharanot. "The time has come to say these things.

Perspectives from the Israeli and Arab media on Israel's 60th anniversary: "Have we gone mad? Has something gone wrong with our collective mind? The state of Israel is about to mark 60 years of independence in an atmosphere of bitterness, depression and public reluctance 'to waste the money on celebrations.' The state of Israel, whose existence, growth and prosperity are perceived by so many in the world as one of the most impressive and influential successes of modern times, is sinking in melancholy as if it were a total failure.

JERUSALEM -- Vice President Dick Cheney affirmed America's "enduring and unshakable" commitment to Israel's security at the start of a visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories yesterday. Cheney's visit to the region comes as the United States tries to nudge Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams, which are locked in a slow-moving U.S.-sponsored peace process. Negotiations have been repeatedly derailed by outbreaks of violence between Israel and militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

A profound division has developed between Zionist advocates of Israel and Jews, secular and religious, who reject or question Zionism and actions taken by the state of Israel. Public debate about Israel's place in Jewish continuity has become open and candid. Many Jews try to come to terms with the contradictions between the Judaism they profess to adhere to and the Zionist ideology that has taken hold of them. This coincides with serious concerns expressed across Israel's political and religious spectrum about the future of Israel.

ARLINGTON, Va. -- Fighting to obtain a cease-fire is not likely to encourage Israeli soldiers who have given their lives and limbs to defeat a mortal enemy. And turning to the United Nations and its anti-Israel secretary-general to monitor the cease-fire is not exactly a confidence builder, given the U.N.'s record in the region. Who believes the United Nations has the guts to disarm Hezbollah, as required by a previous U.N. resolution? When arms and missiles continue to flow from Iran and Syria, will the United Nations shout, "Halt!"

Fabian Homer Kolker, an international activist who brought Jews out of the former Soviet Union, died Tuesday of complications of diabetes at Sinai Hospital. He was 85 and lived in Pikesville. Long a passionate advocate of the state of Israel, he spent 30 years defending the rights of Jews in the former U.S.S.R. "He worked night and day to get people free from Russia," said Audrey Levine, a friend who lives in Baltimore County. "He did it for freedom." He first became interested in the plight of Soviet Jews in 1960 when he met with philosopher Bertrand Russell, who told him how families were being repressed in the Soviet Union.

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Secretary of State James Baker, there is at last a real chance for peace in the Middle East for the first time since the modern state of Israel was established in 1948.The only remaining question is whether the effort will founder this time because of Israeli opposition rather than prior intractable Arab resistance to any arrangement which envisioned Israel as a permanent state in the region.For years, the Israelis had sought negotiations without preconditions in an effort to attain a stable and secure peace with their Arab neighbors, only to be persistently rebuffed by the hard-line Arabs.

Neighbors need to accept Israel When I saw the title of the editorial "No end in sight" (July 21), I felt certain that it referred to the war in Iraq. Americans have been fighting a war in Iraq for more than three years. Thousands of American lives have been lost and thousands of Americans have been injured. And there is "no end in sight." However, the editorial's first sentence was actually, "After nine days of fighting between Israel and the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah, an accounting must be made."

JERUSALEM -- Israel's new government took office yesterday with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert pledging to carry out his plan for a substantial withdrawal from the West Bank. "The borders of Israel that will be shaped in the coming years will be significantly different than the territories now in Israel's hands," Olmert said as he presented his Cabinet to parliament. Olmert has said that he intends to set Israel's final borders by 2010, removing dozens of Jewish settlements from the West Bank while annexing three major settlement blocs to Israel.