Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: MIDEAST:  Religion Sways Policy, Now in Israel

Difficile dire se la Grande Israele sia un obiettivo nazionalista o 
religioso.  Sicuramente è un obiettivo comune a tutt'e due.
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MIDEAST:  Religion Sways Policy, Now in Israel
Analysis by Jerrold Kessel and Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Mar 26, 2010 (IPS) - There was a time when Israel was held in 
contempt by its neighbours for its over-liberal ways. They felt it did 
not "belong" in the Middle East.
There's been a twist in this negative perception of the possibility of 
the Jewish state fitting into the region. They were accustomed to an 
Israel that kept religion out of key political choices. Now they are 
concerned precisely because of the role religion plays in Israeli politics.
The Saudi Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, recently told Maureen 
Dowd of The New York Times: "We are moving in the direction of a liberal 
society. What is happening in Israel is the opposite; they are moving 
into a more religiously oriented culture and into a more religiously 
determined politics and to a very extreme sense of nationhood."
This trend, said the Prince, was coming "to a boiling point. The 
religious institutions in Israel are stymieing every effort at peace."
Even though Dowd notes caustically that this comment from a prominent 
figure in a country known for its religious conservatism is overboard, 
the present Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is 
undoubtedly the most "religiously determined" in the country's history.
But does that mean Israeli policy is dictated by religion?
Most Israelis can legitimately be described as not being 
"deterministically religious". But they're having to come to terms with 
the fact that the question of how much religion dictates the direction 
of their society has indeed become legitimate: less and less is there 
separation between state and religion.
An unusual but telling domestic row has rocked the country, threatening 
political turmoil, though for the moment, a full-blown political crisis 
is on hold.
A much quoted Biblical verse immediately came to mind: "Don't announce 
the news in Gath, don't proclaim it in the streets of Ashkelon, or the 
daughters of the Philistines will rejoice and the pagans will laugh in 
triumph (Samuel II, 1, 20, New Living Translation).
The controversial decision which Netanyahu had hoped to keep from being 
"announced" came on the eve of his crisis visit to Washington earlier 
this week.
It involves the approval by his cabinet, by a single vote, of the demand 
by Health Minister Yaakov Litzman (of the ultra-orthodox United Torah 
Judaism party) to move the planned bomb-proof emergency room of the 
Barzilai hospital in Ashkelon: the reason - the discovery of ancient 
burial grounds on the original site.
In Jewish law, graves of Jews are held sacrosanct. They should never be 
disturbed, for whatever reason. In the past, this has provoked clashes 
with religious demonstrators objecting to new highways or buildings; 
many infrastructure projects have been delayed. Usually, in the end, 
political wheeler-dealing produced "constructive alternatives" to 
removing the graves.
This time, the Orthodox parties are insistent, though building elsewhere 
will add an extra 35million dollars to costs, and delay completion by 
two years.
The city of Ashkelon (population 108,000) is just 15 km north of the 
Gaza Strip, and has often come under rocket fire from Palestinian militants.
In the wake of the decision, Dr. Eitan Hai-Am, the Health Ministry 
director- general, resigned, saying that the decision "is likely to 
place lives at risk," a veiled reference to the injunction in Jewish 
religious law about the sanctity of life, that "saving a life should 
always take precedence."
A senior Health Ministry official told IPS, "Residents of southern 
Israel will suffer from this strange decision."
That's when "Pagans" may play a (posthumous) role in the political 
crisis: it appears that it is not even sure that the ancient burial site 
is Jewish.
Yossi Sarid, a former secular legislator, writes in Ha'aretz: "What the 
decision symbolises is horrifying: in the eyes of the Israeli 
government, the dead take precedence over the living. Judging by its 
policy, this is a government given to necrophilia...the dead won't die a 
second time.
"The living will have to wait, as if there was nothing urgent going on 
as rockets explode nearby. But, this is how decisions on all issues 
pertaining to life and death are reached in Jerusalem. The dead have the 
right of way; the wholeness of the coalition takes precedence over 
everything."
Secular Israelis are appalled. Under mounting pressure, while away in 
Washington dealing with the big diplomatic crisis with the U.S., 
Netanyahu was forced into a turnabout and has agreed to consider a re-vote.
Pointedly, the vote of the Prime Minister himself was the decisive one. 
Without his vote in favour, the Orthodox-led demand would not have 
passed the cabinet.
Yoel Hasson of the Kadima centrist opposition party told IPS "this is so 
typical of Netanyahu; he is anything but a leader. All he does is 
operate like a contractor to satisfy conflicting demands within his 
disparate coalition." Assuaging everybody is precisely the sort of 
charge the Prime Minister's critics level against him for his handling 
of the full-blown row with the U.S.
This latest graves crisis may not automatically suggest, as the Saudi 
Prince believes, that all Israel's decisions on critical issues on peace 
and war are determined by religious edicts.
For the past 30 years the religious parties have held an accepted 
stranglehold over both right and left governments which gave them an 
unbalanced influence over Israeli politics.
What this crisis suggests is that it is not so much religion and 
politics that needs separation in Israel as religion and policy. (END)
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=50808
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[Megaphone]
The Foreign Ministry itself is now pushing the idea, urging supporters 
of Israel everywhere to
become cyberspace soldiers "in the new battleground for Israel's image."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1162378505678&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

 religioso.  Sicuramente ï¿œ un obiettivo comune a tutt'e due.
Visto che ne parli con grande sicurezza, potresti determinarne almeno 
vagamente i confini ? Grazie.

 religioso.  Sicuramente è un obiettivo comune a tutt'e due.
Difficile dire chi sarebbe quel capo di Stato tanto autolesionista da
cedere territori a uno Stato che non lo riconosce.
http://www.mefacts.com/outgoing.asp?x_id=10191
Difficile anche dire come e' possibile che un leader nazionalista abbia
fatto pace con lo Stato piu' ferocemente nemico, e ceduto del territorio
in cambio di confini sicuri. Quanti difficili enigmi. L'unica certezza
e' che Persio e' un pirla.

 coalition."
Verissimo.
-Stefano