Word: yisrael
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Orthodox rabbis already have wide civil powers. They approve all marriages, divorces and adoptions. Their political clout, moreover, grew during the Begin years. In order to win the support of Agudat Yisrael, the religious party that had four sometimes crucial seats in the Knesset, Begin made several concessions. He forbade El Al flights on the Sabbath, losing an estimated $30 million a year, and pushed through a law limiting autopsies, which violate Orthodox beliefs. Begin also agreed to push the highly controversial "Who is a Jew?" legislation, which would amend Israeli law to ensure that the only converts granted citizenship...
Political analysts were divided over just what had happened. There was some speculation among Knesset members that the defectors might have come from two tiny parties in the coalition, the ultrareligious Agudat Yisrael and Tami, an ethnic party of Sephardic Jews. Another explanation might be that some members simply preferred a man of Herzog's stature. Said Labor Leader Shimon Peres: "We were wise enough to present the best candidate...
...current troubles started in the Tel Aviv slum of Kfar Shalem, when Yisrael Yehoshua, a sanitation worker who migrated from Yemen 35 years ago, added a room to the two-room house that he and 18 relatives share. City authorities said that the addition was illegal, and sent a bulldozer, accompanied by an elite police squad, to tear it down. The family pleaded with the police to wait, pointing out that Yehoshua was in the process of obtaining a temporary court injunction barring the demolition, but the authorities refused to hold off". As the bulldozer rolled forward, Yehoshua...
...single idea has dominated the thinking of Menachem Begin, it is his longstanding dream of restoring Eretz Yisrael, the biblical land that takes in not only the present-day Jewish state but also the Israeli-occupied West Bank of the Jordan River. In the pursuit of that dream, Begin got Israel into the most controversial war in its history and raised tensions between the U.S. and Israeli governments to a level unprecedented in more than a quarter of a century. Yet that did not diminish the stubborn Prime Minister's resolve. "No one will set for us the borders...
Those who know him best do not doubt that the one ambition he would like to see accomplished before he retires from political life is to ensure that Israel never relinquishes the West Bank. Says a Begin lieutenant: "Eretz Yisrael is the thing that at this point in his life is at the core of Begin's political existence...