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 Letter from Jerusalem By Ira Sharkansky |
Rabbi Ovadia again embarrasses Israel
JERUSALEM—An embarrassment? A joke? Pathetic? A profound and disturbing split within the Jewish population?
All of the above.
Once again, 87 year old Rabbi Ovadia Yosef has us pondering those options. The Rabbi is spiritual leader of the Sephardi Ultra-Orthodox, with 12 Members of Knesset and membership in the governing coalition, as well as several hundred thousand followers. He is important enough to attract visits from virtually all leading politicians who don a skullcap and ask him to support them or their causes.
His latest comments are that Israeli soldiers died in last year's war because they did not keep the Sabbath, live according to the Torah, and failed to follow the appropriate rituals in saying their daily prayers.
This is the same rabbi who said that Hurricane Katrina was God's punishment of the United States on account of President Bush's support for Israel's removal of Jewish settlements from Gaza. Because Prime Minister Ariel Sharon ordered the removal of the settlements, he would die. African Americans suffered disproportionately from Katrina because they do not study Torah.
In 1991 the rabbi cursed the Arabs: " The Lord shall return the Arabs' deeds on their own heads, waste their seed and exterminate them. . . It is forbidden to be merciful to them. You must send missiles to them and annihilate them. They are evil and damnable."
This time as in the past, the rabbi's minders have responded to his critics. Their line is similar from one crisis to another: he was quoted out of context; his secular listeners do not understand his allusions; he did not mean what you think he meant. He loves Israeli soldiers for their sacrifices in behalf of the people.
As in the past, the clarifications lack something. The rabbi's sermons are recorded for transmitting to his followers, they find their way to radio and television news, and we have heard what he said. So far, we have heard his minders, but not him, clarify what he said, or what he meant to say.
Especially upset are the family members of religious soldiers who died in the war. They come from a different segment of observant Jews: religious nationalists, proud of Zionist accomplishments, mainstays of Jewish settlements throughout the West Bank, and disproportionate in volunteering for elite military units and their sacrifices in combat. The families cannot accept a rabbi's assertion that their sons did not study enough or prayed improperly.
Ovadia is not the only Sephardi ultra-Orthodox rabbi to link tragedy with ritual imperfection. One of his colleagues responded to a school bus tragedy in 1985 that killed 19 pupils and the driver by saying it was due to flawed mezuzot (amulets) affixed to the door posts of their school.
Sephardi Ultra-Orthodox are more likely than their Ashkenazi compatriots to make the headlines with their perceptions of God's punishments on account of ritual failings. The Ashkenazi induce their followers to riot in behalf of a shop that sells non-kosher meat, a road or store that stays open on the Sabbath, or demands that construction of a facility be halted when it uncovers bones perceived to be Jewish from a burial done two millennia ago.
Both Sephardi and Ashkenazi Ultra-Orthodox insist on the right to evade military service in order to study Torah full time in religious academies, without paying tuition, and receiving a government payment for their efforts. Many men avoid work in order to study at public expense all their lives. They claim to aid public welfare by evoking God's care for the Jewish people by their study and ritual observances. They also marry young, make a lot of children for whom they receive government support, who grow up to study Torah and make a lot of children . . . .
Providing housing for all those kids, and their kids' kids, is not easy. The Ultra-Orthodox prefer separate neighborhoods, where they can forbid travel on the Sabbath and religious holidays, patrol the streets for improper music and other flaws, and burn any shops that dare sell non-kosher meat. The rest of us also prefer that they live separately, and are likely to move elsewhere when too many of them begin encroaching on our neighborhoods.
Two of the largest and fastest growing Jewish settlements in the West Bank are for the Ultra-Orthodox. Israeli courts halted the construction of one project in response to claims that the contractor was building on land that he had not purchased from the Palestinian owners.
One can find in the history and the theology of Ultra-Orthodox Jews a willingness to live among non-Jews. They prefer God's laws to those of Israel, except for laws that assure Israeli government money for building their homes and supporting their families.
I am not optimistic that the Palestinian state, if it ever happens, will be happy to accept the Ultra-Orthodox communities and assume their support.
Science is little help in supporting the claims of the Ultra-Orthodox that they are aiding the Jewish people by their study and prayers. Skeptics cite the urgings of Ultra-Orthodox rabbis to their East European followers to rely on God rather than to flee in advance of the Germans, and the high incidence of Ultra-Orthodox among the victims of the Holocaust. For their part, Ultra-Orthodox rabbis blame the Holocaust on God's punishment of the Jewish people for the development of Reform Judaism in Germany.
Estimates are that the Ultra-Orthodox population is 10 percent of Israel's Jewish population, and perhaps 30 percent of the Jewish population in Jerusalem. We have an ultra-Orthodox mayor, and the Ultra-Orthodox parties are important enough in the Knesset (Ashkenazi Torah Judaism has 6 members and Sephardi SHAS 12) to assure themselves continued financial support, and to block whatever efforts are made to require the teaching of anything other than religious texts in their schools. Unless they make special efforts to learn one of the activities permitted by their religious constraints, the students of Ultra-Orthodox religious academies are not fit for much beyond studying religious texts and making more children.
Those who would chide Israel for harming itself with the arithmetic of politics can ponder the support of tobacco growers by the European Union as well as the United States government, and American avoidance of environmental problems in behalf of all those suburbanites who prefer SUVs.
Like other democracies, we are stuck with ourselves.
Sharkansy is a professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University
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By Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)—David Ignatius
is a columnist for the liberal Washington Post, and so rarely gives the President credit for strategic thinking. When he wrote positively this week about the Administration's plan to contain Iran, it was worthy of note. Unfortunately, what he wrote was, "The cornerstone is a political-military alliance with the dominant Sunni Arab powers - especially Saudi Arabia. The hardware will be new arms sales to Israel, Egypt and the Saudis. The software will be a refurbished Israeli-Palestinian peace process." Approvingly he called it "back to the future." Sigh.Perhaps he didn't notice that Israel is not a Sunni Arab power.
Perhaps he didn't notice that a "refurbished Israeli-Palestinian peace process" would require that the Palestinians establish a modus vivendi among themselves in order to adopt a negotiating posture toward Israel.
Or perhaps he did. But never mind Israel for the moment, and the inappropriateness of demanding that Israel pay for Iran's containment in the currency of another useless and dangerous agreement with the Palestinians.
More important, this columnist appears not to have noticed that Saudi Arabia is heavily funding al Qaeda in Iraq as it kills American soldiers and is funding Wahhabi-Salafist jihad elsewhere including in the United States. It is those al Qaeda operatives in Iraq that the Sunni tribal leaders have been turning against in droves, providing some measure of hope for Iraq, but causing al Qaeda to denounce the Saudi move to re-establish relations with the Iraqi government.
It is Wahhabi-Salafist jihadis that the New York Police Department was concerned about in their report on homegrown American terror. Look for more instability in Saudi Arabia and more trouble from Saudi Arabia. Is this really where we want to put JDAMS or other cutting edge weapons expected to be included in the new arms sales packages?
Sunni jihad has arisen in Syria as well - funded by Saudi Arabia in an attempt to overthrow the Alawite (a Shiite sect) Assad minority regime that has been allied with the hated Persian Shiites? Not clear, but not impossible. Ditto long-range Saudi support for Fatah al Islam currently wrecking Lebanon - not clear, but not impossible.
Egypt is no bargain either. Although Mubarak has belatedly come to understand that chaos in Gaza is trouble for his regime and is talking seriously to Israel and the U.S. about controls on Hamas, the long term in repressed and repressive Egypt is troubling.
America, then, is resting its hopes of "containing" Iran on very weak reeds.
I
t seems too, that Ignatius is hoping that pressure on Israel will cause an alignment of Arab states to do what the America wants done in the region, regardless of the capabilities and interests of those same Arab states. That would be back to a future that never really existed. Reality dictates that the U.S. push Saudi Arabia to stop funding and supporting Sunni jihad as step one in the containment of Iran.(Return to top)
tells objections to CNN's 'God's Warriors'
By Rabbi Marvin Hier
LOS ANGELES—A day prior to the airing of Christiane Amanpour’s six-hour CNN documentary entitled God’s Warriors, I was one of four clergymen to be a guest on
Larry King Live to discuss the issue of fundamentalism in today’s world. The interview on Larry King was pre-recorded in mid-July and none of the participants had seen the six-hour documentary because it was still being edited. Now that I have seen it, I sent the following critique to the producers of God’s Warriors.1. MORAL EQUIVALENCY - There is no moral equivalency between some 200 Israeli fanatics prone to violence and tens of thousands of Palestinian terrorists whose acts are endorsed by the elected government and a significant portion of the population. The failure of the documentary to clearly make that distinction skews the facts and conveys the false impression allowing people all over the world to conclude that there IS a moral equivalency between the number of Palestinian terrorists and Jewish terrorists - this is a complete distortion. More importantly, the largest terrorist group responsible for much of the unrest in the Middle East, Hamas, got a free pass from CNN in
God’s Warriors and is not even mentioned in the documentary’s segment on Islam.2. JEWISH LOBBY - CNN spends much time describing the strength of the “Jewish Lobby” in Washington. But what do supporters of Israel active on the Hill have to do with a documentary focusing on the power of religion? Indeed, many of those defending Israel on Capital Hill are, in fact, secular Jews. Furthermore, if you are going to talk about powerful lobbies, why not give equal time to the enormous power of the Arab Oil lobby?
3. SECURITY FENCE (Hamas Wall) - The consultants of the documentary make a point of showing the security fence that now separates the Palestinians from the Israelis. Palestinians interviewed explain the hardships they face and call the fence an “apartheid” wall. Nowhere is there a mention of the wide consensus of support for the security fence amongst all Israelis, left and right, including Israel’s Supreme Court, which has sanctioned the fence because, without it, the suicide bombings would continue unabated, something NO society can tolerate. Indeed, the terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad are the real architects and designers of that fence.
4. FIGHTING TERRORISM -
God’s Warriors makes mention of the fact that the few Jewish terrorists described in the film were all arrested by the Israeli government and sent to jail for their crimes. Yet, they ignore the fact that Palestinian officials have never convicted Palestinian terrorists. Had they done so, there would be no need for a security fence.5. SIX DAY WAR - The documentary spends a lot of time on the Six Day War and emphasizes how Israel decided to attack the Old City during the War, which changed the status quo forever. But
God’s Warriors fails to explain how or why the Six Day War started. It hides from its audience the fact that Egypt blocked the Straits of Tiran (an international waterway), an act of war under international law, denying all shipping to Israel and that the Arab States, including Jordan, which controlled the Old City, brought their armies to the border. Had they not taken those actions, the Six Day War would have been averted. By ignoring all that and instead focusing on Israel’s attack on the Old City, God’s Warriors guides its audience to the conclusion that the purpose of the War was Israel’s intention to grab the Old City of Jerusalem.6. SHARON - The documentary is critical of Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount which enraged Muslims and started the Second Intifada. It also mentions his “responsibility” in allowing Lebanese Christians to massacre Muslims at Sabra and Shatila. Yet, it ignores his critical decision to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza in an attempt to jump start the peace process. Nor does it mention the Palestinian response to the withdrawal - the election of Hamas - a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the State of Israel - as the new Palestinian government.
7. TEMPLE MOUNT - The documentary fails to emphasize that the Muslims, to whom Israel gave the authority to administer the Temple Mount, strongly discourage any Jew from coming there despite the fact that it is the holiest site in all of Judaism (whereas, the holiest sites in Islam are, in fact, Mecca and Medina). On the other hand, the Western Wall, which is under Israeli control, regularly welcomes visitors of all faiths.
8. RELIGIOUS LEADERS - CNN presents the senior Imam in charge of the Al-Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount, who explains the site’s holiness to Muslims. But rather than interview the Chief Rabbi of Israel to describe the sacredness of the site for Jews, CNN contents itself with allowing an extremist layperson to explain the importance of the Temple Mount to Jews. Where is the fairness?
9. TWO STATE SOLUTION -
God’s Warriors ignores the origins of the Arab/Israeli conflict: the Arab refusal to accept the 1947 United Nations Partition of Palestine, which called for both a Jewish state and an Arab State. The Jews accepted the plan – the Arabs rejected it. Had the Arab world accepted the two-state solution then, much of the bloodshed would have been averted. There’s a lot of talk about settlements, but no talk at all of the consistent Arab policy from 1948 until 1978 to make no compromises with Israel.10. A HUMAN FACE ON TERROR -
God’s Warriors keeps mentioning the “despair” that many Arabs feel, as if that is a justification for the insane behavior of honoring people as martyrs because they murdered innocent civilians they never knew. Why patronize terrorists and even humanize them if we are going to allow the conversation to be dominated by their despair? The parents of these terrorists should be confronted with the simple truth that despair has existed throughout time – that billions of people throughout history have felt pain without reverting to mass murder. Following the defeat of Nazism, the Holocaust survivors were also in despair. They lost their families, but they didn’t resort to killing innocent civilians as a way of alleviating their pain. Neither did the 750,000 Jews expelled from Arab countries following the 1948 War – they too, did not become suicide bombers.The preceding story was provided by the Wiesenthal Center
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Cardin urges legislation to curb fraud and abuse in the spending of billions of U.S. dollars in Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)—Senator Benjamin Cardin (Democrat, Maryland) issued on Tuesday the following statement concerning fraud and abuse in America's spending in Iraq:
Since the beginning of the Iraq War, the
According to auditors, $1 out of every $6 spent in
USA Today recently reported that government auditors found that Kellogg, Brown & Root Inc. (KRB), a formerly wholly owned subsidiary of Halliburton, had proposed charging $110 million for services on bases that had been shut down and an additional $50 million for duplicated charges and math errors. Through October 2006, KBR has been paid more than $20 billion.
The American taxpayer is footing the bill for the War in
I have co-sponsored the Commission on Wartime Contracting Establishment Act, S. 1825, to put an end to the fraud and abuse that has plagued contracts in
It also would investigate the impact of the government’s growing reliance on civilian contractors to perform wartime functions. It will assess the extent of waste, fraud, abuse and mismanagement of wartime contracts, and the extent to which those responsible have been held accountable.
The Commission will release an interim report within one year and a final report in two years regarding its findings. The final report will include recommendations regarding improvements to the contracting process, specifically contract development, award, management, oversight, accountability, appropriateness of tasks, and structure of DOD.
The SIGIR, in consultation with the Commission, will conduct audits of agency contracts to identify potential waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement. Specifically, audits will examine development, award, terms and conditions, contractor cost controls, agency management, oversight, adequacy of contracting personnel, coordination with commanders, appropriateness of functions. SIGIR will refer appropriate cases to the Attorney General for prosecution.
We are spending millions of dollars a day in
The preceding story was provided by the office of U.S. Senator Benjamin Cardin
Letter writer contends Wilson polarizes people
(Editor's Note: Shortly after we ran a column by Donald H. Harrison on the controversy over Pete Wilson's statue, saying Wilson is not a racist, letter writer McRay sent us a copy of his letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune, which took a similar position. McCray is active with the Border Angels, a humanitarian group that leaves water for undocumented aliens who risk losing their lives in the mountains and deserts to try to cross illegally into the United States.)
A Letter to the Union-Tribune:
Fairly recently, in an editorial, you accuse Enrique Morones of being basically out of line for saying that Pete Wilson is a hate monger for his support of Proposition 187.
So what does Wilson say at a ceremony dedicated to the installment of his statue, in reference to about 300 people who protested such an honor? He says: “Isn’t this a great country that anyone can make a perfect horse’s ass of himself at any time?”
This response was reported as striking “a light tone in response to the hubbub of the protesters.”
Referring to someone who seeks reasonable solutions to immigration problems as a “perfect horse’s ass” sounds like hate mongering to me considering how volatile issues regarding immigration are at this point in history.
But never-the-less a likeness of Pete Wilson stands young and tall and smiling in the “San Diego Walk of Fame” while immigrants risk their lives crossing frozen mountains in the winter and blazing deserts in the summer in quests to simply feed themselves and their families.
Ernie McCray
San Diego
The Jewish Grapevine  |
CYBER-REFERRALS—
●Israel's Consulate General: An article on YNet News that Hezbollah and the Lebanese government love it when Israel is criticized by human rights groups, but now Human Rights Watch has criticized Lebanon for targeting civilians during the Second Lebanon War. And Hezbollah has tried to suppress the news. Here is the link
●Bruce Kesler: A book review by Ruth Andrew Ellenson in Los Angeles Times of Jews and Power by Harvard R. Wisse. Here is the link.
●Jay Jacobson: An article in Stratfor by George Friedman on the evolving geopolitical chess game between Iran and the United States over the fate of Iraq. Here is the link.
●National Jewish Democratic Council: A blog item by the Washington correspondent of Ha'aretz, Shmuel Rosner, speculating on the reasons why U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby (Republican, Alabama) is blocking a bill by Senator Barack Obama (Democrat, Illinois) encouraging states and private companies to divest their holdings in Iran. Here is the link.
●Bonnie Stewart, executive director of the Fred J. Hansen Institute for World Peace, an arm of the San Diego State University Research Foundation: an article on the website of the Peres Institute for World Peace (with which the Hansen Institute partners) about a meeting in Marseilles, France, last June that quietly brought together Israeli and Palestinians to map joint strategy for olive marketing. Here's the link.
● United Jewish Communities: An Associated Press article noted that Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met in Olmert's official residence in Jerusalem, and that the latter signed the guestbook in Arabic with a wish for peace. But what, if anything, of substance the two leaders discussed, they are keeping to themselves. Here is the link.
● Zionist Organization of America: A radio program in honor of the 110th anniversary of the 1st Zionist Congress, featuring interviews with Zionists in Austria, Russia, Switzerland and Venezuela. Here is the link.
JEWISH PUBLIC OFFICIALS—
● U.S. Rep. Bob Filner (Democrat, California) has told columnist Gerry Braun of the San Diego Union-Tribune that he regrets storming into a baggage area to find out for himself and other passengers why, after a long, delayed flight, passengers had to suffer more delays because of slow baggage service. Whether he was guilty of assault and battery as an airline employee alleged, Filner didn't say. But he's more supportive than ever of legislation creating "a passenger bill of rights."
*U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes (Democrat, New Hampshire) said today on the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina: “Katrina showed us just how abjectly government can fail, but it also threw into relief the strongest features of the American spirit. I would like to thank the countless Americans who stood up to help the victims of the storm, who donated water and goods, who worked tirelessly in 115 degree heat, who stepped in to help when their own government would not. I have seen first-hand the challenges posed when federal agencies are non-responsive to the needs of the people. We can do better. This Congress is fully committed to restoring the region’s infrastructure to pre-Katrina levels."
*U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (Democrat, Wisconsin) issued a statement on Hurricane Katrina's second anniversary in his capacity as chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging: "During Hurricane Katrina, 71 percent of those who died were over the age of 60. Two years later, our country still lags far behind on the issue of emergency preparedness for older Americans. I am encouraged that provisions attached to the recently passed 9/11 bill will soon require all state and local mass evacuation plans to include specific procedures to inform the elderly before and during an evacuation. However, many other challenges lie ahead. Most urgently, I believe we must strengthen the federal standards for nursing home emergency plans, and this fall I intend to introduce a bill to do so.”
*U.S. Senators Joseph Lieberman (Independent, Connecticut) and Mary Landrieu (Democrat, Louisiana) marked the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina today by requesting "a thorough analysis of what the federal government has done, is doing, and still can do to help hurricane victims rebuild their lives." In a joint statement, they asked the Government Acountability Office to "examine how the government can further help those still receiving federal disaster aid, as the Katrina and Rita Hurricane recovery 'sputters along.'"
*U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (Democrat, New York), chairman of the Joint Economic Committee of Congress, on Tuesday characterized the recently issued report of the U.S. Census Bureau as follows: "Although median household income rose slightly in 2006, after adjusting for inflation, the report showed that all but the richest of American households have seen their incomes decline since 2000. The Census Bureau also revealed that while the national poverty rate declined by 0.3% in 2006, the number of people in poverty living in poverty has risen by 4.9 million since 2000, an increase in the poverty rate of one percentage point. Additionally, the number of children under 18 in poverty has skyrocketed under the Bush Administration, rising 10.7 percent in the last 6 years. The number of uninsured Americans rose from 2005 to 2006. The number of uninsured children also jumped over 600,000 from 2005 to 2006. More Americans are now without health insurance than at any point since the Census Bureau began collecting comparable data starting in 1987...Today’s numbers make one thing clear: the Bush economy benefits the wealthy top and everyone else is left behind. American families have not recovered from this Administration’s policies, which have produced stagnant wages, lost jobs, and declining health care coverage for many Americans in the middle. American families are the bedrock of our economy and this Administration has stood by as they have fallen behind, while actively lending a helping hand to the wealthiest and those who need it the least.”
● New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged President Bush to cancel a rule proposed by his administration to delay children';s health care insurance eligibility for families with incomes three times higher than the poverty line until after 90 percent of the people with incomes only twice as high as the poverty line are enrolled. They said such a rule would deny health insurance to thousands of children.
(Return to top)
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News Sleuths: Who: Tom Casey, Deputy Spokeman, U.S. State Department
What: Human Rights Watch-Hezbollah
Where: U.S. State Department
When: August 29, 2007
Source: State Department transcript
QUESTION: Tom, Human Rights report - excuse me, Human Rights Watch has a report out today saying that Hezbollah engaged in indiscriminate, deliberate attacks on Israeli civilian areas during the war last year. They were going to launch this with a news conference in Beirut tomorrow, but they cancelled it, they said, because Al Manar, their Hezbollah TV outlet, was accusing them of conspiring with the United States, with elements in Lebanon hostile to Hezbollah and -- you know, urging people to try to physically prevent this news conference. I just wonder if there's any part of that you'd like to take on.
MR. CASEY: Well, let's see. What could I start with, David? First of all, anyone that is arguing that somehow, a very independent organization like Human Rights Watch is somehow doing the United States' bidding need look no further than most of the reactions we've had to some of their other comments. They are an independent organization, they set their own agenda, and they operate on their own. And they and other human rights groups and other NGOs play an important part in our civil society and are definitely individual organizations that will make their own decisions about what to say and when to say it.
In terms of the actual findings of the report, I've only seen a brief summary of it, but I think it's pretty clear to most of us that the policies of Hezbollah show no regard for distinction between innocent civilians and innocent life and those who might otherwise be considered combatants. The indiscriminate firing of missiles into Israel during the conflict last summer caused numbers of deaths and injuries and certainly could not be described in any way, shape, or form as I understand it as following the laws of war.
As far as Hezbollah intimidation of Human Rights Watch or others, well, unfortunately, I guess there really isn't any news there because that's just par for the course. Hezbollah continues to be an organization that engages in terror, that supports the repression of activities in Lebanon that are designed to give everyone an opportunity to have their say and continues to take actions that are inherently against the interests of the Lebanese people.
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News from the Israel Baseball League |
Bet Shemesh ace signs contract with Atlantic League
BOSTON, Massachusetts– Rafael Bergstrom, a 6’5” righthander who ten days ago hurled a complete game shutout to lead the Bet Shemesh Blue Sox to the championship, has become the first player from the Israel Baseball League signed to a pro contract in the U.S.
Bergstrom, who turns 26 on September 5, has signed with the independent Atlantic League’s Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish, managed by former big league star Tommy John, and will join the team immediately. The league’s regular season ends September 16.
“Raffy was brilliant in the first season of the IBL,” said Larry Baras, the league’s founder, who oversaw the 41-game schedule for the first pro baseball league in the Middle East. “He worked hard, he was a fan
Bergstrom
favorite, and he was a big reason for the Blue Sox going wire to wire in first place and then winning the league’s first championship.”
Bergstrom struck out 56 in 51 2/3 innings in the IBL, and then struck out eight and walked none in his 3-0 victory over Art Shamsky’s Modi’in Miracle on August 19. Ron Blomberg piloted the Blue Sox.
Bergstrom’s 7-2 regular season record had him tied for the league lead in victories and he finished fourth in ERA at 2.44. He walked only 16.
He is a resident of Pacific Grove, California, and a product of University of California, San Diego. Prior to playing in the IBL, Bergstrom played two seasons in Germany and one in Australia.
The preceding story was provided by Marty Appel Public Relations, which handles the Israel Baseball League
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