OLDSMOBILES SAABS FOR LESS FOR LESS prime minister, originally backed the Ramon formula. But last week they bowed to pres- sure from the Histadrut and voted (along with the majority at the Labor Party Conference) to bring the legislation into line with the Histadrut's demands. The result, other than Mr. Ra- mon's resignation, was that al- ternate legislation (following Like the U.S, Israel is grappling with proposed changes in health care. Mr. Ramon's original formula) is being tabled by other parties, while Labor has lost points with the electorate for placing parochial interests above those of the public at large. And Labor has yet to come forward with a convincing de- fense against that damaging claim. At the very same time, Is- rael's system of higher educa- tion faced the most vexing crisis in its history as the strike of its academic staff entered its sixth week. Arguing that their in- comes are downright humiliat- ing for people of their education and stature (salaries, before tax- es, range from $17,635 a year for junior lecturers to $27,172 for full professors), the faculty members have demanded that their wages be doubled. The government has be- grudgingly agreed to negotiate (following the recommendation of an independent commission) on a 30 percent raise. But it is leery even about granting that increase, since any substantial rise in the salaries of one group of public-sector workers will in- evitably spawn demands by all the others — and cripple the en- tire economy. Various interesting compro- mises have been put forward, including special increments based upon excellence in teach- ing and scholarship. But the scholars have stood firm, and with the country's students up in arms, the deadlocked nego- tiations make the peace talks look like a piece of cake. As if all that weren't enough, last week the High Court of Jus- tice issued a decision that has thrown Israel's religious estab- lishment into an uproar and threatens to bring the work of the religious courts — which have sole jurisdiction over mat- ters of marriage and divorce — to a standstill. In ruling on property settle- ments in divorce cases, the rab- binical judges have always regarded themselves as bound only by the financial terms of . the wife's ketubah (which are cited in an ancient coin called silver "zekukim"). Last week, however, in response to an ap- peal by a woman invoking the 1951 Common Property Law, the High Court obliged the rab- binical judges to place civil law above rabbinical law in decid- ing property settlements. The reaction from the reli- gious establishment was swift — and predictable. Threaten- ing to defy the High Court's de- cision, Chief Rabbis Yisrael Lau and Eliyahu Bakshi Doron in- sisted that "the rabbinical courts in Israel rule, and will continue to rule, on the basis of the halacha alone," while the di- rector of the rabbinical courts warned that any interference with their competence will only lead to "delays and cause ad- ditional harm to women." What's more, members of the National Religious Party have already proposed two bills lim- iting the authority of the Supreme Court in religious af- fairs — which could prove yet another embarrassing chal- lenge to the Labor government. What binds these three oth- erwise disparate issues togeth- er, and links them with the peace process, is the common observation that Israeli society is in the throes a wide-ranging transition — political, econom- ic, and social. Just as the peace process is forcing Israelis to think in new terms about their future in the region, so changing social and economic realities are causing them to chafe against the dic- tates of outmoded institutions that often seem to be mounting rear-guard actions to maintain their power. The economic convention that links the salaries of schol- ars to those of street cleaners, for instance, grew out of condi- tions and a mindset that are as remote from contemporary Is- raeli life as are the "zekukim" on which divorcees are com- pelled to build their financial fu- tures. The Labor Party grasped this trend when it geared up for elec- tions two years ago. It intro- duced party primaries, brought a crop of younger deputies into the Knesset and, in declaring a "change of national priorities," shifted away from serving ide- ologies forged in the last centu- ry (and far earlier) to ushering Israel into the next one. 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