TamaRDFF D ODGE This Week IN THE COLD from page 21 Q3 C RA AN SXT Stk. #184146 Quad buckets, V6, power windows & locks, aluminum wheels & more. Was Employee Lease 151095** $222* Velem! Customer Leese 39 Mos., 12,000 miles $999 Total due $255• 39 Mos., 12,000 miles $999 Total due Employee Price $ 1 7,324** Valued Customer $18,521** *Leases plus tax, Must qualify For lease loyalty. All rebates to dealer. ** Purchase price plus tax, title, trans. & dest. All rebates to dealer. Exp. 12/20/02. TamaIREFF 248-354-6609 24625 W. 12 mile DODGE Southfield In addition to the violence of the intifada (uprising), Israel has been suf- fering from a widening recession, brought on by the collapse of the high-tech industry and the worldwide economic downturn. Unemployment has risen above 10 percent, and the country's economy is expected to grow by just 0.5 percent in 2003. The numbers speak for themselves, experts .say: • The number of poor Israeli chil- dren increased by nearly 50 percent in 2001, to about 530,000. • The United Nations Human Development Index for 2002 ranked Israel 22nd out of 174 countries, plac- ing it among the world's most devel- oped countries. Yet Israel's ranking in the next index is expected to drop, as the number of Israelis living below the poverty line is one of the highest in the Western world. • A recent report from the Knesset committee on social gaps showed that the average monthly income for the top 10 percent of Israeli households was around $9,000 or 12 times the $716 average income in the bottom 10th of the population. 20 Percent Poor Store Closing After 3 Successful Years In Business, we are not renewing our lease • Every Lamp • Picture • Accessory and all Furniture 50% off Everything Must Go css 33080 Northwestern Hwy. T, Between Orchard Lake Road & 14 Mile A N Ca West Bloomfield Prior Sales Excluded 12/13 2002 22 248-538.7747 0 14 Mile Road 41 111Aiti 1.11MIR M-F 10 7; Sat 10 6 TIM ISSUE As the calendar approaches Tuesday, Dec. 24, a confrontation looms between Israel and the Palestinian Authority over whether Yasser Arafat should be allowed to attend a mid- night mass that evening in Bethlehem. Last year, he was denied passage. BEHIND THE ISSUE Arafat's attendance at the Dec. 24 service would serve to legitimize his leadership of the Palestinians, some- thing the Israelis and Americans are unlikely to support following his failure to curb terrorism over the past two years. His presence in Bethlehem also would mask the fact that terrorism has destroyed the Palestinian econo- my, including that of the Christian middle class in Bethlehem and other West Bank towns. — Allan Gale, Jewish Conzinunity Council of Metropolitan Detroit — Mon. & Thurs. 8:30-9:15 Tues., Weed., fri 8:30 - 6:15 www.tamaroff.com furniture accessories Ins The findings expose a "society deep in a process of total collapse," said - Cohen, who headed the committee's yearlong study. Worsening economic conditions have led to severe budget cuts, primarily in social welfare. While politicians and ministers haVe lobbied successfully for larger outlays for security and defense, little progress has been made on fund- ing and policies to battle poverty "The poverty trend has brought us to this situation where the State of Israel is saying, 'We aren't equipped to handle this or we're not interested,"' said Joanie Gal, a lecturer at Hebrew University's social work school. "There could be a different bUdcret that thinks more about the weaker sectors of the population," Gal said. "The priorities could be changed, even in this terrible economic-security situation." There are those who at least pay lip service to the poverty situation and income gap. At this week's Israel Business Conference, keynote speaker Eli Hurvitz, chairman of drugmaker Teva Pharmaceuticals and an active Labor Party member, said he was con- vinced the economy is capable of earn- ing enough to provide workers and the unemployed with a decent living. Citing what he called Israel's "defec- tive" political culture, Hurvitz-dis- missed the government's tendency to blame its economic failures on the intifada. "We can't blame everything on the intifada," he said. "There is more pover- ty and inequality, and less growth." In fact, the figures show that the lat- est poverty report is not an aberration and can't be blamed on the intifada, which began a little over two years ago, said Danny Guttwein, a lecturer at Haifa University. As Israel reached Western European income levels dur- ing the 1990s — and economic poli- cy-makers liberalized the economy in the direction of free-market capitalism — economic inequality also soared. "There wasn't a 'poverty oversight,'" Guttwein said. Rather, the poverty report tells of a continuing trend based on socioeconom- ic policies that have guided the country for the last 20 years. "It shows that poverty has become a life experience for a wide sector of society," Guttwein said. "That is the most prominent statistic in the report: that poverty has become the basic experience for many Israelis." So far, none of the major party lead- ers has proposed a serious plan for addressing poverty. The result will be the undermining of the foundations of Israeli democracy, Guttwein warned. "The time has come for the people who have been running the economy for the last 20 years to give up their places," Guttwein said, "for the good of a more social and equal society." ❑