A Legacy of Design, Craftsmanship and
Value Continues
DIGEST
Sharon Quits Likud
Jerusalem/JTA — Ariel Sharon
resigned from Israel's ruling Likud
Party. The prime minister met
with Israeli President Moshe
Katsav to ask him to dissolve
Parliament and authorize early
elections, and then announced his
own move. "I am resigning from
the party and forming a new one,'
Sharon was quoted as telling the
Likud secretariat in a letter.
Sharon's new party is expected
to capitalize on mainstream sup-
port for his decision to withdraw
Israeli soldiers and settlers from
the Gaza Strip. According to media
reports, it will be called the
National Responsibility Party. Polls
suggest that even in his new party,
Sharon may have difficulty beating
his chief rival, Labor Party chair-
man Amir Peretz, in elections
expected in March.
Jewish Conversion
New York/JTA — Pope Benedict
XVI should try to convert Jews, a
leader of a breakaway Catholic
group said. "Jews and members of
other religions should be told to
convert because they are members
of false systems',' Franz
Schmidberger said.
Schmidberger is an official with
the Society of Saint Pius X, which
does not recognize the decisions of
the Second Vatican Council of the
1960s, when Jews were absolved of
collective responsibility for Jesus'
death. Benedict has emphasized
the importance of interfaith dis-
cussions and respect for Judaism
since taking over as pope in April.
Jews Aplenty
Palm Beach — A new demograph-
ic study shows that one in five resi-
dents of Palm Beach County, Fla.,
is Jewish. That makes the South
Florida county, a sprawling area
north of Miami that includes Boca
Raton and West Palm Beach, the
most densely Jewish-populated
metropolitan area in the United
States, ahead of New York and Los
Angeles. Those two cities have
more Jews than Palm Beach
County's 250,000, but even New
York City trails in density, with 9.7
percent Jewish population.
Pollard lashes out
Washington/JTA — Jonathan
Pollard lashed out at the Israeli
government, accusing it of not
doing more to win his release.
"The political establishment is
really a mafia, a collective mafia,
and they take care of their own','
Pollard, a former U.S. Navy analyst
serving a life sentence for spying
for Israel, said in a recorded inter-
view on Israeli television.
Israeli Defense Minister Shaul
Mofaz "has knowingly abandoned
a soldier in the field:' Pollard said.
"He isn't fit to wear the uniform:'
Pollard complained about his
inability to enjoy conjugal visits
with his wife Esther, and described
his life behind bars as "living with
the fear of imminent death,
because violence occurs very
quickly and from out of the blue:'
Answering
Israel's Critics
The Charge:
On the one-year anniversary of Yasser Arafat's death, some
Palestinian officials are charging that he was poisoned by Israel
and are calling for a United Nations investigation.
The Answer:
As Arafat died in Paris, the French government investigated, but
the medical report was inconclusive as to cause of death. There has
been speculation that the cause of death might have been AIDS or
another sexually-transmitted disease, or a hard-to-identify tropical
illness contracted during Arafat's years in Africa. Israeli officials
dismiss the poisoning charges as nonsense, baseless and as slan-
derous Palestinian propaganda. Insiders say that, even if poisoning
was a possibility, there would be several other "suspects" besides
Israel.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community Council of Metropolitan Detroit
November 24 - 2 005
Company. They know that a successful busi-
Bob Stern Building Company proudly
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tomers, primarily in the
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mitment to setting an indus-
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you may think that you can
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However, when the dust set-
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Company has 1000's of sat-
Bob & R on Stern
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When you are serious about transforming
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BOB STERN
Building Company
248-855-3880
Serving Oakland County Since 1965
Take advantage of a new temporary federal
If you sell
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depreciated
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any one year is 50% of adjusted gross
us the cash
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— Steve and Rita Emerson
Los Angeles
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TECHNION
ISRAEL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Technion. Home to Israel's Nobel Scientists.
www.ats.o rg
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