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Processing time is dependant on the amount of merchandise brought in and the amount of jewelry currently being assayed. www.tappers.com DIAMONDS err FINE JEWELRY Twelve Oaks Mall • Novi • 248.465.1800 Orchard Mall • West Bloomfield • 248.932.7700 1394480 A28 May 15 • 2008 prehensive draft constitutions in 2006: the IDI with its Constitution by Consensus and the Institute for Zionist Strategies (IZS) with a coun- terproposal. But the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006 focused attention on external threats and weakened the Kadima-led govern- ment, and no sustained effort has taken place within the Knesset since then. When the IDI presented the Constitution by Consensus at the start of 2006, "our naive hopes were that we would get close to the target, not anticipating the difficulties," Carmon said. The document, running some 200 pages, is all about compromises. For example, Carmon said, the consti- tution is a secular document and includes a freedom-from-religion clause, so religious parties will have to give up any dreams of a theocracy. "Israel;' he said, "will never become a theocracy. But secular and religiously pro- gressive Jews also have to make sacrifices. The IDI proposal excludes four religious issues from review by the Supreme Court: marriage and divorce, conversion, Shabbat, and kashrut in public places. Rabbi Uri Regev, the head of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, complained in an interview in 2006 that excluding those issues from judi- cial review would ruin religious free- dom for non-Orthodox Jews in Israel. "It's a total compromise. Everybody hates it:' said Atlanta philanthropist Bernie Marcus, who began financ- ing the nonpartisan IDI 19 years ago. "But they all understand that that's the way it is:' Marcus said he and other donors as well as former Secretary of State George Schultz, the IDI's honorary co-chairman, support the institute's proposal because Israel will tear itself apart without a constitution to pro- vide the basis for the rule of law. Whenever he goes to Israel, mem- bers of the Knesset all say the same thing, Marcus said: "We have to have it. Keep pushing for it." Now the IDI is taking a lower-key approach. The institute recently took 10 members of the Knesset, repre- senting the full political spectrum, on a four-day retreat to educate them about the need for a constitution and the issues involved. Carmon said the plan is to hold a series of such retreats to build support in the Knesset, which has the sole power to enact a constitution. There's no precedent for a nation existing more than a half-century without a constitution, then manag- ing to craft the compromises neces- sary to enact such a charter. But there haven't been many nations like Israel, carved out of hostile territory to restore a battered people to its ances- tral homeland. Carmon and others are convinced not only that Israel can do it, but also that it must do it to survive. There's no way to know how much time Israel has. Carmon used the metaphor of a man with high blood pressure. "you don't see any symp- toms, but one day it cracks, the body cracks. It's a serious mattee He said an Israeli constitution is closer to reality than ever before, but it's still several years away. Two years ago, constitutional advocates hoped to celebrate Israel's 60th birthday with its first constitution. Instead, that milestone has come and gone, and the hope now, Carmon said, is just to get the first Knesset reading of a full constitution in Israeli his- tory before the 17th Knesset itself is history. "Jews across the world need to face Israel's flaws with creativity and pride," Cohen said. "On its 60th birth- day, those who care for Israel's inter- nal fortitude should join in gently, democratically guiding our adoles- cent state towards maturity." Answering Israel's Critics The Charge Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said last week that Israel's allies soon will be tried in an international tribunal on charg- es of war crimes. The Answer Ahmadinejad continues to rant about Israel rather than address the pressing needs of his nation. He sees the world in a black or white, anti-Israel or pro-Israel prism — truly not a modern, global way of thinking. - Allan Gale, Jewish Community Relations Council of Metropolitan Detroit 0 Jewish Renaissance Media, May 15, 2008