A leading Israeli rabbi is speaking out on the sensitive discussions between the Israeli rabbinate and the Vatican in anticipation of Pope Benedict XVI’s May visit to the Holy Land and about his own connections to Jerusalem.

Rabbi Shear Yashuv Cohen, who serves as the chief rabbi in the northern port city of Haifa and dean of Israel’s institutions of rabbinical education, has been part of the Israeli dialogue and says many concerns remain as the date of the Pope’s visit nears.

The rabbi said the discrete talks between the two sides have focused on issues such as the Pope’s general reinstatement of the Tridentine Mass and especially with regard to the Good Friday prayer for the Jews’ conversion and sainthood for Pope Pius XII, the Pope during World War II.

Pope John Paul II allowed the Tridentine Mass and the Holy Week rites that were customary during the time of Pope John XXIII in the early 1960s – including the traditional prayer for the Jews conversion – to be used with permission of the local bishop in 1988, but Pope Benedict XVI eliminated the requirement of having to receive a bishop’s permission to use the pre-Vatican II rites in 2007.

Following Vatican II, the Roman Catholic Church eliminated an explicit call for God to convert the Jews from its Good Friday liturgy.

The status of Pius XII, he said, remains a thorny issue for the rabbis in their discussions with the Vatican, as did the issue of several clerics who denied the Holocaust.

“We refer to him as ‘the Holocaust Pope,’” said Rabbi Cohen. “Although he may have helped individual Jews, he did not fulfill his role to protest the mass slaughter of Jews. Rabbi Cohen expressed the view that if the Vatican does claim that Pope Pius XII did extraordinary things to help the Jews during the war, then the Vatican should open its archives to provide documentation of such.”

Rabbi Cohen said he requested the opportunity to visit Rome and discuss these issues directly with the Pope and other senior Vatican officials.

The rabbi received that opportunity last October when the Vatican gave him an unprecedented opportunity to address a gathering of Catholic bishops on the topic of the Holy Scriptures.

He described how the Pope entered the hall with him, arm-in-arm, where he gave a lesson on subject on how portions of the Torah (Old Testament) have been integrated into Jewish prayers. While looking at the Pope during his teaching, Rabbi Cohen noticed the Pope had closed his eyes in an intense meditation, holding his hands to his head.

After his address, Rabbi Cohen expressed his aforementioned concerns.

“We hope that the present leadership will not take any steps that would cause pain to those who have survived the Holocaust,” Rabbi Cohen told the Pope and the assembled Catholic bishops.

He said the response was surprisingly positive.

“I have a feeling that this made the Vatican rethink the whole matter and that this played a role in the decision not to beatify Pope Pius XII,” a discussion of which was scheduled for two days after Rabbi Cohen’s fall visit.

The Vatican made it clear to Rabbi Cohen, on the record, that the Pope would “make every effort to continue a process of dialogue and reconciliation that reached its peak at the time of the visit of Pope Paul II in Jerusalem, in March 2000.”

Three weeks ago, Rabbi Cohen was again invited to Rome, where he led a delegation of rabbis who will form the welcoming committee for the Pope in Jerusalem.

Pope Benedict XVI used the rabbi’s second visit to Rome to clarify that a “mishap” had occurred when he lifted the excommunication of traditionalist Bishop Richard Williamson of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) who has been on record as denying the Holocaust. The Pope told Rabbi Cohen that he “should have checked the Internet” about the bishop before lifting the excommunication that had been leveled against him by his predecessor, John Paul II.

Rabbi Cohen said the Pope went out of his way to make it clear the Vatican would never question Israel’s sovereignty, nor challenge its rights to rule over the Old City of Jerusalem. Between 1949 and 1967, the Old City remained under Jordan’s Islamic rule, and Jews were barred from entering it.

He said both himself and other Israeli rabbis are open to Pope Benedict’s idea of establishing an inter-religious council where all of the religions represented in the Holy City could be called together to discuss both the practical and spiritual aspects of Jerusalem’s present and future.

The rabbi also discussed the warm interpersonal relations that developed between the rabbis and the Vatican officials.

The chemistry that developed between the Jerusalem rabbinic leadership and the leading figures of the Vatican led to the logical conclusion that they should have lunch together at the one kosher restaurant in Rome. Italian eyebrows were raised when half a dozen rabbis with black skullcaps and half a dozen Catholic cardinals with red skullcaps sauntered into the restaurant to order a kosher lunch.

The rabbi also divulged his long personal connection with Jerusalem, where he will accompany the Pope in May, which has included numerous remarkable events.

In May 1948, Rabbi Cohen was an 18-year-old seminary student who was shot in the Old City during the bloody fighting, in the cobblestone paths of old Jerusalem.

Rabbi Cohen said he was taken to an improvised clinic of the Armenian convent near the Jewish Quarter, where Armenian clerics had treated his wounds and saved his life.

Carried out on a stretcher to a Jordanian prison camp, Rabbi Cohen was the last Jewish civilian to leave the old city of Jerusalem before the Arabs ransacked the Jewish quarter and burnt all 57 synagogues inside the walls of the ancient Jerusalem.

In 1967, after Israel gained control over the ancient old city of Jerusalem, Rabbi Cohen was the first Jewish civilian allowed back into Jerusalem, and in that capacity he served at the time as the deputy mayor of Jerusalem.

Later in October 1994, Rabbi Cohen was invited to give the benediction at the Jordan-Israel peace treaty ceremony. During the Pope’s visit, 60 years after he returned from Jordanian captivity, Rabbi Cohen will have the honor of accompanying the Pope through the pathways of the city of Jerusalem that remains Holy to three great religions of God.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

An inquest into rumored abuses against Palestinian civilians by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) during January’s Gaza incursion has been closed.

The investigation came about as a result of press rumors the IDF had killed several Palestinian women in cold blood during military action in Gaza, following the publication of transcripts in the major press from a February conference that was held at the Rabin Pre-Military Academy.

The conference was attended by Israeli soldiers who had taken part in the Gaza operation in January, and the allegations were made about the unjustified shooting at innocent civilians at that time.

Israel’s judge advocate general, Brig. Gen. Avi Mendelblit, decided to close the Israeli Military Police Corps’ investigation after he determined the underlying evidence had been based on rumors and innuendo rather than hard evidence. The decisive portion of the investigation into the IDF’s having allegedly killed the noncombatants was undermined when the judge and investigators determined the rumors were not based on personal knowledge emanating from two Israeli soldiers who had started the rumors.

No corroborating evidence surfaced at the Rabin Pre-Military Academy, where the rumors first arose. The Military Police Corps interviewed all of the soldiers who spoke at the February conference at the academy and found none of those who spoken there had been involved in combat during the Gaza offensive. Consequently, none of them had first-hand knowledge of what had allegedly happened.

The soldiers further said they had then exaggerated the content of those rumors and had made them more extreme in order to convey a message to the people attending the conference.

“It turned out that soldiers at the conference [held at the academy] either hadn’t been precise in their statements and that is why a different impression was formed or they made complaints that were then published by media outlets,” the IDF said in its review. “In that context no evidence was discovered to warrant additional legal measures. As soon as the case failed to provide evidence, the decision that was made was to close it.”

In the conclusion of his decision regarding the findings of the Israel Military Police findings, Brig. Gen. Mendelblit wrote:

“One ought to regret that none of the speakers took precautions while presenting assertions in the context of a conversation among veterans and, furthermore, that none of the veterans chose to present different factual situations of an egregious nature, despite the fact that they were aware of the fact that they had no personal knowledge about them.

“It is difficult to measure the damage that these things caused the IDF in Israel and around the world in terms of its image and ethics.”

IDF officials are furious with the head of the academy, Danny Zamir, whom high-ranking officers accuse of having goaded the soldiers into saying what they said and then for having recorded them without their knowledge, as well as for having brought their remarks to light in the press.

“He can’t be principal of a pre-military academy,” said one officer in the IDF General Staff.

Those on the Israeli left, however, are outraged with the closure of the investigation.

The Jerusalem Post quoted left-leaning groups including B’tselem, Adalah, Yesh Din and the Association for Civil Rights in Israel having said in a joint statement, “The speedy closing of the investigation immediately raises suspicions that the very opening of the investigation was merely the army’s attempt to wipe its hands of all blame for illegal activity during Operation Cast Lead.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Some 750,000 Israelis who live abroad could end up participating in Israel’s next election if certain Knesset members get their way. Those living abroad would be able to vote at Israel’s embassies or consulates around the world for the first time since the Jewish state’s establishment.

About half of these Israelis live either in the United States of Canada, and some estimates place the number at around 1 million. Of those, an estimated 300,000 live in the Los Angeles area, making it the largest Israeli community outside Israel.

This question arises every few years, and several bills were introduced on the matter in the past decade. Some of these bills passed preliminary votes in the Knesset, only to be shot down by the government.

This time, the effort looks more serious than ever because Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman, the incoming foreign minister, made allowing Israelis living abroad to vote a condition for his entering Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Many in the Israeli political establishment believe Mr. Lieberman pressed for this condition in order to allow the some 200,000 Russians, who came to Israel in the early ’90s, only to leave the Jewish state, to vote for him. This speculation could have a solid basis because a substantial number of Russian immigrants voted for him.

The following statement outlining the deal on the expected resolution was released:

“The government shall formulate a bill that will provide for Israelis residing overseas on election day to vote under conditions agreed to by the various factions. This bill shall be placed on the Knesset’s agenda within a year after the government is sworn in.”

Incoming finance minister, Yuval Steinitz, passed on a recommendation to Mr. Netanyahu to safeguard the legislation this past weekend.

“Every citizen who resides overseas and who visited the country in the past 36 months prior to the elections or visited the country at least once since the previous elections, will be allowed to vote in the Knesset elections in ballot boxes that will be available in Israel’s embassies and consulates overseas,” he wrote.

Mr. Steinitz claims the bill will increase voter turnout.

“The bill will strengthen the bond and affinity of Israelis residing overseas who tend to visit Israel,” Mr. Steinitz said. “And will prevent the discrimination that is created between those whose wealth allows them to fly to Israel just to vote in elections, and those who are less wealthy residing in the same place, among them, naturally, many students.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

As Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert prepares to leave office, he does so under a cloud of successive ethical and political failures. He departs his office with the noteworthiness of being the first Israeli prime minister to leave after having been indicted on charges of theft, breach of trust and fraud.

Additionally, unlike many of his predecessors, he leaves office with practically no popular support.

This cloud, however, does not seem to be affecting Mr. Olmert publicly.

“I am leaving with a sense of joy and satisfaction,” Mr. Olmert said yesterday, without hesitation, on his final day in office, three years after he was elected.

His term in office likely will be remembered as much for its failures as anything else.

Mr. Olmert’s tenure oversaw the 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, which the Winograd Commission – which he appointed to investigate Israeli conduct in the conflict – declared a failure.

The prime minister’s decision to send Israeli troops into Gaza in late December and early January produced few results except to strengthen Hamas’ resolve. The invasion had been intended to prevent the militants from firing rockets and mortar shells at Israeli targets; however, they did not stop. Mr. Olmert’s effort to return Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli prisoner of war held by Hamas in Gaza, likewise failed, and the war in Gaza made Israel especially hated worldwide.

From the day he failed in Lebanon and the investigations against him began, it was clear he was living on borrowed time. Since then, he has engaged mainly in survival.

The September 2007 strike against a Syrian nuclear reactor stands as his only acknowledged real achievement. Few details of the strike, however, are actually known.

Mr. Olmert leaves office as the “almost” man. He “almost” reached a breakthrough with Syria. He “almost” signed with the Palestinian Authority to end the conflict, and he “almost” brought back Gilad Shalit.

The charges against the outgoing prime minister, according to Israel’s law enforcement agencies, stem from his having allegedly abused his decades of power and status to gain – by every possible means – apartments, benefits, appointments for associates, airline tickets for family members, envelopes filled with cash, all at the public’s expense.

He will now stand trial on three criminal indictments, concerning accusations that he mishandled private investments, took bribes from an American businessman and embezzled funds from philanthropies.

Mr. Olmert’s legacy contrasts with previous Israeli prime ministers who left office with pride and who have major institutes and centers named after them, such as Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Menahem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.

The departing prime minister has hired public relations professionals to promote him as a speaker abroad, where he will ask for top fees to cover the legal costs that he will incur in the years to come. It remains to be seen if Mr. Olmert’s reputation in Israel will follow him abroad.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Palestinians have disbanded a youth orchestra from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) Jenin refugee camp after it performed last Wednesday for elderly Nazi concentration camp survivors who now live in the Tel Aviv suburb of Holon.

The children performers ranged in age from 11 to 13, including the son of Zakariya Zubeidi, a Fatah terrorist wanted for murder.

As a result of last week’s concert, part of the “Good Deeds Day” organized by the Ruach Tova/Good Spirit Foundation, the camp’s popular committee, which oversees municipal activities in the camp, ordered its disbandment.

Leading residents of the UNRWA camp, however, say they did not know who the orchestra was playing for until they saw the report published in a Israeli newspaper, Yediot Ahronot, which reported about the performance for the survivors.

Adnan al-Hindl, the head of the camp’s popular committee, told The Associated Press the Holocaust was “a political issue,” and he chastised Wafa Younis, the youth orchestra’s director, for dragging the children into politics.

“We want an orchestra; we want cultural education, but not by misusing the children,” Mr. al-Hindi said. “She exploited the children. She will be forbidden from doing any activities… We have to protect our children and our community.”

Other camp residents also agreed with Mr. al-Hindi’s sentiments.

Mr. al-Hindl charged the Palestinian people have suffered just as grievously as the Holocaust survivors had since the establishment of the State of Israel.

“The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar massacre by the Jews themselves,” Mr. al-Hindl said. “We lost our land, and we were forced to flee and we’ve lived in refugee camps for the past 50 years.”

The organizers, however, reject the claims being made by Mr. al-Hindl and others like him.

“We wanted to go to Israel with the children of Jenin and speak the language of music, which is the language of peace and respect between peoples,” said Ms. Younis, the orchestra’s director.

Kaynan Rabino, director of the foundation that organized the event, said he was disappointed to hear about the reaction in Jenin.

“They approached us and volunteered to play. Wafa knew the orchestra would play before Holocaust survivors,” he said. “We wanted to bring people’s hearts closer together, and if they are against that, then that’s a real shame.”

Ms. Younis, a resident of the village Ara in northern Israel, was declared “persona non grata” and was expelled from the refugee camp. The camp leaders filed a complaint against her with the Palestinian police on the grounds that she had acted unlawfully.

“The children are not to blame,” Mr. al-Hindi said yesterday. “They haven’t even heard about the Holocaust, but the director gave them politics instead of music. There are people who don’t even have mercy on children. Therefore, after a meeting of representatives of all the organizations in the camp, we decided to declare her ‘persona non grata’ in the refugee camp and closed her club.”

Members of the organization that helps the survivors heard the news with astonishment that the orchestra was being shut down.

“This is a foolish thing to do,” said Dan Waldman, director of the organization that provides psychological assistance to concentration camp survivors.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com

Until recently, Iran had waged a war of attrition against Israel through proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and Palestinian Arab terror groups.

Now, however, the Iranian-Israeli war is reaching a stage where Israel will no longer be able to only deal with Iran’s proxies.

Two months ago, as The Bulletin reported Friday, Israel bombed shipments of medium-range rockets that emanated from the Sudan, with a range of 46 miles, apparently of the “Fajr 3” model.

This is not a small rocket, and it is one the Iranians manufacture specifically for Gaza. It is designed so it will be possible to dismantle it and smuggle it through border tunnels between Gaza and Israel.

According to senior Israeli intelligence sources, Iran seeks to establish a rocket base on Israel’s southern border that can reach the Tel Aviv area from the south, after Iran already established a threatening Hezbollah base from the north.

This “stranglehold theory” established by Israeli intelligence is not theoretical one because Iran has been able to gain footholds on Israel’s northern and southern borders.

“We operate wherever we can target terrorist infrastructures: In near places-and in places less close,” said outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at a conference at the Interdisciplinary Intelligence Center Herzliya, coming close to affirming reports of an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) strike on Sudan.

Mr. Olmert went on to say at the event: “We hit them in a manner that enhances deterrence and strengthens the image of deterrence, which is no less important.

“This was true for the north, in a series of events, and it is true for the south in a series of events. There is no point in going into details – everyone can use his imagination on this matter. The fact is that those who need to know that there is no place where the State of Israel cannot operate. There is no such place.

“The State of Israel has never had more powerful deterrence than that which was built over the past few years,” Mr. Olmert said. “Military deterrence is not determined by newspaper headlines or by the random grumbling of self-interested political sources, but rather by what is projected towards those at whom the deterrence is aimed.”

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com