German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck will not be
meeting with Pensioners Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan during the former's
visit to Israel this week. Steinbrueck is his government's point man on
negotiations over Holocaust survivors' compensation payments. German
treasury officials told Haaretz on Tuesday that Eitan's move to reopen
the reparations agreement between Israel and Germany was a "private
initiative" that did not represent the position of the Israeli
government. They said that a meeting between Steinbrueck and Eitan was
never on the finance minister's agenda for the week.
Aides to Eitan, however, claim that Steinbrueck canceled at the last minute a meeting with Eitan initiated by the German side.
"I am acting in accordance with a series of cabinet resolutions, in
coordination with and as an envoy of the prime minister," Eitan said
Tuesday. He also questioned the German claim that he did not represent
the state. "If I'm not Israel's official representative, then why did
Germany send its deputy finance minister here to speak with me," Eitan
asked. "Why did [German Chancellor Angela] Merkel appoint a
representative as my opposite number?" Associates
of Eitan point an accusing finger at the Conference on Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany. "They stepped in and caused the meeting to be
canceled. From the start, they were angry that we went into their
territory," members of Eitan's circle said.
"The Claims Conference is not operating in a vacuum, it's a
contractor for the Israeli government. It's the government's right to
discuss the issue with Germany as a sovereign state," Eitan said.
Reuven Merhav, chairman of the Claims Conference's executive
committee, said Tuesday that he had not heard statements of this kind
from Eitan. "We have an open and honest relationship. Since I've been
in office, we have been careful to cultivate the relationship with the
minister appointed by the state [to deal with Holocaust compensation
and the restoration of property]."
Officials in Steinbreuck's office reiterated Tuesday that Germany
had no plans to negotiate with the Israeli government over an increase
in compensation payments, and that talks on this issue were dealt with
via the Claims Conference.
Noah Flug, Chairman of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust
Survivors in Israel, was invited to the meeting with Steinbrueck. Flug,
who received an invitation from the German embassy in Israel, told
Haaretz on Tuesday: "We will present the situation and the problems of
Holocaust survivors in Israel: the financial, health and mental
situation. We will not negotiate, but the very fact of the discussion
and the presentation of the topic - of course it stems from the German
government's duty toward the victims."
The German government has recently faced domestic criticism over
its conduct toward Israel on the matter. Fritz Kuhn, the Green Party
whip in the Bundestag, lashed out at the government's refusal to reopen
the reparations agreement. "It is despicable that the German government
does not give social assistance to needy Holocaust survivors," Kuhn
said this week in an interview with the German paper Suddeutsche
Zeitung. "The government must respond immediately to the request to
enlarge the payments. We, the Germans, carry a special and eternal
responsibility that we must meet."
After months of angry public hearings over possible fare increases, transit officials announced Tuesday that the base cost for New York's 7.3 million daily subway and bus riders will remain at $2 through 2009, after the state authority found $220 million in additional revenue.
The decision was announced by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who's endured a rougher ride lately that any city commuter. And while the $2 basic fare will not change, the cost of unlimited ride monthly MetroCards and other discount programs may still increase, the state agency said.
"I believe this is a compromise that helps our customers without compromising our fiduciary responsibility," said MTA Chairman H. Dale Hemmerdinger.
The increase in bus and subway fares, which was angrily denounced at public hearings this year, was expected to go into effect in 2008.
The MTA said it was backing off its unpopular proposal after an additional $220 million was found in its updated budget forecasts, with a portion of the funds coming from an increase in anticipated ridership.
"I said I would listen to the public and review the numbers, and I am thrilled that we are able to give something back," Hemmerdinger said.
Last month, four state senators wrote the MTA asking to scrap the plan to raise subway fares and tolls next year. They joined transit advocates in urging the nation's biggest mass-transit system to take the proposal off its board agenda for December.
The MTA was looking at two ways to raise fares; both proposals would have raised bus and subway fares from $2 to $2.25.
Among those backing the plan to retain the $2 fare was Spitzer.
The announcement comes as the Democratic governor's popularity was spiraling, forcing him to back off his plan to make it easier for illegal immigrants to get driver's licenses. A Siena College poll last week found 64 percent of New Yorkers had a negative rating of his job performance. In January, 75 percent of New Yorkers viewed him favorably.
"For the first time in a long time he's trying to take a page out of old play book and make a popular move," said Lee Miringoff of the Marist College poll. "So far, it's been a short book. But he's opened the book, I assume to garner at least some support."
Spitzer won a record share of the vote a year ago -- 69 percent -- running in part as a fiscal conservative. But his first budget, pressured by the Legislature, increased spending at twice the inflation rate. Even his supporters were unhappy with the spending plan, and the criticism has snowballed in recent months following feuds with the Senate's Republican majority.
Spitzer has promised no tax increases in his 2008-09 budget proposal to the Legislature, which is due in January.
Last week, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey unveiled a widely anticipated plan to increase tolls by 33 percent for drivers between the two states. They said the proposal would help build a crucial train tunnel and encourage mass transit and environmentally friendly driving.
The Port Authority, which owns six bridges and tunnels, wants to raise rush-hour tolls on the crossings from $6 to $8, while increasing fares on PATH commuter trains from $1.50 to $2.(BW)
The Anne Frank museum insists it still wants a diseased chestnut tree cut down for safety reasons, despite a court reprieve over its felling.
An Amsterdam court ruled on Tuesday the city council must work with
conservationists in the coming two months to look into alternatives to the felling of the 150-year-old tree, that had been due to start at dawn on Wednesday.
Museum director Hans Westra said he would consider asking Amsterdam's mayor to overrule the court and allow the felling to go ahead if new tests confirm the tree is infected with a fungal strain that spreads quickly.
"This is no longer the tree as Anne Frank saw it," he said. "I'm much more in favor of a young tree."
Tests showed only 24 percent of the tree was still healthy.
The teenage diarist, who died in a concentration camp in 1945, looked out on the tree as she hid from the Nazis. It stands in a private garden next to the museum.
Westra told a news conference he expected a record of just over 1 million visitors to Frank's hiding place this year and was concerned about their safety as long as the chestnut remained.
Tree conservationists who sought the injunction against the felling said their stability tests showed the 27-tonne chestnut was still safe and its life could be prolonged by decades by supporting it with steel cables.
Westra rejected that idea and said attaching cables to the museum could endanger the building.
The Jewish teenager drew comfort from the tree as one of the only signs of nature visible from her stuffy hiding place, mentioning it several times in her diary before being betrayed and arrested by the Nazis in 1944.
Council official Els Iping said she was worried the tree could topple over while talks were under way with conservationists.
Iping and Westra said they understood the global attention the tree attracted but condemned frenzied bidding for a chestnut from the tree on auction on eBay. "This is a form of commercialization that I find tasteless," Westra said.(reuters)
Remains of an ancient synagogue from the Roman-Byzantine era have been revealed in excavations carried out in the Arbel National Park in the Galilee under the auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
The excavations, in the Khirbet Wadi Hamam, were led by Dr. Uzi Leibner of the Hebrew University's Institute of Archaeology and Scholion -- Interdisciplinary Research Center in Jewish Studies.
Dr. Leibner said that the synagogue's design is a good example of the eastern Roman architectural tradition. A unique feature of the synagogue is the design of its mosaic floor, he said.
The synagogue ruins are located at the foot of the Mt. Nitai cliffs overlooking the Sea of Galilee, amidst the remains of a large Jewish village from the Roman-Byzantine period. The first season of excavations there have revealed the northern part of the synagogue, with two rows of benches along the walls. The building is constructed of basalt and chalk stone and made use of elements from an earlier structure on the site.
Archaeologists differ among themselves as to which period the ancient Galilean synagogues belong. The generally accepted view is that they can be attributed to the later Roman period (second to fourth centuries C.E.), a time of cultural and political flowering of the Jews of the Galilee. Recently, some researchers have come to believe that these synagogues were built mainly during the Byzantine period (fifth and sixth centuries C.E.), a time in which Christianity rose to power and, it was thought, the Jews suffered from persecution. Dr. Leibner noted that this difference of scholarly opinion has great significance in perhaps redrawing the historical picture of Jews in those ancient times.
The excavators were surprised to find in the eastern aisle of the synagogue a mosaic decoration which to date has no parallels -- not in other synagogues, nor in art in Israel in general from the Roman-Byzantine period. The mosaic is made of tiny stones (four mm. in size) in a variety of colors. The scene depicted is that of a series of woodworkers who are holding various tools of their trade.
Near these workers is seen a monumental structure which they are apparently building. According to Dr. Leibner, since Biblical scenes are commonly found in synagogue art, it is possible that what we see in this case is the building of the Temple, or Noah's ark, or the tower of Babel. The mosaic floor has been removed from the excavation site and its now in the process of restoration.
The archaeologists at the site are also attempting, though their excavations, to gain a clearer picture of rural Jewish village life in Roman-era Galilee. In addition to excavating the synagogue, they also are involved in uncovering residential dwellings and other facilities at the site, such as a sophisticated olive oil press and solidly-built two-story homes.
"There are those who tend to believe that the rural Jewish villagers of that era lived in impoverished houses or in huts and that the magnificent synagogues existed in contrast to the homes that surrounded them," said Dr. Leibner. 'While it is true that the synagogues were built of a quality that exceeded the other structures of the village, the superior quality private dwellings here testify to the impressive economic level of the residents."
Participating in the excavations were students from the Hebrew University Institute of Archaeology, Jewish youth groups from abroad and many other volunteers. (SD)
After visiting the chestnut tree, the judge at the Amsterdam administrative court, has ordered a stay on the felling of a diseased tree beloved by Anne Frank.
The Anne Frank museum insists it still wants a diseased chestnut tree cut down for safety reasons, despite a court reprieve over its felling.
