Mideast Report

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli police arrested two Jewish teenagers who allegedly pointed a toy gun at another boy dressed up as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The mock execution took place during a memorial in the West Bank on Monday at the grave of Dr. Baruch Goldstein, who killed 29 Muslim worshippers in 1994.

One of the youths was held for allegedly assaulting a policeman and the other was released after questioning, the Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported.

Dozens of far-right activists took part in Monday's memorial for Goldstein, who was beaten to death by Muslim worshipers after committing the massacre.

Haifa victim's funeral lures thief and cops

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Israeli police arrested a man suspected of breaking into mourners' cars during funerals for victims of the March 5 Haifa bus bombing.

Police arrested the man with stolen items in his possession after being alerted to the presence of a suspicious person among the parked cars, the daily Yediot Ahronot reported.

The man is suspected of involvement in a rash of previous car break-ins in the cemetery parking lot.

Israeli couple ends 'siege' of Bethlehem

JERUSALEM (JTA) -- An Israeli couple who barricaded themselves in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and threatened to blow themselves up surrendered after several hours Saturday.

The bomb and weapons the couple claimed to have turned out to be fake, Army Radio reported.

The couple, described as mentally unstable, reportedly were protesting that their children have been taken into state custody.

Israeli author slaps diaspora experience

JERUSALEM (JPS) -- Israeli novelist A.B. Yehoshua likened the Jewish experience in the diaspora to masturbation.

Yehoshua, one of Israel's leading novelists, told the Jerusalem Post that the "exile experience" has grown into an "integral" part of Jewish identity that pales compared with "the real thing" of living in Israel.

"Diaspora Judaism is masturbation," Yehoshua said during an extended interview with Jerusalem Post editors and reporters.