Shorts: Mideast

Canadian minister goes for gold

jerusalem (jta) | Canada's justice minister is slated to represent his nation at the Maccabiah Games in Israel next month.

Irwin Cotler so far is Canada's sole registered participant in the table tennis competition. Cotler always has loved table tennis and while he never thought himself good enough to play competitively he admitted in a recent interview that "it will be a great opportunity to just be there and move from tabling laws to table tennis."

Canada will send 400 athletes to this year's Games.




Chief rabbi recuses self during inquiry

jerusalem (jta) | Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi suspended himself from key clerical posts pending a Justice Ministry decision on whether to charge him in a bribery case.

Yona Metzger said this week that he was temporarily stepping down from the Rabbinical High Court and Israel's national committee for selecting religious judges.

The decision was a response to a petition filed by an Israeli watchdog group to the High Court of Justice, claiming Metzger should not remain active in office as long as he is dogged by corruption allegations.

Police said last month that Metzger was suspected of taking bribes and breach of trust, but Attorney General Menachem Mazuz has not yet decided whether to press charges.

U.S. travel warning downgraded

jerusalem (jta) | The U.S. State Department revised its travel warning for Israel, allowing U.S. government personnel to travel more extensively in the West Bank.

The updated warning, issued this week, allows personnel to travel and stop in cities and towns in the West Bank for government business, based on security conditions, and to travel on primary roads. Personal travel to cities like Jericho and Bethlehem remains prohibited.




In new poll, most Jews favor pullout

jerusalem (jta) | The majority of American Jews and Israelis support the Israeli government's plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip, according to a Yeshiva University poll.

Some 65 percent of American Jews support the withdrawal plan, with 21 percent opposed, according to the poll of Jewish Life and Opinion. The poll surveyed 1,000 American Jews and 1,000 Israeli Jews on a range of issues, from the war in Iraq to President Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Among Israeli Jews, 54 percent support the plan, with 41 percent opposed. Seventy percent of U.S. Jews and 59 percent of Israeli Jews think Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is "genuinely interested in peace."

However, 58 percent of U.S. Jews and 80 percent of Israeli Jews think Abbas must dismantle terrorist groups to jump-start the peace process, and just 27 percent of U.S. Jews and 28 percent of Israeli Jews think Abbas will do so.




Survey: Few settlers plan to resist

jerusalem (jta) | Fewer than one in five Israeli settlers plan to resist the upcoming Gaza Strip withdrawal, a poll found.

According to a Hebrew University survey published over the weekend, 18 percent of settlers polled said they would resist evacuation from Gaza and the northern West Bank, slated to begin in August.

It was not clear from the poll if this would include violent measures, but settler leaders insist that organized resistance will be passive only. In a finding that suggests Israelis expect more resistance than may actually occur, the researchers found that 38 percent of the general Israeli population expect "most" settlers to resist evacuation.




Most Israeli Arabs support Jewish state, report finds

jerusalem (jta) | Most Israeli Arabs back the idea of a Jewish state, a survey found.

According to the poll released as part of a Jaffa conference on race relations, 70 percent of the country's Arab citizens said they believed Israel has the right to exist as a democratic Jewish state, and a quarter voiced support for government efforts to maintain a Jewish majority in Israel.

Around half of Arab respondents said they did not trust Israeli Jews, while 60 percent of Jews polled said the same about their Arab compatriots. According to the survey, 25 percent of Israeli Jews believe Arabs should not enjoy full civil rights.




Israel plans sea barrier off Gaza

jerusalem (jta) | Israel launched plans to build a sea barrier to thwart attacks off the Gaza Strip coast.

The Israeli navy is planning the barrier to keep out potential terrorists after Israel withdraws from Gaza later this summer.




'Irish Moses' dies

jerusalem (jta) | A non-Jew who helped fly thousands of Yemenite Jewish refugees to Israel died at age 94.

Robert Maguire, Jr., chief pilot of "Operation Magic Carpet," died June 10 of natural causes at his California home, according to the Los Angeles Times. An American of Irish and British origin who was raised Episcopalian, Maguire was working for Alaska Airlines in 1948 when it was contracted by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee to fly Yemenite Jews to Israel.

Maguire helped bring more than 40,000 refugees on nearly 400 flights to Israel, prompting Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to dub him the "Irish Moses."