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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/38532/full/38532/sho/ <br /><br /> <b>Shorts: mideast</b> <br /> Thursday, July 9, 2009 | by <br /><br /><h2>Current Knesset member gives birth</h2> <p>Anastassia Michaeli, a current member of the Israeli Knesset, gave birth to her eighth child July 5, becoming the first member of Knesset to have a baby while in office.</p> <p>Knesset members are not entitled to maternity leave, according to a recent opinion by the parliament’s legal counsel.</p> <p>Michaeli, a member of the Yisrael Beiteinu Party, told Ha’aretz in an interview two months ago that she would work as usual, perhaps from home, and bring her baby to plenum meetings. — jta</p> <p> </p> <h2>Jerusalem parking lot protests continue</h2> <p>Demonstrations against a decision to open a Jerusalem parking lot on Shabbat continued for a second straight week. The new round of demonstrations, which began July 4, were less violent than previous ones, Ha’aretz reported.</p> <p>The Carta parking lot, which is privately owned, was opened by Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in order to assist Shabbat visitors to the holy city. The lot is staffed by non-Jews and is free on Shabbat.</p> <p>Most marchers were stopped by police roadblocks, though some managed to gather at the lot, located across from the Old City walls near the Jaffa Gate. Protestors at the parking lot were heard calling the police “murderers” and “Nazis,” according to Ha’aretz. Last week, some 57 demonstrators were detained by police. — jta</p> <p> </p> <h2>Mubarak confirms Shalit in good health</h2> <p>Kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, captured three years ago by Palestinian militants, is “fine,” Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said.</p> <p>“I believe there were contacts [with Shalit] and that soldier Shalit is fine, and I hope that in the upcoming period, maybe, not in the long term, the issue of soldier Shalit will end,” Mubarak told journalists following a meeting July 7 with Israeli President Shimon Peres.</p> <p>Mubarak also told Peres during the news conference that Israel will have to “take difficult decisions” in order to make peace with the Arab world.”</p> <p>“The peace process cannot handle another failure,” Mubarak warned. — jta</p> <p> </p> <h2>Assad invites Obama to Syria</h2> <p>In a July 2 interview with Sky News, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad invited President Barack Obama to visit Damascus.</p> <p>“We would like to welcome him to Syria, definitely. I am very clear about this,” Assad said of Obama, according to Reuters. “Any summit between any two presidents is something positive.”</p> <p>Assad added, “That doesn’t mean you have to agree about everything. But when you discuss, this is how we can close the gap.” — jta</p> <p> </p> <h2>Jew for Jesus baker gets kashrut OK</h2> <p>Israel’s Supreme Court ordered Ashdod’s chief rabbi to return a kashrut certificate to a bakery owned by a Jew for Jesus. The court said that Pnina Conforty’s religious beliefs did not render her Ashdod bakery unkosher.</p> <p>Conforty, a Yemenite Jew, had her certificate removed by Rabbi Yosef Sheinen in 2006 when the Ashdod chief rabbi discovered that Conforty had embraced Jews for Jesus.</p> <p>Conforty eventually petitioned the Supreme Court, which based its ruling on a case from the 1980s in which the Jerusalem Chief Rabbinate withdrew its kashrut certification from wedding halls and restaurants that allowed belly dancers to perform. The court ruled then that the issue of the dancer was not a core kashrut issue. — jta</p> <p> </p> <h2>Ancient quarry uncovered in Jerusalem</h2> <p>Israeli archeologists have uncovered an ancient quarry whose stones were likely used to build the Temple walls.</p> <p>Uncovered during excavations for residential buildings on Shmuel Hanavi Street in Jerusalem, the stone quarry dates from the end of the Second Temple period.</p> <p>“The immense size of the stones indicates it was highly likely that the large stones that were quarried at the site were destined for use in the construction of Herod’s magnificent projects in Jerusalem, including the Temple walls,” said Ofer Sion, the excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority. — jta</p>

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