Short Takes

Gov. George Pataki proposed Tuesday a $500 per student tax credit to be used for instructional purposes by families who live in school districts identified as "failing" by the federal government, a proposal hailed by both the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations and Agudath Israel of America.
"This is an historic first step for New York State," said an Agudah statement.

In the end, the bridge did nÕt stand a chance. It was built in haste, with too little support to withstand the pressure. So as hundreds of athletes at the Maccabiah Games on a summer night in Israel prepared to make their way into Ramat Gan Stadium, to the roar of 50,000 fans, the makeshift overpass they were crossing gave way, plunging dozens of participants into the Yarkon River.

Even before its Dec. 23 release, Steven Spielberg's movie, "Munich," which Time magazine calls his "secret masterpiece," is creating angst among some Jewish leaders.
"After 'Schindler's List,' he became the darling of the Jews," said one leader. "We're afraid that he is now trying to balance the act. He may be trying to show that although he is pro-Jewish, he is not pro-Israel. This may be his anti-'Schindler's List.'"

One of the most poignant and overlooked aspects of the religious pluralism crisis between Israel and American Jewry is that the Ne’eman committee that was set up to find a compromise managed to achieve its goal.

President George W. Bush, who has seemed at times like a PR agent for Natan Sharansky's 2004 book on democracy, is now finding himself under the former Soviet dissident's unblinking eye.
Sharansky, a Knesset member, told The Jewish Week that if reports are true that the United States is holding al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons in eight countries, it should consider closing those prisons.
"I would say, bring the people here and interrogate them here," he said during a visit here. "Or if you [interrogate them] there, do it under your laws."

Dallas — I wish the chief rabbinate of Israel had sent a representative or two last weekend to the Reform movement’s biennial convention here.

Brightened peace prospects are putting smiles on Israel's financial markets.
In the wake of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, investor confidence in Israel is up, sparking such a demand for an Israeli bond offering in Europe last week that Israel increased the size of the bond and reduced the interest rate.

Not even game theory can save the Israelis and the Palestinians.
That's the view of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem professor emeritus who shared the Nobel Prize in economics this week for his work using game theory to understand conflict resolution.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "irreconcilable" and there is nothing Israel or the international community can do to bring about peace, Professor Robert J. Aumann told The Jewish Week.

In describing his efforts to root out what he insists is Christian proselytizing in the U.S. military, Air Force veteran Mikey Weinstein recalled a saying of Gov.-elect Eliot Spitzer's: "You don't change the world by whispering."
"My book is a scream to get the world to wake up to what is happening," he said of his book, "With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military."

A new public opinion poll in France appears to confirm Abba Eban's oft-quoted observation that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
The survey, conducted for the Israel Project, a Washington-based nonprofit designed to promote Israel, found that French support for Palestinians has plummeted since Israel withdrew from Gaza and the Palestinians then elected the Hamas terrorist group to represent them.