Haaretz
PM to meet Lapid in bid to win Shinui support in budget vote
By Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Shinui chairman Yosef Lapid were slated to meet Saturday evening at Sharon's Sycamore Ranch in the Negev to discuss the 2005 state budget.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/556164.html
PA, U.S. officials discuss plan to expand Maaleh Adumim
By Haaretz Staff and Agencies
Senior Palestinian officials on Thursday asked visiting United States envoys to help block the expansion of Ma'aleh Adumim, warning that the planned construction would cut off East Jerusalem - the Palestinians' intended capital - from territory they seek for a future state.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/556494.html
Our Purim Gallery
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PurimGallery.jhtml?groupId=35
Annan delays release of UN inquiry on Hariri killing
By Reuters and Haaretz Service
UNITED NATIONS - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has decided to delay for at least a few hours the release of a UN report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a spokesman said on Thursday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/556630.html
The Jerusalem Post
Slight change in tone of UN rights body toward Israel
By HERB KEINON
South African jurist John Dugard in UN
As usual, the report on the territories commissioned by the UN Commission on Human Rights and presented in Geneva this week slammed Israel for alleged human rights violations, while nary wagging a finger at the Palestinians
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634308459
Annan: We must define terrorism
By HERB KEINON AND AP
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan unveils his new report and list of reforms, titled, "In Larger Freedom: Towards Security, Development and Human Rights for All," at the General Assembly at U.N. headquarters
Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged world leaders Monday to adopt the boldest changes to the United Nations in its 60-year history, including defining terrorism as an attack on all civilians, saying they were essential to tackle global threats in the 21st century.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111375278445
UN housing chief vague on future of Gaza assets
By HERB KEINON
Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, the visiting head of the UN agency charged with promoting sustainable urban planning, was noncommittal on whether she thinks the Palestinian Authority should use settlements evacuated by Israel to permanently house Palestinian refugees.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111461690529
Drop in terror alerts from Nablus
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
Since the four way summit at Sharm E Sheikh there has been a sharp decrease in terror warnings stemming from the Nablus area, with no alerts generating from the city in the past three weeks a senior IDF commander said Thursday. Once considered the capital of terror, so far this year a total of 13 alerts were received compared with 32 for the same period last year.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634308798
Maon Farm keeps police busy
By YAAKOV KATZ
Police do not seem to have one day of rest from the settlers of the Maon Farm outpost in the southern Hebron hills. On Thursday, settlers from the settlement clashed with left-wing activists who were escorting Palestinian children to school on a road nearby.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111634309004
Poly-Esther
By JUDITH CANTOR
For Gabriella Lev, author, adapter, and actress in Theater Company Jerusalem's production of Esther, the story of Purim is more than a retelling of the victory of the Jews over the machinations of Haman. It is a story about the temporality of life and fate, about the Holocaust and its continuing effects on our lives today, about history and current events.
"Because the Megilla combines both immediacy and eternity, Purim means something different every time we read it," says Lev. "And every year, we call on Esther, the eternal feminine goddess, to work her magic, to perform a miracle, to save us."
For Lev, performing Esther serves as a meeting place for the disparate elements of her own life, as the child of Holocaust survivors growing up in Australia, as a Jew who studies ancient texts, as a feminist, as an actress.
But the story, she believes, has significance for all Jews, she says.
"The story of Purim is a fairy tale, a myth, but it lies deep in the consciousness of our people. The connection between the Megilla and the Holocaust cannot be coincidental. Haman called to... the Jews, and that is what Hitler did.
"The implications are complex, maybe frightening. Perhaps we Jews see ourselves so strongly as victims that we cannot identify as victors.
Perhaps that is why it is easier for some Israelis to identify with the suffering of the Palestinians than with the suffering of our own people. We must be careful how we use power, but we must also be willing to take power. Those are the lessons of the Megilla of Esther, and those are the lessons of our history."
Esther is a personalized interpretation of the Megilla, says Lev, referring to the rabbinical literary opus of sermons, stories, parables, and commentaries on the Bible, created over the centuries to provide insight and depth to the sparsely written biblical narrative.
But as she performs Esther for an eighth season, she notes that her interpretations and midrashim are changing.
"When I first performed, the play was charged with feminist anger. I challenged the audiences to know more about Esther, who, like so many women, was part of history, but never part of its telling.
Today, the script remains the same, but the anger is simply not there any more."
Women, she observes, are reclaiming their role in history. Now, she views the play as a call for balance. "We must acknowledge all of the different sides of ourselves. In each of us, there is a king, a queen, a Jew, and yes, a Haman, an aggressor."
In Esther, as in all of TCJ's productions, Lev calls on the audience to engage in a feminine interpretation. "This, too, is part of the balance that we must achieve. Women are not only the reflection of men's feminine side, they have their own perspectives, just as men do. Taken together, we reach a fuller reading."
By using theater, TCJ makes the ancient texts more accessible to modern audiences, inviting them in to a "close reading" that brings the text close to their lives.
"We call on the audience to engage in dialogue with the text of the Megilla," Lev says. "We must do so with modesty, these are the greatest works that civilization has produced. But we must not be overwhelmed, either, or afraid to question. It is the dialogue that has kept our culture alive."
Gabriella Lev will be performing Esther at Beit Shmuel on March 22 and 23 at 8:30 p.m. Tickets available at the box office.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1111030175225
Purim costumes go over the top
By ELIANA SCHONWALD AND YAAKOV KATZ
Besides the familiar Queen Esther and Haman costumes worn for Purim, children have been seen around the country wearing more shocking outfits – including Palestinian suicide bombers and even concentration camp inmates.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111548530773
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