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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JULY 22, 1986
I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank those who are
responsible for writing, editing and publishing "The Worldwide
News."
Though I have had the opportunity to read earlier
copies that belong to friends, I was delighted when I recently
received my first personal copy.
Thank you for the "Iron
Sharpens Iron" section, for it has already been very helpful.
Texas
I look forward to each "Iron Sharpens Iron." We are so rich
in good, concise material for our learning and growth. I pity
those who do not have this available.
Illinois
I want to praise you for the good works you are producing
through "Iron Sharpens Iron." Your articles are uplifting and
are coming in at the right time.
God's way is truly an
education and has great rewards along the way. Please accept
my appreciation for your dedication and your good works.
Illinois
--Richard Rice, Mail Processing Center
ON THE WORLD SCENE
ISRAEL'S DOMESTIC TURMOIL; EUROPE: HALFWAY TO UNITY;
THE SOVIET WORLD VIEW: THE NAUGHTY LITTLE PRINCE
Israel:
Scandals and Growing Religious Tension The state of Israel is
going through more than its normal run of turmoil. Relations have soured
somewhat with the United States, Israel's chief patron, over the recent
uncovering of an Israeli spy operation in the U.S.
At home, the
Israelis' domestic intelligence service, known as Shin Bet, has been
under fire since it was discovered that its agents killed in detention
two Arab terrorists who helped hijack an Israeli bus in 1984.
Perhaps far more serious to Israel's long-term security is the growing
rift between the more or less secular Jewish majority and the ultra
Orthodox minority. In June, tensions between the two groups erupted into
outright violence. Orthodox militants burned or vandalized more than 100
bus shelters which carried advertising they considered offensive.
(The
ads showed women in swimsuits and standing in the company of men.) Angry
mainstream Israelis countered by smearing swastikas on a synagogue in Tel
Aviv and ransacking
.
two religious schools, shredding prayer books and
ripping prayer shawls to fragments.
A note found in the damaged
synagogue vowed, in classic eye-for-eye fashion, that one synagogue would
be burned for every bus shelter set ablaze.
President Chaim Herzog
described the incidents of both groups as "tantamount to domestic anti
semitism," their actions producing, he said, "a nightmare the Devil
himself could not have created."
The ultra-Orthodox consider the secular Zionists as heretics who have
attempted to resurrect the state of Israel through their own human
efforts, before the coming of the Messiah. The Zionists, in turn, look
upon the ultra-Orthodox as backward fanatics.
For years each group