January 25, 2013 Briar Crier

  BRIARCRIER

January 25, 2013, Friday 12:15, The Briar's Restaurant, North State Road, Briarcliff Manor Rotary Club 

TODAY IN HISTORY

1533: England's King Henry VIII secretly married his second wife, Anne  Boleyn, who later gave birth to Queen Elizabeth.

MEETING LEADER: President–elect Anne Cargill for President  Kris Chittur

PLEDGE – Sy Yuter            PATRIOTIC SONG – Sy Yuter            Prayer – Rev. Lee

HAPPY THOUGHTS AND BUCKS: Mark, happy to be here; Sy, happy to be speaker; Eric, won two platform tennis games; Dr. Bob Maher, his school fully accredited and marching band will march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade.

ANNOUNCEMENTS – 18 Rotarians present; Rachel, ice skating in village. 

GUESTS – None 

SPEAKER AND SUBJECT: Dr. Sy Yuter on Israel-Hamas dispute and Israel Election

                                                                 SUMMARY OF TALK

Hamas has a religious committment to end the existence of Israel but willing to have a 5-10 year cease fire which opens door to Sy's proposal of a Middle East Free Trade Area, first in a 2.5 square mile port and then in 20% of the 140 square-mile Gaza Strip. The much larger West Bank is controlled by Fatah and is now called by them the Palestine State. Fatah has the same final goal as Hamas, to end the Jewish state, so he does not see two separate states because a Palestinian state on the West Bank would still seek the destruction of Israel. In the Israel election for the 120-seat Parliament the results were: Likud, 31 seats: Future, 19; Labor, 15; Jewish Home, 12; the ultra-religious parties 18; with the left and Arab parties the remaining seats. The basic issues were the home economy and the ultra-religious parties being free of serving Israel or in the Israeli army. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have a hard time putting a government together since he has to make a deal with Lapid, the head of the Future party, who wants to be foreign minister (probably acceptable to Netanyahu),  and the issue of the ultra-religious parties freedom from serving Israel or in its army is hard to bridge.

                                      

Friday  – Zen Eidel on Anatomy of a Painting

Elinor Yuter, Reporter

Rachel Leihbacher, Expediter