An excerpt from JIJ’s newsletter:

Bibi's "Mission" Impossible

Following our recent elections, Benjamin Netanyahu was asked by President Shimon Peres to form a coalition government; a mission that proved to be more difficult than expected. Tzipi Livni breached pre-election promises by refusing to join a national unity government, forcing Netanyahu to create a narrow right-wing/religious government. What does this mean in plain English? The ultra-religious parties are back in the seat of power in Israel.

How will that affect your life? Well, if you are a Conservative Jew, Reform Jew, Messianic Jew, an Evangelical Christian (perhaps residing in Israel on a temporary student or volunteer visa) or are affiliated with any other type of minority religious stream in Israel, you better start praying.

Here is a direct quote from the coalition agreement between the Likud and Shas parties, under a section titled "Religion and State": "The government will look into the claims regarding the expansion of the scope of illegal missionary activity in Israel and the steps required to deal with it, to the extent necessary."

You may think that this is no big deal; since no person in the history of the modern state of Israel has ever actually been indicted with "illegal missionary activity" (i.e. proselytizing minors are bribing someone to convert to a different religion). But let's not be naive. Shas did not have a narrow legal definition of "missionary" in mind when that coalition agreement was signed. Every Messianic Jew in Israel, for instance, is profiled by Shas' rabbis as "an illegal missionary" regardless of their actual vocation or behavior.

Shas, who had control of the Ministry of Interior in Israel for several decades up until they were replaced by the Shinui Party in 2004, proved that they are capable of creating a well-oiled machine of discrimination against members of all minority religions within Israel. Well, guess what. Thanks to Mr. Netanyahu's current quandry, they are back. Not only will they have the right to appoint a new Minister of Interior from their ranks tomorrow, they also received the chairmanship of the Knesset Committee on Internal Affairs.

We are not saying that it is time to enter your bunkers and bob-shelters, but we would strongly recommend that you do not mention the name of any Messianic Jewish friends, when asked at Ben-Gurion Airport if you know anyone in Israel. An innocent Evangelical family from Hong-Kong, who came to Israel for a "Bible Roots Tour" accidentally did that last week and was immediately arrested, put in jail and told that they would be sent back to Hong-Kong on the next available flight. Why? They were told by a Ministry of Interior clerk at the entrance terminal that they were suspected of "illegal missionary activity". Does that term sound familiar? It was only through the spontaneous efforts of the JIJ team, together with other justice-loving partners such as Mr. Eeki Elner (www.affi.org.il ), that the family from Hong-Kong was released from jail after several hours. It should be noted that they were required to deposit a $30,000 cash bail sign a declaration to the effect that they will not engage in "missionary activity" during their travels in Israel.