Israel at 65: Success still plagued by uncertainty

JERUSALEM (AP) — In 65 years, Israel has surpassed the dreams of its founders, emerging as the Middle East's strongest military force, a global high-tech powerhouse and a prosperous homeland for the Jewish people.

Yet it remains a divided society, and its most intractable problem — peace with its Arab neighbors — has yet to be resolved.

On the eve of the 65th anniversary of its creation, the Jewish renaissance in the Holy Land remains a work in progress.

Dominating the short term is Iran's nuclear program, which Israel believes is aimed at developing an atomic weapon that could be used against the Jewish state, despite Iranian denials. Unrest along Israel's borders is equally worrisome.

Over the longer term, reaching peace with the Palestinians remains elusive, with the sides unable to agree even on how to restart negotiations. Palestinians consider creation of Israel a catastrophe that caused a stubborn refugee problem.

The 46-year occupation of Palestinian territories also ignites domestic and international tensions. Without a partition, Arabs could one day outnumber Jews, threatening Israel's democratic nature.

Israel began observing its annual Memorial Day on Sunday evening, honoring fallen soldiers and victims of militant attacks. At 8 p.m., air raid sirens sounded nationwide to mark a minute of silence. A two-minute siren was set for Monday morning.

At sundown Monday, the country abruptly shifts its mood to mark its 65th Independence Day with fireworks, military processions and picnics. The transformation from grief to joy is an annual ritual meant to show the link between the sacrifices and the accomplishments.

"Today there are also those who rise up against us and threaten to destroy us. They did not succeed in the past, and they will never succeed," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a Memorial Day ceremony Sunday. Netanyahu's older brother, Yonatan, was killed in a military operation in 1976.

Israel declared independence on May 14, 1948, marking the date each year on the Hebrew calendar. Since then, it has been in a constant state of conflict with its neighbors, most recently eight days of exchanges last November with Palestinian militants firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. It has signed peace treaties with just two Arab nations, Egypt and Jordan.

Yet the country is thriving in other ways. It has weathered the global financial crisis better than most, with unemployment below 7 percent and a growing economy. As a "startup nation," it has pioneered breakthroughs, including Wi-Fi technology, the computer firewall and instant messaging. In the past decade, Israeli scientists have won six Nobel prizes in chemistry and economics.

It has absorbed immigrants from more than 100 countries to host the world's largest Jewish population, evolving from a largely agrarian backwater to consistently rank high in measures of standard of living. Israel has given the world international supermodels, and its war history has inspired Oscar-nominated films and a TV series that was adapted into "Homeland," the award-winning American show.

"The state of Israel is truly a fantastic success story, perhaps among the greatest success stories of the 20th century," said Tom Segev, an Israeli author and historian. "There's an Israeli culture, a renewal of the Hebrew language. The most amazing thing is that we now have a third generation of Israelis for whom the country is a given. 'Israeliness' has become something that we take for granted."

On the other hand, Segev noted that the country is still grappling with the same basic issue that plagued it in 1948 — its relations with the Palestinians.

Israel still does not have internationally recognized borders, and remains in control of about 2.5 million Arabs living in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israel captured the areas, along with the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war, withdrawing from Gaza in 2005. The Palestinians claim all three territories for a future state.

"We haven't been able to solve this and we may not be able to solve it all," Segev said. "Most Israelis look at the Palestinian issue as a military problem and not a political problem. As long as it is quiet and there is no terror, we think everything is fine."

Israelis argue that the Palestinians have rejected generous peace offers, a claim the Palestinians reject, pointing to Israel's construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem as a sign of bad faith.

Nahum Barnea, a veteran newspaper columnist, said that even if Israel can resolve its conflict with the Palestinians, its place in the heart of the Muslim world will never be certain.

"The occupation (of the West Bank) is an open wound. But even if the occupation were to miraculously end, the country's relations with the rest of the world would not suddenly be solved," he said. "Our struggle is not behind us. It is with us and ahead of us."

Israel has serious internal problems as well.

About 20 percent of its 8 million citizens are Arabs, who are often treated like second-class citizens and frequently identify with the Palestinians.

Nearly 10 percent of Israelis are ultra-Orthodox Jews, who have clashed with the general public over their dependence on welfare instead of work, refusal to serve in the military and attempts to impose their strict practices on broader society.

More than half of Israel's first grade students are now either Arab or ultra-Orthodox Jews, predicting a future demographic makeup that is less loyal to the state and less productive to its workforce.

Israel's transformation into a high-tech, knowledge-based economy has also fueled a growing gap between rich and poor, setting off protests in the summer of 2011 against the country's high cost of living.

Despite all their issues, Israelis are among the world's happiest people. Recent surveys by the OECD, Gallop and the United Nations' World Happiness Report all had Israel near the top.

Most Israelis appear to have developed an ability to block out the nation's problems and focus on life in a country that just a century ago was just a dream.

"Israelis feel that things are good with them, but not with the state," Segev said.

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Follow Heller on Twitter (at)aronhellerap

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Conclave to elect next pope opens amid uncertainty

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Cardinals enter the Sistine Chapel on Tuesday to elect the next pope amid more upheaval and uncertainty than the Catholic Church has seen in decades: There's no front-runner, no indication how long voting will last and no sense that a single man has what it takes to fix the many problems.

On the eve of the vote, cardinals offered wildly different assessments of what they're looking for in the next pontiff and how close they are to a decision. It was evidence that Benedict XVI's surprise resignation has continued to destabilize the church leadership and that his final appeal for unity may go unheeded, at least in the early rounds of voting.

Cardinals held their final closed-door debate Monday over whether the church needs more of a manager to clean up the Vatican's bureaucratic mess or a pastor to inspire the 1.2 billion faithful in times of crisis. The fact that not everyone got a chance to speak was a clear sign that there's still unfinished business on the eve of the conclave.

"This time around, there are many different candidates, so it's normal that it's going to take longer than the last time," Cardinal Francisco Javier Errazuriz of Chile told The Associated Press.

"There are no groups, no compromises, no alliances, just each one with his conscience voting for the person he thinks is best, which is why I don't think it will be over quickly."

None of that has prevented a storm of chatter over who's ahead.

The buzz in the papal stakes swirled around Cardinal Angelo Scola, an Italian seen as favored by cardinals hoping to shake up the powerful Vatican bureaucracy, and Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Scherer, a favorite of Vatican-based insiders intent on preserving the status quo.

Scola is affable and Italian, but not from the Italian-centric Vatican bureaucracy called the Curia. That gives him clout with those seeking to reform the nerve center of the church that has been discredited by revelations of leaks and complaints from cardinals in the field that Rome is inefficient and unresponsive to their needs.

Scherer seems to be favored by Latin Americans and the Curia. He has a solid handle on the Vatican's finances, sitting on the governing commission of the Vatican bank, as well as the Holy See's main budget committee.

As a non-Italian, the archbishop of Sao Paolo would be expected to name an Italian as secretary of state — the Vatican No. 2 who runs day-to-day affairs — another plus for Vatican-based cardinals who would want one of their own running the shop.

The pastoral camp seems to be focusing on two Americans, New York archbishop Timothy Dolan and Boston archbishop Sean O'Malley. Neither has Vatican experience. Dolan has acknowledged his Italian isn't strong — seen as a handicap for a job in which the lingua franca of day-to-day work is Italian.

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet is well-respected, stemming from his job at the important Vatican office that vets bishop appointments. Less well known is that he has a lovely singing voice and can be heard belting out French folk songs on occasion.

If the leading names fail to reach the 77 votes required for victory in the first few rounds of balloting, any number of surprise candidates could come to the fore as alternatives.

It all starts Tuesday with the cardinals checking into the Santa Marta residence on the edge of the Vatican gardens. The rooms are simple and impersonal, but a step up from the cramped conditions the cardinals faced before the hotel was put to use in 2005, when long lines would form at the Apostolic Palace for using bathrooms.

At 10 a.m., the dean of the College of Cardinals, Angelo Sodano, will lead the celebration of the "Pro eligendo Pontificie" Mass — the Mass for the election of a pope — inside St. Peter's Basilica, joined by the 115 cardinals who will vote.

This is followed at 4:30 p.m. with a procession into the Sistine Chapel, with the cardinals intoning the Litany of Saints, the hypnotic Gregorian chant imploring the saints to help guide their voting. After another chant calling on the Holy Spirit to intervene, the cardinals take the oath of secrecy, followed by a meditation delivered by elderly Maltese Cardinal Prosper Grech.

Then the master of papal liturgical ceremonies gives the order "Extra omnes" — "Everyone out" — and all but those taking part in the conclave leave the chapel's frescoed walls.

During the voting that ensues, each cardinal writes his choice on a rectangular piece of paper inscribed with the words "Eligo in summen pontificem" — Latin for "I elect as Supreme Pontiff."

Holding the folded ballot up in the air, each approaches the altar and places it on a saucer, before tipping it into an oval urn, as he intones these words: "I call as my witness, Christ the Lord, who will be my judge that my vote is given to the one who, before God, I think should be elected."

After the votes are counted, and the outcomes announced, the papers are bound together with a needle and thread, each ballot pierced through the word "Eligo." The ballots are then placed in a cast-iron stove and burned with a special chemical.

That's when all eyes will turn to the 6-foot-high copper chimney erected atop the Sistine Chapel to pipe out puffs of smoke to tell the world if there's a new pope.

Black smoke means "not yet" — the likely outcome after Round 1. White smoke means the 266th pope has been chosen.

The first puffs of smoke should emerge sometime around 8 p.m. Tuesday. If they are black, voting will continue, four rounds each day, until a pope is elected.

Whoever he is, the next pope will face a church in crisis: Benedict spent his eight-year pontificate trying to revive Catholicism amid the secular trends that have made it almost irrelevant in places like Europe, once a stronghold of Christianity. Clerical sex abuse scandals have soured many faithful on their church, and competition from rival evangelical churches in Latin America and Africa has drawn souls away.

Closer to home, the next pope has a major challenge awaiting him inside the Vatican walls, after the leaks of papal documents in 2012 exposed ugly turf battles, allegations of corruption and even a plot purportedly orchestrated by Benedict's aides to out a prominent Italian Catholic editor as gay.

Cardinals heard a briefing Monday from the Vatican No. 2 about another stain on the Holy See's reputation, the Vatican bank. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who heads the commission of cardinals overseeing the scandal-marred Institute for Religious Works, outlined the efforts to clean up the bank's image in international financial circles.

Massimo Franco, noted columnist for the leading daily Corriere della Sera, said the significance of the revelations about the bank and the Holy See's internal governance cannot be underestimated, since they were factors in Benedict's decision to resign and the major task faced by his successor.

Franco, whose new book "The Crisis of the Vatican Empire" describes the Vatican's utter dysfunction, said cardinals are still traumatized by Benedict's resignation, leading to uncertainty heading into the conclave.

"It's quite unpredictable. There isn't a majority, neither established nor in the making," he said — unlike in 2005, when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger had tremendous front-runner status going into the conclave that elected him pope after just four ballots.

Dolan, a possible papal contender, seemed to think otherwise, though, and was bounding with optimism by the end of the pre-conclave meetings and the drama about to unfold.

"I'm kind of happy they're over because we came here to elect a pope and we'll start it tomorrow with the holy sacrifice of the Mass, then into the conclave and look for the white smoke!" Dolan enthused on his radio show on SiriusXM's "The Catholic Channel."

Errazuriz, the cardinal from Chile, said the key isn't so much where the next pope comes from, but what he brings to the papacy.

Cardinals, he told AP, are looking for a pope "who is close to God, has love for people, the poorest, the ability to preach the Gospel to the world and understand the young and bring them closer to God. These are the categories that count."

He argued that Latin America, counting 40 percent of the world's Catholics, is underrepresented in the college of cardinals. "It doesn't have 40 percent of the cardinals," he said.

Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, also a leading papal contender, said he was going into the conclave still rattled by the fact that his mentor, Benedict, had resigned.

"It made me cry. He was my teacher. We worked together for over 40 years," Schoenborn said during a Mass late Sunday. Nevertheless, Schoenborn said the cardinals had banded together to face the future.

"It makes us brothers, not contenders," he said. "Such a surprising act has already begun a true renewal."

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Reporters Jorge Pina and Daniela Petroff contributed.

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Follow Nicole Winfield at www.twitter.com/nwinfield

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Sequester at Home: Uncertainty in DC Suburb Means Higher Taxes to Come

Residents of Virginia's most populous county should expect to see a bump in their property tax bill this year, thanks to economic uncertainty fostered by - you guessed it - Washington and the sequester, a county official said Thursday.

Fairfax County, a D.C. suburb ranked one of the top three richest counties in the country, depends on government contracts for much of its commercial revenue. As agencies are tightening their belts in some places and throwing their hands up on others trying to figure out how the $85 billion budget cuts will affect them, businesses lack the stability to expand, according to Braddock District Supervisor John Cook of Fairfax County.

County officials have named sequestration one of the factors shaping their plans for the coming year.

"The uncertainty about sequestration puts Fairfax in a particularly vulnerable economic situation," reads the county's most recent budget proposal for FY 2014. "The good news is that Fairfax County's General Fund only receives about 1 percent of its budget from the federal government and the County's total revenue stream is fairly resilient. The bad news is that residents and businesses within the County will also be impacted which in turn will impact growth and substantial recovery in the real estate market, consumer consumption and business expansion."

READ MORE: New Hampshire Businesses Look to Exports to Make Up for Budget Cuts

Cook, a Republican coming up on the four-year anniversary of his swearing-in in Fairfax, blamed the need for the tax increase on the federal government's lack of consensus on sequestration and the practice of passing continuing resolutions rather than yearlong budgets.

"The worst thing for a business is to not know what's coming, because a business will adjust to reality," Cook told ABC News Thursday. "If they knew what was coming - even if it wasn't good - they'd adjust to it and eventually we'd have growth, but we won't have growth until there's an answer."

READ MORE: Sequester to Bring Harm Beyond Staffing Cuts at Local, National Level

Yesterday the House of Representatives passed a continuing resolution to fund the government for the next six months. Cook insisted short-term stop-gap measures like these make planning his county's own budget more difficult.

"We have to set aside reserves, and we have to hold off on doing new things, because we don't know what's coming down the pipes," Cook said.

The current budget proposal institutes an extra 2 percent in property tax - going from $1.075 for every $100 of assessed property value to $1.095. The county estimates that will mean an extra $94 added to the average taxpayer's bill.

Fairfax County had the 37 th highest property taxes in the nation between 2005 and 2009, according to the Tax Foundation, with the median home paying about $4,371 in taxes on land. Two other Virginia counties outranked Fairfax, with most of the other counties located in New York, New Jersey or Illinois.

As a state, Virginia ranks 14 th in the nation for highest property taxes; the average locality took $1,427 per capita in property taxes in 2009. Americans paid almost $475 billion in property taxes between September 2011 and September 2012.

READ MORE: The Most Convoluted Sequestration Controversy Known to Man?

The bottom line for Cook was that loss of revenue does not just hurt residents in their wallet. As the board of supervisors finalizes the next draft of the budget between now and April, they're considering flattening education funding.

The county executive recommended raising funding to schools by two percent - a three percent cut from what they requested. But Cook said that number could drop to zero.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities estimates local education agencies in Virginia are already losing more than $11.6 million dollars in grants, plus another $14.395 million in special education grants to the state, almost half a million in pre-school grants and $999,000 in federal work study.

READ MORE: Sequester Snapshot - Student Loans

"What's the real world effect of this uncertainty in the economic environment? It's that our schools are not getting the money that they're looking for," Cook said.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell signed an executive order March 1 with $45 million targeted to help localities.

"We are doing all we can on the state level to weather this difficult period," the Republican governor said in a statement emailed to ABC News. "Now, we need leadership in Washington so all states and all Americans can have certainty about the years ahead, and to get our nation's fiscal house in order."

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