A person who was at the meeting remembers it vividly. On one side was Theophilus, whom the Greek Orthodox community chose as the patriarch of Jerusalem - "His Beatitude," to believers. On the other side was minister Tzachi Hanegbi, who was in charge of the church's affairs in the last Sharon government. Theophilus, says the person who was at the meeting, wore a black robe and held a scepter, the symbol of the power of the Jerusalem patriarchate, which has been handed down from one generation to the next for more than 1,000 years.

Hanegbi sat across from him with his legs stretched out. What Theophilus wanted from the minister was for the government of Israel to recognize him as head of the church. Hanegbi had no objections. He had only one condition: that Theophilus authorize the deal by which three hotels in the Old City of Jerusalem were to be leased to the Ateret Cohanim association, which promotes settlement of Jews in and around the Old City. Israel will recognize you as patriarch, the person who was at the meeting quotes Hanegbi as saying, only if you promise to sign off on the deal.

"These irrelevant considerations," wrote attorney Renato Jarach, who represents Theophilus, in a letter to Attorney General Menachem Mazuz in June 2006, "concern the demand that the patriarch undertake in advance, as a condition for his being recognized, to authorize a highly dubious land transaction involving the sale of land adjacent to the Jaffa Gate to the Ateret Cohanim association or to elements connected with it ... We have in our possession, in addition to the affidavit by the patriarch himself, another affidavit by a person who was present when these remarks were made and whose credibility surely no one will conceive of disputing, including the former minister Tzachi Hanegbi, to whom the remarks are attributed."

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Attorney Jarach writes that the identity of the person, whom everyone acknowledges as a distinguished figure, has been revealed to the State Prosecutor's Office.

This situation encapsulates Israel's attitude toward one of the more complicated and passionate disputes being conducted in the Old City: the struggle between Theophilus and Irenaios for the position of Greek Orthodox patriarch. It is a position which carries religious prestige, of course, but also financial and political prestige. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate has in its possession vast assets, which it has accumulated in the 1,700 years of its presence in the Holy Land. It is one of the largest private landowners in Israel, if not the largest, with land in Galilee, Ramle, Beit Shemesh and, most important, in Jerusalem in general and in the Old City in particular.

Israel is not really interested in the Greek Orthodox religious charter.

What is of interest to Israel is to whom the patriarchate will sell these sensitive assets. In this matter, by the way, Israel does not discriminate between Theophilus and Irenaios, whom Theophilus deposed. Irenaios' confidants say that he, too, received a message from Hanegbi in a similar spirit to the one his rival Theophilus received.

Hanegbi is not alone. The present government has proceeded in the same direction. In a response submitted to the High Court of Justice in the past few days, within the framework of a petition to obligate the government to confirm Theophilus' appointment, the patriarch's lawyers, Jarach and Rami Mograbi, describe a meeting they had with a cabinet minister on January 17, 2007.

The name of the minister is not mentioned in the response, but it states that he is a member of the ministerial committee established by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to deal with the subject of the patriarchate. According to Theophilus' confidants, the minister in question is Rafi Eitan. (Minister Eitan's bureau stated that they do not intend to give a response to this.)

In any event, the minister, whoever he was, repeated Hanegbi's offer of 18 months ago: Theophilus will authorize the transfer of the hotels to Ateret Cohanim and in return Israel will recognize him as patriarch. The present minister even went one step farther. "The minister ... placed before them [Theophilus' lawyers] for their signature a document according to which, among other points, the patriarch and the minister will work out a 'process by which the property [the three hotels] shall remain in the hands of the Israeli lessees.'" In addition, the attorneys or Theophilus himself would have to sign a commitment "according to which representatives of the government or whoever the government designates shall receive first right to purchase or lease any property, building, land, store and so forth, which the patriarch intends to sell or lease."

Theophilus' attorneys describe these proposals as a "flagrantly illegal effort to mix recognition of the patriarch's election and matters relating to land transactions in which the government of Israel has no legitimate interest." In less diplomatic language, it's blackmail: a religious appointment in return for actual land. It's as though France were to make its recognition of the chief rabbi conditional on his selling a synagogue in the Marais district of Paris to a Christian association.

A few facts

There are a few agreed-upon facts in this tangled and dark affair, so we will begin with them. In 2004, Irenaios, at that time the undisputed Greek patriarch, gave power of attorney to Nicholas Papadimas, then the director of the financial department in the patriarchate, to conclude transactions in the name of the Church. Irenaios now claims that the power of attorney was issued only to lease a store in the Old City, and this is how the matter was recorded in official church documents. Irenaios' opponents maintain that the power of attorney was unlimited. What's clear is that Papadimas, a secular Greek who loves life, fancy cars and cigars, and who is married to an Israeli woman, made use of the power of attorney.

In August 2004, Papadimas, using a seal of the patriarch's representative, signed an agreement to lease three hotels in the Old City of Jerusalem to companies registered in the Virgin Islands. There is no dispute over the fact that the negotiations with Papadimas were conducted by representatives of Ateret Cohanim, or that its people were to occupy the buildings. For them it was a tremendous achievement: three large properties in strategic areas of the Old City.

In December 2004, not long after he signed off on the leasing of another property in the Old City to Ateret Cohanim, Papadimas disappeared. Irenaios continues to maintain that the deals were done without his knowledge. What's certain is that after the episode was reported by the daily Maariv in March 2005, Irenaios found himself in big trouble. About two months after the report appeared, 14 of the 18 members of the church's Holy Synod convened and announced that they had decided to depose Irenaios for lending a hand to the sale of properties to Jews in the Old City behind the Church's back. In August 2005, the same group elected Archbishop Theophilus of Tabor to succeed Irenaios - the same Theophilus who is now asking the Israeli government to recognize him as the legal patriarch.

A confidant of Theophilus relates that even before the publication of the report about the land deals, a group of clerics had formed who wanted to depose Irenaios. According to this source, the organizing began after it became clear to them that Irenaios was giving his full support to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. But no one disputes that Theophilus was elected because of the outcry in the Palestinian street in the wake of the deal for the hotels.

According to various reports, Theophilus promised both the Jordanians and the Palestinians that he would not sell additional properties in Jerusalem to Jews and that he would not authorize the hotels deal. That is why Jordan and the Palestinian Authority have recognized him as patriarch. However, Theophilus' aides say that he is actually a "Zionist" and a great believer in Israel. As proof they cite the fact that he is about to conclude the sale of the properties of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem's Rehavia neighborhood, and next to the old railway station in the city, to the Jewish National Fund and to Israeli companies. Another double knot: Theophilus, who was elected on a platform of opposition to selling properties to Jews, is actually an ardent supporter of the sale of properties to Israeli bodies.

Irenaios, for his part, is not about to give up. Through attorney Micha Kirsch, he has asked the District Court in Tel Aviv to annul the agreements for the sale of the Old City hotels, on the ground that the deal was struck without his knowledge or that of the Holy Synod - the body which is responsible for authorizing the sale of properties even under Israeli law. The lawyers of the companies that purchased the properties say that all the transactions were legal and that, in any event, Irenaios ceased to serve as patriarch and therefore has no legal standing in the matter.

Recently Irenaios has also succeeded in obtaining the support of the Greek Orthodox community in Nazareth, the largest Christian community in Israel. This may win him the support of the community of believers, which is almost entirely Arab, in both Israel and the territories - the same public that came out against him after the reports of the real estate deals in the Old City, and the suspicion that he sold these sensitive sites to Jews. In this connection, the fact that Theophilus did not join the suit to annul the transaction with Ateret Cohanim is a point in favor of Irenaios in the eyes of the Palestinians.

Chaotic situation

The Israeli government now has to decide whom it supports in this chaotic situation. Will it recognize Theophilus, who was elected because he objected to transactions with Jews, but is now presenting himself as a fervent Zionist? Or will the government continue to stand behind Irenaios, who was ousted because he was suspected of selling assets to Jews, but is now disavowing any connection to that sale? The decision is in the hands of a ministerial committee chaired by Interior Minister Roni Bar-On. Officially, the committee is not willing to admit that the government is making its recognition of one of the patriarchs conditional on his undertaking to complete the real estate deal with Ateret Cohanim, or other transactions. But the state has never denied this in its responses to the High Court of Justice.

This week marks the end of the extension that the High Court gave the state to submit its response, but the state is still dragging its feet. It has asked for a further 60-day extension. "It is a very sensitive issue," says a committee source. "Contacts are being held not only within the committee, but also elsewhere."

Theophilus' lawyers are unwilling to countenance another delay. They also say that they will soon make public the name of the minister who made them the "illegal" offer. MK Tzachi Hanegbi did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this article. Ateret Cohanim did not reply to questions that were forwarded to them. Its attitude can perhaps be gleaned from the position of a right-wing activist, who recently asked the ministerial committee to cancel Irenaios' appointment because of his "anti-Semitic" activity against the people who want to purchase properties in the Old City.

That is the beginning and end of the story.