News in Brief

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said he would consider taking action against Hesder Yeshiva rabbis who preach refusing to obey orders, but Barak added that he would prefer to reach an understanding that would make such steps unnecessary. Barak said he would try to do so without cutting government funding to yeshivas, despite the recommendations of senior officers to remove two extremist yeshivas in Elon Moreh and Har Bracha from the Hesder program. However, Barak, who has the authority to do so, seems to be in no hurry to take such action for now. (Amos Harel)

The Knesset passed a bill in its preliminary reading to make the disclosure of confidential information on the identity of an Israeli intelligence operative illegal. The bill states that such information includes details that would damage state security, Israel's foreign relations, public security or the security or safety of an individual. The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee will now discuss the bill. (Jonathan Lis)

Two Border Police officers were arrested Tuesday night for attacking an Arab man in Jerusalem. The two policemen, Yossi Dahan and Maor Malinkar, are doing their compulsory military service in the Border Police. They were remanded for five days by the Jerusalem Magistrates Court. They are suspected of following the East Jerusalem man, 22, after he passed them near the Old City. They then stopped him, asked whether he threw rocks regularly and warned him not to. After saying he did not, one of the policemen allegedly grabbed him and the other beat and kicked him, using their fists, clubs and guns. He was taken to Hadassah University Hospital on Mt. Scopus in the capital. They deny the charges. (Liel Kyzer)

Israeli Arabs receive 70 percent less than Israeli Jews in per capita government funding for social services, according to the latest equality index, an annual report by Sikkuy, which works to advance civic equality in Israel. The report, which assesses social and economic issues among Jews and Arabs in 2008, found that the workload of social workers is 50 percent higher in the Arab community than in the Jewish community. The organization found that the social and economic gaps between Jews and Arabs are increasing every year. (Dana Weiler-Polak)

The Rishon Letzion train station manager has been named as a suspect in the theft of fare money from Israel Railways earlier this month. An indictment was filed at Tel Aviv District Court yesterday against Eyal Sheetrit, 34, of Lod on charges of robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and obstruction of justice. Sheetrit and his brother, the director of the government-owned rail company's operations branch, are accused of attempting to steal fare money from a courier outside Tel Aviv's Savidor Central Station on November 6. The bag they stole later turned out to be empty. (Ofra Edelman)

Four Tiberias youths aged 15-17 were detained Tuesday on suspicion of severely beating another youth for dancing at a nightclub with an ex-girlfriend of one of the assailants. A police officer said initial investigations revealed that one of the alleged assailants summoned the victim, 15, from the school he attends, whereupon the other three "tied the youth to a chair and beat him with pipes and clubs." On Tuesday, Tiberias Magistrate's Court extended the three alleged assailants' remand by three days, and that of the fourth suspect by one day. (Eli Ashkenazi)