Three Republican members of Congress -- Frank Wolf of Virginia and Congressional Pro-Life Caucus co-chairs Chris Smith of New Jersey and Joseph Pitts of Pennsylvania -- are in Israel this week lobbying for an abortion ban there. Israeli press coverage of the visit did not mention Smith's 2004 comparison of abortion to the Holocaust. Instead, it was reported that the congressmen were concerned about Israelis' declining birth rate compared to that of the Palestinians. They are working with Shas, the ultra-orthodox Sephardic party and its rabbinic council, which believes that "abortions are a grave sin which may even delay the coming of the messiah." But just like here, this is a minority view; according to a recent poll, only 30% of Israelis believe that abortion is murder. --Sarah Posner
