Israel's government recently announced official daylight savings transitions for the years 1996-1998. If the government changes, these rules may go out the window next year, but we might as well put the proposed dates in since they're better than nothing. Ephraim Silverberg sent me a nice letter about this, and I copied his comments into the following proposed patch. =================================================================== RCS file: RCS/asia,v retrieving revision 1995.3 retrieving revision 1995.3.1.1 diff -c -r1995.3 -r1995.3.1.1 *** asia 1995/07/02 23:19:21 1995.3 --- asia 1995/09/21 04:10:03 1995.3.1.1 *************** *** 428,434 **** #Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 10 0:00 1:00 D #Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0 S ! # From Ephraim Silverberg (September 5, 1993): # # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. --- 428,434 ---- #Rule Zion 1991 only - Mar 10 0:00 1:00 D #Rule Zion 1991 only - Sep 1 0:00 0 S ! # From Ephraim Silverberg (September 20, 1995): # # According to the Office of the Secretary General of the Ministry of # Interior, there is NO set rule for Daylight-Savings/Standard time changes. *************** *** 437,444 **** # on the party the Minister of Interior, the size of the coalition # government, the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Hence, # changes may need to be made on a semi-annual basis. One thing is entrenched ! # in law, however: that there must be at least 150 days on daylight savings ! # time annually. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D --- 437,447 ---- # on the party the Minister of Interior, the size of the coalition # government, the phase of the moon and the direction of the wind. Hence, # changes may need to be made on a semi-annual basis. One thing is entrenched ! # in law, however: that there must be at least 150 days of daylight savings ! # time annually. Ever since 1993, the change to daylight savings time has ! # been from midnight Thursday night to 1 a.m. Friday morning and the change ! # back to standard time on Saturday night from midnight daylight savings time ! # to 11 p.m. standard time. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1989 only - Apr 30 0:00 1:00 D *************** *** 452,474 **** Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S ! # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for ! # the Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem. There are no dates yet for 1996 and ! # beyond so your guess is as good as theirs (those who are interested can ! # call 972-2-701411 and ask for the spokeswoman). # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D - # On 1995-03-13 Ephraim Silverberg corrected the next line from Aug 27 to Sep 3. Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S ! # From Ephraim Silverberg (1995-03-13): ! # The Spokeswoman's office confirmed that there are not yet any dates ! # for the timezone conversion for the years 1996 and beyond yet ! # and this is one of the things the newly-appointed Minister of Interior ! # will have to decide sometime this year. # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Tel_Aviv 2:19:04 - LMT 1880 --- 455,489 ---- Rule Zion 1993 only - Apr 2 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1993 only - Sep 5 0:00 0:00 S ! # The dates for 1994-1995 were obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman for the ! # Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The spokeswoman can be reached by ! # calling the switchboard at 972-2-701411 and asking for the spokeswoman. # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S Rule Zion 1994 only - Apr 1 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1994 only - Aug 28 0:00 0:00 S Rule Zion 1995 only - Mar 31 0:00 1:00 D Rule Zion 1995 only - Sep 3 0:00 0:00 S ! # The dates for 1996-1998 were also obtained from Office of the Spokeswoman ! # for the Ministry of Interior, Jerusalem, Israel. The official announcement ! # can be viewed (in Hebrew) at the following URL: ! # ! # ftp://ftp.huji.ac.il/pub/misc/timezones/announcements/1996-1998.ps.gz ! # ! # Emptor Caveat: The fall of 1996 is an election year (the change to/from ! # daylight savings time affects the earliest possible time for morning prayers ! # making it is a sensitive issue among the religious sector of the electorate) ! # so political considerations may cause the outgoing government to make the ! # change back to standard time earlier in the fall of 1996 and the incoming ! # government may nullify the 1997/1998 times altogether depending on the ! # coalition formed after the elections. Life isn't boring here in Israel. ! ! # Rule NAME FROM TO TYPE IN ON AT SAVE LETTER/S ! Rule Zion 1996 1998 - Mar Fri>=14 0:00 1:00 D ! Rule Zion 1996 only - Sep 22 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1997 only - Nov 2 0:00 0:00 S ! Rule Zion 1998 only - Oct 25 0:00 0:00 S # Zone NAME GMTOFF RULES FORMAT [UNTIL] Zone Asia/Tel_Aviv 2:19:04 - LMT 1880