Hebrew?!

for some reason Hebrew characters are equel "0" so in order for hebrew to work I need to a few changes to the announcement files:
change this:
text[num] = val;
text[num+1] = 0;
len = 0;
while (text[len]) len = len + 1;
to this:
text[num] = val;
text[num+1] = 257;
len = 0;
while (text[len]<257) len = len + 1;
change this:
text[num] = val;
text[num+1] = 0;
len = 0;
while (text[len]) len = len + 1;
to this:
text[num] = val;
text[num+1] = 257;
len = 0;
while (text[len]<257) len = len + 1;