Mullah Omar, leader of the Taliban in Afghanistan, released a statement on September 8 for the occasion of Eid-Al-Fitr, the end of the month of Ramadan (September 10 or 11, depending on the sighting of the moon). Following are excerpts from the ...
September 9, 2010, 12:15 pm
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Nya bud om Ahmadinejads planerade besök i Libanon. För några veckor sedan sa man att besöket skulle äga rum i anslutning till Eid al-Fitr i september. Nu talar man om 13:e oktober. Lite hemlighetsmakeri är bra för imagen. Det blir väl en tour i det vackra cederlandet, kan jag tro. Samtal med Humbaba, förlåt – med [...] Liknande poster:

1. Israelisk pik mot Sverige (Youtube-länk)

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1. Bedrövlig samhällsutveckling – alkohol och våld på gator och torg. Vad är detta ? En svenskifiering av Israel? Jag har alltid tyckt att avsaknaden av fyllefester och oprovocerat vardags- och gatuvåld i Israel har varit en ständig källa till glädje. Krig och terror – javisst, men här kan du, till skillnad från i Stockholm, [...]
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Gaza terrorists launched a mortar attack on children and their parents in southern Israel Wednesday, just hours before the start of Rosh HaShanah, the Jewish New Year. One mortar exploded close to several kindergarten buildings in a Negev kibbutz, just half an hour before the children were set to arrive. No one was wounded in the attack, which occurred in the Sha'ar HaNegev Regional Council district, but at least one of the buildings was damaged. Miraculously, the shell landed between two of the buildings, according to one of the residents, who noted that things “could have ended very differently.” This...
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...
September 8, 2010, 2:07 pm
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The Saudi Communications Ministry has ordered the closure of the Al-Awsra conservative religious satellite television channel, saying that it had violated the conditions of its license. ...
September 8, 2010, 6:17 pm
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In early July 2010, Norwegian police announced the arrest of three individuals living in Oslo for involvement in planning terror attacks on Norwegian soil. The Norwegian press reported that the attacks were thwarted and the arrests made possible due ...
September 10, 2010, 10:27 am
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Former U.K. MP George Galloway has arrived in Algeria to coordinate the departure of Freedom Flotilla 2, which is to leave Algeria for Gaza on October 8. Source: Al-Quds Al-Arabi, London, September 8, ...
September 8, 2010, 6:15 pm
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Here's the weekly LATMA update featuring Israel's learning disability, 'Palestinian Minister of Uncontrollable Rage' Tawil Fadiha, and gearing up for another round of talks. The song is a well-known and popular Israeli song. Let's go to the videotape.
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Well, here it is, the last post of 5770.Let's go to the videotape first, and then I'll have much more to say. Here's Avraham Fried singing U'Nesane Tokef - the highlight of the Mussaf service on Rosh HaShanna and Yom Kippur.Let's go to the videotape.And now I'd like to share with all of you part of a Rosh HaShanna message I sent to more than 2,000 clients, colleagues and friends on Tuesday night.
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President Obama told a conference call of rabbis on Tuesday that he was 'stunned' by the 'cordial, constructive' tone of talks between Israel and the 'Palestinians' that took place at the White House last week. President Barack Obama told Jewish religious leaders Tuesday that he was "pleasantly surprised" and "stunned" at how cordial and constructive were discussions last week between Israeli
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Jonathan Tobin has a biting commentary on the failure of the UN sanctions regime against Iran. Yet while the Iranians have faced more restrictions on their commerce as a result of the UN sanctions, though not nearly as much as they would if the international community were serious about stopping Iran, the only thing they have proved is that the Iranians are still convinced that the West is
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What can I say, I'm a sucker for good news: For the first time since 1930, more Republican voters showed up to vote in statewide primaries this year than Democrats -- another sign of the huge challenges facing President Obama's party in this year's elections. The new figures come from a just-released report by voter turnout expert Curtis Gans of American University. Gans looked at 35 primaries held before Sept. 1 and found that 4 million more Republicans voted than Democrats -- statistical proof of the "enthusiasm gap" that pollsters and pundits have been talking about. That, combined with the...
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I just saw this at CNN. I try to read about Reaganomics whenever I can, because when he was in office I was still a senseless, uninformed, obedient leftist (my mama was a Democrat and her daddy was Democrat, and before that they were all Democrats... etc.). All I knew was that Reagan was a "stupid actor," because that was all I ever heard. You can imagine my remorse in retrospect. I can't find any current figures for tax revenue as percentage of GDP (nothing later than June 08, and that was before the 'collapse') but in case anyone's interested:...
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Based on 'Palestinian' sources, Haaretz reports that Israel will continue the 'settlement freeze' in Judea and Samaria after September 30 despite insisting that it has been ended. The method for doing so will be the Defense Ministry's refusal to approve any new construction. Defense Ministry approval is required for all construction in Judea and Samaria. The agreement beginning to take shape on
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Jag avstår alltså från att fira Rosh Hashana i år, som en solidaritetsyttring med adress familjen Shalit. Andra väljer att fira högtiden, men riktar tankar och böner till Gilad, Aviva och Noam. Jag vill varken döma eller moralisera, utan tycker att det är helt naturligt att var och en följer sina egna känslor och övertygelser. [...]
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Michael Faulkner VS.
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Don Surber's 'Chart of the Day' yesterday:
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This time, it didn't happen on the Temple Mount. It didn't even happen in Jerusalem.Two Jews were arrested by the IDF for praying in the ancient Naaran Synagogue in Jericho. The other eight people who were part of the minyan (prayer quorum) managed to escape.I was surprised at this story because it never occurred to me that Jews were not allowed to pray in a synagogue. Or perhaps, this too has
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In an earlier post, I mentioned that President Obama was going to have a conference call with a group of rabbis to update them about the 'peace process.' The conference call was to remain confidential - no tweeting or blogging during the call. But of course, as usually happens, the truth came out. The President was confronted with 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen's
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Daniel Gordis gets it right about this week's now-infamous Time Magazine cover story. The printed version, at least, has a thesis, and it’s not a bad one. Its claim is that Israelis don’t discuss the peace process much (true), that they have low expectations (true), and that they don’t care (also true). And why do Israelis not care?Ah, here comes the rub. Part of the answer that Time offers is
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Jeffrey Goldberg was invited to come to Havana last week to discuss his article on the Iranian nuclear weapon standoff with none other than Fidel Castro himself. Along the way, Castro demonstrated a surprising understanding about the sensitivities of Jews to anti-Semitism and the Holocaust (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Castro opened our initial meeting by telling me that he read the recent Atlantic
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The Obama administration is spending a lot of time on the Middle East 'peace process,' but according to this survey by Rasmussen, the American people are not very impressed and don't believe it will lead anywhere. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 77% of U.S. voters think Palestinian leaders must acknowledge Israel’s right to exist. Support for this position has ranged
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Here's President Obama's Rosh HaShanna greeting.Let's go to the videotape.You will note that like many American Jews, Obama is confused about the difference between Liberalism and Judaism.
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Here's Prime Minister Netanyahu's Rosh HaShanna (Jewish New Year) greeting.Let's go to the videotape.
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Talk about hitting a guy when he's down....The Republican Jewish Coalition hit Joe Sestak again today for his endorsement by Chuck Hagel.Let's go to the videotape.Heh.
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The events are from two years ago, but the message is still relevant. Please watch this video and take its message with you to the synagogue this week.Let's go to the videotape.
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In an earlier post, I reported that George Soros is donating $100 million to 'Human Rights Watch.' Just how much does this Jewish philanthropist not care for Jews? If even half of what Roger Simon writes is true, this guy is a bad character who is certainly not giving money to 'Human Rights Watch' because he expects it will make them less biased against Israel. What disturbs most is something
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Here's a brand new Avniu Malkeinu (Our Father, Our King) written by Yishai Lapidot and sung by various musicians in honor of the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShannah, which begins at sundown on Wednesday.Let's go to the videotape.Beautiful, isn't it?
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Daily Beast sez Unemployment May Hit 10 Percent. Don't expect the economy to reverse course this year: The 9.6 percent unemployment rate will probably inch toward 10 percent in the next few months, the Labor Department says, as the economy is growing too slowly to create enough jobs. The economy grew at an annual rate of just 1.6 percent in the second quarter, a drop compared to 3.7 percent in the previous three months. For some context for those numbers, let's look at what was probably the only time I ever blogged about the American economy prior to its collapse...
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In a Monday post, I passed on something I had seen here that said that Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would be representing Israel at the UN General Assembly later this month. Laura Rozen reports that it's not so. Lieberman is returning to the scene: A reader forwards an invitation to a Rosh Hashanah reception for the foreign minister with Ambassador Michael Oren next Monday, September 13.
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by BtB guest blogger, Brother Bill Al Qaeda should build windmills and solar panels. That, along with burning renewable energy goat dung, will provide green jobs to supplant the lure of terrorism. This would both help these economically disadvantaged victims of Western imperialism and give a boost to Moslems by reminding them of their past math and science contributions. It is obviously more righteously important to fight global warming than infidels or to grow drugs to meet the demands of the drug addicts of the United States. The governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan can even give land to them, labeling...
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Abu Mazen continues to run from one media outlet to the next, telling anyone who will listen that he will make no compromises (or in this case, no 'historic compromises') with the Jews. This time, it's the 'semi-official' 'Palestinian' newspaper al-Quds. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's talk about an "historic compromise" and said there
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'Moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen and 'Palestinian' 'Prime Minister' Salam Fayyad have asked that their pictures be removed from the advertisement at left, which declares that they are 'partners' in 'peace' with Israel. According to Israeli daily Haaretz, the two Palestinian Authority officials asked the Geneva Initiative made the request through intermediaries to
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The past 3 weeks I've been blogging far less than usual...yet it was for a good cause. After years of blogging about Israel and aliya, I found myself in a situation where I had to "put my money where my mouth is" and help out someone with their absorption process.

Needless to say, the case was far more complex than I had ever imagined possible. I cannot blog about the specifics, but it was perhaps the worst aliya nightmare story I had ever heard of.

Regardless, this evening the nightmare has come to an end, and the situation has worked itself out in a nearly miraculous way.

I would like say that Nefesh bNefesh came through, and sincerely did everything possible to help this family of olim.

Many elected officials offered their help. Government officials offered their help.

Countless friends helped -- from recommendations to support for the family.

And a public official I spoke to this evening whose intervention was invaluable, said to me, "...with all the bureaucracy, there are actual people who can help behind the scenes. Despite this crazy situation, the State of Israel encourages aliya, and does not want new olim to be put into impossible situations...which is why I did everything I could to help."

And he helped!

Today's outcome of this nightmare truly reaffirms my faith in the people of Israel.

Wishing all our readers and friends a wonderful new year -- one of good health and happiness, and may G-d bestow upon us all the brachot of the Cohen Gadol's prayer.



Jameel & Co.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Can you tell this sitefrom this site?A group of Algerian hackers can't tell them apart.Heh.
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Al-Guardian brings us the latest news from the Faisal riding club in 'impoverished' Gaza City (Hat Tip: Daily Alert). But the main attraction is not the company, the menu, nor the refreshing evening breeze that blows off the nearby Mediterranean coast. People come to watch the horses.Faisal is Gaza's only riding club, open for the past five years and, despite the Israeli blockade and its grim
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How many of you have children? What do you do when one of them comes crying to you that another is 'bothering me' or is being 'annoying'? We're going to see soon whether Barack Obama has learned enough parenting skills from Sasha and Malia to tell Abu Bluff to go back to the table and work out his own problems with Binyamin Netanyahu. Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has publicly put
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President Obama is having a conference call with a group of rabbis on Tuesday afternoon to update them on the 'peace process.' In the wake of the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks relaunch in Washington last week, and ahead of Hillary Clinton and George Mitchell heading to the next round of talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt and Jerusalem next week, the Obama administration is continuing to step up
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An Arab from Judea and Samaria has been arrested at Miami International Airport and charged with arms smuggling. An Arab from Judea and Samaria was arrested Tuesday at the Miami International Airport for a plot to attempt to buy a large amount of weapons in the U.S. and transfer them “to his people,” local reports said. The report named the suspect as Abed el-Aziz Hamail, who is known to Israeli
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Call it the theater of the absurd, and Israel is the main stage. It started at the end of August when a group of Israeli actors, directors and playwrights signed a public document announcing that they’ll refuse to participate in plans by the country’s national theater, the Habima, and other leading theaters like the Cameri [...]
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“Today I become a man.” That’s a declaration more commonly associated with a bar mitzvah boy but, as I turn 50 tomorrow, I feel I am passing a milestone even more auspicious. For what does one really know about being a grownup at a mere 13? Perhaps, once upon a time, that was closer to [...]
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...
September 8, 2010, 6:13 pm
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Seek and ye shall find. Isn't it amazing what you find when you look for it?Egyptian troops found nine more weapons caches in Sinai on Tuesday, all of which were ready for immediate shipment to Gaza. Several types of weaponry were discovered in the hideouts, located in northern and central Sinai neighborhoods as well as the southern border city of Rafah and the port city of Al-Arish, police told
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Toby Harnden writes -- from the UK, where they don't have a King George (although they did at one time): Just when it seemed that Barack Obama couldn’t dig himself any deeper into the political hole he’s in, he does something really stupid. “Some powerful interests who had been dominating the agenda in Washington for a very long time and they’re not always happy with me,” he told a union crowd in Milwaukee. “They talk about me like a dog. That’s not in my prepared remarks, but it’s true.” The comment makes him look ridiculous. First off, there are inevitable...
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The furor over the Islamic center, variously called the Ground Zero Mosque, Cordoba House, and Park51, has large implications for the future of Islam in the United States and perhaps beyond. The debate is as unexpected as it is extraordinary. One would
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The furor over the Islamic center, variously called the Ground Zero Mosque, Cordoba House, and Park51, has large implications for the future of Islam in the United States and perhaps beyond. The debate is as unexpected as it is extraordinary. One would
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According to InfoWars.com, George Soros - along with the NAACP, Think Progress, New Left Media and Media Matters for America - have launched a website from which to smear the nation's 'tea party' protest organizations, participants and supporters. Their slogan is cute: "A WATCHED TEAPOT NEVER BOILS." So while they say that their objective is to monitor "racism and other forms of extremism within the Tea Party movement," it's just more politics of personal destruction. They're fascists, trying to repress free and open political discourse in this country. Of course we can all understand the anger Soros must feel. He...
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Despite allegations of Gaza food shortages, Gazan food products are finding their way from the blockaded Gaza Strip to a movie set in Turkey, reports the New York Times.

For some, apparently, art comes before food.

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1. Tre högerreligiösa aktivister, däribland den notoriske Itamar Ben Gvir (samt Knessetledamoten Michael Ben Zohar), köpte biljetter till pjäsen “Oh God” på Cameriteatern. Men de var naturligtvis fullständigt ointresserade av själva teaterkonsten, utan började istället ropa och bråka. “Ni är rasister”, skrek Ben Gvir. En av skådespelarna på scenen, Oded Teomi, försökte förklara att han [...] Liknande poster:

1. Ska israeliska expats få rösta?
2. Borde de israeliska människorättsorganisationerna läggas ner?

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Everybody’s looking for attention, including Mifal Hapayis, Israel’s legal national lottery. This time they used the now-common flash mob to draw crowds at a Rishon Lezion beach just a few days ago. Using a medley of Abba songs, beach balls — and, they cheated a little — professional dancers, the results were fun, although a [...]
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Kort film av Khaled Abu Toameh om det mest politiskt inkorrekta – en palestinier som rapporterar om hur palestinier behandlas i arabvärlden, av sina egna bröder.

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[In the summer of 1979, between my junior and senior years at Princeton University, I had a plum job as an intern feature writer for Newsday, a major daily based in Garden City, New York. After the summer I wrote this piece for the September 12, 1979 issue of the Princetonian, for incoming freshmen. The anxiety in the piece about driving and gasoline reflected the gas crisis of that summer, which led to long lines at gas stations. My harebrained efforts to conserve gas and limit driving in my 1971 AMC Hornet got me into ridiculous situations. I’ve added bracketed explanatory notes to flesh out the last 31 years of life experience.]

Once school had ended last spring, but before my summer as a reporter on Long Island began, I immediately immersed myself in the cathode hot tub of American culture. On any evening in early June I hunkered down in front of Colonial Club’s TV, deliciously slack-jawed while advertisements played the summer hard sell, showering this winter shut-in with scenes of beach frolic, the open road and heavy, heavy socializing. [Colonial Club was the eating club to which I belonged at Princeton.]

The message fit nicely with the brochures sent to the Newsday interns. TV said WHAT to do, while the booklets and maps told me WHERE to do it. (With WHOM was the problem.) Equipped with my first car, the Newsday social calendar and, of course, lots of gasoline, I was bound and determined to enjoy myself, even if I nearly killed myself in the process.

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It might be just a crafty pitch to draw in the tourists, but an East Jerusalem attorney is claiming that a house in the city’s Shuafat neighborhood was once owned by the Bin-Laden family. Not only that, but Osama himself stayed there “on several occasions in the 1960s,” says the property’s current owner, Advocate Mu’in [...]
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Had Arab countries given the Palestinians their rights, Palestinians living there would not pose a problem to peace prospects by seeking to “return to Palestine.” Even Arab countries that were civilized enough to allow Palestinians to obtain citizenship still discriminate against them and exclude them to the fullest, squeezing them into yearning for any change possible, even if it means looking back to Israel as their homeland.

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After months of endlessly hearing from liberals that the morose state of the economy is Bush's fault (while any figures that can be construed as an improvement are Obama's doing), it seems that they've finally realized that we're sick and tired of hearing that. For those who didn't get the latest DNC Memo, this must be their new mantra, as per Mike Lupica at the New York Daily News: Americans don't care whose fault the economy is What concerns me at the moment, however, is not so much that, but rather Lupica's assertion that George Bush's Wars (not to be...
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Dozens of people gathered in Washington's DuPont Circle Friday morning for the "Annual Al-Quds Day Rally for Justice in Palestine and the Oppressed Everywhere." The Quds Day rally in Washington has become a gathering of the fringe of the fringe of rabidly anti-Israel demonstrators. Speakers included Medea Benjamin of Code Pink and two people who have espoused radical conspiracy theories at the Islamic Society of North America's (ISNA) annual conferences. As Palestinian and Israeli leaders meet in peace negotiations just a few miles away, the speakers called for a rejectionist line on Israel. Read more at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/2162/another-islamist-rally-for-hate-in-dc#av423 Remember the other...
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All parties involved in the powwow are positive. Heck, they didn’t go all the way down to DC for the barbecue ribs. Bibi sent an inspiring message to the Israeli press after week 1: “We will need to think creatively, and in new ways, about how to resolve complex problems…” He was not talking about [...]
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1. Fakta/data om Palestina. Ynet. 2,5 miljoner palestinier på Västbanken och i Jerusalem. Många teveapparater, mobiltelefoner och datorer. Hyfsat bra handel. För fler data och fakta – kolla in artikeln. 2. Yigal Amir klagar över fängelsevillkoren – Ynet. Haaretz Jpost Han klagar över att han har tvingats sitta i isolering betydligt längre [...]
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"Obama’s lackluster record is improving Bush’s legacy every day." In this episode, VDH lists 10 reasons the country misses George Bush. Here are two. 4) Who is the real yuppie? The media tried to paint Bush as the privileged yuppie, masquerading as the Texas rancher, idly chain-sawing on his spread. But at least Bush went to the Texas outback for vacation and got his hands dirty. Obama’s problem is that Axelrod and Emanuel could not stage a chain-sawing task for Obama if they tried — severe injury would surely follow. The bowling moment in the campaign was as disastrous as...
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In July we noted that media outlets which obsessively cover Israel -- such as the New York Times and Washington Post -- failed to report on Hezbollah's buildup of weapons in Lebanese civilian areas in violation of U.N. Resolution 1701.

It seems that not even a massive explosion Sept. 2 of one of these facilities -- whose aftermath was caught on film -- was enough to wake those journalists from their slumber. While some, such as the Associated Press and Boston Globe, did cover the explosion in the town of Al- Shahabiya, the leading national newspapers -- the New York Times, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times -- did not.

All the news that's fit to print? Make that "some of the news."

A video of the evacuation of arms from the building, released by the Israeli army, is below:

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80 years ago, at the end of Yom Kippur's Neilah (closing) service at the Kotel, 26 year old Moshe Segal blew the shofar. He was promptly arrested and taken to jail, still fasting. He was only released when Rav Kook, the Chief Rabbi, interceded later that night.

What was his crime?

In the aftermath of the Arab riots throughout Palestine in 1929, the British convened a commission of inquiry to investigate the cause of the unrest. The Shaw Commission's recommendations granted the Arabs absolute ownership of the Western Wall and adjacent property. Jews were forbidden to bring Torah scrolls to the Kotel, to pray loudly, or to blow the Shofar, so as not to offend the Arab population.

Despite this restriction, for the next seventeen years, the shofar was sounded at the Kotel every Yom Kippur. Shofars were smuggled in to the Kotel where brave teenagers defiantly blew them at the conclusion of the fast. Some managed to get away - others were captured and sent to jail for up to six months.

Six of these men are still alive.

Two weeks ago, these six men returned to the scene of their "crime". Armed with shofars, they recounted their individual stories and blew shofar again at the Kotel.

Their powerful and inspiring story is told in Echoes of a Shofar, the first installment in the "Eyewitness 1948" short film series produced by Toldot Yisrael and the History Channel. It is the centerpiece of an educational pilot program being developed with The iCenter and made possible through the generous support of the Jim Joseph Foundation.




Toldot Yisrael is a Jerusalem based nonprofit dedicated to recording and sharing the firsthand testimonies of the men and women who helped found the State of Israel. Over 300 video interviews have been conducted with those who were involved during the pre-State struggle and the momentous events of 1948. Our aim is to conduct hundreds more over the next several years – while it is still possible. The Eyewitness 1948 series will present stories that address the heroism of the era as well as the complex moral dilemmas confronted as the young nation battled for its existence. Toldot Yisrael’s footage will serve as primary source materials for the Israel Education curriculum, bringing to life the founding of the State of Israel for today’s young Jews.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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This is so good, so tightly woven into one piece, that I can hardly pull an excerpt out of it. Victor Davis Hanson (she announced, with not a little awe in her voice)... Behind the anger over the Arizona immigration mess, the Ground Zero mosque, the economy, and the new directions in foreign policy are some recurring general themes that reverberate in each particular new controversy. In sum, they explain everything from the tea parties to the wholly negative perception of Congress to the slide in presidential popularity. 1. Two sets of rules.... 2. The bigot card.... 3. The law?...
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Hmm, this is odd. Here's Obama in an interview this past July with Yonit Levi at Israel's Channel 2 -- as per Laura Rozen at Politico. "The last time — the second time I went to the Wailing Wall, I put my prayer — and somebody pulled it out, and the next thing I know it was printed in the newspaper. (Laughter.)" I remember that; it was quite a scandal during the campaign. ...on the morrow of Obama's [campaign] visit to the Kotel, Maariv published a close-up picture of the note written by Obama to G-d, supposedly after a yeshiva...
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This evening brought back all sorts of horrible memories.

I was talking on the phone to a cousin, when the Magen David Adom emergency dispatcher put out a priority message on my United Hatzala radio.

"First Responders: A terror attack has taken place on road 55, with people wounded by gunshot..."

1. Hang up the phone.
2. Make sure the kids stay in the house.
3. Notify dispatcher that I was responding.
4. Run out of the house to my car, turn on my flashing red strobe, drive in direction of the wounded.
5. Call my wife, tell her to stay off the road (she was driving home)
6. Responders all informing dispatcher they were on their way
7. I say I'll be there in 30 seconds...cars get out of my way.
8. Arrive at the scene -- no car, no wounded, I notify the dispatcher.
9. Responders line up car after car, as we put on emergency medical vests and bullet proof vests
10. Close the outgoing gate of our community to prevent additional cars from being on the road.

Conflicting reports reverberate for 15 minutes -- till the car is located at an IDF checkpoint. No wounded, but there is damage to the car.

The car was attacked on the main highway 55, alongside the Palestinian town of Nabi Alias, in front of the "Shayish HaShalom" store -- "the marble counter tops of peace".

Gullible Israelis think that shopping at Nabi Alias is a bonanza, and Haaretz has a field day reporting what a wonderful place it is.

They neglect to mention:

- Cars have been stolen from there with people still in them (kidnapping)
- The shin-bet routinely has active terrorist warnings for that village
- People have been held up at gunpoint while shopping for bargains
- Terror attacks have taken place there...including rock attacks on an almost daily basis.

After last week's deadly terror attacks, and tonight's attack, I feel like we're in a time warp, going back to the bad old days of the Oslo 2 "peace" accords, which didn't bring any peace, and only brought murdered and wounded Israelis.

Hoping the rest of the night will be quiet.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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This year, the Israel Postal Company has launched a campaign urging people to send New Year greetings by mail. “Bring back the excitement,” exhorts the leaflet stuffed in our mailbox (inserted by hand and not by mail, I should note). “Facebook, MMS, SMS – they’re not personal. It’s no longer exciting. Now more than ever [...]
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Down in Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez has agreed to meet with delegates of the country’s Jewish community for a discussion about antisemitism in the state-run media. Last June, Mr. Chavez made a public declaration that he believed the Mossad was scheming to assassinate him and that the Israeli government was bankrolling his Venezuelan opposition. Vice [...]
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PA's Karake honors the mother of four terrorists [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 28, 2010, courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch]

As we noted last week, any incident whiffing of Israeli incitement, including Rabbi Ovadia Yosef's vitriolic remarks make big news, but Palestinian incitement, including Abbas and Fayyad's honoring of a mastermind of the Munich massacre, continue to go unreported.

With a new week, we are confronted with fresh examples of officially-sanctioned Palestinian Authority incitement, and yet again, the continuing silence of the Western press corps.

In the first incident, the Palestinian Authority's Minister for Prisoner Affairs Issa Karake honored a mother whose four sons were involved in suicide bombings and other terror attacks. He praised her:

The Palestinian mother is a central partner in the struggle... It is she who gave birth to the fighters, and she deserves that we bow to her in salute and in honor.

Karake also visited the home of Ayyat Al-Akhras, who murdered two Israelis in a 2002 suicide bombing attack in a Jerusalem supermarket.

Second, the Palestinian ambassador to Tehran, Salah Zawawi, called for "eradication of the fabricated regime [ie, Israel] in due course."

While this information is published in the government controlled Palestinian and Iranian media, and translated into English thanks to Palestinian Media Watch, Western journalists simply can't be bothered to report Mideast incitement unless they can point a finger at Israeli Jews.

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In an article in American Thinker, CAMERA's Eric Rozenman and Myron Kaplan describe the ongoing problem of anti-Semitic callers finding a home at C-SPAN's "Washington Journal"

As is often the case, a frequent anti-Israel caller is allowed to a) violate C-SPAN's ostensible "one-call-per-thirty-days" rule, b) go completely off-topic, c) make preposterous anti-Israel and anti-Jewish claims ("the neocons -- you know -- the Israeli lobby, AIPAC is pushing us into more wars in the Middle East") and d) cite fringe anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli websites. The host sits silently, and "Washington Journal" technicians don't cut off the caller.

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The launching of peace talks between Israel in the Palestinians last week in Washington are just the beginning of a long haul, which if proved successful, will undoubtedly mean that many Israelis living in certain settlements in the West Bank will have to be uprooted. The AFP news agency has found one settler, Yoram Cohen, [...]
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This evening, history was made when Israel's Police Marching band performed in Moscow's red square.

Normally, I wouldn't bother posting this except for two reasons:

1. A close relative is performing (!!?!)

2. I thought it was hilarious what music they started playing at 3:35 into the video. Obviously someone in the band has a great sense of humor :-)



Shavua tov.





Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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The big topic at the playground this afternoon was the changing of the clocks next Saturday night, an annual occurrence that is a subject of outrage for many in Israel, particularly those with small children. It’s timed to happen before Rosh Hashanah, so that the Yom Kippur fast will end at 6 rather than 7, [...]
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Den internationella rätten (avseende blockad) ser helt olika ut om det råder krig eller fred. Jag vet inte vad Ove Bring hade för underlag, men jag tycker att han hade fel. Hamas’ stadgar och mängder av uttalanden säger klart att Israel ska utplånas genom jihad, som här måste tolkas som genom våld. Israels parlament har också – före Gazakriget 2008-2009 – beslutat att krigstillstånd råder mellan Israel och Hamas.

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Allmänheten på båda sidor stöder en tvåstatslösning. Det gör även en majoritet av araberna. Den enkla sanningen är att de flesta människorna i Mellanöstern är trötta på konflikten och om Netanyahu och Abbas kan nå en genomförbar överenskommelse, kommer allmänheten på båda sidor förmodligen stödja uppgörelsen med stor majoritet.

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Photographer Drora Spitz is one of Israel’s leading lights in the field of artistic and architectural photography. Since 1972, her art works have been presented at museums and galleries in Israel, Germany, Spain, the US and the UK. Between 1978-2004, Spitz was director of the Department of Photography at the Faculty of Architecture, Urban Planning [...]
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I had the enlightening experience last night of riding the ‘kavei laila’ (night lines) of the Egged bus system. In most Israeli cities, bus service stops at around 12:30 am every night. But in recent years, Egged, the national bus company, has initiated late night service on Thursday and Saturday nights (not on Friday, of [...]
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I wrote in an earlier post about how human beings aren’t built to truly multitask – an action we increasingly rely on to parse all the data coming at us from the web or our mobile devices. New research is trying to figure out not only what happens psychologically when we try to do two [...]
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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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For those without a press pass or the time and patience to filter through every tidbit of information available to the public concerning the Middle East tango – you’ll at least want to follow the upcoming peace talks between Palestinian, Israeli and American politicians and think-tanks with a bit of a recent background scoop. Palestinian [...]
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Despite the arm-twisted "denouncement" by the Palestinian Authority of yesterday's murderous terror attack that left 4 Israelis dead, the average Palestinian rejoiced.

While the Palestinians rejoice over the spilled blood of Jews, the Jews of Israel have had enough. We don't send out death squads to murder innocents like they do, but express our outrage in positive ways.

Instead, we are prematurely ending the building freeze, TODAY.

At 6:00 PM today in the community of Kedumim in the Shomron, there will be an unfreezing ceremony, as Jewish housing construction will be restarted in the Shomron.

Similar ceremonies will be taking place this evening throughout Yehuda and Shomron.


The freeze is over.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Sports reporter Mike Wise: benched for foul play in social media

The Washington Post ombudsman reports:

Popular Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise has been suspended for a month after knowingly sending a false tweet on Monday.

The action stems from a short scoop to his Twitter followers that said Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who has been suspended for six games by the NFL after allegations of misconduct, will only have to sit out five games. “Roethlisberger will get five games, I’m told,” Wise tweeted.

That was big news for those who follow professional football, and it quickly spread on the Internet. But as Wise soon acknowledged, it was a hoax that was part of a misguided attempt to comment on the lowered standards of accuracy for information shared on social media.

Fabrication is a major journalistic transgression. He's lucky he wasn't fired. . . .

On Monday afternoon, after the fabrication became known, [sports editor Matthew Vita sent a note to his staff reminding them of The Post’s rules on social media. They say that in anything transmitted via social media networks, like Twitter or Facebook, “we must protect our professional integrity.”

“We must be accurate in our reporting and transparent about our intentions,” the guidelines read.

But Wise wasn’t reporting. He was fabricating, which is the greatest sin in journalism.

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LATEST UPDATES AT TOP OF POST. Updates on Muqata Twitter.



(More photos: JR)


-
Boilerplate condemnations from Palestinian Authority:
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad said "the attack was in contradiction with the national interests of the Palestinians and the PA's strategic vision".

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said "condemns all acts that target Palestinian and Israeli civilians." and the attack in the Hebron attack was designed to "disrupt the peace process. and can't be regarded as an act of resistance."

Not one word from them that it was actually terror and morally wrong.

By the way, anyone see any Palestinian civilians murdered by terrorists last night that Abbas is condemning that act?

-

Avishai Shindler: Today was his 1st wedding anniversary.

-
Talia and Yitzchak Aimes left behind 6 orphans (ages 1.5 - 19). Kochavia Even-Chaim left behind a daughter (age 8).

Victims names: Yitzchak (47) and Tali (45) Aimes, Kochavia Even-Haim (37) and Avishai Shindler (24).

One of the victims (Shindler) was originally from Elad. He moved to Beit Chagai after he recently got married.
-
ZAKA volunteer who went to the terror attack to assist, discovered that his wife was one of the murdered victims.
-
Hamas says that this is the first in a series of attacks.
-

Ehud Barak: "The terrorists wanted to hurt our government's policies" (sounds like a variation of "the price of peace" and "victims of peace").

-
10:42 PM Victims were a couple, and 2 hitchhikers.
-

Both Hamas and Al Aska Brigade (Fatah - PA Abu Mazen's personal terror force) claim responsibility for attack. Update: Credit given to Hamas.
-

9: 20 PM. Just received an update from a participant in an IDF spokesman's conference call regarding the attack (thanks S who was stood in for us during the meeting which we couldn't participate in).

Conflicting reports from the IDF.

IDF spokesman says there were no specific alerts, despite peace talks, and this entire road was clear of roadblocks and checkpoints.

Yet, Channel 1 TV reports that Chief of Staff Gen. Ashkenazi was in Judea/Samaria command headquarters this past Sunday, and warned all commanders that this region was "on fire" due to peace talks and Islamic Jihad and Hamas wanting to derail talks.

IDF SP says massive amount of gunfire used to attack vehicle.
-

Security is raised throughout country in concern for a 'wave of terror' attacks due to "peace talks".

Meanwhile, reports are that the terrorists are still in the field.
-

IDF has captured 3 suspected terrorists, but new reports say they aren't sure these are the terrorists. UPDATE: Not the right terrorists.
-
The terrorists shot up the car. When the car stopped, the terrorists approached the vehicle and individually shot each victim to "confirm their kill".
-
4 people were just killed in a car by Palestinian terrorists. 1 of the dead includes a pregnant woman. 2 men, 2 women, ages 25 and 40. They were residents of Beit Hagai.
-



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Palestinian Center For Public Opinion (PCPO) genomför intressanta undersökningar i det palestinska samhället.

Dr. Nabil Kukali, grundare och chef, beskriver verksamheten så här:

“I trained for two years in a very hard work a good team of graduated young people, who are now working with me as interviewers, researchers, translators, data processors throughout the Palestinian territories. We employ now over 40 professionals and young researchers.”

http://www.pcpo.ps/

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Yesterday's editorial in the New York Times praised the Palestinian Authority for clamping down on incitement:

Palestinian authorities have clamped down on incitement, including removing imams and teachers who encourage attacks against Israelis. More can still be done.

Times readers would be forgiven for not knowing what "more can be done." The newspaper, after all, completely ignored the glorification earlier this month of a Palestinian terrorist involved in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Palestinian Authority leaders Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad participated in that event.

Nor does the Times tend to take note of official indoctrination such as Palestinian Authority television's repeated references, during programing aimed at children, to Israeli cities actually being occupied Palestinian cities.

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Spiritual leader of the Shas party, Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef made a public wish during his Rosh Hashana sermon that “our enemies and haters may come to an end, Abu Mazen and all these villains – may the Holy One, Blessed Be He, afflict them with the plague… these evil enemies of Israel.” Abu Mazen is [...]
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The following video clip is an accurate representation of the volunteering I do within United Hatzalah.

They didn't ask me to post this, nor are they paying me to post it.

However, United Hatzalah supplies all my emergency medical and radio equipment that I use as an on-call volunteer medic, 24x7.

Sorry I've been posting less, but its been crazier than usual....for the record, my time has been put to better use than blogging.

I'm slowly starting to get back in the saddle.

--Jameel







Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Israel's been "innovating" since time began, as Israeli archaeologists believe that thousands of ancient shards of flint found scattered around a fire pit in a cave near Tel Aviv might be the world's oldest known disposable knives...

AP Reports:

"Dating to the Stone Age, the tiny knives are believed to be at least 200,000 years old. A Tel Aviv University excavation team found the tools around a fireplace littered with charred animal bones.

Archaeologist Ran Barkai said he believes Stone Age hunter-gatherers used the rough, round-shaped cutlery - ranging from the size of human teeth to guitar picks - for slicing through cooked meat because they were found next to the animal bones. The bones were used to determine the age of the knives.

The number of knives found, coupled with the fact that they had no signs of sharpening, indicates they were disposable because they would have dulled after several uses, he said.

The knives were made from recycled material - parts of larger knives and tools designed for other uses such as butchering animals and scraping hides, he said.

"They are made in a special way. On the one hand, they are very efficient and on the other, very simple," Barkai said.

Working with replicas made from other stones found in the cave, an expert determined that the wear and tear resulting from cutting soft tissues, like meat, matched marks found on the ancient knives.

Barkai said that while people have been cutting meat for the last 2 million years, these knives stood out because of their small size and the fact that they were disposable and made from recycled materials.

"Such tiny meat-eating knives were never discovered before," he said.

Yorke Rowan, an archaeologist from the University of Chicago who was not involved in the dig, said the discovery still leaves a number of questions unanswered, such as why the tools are so small and why the makers would have bothered to recycle materials when they had access to a large supply of flint stones.

But the finding is significant, he said, because it shows that materials "that have traditionally been treated as waste might actually be tools."

Barkai published the findings in the September issue of Antiquity, a quarterly journal."

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Last Saturday, the Iranian Intelligence Minister, Heydar Moslehi accused the Swedish cosmetics firm, Oriflame of trying to harm Iran’s security after the Tehran office was closed and five of its employees were taken into police custody amid allegations that they were running a pyramid scheme for a spy agency. Moslehi was quoted as saying: “Oriflame [...]
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Yuli Edelstein raises an interesting point.

Since no one knows what the borders would be if this round of talks were somehow successful, it seems rather one-sided that only Israel must freeze construction in the disputed territories.

After all, the Arabs are building on land that may very well fall within Israel’s borders (assuming these talks led anywhere), in which case the Palestinians are creating facts on the ground and destroying any chance the peace talks could go anywhere.


The Prime Minister must demand that Abbas stop all Arab settlement construction and activity, including natural growth, in all disputed areas currently under PLO control for as long as Abbas demands the same from Netanyahu.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Fareed Zakaria concludes a recent essay in Newsweek with the admonition : "Admitting an error is a small price to pay to regain a reputation."

Good point. Although he was talking about a Jewish organization, he might apply that same advice to himself.

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Mondoweiss is not the place most people go for accurate information about the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Nevertheless CAMERA is forced to address an erroneous report posted on that site by Jeff Klein.

In a post dated Aug. 23, 2010, Klein reports that CAMERA was involved in the controversy related to a mosque in Boston. Klein reported that court documents revealed that a campaign about the mosque in Roxbury “was organized by activists with the far-right pro-Israel David Project and CAMERA spearheaded by founder Charles Jacobs, who now heads […] “Americans for Peace and Tolerance.”

CAMERA had no involvement with any mosque-related protests. Like many other organizations and individuals, CAMERA was served with a subpoena from the mosque’s lawyers who demanded all communications it had concerning the mosque. Emails were collected and they amounted to CAMERA receiving blast emails, which were sent to hundreds, if not thousands, of people.

The mosque’s lawyers had expressed a desire to depose CAMERA officials, but the case was settled before the depositions could took place.

In sum, there was no involvement on CAMERA’s part whatsoever regarding the Roxbury Mosque and in particular regarding the protests that Klein condemns.

Moreover, Charles Jacobs is not, as Klein indicates, a founder of CAMERA. As CAMERA’s website clearly states, the organization was founded in Washington, DC in 1982 by Winifred Meiselman, a teacher and social worker.

Jacobs was deputy director of the Boston Chapter of CAMERA, not CAMERA itself, for approximately two years in the late 1980s – but has had no affiliation with the organization since then.

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According to United Press International, an Israeli railway line in Samaria will lead on to the Gaza Strip. Israel’s Transport Minister Yisrael Katz made the plans known at a meeting early in the week with supporters of Netanyahu’s Likud Party. The track begins in Rosh Ha’ayin, near Petach Tikvah in Israel via Ariel to Nablus [...]
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The Finnish head of Amnesty International called Israel a "scum state," the Jewish Chronicle reports. The Chronicle adds:

In April Amnesty International came under criticism for holding a meeting about Israel's policy in east Jerusalem under the title of "Capital Murder" and featuring the author of a book on Israeli "apartheid".

The organisation also had to issue an apology in January for alleging that the co-chairs of the Northern Ireland Friends of Israel had committed “war crimes” by defending Israel.

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Apparently one must agree with the Obama Regime in order to get a 501(c)(3) tax exempt status. At least according to someone in the IRS.

Z STREET, a pro-Israel non-profit corporation, filed a lawsuit in federal court today charging that the IRS violated the organization’s First Amendment rights. The suit was filed after Z STREET was told by an IRS official that its application for tax-exempt status has been delayed because an IRS policy requires consideration of whether a group’s views on Israel differ from those of the current Administration.

“Not only is it patently un-American but it is also a clear violation of the First Amendment for a government agency to penalize an organization because of its political position on Israel or anything else,” said Z STREET president Lori Lowenthal Marcus, a former First Amendment lawyer. “This situation is the same as if the government denied a driver’s license to people because they were Republicans or Democrats. It goes against everything for which our country stands.”

Z STREET filed for tax-exempt status in January of this year and, despite having met all of the requirements for grant of this status, the application has been stalled.

An IRS agent told Z STREET’s lawyers that the application was delayed because of a Special Israel Policy that requires greater scrutiny of organizations which have to do with Israel, in part to determine whether they espouse positions on Israel contrary to those of the current Administration.

Z STREET is a Zionist organization that proudly supports Israel’s right to refuse to negotiate with, make concessions to, or appease terrorists. Z STREET’s positions on Israel and, in particular, on the Middle East “peace process” differ significantly from those espoused by the Obama administration.

If Z STREET had tax-exempt status, its donors would be able to deduct contributions from their taxable income. The IRS's refusal to grant tax-exempt status to Z STREET has inhibited the organization‘s fundraising efforts, and therefore impeded its ability to speak and to educate the public regarding the issues that are the focus and purpose of Z STREET.

The lawsuit, Z STREET v. Shulman, Commissioner of Internal Revenue, was filed today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

J-Street on the other hand had no problem getting it.

By the way, it is illegal for a 501(c)(3) to endorse a political candidate.



That's why J-Street created three "separate" legal entities in the same J-Street family (and office), so they can get around that little problem by claiming each division to be legally independent.

The J Street family consists of three legally independent organizations:

J Street is itself a 501(c)(4) non-profit corporation, and a registered lobbying organization, which uses online organizing, advocacy, and education to achieve its goals on Capitol Hill and with the Executive Branch.

JStreetPAC is a legally independent political action committee and is the first PAC specifically established to endorse and raise money for candidates for federal office who support active American leadership to bring peace and security to Israel and the Middle East. In its first year, JStreetPAC raised nearly $600,000 for its 42 endorsed candidates for U.S. Congress, 34 of whom won their races.

J Street Education Fund, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. It aims to educate targeted communities about the need for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, raise the visibility of a mainstream pro-Israel, pro-peace presence within the American Jewish community, and promote open, dynamic and spirited conversation about how to best advance the interests and future of a democratic, Jewish Israel. J Street Local, J Street’s national field program and J Street U, J Street’s on campus movement are programs of the J Street Education Fund.

Do you think they're doing a good job keeping their departments separate on anything but paper? I'm sure they're very smart about keeping things looking separate on paper, and that's probably where it counts the most.

(But if you personally think that J-Street is in violation of their tax exempt status, you can certainly contact IRS Customer Service operations concerning tax-exempt organizations at (877) 829-5500 (toll-free number). The call center is open 8:00am to 9:30pm Eastern Time.)

But we're talking Z Street in this post, not J Street.

I simply find it strange that non-profits dealing specifically with Israel undergo extra scrutiny, and can be denied tax exempt status by having a policy that disagrees with the current Regimes.

It sounds almost unconstitutional.




Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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test

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There are those in the world that are obsessed with pointing out the oppression and the struggle, and are quick to add fuel to the fire. There is little chance they would want to show these pictures. In general people tend to always look for the dark side and the “ongoing struggle” that must go [...]
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Hattip: Mitch


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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According to the Mishnah, or the Oral Torah: There are four New Years: on the first of Nisan the New Year for kings and for festivals; on the first of Elul the New Year for the tithe of animals. Rabbi Eleazar and Rabbi Shimon say, on the first of Tishrei: on the first of Tishrei [...]
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New Yorker fact-checker Virginia Heffernan reflects on the state of fact-checking, both in the old days, as well as in the present day era of Google. She concludes:

In short, fact-checking has assumed radically new forms in the past 15 years. Only fact-checkers from legacy media probably miss the quaint old procedures. But if the Web has changed what qualifies as fact-checking, has it also changed what qualifies as a fact? I suspect that facts on the Web are now more rhetorical devices than identifiable objects. But I can’t verify that.

CAMERA has long speculated on the impact of the new media's looser guidelines on the old media's more rigorous fact-checking process. Could this blending of old and new account for the New Yorker's failure to issue corrections on this 2009 story?

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One wonders if Robert F. Worth of the New York Times even read his own newspaper before he wrote this analysis, which appears today in the International Herald Tribune. He writes:

Earlier this month, Israeli soldiers were pruning a tree on their country's northern border when a firefight broke out with Lebanese soldiers across the fence, leaving one Israeli and four Lebanese dead.

The skirmish seems to have been accidental.

1) The "firefight broke out"? That is a pretty lame and euphemistic way of describing Lebanese firing on Israeli troops trimming a tree on their side of the border in a pre-coordinated move with the United Nations. In a news analysis in the supposed paper of record, you would hope for a tad more precision.

2) The skirmish seems to have been accidental? Really? Based on what? Not the United Nations, which "largely vindicat[ed] Israel's account of how the fighting started," in the words of the New York Times.

In another worrisome indication about Worth's analytical skills, he writes that for some Lebanese, having the Lebanese army back on the border with Israel "was a possible first step toward disarming Hezbollah."

A step toward disarming Hezbollah? In fact, the opposite has happened. But don't hold your breath for our worthy analyst to share the facts with you. Nevermind that since UN Resolution 1701 was passed after the 2006 Lebanon war, placing the Lebanese army in the south of the country, Hezbollah's missile supply has skyrocketed to 40,000, far beyond the quantity it had in 2006.

A day in the life of New York Times news analyses. For whatever it's worth.

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Way back when I was in College, I went to a relatively non-politicized university, but it was always easy to tell who was politically right, and who was politically left. Those who kept their political views to themselves were presumably right, while those on the left made it openly clear what their views were, and often enough your grades were a reflection of how closely you toed their line.

I was young and naïve at the time, and didn’t understand how significant and dangerous this was.

With one professor, a few of us decided as a joke (and an experiment) to hand to hand in a series of essays that were very similar enough in content and subject. Some reports were accurate, factual and politically neutral, while others modified the facts and conclusions to match this professor’s worldview. You can guess which reports got the A’s, and which ones didn’t.

I had another professor that regularly started spouting leftwing political nonsense in class and essentially dared anyone to disagree with her. At the beginning of the semester I started to make the mistake of raising my hand to point out her errors in economics and politics when the looks of everyone around me made it clear that silence was going to be a virtue in this class.

There are those that espouse that professors can say what they want and it’s about Academic Freedom, and creating a safe intellectual environment.

But college campuses are not safe intellectual environments. If you dare disagree with a left-wing professor in your political science or history courses, your grades might well reflect that mistake (of disagreeing with them). That was true then, and is very true now, particularly in Israel.

This is academic terror. This stifles academic freedom and intellectual honesty.

If I had known then what I understand now, I would have reported this treatment. But this wasn’t considered a burning issue back then (as far as I knew).

Last week I was embarrassed by what I read in the papers.

I read that Im Tirtzu threatened Ben-Gurion University, that if they don’t fire some of their professors, Im Tirtzu is going to go to BGU’s donors and tell them all about the University's political bias. This message that they said BGU should fire the teachers was making the rounds everywhere (Ha'aretz to their credit, was the exception, and actually did not say Im Tirtzu said BGU should fire their staff).

From what was reported in the papers, it sounded like Im Tirtzu got a little full of themselves and decided to flex muscles they don’t really have.

Im Tirtzu did not look good.

But, I also knew that if I waited just a bit, something is going to come out that will make this all make sense.

Before Im Tirtzu became famous and put the spotlight on Naomi Chazan and the New Israel Fund they were involved in another interesting project. They researched and rated teachers at various universities based on student reports and curriculum material (what textbooks each class required). They published reports on which teachers were post/anti-Zionists and which aren’t.

(For "anti-Zionist", they only took the most extreme definition, so there wouldn't be questions about borderline anti-Zionist, or LW "Zionists").

A similar study was also done by an independent research organization.

Leftwing professors are calling this McCarthyism and a threat to Academic Freedom. But as someone who experienced their kind of Academic Freedom, I could only wish I had had this report available in my college days.

But I digress.

So let’s get back to the facts that Makor Rishon published in this weekend’s paper.

The first is that Im Tirtzu did not tell BGU to fire its professors.

Im Tirtzu said that BGU needs to “put an end to the Anti-Zionist tilt” in its classrooms. If BGU didn’t end the open anti-Zionist agitation in the classrooms, then they would expose this incitement to BGU’s donors.

But what “anti-Zionist tilt” was Im Tirtzu talking about, and who were they talking about?

Well it seems that at BGU, 9 out of it’s 11 professors in the Political Science department openly express anti-Zionist opinions in the classroom, are members of radical-left organizations, and the department head, Neve Gordon, has called for (wait for it...) a full economic, cultural and academic boycott against the State of Israel.

(This department head wants funding cut off to his own university to protest the whatever!)

If that was all of it, you could always just write it off as typical leftwing academia and nonsense.

But that isn’t all there is.

You're probably saying to yourself, if we’re writing about this and Im Tirtzu is involved, then how are we going to bring the New Israel Fund into the picture here.

Hold on to your seats, because this is going to blow you away.

Ben Gurion University offers a course called “Societal Change in the Periphery”.

Ben Gurion University receives NIS 7,300 for each student that attends this course from… the New Israel Fund.

But the connection hardly ends there.

By taking the course, the students must also volunteer/intern in one of the various “societal change” organizations on the BGU list.

BGU gives course additional course credits to the students who volunteer in these various organizations (commonly known as the Easy A).

But some (most?) of these social change organizations (always LW of course), while claiming to be involved in social issues, have also been involved in radical left political issues such as trying to get arrest warrants against General Doron Almog and calling for senior IDF officers to be brought to international trial.

But it gets better (you're probably asking yourself, “How much more can their be?”, and won’t you be surprised).

You get one guess who funds these organizations.

It turns out that all these organizations on the BGU intern list for this program receive NIF funding and are connected to the NIF’s activist arm Shatil.

But it gets even better than that. (!)

Some of these organizations that receive NIF funding, that students who take the “Societal Change in the Periphery” course are required to volunteer/intern in, and that BGU receive NIS 7300 per student for... these organizations are currently (or were, in one case) headed up by professors and lecturers at BGU, such as Neve Gordon (that name again) who ran “Physicians for Human Rights” and Haim Yakobi (who teaches the “Societal Change in the Periphery” course) who heads up “Bimkom”, and Yishai Menuchin who heads up “The public committee against torture”.

Getting back to the start of the post, it seems that the NIF has it claws deep inside the BGU Political Science department. One can only imagine the brainwashing and academic terror that happens when 9 out of the 11 political science professors have radical leftwing outlooks that they aren’t afraid to share.

I am sure that Im Tirtzu will be good at convincing BGU’s donors that a donation to BGU hurts the Zionist cause, because they have enough materials and studies to prove it.

But I also wonder if there is another way.

Every week we learn more and more about how the NIF works and how they use their connections and funding.

For instance, last week a picture was publicized with Supreme Court Dorit Beinisch participating at an NIF event two years ago when they received a $20 million dollar grant from the Ford Foundation.

Maybe it’s time we on the right learn from the NIF.

Maybe it’s time for organizations on the right to duplicate the activities of the NIF.

Openly funding courses and professors who express and teach Zionism and love for Israel.

Training and supporting the next generation of lawyers, judges, and prosecutors with a Zionist and Jewish perspective.

Funding, training and support for activist organizations. Particularly the small one or two person organizations.

Enough NIF activities and methodologies have been exposed (and continue to be exposed) that can be copied by a True Israel Fund and then we can fight fire with fire, instead of with just spilling buckets of water on various hot-spots.

Obviously, it will be more difficult without the millions of dollars that come in from foreign governments who want to influence Israel from within, but there are still rich Zionist Jews out there who could match at least some of this massive foreign funding.

This is a fight over the long haul, and if we also don't start actively influencing the next generation in the schools and in the field instead of always playing defense, then we're fighting a losing battle.




Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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On Friday afternoon, outside the Rami Levy in Gush Etzion, emergency responders (IDF, police, and ambulances) arrived in full force after rival Arab clans attacked one another, and the Israelis who got in the way.

2 Israelis (including 1 policeman), and 6 Arabs (including the attendant at the local Gas station) were evacuated to hospitals.

Rami Levy is supposed to be a symbol of coexistence in Gush Etzion, but it looks like this symbol just wasn't enough to maintain the fragile coexistence that exists in "Palestinian" Arab society which is actually a conglomeration of often rival Hamulot (clans).



It is not clear what this means for the Rami Levy store, but I am sure security is going to be beefed up until Ramadan is over.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Can you find the two separate standards in this passage from Reuters?

Israel insists it is ready for direct talks provided there are no preconditions. The Palestinians are ready provided there is a clear agenda.

If you said the news service uses language to casts doubt on Israel's sincerity ("Israel insists..."), while accepting as fact the Palestinian assertion that they are ready to meet ("Palestinians are ready..."), then you're right.

Speaking of "Israel says," here's the next line from Reuters: "Israel says an agenda means preconditions." In truth, it is hardly only Israel that recognizes Palestinian preconditions as preconditions.

This skewed language comes not long after an earlier Reuters report told readers that the attack by pro-Palestinian activists on Israeli troops boarding the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara was nothing more than an Israeli claim, in effect suggesting, despite clear video evidence, that Israeli soldiers might not have been attacked.

Aug. 23 update: Reuters has acknowledged in communications with CAMERA that their language about negotiations was not appropriate.

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In her statement announcing a resumption of direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, Hillary Clinton asserted, "These negotiations should take place without preconditions and be characterised by good faith and a commitment to their success, which will bring a better future to all of the people of the region."

So will the Associated Press call the Secretary of State's stance "hard line," as it did when describing Israel's call for negotiations without preconditions?

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by Lurker

Gallup: US support for Israel near all-time high (also here and here)

Haaretz: US support for Israel is decreasing, new poll shows

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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by Lurker

While human rights activists and bleeding hearts focus all their attention on the plight of the African migrants in Israel, nobody seems to give a flying leap about what the Egyptians are doing to them every day, just over the border. Arabs apparently have a free hand to commit brutal torture, mutilation, rape, and savage massacres with complete impunity:

They are hung from trees by metal chains attached to their arms and provided with plastic bags to collect their urine to drink when they are thirsty. They are gang raped, tortured with electricity and held prisoner in desert camps. When they escape they are shot, either by their Beduin captors or by Egyptian police. These savage and disturbing details, published piecemeal over the years, are just a part of the picture of what is being done in Egypt's Sinai desert to African migrants.

Read the rest here, if you can stomach it:

The long road of death, massacre in Sinai

Apparently this isn't worth anyone's attention, since there's no way to blame Jews for it.

And you won't hear the EU or the UN saying anything about this either, let alone issue any condemnations. They're too busy with much more important things, like investigating the Israeli raid on the terror flotilla, and demonizing Israel for the shortage of coriander in the Gaza Luxury Mall.

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Despite a lawsuit by the Chassidic movement, Russia will not turn over a library of Chabad-Lubavitch documents to the group’s headquarters in Brooklyn, New York City; and a U.S. district judge has upheld the Russian’s plea. The library, collected since 1772 and comprising over 12,000 volumes and 381 manuscripts was originally seized by the Red [...]
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This story is simply amazing.

For over 60 years, Palestinians living in Lebanon had no rights and existed in sub-human conditions. The world of course, blamed Israel.

Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon wrote about this a few weeks ago in the Wall Street Journal.

Surprisingly, just a couple of weeks after Ayalon's op-ed, the Lebanese government changed their status!

The Lebanese parliament voted on Tuesday to grant the country’s 400,000 Palestinian refugees the right to work in the same professions as other foreigners, lifting a decades-old ban that had relegated the refugees to the most menial jobs.

The bill was intended to transform Lebanese policies toward the refugees, although Palestinian leaders in Lebanon and human rights workers say it was only a first step that leaves significant stumbling blocks in place.

The Palestinians living in Lebanon are isolated from the rest of the country in refugee camps to a higher degree than anywhere else in the Arab world.

“I was born in Lebanon and I have never known Palestine,” said Ahmed al- Mehdawi, 45, a taxi driver who lives in the Ein el- Hilweh refugee camp, which is notorious for its lawlessness.

“What we want is to live like Lebanese. We are human beings and we need civil rights.” (JPost)

Why is it that real human rights abuses in the Middle East go on for decades, while the left and anti-Zionists bash Israel?

Why does it take a member of the Israeli government to expose this, while all the "Human Rights" fundamentalists ignore it?

The obvious answer: none of the organizations and countries who routinely bash Israel care about Human Rights...they just care about bashing Israel.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Found the following article in The Guardian:

Artificial meat grown in vats may be needed if the 9 billion people expected to be alive in 2050 are to be adequately fed without destroying the earth, some of the world's leading scientists report today.

But a major academic assessment of future global food supplies, led by John Beddington, the UK government chief scientist, suggests that even with new technologies such as genetic modification and nanotechnology, hundreds of millions of people may still go hungry owing to a combination of climate change, water shortages and increasing food consumption.

Instead, says Dr Philip Thornton, a scientist with the International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, two "wild cards" could transform global meat and milk production. "One is artificial meat, which is made in a giant vat, and the other is nanotechnology, which is expected to become more important as a vehicle for delivering medication to livestock."

Is artificial meat simply meat that is grown, based on existing meat? Would the original piece of meat need to be have come from a Kosher animal that was slaughtered in accordance with Jewish law, and then all meat "grown" from it, would be considered Kosher?



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Outrage Around the World:

Eden, the ex-soldier from Ashdod who posted photos from her time in the IDF posing next to cuffed Palestinian detainees on her Facebook page is shocked by the backlash the incident prompted. "I received death threats from all over the world on Facebook," she told Ynet. "I'm sorry if anyone got offended, I actually took care of the detainees. The IDF has let me down profoundly. I wish I never served in such an army."

The photos were taken in the Gaza Strip where Eden was stationed during her IDF service. They caused a stir around the world and were reported on by CNN, Sky News as well as British newspapers such as the Guardian. "It's unbelievable that so many people are talking about me," she said. "I find it astounding that there are so many people who want peace and I'm the one ruining it for them. I got loads of death threats, I'm not scared, I know I didn't do anything wrong." (ynet)

Eden shouldn't have posted her photos from her IDF tour of service on facebook -- that was rather stupid. To her credit, she wasn't smiling in the photos.

Of course, the real hypocrisy is that there was zero outrage in Israel when the following IDF soldiers and Israeli policemen took photos of themselves smiling, grinning and laughing, as they evicted thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza, destroyed their homes, and dug up the graves of buried Israelis (smiling in front of the coffins).

All the following photos are from the Gush Katif memorial web-page which documented the expulsion.

The IDF Spokesman's Unit issued a statement in response to the incident describing the ex-soldier's behavior as shameful. Eden claimed that she was told by the IDF she will not be called for reserve duty and will be stripped of her ranks. "I'm very disappointed with the IDF, the army is ungrateful. I risked my life, got injured, I was a model soldier, and now I wish I never served in this army."

She explained the IDF's response by saying that "the army is making the soldiers look bad and the country look great so that Obama won't get pissed off. As far as I'm concerned we're not even an independent state, people are afraid of just pictures. I'm sorry this is the way my country is."

The IDF spokesman's unit didn't say the photos above were shameful...so it's perfectly understandable why Eden thought it was ok posting her photos to facebook.

Here's some more video footage of the over-joyed soldiers and policemen who were responsible for the expulsion from Gush Katif.

The infamous sock dance of the grave expulsion unit.

The infamous and vulgar Police Officer explaining how to expell and arrest Jews.

And here's the heart-wrenching video of the residents prior to their eviction.

Hypocrisy.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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News reports about Israel by the Associated Press and Reuters on August 16 indirectly highlighted The Washington Post’s chronic failure to cover the Jewish state as something other than the accused party in Palestinian narratives.

An AP dispatch (headlined “Israel lifts barrier to West Bank; Neighborhood more secure from gunfire” in The Washington Times) reported that Israel began removing a 600-yard long concrete wall erected in 2001. The barrier had protected residents of the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo from Arab gunfire from Beit Jala, an adjacent West Bank town, during the second intifada. AP reported that the Israeli military said “the barrier is being taken down ... because of a reduced security threat and improved coordination between Israeli and West Bank security forces.”

Though AP erroneously described the Palestinian terror war as “against Israeli occupation” when it in fact followed Palestinian rejection of a two-state solution in exchange for peace offered at Camp David in 2000, the article correctly termed Gilo a “neighborhood in southern Jerusalem,” not a West Bank settlement as some news media have done.

The Washington Post’s August 16 print edition did not mention commencement of the barrier removal.

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As someone who deeply appreciates what Western civilization, for all its faults, has achieved, I puzzle over the hostility many Westerners harbor toward their way of life. If democracy, free markets, and the rule of law have created an unprecedented
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As someone who deeply appreciates what Western civilization, for all its faults, has achieved, I puzzle over the hostility many Westerners harbor toward their way of life. If democracy, free markets, and the rule of law have created an unprecedented
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Photo by Marc Israel Sellem

Every visitor to the Western Wall is familiar with the long staircase, situated next to the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva, down to the Kotel plaza from the Jewish Quarter. It's certainly memorable for those pushing a stroller or nursing an injury, and impassable for the wheelchair bound.

There's good news then for the very young, the very old, and the mobility-impaired. The Jerusalem Post reports that a proposal for an elevator is being considered:

The elevator, proposed by the Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter, would start at Misgav Ledach Street and descend 21 meters to a new pedestrian tunnel. It would greatly improve access for visitors in wheelchairs or those with other disabilities, who now have to contend with several flights of stairs. The pedestrian tunnel would be 60-70 meters in length and pass underneath the stairs near the Aish HaTorah Yeshiva.

At present, the only way for visitors in wheelchairs to reach the Kotel is through the road leading to Dung Gate, which is very steep and has no sidewalks.

As with numerous earlier cases involving harmless projects in the Jewish Quarter and the surrounding areas, certain radical Muslim elements are clamoring about false threats to the Temple Mount and the Al Aqsa Mosque itself. Palestinian Maan News Agency reports:

The Al-Aqsa Foundation says the plans are a threat to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is adjacent to the Western Wall. . . .

In a statement, the foundation said the project intended to divide the mosque and prevent worshipers from reaching it, citing the plan as an attempt by Israeli forces to increase the presence of Jews in the area.

The statement warned that the square in front of the wall could be used as a base to attack the compound.

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The Sunday, August 15 Real Estate section of the New York Times contained a story about the joys of living in Fair Haven, NJ, under the headline "Small-Town Feel in a Big-Spender Area." What caught my attention was this quote, which bears deep parsing:

Cynthia and Philip Auerbach have lived in Fair Haven for 44 years, rearing a family of three and now regularly hosting nine grandchildren at their 3,400-square-foot home, which they recently put on the market in an effort to downsize. When they first moved here, Ms. Auerbach said, they were looking for a community that "offered some diversity."

"It was important to my husband and me that we not be in an all-white, all-upper-class atmosphere," said Mrs. Auerbach, noting that although they are Jewish, they had also been uninterested in living in "a Jewish enclave."

Think about it: do members of any other ethnic or religious group take such pains to make sure a listener wouldn't think they wanted to be around too many of their co-religionists? How did Jewishness become part of the mix of factors of concern, Jewishness as the zingy horseradish on top of the gefulte fish of whiteness and high income? The liberal and Jewish guilt practically glows like radioactive plutonium on the page.

I'm glad Fair Haven provides the environment the couple likes for themselves and their family; somehow I doubt their definition of diversity embraces the Tea Party and Orthodox families pushing baby carriages and hanging an eruv.

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The government is proposing a bill. It's a simple bill.

Israeli NGOs will be required to report how much funding they receive from foreign governments, or from sources that are primarily funded by foreign governments.

It won't stop them from receiving the money. Just expose it.

The bill is a response to the Goldstone incident, where foreign interests and foreign governments (who do not have Israel's best interest at heart) helped fund Israeli Leftwing NGO's reports and research against Israel.

The NIF and other leftist groups are fighting this tooth and nail. Radical leftist groups are calling this bill "McCarthyist".

It just doesn't sit well with me.

On one hand here we have the NIF running a campaign call "We won't shut our mouths", saying they won't be shut up. They say they are all for transparency.

But when it comes to actually putting their money where their mouth is, suddenly they don't want to sing.

And they've got it all wrong anyway.

Im Tirtzu and concerned citizens of Israel DON'T want the NIF to shut up. We don't want the NIF to be quiet.

We want them to, quite loudly, tell the country about all their activities, all the activities they are funding, and who is giving them the money to run those activities.

For years, the NIF slipped under the wire of public consciousness.

But when the public became aware of the NIF and many of the activities they are running and funding the public became outraged.

So NIF, please don't shut your mouth.

The greatest threat to the activities of the NIF is public exposure of those activities and funding sources.

Sing freely.



Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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According to a recent article in Reuters, Washington lawmakers are delaying funds of aid to the Lebanese army for fear of their working with Iran.The article made no specific mention of the Hezbollah. Could they be more idiotic? “Isn’t it obvious?” Thought OneJerusalem. Why else would the Jewish Country have needed to crush the country’s [...]
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USA and Turkey: The Odd Couple.

See if you can keep up with these zigzags.

1. Obama vs Erdogan: The Financial Times reported the following today:

President Barack Obama has personally warned Turkey’s prime minister that unless Ankara shifts its position on Israel and Iran it stands little chance of obtaining the US weapons it wants to buy.

Mr Obama’s warning to Recep Tayyip Erdogan is particularly significant as Ankara wants to buy American drone aircraft – such as the missile-bearing Reaper – to attack the Kurdish separatist PKK after the US military pulls out of Iraq at the end of 2011.

The PKK has traditionally maintained bases in the remote mountains in the north of Iraq, near the Turkish border.

One senior administration official said: “The president has said to Erdogan that some of the actions that Turkey has taken have caused questions to be raised on the Hill about whether we can have confidence in Turkey as an ally. That means that some of the requests Turkey has made of us, for example in providing some of the weaponry that it would like to fight the PKK, will be harder for us to move through Congress.”

Washington was deeply frustrated when Turkey voted against United Nations sanctions on Iran in June.

Kudos to US President Obama for this bold move.

2. Israel continues selling weapons to Turkey, despite Turkey's ongoing antagonism towards Israel, banning Israeli warplanes from using Turkish airspace, etc. Why does the US have the guts to do what Israel does not?

The JPost reported a few weeks ago, that Israel is still selling military equipment to Turkey, and is sending 4 unmanned surveillance drones to Turkey.

So the USA is a better friend of Israel than Israel is to itself?

3. Question: Where are 90% of the engines for the USA's F-35 advanced tactical fighter jet, manufactured and assembled?

Answer: Turkey.

UPI Reports:

Turkish Foreign Trade Minister Zafer Caglayan said that Turkey's defense contractor KaleKalip will start manufacturing F135 engines for F-35 Joint Strike Fighters along with Sikorsky helicopters under license from the United States' United Technologies Corporation, the Star Gazetesi reported Wednesday.

Caglayan told reporters about his meeting last week with UTC executives aboard a plane en route to Turkey from the United States, noting that UTC's discussions with KaleKalip began last week, adding, "They will sign a deal next week."

KaleKalip initially will produce 90 percent of F135 engines' components for the F-35 aircraft and eventually will manufacture the entire engine.

4. Question: Who announced they are now buying a squadron of 20 F-35s for the cost of 2.7 billion dollars?

Answer: Israel.

The F-35 warplanes are expected to be delivered between 2015 to 2017, an Israeli defense official said.

Israeli leaders have spoken of arch-foe Iran potentially developing a nuclear weapon by mid-decade, suggesting that the F-35s would not be used for any preventive action, but rather to bolster the country's deterrence.

A ministry statement said Barak "approved in principle the recommendations of the Israel Defense Forces and the Defense Ministry to move ahead" with the purchase.

The stealth fighter, made by Lockheed Martin Corp, "will afford Israel continued air superiority and maintain the technological edge in our region," the statement quoted Barak as saying. (reuters)

Will the US find itself in a strange position that while supporting their strategic ally, Israel, they will be preventing weapons from going to Turkey...and perhaps even face delivery and engine manufacturing issues for their F-35?



Visiting Israel?
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Some observations: Cordoba House (or Park51) was announced in early April; that it remains an item of debate over four months later, and not just locally but nationally, points to Islam in the United States becoming a populist issue. Politicians who
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Some observations: Cordoba House (or Park51) was announced in early April; that it remains an item of debate over four months later, and not just locally but nationally, points to Islam in the United States becoming a populist issue. Politicians who
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Last week we visited the Israel Museum. They’re rebranding it as the Renewed Israel Museum because of all the changes made to it, both in terms of physical structure and content. It's not quite finished yet, but its getting there.

Overall, I give it two thumbs up.


I like the new layout. I like the tunnel. I like the Judaica and Archeology sections. The Second Temple Model (formerly at the Holy Land Hotel) was great (could use more shade though). And the Shrine of the Book (along with its Aleppo Codex exhibit) is always fascinating.

I think they made the museum less crowded with fewer individual pieces of art and history on display, but they chose the more interesting pieces and organized them better. It’s certainly roomier than I remember.

The (dairy) restaurants were good. No meat restaurants though.

I couldn’t stand their Modern Art exhibits.


I have no patience for what they want to call Modern Art. It’s idiotic. Feel free to disagree, but a mobile of hanging musical instruments, or videos of what could just as easily be fillers on MTV or PBS just doesn’t do it for me.

My kids couldn't stop laughing at the "Modern Art" videos - and that alone tells you the level that stuff is at.


Point of information: Guards do not appreciate it when children try to play the hanging instruments.

What I did like about the Modern Art section is they finally took out that super-annoying audio recording of the guy screaming “Shabbos”. I found it so offensive and annoying to hear that any time you walked near that section.

The classical arts section was fine.

Point of information: Guards do not appreciate it when children are holding cups of water in their hands in this section.

In the archeology section, I kept the kids busy by having them look for the dead bodies. They found them.

Point of information: Guards do not appreciate it when children try to look inside the ossuaries.


If you haven't realized it yet, if you’re going with kids, make sure the Renewed Israel Museum is having activities in the youth wing that day. My kids spent hours there doing art projects. During the summer they also have kid’s art projects outside on certain days.

Overall, well worth the visit - especially with kids. My kids were fascinated with every room we visited, and we hung up the paintings they made on our walls at home.


Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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I was delighted to read this story that an alum of the 2004 group "Communists For Kerry" is now cunningly running for Congress in Florida. If elected, "Comrade Che," a/k/a Jason Sager, can burrow into the rotting political system from within.

CFK caught my attention in that tumultuous political year, and I checked out one of their street-theater events at New York's Union Square in October (a fitting month) and, of course, took pictures. The whole troupe brilliantly befuddled observers who couldn't tell how serious they were -- spoofers or real revolutionaries? The photos and captions on the CFK site tell the story. I never fail to laugh at the antics. We need more of their ilk starting right now.

Below, that's Comrade Che to the left.

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by Lurker

Yesterday, IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi testified before the Turkel commission investigating the Gaza flotilla incident. Judge Turkel asked him why the IDF was so completely unprepared for the murderous attacks against our soldiers by members of the IHH, the Turkish radical Islamist group that organized the flotilla. (The soldiers, who were "armed" with paintball guns, were obviously not told to expect any serious opposition.) Here is Ashkenazi's answer:

"The level of knowledge we had on the [IHH] was not like the level of information we have on Hamas. We did not investigate the organization. It was not on our list of our priorities, because it was not listed as a terrorist organization and was located in Turkey, which is not an enemy state -- and I hope it never will be."
[Sources: JPost, Haaretz]

Incredibly, even after hearing all the rabid, extremist diatribes against Israel spewed forth on an almost daily basis by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and even after watching Turkey openly forge alliances with Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah, Ashkenazi -- and the Israeli government -- still have not grasped the simple and obvious fact that Turkey has become our enemy.

As for the IHH, if the folks at IDF Intelligence had bothered to do even a couple minutes of googling, they would have quicky discovered ample material clearly showing the organization's fanatical jihadist nature, such as this 2009 speech in Gaza by the head of the IHH, in which he called for martyrdom through attacks on Israel:



Regarding Turkey's imagined status as a "non-enemy" of Israel: News reports appearing on the very same day as Ashkenazi's testimony revealed that Turkey has arranged, in close cooperation with Iran and Syria, to provide Hizbullah with advanced weaponry, including rockets:

'Turkey to give Hizbullah weapons'

Israel, meanwhile, is actually continuing to sell advanced weapons systems to the Turkish military, and to train them in their use. One wonders why Israel doesn't simply eliminate the middleman, and just ship weapons directly to Hizbullah.

Poor PM Erdogan must be extremely perplexed and frustrated: He has done just about everything feasible within his power to demonstate clearly that he is a bona fide, full-fledged, fierce enemy of Israel: He has viciously denounced Israel as a criminal, terrorist state on every possible occasion, he has sent a ship filled with armed men who attempted to murder Israeli soldiers, and now he is supplying Hizbullah with guns and rockets. Yet with all this, Israel still stubbornly refuses to recognize him as an enemy. Erdogan must be banging his head against the wall, wondering what else he can possibly do to get the message across to those incredibly dense Israelis.

---

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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by Lurker

For those who aren't aware, today is the 1st day of Elul, which is a very special and important day on the Jewish calendar:

It is the New Year's Day for Animals.

The first mishna in tractate Rosh HaShana teaches that there are four days in the year that are regarded as New Year's Days. Each one is considered a cut-off point that begins a new year for certain specific respective purposes in Jewish law:

• The 1st of Nisan is the New Year's Day for dating the reigns of kings, and for caclulating the cycles of festivals.
  
• The 1st of Tishrei is the New Year's Day for calculating calendrical years, shemitot (sabbatical years), and yovelot (jubilee years), as well as for planting (with regard to the law of orla), and for the ma'aser (tithing) of vegetables.
  
• The 15th of Shevat is the New Year's Day for the ma'aser of (fruit) trees.
  
• The 1st of Elul (today) is the New Year's Day for the ma'aser of animals.

On the New Year's Day for the tithing of fruit trees -- commonly referred to as Tu B'Shevat -- it is customary to celebrate by eating fruits grown in the Land of Israel.

And thus, in the exact same way, it is certainly most fitting to celebrate the New Year's Day for the tithing of animals -- today -- by eating meat grown in the land of Israel.

So happy New Year's Day!

And enjoy your barbecues!


ADDENDUM:

The mishna actually gives two opinions regarding the date of the New Year's Day for tithing animals: The first, unattributed, opinion (stam mishna) is that it is on the 1st of Elul, whereas R. Elazar and R. Shimon hold that it is on the 1st of Tishrei. The rishonim (medieval rabbinic authorities) are divided on the question of which view to accept: The SMaG (positive mitzva 212), Meiri (Rosh HaShana 2a, s.v. "והמשנה"), and Ritva (Rosh HaShana 2a, s.v. "באחד") all rule that the date is the 1st of Elul. Rambam, on the other hand (Hilkhot Bekhorot 7:6), rules that it is on the 1st of Tishrei. [Hattip to MB for pointing out Rambam's opinion.]

Therefore, those who wish to be cautious and stringent, and are careful to follow all opinions, should make it a point to do barbecues on both the 1st of Elul and the 1st of Tishrei.

---

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
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Years ago I met a woman on Jdate and something about our communications had an archetypal sound, almost like a cosmic conversation. If aliens came to earth, they could learn so much from reading our back and forth about the mating styles of the digital era. Since aliens will have lots to explore when they land here, I've done them a favor and extracted the top 10 quotes from emails I had from this woman, whom I'll call YettaFromYonkers. This happened so long ago that I barely remember her name.

Go ahead -- feel the love.

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OneJerusalem is in no position to judge another’s religious affiliation. Therefore, when Ashton Kutcher made it publicly known that under the auspices of the Berg Modern Kabbalah Dynasty – if we may call it that – he is indeed an adherent to this particular brand of the Jewish faith, despite his Roman Catholic upbringing. Well, [...]
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The Audit Bureau of Circulations has released newsstand and retail single-copy sales results for U.S. consumer magazines for the first half of the year. Here are the top magazines reporting figures to ABC, along with sales and percentage change. My informed analysis of what it all means follows the listing.

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The United States of America has officially decided on cutting funding for Israel’s defense system. 　 The budget signed off by Congress for the Arrow 3 program totaled $108.8 million in 2011. 　 Well, this included a White House request for $50.8 million, combined with another $58 million added by the House Appropriations Subcommittee on [...]
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Growing up, I was one of those kids who ordered Scholastic paperbacks by the cartonful. One I remember is The Kid Who Batted 1.000, by Bob Allison. As a frustrated, near-sighted player in Farm and Bronco Leagues, I thrilled to the story of a player who never made an out.

I thought about the book this morning at the New York Sports Club, where I worked out and watched ESPN's SportsCenter report. I watched the amazing feat yesterday of the Toronto Blue Jays' J.P. Arencibia. In his first major league game, he hit the first pitch for a home run. In his first four at-bats, he collected two HRs, a single and a double. If I read the monitor right, he did all that on four pitches. He made an out on his fifth at-bat, but, still, that's starting your career in with a bang. The story on the Blue Jays website recaps:

Arencibia became the first player since 1900 to have a pair of home runs and a quartet of hits in his big league debut. He is only the fifth player in baseball history to launch two home runs in his first Major League game and the 107th player to homer in his first career at-bat in the bigs.

"J.P. had a heck of a day today," Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston said. "One that he can go back and tell his grandkids about. I don't know if anyone would believe it, though, unless they really saw it."

I love that quote from Cito Gaston -- "J.P. had a heck of a day today." That's what managers say. That could be the basis of a revised version of "Damn Yankees," maybe called "Darned Blue Jays."

Based on Arencibia's statistics so far in his big-league career, the Blue Jays fan site SBnation.com is already saying "we can at least state with confidence that J.P. Arencibia is the best hitter of the last fifty years."

The performance no doubt has baseball statisticians, Baseball Guru and the slide-rule set at the Society for American Baseball Research pulling out their books to put the one-day rampage in perspective. I always get a kick out of baseball records and statistics discussions, which reach degrees of mathematical sophistication far beyond my ability to comprehend, as this book and website show. And this book, Teaching Statistics Using Baseball, would have helped me a lot more in college than the class I took in econometrics.

For the record, the kind of baseball stats I find the most interesting are the historical ones. This essay rounds up 10. I'll add two season performances that I'm confident will never be repeated on MLB: a pitcher winning 30 games in a seasons, last done by Denny McLain in 1968, and a hitter having a .400 batting average, last done by Ted Williams in 1941.

Let's see what the record books will say about J.P. Arencibia, the real-like kid who almost batted 1.000 in his first game.

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While Bibi says that peace talks could begin as early as the middle of August, only a few days after the Arab League said that it would back direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, five rockets hit the southern town of Eilat and Aqaba, purportedly fired from the Sinai Peninsula. This is just a [...]
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Yesterday marked 65 years since the U.S. bombed Hiroshima. Ann Althouse's blog has a spirited discussion of the event and what would have happened had the bombs not been dropped.

My own personal connection to the event is intense. My father was in the Navy, a SeaBee on Okinawa, and my mother was a Navy cryptographer in Washington working down the hall from Admiral Halsey. Had the bombs not fallen and the war not ended, my father no doubt would have been in the force invading Japan; my mother might have remained in the Navy sending out secret messages -- at times she said she should have just stayed in the Navy as a career. My existence, like many others, would have been radically different.

And like others, I'm only sorry the bomb did not exist a year earlier for use against the richly deserving Germans.

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I started to write today about Belmonte, the hidden Jewish community that has survived for 500 years in Portugal. J.J. Goldberg, senior columnist for The Forward newspaper had a column in its August 6 issue about this amazing place. Looking for the column on the Forward's website, I stumbled upon a relevant column by Goldberg on a topic hot off the Kesher Talk press: The Civil War, the conflict that just goes on and on.

Taking aim at the content of the Brooklyn-based Goliath of Jewish newspapers, The Jewish Press, Goldberg writes:

Inquiring readers have a treat waiting for them in the current issue of The Jewish Press, the Brooklyn-based weekly that’s hands-down the most widely read Jewish periodical in the Orthodox community. I’m speaking of a front-page article defending the cause of the Confederacy and attacking Abraham Lincoln as a bigot. No, I’m not kidding.

I'll leave it to readers to explore Goldberg's skewering of the peculiar writings in the Jewish Press on the peculiar institution of slavery. Suffice it to say that celebrations of the Jewish role, such as it was, in the Confederacy are not a point of honor, given that Jews are themselves descendants of slaves who celebrate liberation each spring.

Whatever the arguments of the Press' contributor, those articles and Goldberg's comments show that the Civil War, and especially the Confederate side of the conflict, still courses like lava through American discussions, from Austin to Flatbush and all points in between.

When does the Grand Army of the Republic get some positive ink? Will Union symbols ever be considered a sign of rebellion or by definition do they represent the establishment? Has a college frat house ever got in trouble for sponsoring a "Union Pride Party"? I doubt it.

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I finished reading Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy's New Killing Fields by Charles Bowden. As an intense follower of the tragic violence in Mexico, I was curious about the book and what I could learn from it.

In a word: Not much.

I found myself finally skimming the book, as the same messages about Juarez and killings kept coming around. While Bowden is a tenacious and brave reporter and does excellent press interviews, the book is too long on stream of consciousness writing and low on analysis.It does provide a snapshot of the wave of violence that hit and continues to overwhelm Juarez as it was beginning.

While the book is called Murder City, I kept thinking that the term applies to most of Mexico now. And my mind kept going back to another place marked by total corruption of public agencies, where those in authority were the very forces to dread: The Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin, especially the Purge years of 1936-1938. I've read a lot about that era, and Mexico parallels the sense of random death, the lack of protection. The only difference is that the threat in the USSR clearly came from the state security organs (NKVD) while in Mexico the threat comes from the Army, the police, the drug cartels and . . . who else? As the place descends into total social chaos, the threats mestasticize and safety exists nowhere. A great place to get a shuddering feel for the insane era is The Great Terror by Robert Conquest.

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A walk around the grounds of the Texas State Capitol in Austin last week hurled me back in history. Memorials to the Alamo, firefighters, schoolchildren and other worthy groups dot the grounds, but the defining historical thread shadowing the grounds is the Civil War. The monuments personally interest me as an American, and as the great-great-grandson of a Civil War veteran. That was Adolph Lissner, a German immigrant who served in Troop E, Third Regiment, New York Cavalry, according to a death notice in the New York Times of January 21, 1914. My political and family sympathies lie far away from the Austin Confederate memorials, but I want to get a feel for what they mean.

The first stop on a self-guided tour of the Capitol grounds is the Hood’s Brigade Monument. Dedicated 100 years ago, it honors a brigade that fought in the Army of Northern Virginia. Elsewhere is the Confederate Soldiers Monument, showing the 13 states that composed the Confederacy, arrayed around statues of soldiers and President Jefferson Davis. Yet another recalls Benjamin Terry’s Texas Rangers, who became the Confederacy’s Eighth Texas Cavalry. Inside the Senate chamber I found a portrait of Albert Sidney Johnston, Texas Army and Confederate general killed at the Battle of Shilo in 1862.

That’s the past. These memorials arose generations ago, built by the men who fought with these groups in a political climate that accepted their political views. Ideas evolve, new generations look at a post-Confederate world.

Not everybody.

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Austin, Texas styles itself as "the Live Music Capital of the World." That may be so, and it also boasts some excellent record stores (yes, I still call them that). My recent trip to my home state gave me ample time to root around in them for music impossible to find in New York City. There, the serial deaths of Tower, HMV and Virgin left me bereft of well-stocked music retailers. Astounding as it sounds, I have to leave Gotham City to get my CD groove on. I've stocked up on CDs in some of the great music cities of the world: São Paulo in 2004, Havana in 2008 and Austin in 2010.

I went to Austin with a definite genre in mind: the music I so enjoy on Radio Free Texas, the home of “red dirt” music. The genre comes with an easily identified twang and topics that center on pinin’ for that pretty little gal in the tight jeans who got tired of her guy’s ramblin’ ways, and also barking to outsiders, “Screw You, We're From Texas,” an anthem by Ray Wylie Hubbard.

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Britain's largest and longest-running terrorist investigation ended last month with the conviction of three British Muslims. Their 2006 plot involved blowing up trans-Atlantic airliners with the hope of killing up to 10,000 people. That near-disaster
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Britain's largest and longest-running terrorist investigation ended last month with the conviction of three British Muslims. Their 2006 plot involved blowing up trans-Atlantic airliners with the hope of killing up to 10,000 people. That near-disaster
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I visited Toronto in early March 2010 and as I left the country I passed through the usual security check at Pearson International Airport. What made it different is that the next passengers after me in line were a man, a small child, and a person in
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I visited Toronto in early March 2010 and as I left the country I passed through the usual security check at Pearson International Airport. What made it different is that the next passengers after me in line were a man, a small child, and a person in
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Apple Computer's ad in the 1984 Super Bowl to introduce the Mac had the unforgettable ending line, "And you'll see why 1984 won't be like '1984.'"

The concept of an individual's ability to use technology to break free of regimentation continues to have tremendous, even accelerating, meaning. Taking Apple's 1984 reference and ad a step further, the phrase "Big Brother in reverse" now gets used to describe how individuals use technology to observe and track malfeasance by any oppressive powers. That could be business and government, but it can also definitely be thuggish labor union goons and religious institutions and even, in the case of citizen observers recording shoot-outs in Mexico, drug cartels. As the Holocaust and Stalinist repressions of the 1930s show, the ability to dam the flow of information and keep people ignorant of crimes around them is a necessary support of those crimes.

Are repressive groups scared? You betcha. The Iranian government grappled with bloggers who covered the student uprising there a year ago. While that revolution failed for the time being, it showed the ability of technology to Unions don't like citizens with webcams recording their demonstrations. A "media guy" with a camera at a Philadelphia voting station recorded New Black Panthers and the Department of Justice is chasing its tail around trying to get free of the evidence of possible voter intimidation.

The latest example of a government running scared comes from the United Arab Emirates, which is planning to shut down access to BlackBerry devices. An Associated Press story outlined the issues in play, both stated and in play:

The government cited a potential security threat because encrypted data sent on the devices is moved abroad, where it cannot be monitored for illegal activity. But the decision — followed by a similar move in Saudi Arabia — raises questions about whether the conservative Gulf nations are trying to further control content they deem politically or morally objectionable.

BlackBerry phones have a strong following in the region, not only among foreign professionals in commercial centers such as Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but also among youth who see the relatively secure communication channels as a way to avoid unwanted government attention.

"The authorities have used a variety of arguments, like it can be used by terrorists" to justify the crackdown, said Christopher Davidson, a professor at the University of Durham in Britain, who has written about the region. "Yes that's true, but it can also be used by civil society campaigners and activists."

I'd be remiss to not mention the Wikileaks case involving US government materials about Afghanistan. Be it for good or ill, this is another example of how technology can illuminate actions, views or policies that those in power prefer to keep hidden. The "surveillance society" cuts in both directions.

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The separation of the Gaza Strip’s Hamas government and the West Bank’s Fatah led Palestinian Authority has caused more than a few fundamental symptoms of a serious schism. One such symptom is the Freedom of Press. 42-year-old Hamato Samir was the editor of the newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadida, based in Gaza. He had reportedly encountered problems [...]
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It was twenty years ago on this day, that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, initiating a crisis that lasted half a year and beginning the slow turn of events that led eventually to his own overthrow and execution, followed by the American-led occupation.
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It was twenty years ago on this day, that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, initiating a crisis that lasted half a year and beginning the slow turn of events that led eventually to his own overthrow and execution, followed by the American-led occupation.
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When Chelsea Clinton got married to hedge fund executive Marc Mezvinsky yesterday, they had a rabbi and a Methodist minister. The groom wore a kippah and a tallit, or prayer shawl. I'm glad they brought both faiths to the mixed marriage.

She's not the first First Daughter to snap up a nice Jewish boy for a husband. In 1986, Caroline Kennedy married designer Edwin Schlossberg, all four of whose grandparents were Ukrainian Jews, per Wikipedia.

Once is a curiosity, twice is a trend in the journalism world, so I'm casting my mind decades into the future and wondering whether Malia and Natasha Obama will follow in the footsteps of Kennedy and Clinton. They've already got the right names to fit well with Jewish husbands -- Malia is close to Malya and Natasha is, well, Natasha. And if Sara Palin goes to the White House -- it sounds like America's Teen Mom Sweetheart, Bristol, is going to be back on the market soon if fiance Levi Johnston impregnated another woman. With somebody named Levi the father of her child, Bristol definitely has an affinity for guys with heavy-duty Hebraic names.

Chuppahs in the White House, anybody?

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On the grounds that "danielpipes.org is clean, consistently formatted, carefully edited and larger than WSJ," a team of three authors from Google and Stanford University have used my website to explore a possible connection between linguistic syntax and
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On the grounds that "danielpipes.org is clean, consistently formatted, carefully edited and larger than WSJ," a team of three authors from Google and Stanford University have used my website to explore a possible connection between linguistic syntax and
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“In feature films about John F. Kennedy, Richard M. Nixon and George W. Bush, Oliver Stone, gave free rein to his imagination and was often criticized for doing so” Writes Larry Rohter of the New York Times. During the recent New York Times interview, Rohter wrote that Stone stated, “People who are often demonized, like [...]
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I recently skimmed the book "Skinny Bitch" by Rory Freedman and Kim Barnouin. While I'm not quite the authors' demographic, I found the book worth a half-hour of flipping. The tone turned me off with all the profanities -- the authors came across as skinny, vulgar, vocabulary-impaired bitches, but that's just my personal preference. I can separate the message from the messengers.

While I'm not going to stop my carnivorous habits, I did decide to start my new life as a skinny bitch by cutting way back on artificial sweeteners. I always use them rather than sugar, but the authors made a good case for trying substitutes. As a result, I picked up some Agave natural liquid sweetener at Costco.

And you know what? I must have been on to something. Twice at the store, people stopped to talk to me about the sweetener in my cart. One man saw me while I was considering whether to buy and thought it was a good idea. Minutes later, a woman asked where I got it in the store because she wanted some. I pointed in the general direction.

Now Costco is a fun place for cart-snooping, to see what people need in vast quantities and then speculate on their lifestyles or interests. I can see that people were checking out my cart, also. Nobody ever stops to talk to me at Costco, so something about my new skinny bitch (skinny bastard?) lifestyle must send out powerful conversational signals.

I have not had a pack of artificial sweeteners in the weeks since I got the Agave.

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National Review Online asked several writers: "Is France really banning the burqa? What does this mean? What could other Western nations learn from it?" My reply follows. For those of Raymond Ibrahim, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Melanie Phillips, James V.
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National Review Online asked several writers: "Is France really banning the burqa? What does this mean? What could other Western nations learn from it?" My reply follows. For those of Raymond Ibrahim, Judith Apter Klinghoffer, Melanie Phillips, James V.
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In light of Ankara's recent criticism of what it calls Israel's "open-air jail" in Gaza, today's date, which marks the anniversary of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus, has special relevance. Turkish policy toward Israel, historically warm and only a decade
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In light of Ankara's recent criticism of what it calls Israel's "open-air jail" in Gaza, today's date, which marks the anniversary of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus, has special relevance. Turkish policy toward Israel, historically warm and only a decade
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Louis Farrakhan recently sent a three-page letter along with two books to the heads of sixteen Jewish organizations. Dated June 24, 2010, the letter is resplendent with a crescent-and-moon flag and Farrakhan's impressive-sounding title ("National
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Louis Farrakhan recently sent a three-page letter along with two books to the heads of sixteen Jewish organizations. Dated June 24, 2010, the letter is resplendent with a crescent-and-moon flag and Farrakhan's impressive-sounding title ("National
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Under Yasir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization notoriously said one thing to Arab/Muslim audiences and the opposite to Israeli/Western ones, speaking venomously to the former and in dulcet tones to the latter. What about Arafat's mild-mannered
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Under Yasir Arafat, the Palestine Liberation Organization notoriously said one thing to Arab/Muslim audiences and the opposite to Israeli/Western ones, speaking venomously to the former and in dulcet tones to the latter. What about Arafat's mild-mannered
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Barack Obama's grand speeches in Ankara and Cairo as well as his repeated insistence on "respect" made Americans very aware that he hopes to win Muslim favor. But we did not know how deeply embedded this impulse has become in U.S. policy until this:
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Barack Obama's grand speeches in Ankara and Cairo as well as his repeated insistence on "respect" made Americans very aware that he hopes to win Muslim favor. But we did not know how deeply embedded this impulse has become in U.S. policy until this:
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Jaw-dropping court testimony by Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, singlehandedly undermines Obama administration efforts to ignore the dangers of Islamism and jihad. Shahzad's forthright statement of purpose stands out because jihadis,
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Jaw-dropping court testimony by Faisal Shahzad, the would-be Times Square bomber, singlehandedly undermines Obama administration efforts to ignore the dangers of Islamism and jihad. Shahzad's forthright statement of purpose stands out because jihadis,
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Here's a pet peeve: Through eight years of the two George W. Bush administrations, I linked hundreds of times to White House and Department of State documents, plus less frequently to other U.S. government departments and agencies. I made efforts to link
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Here's a pet peeve: Through eight years of the two George W. Bush administrations, I linked hundreds of times to White House and Department of State documents, plus less frequently to other U.S. government departments and agencies. I made efforts to link
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We know what Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao wanted (state control of everything) and how they achieved this goal (brutal totalitarianism); but what do their successors today want and how do they hope to achieve it? It's a curiously un-examined subject.
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We know what Marx, Lenin, Stalin, and Mao wanted (state control of everything) and how they achieved this goal (brutal totalitarianism); but what do their successors today want and how do they hope to achieve it? It's a curiously un-examined subject.
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Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!
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ShareThis
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  It turns out that Israel takes on different appearances depending on whose eyes it's viewed through. An early twenty-something steps off the plane and sees through wide eyes a sun-kissed land filled to brimming with young olive skinned honeys filling out olive-toned uniforms in all the right places, deliciously greasy ...
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I've been spending most of my interweb time blogging over at Jerusalemite these days. What you've missed if you haven't been reading... Jerusalem receives a new fountain from Paris. British artist Stephen Wiltshire visits Jerusalem to draw one of his famous landscape drawings. An investigation into whether Jerusalem's bagel shops boil their ...
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When most people hear "Arthritis" they think of old people with creaky and swollen joints. This is called Osteoarthritis, which is most likely caused by general wear and tear and of course, aging. However the vast majority of arthritis cases affect people far younger. These are Rheumatic diseases which causes ...
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Dear Arcaffe, Nearly every morning on my way to work I stop at the Jerusalem branch for a cup of coffee. I am always satisfied and your employees are always very pleasant and make a customized outstanding cup of coffee. However today, I am sad to say, I had a ...
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In the great tradition of artists such as Roger Waters and Erykah Badu, once again Israeli producers will be inviting a musician who will come perform in Israel, take our money and then ignorantly criticize our policies (granted, some of our policies suck, but we don't need no education from ...
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Oh yeah. YouTube is full of gems. Long lost rock videos, cool concert footage, comedy routines, etc. But nothing, NOTHING compares to this incredible movie trailer I came across today. NOTHING. This is what the internet was made for. AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL. Apparently seen by a few ...
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I am currently at the Com.vention at Airport City. It's Israel's largest Internet convention. I am twittering here and there...at least until my battery dies or hopefully I can find an outlet. ShareThis
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