According to British MP, Israelis "Playing Mini-Mengele"

British MP George Galloway recycles the Swedish blood libel to employ Holocaust analogy.

British MP, Iranian Press TV presenter and media personality George Galloway, currently leading a "humanitarian convoy" to Gaza, has a history of anti-Israel activity. But even his latest diatribe in a column for Scotland's Daily Record plumbs new depths.

Galloway refers to the unique barbarity of the Holocaust and how Jewish victims of the Nazis had their organs harvested and were subjected to medical experimentation. He then says:

But the revelation in the Israeli parliament in recent days that the body parts of Palestinian prisoners were systematically harvested without the knowledge or consent of their families has had an impact in these parts which it is difficult to overstate.

When the story first broke, on Swedish TV, I frankly did not believe it. Implacable critic of Israel as I am, it was beyond belief that a country calling itself the "Jewish State" could ever do such a thing.

I met the correspondent responsible for the story months ago and rigorously questioned him about it. I was not satisfied, and didn't use the information. The man was offended and I owe him an apology.

Israel has admitted this evil, wicked crime and declared it no longer practises it.

While it is to their credit that they have stopped it and even more creditable that at least within their own people robust freedom of the press and parliament has allowed the truth to come out, there is little evidence of national soul searching of how such a thing could happen.

Still less of anyone being held accountable for playing mini-Mengele on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Galloway has deliberately distorted two separate stories in order to slur Israel. Swedish journalist Donald Bostrom's blood libel has already been thoroughly debunked and deconstructed. However, the dangers posed by such a libel have already been proven. Since the article went to print, rumors of Israeli organ-harvesting surfaced in Ukrainian elections, were an excuse to ban Israeli doctors from an Egyptian medical conference, and brought at least one pseudo-journalist crawling out of the woodwork with copycat claims.

The recycling, however, of an old and unrelated story has added fuel to the fire for Galloway and others who seek to demonize Israel.

Top Israeli pathologist Dr. Yehuda Hiss admitted that his staff at the Abu Kabir forensic institute harvested organs from Israelis and Palestinians during the 1990s without families' permission. There was actually no linkage to Bostrom's false allegations, which libeled the IDF. The Abu Kabir scandal did not target Palestinians. Israeli soldiers, civilians, Jews, non-Jews as well as Palestinians were the victims of a domestic scandal that was discovered and dealt with by the Israeli authorities to ensure that such ethical lapses would not be allowed to reoccur.

(More information can be found here.)

Regarding Galloway's allegations:

• There was no systematic organ harvesting of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails or, indeed any systematic organ harvesting of Palestinians - the allegation is simply a libel.
• While Galloway attempts to cover himself by referring to the uniqueness of the Holocaust, it is clear that he is deliberately making a comparison between Israel and the Nazis.
• Comparing Israel to the Nazis or attempting to draw false parallels with the deliberate genocide of 6 million Jews during the Holocaust is a tactic regularly deployed by anti-Israel activists despite being classified as anti-Semitism under the EU's own working definition.

While George Galloway may be allowed to repeatedly demonize Israel in the media, he should not be allowed to publish outright libels.

Please send your considered comments to the Daily Record and demand that a correction and retraction is published - readerseditor@dailyrecord.co.uk

HonestReporting. com

Want to Know What People Value? Look at Their Heroes...

You probably don't recognize the name Dalal Mughrabi, but Palestinian children certainly will.

Back in 1978:
Dalal Mughrabi was a Palestinian terrorist.

In March of 1978 she led one of the most cruel and deadly terror attacks in Israel’s history. She and her fellow terrorists landed in rubber boats on a beach near Tel Aviv. On that beach, photographing rare birds was American photographer Gail Rubin. After first questioning her, the terrorists then murdered her in cold blood and went on to hijack a bus on the nearby coastal road, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children.

Now, in 2009:
The Palestinian Authority, under the control of the Abbas government, has set up a modern new computer center. It will be named "after the martyr Dalal Mughrabi," the female terrorist who led that deadly 1978 attack. The new center is funded by Abbas's office, which receives Western aid money.

Earlier this year, on the anniversary of the Mughrabi murders, PA TV broadcast a special program celebrating the terror attack, calling the killing of 37 civilians "one of the most important and most prominent special operations... carried out by a team of heroes and led by the heroic fighter Dalal Mughrabi”.

Last summer the PA sponsored "the Dalal Mughrabi football championship" for kids.

The Abbas government runs a "summer camp named for martyr Dalal Mughrabi... out of honor and admiration for the martyr."

The Abbas government held a party to honor exemplary students, named "for the martyr Dalal Mughrabi," under the auspices of Abbas and at which Abbas's representative "reviewed the heroic life of the martyr [Mughrabi]

In 2002, the US provided money for renovations of the "Dalal Mughrabi school for girls". After PMW alerted the US State Department to Mughrabi's terrorist past, the funding was canceled. Within 24 hours, the PA said the name would be changed, and the American money was reinstated. Once the work was completed, however, the school was renamed for the terrorist. It bears Mughrabi's name to this day.

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You probably don't recognize the name Salakh Khalaf, but Palestinian children certainly will. One reason is that today's Palestinian kids can enjoy the sports fun at the Salakh Khalaf soccer field.(Funded with U.S. AID money)
Khalaf was the head of the Palestinian terror group that murdered 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics and two American diplomats in Sudan. [From the Dry Bones Blog. To subscribe, press here.]

Another Hanukkah Ditty...

A friend of a friend found this unusual musical selection: The Barenaked Ladies singing the Hanukkah blessings. For those of you who might not recognize the band's name, the Barenaked Ladies are a Canadian alternative rock band and have been around since 1988. To hear their.... unique rendition, press here.

Editorial in the Guardian: "In Israel They Murder Each Other a Great Deal"

"The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don't like their political style..."

What does the IDF have to do with the recent assault on Italian PM Sylvio Berlusconi? Absolutely nothing. But that didn't stop The Guardian's Associate Editor Michael White from making the following comment during a discussion on BBC Radio London's Breakfast Show concerning the physical vulnerability of political leaders:

"In Israel they murder each other a great deal. The Israeli Defense Forces murder people because they don't like their political style and what they've got to say and it only means that people more extreme come in and take their place."

(The full segment from the BBC Radio London Breakfast Show with Joanne Good and Paul Ross, 8am, Monday 14 Dec. can be heard by clicking here (3 mins 30 secs in) or here for a limited time only on the BBC website at approximately 1hr 16 mins in.)

These are extremely serious and baseless accusations and perhaps offer a disturbing insight into the mindsets of The Guardian's senior staff as well as those BBC presenters who simply grunted in agreement.

Does the IDF target terrorists and their leadership in order to defend Israeli citizens from terror attacks? Certainly. Does the IDF engage in deliberate murder in order to silence dissent in the same style as a police state or dictatorship? Certainly not.

Accusing the IDF of murdering people because they disagree with their "political style" is an absolutely outrageous slander. How can the paper's Associate Editor represent The Guardian on a public platform, spreading slanderous accusations while expected to produce reliable and credible material in a mainstream newspaper?

Please send a complaint to The Guardian's readers' editor Siobhain Butterworth - reader@guardian.co.uk - and demand that The Guardian takes action against Michael White who is unfit for the task of Associate Editor if he publicizes such ridiculous untruths. Despite Michael White's language, please remember to be civil when addressing your complaint.

You can also send a complaint to the BBC, which allowed such a slur to go unchallenged, through the BBC Complaints website - www.bbc.co.uk/complaints - remembering to include the full details of the BBC radio show in question. For detailed instructions on how to navigate the BBC Complaints website, click here.

(From the "Honest Reporting" website)

Reuven Kimmelman on Heschel's Theology of Judaism

This short article is a terrific description of the way Heschel described God's relationship with humanity. Worth a good look. DBC
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Tikkun Magazine: Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Thesis on the Unity of Jewish Theology

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Abraham Joshua Heschel’s Thesis on the Unity of Jewish Theology

by Reuven Kimelman

While much has been said of Abraham Joshua Heschel's religious genius and moral courage, more needs to be said about his intellectual audacity. He claims to have traced the continuum of Jewish religious consciousness from the Biblical and Rabbinic periods through the Kabbalistic and Hasidic ones. Heschel argued that these periods are unified by the theme of God's concern for humanity. The different expressions of Judaism are not mutually exclusive, but rather moments in the dialectic of humanity's encounter with God. Where others saw dichotomies, he saw polarities. Our inclination to understand Judaism or to approach the divine through only one of the poles leaves us, according to Heschel, with partial understandings of Judaism and fragmentary visions of the divine. In contrast, Heschel's theology offers a historical and conceptual framework for maintaining the dialectic without reducing one pole to the other.

In this regard, Torah Min HaShamayim BeAsplaqariah Shel HaDorot (abridged in English as Heavenly Torah as Refracted through the Generations) qualifies as Heschel's magnum opus. It guides the reader through the woof and warp of the classic texts that inform his writings on contemporary theology, Man Is Not Alone and God In Search of Man. These books -- which made Heschel such an insightful writer for the Jewish audience and to a great extent for the Christian audience, as well -- restate his historical-theological vision of Judaism. He first presented this vision in The Prophets and subsequently and more extensively in Torah Min HaShamayim. This vision, which involves tracing the thread of God's interest in man throughout the fabric of Judaism, is reflected in his contemporary writings.

So much of Heschel's work is of one cloth. Man is Not Alone is subtitled A Philosophy of Religion, while God In Search of Man is subtitled A Philosophy of Judaism. By virtually beginning God In Search of Man with the statement "Religion is an answer to man's ultimate questions," Heschel underscores his thesis that the philosophy of Judaism is an answer to problems in the philosophy of religion, indeed its ultimate problems. Not only do these two works on contemporary theology fit together, they also converge with his two major works of historical scholarship in his statement that pathos in The Prophets "is an explication of the idea of God in search of man."

Heschel followed a Nachmanidean (Nachmanides, 13^th cent. Mystic) , as opposed to a Maimonidean (Maimonides, 12^th century rationalist), reading of the tradition, one that underscores the continuity between Biblical-Rabbinic and Kabbalistic perspectives. In a transcript of a talk entitled "Jewish Theology," Heschel spelled out the implications of his reading: "The idea of God being in need of man is central to Judaism and pervades all the pages of the Bible and of Chazal (Rabbinic literature), and it is understandable in our own time.... In the light of this idea ... you have to entirely revise all the clichés that are used in religious language."

Much of Heschel's work seeks to free Jewish theology from the constraints of Maimonides's philosophical concept of God as independent of humanity. In contrast, he develops the idea of Divine pathos, which for Heschel means that God is in search of man, indeed in need of man. Note that this is a relational statement, not a substantive one. It focuses on the relationship of God to man and underscores the interdependency of the Divine and the human. This idea does not sit well with those that advocate absolute divine omnipotence. Its absence thus in Maimonides's list of dogmas is obvious. Heschel deals with this by stating:

The whole conception of God's omnipotence, I suspect, was taken over from Islam. God is almighty and powerful. Man has nothing to say and nothing to do except to keep quiet and to accept. But, actually, God needs man's cooperation. There will be no redemption without the cooperation of man. Omnipotence as such will not work. God cannot function in the world without the help of man. And this is where halacha, agada, and mitzvot begin to assume their crucial role. But all this has to be seen in relation to God. In a very deep and strong sense God cannot be conceived by us in complete detachment from man. God and man have to be thought of together. I once suggested the definition of a prophet. A prophet is a man who holds God and man in one thought and at one time. He does not think of God without man and he does not think of man without God. In a Hellenized theology we witness a complete split. God is there, and man is here.

What Heschel found lacking in Maimonides, as in other medieval Jewish philosophers, was "the profound doctrine of the immanence of God emphatically taught by Rabbi Akiva and his disciples ... the doctrine of the Shekhinah found no echo."

Heschel challenged the tendency of modern scholarship to accentuate the chasm in concepts of God among Biblical, Rabbinic, philosophical, and Kabbalistic thinkers. No one took greater advantage of these differences to justify his own concept of God than Heschel's theological nemesis at the Jewish Theological Seminary, Mordecai Kaplan. Heschel contended that these modern arguments, while cogent, ultimately skewed the picture as a whole through their neglect of those strands held in common by thinkers from the Bible to the Kabbalah.

Heschel focused on the interdependency between the Divine and the human. He writes:

In the phrase "we need each other" is embedded the concept of Israel's power to diminish or enhance God's might. This opinion, which served as a cornerstone of Kabbalistic teaching, is already alluded to in a homily in Sifre (319): "You neglected the Rock that begot you" (Deut. 32:18). The word teshi ("neglected") can be understood in relation to the word teshishut ("feebleness"), whence the interpretation "You weaken the power of the One on high" ... This approach achieved its classic formulation in the mouth of Rabbi Judah b. Simon, an amora of the third to fourth generation of Eretz Israel: "As long as the righteous comply with the Divine will they augment the Power above, as it says ‘And now, I pray Thee, let the strength of the Lord be enhanced' (Num. 14:17). But if not, then, as it were, ‘You enfeebled the Rock that begot you' (Deut. 32:18)." Similarly: "As long as Israel complies with the Divine will they augment the Power above, as it says: ‘In God we shall make [i.e., create] power' (Ps. 60:14); and if not, as it were, say, ‘and they [i.e., Israel] are gone without strength before the pursuer'" (Lam. 1:6). According to the Zohar (2:33a), this idea is intimated in the verse "Give power to God" (Ps. 68:35).

Both rabbi and kabbalist, contends Heschel, held that human compliance with the Divine will augments Divine power. One might think of the Divine-human relationship as analogous to that of a general and soldier, where the power lies with the general and the soldiers merely follow orders. In reality, every command implemented by the soldier extends the general's power. The growth of the power of the general thus corresponds to the increase in compliance by the soldiers and vice versa. An order that commands no compliance is a voice in the wilderness. Judaism is so commandment-oriented precisely because through the fulfillment of the commandments God's kingship is realized on earth. In fact, according to the Midrash, God gave Israel so many commandments because Israel had made God king first. Heschel hence titles a chapter in volume one with the Rabbinic expression "If My people does not enthrone Me on earth ..." To make this point with a different metaphor, Heschel would often cite the midrashic gloss to Isaiah 43:12, "So you are My witnesses -- declares the Lord -- and I am God," to wit: "When you are My witnesses, then I am God, but when you are not My witnesses, then I am, as it were, not God."

In sum, for Heschel the idea of divine-human interdependency is the thread that weaves its way through the Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic literature, and Kabbalah, creating the tapestry called Judaism.

Heschel's work on Rabbinic thought continues his work on Biblical thought, what Heschel called "God's anthropology." Both focus on the category of pathos in the divine-human relationship and how revelation results from the interaction of the Divine and human. Although the Biblical work is concerned with the prophetic understanding of the Divine and the Rabbinic work with the Rabbinic understanding of Torah and Shechinah, especially as articulated in the school of Rabbi Akiva, the presentations overlap. This fits Heschel's overall thesis that as prophecy emerges from the encounter between prophet and God, so Judaism emerges from the encounter between sage and Torah.

Torah Min HaShamayim not only has an overarching thesis about Rabbinic Judaism, but differs from standard academic approaches also in its modality of presentation. Whereas Solomon Schechter and Ephraim Urbach in their books on Rabbinic thought summarize Rabbinic thinking, Heschel explores its inner dialectic and for that reason adopted the strategy of exegeting it from within by writing it in Rabbinic Hebrew, using religious categories native to it. The subsections of the treatise frequently are titled with Rabbinic quotations. All this reflects his understanding of the intersection between language and thought, holding that just as words and language inform thinking, so categories structure thought. By organizing his thinking according to rabbinical categories, the language and structure of the book project the reader into the minds of the sages. Once inside their minds, one finds that they were not of one mind. Indeed on most theological issues there are at least two resolutions, frequently at odds with each other, representing two schools of thought.

Heschel employs the rubrics of Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Ishmael to illustrate these contrasting schools of thought. The heaven-bound school of Akiva, with its emphasis on Shechinah, is contrasted with the more earthbound school of Ishmael, with its emphasis on the more mundane. The Akivan perspective was more mystical, possibly apocalyptic, unbounded, and blatantly paradoxical. The Ishmaelite perspective was more critical, rationalistic, restrained, and pellucid. Together, according to Heschel, they form a dialectic, not just a dyad, in which the human encounter with the divine is played out. A case in point is Akiva's focus on the biblical instances of God's immanence and Ishmael's focus on those of God's transcendence. The point is not either-or but both-and; as Heschel says, "the dichotomy of transcendence and immanence is an oversimplification," for "God remains transcendent in His immanence, and related in His transcendence."

By contrasting the sides of an issue under the rubrics of Rabbi Ishmael and Rabbi Akiva, material is presented dialectically. Heschel entreats those who cannot rise to such dialectical heights to realize that half a loaf is not a full loaf, and no perspective exhausts reality. As he was wont to say, "There is always a polarity of two principles." Neither the practical, this-worldly pole represented by the school of Ishmael nor the mystical sense of God's need for man represented by the school of Akiva can be reduced to the other. Nor can they be totally integrated. It is the limitation of human vision that causes us to see God and the world in two different ways at different times. The goal of Heschel's presentation is to expand our horizons, keep alternatives open, and prevent premature closure by training us to theologize dialectically. The problem is that one who is strong in one pole of the dialectic may be disinclined to do full justice to the other. Each pole needs the other to correct itself. Only together do they embrace the full reality of the encounter with the divine.

Sometimes, a different perspective, yea a competing one, can supplement one's understanding of the truth. Since the fullness of the divine word cannot be contained in a single human perspective, a plurality of understandings is needed to fill out the human grasp of divine truth. The whole truth remains elusively human, exclusively divine. Accordingly, the Rabbis designated truth as God's signature, that is, a unique characteristic of divine cognition that exceeds the human grasp. In fact, since any human perspective is necessarily limited to part of the truth, the whole truth may not be humanly graspable without contradiction.

This underlying insight allowed Heschel to take issue with so many of the conventional truths of modern scholarship and to be so generous to alternative theological viewpoints. It was not so much that the various scholars were wrong in their analysis of Biblical, Rabbinic, Kabbalistic, or Hasidic theology, as that they saw only part of the picture. Whatever the cause of the scholars' impaired vision -- cultural blinders, unconscious agenda, psychological makeup, or inability to theologize dialectically -- Heschel did not fault them for it. Instead he enhanced their work by rounding out the total picture.

In this respect Heschel's way of doing theology has an inherent affinity for scholarly and theological collaborative pluralism. That perspective contributed to his openness to Jewish-Christian dialogue. For a pluralism to be collaborative, however, the convergence of ends must exceed the divergence of means. Heschel's pluralism is firmly bounded by the dialectic within the classic Jewish texts. It is not simply that Heschel is bound to tradition, but that he understands tradition itself as an aspect of God's encounter with the people of Israel. His pluralism thus reflects both his understanding of the dialectic of the tradition and of the divine-human relationship. With nonfinality as his watchword, Heschel invites one to engage in the ongoing quest for the meaning of revelation and of God's involvement with humanity. This conclusion is as applicable to Heschel's three-volume work, which he titled in English Theology of Ancient Judaism, as it is to his entire oeuvre, historical scholarship, and contemporary theology.

Reuven Kimelman teaches at Brandeis University. He is the author of The Mystical Meaning of ‘Lekhah Dodi' and ‘Kabbalat Shabbat,' and the audio books The Moral Meaning of the Bible and The Hidden Poetry of the Jewish Prayerbook.

IDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be 'damned' - Haaretz - Israel News

Perhaps context would explain this comment but part of me feels that such thinking is prima facia (sp) evidence of how the growing influence of orthodox settlers in the army is taking things in a dangerous direction. Once upon a time, the officer corps was made up of kibbutzniks, whose individuality and leadership traits were prized. Today, those slots are filled with Mitnahalim (settlers) who have an entirely different mindset and agenda.

Flame Away!


IDF Chief Rabbi: Troops who show mercy to enemy will be 'damned' - Haaretz - Israel News

What does it mean when campus groups connected with J Street U decide NOT to call themselves "Pro-Israel?"

On Campus, a Divide Over ‘Pro-Israel’ – Forward.com

Source: www.forward.com

On Campus, a Divide Over ‘Pro-Israel’

A Lesson in Campus Journalism

Sinai's own Savannah Hunnicutt, a UWM sophomore, had the unfortunate experience of having a story retracted by the UWM Post editor for completely spurious reasons. Savannah reported on a gathering of speakers who were comparing Israel with Apartheid South Africa and calling for divestment in companies that do business with Israel. Unfortunately, most of the comments from speakers were vilifying Israelis and denying Israel's right to exist.

The first link below connects to the UWM Post Story that was "retracted."The UWM Post - Middle East forum ignites controversy

The second is an audio podcast from the "Charlie Sykes" show on WTMJ 620 am. I don't often find myself in complete agreement with Charlie, but I think his comments are right on target in this case. Charlie Sykes Podcast on WTMJ.

I want to acknowledge Savannah's bravery in the face of the bias and hate she witnessed and experienced. Her story is not unique. College campuses are rife with anti-Israel activities. This has eroded the support of Israel, which among young Jews used to be much stronger.

What's your reaction to this event? What can we/should we do about it?

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi David Cohen

Israel: Leader of Business Innovation - CNBC.com

This is a terrific report from CNBC about Dan Senor's recent book about innovation in Israel. It's about nine minutes long and well worth looking at. Rabbi David Cohen


Israel: Leader of Business Innovation - CNBC.com

Unfortunately, the Goldstone Report Will Negatively Affect Israel in the Media and Diplomatic Sphere for the Foreseeable Future

The Goldstone report has generated discussion, much of it vituperative and most of it leveled at Israel. I send you the following to illustrate, if we needed further illustration, as how the media and diplomatic world treats Israel in a completely unbalanced and unfair way. The source is Honest Reporting, a media watchdog group.

* * * * * * * * * *

"This draft resolution saddens me as it includes only allegations against Israel . . . There is not a single phrase condemning Hamas as we have done in the report. I hope that the council can modify the text."

So said none other than Judge Richard Goldstone himself to the Swiss Le Temps newspaper on Friday before the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution (without modifying the text) endorsing the Goldstone Report, clearing the way for discussion in the UN Security Council.

The resolution also condemned Israeli activity in eastern Jerusalem and the West Bank even though these were not part of the Goldstone remit.

Was Goldstone so naive as to think that his report would not be turned into a political and legal weapon to use against Israel by the UNHRC? Commentator Robin Shepherd points out the obvious hypocrisy and depravity of the UNHRC's membership and those that voted for the resolution:

Among the supporters of the resolution, the presence of so many despotisms as well as many others that are ranked by Freedom House as only "partly free" speaks for itself. Countries ranked as "not free" by Freedom House in the group are: China, Cuba, Egypt, Qatar, Russia and Saudi Arabia. Partly free countries in the group are: Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Djibouti, Jordan, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Senegal, Zambia. Of the 25 countries who voted against Israel 17 (68 %) are either outright despotisms or are seedy and corrupt pseudo-democracies.

As UN Watch's Hillel Neuer states:

The grossly imbalanced resolution grants Hamas terrorists the political victory they desperately crave. Council members like Pakistan, China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia have won again with their strategy of focusing on Israel in order to hide the world's real abuses, especially their own. With this being the council's 6th special session on Israel -- versus only 4 for the whole world combined -- it's tragic that once again politics is trumping human rights.

...But what of Richard Goldstone himself? In addition to his disappointment with the UNHRC resolution, his report's credibility was further undermined in an interview he gave to The Forward, where he stated:

If this was a court of law, there would have been nothing proven. I wouldn't consider it in any way embarrassing if many of the allegations turn out to be disproved.

So there you have it. Goldstone doesn't consider the allegations in his own report to be all that credible. What standard of truth was he using?

* * * * *

A view quite different than that espoused in the report was delivered to the UN Human Rights Council, though undoubtedly to people unwilling to hear it. Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, stated:

During Operation Cast Lead, the Israeli Defence Forces did more to safeguard the rights of civilians in a combat zone than any other army in the history of warfare.

Click on the following to see his full testimony (several minutes).

All a Twitter? Not So Fast.



When it comes to computers, the “new thing” is, by definition, smaller, faster, and cheaper. “Moore’s Law” defines how much so: the power of microprocessor technology doubles and the costs of production fall in half every 18 months. Hence, a powerful computer that once filled ten thousand square feet of office space can now comfortably reside in your wristwatch. Plus, now you can afford it!

The economies provided by “Moore’s Law” also changed the world of communication, as slow, inefficient modalities like written correspondence have given way to cheap and fast email, texting, and FaceBook entries. Yet, faster and cheaper doesn’t always yield “better.” Once upon a time, taking pen to paper presumed sufficient inspiration to engage in the relatively inefficient act of correspondence. Today, it’s infinitely easier to connect, but do we really have that much more to say?

Enter the latest conveyor of atomized information: Twitter. Twitter is a way to stay in touch with all of your “peeps” (people, in the current lingo) through the timely uploading of messages called “tweets” of up to 140 characters. The necessity for such brevity, coupled with the human desire to be “in touch” leads to some amusing examples from the Twitter world. “Back from Belgium,” Representative Darrell Issa of California tweeted last month. “They make quite a waffle.” Claire McCaskill, the junior senator from Missouri, tweeting non-stop since the inauguration, wrote: “I get old style crunchy taco, and a chicken burrito supreme & Diet Coke at Taco Bell... Miss those tostados.” Then: “Ok, ok, brain freeze. I know you can only get Diet Pepsi at Taco Bell.” (from the New York Times, April 19, 2009).

To be fair, McCaskill and other politicians do use Twitter for more conventional political purposes, say, like sharing their views on upcoming legislation. Yet, much of what passes for conversation on Twitter is banal, pseudo-intimate details of someone’s life. A year ago, this was new and fun. Today, the “ambient awareness”, as Virginia Heffernan coins it, promoted by Twitter, has transformed into something darker, perhaps because the world is a darker place given the economic downturn. She writes: “Where once it was “hypnotic” and “mesmerizing” to read about a friend’s fever or a cousin’s job complaints, today the same kind of posts, and from broader and broader audiences, seem . . . threatening. Encroaching. Suffocating.”

While Twitter is an uber-efficient way to share and amplify the national zeitgeist, it now appears that technology can enslave, not just liberate. As writer Bruce Sterling put it when speaking recently at the tech conference “South by Southwest”, the clearest symbol of poverty is dependence on “connections” like the Internet, Skype and texting. “Poor folk love their cellphones!” he said.

He didn’t intend to insult the poor; he meant that the clearest sign of wealth and prosperity is the desire and capability to “turn off” those devices (and their ringers!) and instead to enjoy some peace and quiet alone or with friends, or with a book or a walk in the woods, things you can put in your hand and which can’t be digitized and transmitted instantaneously across the world. Rather than feeling more “connected”, we end up craving the quiet and privacy we thought we were trying to escape. Only the most affluent can afford to abandon the technological umbilicus and hire personal assistants to continue to compose the stream of “tweets” emanating into the ether. The rest of us are looking for ways to escape the ever-beeping Twitter. As one of the more underprivileged “Twitterati” recently wrote: “I wish I didn’t feel the need to write pointless things here.” And interestingly, “I wish I was rich and had personal assistants.” What for? To sit and post “tweets” on his behalf so he could be rid of them. Ironic? Indeed. But pardon me; I am off to go buy a new book. After I check my email. And maybe Facebook.

Rabbi David B. Cohen

Lots of news coming from ISRAEL these days. I've been trying to get my arms around the idea that Avigdor Lieberman will be the foreign minister, for example. Below, I am sharing with you a message from HONESTREPORTER, a media watchdog agency that works in middle eastern news sources. The piece illustrates in detail how the news we receives gets so biased in transit... and how for many local reporters for CNN, BBC, etc., there is no conflict between being a journalist and being a political advocate. Read on...
David Cohen

Exposed: How Palestinian Fixers Manipulate their Media Bosses "FIXING" THE FOREIGN PRESS While one refers to the "foreign press" in Israel, most employees are local Israelis or Palestinians who are hired for their language skills, access and local knowledge. Sometimes it isn't enough just to monitor only the news stories and critique the media. The hiring practices of the media organizations can also impact significantly on what news is reported and how decisions are made as to the information reaching Western audiences. It isn't only the personal attitudes or potential bias of a journalist influencing the final article or television report. Other media professionals can also have a major bearing on the construction and direction of a story. Palestinian translators and fixers may be necessary but those with a political agenda can be selective with the information they feed the journalist or, at worst, mistranslate the words of the interview subjects. Writing on the influence of Palestinian organizations on foreign news reporting, the JCPA's Dan Diker noted: According to senior foreign news sources based in Jerusalem, the vast majority of Palestinian fixers - often close friends of Palestinian employees of Jerusalem-based foreign news agencies - are ideologically motivated by the Palestinian cause, and actively encourage journalists to report exclusively on the "evils" of the Israeli occupation, rather than on the lack of democratic freedoms or human rights abuses in the West Bank and Gaza. WHO DOES CNN EMPLOY? A case study of this phenomenon is Nidal Rafa who was, until recently, employed for the past few years as a producer for CNN. A simple Google search of her name reveals that she has contributed to many CNN pieces from Israel and the Palestinian territories as well as for other media organizations such as NPR and the BBC. She has also been involved with a number of pro-Palestinian organizations and publications. Now, media analyst and commentator Tom Gross has publicly exposed Nidal Rafa's agenda. Gross was present at a debate in Jerusalem arranged for the media between the Yisrael Beiteinu and Israeli Arab Balad political parties on the issues of citizenship and identity.* During this media event, Rafa crossed the line from media professional to agenda driven activist. Following the debate, the journalists in the room were given the opportunity to ask questions. Rafa, however, launched into a tirade against Yisrael Beiteinu's representative, newly elected Knesset Member and former Israeli Ambassador to the US, Danny Ayalon. Rafa not only breached professional media standards (aggravating even her own colleagues at the debate), but also left us with no doubt as to her personal politics. Gross was sufficiently appalled by what he saw that he posted video footage of this appalling incident, which can be viewed by clicking here. Here are some select parts of the exchange between Rafa and Ayalon: NR: The thing is, do you agree that there will be in the future one Palestinian state [..] that all the Palestinians want is to be treated as anyone else in the world....[sic]...when you are making life equal for the people [..] when [their] dream to see Jerusalem... and in the West Bank, and Ramallah and in Jenin [..] you are not suffering at the end of the day and you want people to believe... DA: Please, don't get excited, of course I'm not suffering because I'm not killing anybody. NR: And you want to decide, you want people to believe, that you as previous ambassador to the UN, sorry to say fascist, fascist [..] party... where this party... I am the indigenous people, I have been here as my grandfather was here before the State of Israel [..] Crowd: What's the question, what's the question? NR: ...the whole thing you are talking about is bullshit, you don't want to open your eyes and you keep [being] blind, not to see what's the problem, and it is occupation. DA: Now you know why you don't have a state. NR: And the only guarantee to live here is ending the occupation. Do you not recognize that there is an occupation? Yes or no? YES OR NO? Do you agree that there is an occupation? Do recognize the occupation? Yes or no? Give me an answer and then you can go. [**] DA: I would like first the eradication of terror, first of all, and secondly, your recognition that I have the right to be here, that this my country, I'm not here by anybody's favor. This is my country, this is my land. NR: It's Palestinian land. DA: No its not Palestinian land, this is Jewish land, this is what you have to accept, and if you don't accept it, then we don't even have anything to talk about. ********* Nidal Rafa is, of course, entitled to her personal views and to act on them as she so wishes. However, this should not infringe on professional journalistic ethics. Rafa has used her media access to advance her own pro-Palestinian agenda to the detriment of those journalistic standards claimed by mainstream media outlets such as CNN. Following her outburst, Tom Gross: spoke with Kevin Flower, the Jerusalem Bureau chief for CNN, and he says Rafa's contract with CNN has been discontinued though he declined to provide a specific reason. Despite this, Rafa handed out her CNN business card to several people, including myself, after her outburst against Danny Ayalon, and said she was still working for CNN. Even if she no longer works there, the question is why CNN employed someone like this for at least the last two years? (There are many examples of anti-Israeli articles co-authored by Rafa on cnn.com. For example, "Jewish settlers on 'terror' rampage," December 4, 2008.) When I spoke to Rafa it was clear that, like many (but by all means not all) Arab journalists working for CNN, Reuters, the Associated Press and other major Western news providers in the Middle East, she didn’t think there was any contradiction between working as a journalist for an international news outlet and holding extreme anti-Israeli views. How could CNN employ Rafa and how has she been able to push her political agenda on to other media outlets? Some more research reveals that the incident above is not an isolated one. Nidal Rafa's political activism was certainly no secret when various media outlets employed her. An archived Jerusalem Post article from May 30, 2001 referred to three aspiring Israeli women politicians shadowing UK politicians to experience the British democratic process. One of these women was Rafa, who is described as a "Balad activist" and the chair of the radical Arab party's women's unit. RAFA: MANAGING AND MISTRANSLATING FOR THE MEDIA Evidently, Rafa spent some time working as a fixer for other media, including Fox News, before landing a position at CNN. Ha'aretz, in a feature several years ago, accompanied Fox News correspondent at the time, Jennifer Griffin, on a trip to Israel's Wadi Ara region: It is Griffin, aided by an interpreter, who conveys what the Arabs have to say. Here, she is totally dependent on her interpreter Nidal Rafa. Rafa, who is considered a top professional, is an Israeli Arab from Haifa, definitely a Palestinian and a graduate of Bir Zeit University in the West Bank - and she possesses clear political awareness. She is young, opinionated and assertive, and - to put it mildly - she pretty well manages the event. She is not pleased about the team from Ha'aretz Magazine that accompanied Griffin to Bartaa. My initial attempts to strike up a conversation with Griffin were loudly interrupted by the interpreter. When Griffin asks what I can tell her about the Wadi Ara region, as background, I don't manage to get out even one whole sentence before Rafa interjects herself, in English, with an obvious edge to her voice: "I will give you the background," she says: "This whole area was expropriated by Israel from the Arabs. Everything here belonged to the Arabs. There are Jewish settlements such as Katzir and Harish above: villas, beautiful homes. And all of it on our land." During Griffin's interview with the bereaved father, Rafa decides what to translate and what to leave untranslated. "Do you condemn Hamas for sending the suicide bomber who killed your son?" Griffin asks. Rafa translates. Razi Kabha gives a general, unfocused answer, about the protracted conflict. "So you don't condemn Hamas for this suicide bombing?" Griffin wants to know. Rafa gives her a piercing look: "He already answered that. Go on to the next question." Griffin persists. "Nidal, I need you to ask him that again." Rafa argues the point. The two conduct a discussion in English (the camera has been turned off) while the father sits mutely, not understanding what is going on. Finally, Rafa is persuaded and asks the question again, though making it obvious that she is doing so against her will. And so it goes on. Griffin's original plan was to interview the family and the head of the local council in the village. But the plan got changed. Rafa channeled the visit to include the section of the village on the other side of the Green Line. She persuaded Griffin that the visit would be incomplete without visiting the Palestinian section. And so on and so forth. Did Rupert Murdoch and Roger Aisles take this kind of thing into account? Not necessarily. What is certain is that last Thursday, the person who finally decided what their news channel would broadcast from Bartaa was Nidal Rafa. DANGEROUS DOCUMENTARIES Nidal Rafa has a production credit for an infamous 2002 British documentary "Palestine is Still the Issue," produced by notorious anti-Israel polemicist Jon Pilger. HonestReporting critiqued the documentary and even Michael Green, the chairman of Carlton TV, responsible for the broadcast, described it as "factually incorrect, historically incorrect," and a "tragedy for Israel so far as accuracy is concerned." From start to finish, Pilger's documentary was a veritable encyclopedia of every anti-Israel canard in existence today. But this isn't Nidal Rafa's only involvement with anti-Israel broadcasts. Christiane Amanpour's six-hour documentary "God's Warriors" earned CNN's senior correspondent our 2007 Dishonest Reporter Award. To recall, Amanpour's series: Equated years-old isolated cases of Jewish extremism with Islamic terror that has killed thousands of people in New York, London, Madrid, Bali, Amman, etc. Spuriously claimed that fringe elements of world Jewry succeeded in hijacking Israeli and American government policy. Addressed radical Islam with kid gloves. Belittled religious belief in general. Listed as one of those involved in the production of this highly contentious documentary is Nidal Rafa. While Christiane Amanpour needs no assistance in formulating her own views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, how much influence did Rafa have on some of the biased and one-sided content that featured in "God's Warriors"? MEDIA MANIPULATION: A CONTINUING PROBLEM HonestReporting has also previously addressed the issue of biased and unprofessional Palestinian media employees after the Jerusalem Post exposed how two of the largest wire services - Agence France-Presse (AFP) and Associated Press (AP) - had employed journalists with inappropriately close ties to the Palestinian Authority. Perhaps the most infamous manipulation of the media by a Palestinian stringer was that of cameraman Talal Abu Rahmeh. His edited footage and sole testimony from Gaza in 2000 was the basis for France 2's discredited report on Mohammed al-Dura. (See HonestReporting's "The Big Lies" interactive presentation for more on the case.) In 2004, the BBC's Fayad Abu Shamala was exposed as a possible Hamas member after Ha'aretz reported on a Hamas preacher caught on tape stating "that Hamas man Faiz Abu Smala works for the BBC, and that way he writes the story in favor of the Islam [sic] and Muslims." This was the same BBC employee who, in 2001, told a Hamas rally in Gaza (attended by the then Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin) that journalists and media organizations in Gaza, including the BBC, are "waging the campaign shoulder-to-shoulder together with the Palestinian people." Following the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, a Hamas member who worked for the BBC (confirmed as Abu Shamala) was allowed to enter Gaza to assist in efforts to free Johnston. This raised serious questions concerning the BBC's hiring policies. As a result of the kidnapping, the foreign media fled Gaza and the vacuum was filled by local Palestinian stringers. In 2007, the Jerusalem Post noted the problems of using only Palestinian stringer-produced material: "The people who use the stringers have to sift their material very carefully," says Jay Bushinsky, a veteran member of the Foreign Press Association. "You have to be naive to believe that in a place like Gaza you can be a fair-minded reporter. They have a mission and they don't give anything detrimental to their leadership." It is clear that Nidal Rafa went beyond the boundaries that a media professional should be expressing in public. Rafa was at this event in her capacity as a media professional and not as a Palestinian activist. If Rafa is unable to separate the personal from the professional in this setting, how can we trust content from CNN or other media organizations to which Rafa has contributed? As Tom Gross notes, there are many Arab employees of media organizations carrying out a professional job under trying circumstances. Nidal Rafa is not one of them. Media organizations need to make far greater efforts to avoid hiring Palestinian activists as journalists and producers in the future. * This debate was one of many events held by MediaCentral, an independent project of HonestReporting which provides services to foreign journalists visiting or based in Israel. As with many of MediaCentral's briefings, footage of the event was posted online, and after a number of journalists present protested the hostility and partisanship of Nidal Rafa, Tom Gross posted this excerpt as noted and brought the matter to the attention of HonestReporting. HonestReporting. com

Pardon the length of this posting - I took Friday night off for Shabbat and the result is lots to report tonight! (If you make it through nothing else, read the anecdote about this evening's cab ride that appears at the very end of this message).

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Friday morning, the group drove to Ha HaZikaron, the "Mountain of Memory", so called because it it's the location for two foundational institutions for the modern state of Israel: Mt Herzl, the military cemetery (skin to Arlington in the US) and "Yad vShem", Israel's national memorial to the Holocaust.

We began, just as foreign dignitaries do on their official visits, at Yad v'Shem. The name Yad v'Shem comes from Isaiah: "and to them will I give in my house and within my walls a place (memorial) and a name (a "yad vashem") that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)

The official name in Hebrew, however, is a bit longer: "The Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority." Of particular significance is the word "gevurah" meaning bravery or heroes. In memorializing the Shoah (Holocaust), Israel highlighted the role played by those who chose to fight back against the Nazis, for example, in the Warsaw Ghetto. In doing so, Israel underscored a core tenet of Zionist ideology called "Shlilat HaGolah" (negating the diaspora)." For early Zionists, the world was an irredeemably hostile place for Jews as history made clear time and again. Those who understood history's lessons would make Aliyah (move to Israel). Those who picked up arms and fought against the oppressors (from the Macabees to the partisan fighters during WW II) were the antithesis of the marginal and powerless Jew; they were the model for a new, self-reliant Jewish people born of the modern state of Israel.

An example of such heroism: Janusz Korczak, the director of an orphanage for Jewish children in the Warsaw ghetto. His life story is related in short movie currently nominated for an Oscar called "Train to Toyland" The movie's production notes explain: "on August 2nd, 1942, reflecting his lifelong compassionate devotion to both children and the rights of children, Korczak adamantly refused offers for his own safety and with defiant dignity he led the orphans under his care in the Warsaw Jewish Ghetto to the trains that ultimately would take them all to death at the Treblinka Death Camp."

This is a picture of a sculpture at Yad v'Shem,
depicting Korczak shielding his students.

For more information about Korzak and the current movie, press here.

In addition to honoring Jews who displayed heroism in the face of certain death, Yad v'Shem honors the memories of "righteous gentiles", i.e. non-Jews who risked life and limb to rescue individual Jews and, at times, entire families. A grove of trees are named for individual righteous gentiles", many of whom were flown to Israel before they died to be honored publicly for their compassion and bravery.

Beyond memorializing the victims and honoring those who heroically fought back, Yad v'Shem offers a place to document the lives of those who were killed. Survivors and families of those who died complete a "page of testimony" that records what is known of the fate of a loved one. Historians at Yad v'Shem maintain an enormous database of information, some of which comes from such pages of testimony (like those below), and some of which comes from the detailed records of the Germans themselves.




The nature of Yad v'Shem has changed over the past decade. Originally, Yad v'Shem was a family memorial to those who died in the Shoah. It didn't presume to teach what happened.

As the generation of survivors passes away, the nature of Yad'Shem has undergone significant renovation, with the creation of a new new Holocaust history museum which presents the story from a Jewish perspective and makes the most of cutting edge interactive technology to tell the story.

One of the most affecting elements of Yad Va'Shem is the Children's Memorial. Hollowed out from an underground cavern, the Children's Memorial contains six memorial candles, a customary Jewish tradition to remember the dead. Small mirrors are fixed in such a way to reflect the six candles many times over. In fact, the dark and somber space is filled with one and a half million reflected candles burning, seemingly in midair. All the while, a voice reads the names of children who perished, one at a time, with names that reveal their country of origin. Germany, France, Poland, Lithuania.

For more information about Yad v'Shem, press here.

Adjacent to Yad v'Shem is Har Herzl - Israel's National Military Cemetery. There are specific areas dedicated to soldiers who fell in specific battles, e.g. those who were lost in a submarine that sank in the early sixties, or the teenagers who served as runners during the 1948 War of Independence. Most of the graves, however, are uniform and simply decorated. A Stone marks the name, age and rank of the soldier and the war in which he died. In this way, the marker for Jonatan Netanyahu (brother of current Likud leader, Bibi), the commander of the Entebbe mission in 1976 that freed scores of Jews and Israelis who were being held hostage by Palestinian and German terrorists in Uganda (he was the only soldier to be a casualty) looks exactly like the marker of a relatively anonymous soldier. In death, everyone is equal.



Mt. Herzl also serves as the National Cemetery for national leaders. Most Prime Ministers and Presidents of Israel are buried there, including Yitzhak Rabin and Golda Meir. Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern political Zionism, was reburied in Israel after the state's creation (In photos, left to right, regular soldier graves; Herzl's tomb; and Rabin's grave).

Just recently, an interesting controversy arose over the desire of Edgar Bronfman, the wealthy scion of the Canadian brewing family, to be buried on Mt Herzl. Bronfman has served as the president of a number of important Jewish organizations and was singularly involved in compelling the Swiss to reimburse Holocaust survivors from the many insurance policies and bank deposits which had been taken from them. Even so, some argue, Bronfman never became an Israeli citizen, a baseline consideration for inclusion. For more on the latest brouhaha, press here.

For Lunch, the group descended on Mahane Yehuda, a large, mostly open air market, which is filled at Friday lunch time with those shopping for Shabbat. The following photos are self explanatory!

Friday evening, we went down to the Western Wall, where Rabbi Marc Berkson and I conducted a Kaballat Shabbat service. We then moved closer to the wall where, at the center of a hige, very excited crowd, was Senator Joe Lieberman. The reception he got made me think that these days he has to pretty far to find a Jewish audience who are happy to see him! We had a delicious Shabbat dinner at Mercaz Shimshon, in a third floor hall whose eastern wall is made entirely of windows looking out at the walls of the Old City. Beautiful and inspiring. During dinner, each table was joined by one or more Hayalim Bodedim", or "Lone Soldiers." These are young men and women doing their military service whose families are not in the country. The army goes out of its way to look after this group, including, evidently, getting them an occasional hotel meal with guests from outside of the country. Many of the group were Americans, though there were others from New Zealand and Russia. Their stories were inspiring.

After dinner, we were treated to a performance of an a capella group of Israeli soldiers who sing on behalf of the Chief Rabbinate. Their intricate harmonies were matched only by their personable and approachable natures.

By midnight, the awaited storm arrived, like one of Milwaukee's finest fall or spring weather events - downpours, thunder lightening and squall lines of howling wind. As I lay in bed listening to the storm outside, I realized that those group members who had arranged to go down to visit Masada were in for a disappointment. Even less rain than we were getting can give rise to what are called in Hebrew "Sheetfonot" or flash floods. It needn't be raining down at the Dead Sea; rain forty miles away can turn into a raging flood by the time it has coursed through miles of valleys from the hills of Jerusalem down to the Aravah, the rift valley in which the Dead Sea sits. This photo shoes how quickly water can arrive.

Indeed, my prediction was correct; the roads were closed because of flash flooding. Even so, the group was able to make it to Ein Gedi at the Dead Sea's Northern end, where they bathed in the theraputic mud. As their photo indicates, it looks like they had fun!

While they were floating in the Dead Sea, I went out for a walk in Jerusalem. When I left the hotel it was overcast (I hadn't expected to need the winter coat I wore when I left Milwaukee, but I was glad to have it today), but I was soon drenched by a torrential downpour and then, adding insult to injury, HAIL! I was soaked to the bone when I got back to the hotel, but I knew better than to complain. Israel has experienced a severe drought over the past two years so this rain is very welcome. Tomorrow we travel up North to the Kineret (Sea of Galilee) where, we are told, the water levels are the lowest they've been in a long time. As the country's sole source of potable water, the Kineret's health is of concern to all.

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What is in the news? There is a lot of horse-trading going on as political parties jockey for position. Tzipi Livni, the head of the centrist Kadima party had said a few days ago that she would never join Netanyahu's coalition to be "a rubber stamp for very conservative policies." Today, other senior party officials are talking about the possibilities of joining the coalition. Big news today was that the government has told Hamas that until Gilad Shalit is returned (the soldier kidnapped outside of Gaza two and half years ago) the border crossings to Gaza will remain closed and peace talks frozen. Tonight on TV there were interviews with family members of people killed in terrorist attacks over the passt years that were planned by Hamas members currently in Israeli jails who are rumored to be included in a prisoner swap for Gilad Shalit. The surviving relatives were saying they can't understand why the government responds emotionally to the issue of kidnapped soldiers rather than with common sense. Others agree, but say that such is the commitment Israel feels to its soldiers, akin to the US Marine's commitment never to leave a soldier behind. That value is understood and appreciated by those who have lost family members to terror. What leaves a bad taste in their mouths is the idea that hundred of murdered might be back out on the street, ready and committed to return to terrorist activities.

In regional news, there is worry about the report that Iran may have enough fissionable material to make a nuclear bomb, something Israel said it would never tolerate happening. There's been discussion about the course being charted by Turkey these days between its desire to both join the Eurocentric world of NATO, on the one hand, and to curry favor with its Muslim neighbors, on the other. Turks haven't forgotten or abandoned the memories of their role as a regional leader in Ottoman times. They'd like to return.

In Israeli politics (from the Israeli press) "As he began consultations for the formation of Israel's post-election cabinet Wednesday, Feb. 18, President Shimon Peres made an extraordinary statement. Addressing the Presidents Conference, he admitted for the first time that Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in 2005 was a mistake "which will not be repeated." His decision regarding the future composition of the governmental coalition would therefore be dictated by its policies, he said.

Peres, who was vice premier in the government headed by Ariel Sharon which ordered the 2005 evacuation of the Gaza Strip, confessed for the first time that he was wrong to support it. Things should have been differently, he said. (Israeli forces forcibly evicted 8,500 Israelis living in the Gaza communities - many of whom remain in reduced situations to this day - and opened the way for Hamas' takeover.)

Peres said: "My problem is less whom to entrust with the role of prime minister but rather the candidate's policies. The world is undergoing new situations and the new government must adjust its policies accordingly. I do not disqualify any Israeli who was duly elected."

Many eyes here are focused on Durban, where a draft resolutions for the United Nations Durban II summit on racism brand Israel as an occupying state that carries out racist policies, Haaretz (The Israeli daily newspaper of record) has learned. The draft refers to "the plight of Palestinian refugees and other inhabitants of the Arab occupied territories," apparently meaning Israel itself. The resolutions appear to confirm concerns that the second World Conference Against Racism will be used by Arab nations and others to criticize Israel. Despite those concerns, the United States said last week it would participate in planning the summit.

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Tonight, congregants Judi Ketten, Jane Gellman and I had dinner with a number of former Milwaukeeans: Cantor Tamar (Heather) Feffer (36 weeks pregnant); Anat Barkin (Nir was in the US); Alon and Einat Galron (former Shaliach); Phil Nadel and Ros and Hannah Roucher. Much fun was had by all. Below are Judi Ketten and Cantor Tamar (Heather) Feffer and the group.

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AND NOW, for the inaugural segment we'll feature from here on in, entitled "RAK B'YISRAEL - ONLY IN ISRAEL..." Featuring stories and anecdotes that could have happened "Only in Israel."

As the ten of us had dinner in Abu Ghosh, twenty minutes outside of Jerusalem, Yisrael, our cab driver, waited outside to drive Jane, Judi and I back to Jerusalem. On the way, he pointed out a bit of esoteric Jewish knowledge I had never heard: he handed us his business card, pointed to his name, and said: "All of Jewish history is in my name.." and then proceeded to show how every patriarch and matriarch was represented by one the letters in his name. Yud-Sin -Resh -Aleph-Lamed.

The letter Yud for Yitzhak (Isaac) and Ya'akov (Jacob);
The letter Sin for Sarah;
The letter Resh for Rachel and Rivkah (Rebecca);
The letter Aleph for Avraham; and
The Letter Lamed for Leah.

As we marveled at this novel bit of Jewish tradition, Yisrael snorted and said: "You're not going to find a cab driver in New York City who can teach you Torah!"

Yisrael, our "Torah-teaching" cab driver,
and Judi Ketten

We woke this morning for an early breakfast at our Hotel, David's Citadel. Israeli hotel breakfasts are sumptuous, albeit in a most healthy way. The buffet consists of a variety of cold salads, served with soft and hard cheeses, omelets and olives, fruit, and delicious breads. (If you want to learn more about Israeli breakfasts, press here.

After breakfast, we assembled to hear David Ze'ev. David hosts the Israeli version of "Meet the Press" on television and radio, a weekly news analysis show with interviews, guests, etc. David gave us his impressions on the post-election scene in Israel. Whereas his theory before the elections had been "Israel needs to stop apologizing" every time it does something someone doesn't like, e.g. invade Gaza, his thought after election is now " the current Israeli political system has to go." Incremental changes, like direct election of prime minister (rather than voting for a party, which then picks its own leader), have proven ineffective; yet, those who would need to envision transformational change and implement it (member of the Kenesset or parliament) are the people least likely to want to move away from the status quo.

Elections this past Tuesday resulted in a statistical dead heat. Since Tuesday, President Shimon Peres has been interviewing political parties to assess which party has the best chance of putting together a viable coalition government. Today, he announced that the Likud, the conservative party led by Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu would have first "crack" at it. Tzipi Livni, the leader of the Kadima centrist party, vowed to stay in the opposition and resist the temptation to join the government. Livni said: "Today the foundation was laid for an extreme right-wing government led by [Likud Chairman Benjamin] Netanyahu. This is not our way, and there is nothing for us in such a government," Kadima leader Tzipi Livni told party members on Thursday, after 65 MKs announced their decision to support Netanyahu for the post of prime minister-designate. (for more information, press here).

Avigdor Lieberman, the controversial head of the Israeli Beitenu party (Israel is our land) pledged his provisional support to Netanyahu. Lieberman, who has said he would require Israeli Arabs (not Palestinians living in Gaza or the West Bank) to take a loyalty oath. The coming days will reveal whether Netanyahu can put together a coalition of at least sixty one members - since the Kenesset has one hundred and twenty members, sixty one comprises a simply majority. As Leiberman warned, any government that exists with only a narrow margin will not survive long.

In a move some have been demanding for some time, the government told Hamas that the border crossings to Gaza will remain closed, and all movement toward a resolution of the current tensions, will remain frozen until the release of Gilad Shalit, an Israel soldier kidnapped by Hamas two and a half years ago. For more information about Gilad Shalit, press here.

For Shlomo Avineri's analysis of the need for electoral reform, press here.

Jerusalem Post correspondent Bradley Burston thinks people voted for the right because only the right can make peace (Like Begin), press here.

We then went to the Old City and walked through the Jewish Quarter. I was surprised to see that the Hurva synagogue, the largest in the Jewish Quarter and destroyed by the Jordanians after 1948, is being rebuilt. Since the Jewish Quarter was taken back by the IDF in 1967, the Hurva was cleaned up but only the shell remained as a memorial.

We continued on to the Western Wall. While some assume the wall had been part of the second temple itself, in truth it was part of the retaining wall King Herod erected to created the temple mount, which was the largest building project the Roman empire had ever embarked on. Over the past decade, excavations along the base of the wall continued in a northerly direction and uncovered what is now an underground tunnel stretching from the plaza in front of the western wall all the way to the far reaches of the Christian Quarter to the north.

For more information about the tunnels, their excavation, and the political uproar that ensued when Muslim religious authorities claimed that Jews were plotting to literally undermine the Dome of the Rock, a very important Islamic shrine, press here. To take a virtual tour of the tunnels and other areas around the Kotel - the wall, press here.

After a pasta lunch, and the slight matter of the bus leaving the restaurant while yours truly was still in the bathroom (sorry, no pictures of the look on my face at the time), we visited a new museum dedicated to the life of Menachem Begin. Israel's first prime minister elected from the conservative party, the Likud (in 1977). Begin was a warrior - some say a terrorist - who led the pre-state "Irgun" militia in such missions as blowing up a wing of the King David Hotel (being used at the time by the British occupiers). Yet, he was also the statesman who invited Anwar Sadat to come to Israel and who himself went to Cairo, in the run up to the signing of the Camp David accords, which brought an end to decades of war between Israel and Egypt. In Israel proper, Begin argued that Jews from Europe (Ashkenazim) and those from Arab countries (edot HaMizrach or oriental communities) should have equal opportunities in political life, business, academia, etc.

For more information about the Begin Center, and, in particular, the battle between the Hagana led by Israel's first prime minister, David ben Gurion, and Menachem Begin's Irgun - a battle that came to a head with the sinking of the Altelena - a ship the Irgun was using to bring in munitions for Irgun fighters in Jerusalem, in contravention of Ben Gurion's orders, press here * or here or here. If you want to watch a video of Yitzhak Rabin relating the sinking of the Altelena - don't pay too much attention to the biased introduction - the second half of the video is worth it. Press here.

For dinner, we went to a restaurant called "Darna" that specializes in Moroccan food. The picture shows some of the delicious salads. The food was of the French influenced cuisine of a certain part of Morocco. When I lived with a Moroccan family in Jerusalem during my junior year of high school, the food was more influenced by Arab culture, reflecting the experience of a different socio-economic stratum in Moroccan society. Below are pictures of two of a group of Milwaukee students currently studying in Israel through the Milwaukee Jewish Federation's sponsorship, including Rachel Dolnick and Mara Alpert.

Three News Items to share:

The first is the weather: today the weather changed from sunny and sixty degrees to a cooler, almost foggy looking day. After a few minutes it became apparent that the frog was really a cloud of dust that probably had come all the way from North Africa. This weather is a precursor for some stormy weather heading our way, rain that will likely hit us tomorrow evening. To read about how dust clouds form, press here. To see a satellite picture of what such a dust cloud looks like, press here.

The second item is abut John Kerry, who is visiting Israel and who spent part of today in Gaza. For details of the visit, press here.

The third news item was by far the most important: last night we ate and celebrated with Yemenite Jews. Today, it was announced in the media that the Jewish Agency had worked in secret to take ten Jewish individuals out of Yemen and bring them to Israel.

Why is this newsworthy? Because while most of Yemenite Jewry came to Israel in the early fifties (Operation Magic Carpet, so named because so many had never been in an airplane before) a remnant has remained in Yemen, totaling today about 140 families. In recent years, the community has become the target of a local Al Qaeda affiliate. The President of Yemen took seriously his task of protecting the Yemenite Jewish community. In fact, in recent months, the Yemeni government decided to consolidate the Jewish community in one town, rather than the two towns where the Jews had lived. Despite these extraordinary efforts, the protection could not be total; in recent weeks there have been a number of attacks with hand grenades, guns, etc. We didn't see mention of it in the western press because Israel was already setting into motion a plan to evacuate the remaining families. However, the news got out about the operation and it remains to be seen what will happen now. Such evacuations in Ethiopia had to be curtailed once news got out; local officials who were happy to look the other way as Jews left (a bribe or two helped) were suddenly outraged when they realized that their complicity was there for all to see.

In the meantime, the news tonight in Israel showed the family with ten relatives arriving to the airport and reciting the shechiyanu prayer - thank you God for giving us life, sustaining us, and enabling us to be here together to share this day. To read more about it, press here.


QUESTIONS TO BE ADDRESSED IN UPCOMING BLOGS (remember, I will be in Israel through March first):

I have been collecting excellent questions sent to me by Milwaukeeans. I hope to begin sharing some insights and answers in the coming weeks. Here is a sample:

· How do Israelis you meet feel about continued building in the Palestinian territories despite Supreme Court decisions? What effect does the activism of Rabbis For Human Rights have on Israeli citizens? Any discussion?

· How do Israelies you meet feel about continued building in the Palestinian territories despite Supreme Court decisions? What effect does the activism of Rabbis For Human Rights have on Israeli citizens? Any discussion?

· David Landau wrote in Ha'aretz today/yesterday that the Israeli-Palestinian situation will reach either a two-state solution or a one-state solution, an Arab state. How widely held is that viewpoint?

· Just read that 20,000 Israelis lost their jobs last month... Some countries are blaming the US. It would be difficult for Israelis to blame the US out loud but perhaps privately? I am sure everyone is asking about the future pm. Do they believe it will be other than a unity government? Is it possible for either to make a coalition? Are they fearing Iran more than Hamas and Hezbollah?

· I am very interested in what has happened to the moderate/left voice in Israel. I don't hear much on our media. So,the man/woman voice on the street is very interesting to me.

· Questions for them (Ros Roucher and Rabbi Phil Nadel)--what are the best things and the most challenging parts of moving to Israel?

· And the questions for the sixth grade class at Sinai:
· How tall is the tallest building?
· What do people eat? (street food, food we don't have, Joey wants to know if the pizza still tastes weird)
· What do houses look like? Apartments?
· What is shopping like?
· Please bring chocolate!