Israel’s News Blog Magazine: Daily Stories Video and Photos

According to this article on the Ynet site, Lenny Kravitz is planning to visit Israel this summer. Kravitz told the Israeli consul-general in New York that he plans to visit friends in Israel and has no plans to perform. But hey, we can live in hope. Can’t we?

Kravitz is the son of an African-American mother and a Jewish father. Such exotic genes!

Sulha is an Arabic word that refers to a traditional Islamic form of third-party mediation in disputes and conflicts in order to make amends. Traditionally, clans that are involved in a dispute will sit down opposite one another with a mediator and arrive at some kind of mutually acceptable settlement/compromise.

The three-letter root of sulha is s.l.h, which is the same root for the Hebrew word that means “to forgive.”

The Sulha Peace Project is an Israeli grassroots peace organization that organizes events for Jews and Arabs to come together and promote reconcilation and co-existence.
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Tonight the Final Four Maccabi Tel Aviv is playing Tau Vitoria in Prug.
YALLA MACCABI !!!!

Another brilliant satirical cartoon from the dissident Iranian journalist, Nikahang Kowsar. It’s called Atomic Reich.

Nik recently started an English language blog, here. I recommend it highly for its perceptive insights into contemporary Iranian culture. Nik’s not afraid to look straight at the emperor - no matter who he is - and say loudly that he’s wearing no clothes.

Efraim Halevy is best known in Israel as the former head of the Mossad. Now Americans know him as the guy who was on the Jon Stewart Show.

Halevy, who was born in the United Kingdom and worked in the Mossad for over 40 years, is in the U.S. to promote his recently published memoir, Man in the Shadows.

I thought it was kinda hilarious that Stewart, who is Jewish, couldn’t pronounce Halevy’s first name. Jon, it’s Efra-yim - not Eh-frame.

Watch the interview here.

Recently I discovered a movement created by Palestinian and Israeli ex-combatants who have joined forces to fight for peace. Their organization is called Combatants for Peace.

From their website:

WHO ARE WE?
The “Combatants for Peace” movement was started jointly by Palestinians and Israelis, who have taken an active part in the cycle of violence; Israelis as soldiers in the Israeli army (IDF) and Palestinians as part of the violent struggle for Palestinian freedom. After brandishing weapons for so many years, and having seen one another only through weapon sights, we have decided to put down our guns, and to fight for peace.

WE BELIEVE
That only by joining forces, will we be able to end the cycle of violence, the bloodshed and the occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people. We no longer believe that it is possible to resolve the conflict between the two peoples through violent means; therefore we declare that we refuse to take part any more in the mutual bloodletting. We will act only by non-violent means so that each side will come to understand the national aspirations of the other side. We see dialogue and reconciliation as the only way to act in order to terminate the Israeli occupation, to halt the settlement project and to establish a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem, alongside the State of Israel.

Last June, a group of those ex-combatants met at Beit Jala, a West Bank village near Bethlehem that borders the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Gilo, which is populated by Jewish Israelis. At the gathering, Israelis and Palestinians who had in the past fought one another, told their personal stories and discussed how they had arrived at the conclusion that violence is not the way to solve the conflict.

Excerpt from the talk given by Chen Alon, an IDF officer:

In 1987-1988, when I began chasing Palestinians, perhaps even one of you, who were throwing stones at us in the refugee camps, I was told, and also told my soldiers, that we were protecting the State of Israel…
In 2001, on my last night in the occupied territories, I demolished a house not far from here, in El Chader. Later on during the same day, we initiated a curfew over the village of Husan and I could see Arab girls, at the same age as my daughter, in the village which in fact became a jail. While looking at these young Palestinian girls on the embankment which blocked the village, I was speaking to my wife on the telephone. She was troubled, telling me that no one can bring our daughter Tamar home from the kindergarten, and that she must find a solution. The memory of my daughter and the reality of the routine and the simple daily problems had shaken me.

Excerpt from the personal story of Suliman al-Chatib, a Palestinian militant who spent 10 years in jail for stabbing Israeli soldiers:

Later on I was transferred to the Janad jail, near Shechem*, where I worked in the Jail’s library. This provided me with an opportunity to read a lot, also about the history of the Jewish people. In fact I acquired my entire education and constructed my worldview in jail. I never went to university, but I did attend the learning groups in jail every day. This is when I started having new thoughts about the conflict and the means for resolving it.
In 1997, after 10 years and 5 months in jail, I was freed. The Beer Sheva jail was my last prison. In spite of numerous difficulties, such as the separation wall, the curfews, the settlements and more, some of us, who are here today, have established the Abu Sukar Center for Peace. We believe that combatants, who personally paid a price for their active involvement in the conflict, are the ones who can significantly change the situation.

*Nablus

by Liza Farachdel

To live in Israel is to be constantly subjected to powerful, collective experiences, whether it be the unbridled joy of taking first place in an international sporting competition, the searing pain of a terror attack, the utter disbelief when a powerful leader becomes incapacitated. Despite the outer layer of toughness for which Israelis are generally known, we rely upon one another and cling to each other in times of need, both in good times and bad, coming together as a nation as we celebrate, mourn and remember.

Today is Holocaust Remembrance Day in Israel, a day when we join together to remember. To remember those who perished in the Holocaust, to support those who lost their lives, lost their loved ones, lost their innocence. It is a day of reflection, a day to remember what we must never forget. Daily life is altered accordingly in order to mark the solemnity of the day, which manifests itself through the closing of restaurants and other places of entertainment, Holocaust-related television programming on all channels, radio playlists containing only quiet songs, and schoolchildren being taught about different aspects of the Holocaust. Names of those who perished are read out from the Knesset plenum, commemoration ceremonies are held, and a two minute-long siren is heard throughout the country.
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An Iranian blogger friend sent me the link to the photo, below, of a cake that was distributed at a university in Tehran to celebrate Iran’s recent success at nuclear enrichment.

My friend commented: “I think the baker must be either a disciple of Freud or a Sex and the City fan!”

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader who was recently elected prime minister of the Palestinian Authority. Credit: Mohammed Salem/Reuters

Never let it be said that life in the Middle East lacks irony. According to this article, Ismail Haniyeh, the recently elected prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, has three sisters who are Israeli citizens.

Haniyeh is a senior activist in Hamas, the Islamist party with a charter that calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Hamas was behind many suicide bombings against Israeli civilians; for the past few months it has held to a declared truce, but the party refused to condemn the April 17 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv that was committed by the Islamic Jihad, calling it a legitimate act of self-defense. Hamas is on the U.S. State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

But Haniyeh’s three Israeli sisters, who refused to be photographed or interviewed for the article, don’t have much to say about their militant brother. They live in the Bedouin village of Tel Sheva, near Be’er Sheva. According to their neighbours, the sisters are “generous and nice.”

“They are known and lend a helping hand when needed. They live in good houses and their financial situation is excellent. Two live close to one another.”

Salam Abu-Rakik, former head of the Tel Sheva council, and a successful businessman said that “Ismail’s sisters are much respected in the village.” Abu-Rakik is related to the Ismail Haniyeh’s sisters.

“Two of them have a lot of children, and all – I have to say – are successful. Some of them are successful businessmen, others are successful in education, and all are good people and respected in the community,” Abu-Rakik said.

According to the article, Haniyeh used to visit his sisters before the intifada - when travel between Gaza and Israel was relatively easy. But they haven’t seen him for years, and have no intention of relocating to Gaza.

Abu-Rakik says:

“Despite familial relation with people in Gaza, I see myself as a loyal citizen of the State of Israel. It is good for us here, and we are faithful to the States’ laws. However, I wouldn’t be ashamed if a relative was elected as the prime minister of Palestine.”

One of the sisters’ sons said: “Maybe we can be a bridge for peace between the two people.”

Niral Karantinji, winner of the Israeli reality show “The Models”

The second season of The Models, Israel’s version of America’s Next Top Model, just ended with a bang and a ton of publicity. The winner of the contest is Niral Karantinji (Hebrew Wikipedia entry on Niral here), a 20 year-old Arab-Israeli Muslim woman from Haifa.

Besides all the challenges of the competition itself, the stunning young woman had to deal with a lot of controversy connected with her ethnicity. One of the competitors, an Ethiopian-Israeli woman named Mimi Tadesa, didn’t like Niral at all. Whilst cat fights between young women in a modeling competition are normal, it is perhaps less normal for one competitor to call the other “a terrorist” - as Mimi reportedly called Niral.

Niral also had to deal with criticism in her own community. Her parents were not at all happy to see her drinking alcohol, which is forbidden to Muslims, on one episode of the show. They - and quite a few other Muslim Israelis - were also very displeased to see Niral posing topless in another episode.

On the other hand, as an Arab-Israeli DJ from Haifa said in a mini-documentary about Niral that was broadcast one week after her victory, it’s not fair to put the expectations of the entire community on the shoulders of one individual. If you don’t like what you see, turn off the television. Don’t look. She represents only herself, and more power to her.