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

Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, Part Five, Part Six, Part Seven, Part Eight, Part Nine, Part Ten, Part Eleven

Shalom to all that (4) by Jill Cartwright

I slouched over to the open window of the lounge that Grizzly and I shared. Our apartment was on the fourth floor and looked out over a square on a little side street where Israel’s national poet Bialik once lived. A sculpture of blue tiles honored this fact and the area had drawn musical academies and galleries to set up home there. On some nights, light piano music or the high vibratto of an operetta would drift through our window and mingle with the voices from the television. Today, it was serenely quiet; warm, sun-filled and serenely quiet.

When I was growing up in England, Sundays used to be like this – although not so much sun-filled. The shops were closed, public transport took the day off, parents eased into the Sunday papers or slept off large Sunday lunches and as children we were always told not to go knocking on our friends’ doors and disturbing the neighbours. Not now. Now England’s shops are open, cashing in on another day of business, and transport and people chug their way round the high street chains like it was any other day.

Even though in Tel Aviv on Shabbat, the cafes are open and filled with people and the streets and beaches are bursting with couples and pushchairs and children, there is still a sense that this is a day of rest. The buses don’t run and the shops are all closed, people sleep in late and take the day easy.

There’s many here who want to see the tradition stopped, to fight what they protest as another sign of the religious control over the country and there are some huge furniture and DIY stores that have opened on the outskirts of towns that draw in crowds of families – complete with screaming babies, bored toddlers, little patience and a whole pile of stress. Like I’ve said before, I’m not religious but here I think they’ve got a point – have a day of rest; who needs to buy shelves on Shabbat?

Anyway, I was looking out of the window, trying to imprint the smells and the emotions into my brain so that I would be able to conjure up the feelings of Tel Aviv on a Shabbat late into my life - and then I decided to get my camera and headed out into the streets, just in case my mental powers of recollection should fail me late in life and pictorial evidence should be required.

It was hot. I strolled down to the end of the road where the coffee shop that had been blown up was now up and running and full of people. It had been up and running and full of people about 3 days after the terror attack – the speed of recovery was astonishing. There’d had even been a piece about it in the local paper. “Café Oleh” was the title of the article (oleh means to go up in Hebrew – Nice headline, I remember thinking to myself, as the first worrying signs of the newsdesk cynic started to show - but again that’s material for a whole other chapter in itself…)

I wandered up Allenby Street, whose sleazy bars were all locked up and neon signs switched off; metal shutters covered the entrances to the stores where during the week cheap, bright clothes spilled out of the boxes at the front and deeply tanned and bleach blonde sales women stood around smoking cigarettes and shouting to each other over the happy pop music that blared from speakers all round the shop.
Grafitti scrawled on the wall next to the shop shutter promised purveyors that designer items could be found inside: Gap, Banana Republik and Calvin Kline, they assured.

Taking a right off Allenby and at the end of the street, the sea greets you, gently rippling, sparkling into the distant horizon.

I walked into a side street, into the old and crumbling Yemenite Quarter. On its flaking walls, faded posters from some local election were slowly, and over the windows of the jumbled apartments, swathes of material acted as makeshift curtains to hold off the October sun. Slight rips in the fabric offered a glimpse into the darkness, as the inhabitants - most of them foreign workers from China and the Philippines - shuffled sleepily about inside.

Outside, old women with wrinkles running like deep grooves through their face sat still and silent on the doorsteps, their hands folded in their laps, lifting them occasionally, as if in slow motion, to waft away a fly.

I sat down on a low wall, the heat of the stone seeping through to my skin. From one of small stone houses next to me, men started to sing, three or four voices – a simple harmony. I don’t know what it was, I don’t know if it was a religious psalm or an old folk song, but as the melody floated gently from the darkened room and the smell of black coffee with cardamum mingled with the warm silent air, a heaviness settled on my chest and my heart felt ready to break.

I started picturing the sights around me, but knew a photo would never capture this so I picked myself up and walked away from the singing back up towards home. I walked up through the deserted Carmel Market, where stray cats and pigeons were picking between the bare stalls at the fallen fruit that had been trampled underfoot in Friday’s hectic sales, and back to my street.

I had plans for that night to go out with friends. I only had about two weeks left in Israel and had planned to spend them saying good-bye to them and to Tel Aviv.

But as it turns out, Tel Aviv had different plans for me …..

The body of Eliyahu Ashri from Itamar was found last night by soldiers of the IDF. Eliyahu was taken by Palestinian terrorists on Sunday and according to the chief coroner’s findings, he was murdered soon after being taken. His funeral will was held today at 14:30. He was laid to rest in the cemetery Mount Olive in Jerusalem.

Yesterday afternoon, a member of the group that kinapped Eliyahu was arrested by the IDF. Wasam Abu Ragila was interrogated and told the soldiers about the kidnapping and the execution that followed it. He also gave specific information about the body’s whereabouts.

The settlement Itamar is in mourning. Eliyahu is the fourteenth member to be murdered from the settlement in the last two years. “We lost the best of the bunch. The difference is so eminent, the difference between his smile and radiating goodness and the evil and brutality the other side radiates.” Said Rabbi Itzhak Nisim, the head of the school where Eliyahu studied. Later he continued lamenting Eliyahu, saying, “We owe him. We all do. He was and optimistic person, one who loved helping others, a boy of faith and rooted to his country.”

At the same time the body was being discovered, an unprecedented arrest operation was raging through the Gaza strip and the West Bank. About sixty Hamas political officials, some members of the Palestinian government, some members of Parliament, were arrested. Amongst others Naser A-din Sa’ar, the deputy to the Palestinian Prime-Minister was arrested, along with Muhama Barguty, the minister to the affairs of the Jerusalem. The Palestinians were shocked by the arrests, and threatened to retaliate with terror in Israeli cities. Some suggested that Israel took these people in order to trade them back for the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Simultaneously with the arrests, the IDF attacked Hamas infrastructure tonight as well. Palestinian spokesman said about these actions “It is a declaration of war against the Palestinian people”.

I guess until now we were basking in the warmth of peace…

Israel’s expected retaliation to Sunday’s attack by Palestinian insurgents is now in full swing in Gaza. The continuing military action, involving air and ground forces has so far caused considerable damage to the Palestinian’s already disastrous infrastructure, including causing severe damage to the PA’s only electrical power station, as well as knocking out two land bridges that has literally “cut Gaza in two”. The massive military action came as a result of a diplomatic impasse which has occurred concerning efforts to gain the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier, PFC Gilad Shalit. This impasse appears to have occurred despite a world wide effort to free the young soldier by negotiators in various world capitals, including Damascus Syria.

Though international statespersons, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, have asked all sides in the conflict to “give diplomacy a chance”, it now appears that Israel, which has been massing it’s forces on the border with Gaza for days now, finally decided that enough is enough. Israeli P.M. Olmert, his Defense Minister Amir Peretz, as well as IDF General Commander Dan Helutz, now say that Israel will not negotiate with terrorists, and that no prisoner exchange will take place.

The abduction of Shalit, alleged to have been carried out by ‘right-wing’ members of Hamas, the very party which now rules the P.A., has resulted in his captors declaring that they will only release him within the framework of a general prisoner exchange involving numerous Palestinian prisoners, many with ‘blood on their hands’, being held in Israeli jails. To further complicate the entire bowl of ‘fruit salad’, another young man,from a settlement on the West Bank, is missing and alleged to have been kidnapped as well.

The militants holding Shalit issued statements that the soldier is alive, and that they are holding him “a secure place where the Zionests cannot reach”. During these actions, Palestinian launched Kassam missiles have continued to be launched at Israeli targets, including the nearby town of Sderot, injuring several people. Both European and American government officials are taking all of these events very seriously, as it now appears that there is virtually no chance whatsoever to restart any peace negotiations between the two sides, now literally at war. Israeli P.M. Olmert even declared that the “entire territory of Gaza is completely closed, from the Sea to all its Borders with Israel”.

Some ‘behind the scene’ negotiations are continuing, however, including those for a prisoner release. The critical question now is whether these efforts will succeed to gain PFC Shalit’s release, as well as to bring about a cease fire. No details have been released, and most likely will not be divulged due to fear for Salit’s safety.

Judging from all of these events, and in respect to actions taken by the Hamas-connected terrorists, it reminds many of a statement made once by the international arch terrorist, Carlos the Jackal, who said in regards to his alleged enemies: “Shit is thicker than blood – make shit out of them”. It now looks like the Israeli forces, anyway, are heeding his advice in regards to present dealing with their Palestinian ‘neighbors’.

By Raz Koller
Eliyahu Hushery, an 18 year old from the Samaria settlement of Itamar, was apparently kidnapped and is being held hostage somewhere in the Rammalla area. That is the IDF and police’s assessment after the teenager had disappeared on Sunday. He was last seen by a Yeshiva student from Itamar. He met him on the French Hill and Elyahu was trying to hitch a ride.

Spokesman of the Palestinian organization The Committees of the People’s Opposition, Muhamad Abed El-Al, told the press: “The settler was taken on Sunday”, but refused to approve or deny if he was alive. “An announcement will come when the time is right”, said the terrorist, “The organization has created special units in the West Bank, aimed at kidnapping soldiers and settlers”. One might add that this happens when the Israeli government is preparing the ground for Olmert’s major plan of withdrawal from the West Bank.

In the meantime, a vast force made out of police and soldiers are looking for Elyahu. The search is circled around Beit-Lechem and Rammalla. After the abduction of the soldier Gilad in Gaza, there are estimates that the Palestinians will try to kidnap more soldiers and civilians in an attempt to make Israel release prisoners in Israeli prisons.

Elyahu’s family in the meantime is praying in Itamar, along with people from the settlement. “We have an emergency team with the family at all times.” said Arie Goldberg, a member of the settlement’s secretariat, “We are a formed and unified community.”

By Raz Koller

The Kasam rocket attacks and kidnappings have finely lead to the avoidable violence in the Gaza strip. The IDF has been operating in the Gaza strip since late last night. The military is bombing from the air Palestinian terror nests and infrastructure, intend to sabotage terror activities. Thus a small transformer was bombed last night (along with several bridges) and half of Gaza was blacked-out.

The operation was nicknamed “Summer Rain”, and according to military factors it is a “rolling operation with no established time frame”. But government sources within the Israeli government reassured that Israel has no intention of going back into the Gaza strip permanently. “Israel did not leave Gaza just to return to it” said Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livnie. Prime-Minister Ehud Olmert also clarified today that Israel has no intention to occupy Gaza again, but “the operations will continue. There will be no terrorist immunity. We have a primary goal - bring Gilad home“.

Gilad Shalit was kidnapped during a terrorist attack on one of the IDF’s posts within Israel’s borders during the last weekend. The past days raised concerns about his health in captivity. The Hamas terrorists who have him demanded Israel stop the operation in the Gaza strip or they will execute him. Israel on its side refuses to negotiate with terrorists but said that the release of the soldier and the settler that was kidnapped on Sunday might bring the operation to an end.

In the meantime Israel accuses not only the Palestinian, but also the Hamas leaders who sit in Syria, and the country that shelters them. “The USA and the international community can not stay indifferent to the fact that Syria is giving custody to the Arch-terrorists who had lad to these acts.” said Minister Haim Ramon.

And in the soldier Gilad Shalit’s home, many people have come to show support to the devastated family. One of the guests yesterday was Azam Azam, the Israeli citizen who was jailed in Egypt for the false charge of spying for Israel, and was released after seven years due to Israel’s massive diplomatic efforts. “Captivity is not simple, only inner-strength can help Gilad survive” said Azam yesterday.

By Maurice Picow

Over 211 killed so far in 2006

Not long ago, I wrote an article for this blogsite regarding new traffic laws introduced by the Israel Transport Ministry that would, hopefully help reduce the terrible carnage that continues on Israel’s streets and motorways. Since these new laws have been introduced, however, the road accident mayhem appears to be continuing unabated with no improvement in sight.

Even the tragic train accident occurring two weeks ago at Beit Yehosua, near Netanya, involved a truck driver who tried to be clever and ’steal the railway crossing’ by going across, though he knew that a train was bearing down on him. This accident alone claimed seven lives, and was proceeded by one in southern Israel that claimed even more fatalities, also caused by a truck driver trying to cross before the train arrived. Large trucks seem to be continuously involved in fatal accidents, and the one televised a few days ago in which the truck cab was pictured literally sitting on the squashed front portion of a passenger car, crushing to death the parents of children sitting in the back seat. Israel’s motorways are being overly saturated with automobiles, and are being even more congested with these huge semi-trailers that ply them daily, carrying anything from bulk chemicals and live animals, to 40 foot’ hi-cube ocean shipping containers. As these trucks are not able (or allowed) to travel at speeds of more than 80 km per hour, smaller vehicles constantly try to pass them; often with disastrous results. Many of these truck/car or bus/car accidents occur in either the Galilee or in the barren Negev stretch leading to the resort city of Eilat. The previously posted photo of a small call trying to pass between two large trucks is a classic example of what often happens on the particularly hazardous stretch of road leading from Beer Sheva to Eilat.

While efforts of present Israel Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz to help reduce road accidents are commendable, strict traffic law enforcement alone is not enough to reduce road fatalities. It now appears that an intense road safety education effort must be made if the general public is going to begin to start practicing better driving habits. No country, even the USA, has been able to completely eliminate deaths from traffic accidents. By introducing a good driver’s education program into the country’s school system, the amount of death and personal injury can be reduced significantly. It doesn’t just stop here, however. Courses in personal etiquette must be given as well; and these ‘courses’ need to begin with small children as young as age 3. The time worn personal ego syndromes that far too many people have in this country have to be simply ‘re-programmed’. This “me first” and “I have the right of way” attitude has to be changed to being cautious and practicing proper rules of personal conduct, as well as observing the “rules of the road”. Slowing down when traffic lights begin to change, instead of speeding up to go through on the orange or even red light can save scores of lives per year.

In a few days, thousands of young children will be out of school for their two month summer vacation. It’s not too much to ask that all of us endeavor to make sure that these kids will all be able to go back to school again; and not become traffic statistic, due to driver carelessness or irresponsibility. Lets all work together to save lives, especially those of our children.

I visited a friend the other day and as we were sitting in his office with the door open just as these 2 young girls walked by. “These are the “Hey Clip” girls”, he blurted.
“Hey What?” I asked.
“You don’t know who they are?”, he said and looked at me shocked.
WELL NOW I KNOW! (better late then never..)
To see them you wouldn’t suspect that these two 21 year old girls from Ramla are internet stars. Their video take on “Hey” by the Pixies has reached millions and has gotten them interviewed by various shows, fan sites have been built in their honour and they have a true following. The video was supposed to be a birthday gift for a boyfriend and had become much more then that.

This Hey Clip has been viewed by over 6.2 million viewers.

What is truely amazing is that Kevin Smith in his campaign to promote “Clerks 2” actually made a shameless spoof of the Hey clip girls video. He did call himself a whore for doing that though and it is after all Kevin Smith so he can do shit like that. But still…

By Maurice Picow

A recent group of world Jewish leaders met in Maryland, U.S.A., with the purpose of determining whether World Jewry is on the increase, or in the midst of an irreversible decline. These leaders, which included leaders of organizations such as the World Jewish Congress, the Present’s Conference of American Jewish Organizations, the Anti Defamation League (of Bnei Brit), as well as former Israeli government ministers, such as Natan Shiransky and Sallai Meridor of The Jewish Agency, gathered to reach some kind of conclusion as to where World Jewry will be in next generation – a mere 25 years from now.

Naturally, differing views of opinion, ranging from sharp declines in birthrates among North American Jewry to increased assimilation in many Diaspora Jewish communities, to problems with secular Judaism everywhere (including Israel) were discussed by these leaders. And in nearly every conversation, the future of Jews in Israel was paramount in these discussions.
(more…)

The medical staff of Soroka hospital in Be’er-Sheva will partially strike today in protest of violence against the staff. During the past week alone there have been three cases of violence. In two cases family members of patients used harsh verbal violence against the medical staff, and on last Thursday a man threw a cell phone on the doctor treating his son.

The doctor’s committee decided to perform sanctions in protest of late events. The head of the committee, Dr. Israel Eilig, said: “For a long time we didn’t take any measures and many staff members decided not to report (the violence). So formally we’re aware of only three cases, but it has become a daily situation”

The committee will not shut down the entire hospital since it is not possible morally and practically. All of the outer clinics and institutes within the hospital will be shut down and the operation rooms will work in Shabbat structures. That means only emergencies and special cases. Regular surgeries that were scheduled for today will not be canceled. Emergency room, intensive care and a few other departments will work as usual.

According to the committee, the problem is not Soroka’s alone. It is a national problem in all of the hospitals in the country. Dr. Eiling expressed his hope that the state will adopt the conclusions of the committee set to investigate hospital violence in 1999. Then the committee recommended that a police officer will be set in every hospital, that the number of people escorting the patient will be limited and that the waiting room will be modified to become more comfortable and soothing.

By Raz Koller

It’s been seven years since we said our farewells to Meir Ariel, Who died suddenly from a grave disease at the early age of 57. Meir Ariel was one of Israel’s most popular and creative song writers and poets. He wrote and performed his songs himself, but also wrote many songs for the cream of Israeli culture, with such figures as Shalom Hanoch, Arik Ainstein, David Brozza, Gidi Gov and more. He also published books of poetry, and was known to be influence by Jewish poet such as Natan Alterman and Haim Nachman Bialik, and also the American Jewish singer Bob Dylan.

Ever since he died, memorial concerts have been performed each year in his memory. Most of them took place in the kibbutz Mishmarot, where he used to live with his family. However, this year it was decided to move the main event
to the amphitheater in Cesarea . That decision was made by Terza Ariel, his widow, and Yehuda Eder, a dear friend of Meir who worked with him on many albums and projects and he’s also the artistic manager of the show.
The concert will contain new artists next to old who will perform some of Ariel’s classic song. The band “The Doll House” will perform “Mode Ani” (I Give Thanks) and “Zirey Kaitz” (Seeds Of Summer). Arcadi Duchin will perform “Omrim SheBli” (They Say That Without…) and Ehud Banai will sing “Canaan Blues”, which appeared in his last album and was written in the momery of Ariel. David Brozza will perform “Lyla Shaket” (Quiet Night) and “Mitachat Lashamaim” (Beneath the Sky). Yehuda Eder will preform “Agadat Deshe” (A Grass Legend) alongside with his wife, the actress Miki Kam.

Other musicians that will perform in the show includ Aviv Geffen (who’ll perform “Neshel Hanachash” [The Snake’s Slough]), Shalom Hanoch and Moshe Levi, Efrat Gosh, Ronit Shachar, Dori Ben-Zeev and Meir Swisa.

The concert will probably take place on the 18 of July, Ariel’s date of the death.