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

Our friend Tanya is on a month long trip in Brazil with her sister. This is a selection of 13 pictures from a bigger bunch. Looks like we found our next travel destination…

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It’s official. The 19th Chief Of Staff took office yesterday. Gabi comes from a very different part of the armed forces, Golani. Golani is an infantry brigade and a very down to earth one at that. Comparing that background to the resigning Air Force Chief Of Staff, Dan Halutz, is like comparing well… the earth and sky. The appointment ceremony was yesterday on television. Halutz, thanked everyone, specifically mentioned Ehud Olmert but ignored Amir Peretz. That was the second time he made a point of showing his anger at the Miniter of Defence. In an earlier goodbye speech he mentioned “getting shot in the back by his number 2″, the assumption made was that he meant Kaplinsky, his second in command but he corrected that and said that was not his intention. In fact he made a point of embracing Kaplinsky, who reportedly was extremly offended by the remark. In light of this speech yesterday, I get the feeling it was all meant for Amir Peretz.

There is no doubt that Dan Halutz is a great man. He has contributed almost 40 years of his life to the armed forces and when he felt responsible and accountable, he did the right thing. Unlike Amir Peretz, who is holding on to the position and refusing to take responsibility for the mismanagement of his office and the risk he presents to the country in this sensitive position. He has no place, right or know how for the position of Minister of Defence, and if he was half the man that Halutz was he would have been the first to step down.

Ashkenazi was briefly my commander in the army. I can’t say I know him. The only thing I can say is that he is a down to earth guy, can be tough and is considered “one of the guys” (he can also play a mean soccer game). I think that having the army leadership going from the Air Force to Golani is karma in action. This last war brought us all down to the ground and it makes sense that the man to lead the reorganization of the army should come from the Infantry Brigade and especially “Golani”, a brigade named after the Golan Heights. I hope for peace but let’s face it, there will be a next phase in the North. When the next conflict starts up, and it will, I am hoping we will have a strong army waiting “on the ground” as well as in the air.

It’s interesting that both Chiefs, the new and the old, were raised in Moshav Hagor. It’s a good sign, if judging from Halutz, they have good people up there.

In the ceremony yesterday Amir Peretz had trouble placing the ranks on Ashkenazi. Later Ashkenazi received a note from Halutz saying that he wll have to switch them a round, they were placed on his shoulders backwards… I think that’s really symbolic of the politicians in charge.

I am a big fan of this site as some of you may have noticed here, here and here. I was glad to see AniBoom secured a $4.5 Million investment from Evergreen. Uri Shenar is the founder and man behind the animation portal. The competition they recently had attracted 1,500 participants and this was the winner of the $25,000 prize. Mazal Tov guys..

Malis wanted to “tell a little complex story about a lot of topics…differences between groups of people, faith confrontation, religion manipulation, hypocrisy, etc.

Zlango developed an Icon lingo for SMS communication. In previous rounds it raised $1.5 Million and now raised an additional $12 Million from Benchamrk Capital and Excel Partners.

See if you can get the message in their own “words”on the company blog…

Mazal Tov to Pontis. The company raised an additional $15 Million lead by Sequoia Capital. The guys at Pontis have been working hard and its good to see they got this second round. The initial seed round was $9.2 Million. The company developed the technology that allows real time marketing campaign management over cellular, cable and other communication networks.
Here’s hoping that now that they have the money they’ll get their website done properly and maybe invest a little in their online brand (could help sales guys …..)

:)

John Edwards hired Amanda Marcotte as blogmaster for his campaign and got more then he bargained for Here and Here.
The shit really hit the fan and there is continued speculation that Amanda will be sacked. Religion is a still a very touchy subject and it looks like the move wasn’t the smartest for Edwards. This is the recent announcement on her blog.

I was hired by the Edwards campaign for the skills and talents I bring to the table, and my willingness to work hard for what’s right. Unfortunately, Bill Donohue and his calvacade of right wing shills don’t respect that a mere woman like me could be hired for my skills, and pretended that John Edwards had to be held accountable for some of my personal, non-mainstream views on religious influence on politics (I’m anti-theocracy, for those who were keeping track). Bill Donohue—anti-Semite, right wing lackey whose entire job is to create non-controversies in order to derail liberal politics—has been running a scorched earth campaign to get me fired for my personal beliefs and my writings on this blog.

So the blogsphere is shaping out to be an influential part of these coming elections. It looks like the blogs are going to be used as the back channels in this election, where things can be said and stones can be cast. Should make things interesting.

These are some personal favs. We didn’t get to see them here but they’re out there…

ETrade

This is a nice little experiment - call Luke at 602-435-3694

This is from the Heep.co.il site.

Last night I was watching a movie at home around midnight and I felt it. I told my wife there was an earthquake and she just looked at it me understandingly, with that look that says, “you silly man, you fell asleep again”. I kept describing the feeling all morning today, the couch moving, lamps swaying, but there was no official proof. Later this morning the news came. It’s official; we had an earthquake, two of them actually, 3.6 and 4.5 on the Richter scale. The source was somewhere across the border with Jordan.

What’s interesting is that we had a stronger quake (5.1) exactly 3 years ago to the day. That one caused some serious panic and damages to several buildings and structures across the country. There are quite a few structures in Israel that would fall apart easily if we ever had a slightly stronger quake. The building codes are somewhat “flexible” and are sure to fail a serious stress test. Not to mention the “creative” construction projects always going on. Israel has had some notorious construction scandals including the collapse of the bridge at the Maccabiah Games and the collapse in Jerusalem of a Wedding Hall (Versaille Halls) where a floor dropped while 80 people were dancing, killing 23 people.