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

Today we mark the Holocaust Memorial Day. Last year, the entire country was shaken after watching the documentary film “The Morals of Restitution“ (Musar Hashilumin) . The film, created by the socially-conscious journalists Orly Vilnai Federbush and Guy Meroz, revealed the shameful economic conditions of so many of the holocaust survivors who live in Israel. More than 80,000 Shoah survivors live in atrocious poverty without some of the most basic means such as food and medicine. One survivor told the cameras shockingly that she had to go back to Germany, a place of her persecution, due to Israel’s lack of financial support. The film raised a pointing finger at the Jewish institutions including the Israeli banks, JNF (Jewish National Fund) and the Claims Conference, an organization established for the primary purpose of transferring restitution funds from Germany, for withholding payments of survivors who are literally dying in the meantime.

How could this happen in Israel, a state built by and for Jews? This is the question the audience of this documentary is left with. There was a point where things seemed as they were about to change. People protested and the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert made a speech emphasizing the importance of the Holocaust survivors for this country while promising to distribute special funds. It all turned out to be a mere media spectacle – survivors were given a one-time allowance of a few dozen NIS and were left forgotten again.

A year has passed since. In a sequel broadcast last night the journalists returned to further investigate how and whether things have changed. They didn’t. Many of the survivors passed away while others continue in their daily suffering. The sequel shows how the Claims Conference organization has turned into a corrupt money making machine accumulating fortunes for its own benefits and agenda.

In light of this, one must wonder how these people live with themselves. More importantly, how does our society allows this to happen? It is about time that we not only remember but wake up from our apathy and take action to protect these people from death in disgrace. The only positive thing emerging from this issue is the courage of the creators to speak out which highlights the true purpose of journalism.

We are at home watching the shows and stories of the Holocaust. A day dedicated to the stories and the survivors here in Israel. There are 80,000 survivors in Israel that can barely survive and leave below the poverty line yet when they ask for help they are put through hell. Insurance monies, property taken from these people, claims money that were awarded all went to a group called the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims in New York.

The Conference is the sole beneficiary of German compensation. Actually $1,070,000,000 worth of compensation. When properties were released after the fall of the Berlin wall in Germany it was this organization that collected the properties - a list that until today is not being revealed to survivors. This body is today one of the largest single property ownership groups in Europe.

Today when a survivor wants to get the money he is left, he needs to face a battery of lawyers controlled by this New York organization. Even today this organization refuses to provide a list of the properties that are held supposedly for the Holocaust survivors.

120,000 properties were received, worth $1,050,000,000. And this money is transfered to organizations and foundations that have nothing to do with the Holocaust and its survivors. Organizations that are in Brooklyn, Jewish Museums, and a whole network of organizations not related to the Holocaust in any way.

Not only that, in one case when the Conference received a property and then is faced with a claim from the actual property owner, the Conference demanded 50% of the money and threatened in writing the owner that they will take his house if he doesn’t pay up. Blackmailing Holocaust survivors!!! The CON gets worse and is aggressively covered up to the extent that employees are fired for asking the wrong questions.

There are 24 Jewish organizations that control the Claims Conference each having the same weight in decisions and allocations. And so Israel with its 80,000 survivors gets the same weight in deciding on the allocation of aid as for example South Africa with its 900 survivors.

The Conference allocates money for political favors and people on the board of directors are getting ridiculous salaries with administrative costs that are running in the millions. The term for this in the US is Self Dealing! It is Self Dealing that is now hopefully going to be investigated by the District Attorney of New York.

“Yirgon Uotzei Merkaz Europa”, an organization in Israel that received $9,000,000 from the Conference over the years, is managed by one of the guys close to the plate. That organization that supposed to help Eastern European jews is charging $4,000 a month for a room in their retirement home. It gives no breaks to Holocausts Survivors of course. The organization that received money and is supposed to help Holocaust education and support survivors has absolutely no such services or consideration to survivors. This year the organization will receive another $670,000.

To date 2,000 Holocaust survivors received assistance from the Conference.

Gideon Taylor the head of the Claims Conference on Jewish Material Claims makes $450,000 a year!

Good People…

Can you imagine this scenario - actors in a theater show who are murders and rapists? A new theater show named Sliding Doors which has been running lately as part of a local theater festival is performed solely by a group of young prisoners. These young men, all of whom have been sentenced for long periods of time for committing serious crimes, have been issued a special permission to act and sing in a show composed by them and inspired by their life stories.

Every time the prisoners leave the prison premises for the theater they are escorted by a special unit of prison guards, one guard per each prisoner. They are led handcuffed by their hands and feet until they reach the theater.

Being a sap for the victim’s side, the woman who was attacked or the boy who was beaten, I am usually appalled to hear about rapists and abusers who often do hardly two years in prison. Nevertheless, one must consider the negative effects of prison as well: this cruel institution creates monsters that have nothing to lose when they get out. These guys are only 17. Statistics show that most of the youth that serves time in prison are likely to return. This theater show gives these youngsters a chance to face their inner demons and develop a sense of value for themselves and the outside world. A groundbreaking initiative, the show has won a first place already and may be heading for more awards as it continues to touch audiences and stir conversations.

Hollywood actor Wentworth Miller teamed up with the singer Dana International to create a promo for an Israeli TV satellite provider, “Yes”. Dana International is a well known transsexual pop singer in Israel who has made a name for herself internationally as the winner of the 1998 Eurovision song contest.

Miller, who has recently visited Israel plays Michael Scofield in “Prison Break”, an American show that enjoys wide popularity in Israel and across the world.

In the promo you can see Miller attempting to escape prison as he runs into the controversial Israeli singer. In the ad, Dana informs Miller in her usual fashion and sultry English mixed with Hebrew that he cannot escape prison just yet because we, the audience, must still watch season Four.

The subtext of the ad “winks” at the viewers capitalizing on the rumors that Miller might be gay.
While many people find this commercial tasteless, I bet that this is exactly what its makers were after – to provoke and win the audience attention. And boy, were they successful!

Like the famous song goes - “let’s give them something to talk about” – the gimmick works considering the simple fact that everyone in Israel is still talking about this ad!

Good news for IDF reservists! Last Wednesday, the Knesset passed the reservists’ act in a massive yes vote. This new bill outlines the rules of mandatory reserve duties, by large improving the conditions for the reserve soldier called for duty. In addition to cutting off the length and frequency of duty calls, the reservists will also enjoy tax breaks and other benefits. Congratulations to the Israeli parliament - finally a positive vote in the Knesset that does not concern MK’s salary raise.

Indeed, Wednesday was not a boring day at the Knesset. The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert was called by the opposition to make a speech that explained the government’s policy regarding reserve soldiers.

“The opposition’s job in every part of the world is to be an alternative to the ruling party still, I grew up in this house and I have never witnessed such an amorphous and purposeless hearing, which has nothing but to harm the Knesset and its status”,

Olmert’s government does not seem to say or do much these days. Considering Olmert’s usual self-expression, including his infamous nuclear slip of the tongue, silence might just be the wisest thing for him after all.

This is a campaign to keep in touch with the Savta AKA. Bubi - Give her a call, she is alone.
Before its too LATE !!!

An indication of an increase in violence in Israel was clearly demonstrated Tuesday when a Holon man, Yosef Bavli, parked his van in a space that was claimed by a neighbor of his, Yaron Kabaz. Kabaz, who didn’t even own a car, was so perturbed by this that he let the air out of Bavli tires. When Bavli came back later with a friend to pick up the car, an intense argument broke out, which ended with Bavli being stabbed to death by the parking space “owner”.

As police officers led him away the accused murderer yelled,

“You want to see a killer? Here you go. It was self defense. He blocked my driveway, what did you want me to do? …. One of them stabbed me in the face with his keys. I stabbed him back like a mother fucker…”

Members of Bavli’s family said afterwards that Kabaz has a long record of being abusive, and that Bavli was a good boy who never hurt anyone. “People kill each other nowadays over the smallest things, even over a dog” a neighbor said.

The alleged murderer was taken back later to the scene of the crime where he willingly re-enacted the incident, using a plastic knife and making kicking motions with his right foot. He seemed very obstinate in his instance that he was only protecting what he considered to be his personal property. The police definitely have other ideas regarding this incident, which they say is one of many that have occurred in recent years all over the country. They denied, however that this kind of incident correlates with any increase in violence. A police department spokesman, Avi Tzbari, said that murders of any type are bad, but this kind was “especially senseless.”

Kabaz, who is alleged of doing the stabbing, has been remanded into police custody pending investigations to determine if he is mentally stable.

Violence among the country’s population has been in the news more than the police would like to admit, however. Whether it be domestic violence, violence among youth, or violence against elderly people, it appears that more and more occurrences are being shown on TV.

Violence associated with increased use of drugs and alcohol has also been evident and this appears to be a phenomenon that is receiving more attention. In the case of what is now being referred as “the parking space murder” Tzbari insists that this is “an isolated incident” and that it should be considered as such. “People get into arguments over parking spaces all the time, but not to this extreme”.

Isolated or not, one man is dead and another is in custody over a matter that should not have been allowed to get out of hand.

It’s a fact, and most people in Israel aren’t surprised to hear that Israeli TV reality shows, including Star is Born, Super Nanny, Born to Dance, and Israel’s version of The Survivors, have perpetually received much higher ratings than news and other broadcasts. These programs are not that different from American reality shows, including The Bachelor, American Idol, Trading Spouses, and a host of others.

Many of these ’song and dance’ reality shows, involve hundreds of contestants vie for a beginning position that ends up weeks later with only one candidate winning first place. In the most recent of these programs, “Born to dance”, hosted by Israel’s “favorite MC” Tzvika Hadar; three contestants reached the finals, in which a young man named Natanel (pictured) won a first prize of NS 100,000. While this is not big money as compared to something in American or UK TV, it gives the final contestants a lot of exposure that can result in being awarded private entertainment contracts later on. Ratings are very important to these programs and Israel’s two commercial TV channels, Channel 2 and Channel 10 are constantly competing with each other for a big share of the nightly viewing audience. Since both channels have commercials, that “share” is very important as it means more contracts with companies that pay top money for prime-time ’spots’ on TV.

Star is Born, Israel’s equivalent to American Idol, has produced such talent as Nanette Taib, Shiri Maimon, and Boaz Maudi, this year’s Eurovision song contest participant.

While Channel 2 has the monopoly with the singing and dancing programs, competitor Channel 10 has come up with programs like Super Model and Survivors, which manage to pull in a good deal of fickle viewers who make sure they are parked in front of their plasma or regular TVs when their favorite reality show comes on. The Survivors show, which began with two groups of contestants being “cast” onto a seemingly deserted Caribbean tropical isle (actually a national park in the Dominican Republic), has been on for a couple of months now; and viewers get to watch the intimate trials and tribulations of the participants, who have to endure tropical storms, horrible food, countless attacks by mosquitoes and other insects, as well as undergo very difficult physical contests staged by the show’s MC, Guy Hamerei. As in other reality programs, only one “survivor” will finally prevail to collect a prize of NS 1,000,000 ($274,000) and a new Land Rover SUV.

Indeed, watching these types of programs allows people to momentarily escape the actual reality of life, especially in a country like Israel where the real “reality” often involves terror attacks, and war. At least by getting involved in these programs and having empathy with many of the participants, it takes many peoples minds off ‘the real thing’ that is so graphically portrayed on the news programs nightly.

And if the Israeli reality shows are not enough to excite people, then thanks to satellite and cable TV, there’s always American Idol, The Bachelor, and all the other foreign reality programs to keep even the most discriminating viewer glued to the “boob tube” for at least a couple of hours.

Finally, the voting of the Hollywood Film Arts Academy is in and the Israeli movie Beaufort didn’t win the Oscar. Losing out to another foreign language film entitled The Counter Fitters, many members of the Israeli film arts industry are perhaps a bit disappointed that this movie, based on the experiences of an IDF combat unit in a bunker atop the ancient Lebanese Crusader fortress of Beaufort, didn’t result in Producer David Silver and Director Joseph Cedar mounting the stage for the first time to give their acceptance speech for the coveted award.

Or, was perhaps losing the Oscar really a blessing in disguise?

The film was produced in 2007 following the book written by Ron Leshem, as is based on true experiences of members of some of Israeli’s top Golani Brigade solders who were literally holed up in a number of bunkers along the ten kilometer “security zone” that Israel held onto for nearly 20 years following the 1982 Peace for Galilee operation, otherwise known as the 1st Lebanese War. Their experiences, followed by the decision by then Prime Minister Ehud Barak to pull all Israeli troops out of Lebanon is a move still being criticized by many in Israel to this day, and rejoiced by many others; especially the families of the soldiers who lost many of their comrades during the final months until the pull back in May, 1999.

Since the film’s script does not portray Israel combat soldiers as the strong, courageous soldiers that used to be appropriate metaphors for the Israeli Defense Forces, winning an Academy Award for a portrayal of a top military combat unit cast in an entirely different light, might have only put “salt on the wound” of a still festering sore. This insight is also very plausible in the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanese II war in which Israeli combat units, particularly reserve units were sent into southern Lebanon in the final 48 hours of the war without adequate training and equipment, including basic combat rations and even fresh water.

In a way, in many Israeli peoples’ minds, the fact that this film didn’t win may be better in the long run as present top IDF officers, including the new Chief of Staff, are trying to upgrade and improve the IDF’s image; not only to Israel’s enemies, but to Israeli citizens themselves. Any acclaim over winning an Oscar, despite what it could have done to bolster the local film industry, might wind up doing more harm than good to the country’s national image; an image that Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, repeatedly castigates as being severely weakened in the aftermath of both the 1999 re-engagement and Lebanon II.

This year’s Academy Awards presentation ended with a number of lesser known actors winning the top awards, including best actor and actress. There was some respite for Jews living in Israel and elsewhere when the Cohen brothers won the awards for Best Director and Best Picture. That’s nothing new, as Jews has been very dominant in the Hollywood film industry almost since it’s beginning in the 1920’s.

As for disappointed Israeli actors and film moguls, there’s always next year; and perhaps they can come up with some film subject matter that is a bit less controversial.

Picture: Noam Honig for Ynet
It’s very rare that Jerusalem receives two snowfalls in one year. But Tuesday’s new white out makes many wonder if there is indeed a connection between this kind of phenomenon and climate changes that are attributed to global warming. It has already been noted that January has been recorded as the coldest in more than 15 years, and although the winter of 2001-02 saw it snow three times in the Holy City, overall temperatures so far this winter have been colder.

This brings to mind the environmental movie made in 2004 by former U.S. Vice President and now Nobel Peace Prize laureate Al Gore; who did an excellent job of explaining why the word’s climate has been so crazy, and what are the main causes of this change. Israel’s weather patterns have been changing and this may explain why there are sometimes freak rain storms in September and May, unusually hot weather in early June, and definite winter weather in mid to late February.

Global warming, according to Al Gore’s presentation, is causing the earth’s Polar regions to thaw out at an alarming pace. This also holds true for many alpine regions, such as the Andes Mountains in South America, and even the Himalayas, which contain the world’s highest mountains. The phenomenon of global warming and depletion of the earths’ ozone layer, does not necessarily mean that the earth is heating up overall. What is does mean is that the resulting change in the world’s ocean currents, both warm and cold, have having major affects on the world’s climate. This may explain why so many deadly storms, including hurricanes, typhoons, cyclones and tornadoes have been causing such much death and destruction in many parts of the world while other areas are experiencing severe drought.

Israel, like other eastern Mediterranean countries, relies on rainfall that comes from storms occurring in Europe, which eventually make their way east. Many times these cloud formations do not reach us since they are literally ‘pushed away’ by strong, dry eastern air currents which come from the Arabian Desert and other arid eastern regions. While our levels of precipitation may not be entirely connected with weather changes caused by global warming, there is widespread agreement by meteorologists that recent erratic climate changes have been influenced to a certain extent.

According to what is noted in Mr. Gore’s documentary, if present levels of hydrocarbon emissions are not reduced, in less than 25 years the polar ice cap may melt almost entirely during the summer months. This also holds for the massive ice shelves that surround Antarctica, the world’s seventh continent. If this happens, not only will weather patterns be greatly effected, but oceans and seas, including the Mediterranean, will rise high enough to at least partially submerge many coastal cities, including Israeli cities like Tel Aviv and Haifa.

All this is definitely food for thought; especially in a part of the world that has a constant fresh water shortage. So we should enjoy the snow that is falling here, as some of this water will eventually reach the underground aquifers and also our main fresh water source, the Kinneret. Who knows, maybe snow will fall in March as well.