For those of you that care, I’m sorry I didn’t post a 5th night of Hanukkah pic. It was an eventful Shabbat, big lunch, full of wonderful guests that stretched all the way into Havdala! We had kugel and vegetarian lasagna and, of course, those crazy injectable Roladin doughnuts that are still good a day later. But forget about me. Let’s talk about the Jews! Or at least read about them? Look at them? Yes? Great. Check out Hollywood’s Hottest Jews: Some People Are Just A Little More “Chosen” Than Others. It’s an imperfect list and some of the choices and omissions are questionable but… it’s mostly very hot.

In case that sort of thing is seen as crass, how about these 8 Animals Wearing Yarmulkes? Cute but you want cuter? How about Hanukkah cats? Or Hanukkah Facts from Hanukkah Cat? What if politics is more your thing? Current events? Then click here to hear Jackie Mason give Barack Obama shit for having a Hanukkah party 12 days before actual Hanukkah started.

Well, how about lighting the 6th candle? Hot, eh? There it is… with Bella and Margot helping out.

Yup. It’s the 4th night of Hanukkah and we light a little earlier than usual because of course you can’t light candles on Shabbat. It’s been a fun filled and exciting day, braving the crowds, securing the daily dose of fried oily goodness, but soon… Aaaaah. Peaceful rest! So yeah, Shabbat Shalom, Happy Hanukkah and we’ll catch you on the flip side! Can’t wait to have Jewlicious Daniella, Ben from the Muslim Jewish Conference, Jay from Tel Aviv U (formerly American Apparel), Leia from Batsheva Dance Company, Sarah from Hebrew U., Hannah from I don’t know where, The Turkish Jewish Oprah, and whoever else pops by for lunch tomorrow! Wish you were here with us!

Jessica is joined by Viktoria as we try out the doughnuts made by the Ne’eman Bakery of Jerusalem. It’s hard to get objective reviews from these ladies because they really love doughnuts. I guess it’s just a hoot watching them eat I suppose. This is how we celebrate Hanukkah in Israel. Over the holiday period Israel will consume 24 million doughnuts. Jessica and Viktoria alone will consume at least 1 million! So yeah…

How’s your Hanukkah been?

Speakers are seen describing Israel as a “cancer” that must be killed, Israel is accused of being involved “wherever we see injustice happening”, and Israelis are called “racists”, “barbarians”, and “inhuman”. The flag of Hezbollah, a terror organization banned under Canadian law, is also flown by demonstrators.

It is important for people to understand that there is a world of difference between legitimate criticism of Israeli government policies and a denial of the right of Israel to exist, in language that is without question anti-Semitic. In the case of this rally, ‘criticism’ of Israel quickly crossed the line into outright anti-Semitism.

The video also shows how those who genuinely believe in human rights often share a podium with hate-filled extremists. Those activists should be accountable for the company they keep.

This is a video project the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs has launched today, to highlight the link between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

Jerusalem | Filmed in Imax 3D from JerusalemGiantScreen on Vimeo.

All up and down Hayarkon street in Tel Aviv, speculators and developers are flipping empty properties in order to artificially increase their value ahead of future luxury condo development. Tel Aviv City Hall isn’t doing anything to stop it and is at least passively complicit in the evolution of the city into a developers paradise.

In Jerusalem, it seems City Hall is a wholly owned subsidiary of Greedy Developers Inc. As one luxury project after another get approved for construction, no one is building affordable housing and prices for existing rentals are increasing to the point that locals are leaving in droves. Entrepreneurial opportunists are scouring the market for housing that can be converted into tiny, expensive apartments designed for well monied students or holiday apartment rentals for tourists looking for a more authentic Jerusalem experience “mere minutes by foot from the Kotel.”

And what do the harried residents of Jerusalem get? We get nice distractions like Balabusta and the Jerusalem Season of Culture run by (amongst others) the Municipality of Jerusalem and Teddy Kollek’s Jerusalem Foundation. Never mind that Teddy is rolling in his grave at the sight of Jerusalem blighted by one high rise luxury development after another. We now have people dressed like birds and Fish n’ Chips Techno at the shuk!

Smoke and mirrors. Distractions. I mean don’t get me wrong, I like these little festival things, but why can’t the powers that be just be honest? If you’re not wealthy, you shouldn’t live in Jerusalem, plain and simple. But then what about the less monied citizens that make Jerusalem the interesting place that it is? The kooky haredim, the harried secular Jews? The artists? If we get rid of them then Jerusalem will become less attractive, won’t it? So I have a solution: JerusalemLand!

Rather than fight the Disneyfication of Jerusalem, let’s just run with it full throttle! What Mayor Barkat should do is go neighborhood by neighborhood, starting at those places closest to the Kotel and City center and move everyone out – like they did at Mamila. The residents will be moved to new neighborhoods on the periphery of Jerusalem and be provided with subsidized housing. Developers and contractors will be allowed a free hand in building all the luxury condos and fancy hotels they like in the evacuated parts of Jerusalem. Absentee property owners will have a fantastic selection of properties that they can purchase and live in for one month a year and massive profits will accrue to those well connected with the municipality and the municipality itself. Jerusalem’s economy will boom!

But here’s the genius part. The people kicked out of their homes will not only be provided with relatively cheap housing. They will also be provided with jobs! What kind of jobs? Well, like in Disneyland, they will be able to dress up as famous historical and biblical characters and roam the city center to the amusement of the tourists. One street corner will have King David playing the harp, another King Solomon cavorting with his wives. We’ll be able to recreate the liberation of the Temple Mount every day at 4 pm with people dressed up as paratroopers, led by Moshe Dayan. Someone else can pretend to be Rabbi Goren and blow the shofar. We can have regularly scheduled “riots” in Meah Shearim followed by Klezmer shows and re-enactments of scenes from Fiddler on the Roof. Artists in hipster clothing will be hired to draw caricatures, hippies in Nachlaot will man drum circles and perform a selection of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach’s greatest hits. Children can choose to purchase dreadlock wigs or funny haredi hats. And the shuk? We’ll get rid of all the smelly fish, meat and vegetable stands and replace them with chichi eateries and shops – rich people and tourists don’t cook after all. We’ll keep a few stands open to sell shakes and pre-cut fruit and vegetables and we’ll man the booths with students made up to look and sound like Iraqi vendors, for the sake of authenticity. Every day will feature a Balabusta Festival! It will be awesome and everyone will be happy in JerusalemLand!

And best of all? No more of those pesky kids and their stupid tents fighting for what’s best for all. Feh.

My first concern at the Presidential Conference in Jerusalem was not that I might stumble in my heels and nearly trip into Natan Sharansky (which I did), but that I could potentially kill the Israeli president.

Before the Shin Bet or anyone else reading this article freaks out, I just want to mention that I work at a homeland security firm in Israel, so it’s not really in my best interest to kill the President. Even before I became involved in the field, I’ve always had a very security-focused brain, bordering on the downright abnormal. You see, a normal twenty-something year old woman sitting mere feet away from the venerable Shimon Peres would be (a) happy, (b) excited, or (c) experiencing some other normal human emotion.

Instead, I was concerned that the security at the entrance hadn’t used a metal detector while doing a cursory search through my bag. (Hello! I could have slipped some short-bladed dagger knife in the lining of my purse!) Once inside the pressroom, I immediately took note of how many exits there were versus the ratio of people inside the room and the possibility of a stampede (in case of a fire or other emergency) and the likelihood of a devastating crush that might result. Once seated across from the President, I calculated that the distance between me and Peres was slightly shorter than the VIP protection detail and Peres. With my long legs, it would take me approximately two short strides to reach the President and stab him.

Ok, obviously no one stabbed the President, plus you have to give Israeli security a little more credit for its ability to deal with terrorists. But that’s not the point I was trying to make. What I wanted to say is that for someone who has a very cynical outlook on all matters related to statecraft and national security, as well as a knack for imagining the worst case scenarios, I came to this three-day event at the International Convention Center in Israel’s capital a little cynical about a celebratory event meant to “encourage us to shape a better tomorrow and an inspiring future.”

The Conference was sure to be inspiring, considering its list of speakers: Tony Blair, David Trimble, Jimmy Wales, Bernard Henry-Levi, Sarah Silverman (ok, not exactly a dignitary, but so obnoxiously funny that she should get royal status anyways), Larry Summers, Miri Eisen, Natan Sharansky (who was a good sport about me nearly falling on him outside the bathroom stairwell), Sir Martin Sorrell, the Israeli Prime Minister himself, and so many more awe-inspiring people. (Even Shakira was at the event, and while I was not initially sure how she got there, it turned out she had a cause, too).

In the first plenary session, which included a flurry of press coverage and a glowing neon background with the title “Nation, Interests and Ethics in the Journey Toward Tomorrow,” there was certainly an ambience of power in the air that was inspiring. The very presence of such individuals – human yet uber-human – and the knowledge of the great improvements they had brought to the world, left you with the feeling that you might want to join their club of coolness and change the world for the better, too.

At the same time, I was still cynical: of course they’ll identify problems, but are they brave enough to come up with some original solutions? Or were they just going to talk about some stupid, unrealistic concept, like “peace in the Middle East?” In a moment of classic American ADD during the speeches, I looked down at my shoes and wondered to myself what was more likely to happen first: man creating comfortable high heels or man nuking out the entire planet in the next world war.

The Conference was basically comprised of three types of activities: panels, plenary sessions, and “break times”. Break time was essentially a networking occasion to exchange business cards, sip some wine, and eat these tiny hor d’oeuvres that left me so hungry and bitchy that I wound up getting a little snappy with a famous scientist who had come to talk about his cancer research (I apologize).

I also quickly learned that the Presidential Conference was not just a widely televised symposium of visions and inspiration for the future, but a “who’s who” event where people network the living daylights out of each other. It was fascinating to watch the fluidity of connections and information that was being rapidly traded and upgraded at the Conference with subtle grace and maneuvering.

Unfortunately, not everyone was a graceful little socialite, demonstrated by the charming Israeli greaseball who sidled up next to me on one of the white couches and blurted out the worst pick-up line I’ve ever heard in my life:

“So, you must be pretty insecure about your height.”

Yes, I’m a shocking five-foot-eleven – practically unheard of for a woman in the Jewish world. And yet, I insist on wearing high heels, which one might think would indicate that I’m quite secure with my height.

“You must be pretty insecure to have to use that as a pick up line,” I replied.

The poor guy looked confused. Maybe he didn’t understand my English. I decided to give him approximately a minute and a half to amuse me before I would leave. I asked him what he did for a living and he replied that he was a “psychologist of persuasion” working for various businesses.

I wonder if he’s currently trying to persuade me to sleep with him, because it’s definitely not working.

Then, sweetly condescending, he asks me, “What do you want to be when you grow up? And don’t say a princess.”

“Uh, I work in counterterrorism.”

Spooky perverts aside, when I wasn’t busy meeting new connections from every field imaginable (science, hi-tech, media, urban planning, and more), I found discussion panels on topics that ranged from Diaspora relations to brain science to global marketing. There were two panels that I found particularly riveting, which is important when you have the attention span of a five year old. First was the one-on-one interviews with investigative reporter Ilana Dayan. Maybe I don’t fully understand the art of investigative journalism, but it seemed that Dayan had a slight tendency to insert her own opinions into every question she asked the interviewees. When pointedly asked about a past scandal, Larry Summers (a terrific speaker) called her out on her shtick: “It’s like asking me, what was it like beating your grandmother. You’ve already answered the question for me.”

Even more disturbing was when Jibril Rajoub from the Palestinian Authority was invited to the stage. The broad range of speakers at the Conference was commendable, but Rajoub was clearly not there to engage in any serious dialogue. Rather, he used this opportunity facing the foreign media to stage a mini Shakespearean tragedy of the Palestinians’ plight. Instead of answering Dayan’s straightforward questions concerning incitement in Palestinian schools and the recent terrorist attack in Itamar, Rajoub switched from Hebrew to English in order to address the horde of reporters, proclaiming forlornly, “Every Palestinian wakes up in the morning terrified of another Baruch Marzel.”

Although I thought the guy was a piece of work, there was still something to be said for his manipulation of the media for propaganda purposes. Maybe there was something we could learn from the Palestinians when it comes to Israel’s own machinations (or lack thereof) when it comes to public diplomacy and image framing in the international arena.

Which leads me to the second panel that held my ADD at bay both for its interesting topic and motivating speakers: “De-legtimization – Who is at Fault: Us or Them?” The host introduced the discourse with questions such as: What is it? How serious a threat is it to Israel? And what can we do about it?

Abe Foxman

Abraham Foxman (Former National Director of Anti-Defamation League, USA) added a few of his own questions: Why us? Why are we treated differently? In a nutshell, his opinion was that too much self-critical questioning would only legitimize the de-legitimizers, and that Arab rejection fuels this process.

Irwin Cotler (Former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Canada) was by far the most articulate and “efficient” speaker, fitting in about a hundred new ideas per minute. He pointed out that de-legitimization was not a new phenomenon, but was born at the same time as the modern State of Israel. It was now being accelerated by the globalization of human rights, laws, and NGOs that manipulates the image of Israel in an era where human rights have become the new secular religion of our time. We live in a legal culture as well, which Cotler terms as “lawfare”, enabling Israel’s critics to ask questions such as, “Are settlements legal? Does Israel have a right to exist?” and so on.

Malcolm Hoenlein (Executive Director of Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater New York, USA) spoke of de-legitimization as a cancerous process that most people don’t notice until it’s too late. You don’t win a game by a good defense alone, he claimed, but with a smart offense as well.

Miri Eisen (Former International Media Advisor to Prime Minister, Israel) argued that “an image is worth a thousand words” as far as the media was concerned. Concepts needed to be simplified and packaged concisely for a broader audience, since no one was interested in hearing the long, arduous history of the conflict.

Peter Goldsmith (Former Attorney General of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, UK) took a slightly different angle, finally putting aside “who’s to blame” and addressing “what to do about it”. He didn’t pull out an in-depth ten-point plan (not an easy feat in the allotted seven minutes, for that matter), but he did introduce some better ideas – including choosing when to go on the offensive and when to remain silent (i.e. as to not give the de-legitimizer publicity). He agreed with Cotler in regards to fighting de-legitimization in the international legal arena as well vis-à-vis universal jurisdiction.

The bottom line of many of the speakers was that it was time for Israel to take back the narrative, stop allowing its enemies to hijack reality. The war against terror was gradually turning into a war of soft power. While this was all perceptive and eloquent, very few practical solutions were offered. Overall, I thought concentrating more on solutions versus problems would have improved the Conference in general.

Wikipedia's Jimmy Wales, President Shimon Peres and not Justin Bieber

On the last day of the Conference, I was invited to a private bloggers-only session with the President. Although I’m pretty much computer-retarded and have only a vague idea of what a blogger actually is, I did have a press badge with the title “blogger” on it. (The man who obtained this badge for me shall remain anonymous.) Sitting so close to Shimon Peres once again, my mind was not filled with the various ways he might be assassinated, but with the uniqueness of his tough/caring attitude towards the crowd. He didn’t seem impatient at all by the bloggers’ questions, even the ones that bordered on ridiculous. And when he answered questions pertaining to the well-being of the country, you got the sense that the guy genuinely cared.

And then, out of nowhere, Justin Bieber stood up and addressed the president. What the hell was some Canadian teeny bopper doing at the Israeli Presidential Conference?

I soon learned that this was not Justin Bieber, but a fifteen year old Israeli computer/electronics/blogging prodigy, who happened to have a Justin Bieber haircut. Oh, and his own TV show. Not too shabby for a fifteen year old.

During the next break time, I happened to wind up on the same white couch as the Hebrew Bieber and his managing troupe. The manager, who looked like he was about my age, explained to me that he had found Hebrew Bieber a few years ago while building a new program that recruits and conditions the next generation of Israeli leadership. He’s been going to Israeli high schools across the country and scouting out geniuses in a variety of fields. He then gives the teenagers an incentive to listen to him by saying that he can help them be a success, be “celebrities” if they want, because lots of teenagers are attracted to that. Once he has their attention, he starts weaving in the importance of values and business ethics. Finally, he educates them on the importance of promoting the image of their country through their work.

“Age and class don’t matter anymore in Israel,” he told me. “This is a new era in the world in general, where we all have access. We have to make sure our future leaders are not selfish, egotistical maniacs by providing them with guidance at a young age.”

Out of all speeches given during this Conference, and all the stories I’ve heard during break time, this is probably one of the most inspiring. It’s a worthwhile, practical-minded vision and it starts from the bottom-up. So many speakers have questioned if our quality of life is improving at the same rate as technology, but few have actually considered the value of starting with a solution that takes places at such a basic human level.

And so we all trade business cards. Maybe one of us will be helping another in the near future.

As I watched Shimon Peres make his final address in the auditorium, I couldn’t help getting a little teary-eyed – - and even optimistic. Here was a man who has cradled the State of Israel since its tumultuous infancy, who has weathered a political career spanning nearly seventy years in the most aggravating region on the planet, and yet he’s still optimistic. You might not be able to change the entire world in one sweep, but you can always become part of the bigger network and make your contribution towards a continually improving tomorrow.

The problem for the Palestinians is that these agreements lock in the status quo indefinitely and force them to continue to pretend that they actually want peace and a resolution to this conflict. Had the Palestinians sought the outcome of peace and resolution, they could have negotiated after Olmert’s insanely generous peace offer in 2008 and closed the deal then. Alternatively, they could have gone to talks with the Netanyahu government. Instead, they opted to freeze talks on the basis of their belief that a clash between Obama and Netanyahu would greatly weaken Netanyahu and his government, eventually bringing them down. The Palestinians assumed this strategy would buy additional years, and time is, as far as they believe, the best weapon on their side. A team plays for time when it knows it’s losing the game but is hopeful that the more time they waste, the greater the chance of the other side making a mistake that could cost them their expected victory.

Israel has made many mistakes over these past years, particularly in permitting the charlatans of Fatah to escape Palestinian Darwinism in the form of a defeat to Hamas. In doing this, they permitted an Arafat crony and Holocaust denier in nice suits to lobby governments to grant his people a state or at least approval of a state-in-waiting over territory which remains in dispute on the basis of UNSCR 242 and Oslo. By going to the UN in September to request a state over those lines, the Palestinians are reaping the rewards of two decades of Israeli efforts toward a settlement of the conflict while giving up little in return.

Consider where the Palestinians were in 1994: their leadership was dispersed abroad; their local population was leaderless and lethargic after the waning of the first intifadah; their economy was extremely weak; they had few supporters among governments in the West; they were perceived as barbarians for their terrorism; they were heavily dependent upon Israel for their livelihoods; and, there didn’t seem to be much future to their national movement.

Oslo brought them back from the dead. Their leadership was permitted to reorganize in the Territories and were essentially given a clean bill of health from Israel’s government. Sanitizing them in this way, the Israelis essentially sponsored Arafat’s rebirth as an international diplomat and paved the way for Palestinian reorganization as a society. The exiled Fatah leadership took over and the Palestinians got a provisional government, policemen, soldiers, arms, more donations, a stronger international diplomatic presence, pockets of Judea and Samaria holding the majority of Palestinian residents there which were under their control, respectful attention from the press and governments around the world, and, well, a revived national movement.

The present situation is a direct result of those 17 years since Oslo began. Amazingly, nothing the Palestinians did over these years could undermine their progress under Israel’s and America’s tutelage and protection. They blew up hundreds of Israelis, rejected three peace offers, launched thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian centers, taught their children that martyrdom in killing Jews is a positive value, ran multiple international campaigns vilifying Israel for every wrong possible (often using imagery and language that brought up the most criminal of nations or anti-Semitic stereotypes) and as they did these things, they also oppressed their own people, restricted their press and visiting journalists, crushed political dissent, funneled large chunks of their aid into the pockets of people in the right circles and assiduously avoided any movement toward reconciliation with Israel or the formation of a true Palestinian state in the areas Israel was willing to cede (100% of Gaza, 94-97% of Judea and Samaria and additional land for swaps).

Nope, they could do no wrong. The world embraced these new Palestinians. Their noms de guerre disappeared, expensive suits replaced the military fatigues, the hair became styled and their language became diplomatic. So what if they blew up Israelis? It’s the Israelis’ fault for the occupation. So what if they kept saying no to Israeli offers? It’s the Israelis’ fault for not offering enough. So what if they would not relinquish demands that undermine their claims of seeking resolution to the conflict? It’s the Israelis’ fault for having won the wars in 1948 and 1967. Besides, there are geo-political considerations and the Muslim bloc in the UN has over 50 nations in it, many of which provide a large portion of the planet’s limited supply of oil. Internally, as well, the population shifts in many Western countries absorbing multitudes of Muslim immigrants, has made support for Palestinians and against Israel a viable position of politicians and even governments in the West.

Support for the Palestinians also came through the efforts of many left-wing Jews and Israelis who are either tired of the conflict or have accepted the Palestinian narrative of this conflict. They often drive media coverage of the conflict, provide some of the more compelling intellectual arguments favoring the Palestinians, provide guidance to the media, the UN and multiple prominent and less prominent NGOs, and ensure the Palestinian leadership is treated with greater respect and understanding than their Israeli counterparts.

These years have been good to Fatah, Hamas and the Palestinians leadership. They have been so good that they are ready to approach the UN to certify their semi-terror government and their aspirations to destroy Israel without submitting to their existing legal obligations. The plan is to have the UN General Assembly accept a Palestinian state over 1967 lines, which would include eastern Jerusalem and many areas where Jews currently reside but would become Palestinian. Why would they do this when they clearly want to bring Israel as the Jewish state down? Well, because it’s a victory that opens up the next chapter of attacks on Israel and they get it at no cost. As far as they’re concerned, it will be a temporary state that serves as a useful base of further attacks on Israel. They don’t have to give up anything in return and UNSCR 242 and the Oslo Accords become immaterial. Just a couple of days ago in a NY Times op-ed, Abu Mazen – that is, Mahmoud Abbas – announced that the primary focus of this embryonic state would be to pursue Israel in international courts and through international institutions with the goal of securing rights to Palestinians who currently do not reside in Israel. By establishing the title to a state and being so recognized by the UNGA, the Palestinians gain tremendously while giving up little. It’s a terrific victory for them.

It is this progress that Obama endorsed in his Middle East speech earlier. He essentially gave them 1967 lines, required Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian areas, and destroyed these two elements of Israel’s leverage in any negotiations with the Palestinians by giving them up without any demands made from the Palestinians except that they have to show some nebulous change in Hamas’s behavior. In other words, while Obama has not agreed to recognize a Palestinian state, he has paved the way for the world to say “yes” to 1967 lines because the US President himself has declared these lines valid. He has declared that Israel has to relinquish physical security lines but then wait until later to negotiate things like “return” or Jerusalem. Of course later Israel will have no leverage to compel the Palestinians to give up anything, but this doesn’t seem to concern Obama much. This is not unlike Obama’s equivocation a couple of months ago in the UN Security Council where the US refused to sign on to the lie that the settlements are illegal but then announced in that same meeting that the US government viewed them as illegitimate. In other words, “We agree with the rest of you guys, and keep moving forward on this basis, political considerations are preventing us from fully joining the party at this time.”

Obama is a friend of Israel’s detractors and attackers. He is not a friend of Israel’s except when saying so gets him applause. What is worse, he has now opened the door to continued conflict because his proposals merely entrench and strengthen the Palestinian leadership and its anti-Israel views. Israel will have little choice but to defend itself when the new attacks come – and this time, they won’t just be rockets and suicide bombs, but legal and diplomatic attacks by the General Assembly and some of its members. All in all, this was a terrible day for US-Israel relations, and for Israel’s future security needs.

A package placed by the 74 bus stop in front of Binyanei Hauma exploded this afternoon in Jerusalem injuring 39 people, 4 of them seriously. I was listening to Infected Mushroom when suddenly I heard an arrhythmic boom, something that clearly didn’t belong to the song. Maybe a minute later I heard sirens and when I peeked out I saw that the explosion took place just down the street from where I live. As I stupidly made my way to the Central bus station, I frantically called everyone I loved to make sure they were ok. We were lucky the bomb did not go off in the bus and that this time the grandmasters of terror decided not to use a suicide bomber. That 74 bus is usually very, very packed – as it is the bus itself was hardly damaged at all. As I made my way up to the scene I saw many people clearly shaken, some crying. One has to wonder if this signals a return to the bad old days? Is this Intifadah III? I doubt it. The fuckers got lucky and managed to sneak some explosives into the city center. I doubt they’ll get lucky again given the heightened security and the wall that keeps out the bad people hell bent on killing innocent civilians. This latest attack is a return to an older method of terrorism, one we haven’t really seen in a long time. My guess is that whoever the bomber was, he or she probably did not have to cross a checkpoint to get to the bus station. But that’s just a guess, hopefully we’ll know more soon when whoever was behind this chickenshit attack gets caught. Someone let my Mom know I’m ok!

Word just in from Israel Radio that a 60 year old lady succumbed from her wounds in the attack. Another glorious victory for a free Palestine!

Here’s some raw footage from AP:

“The Argentine government recognizes Palestine as a free and independent state within the borders defined in 1967″

There are no 1967 borders.

In 1967, the so-called “Green Line” to which the Brazilians and Argentinians are referring, was still an armistice line dating back 18 years to the conclusion of the Arab war on Israel launched in 1948 and paused in 1949. At that time, a conclusive peace deal was not signed and permanent borders were not outlined by any side because of the refusal of the Arab states, particularly Jordan in the case of the area “recognized” by the South Americans, to accept Israeli sovereignty or sign a peace agreement.

Not only were there no borders in 1967, but UNSCR 242 and 338 require that the areas conquered by Israel in the Six Day War only be given up in part, not entirely, and only when Israel’s neighbors agree to live next to it in peace. Neither requirement has been fulfilled thus far and Brazil and Argentina are in violation of those resolutions.

Finally, the Oslo Accords themselves leave certain matters to negotiations between the parties, among them Jerusalem and its holy sites. This announcement violates the Oslo Accords and subsequent international activity such as declarations by the Quartet.

The ROI Community and Jerusalem Challenge invite you to the Channuka event, “Miracles: Against All Odds,” featuring Young Adults (20-30) from Jerusalem, Israel, and Abroad! Join us in celebration of miracles of today and miracles of our history with an exciting panel of three people with inspirational personal miracle stories, a premiere film screening produced by young artists about miracles, enjoy Channuka music by a local band, refreshments, and a communal lighting of Channuka candles!
Meet new people, make new friends, and build your community! This event is free of charge. Ginot Hair: Beit Yehudit
12 Emek Refaim, Jerusalem, Israel tonight starting at 7:00 pm.

RSVP on Facebook

What happened is that an official Palestinian Authority report has been published claiming that Jews have no religious connection to the Kotel. This report is apparently a response to a recently-announced Israeli plan to make modest renovations around the Kotel – the Jewish Western Wall, also known by Christians as the Wailing Wall – to better-serve tourists and visitors to the site. It also reflects the position of Yassir Arafat during the peace talks at Camp David and Taba when Israel offered the Palestinians a state and in Taba, shared sovereignty over the Temple Mount – an offer the Palestinians rejected.

The new PA report claims that the wall is Muslim, has always been Muslim, is owned by an Algerian Muslim family, has no historical relevance to Jews, is not connected to any Temple that may or may not have been in Jerusalem.

Again, this is an official Palestinian Authority report.

Here’s one response, that happens to be two years old, to what the PA is insinuating:

Here is part of the transcript of that video:

Of course, like any country, Israel may be subjected to fair criticism. And like any free country, Israel subjects itself to such criticism – healthy, necessary, democratic debate. But when Israel, the only country in the world whose very existence is under attack – Is consistently and conspicuously singled out for condemnation, I believe we are morally obligated to take a stand. Demonization, double standards, delegitimization, the 3 D’s, it is a responsibility, to stand up to them.

And I know, by the way, because I have the bruises to show for it, that whether it is at the United Nations, or any other international forum, the easy thing to do is simply to just get along and go along with this anti-Israeli rhetoric, to pretend it is just being even-handed, and to excuse oneself with the label of “honest broker.” There are, after all, a lot more votes, a lot more, in being anti-Israeli than in taking a stand. But, as long as I am Prime Minister, whether it is at the UN or the Francophonie or anywhere else, Canada will take that stand, whatever the cost. Not just because it is the right thing to do, but because history shows us, and the ideology of the anti-Israeli mob tells us all too well, that those who threaten the existence of the Jewish people are, in the longer term, a threat to all of us.

I am quoting him because he did not ask for anything from Israel in order to make these statements. Instead, he made them openly and freely while openly suggesting that Canada did not earn a seat on the UN Security Council because of its position of support for Israel.

Consider now how poor relations with Israel have become under the Obama administration. It was reported tonight that the US offered Netanyahu a package of incentives to renew the Israeli freeze on settlements, presumably also on construction in eastern Jerusalem which Israel has annexed. As a reminder, Israel unilaterally froze settlement construction for ten months in order to bring the Palestinians back to the negotiating table and the Palestinians refused. It was only as the ten months were winding down that the Palestinians finally acquiesced, and then, of course, walked away two weeks later when Israel resumed construction when the 10 month moratorium was up.

The Israelis received no points from the US administration for the settlement freeze, did not receive any reprieve from the gang of leftists or the press for the freeze, while the Palestinians who did not come to the negotiating table and finally did only to win propaganda points, were provided with every excuse in the book for their recalcitrance.

Since then, there have been efforts to relaunch negotiations by Israel and the US. The Palestinians, who have shown they have no interest in negotiations anyway, are calling the shots. They demand Israel stop all settlement construction and, of course, include Jerusalem construction in this equation. The Netanyahu government is (understandably) refusing to be manipulated by complying. They remind anyone who will listen that the Palestinians squandered nine months of potential discussions without a valid reason.

These days, though, it appears that Democrats are having difficulty listening to reason. Today, for example, the NY Times published a house editorial criticizing Netanyahu and Israel for “playing games.” This editorial follows a recent trip by the NY Times leadership to Ramallah and Jerusalem. They left the Middle East accepting that settlements are the root of all evil and that Netanyahu is to blame for the absence of talks.

Such conclusions simply do not follow the history of these talks. A key aide to Mahmoud Abbas was quoted in the Washington Post during Abbas’s first trip to visit Obama – and in which, unlike Netanyahu, he was received in daytime, openly and with photo ops – that the Palestinians would not come to negotiations because they assume that within 2 years the natural resulting friction between a Netanyahu and Obama administrations would lead to the fall of Netanyahu’s government. If you add Palestinian rejections of the Olmert peace offer, their refusal to enter peace talks after Israel froze settlement construction, and their uncaring attitude about the Netanyahu’s government’s public statement that they would negotiate for a two-state solution, it would appear the NY Times has things upside down.

But that isn’t even the Times’ worst offense in this op-ed. That comes at the moment they mention the recent incentives package the Obama administration has offered Israel to return to negotiations. The Times states that the offer is overly generous.

We now know what Israel was offered by the US administration:

The U.S. incentives package would include: curbing actions by the United Nations on the Goldstone Report; blocking anti-Israel UN resolutions concerning the Gaza flotilla raid; defeating international resolutions aimed at exposing Israel’s nuclear program at the International Atomic Energy Agency; and strengthening pressure on Iran and Syria in regards to their nuclear and proliferation activities.

This is what the NY Times found “overly generous.” It is a very interesting package of incentives and should lead any Jewish democratic supporter or voter who cares about Israel – and I can be counted among those – to think long and hard about whether the Democrats should be supported between now and the end of the Presidential elections in 2012. It is now certain that Israel does not have a friend in this White House.

I say this because politics and diplomacy, and especially American politics and diplomacy as they relate to Israel, are not just about maximum gain. They are also supposed to be about sustaining the philosophy or ideology that drive America. Israel is a Western, liberal democracy in a region where such things are non-existent. It has faced unjust war and threat of war since long before it was founded. Those facts have been key reasons for American support over these past decades. Even when US administrations were critical of Israel, this core understanding remained between the two countries because they share core values such as democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of religion.

Yet these days the Obama administration has taken the US down a very different path when it comes to Israel. Sure, some of the rhetoric sound the same, when they aren’t excoriating Israel for building in Jerusalem or joining the laughable UN Human Rights Council. However, in deeds, the US has become a key supplier of advanced weaponry and resources to some of Israel’s sworn enemies.

For example, the US recently signed an extremely rich armament deal with Saudi Arabia that will make it difficult for the IAF to maintain its technical superiority, at least not without spending vast sums which Israel does not have.

The US has also sent hundreds of millions of dollars as well as sophisticated spying equipment to Lebanon. The Lebanese, who were supposed to use the new equipment against Hizbullah, have instead been using it to break apart Israeli spy networks in their country.

As if supporting Lebanon against Israel wasn’t enough, the US has pledged over a billion dollars to Gaza and to the PA, including $150 million offered in the last two weeks even though the PA refuses to negotiate with Israel and despite the fact that the hundreds of millions pledged to Gaza strengthen Hamas needlessly. The US has also built out a serious Palestinian armed force in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria and are indicating, albeit obliquely, that they will recognize a Palestinian state if one is declared unilaterally by Fayyad and Abbas.

And now? The US is offering Israel what it was doing for Israel before anyway, except instead of being a proactive friendly act, it has become a backhanded threat. Essentially, the US under Obama is now saying that many of the elements of support given to Israel in the past by the US are now going to become available to Israel only if it complies with unreasonable Palestinian demands.

Thus, instead of standing firm against the Goldstone Report as it did initially, the US will now only do so if Israel jumps high enough. Why? Did criticism of the Report become any less valid all of a sudden?

Instead of supporting a proven Israeli strategy of maintaining ambiguity over its nuclear program, a successful strategy that has been in place for decades with full American support, the Obama administration now deems compromising this successful existential strategy to be a tool with which to beat Israel.

And of course, the US was already supposed to be, according to its own claims, providing strong counter-measures to Iranian and Syrian nuclear efforts.

Let’s be clear that these are not just Israeli interests that the US is playing with here. These are clear American interests that the administration is putting on the table. It’s not as if the US doesn’t have a huge nuclear arsenal, good reasons to want to prevent Iran and Syria from becoming nuclear powers or extremely strong reasons to weaken the Goldstone Report which is not just a critique of Israel in the Gaza War, but essentially also a critique of the manner armed forces like the US military wage war in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Obama administration has brought Israel-America relations to a new low that makes James Baker and the Bush I administration’s relationship with Israel and Yitzhak Shamir (the PM at the time) resemble a Love Boat episode.

That’s without even getting into the five minutes of stuttering blather it took the current State Department spokesman to answer journalists’ pointed queries about whether the US considers Israel a Jewish state. After dancing around with non-answers, he finally broke down and admitted that yes, Israel was a Jewish state.

Let me conclude by saying that Obama has proved himself amateurishly inept regarding handling the Arab-Israeli conflict. Mistake after mistake have brought us to the challenging position we face today. Ultimately, a weakened Israel is very bad for peace efforts because Israel’s enemies are waiting for Israeli lapses to pounce. Apparently, when they do pounce, they will be doing so with American weapons, equipment and training, not to mention with the excuses the Obama team has conveniently provided by stressing a settlement freeze – even in Jerusalem – as an obligation that Israel refuses to meet.

UPDATE: Netanyahu has now asked his cabinet to approve a settlement construction moratorium for 90 days. Different newspapers are covering this differently, but it appears that in addition to the “incentives” listed above, the US is also offering to sell Israel twenty more F-35 planes and has agreed not to press for another construction moratorium after the 90 day extension.

In other words, the post above remains perfectly valid.

NEW UPDATE: I’ve come across another source that is saying the US is offering the 20 planes as a gift (value: $3 billion) BUT only if the Israelis achieve a peace deal with the Palestinians. Otherwise, they have to pay, just as they were going to anyway.

In other words, the post above continues to remain perfectly valid.

The race for a breast cancer cure started at Gan Sacher and ended at Gey Hinom. Yeah, that Gey Hinom. But the day was anything but hellish as thousands of people from all over gathered to lend support for Breast Cancer Awareness month. This was the first such event run by the Susan G. Komen people in Israel and given the success of today’s efforts it won’t be the last. The race was preceded by the bathing of various parts of Jerusalem in pink light. Fun, right?

The uh… Shrine of the Book

Jaffa Gate. Jerusalem of pink!

Senator Joe and Hadassah Lieberman came out for the walk

Click below for more pics from the walk

Israeli teen beauty queens. From L to R, BatEl Jobi, Gal Erez and Adi Sadi

Diverse participants

Dan Brown is down on Breast Cancer

Shrine of the Book image courtesy of Down Town Dan Brown and ejewishphilanthropy

I was going to begin this post by talking about how much I love and care for boobies. But this is actually a VERY serious matter and for the first time ever, an international organization, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure, in partnership with Hadassah and the City of Jerusalem, is running a race in Jerusalem in order to raise public awareness of breast cancer.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent cancer among women. In Israel alone breast cancer constitutes
nearly 30 percent of all cancer cases and is the number one cause death amongst women in Israel.
In the last 25 years the frequency of diagnosis with breast cancer has gradually risen with over 4,000
new cases diagnosed every year hitting women at a younger age than ever before. Hadassah’s researchers in Israel have only recently been able to identify an apparent halt in the rise due to increased preventative measures and the development of advanced techniques for treating breast cancer. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization has contributed over $2 million in Israel in the last 16 years to support varying breast cancer research projects as well as women’s outreach programs.

The race will begin in Sacher Park on October 28th and go through the heart of downtown Jerusalem before ending at Gai Ben Hinom (just outside Zion Gate). This event will influence local advocacy for breast cancer awareness while empowering men and women in Israel who are stricken by breast cancer. The race in Jerusalem will be opened by top Israeli fashion designer Dorin Frankfurt who has agreed to volunteer as honorary race chairperson.

For more information on how you can participate or get involved, please visit komen.org.il. Do it now!

Idan Gorsky, a 3rd year law student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and dozens of his friends got together to shoot the following lip dub, an hommage to Queen’s song “Somebody to Love” shot in one take on the first day of School. Yeah, University here starts after the high holidays, not in September. What’s the point of a Jewish state otherwise?

So Gorsky, who appears as Freddy Mercury at 4:04 of the video, emailed Brian May of Queen, letting him know about it and, remarkably, May responded:

Hi Idan
Well, even though I am way behind in EVERYTHING today — I watched the video, and I have to say, among all the grimness of today’s world, this is a breath of fresh air. I – unexpectedly – got quite a lump in the throat. It’s very well done, with great heart and joy, and I’m sure Freddie would love it. Well done to all … it’s quite something to pull all this off in a single shot. I’m sure there are no edits in this at all.

All the very best to all involved, and thanks for alerting me. I will publish this on my site, if that’s OK with you … (yes, you look good – you pass!! ha ha! )
Cheers
Bri

And even the comments, well at least so far, have been good and even edifying…

rondak17 wrote:

OK – I’m not Jewish, and at times I don’t really even like Israel all that much (even though I’m American) not to be all mushy but this really puts a face on folks that I think are different than me. Maybe not so different ? Looks like this could have been filmed on almost any American University Campus. Next time I hear about an attack on Israeli civilians, I ‘ll think about the kids in this video & pray none of them were injured or killed. No one deserves the violence in the mideast.

With 11 “thumbs up” it seems viewers liked this comment. But tidharn took umbrage and responded:

OK, your are not Jewish you know nothing about Israel & Jewish people and still you take your right to say that you don’t like Israel. Being less ignorant would be OK for you. What did you think that we are riding on camels on our way to the Campus? or maybe you thought that we are killing one Arab baby each morning before our class because that what they told you in CNN

Sigh. Welcome to Israel. OK, gotta go. Gonna hop on my camel and grab an Arab baby shwarma for lunch. Yum! The occupation is delicious. And remarkably tender too!

Yom Kippur had come around again and I was feeling spent, empty, lost. Religion, my own beliefs of reward and punishment, weighed down on me to the point where I didnt know what to believe in anymore or how to escape my own oppression. I carried myself, hunched over with an inivisble burden, through the streets of Jerusalem, past shuls full of incessant chanting and piety. I had suffered so much; I couldn’t bear the thought of facing the words again that proscribed life or death. I couldn’t stand the idea of fate being sealed, of suffering waiting to take me again and roll me in a bed of nails until I bled to death. My feet drifted as the sun beat down on me. I fasted, perhaps to cleanse myself, and wandered on in the heat until I found myself walking down the steps to the Kotel.

The old city on Yom Kippur felt strangely empty. The streets were quiet; the missing sounds of bustling feet on cobblestones hung in the air like a hollow echo. All you could see were the eternal stones baking in the sun, weathering times of war and peace. Everyone was huddled in tiny shuls engaged in fervrent supplication, urgent prayer, love and fear, hate and guilt, emotions tumbling one upon the other in a chaotic race for forgiveness and repentance. I needed air, the cleanliness of fresh air. My feet took me across the massive stones and I stood facing the Kotel.

There was something peaceful in the air, perhaps because most people were in shul and left the Kotel space open and more free. There was no heaviness, no feeling of obligation, no one looking to judge me or judge others, as if those who were brave enough to pray at the kotel on a fast day in the heat of the sun had earned the right to daven freely, without interference. There was an unspoken tolerance, a true sense of reverence and awe, of humanity in communion with God under the open sky. I felt I had finally found my place on Yom Kippur, the one place where I could sit and just Be, where I could set the weight on my shoulders down for a moment because no one was there to judge and pressure me. I felt God was more kind there, because ‘our’ energy was kinder, softer, cleaner.

I found one of the many empty white chairs and sat down, not sure what I would do. I was surprisingly calm for the first time on my long walk that day. My eyes wandered to the few women at the wall and I imagined each of their stories, reading their suffering and their joy in the lines on their face as they quietly prayed. Some swayed gently in an aura of meditation, mouthing the words to prayers while others approached the wall more cautiously, unsure of themselves, yet determined to find a way to reach God. Some women merely sat, reciting their prayers dutifully through long practice as the noonday sun beat down on them.

I was engrossed in observation, feeling like a fly on the wall while at the same time feeling a part of the strange communion we all had, contributing my presence to the overall quiet and calm. Wind occassionally brushed accross my face, cooling the sweat beading on my forehead. Although I felt so empty, it just felt right to be there. The now familiar backs and faces of the women were comforting to me.

Suddenly, a man came across my vision, jolting me out of my clear space. I sat bolt upright as I watched him stride boldly through the women’s section and walk straight up to the Kotel with no one trying to stop him! I was shocked! I gripped the edges of my chair tightly, unsure of what to do while straining my eyes to get a clearer look at him. And then I saw.. and my heart skipped a beat.

She had reached the wall and was crying, her back trembling in great heaving sobs. I looked closer and saw the faint outline of breasts beneath the collared polo shirt, her arm with the heavy watch gripped the wall, holding on. She buried her face into the stone, pressing her cheek hard against it as tears streamed down her face. I could barely breathe. No one said a word. No one judged. No one looked at her with puzzled eyes. She had come to bare her heart and pray, and at the kotel that day, there was a place for everyone.

Years later, I still remember her. The image is burned in my mind because I knew, somehow I knew, that it was a sign. I had sat there that day at the kotel after a terrible divorce, not understanding yet that I was gay, and thought that God had punished me because prior to my marriage, I had been with a woman. I thought that I had suffered because I had sinned. The woman seemed so alien to me, and yet, her pain resonated with me so deeply that it carried with me through the years. But even more so, what struck me on that day was despite there being every reason to judge, no one judged. Not even God. I felt, as she sobbed, that God was not a God of judgement, but a god of love. We live in a world where our tendencay to judge is so strong that we begin by being the harshest judges of ourselves. I feel like our idea of Yom Kippur is all wrong. This should be the day where we look at ourselves with eyes of love and find the places within ourselves where we can be healthier, holier, and through that self love, build ourselves to become better people. I cannot relate to signing of our fate, or the beating of my chest as we speak aloud numerous sins and ask for forgiveness. Who will forgive us if we do not love ourselves?

I pray that the safe space I found at the Kotel that day can be created by us every day, that we offer that to each other. And from within that safe space, that we see how beautiful we are, how our very life is a gift, and look at all the places within us that we can improve because when you truly love someone, you take responsibility for them and want for them to be healthy spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I pray that this Yom Kippur we focus on growth through love, finding the places where we can become better people, and creating a safe space for those around us to live up to their fullest potential.

Next time you’re at the Kotel or when you hear the shofar blowing think about these guys:

Under a British law in Palestine passed in 1930, Jews were forbidden to blow the shofar at the Kotel, pray loudly there, or bring Torah scrolls, so as not to offend the Arab population… Despite this restriction, for the next seventeen years, the shofar was sounded at the Kotel every Yom Kippur. Shofars were smuggled in to the Kotel where brave teenagers defiantly blew them at the conclusion of the fast. Some managed to get away – others were captured and sent to jail for up to six months… Six of these men are still alive… Two weeks ago, these six men returned to the scene of their “crime”. Armed with shofars, they recounted their individual stories and blew shofar again at the Kotel.

Part 2: Jerusalem

I was recently given the opportunity to test drive a couple of Hotels in the Dan Hotel chain in Israel. Part 1 was about my stay at the Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv and this post is about my stay at the Dan Boutique Hotel in Jerusalem.

Taking a vacation day in Jerusalem, a city I already live in seemed like it could be fun, and the Dan Boutique seemed like it might be an interesting experience. On paper everything looked promising – it’s a smaller boutique style hotel which is supposed to mean more attentive service and more contemporary, updated decor. The location was good too – across the street from all the restaurants and bars by the Old Jerusalem Train Station, a quick walk to the Old City and a brisk walk to either downtown or Emek Refaim. Suffice it to say that prior to my arrival, my expectations were already pretty high.

Well… let’s just say that not only were my expectations met, they were exceeded! The room was beautifully appointed in this cool neo-middle eastern style and the closet had the fluffy bathrobes I do so love. The bathroom was large and comfortable and the room, not the largest available by far, had ample desk space for work and a big flat panel TV for goofing off. The piece de resistance however was the view. When I unfurled the curtains, I was greeted by an entire wall of glass with literally a million dollar view of the Old City of Jerusalem (pictured above).

Now remember, I live in Jerusalem. I visit the old city several times a month. But being able to sit back and have that view right there? It’s an experience that in and of itself justifies staying at the Dan Boutique. But of course, they do not rest on their laurels – the hotel offers a lot more!

The Dan Hotel Chain is the only totally Israeli owned major Hotel chain in Israel. This manifests itself in a kind of homey environment where, for instance, they want to make sure they send you off on your touristic endeavors really well fed. As such, one of their signature elements is the best hotel breakfast in the country. The Dan Boutique Jerusalem isn’t as large as the Dan Panorama but that means nothing when it came to breakfast which was extensive, lavish and involved more delicious food than even I could sample in one sitting. My Aunt Chanah never sends me off hungry when I visit. She pulls out all stops and yet she has nothing on the Dan Hotels. Nothing.

The Dan Boutique in Jerusalem also has a nice lobby suitable for entertaining guests, playing a game of pool or having a drink. Did I mention how solicitous the service is? A couple friends came to visit after dinner and the bartender brought out a selection of fruit and cakes, free of charge, for our guests – as if he was serving people in his own home. This is how we were treated throughout our stay. This wasn’t some kind of impersonal short term housing experience – I really felt as if I was a guest in someone’s home – someone who was an excellent host committed to his guest’s comfort and happiness. I didn’t want to leave!

So yeah. The Dan Boutique Jerusalem totally blew me away. I tried to be critical, really I did. But it’s hard to be critical when everything is SO awesome and everyone is so friendly. Dan Hotels have 13 properties in Israel – the Dan and the Dan Panorama in Tel Aviv, the Dan Carmel, the Dan Panorama and the Dan Gardens in Haifa, the Dan Accadia in Herliya, the Dan Caesaria, the Dan and the Dan Panorama in Eilat, the Dan Gardens in Ashkelon, and in Jerusalem, the Dan Panorama, the King David Hotel and of course, the Dan Boutique.

If you want to book your own Dan Hotel getaway, feel free to click on the banner below and make a reservation today!