San Diego blazes, Sodom, & the Jewish Question...

A fascinating, moving post from a San Diego resident, via Aish:

We live in La Jolla, which means "The Jewel." Our community is little more than a stone's throw from one of the prettiest pieces of coastline in the entire county and boasts the best weather too. We have a lovely shul with over 280 families, a spa-like mikvah, and an eruv on the way. This past Shabbat, as we do every week, we enjoyed our shul kiddush al fresco, socializing around the towering Torrey Pine tree that defines our shul's courtyard. We could not have predicted that such a short time later, our blue skies would turn toxic, the crisp ocean breezes replaced with menacing winds and our Torrey Pine and its courtyard laden with ash.

Thankfully, our normally idyllic coastal enclave seems to be out the path of the fire -- at least for now. But as the communities immediately to the North and to the East of us were steadily evacuated, my husband and I were increasingly concerned: What if we were next? What if a call comes in the middle of the night asking us -- telling us -- to leave?

Read the rest, and try to decide for yourself what you really care about.

Acco: Jumping for joy (Original photography)

Acco: Jumping For Joy. (Dave Bender)

Acco youth jumping into the sea at the end of a hot summer's day. He wasn't hurt by the razor-sharp barnacles, and stones of the wash. I b&w'ed the rocks in the background, in order to bring the kid to the forefront.

Click here for another image from this series.

Jaffa: barring 'The Real Thing'

Barring 'The Real Thing.' Click on the image for a close-up, hi-rez version. (Dave Bender)

A decaying window, on a lane facing the Mediterranean sea, near the old port of Jaffa. Now at ground level, close up, it looks as though the street was once lower, and it offered its once-upon-a-time residents a pleasant view of the sunset.

More recent Jaffa news, you ask? Oh, ok:

Vandals spray anti-meat graffiti on McDonalds in Jaffa

JerusalemOnline: Weekly Video News Update

Today's Headlines:

Palestinian assassination plot against PM Olmert foiled Remnants of First Temple Period discovered by Temple Mount Recycled park built on remains of massive garbage dump

(Full disclosure: I worked at JerusalemOnline as an editor and translator)

Iran's Khamenei to US: 'Join the unfree world'

He he he:

In a speech that condemned the upcoming U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference, Iran’s Supreme Leader today called on the United Nations to impose sanctions on the United States aimed at “bringing the U.S. into the global community of unfree nations.”

“The people of the United States have lived under iron-fist of liberty for too long,” said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is law in Iran. “We believe that deep in the human soul dwells a universal desire to submit to a more powerful person whom one can revere with quiet obedience. Americans have had to squelch this yearning for more than two centuries.”

Mr. Khamenei told a cheering Iranian crowd, “No people can long endure the shackles of a democratic regime, without finally breaking those chains and taking their place among uncivilized nations that have wisely advanced only so far as they ought.”

“With proper encouragement from the United Nations,” he added, “the American people will soon throw off the yoke of freedom, and breathe the fresh air of subservience along with their millions of brethren in the Muslim world.”

Spot the differences:


More Iraniabilia here.

Debka dancing on the edge (original photography)

No, not that Debka... but this one:

'Dancing On The Edge' (Dave Bender)

A shot of two Israeli Arab youths from Acco, near Haifa, as they alternate diving into the waters off of the Crusader-era ruins, adjacent to the walled Old City. Their poses as they gingerly stepped across the rocks reminded me of a sort of "dance frieze."

Originally a color shot, I am trying to shorten the b&w learning curve (btw - via a stunning stills/video photog site: Radiant Vista), and this is an early try. Some Photoshopping, to bring out the clouds, and tonal "oomph" that b&w does so well. Comments, critique (and cash) are all welcomed.

Heart-to-heart between Israel, Palestinians

Heartwarming, no?

Two Palestinian children in need of complex, life-saving heart surgery will be operated on by an international team of experts during a live broadcast surgery at an upcoming international medical seminar in Israel.

World-renowned medical professionals will meet in Israel next week to share and debate leading research and techniques in adult and pediatric cardiothoracic surgery and cardiology, as part of the Second Sami and Angela Shamoon Medical Seminar held at the Edith Wolfson Medical Center.

The seminar will take place from October 21st – 22nd, 2007 and will bring together distinguished medical professionals from the US, Canada, UK, China, Germany and the Netherlands.

The conference will also unite Israeli and Palestinian doctors through the Save A Child's Heart, 'Heart of the Matter' program sponsored by the European Union, where 15 Palestinian doctors from the West Bank and Gaza are expected to participate in the conference. Read the rest.

Meanwhile:

President Shimon Peres expressed regret on Thursday that innocent Palestinians were being subjected to any form of maltreatment by Israel, but he added that over the past three weeks, six potential suicide bombers had been apprehended as they tried to enter Israel with explosives... Peres outlined his vision of the proposal for an industrial zone peace village that is supported by the Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leadership and said the Japanese were giving $100 million and the Germans $30m. toward the project.

Click here for previous posts on Israeli medical advances, and related medical news.

'Picturing Israel' in orange

Another in a series of stunning images from Israel:

"Yarkon park, sunsetting on a boys dream"

UK: outrage over Holocaust denier's Oxford invite

From UK journalist Tom Gross:

Oxford University’s world famous Oxford Union debating society has sparked outrage after it was revealed that they have invited Holocaust denier David Irving, who was recently released from an Austrian jail, to address students at the end of November. The Oxford Union has also asked British fascist leader Nick Griffin to join him, reports The Guardian.

“If Columbia can invite Ahmadinejad, then why shouldn’t we invite Irving?” one Oxford Union committee member asked.

Last month Irving told The Guardian that the Jews were responsible for “most of the wars of the last 100 years.”

Duncan Money, a second-year student at the university, said: “It is disappointing that the Oxford Union has chosen to promote and legitimize fascism.”

The Oxford Union had already been criticized for a debate they are holding later this month titled “This House Believes that One State is the Only Solution to the Israel-Palestine Conflict.” Norman Finkelstein, who has been accused of being an anti-Semite and Holocaust revisionist, will be one of the key speakers, as will former Israelis Avi Shlaim and Ilan Pappe, both of whom will be speaking against the continuing existence of Israel.

In his book, “The Holocaust Industry,” Finkelstein referred to Jewish leaders as “caricatures straight from the pages of Der Stuermer and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” On his website, he called Jewish historian Deborah Lipstadt the “Elsie the Cow Chair in Judeo-Yenta Studies.” And he said Auschwitz death camp survivor Elie Wiesel was “the resident clown of the Holocaust circus.”

[...]
No Israeli has been invited by Oxford to put the opposing view....

(What - and ruin a perfectly good day?)

Breaking: Iraqi kids in Israel for heart surgery

More on SACH here.

Two Iraqi children are set to arrive in Israel today [Thursday] for emergency heart surgery. Both children were screened by Israeli doctors during a one-day cardiology clinic set up for 40 Iraqi children in Jordan, organized by Israeli-based organization, Save A Child's Heart on October 9th, 2007.

Israeli doctors immediately referred a 5 month old girl and an 11 year old boy from Iraq for emergency medical treatment in Israel due to the severity of their heart conditions, which if not treated, would leave them at risk of dying at any moment.

Here's the Associated Press story.

40 Iraqi children, accompanied by their parents, made the journey from Iraq to Jordan where they were screened by a SACH medical team, including, Dr. Akiva Tamir, Head of Pediatric Cardiology, Dr. Alona Raucher-Sternfeld, Pediatric Cardiologist and Dr. Sion Houri, Director of Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, based at the Wolfson Medical Center in Israel. General Electric equipped the team with a state of the art, portable echocardiogram machine which greatly assisted with the diagnosis of children.

Logistical support for the mission was provided by the Christian group, Shevet Achim and medical facilities were offered by the Red Crescent Hospital in Amman.

Since January 2007, SACH has operated on 18 Iraqi children. To date, a total of 35 children from Iraq have been treated by the organization at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon. Iraqi children who arrive in Israel with their family, reside at the SACH Children's Home in Azur.

Save A Child’s Heart provides life-saving heart surgeries for children from developing countries regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or gender. Since its inception in 1996, SACH has treated over 1700 children from 28 countries around the world including; Ethiopia, Zanzibar, Rwanda, Moldova, Vietnam and China. Close to half of the total number of children treated at SACH are Palestinian or from Arab countries including Jordan and Iraq.

Coulter: 'we' Christians 'just want Jews to be perfected'

From Israelinsider:

The National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) [has] called on mainstream media outlets to stop inviting Ann Coulter as a guest commentator/pundit and strongly condemned her comments that Jews should be "perfected" by accepting the New Testament and that America would be better off if Judaism were "thrown away" and all Americans were Christian.

The (verbal) free-for-all, with video, is here, at Left-of-center, media watchdog group Media Matters:

When pressed by Deutsch regarding whether she wanted to be like "the head of Iran" and "wipe Israel off the Earth," Coulter stated: "No, we just want Jews to be perfected, as they say. ... That's what Christianity is. We believe the Old Testament, but ours is more like Federal Express. You have to obey laws."

Omri over at Merehetoric has an interesting - if snarky - take(down) on the tussle:

It combines the best elements of liberal sophistication: the banality of multiculturalist tolerance, the humorlessness of scolding identity politics, and the blubbering of righteous indignation. It's the shallow beginning and the myopic end of the belief gap.

Contrast & Compare: Jerusalem real estate, and not-so-real-estate

Building on Jerusalem (Dave Bender). I photographed this view of the Dome of the Rock, and construction near the Old City, via the reflection in the glass of the City Hall observation deck. Click the pic for the hi-rez version.

JPost:

Abbas wants state in 98% of West Bank:
Demands include all of Gaza, W. Bank, e. J'lem and areas in e. J'lem demilitarized before '67.

Infolive TV:

Real Estate Is Booming In The Capital:
Infolive.tv brings you the first in a series of special reports on Jerusalem, offering our readers the opportunity to learn about the different aspects of Israel's capital city, including security, the different peace plans concerning the city, real estate, religion and cultural events.

Click here for previous posts about Jerusalem.

(Disclosure: I served as an editor at The JPost, and bureau chief at Infolive: hah, loved the pun about "booming," Patricio, Margot...)

Jerusalem, Israel & Pals: splitsville?

Looking north towards central Jerusalem, from the capital's southernmost neighborhood, Gilo. I shot this photograph with a cellphone camera, and then tweaked it in Photoshop to get this somewhat dreamlike image. (Dave Bender)

Writer, columnist and blogger Judy Lash Balint weighs in with a well-crafted, detailed, and personal POV on the significance of reports about dividing Jerusalem:

When most tourists think of Jerusalem, they generally have in mind the Western Wall, the Israel Museum, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Ben Yehuda Mall and Yad Vashem. Sadly, tourists, like most Israeli Jews, don't spend much time in eastern Jerusalem--despite the fact that this part of the Holy City holds the most historical, spiritual and strategic significance for Jews and Christians.

But in the run-up to the Annapolis summit, as the Olmert and Bush administrations intone the old "two states for two peoples" mantra, and renewed declarations that a Palestinian state will have east Jerusalem as its capital go on, perhaps it's time to understand the dynamics of the eastern part of the city.

Until very recently, Israeli politicians both left and right cited "Jerusalem, the undivided capital of Israel" as the consensus mantra. Now, Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon, (the same Ramon who was convicted just six months ago on sexual harassment charges) is advancing the same unrealistic Camp David thinking on Jerusalem as that first raised by Ehud Barak in 2000. Let the Arabs have the Arab neighborhoods and the Jews will keep the Jewish areas, and the "Holy Basin" of Judaism and Christianity's holiest sites will be administered by joint international supervision, declares Ramon.

But, as anyone who has spent any time at all in Jerusalem's neighborhoods can attest, things on the ground are far more complex than that.

Read the rest and learn. Previous post featuring Balint.

(Full disclosure: Judy and I have worked together in the past on news coverage about Israel and PA areas)

Google Earth: Israel's striptease and refugees

From Jewish World Review:

When Google Earth first came along, the company went to some lengths to address the security concerns and restrictions in various countries, including Israel, where images of this nation were often blurry and you couldn't zoom in to find your house in Jerusalem.

Well, good-bye to all that.

"Sensitive installations, Air Force bases with their planes and helicopters, missile bases and even the nuclear reactor in Dimona have never been photographed better," writes Yuval Dror in Friday's Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. "A recent Google Earth update shows satellite pictures that make it possible to see clear, sharp pictures of military and civilian targets all across Israel."

"Up until recently, the satellite pictures of Israel on Google Earth had a particularly low resolution: every pixel was equal to 10-20 meters. Now, the satellite maps of Israel show great parts of the country with a resolution close to two meters per pixel.

Here's a recent thread on an aviation enthusiast site with the details.

Here's an item in Ynet News about Palestinians using the service to commemorate villages throughout Israel. From the story, an intriguing suggestion:

"The Palestinian surfer, seems to be quite a moderate person. In the Google Earth forum, one of the surfers asked him: "There were hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees who were forced to escape their homes in Arab states at the same time… maybe their property should also be documented, in order to maintain balance?"

And Darby replied: "I agree with you 100 percent. I wish I had time to document the Jewish residence in the Arab world, but I don't. I would be happy to see someone taking this project upon himself."

Nu? Anyone ready, able and willing to take up the challenge?

Here's a previous post on Google Earth, and here's one on amateur/semi-pro photo sites featuring Israeli and Palestinian areas.

Israel: The Pressure Point & Britney Spears (Original Photo)

Pressure Point (Dave Bender)

Eitan Haber (bureau chief of late prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, from 1991 to 1995) writing in YnetNews:

One does not need to be a great Israeli leader to discern what Winston Churchill would have undoubtedly called the "gathering storm", and it doesn't comprise just rain clouds. We all understand what is happening but prefer to supress our thoughts. Or, just as in that Kol Nidre night in 1973, we can't see what is happening:

The Arab and Islamic world is looking to obtain nuclear arms: The Iranians are working full out on this; Syria is trying to acquire them on the sly; Libya reached an advanced stage in its nuclear project and we knew nothing about it; Pakistan is already a nuclear power and is not, if I am not mistaken, a country that sends us flowers for Shabbat.

The world’s headache

Washington is preparing an international peace conference and, at the conference, Israel will be asked to make sweeping concessions. President George W. Bush is looking for at least one success, before he becomes an oil magnate in Texas, and it looks like it will come at our expense. Let's not forget: America does not recognize the West Bank settlements, some 200,000 people. And joining the US will be many other world nations which, in the past few years, have bought into the notion that "we are the world's headache". If the Americans don't succeed in November, these countries will try in January and they won't give up.

Eitanush?... Tishma', habibi: although it's like, really nice of you to wake up this late in the game and realize that our backs are to the wall, howza'bout a smidgen of pride, self-respect and, ya' know, uttering the umm, "F" word. Faith. As in who and what we are, have been and will remain.

And not this sort of "Cry me a river" prattle...

(Inspired by Chris Crocker's infamous and passionate YouTube appeal for people to leave Britney alone in the wake of her failed performance at the MTV 2007 Music Video Awards)

Jewish Holidays: a primer from the hard Left

Painting spotted in a Columbus, GA coffee shop. (Photograph: Dave Bender)

The Daily Kos weblog (uber-Left, for those just returning from exile on Saturn) recently posted a wickedly clever "explanation" of the Jewish holidays for the "covenentally challenged," apparently.

An excerpt:

"Thursday evening, September 27 starts Sukkot, the Jewish festival commemorating our ancestors wandering around with Moses 40 years in the wilderness (or as the less theatrical among us refer to it, the desert). Sukkot also tries to serve the incongruent purpose of celebrating the harvest – which one has reason to believe probably only happens every 40 years in the desert. Or perhaps never. FEMA was said to have been heavily involved in that relocation effort.

(Photos - ed.)
Our people wandering in desert. Our people wandering in mall.

"During Sukkot, Jews are supposed to "dwell" for 7 days in crude temporary shelters called sukkahs, because, why create a whole completely new word? These "dwellings" are meant to represent the ones our people had to schlep around in the desert for 40 years after leaving Egypt. As you'll see later, 40 is apparently not a terribly lucky number for our people, not even on a scratch off lottery ticket. More also on the construction of these sukkahs later.

"Sukkot runs, or to be more precise, sits, outside in these huts, through Wednesday evening, October 3. Immediately on the heels of Sukkot, Thursday, Oct. 4, we’ve got Shemini Atzeret, or as it is known technically "The Day after the Last Day of Sukkot." A holiday unusual in the Jewish calendar, because it is celebrated far more for when it is than for what it is. Shemini Atzeret is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the eighth day of the festival of Sukkot, simply because loosely translated Shemini Atzeret means "the eighth day of the festival of Sukkot." Go figure. The Talmud explains that there are six ways in which Shemini Atzeret is different from Sukkot, which you can learn only by reading the Talmud – because apparently nobody else is talking."

Read the rest. And as for the politics? Take an anti-nausea pill first...

Fox buys Israeli TV series

From Ynetnews:

"20th Century Fox Studios acquired the format of the Israeli drama show 'The Ex', and will produce a pilot for CBS based on the Israeli series. If the network is happy with the pilot, the show will go into production.

'The Ex' was written and directed by Sigal Avin, produced by Israeli network Keshet and broadcast on Channel 2 in the past year."

Simchat Torah: 'Gonna' tanz da' night away'

Simchat Torah: joyous "Hakafot Shnyiot" dancing at Jerusalem's Liberty Bell park. (Dave Bender)

A sweet meditation from Chabad:

"Once a year, Jews around the world gather in their synagogues and joyously celebrate, dance and sing. The holiday is a celebration of the Torah -- as is indicated by its name, Simchat Torah. The timing of this holiday is often questioned: why celebrate our connection to the Torah more than four months after the date when it was given: Shavuot? Wouldn't it be more appropriate to do the hakafot [dancing with Torah scrolls - ed.] on the day when we actually received the Torah?

"The answer given is that our celebration on Shavuot is somewhat muted because the First Tablets were eventually destroyed. Simchat Torah, however, is a celebration of the Second Tablets, which Moses brought down from Heaven when G‑d granted forgiveness for the sin of the Golden Calf on Yom Kippur.

"Simchat Torah is the culmination of the three-part Biblical holiday season. With each holiday, the joy steadily increases. After Passover and Shavuot we have Sukkot, a holiday dubbed "the Season of our Joy" -- and then we are treated to the unbridled joy of Simchat Torah which eclipses even the joy of Sukkot. And the reason for this great joy? We are celebrating our 'second chance.'"

Read the rest.

Playboy bunny takes on Israel

Via Camera:

"This time it's Playboy. As we've noted previously, distorted articles about the Arab-Israeli conflict have increasingly turned up in popular magazines and professional journals that don't ordinarily cover world affairs (eg: Vogue, Architectural Review, Oprah and Lancet). Editors of such publications are generally unequipped to spot inaccuracies, distortions and lack of context on Middle East issues. Because these publications usually provide information on non-controversial or human interest stories, when they promote fringe, false and inflammatory points of view the mainstream public is likely to accept these views as credible.

"It is most troubling, then, that Playboy magazine, the racy but popular men's magazine, has published in its October 2007 issue an article comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa. The article, "Israel shouldn't get a free pass" by Jonathan Tasini, argues that "Jimmy Carter is correct in his book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid when he describes the control over Palestinians' movements as similar to South Africa's apartheid system."

Read the rest.

Great. Tits and ass and anti-Israel. Can't wait to, umm, read the article. It was tough enough finding the bunny logo without a pic, I'm telling you...

'Dig: Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu & Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish.'

Writing in the Jewish Chronicle, Emanuele Ottolenghi deconstructs a common nihilistic ailment afflicting Jewish intellectuals among the hard Left:

In an essay published in the Jewish magazine Tikkun last January, Bertell Ollman, one of the world’s best-known Marxist theorists, recounted how, on his way into the operating room, he realised that if he did not survive his surgery, he would die a Jew. The prospect was so unsettling that, once healed, he wrote his Letter of resignation from the Jewish people. The reasons were Zionism, Israel, and the support its policies enjoy from other Jews.

Ollman might yet reconsider, but for that to happen, Jews would have to embrace his own version of Jewish identity. Paraphrasing a Lenny Bruce joke, he said:

"Noam Chomsky, Mordechai Vanunu and Edward Said are Jewish. Elie Wiesel is goyish. So, too, all ‘Jewish’ neo-cons. Socialism and communism are Jewish. Sharon and Zionism are very goyish. And, who knows, if this reading of Judaism were to take hold, I may one day apply for readmission to the Jewish people."

Painfully important reading.

Here's Bruce's original Jewish-Goyish rap, and an updated version.