Terrorists + Israeli 'Southpark' + 'Guitar Hero' = Zany Hijinks!

NSFW (lot's 'o' cussin')


...previously on "Ahmed & Salim"

(H-T: Islam in Action)

Israel: A Million Stars (video)

On July 24, 2006 Lt. Tom Farkash, 23, was killed along with another pilot when their Apache helicopter crashed en route to a mission across the Lebanese border during clashes with Hezbollah terrorists. Tom was a second generation pilot. Ever since he was a child he'd looked forward to the day when he could join the Israeli Air Force like his father.

The same evening Tom's family received word of his death, his sister Amit, along with a friend, composed a song entitled "A Million Stars" in his honor. It is her farewell song to him.

A Million Stars

You wanted to fly, you wished to go further
With half a smile, you rose higher
A million stars in the sky
Catch and show your colors Give me just one second more to say goodbye to you

You wanted to fly, you went much too far
In all this insanity, there is no one left to care for me
A million stars in the sky Catch and show your colors I wanted just a second more to say goodbye to you

I wanted to sing
You picked up a guitar
And now an angel is playing for me
So with you I am singing
A million stars in the sky
Catch and show your colors
I wanted to sing to you, to bid you a farewell
I wanted a single second more to say goodbye to you
Give me just one second more to say goodbye to you – bye Tom

Translated by Avi Tsur

More on Israel Memorial Day here.

(H-T: Ruminations)

Crucial Reading, Viewing and Hearing About Israel

(Jewlicious)

Daniel Gordis writes:

...to all those who are wringing their hands about Israeli intransigence and inflexibility, on this eve of Israeli Independence Day, a brief word about nations, and states, and purpose. For without understanding purpose, there's no understanding Israel.

Read the rest.

Watch IDF soldiers speak out about their experiences here.

And then, go over to Judy Lash Balint, who shares her insightful, moving POV on Memorial Day in Israel.

Here are several original items I've reported over the years about life in the Israel Defense Forces, and living with terrorism in Israel:

Inside the IDF: A Soldier's Story

Hear: Surviving a Suicide Bombing

Hear: Novelist Naomi Ragen: Writing in the Shadow of Terror

Hear: The mother of slain IDF soldier Nachson Waxman speaks out

Go here for more on my reporting, and how you can help keep it going.

And tomorrow:

On Wednesday, April 29 at 10:50 p.m. Israel time (3:50 p.m. EST, 2:50 p.m. CST, 12:50 p.m. PST), communities around the world will join together to sing Israel's national anthem Hatikva in honor of the 61st birthday of the State of Israel.

Live Hatikva will be broadcast around America and on the Internet streaming live at www.jltv.tv.

Dave Bender: Journalist Seeking Stories, Clients

I am a veteran radio and television broadcaster, and a professional, independent journalist equipped and ready to work in the field, on-site and on-line.

I'm interested in continuing in multimedia journalism and reporting in the US, Israel and elsewhere abroad.

Here are a few samples of original coverage about the Israel Defense Forces, living with terrorism, and life in Israel:

Inside the IDF: A Soldier's Story

Hear: Surviving a Suicide Bombing

Hear: Novelist Naomi Ragen: Writing in the Shadow of Terror

Hear: The mother of slain IDF soldier Nachson Waxman speaks out

I have a rich and varied background in all aspects of radio and audio production, as well as reporting and producing for tv, newspapers and magazines for a host of clients, both in the United States and abroad.

Links to more audio airchecks and published content are available along the left side of this page.

Contact me for more details, my resume' and recommendations at:
davebrianbender@gmail.com
(US) 404-695-7246
MSN Messenger: dave_bender_3@hotmail.com
Skype: davebendertriplets

Israel: Jews, Arabs Brawl Over Full-Pad Football (Video)

...and that's a good thing.

While the level of play, gear and participation might not win them any agents proffering pro slots, the games the thing.

From Israel21c:

"For the past two years, the IFL - the Israel Football League - has been playing full-pad American style football. In this game, the Jerusalem Lions and the Haifa Underdogs fight a tight battle..."

Earlier gridiron, er, posts are here (hey -- I made a funny! aw geez', but I just slay me sometimes, I really do...)

(H-T: Israel21c)

The Holocaust & Israel at 61 (photo)

Image: Karen Gillerman Harel

Remember.org is hosting a 360% virtual tour of Auschwitz sites.

More than 150 Holocaust-related sites here.

Hamas on Hitler's B'day: Party Like It's 1938!

From Palestinian Media Watch:

A Hamas cleric who once participated in an international conference of "Imams and Rabbis for Peace" -- whose delegates vowed to "condemn any negative representation" of each other's religions -- has wholeheartedly espoused Hamas's racist ideology in a recent Friday sermon on Hamas TV:

["We condemn any negative representation of these [religious beliefs and symbols], let alone any desecration, Heaven forbid. Similarly, we condemn any incitement against a faith or people, let alone any call for their elimination, and we urge authorities to do likewise."]

Ironically, this latest profession of Hamas's genocidal racism was preached and broadcast at the start of the month in which the UN is meeting in the "Durban II" conference in Geneva to condemn Israel as being "racist."

More on Durban II here, which - go figure - commences on Hitler's birthday. Oh, the irony.

(Update) Germany and Holland have reportedly joined a growing list of countries boycotting the event, alongside the U.S. and Israel, Australia, Canada, Italy, New Zealand and Sweden.

In the book Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris, Hannibal Lecter, the brilliant cannibal lectures FBI agent Clarice Starling on her inability to overcome her enemy if she does not understand him. “You can’t reduce me to a set of influences. You’ve given up good and evil for behaviorism, Officer Starling. You’ve got everybody in moral dignity pants-nothing is ever anybody’s fault. Look at me, Officer Starling. Can you stand to say I’m evil?” Clarice’s own worldview did not take into account the true human nature of evil and therefore, she could not win the fight over that evil. Her own worldview had created language that covered over evil with euphemisms of behaviorism. A euphemism is an agreeable expression that is substituted for an offensive one. And that euphemistic covering of evil is the problem we are facing right now. (source)

Previous post:

"For those of you planning to observe Holocaust Memorial Day next Tuesday night (5:46), and for those of you who are not, for those of you who are of Ashkenazi decent, and for those of you who are not, I would like to recommend the below video montage, which provides some history and statistics regarding the pogroms and other atrocities incurred [upon] Jews residing in Muslim countries."

And this, from Haaretz:

"If not for the Holocaust, there would be as many as 32 million Jews worldwide, instead of the current 13 million, demographer Professor Sergio Della Pergola has written in a soon-to-be published article."

The Jewish Naqba النكبة (Catastrophe)

Esser Agoroth notes an important point:

"For those of you planning to observe Holocaust Memorial Day next Tuesday night (5:46), and for those of you who are not, for those of you who are of Ashkenazi decent, and for those of you who are not, I would like to recommend the below video montage, which provides some history and statistics regarding the pogroms and other atrocities incurred [upon] Jews residing in Muslim countries."

YouDecide YouTube: 'Shalom, Saalam' vs Blood Drinkers

From the Israel Foreign Ministry YouTube page:

"While first grade students at regular schools struggle with reading and writing their mother tongue, first grade students at the bilingual school "Yad be-Yad" in Jerusalem, Israel, learn an additional language: Hebrew or Arabic:"

Hmm... Let's contrast and compare, shall we?

Official Palestinian Authority Television recently aired this little shocker. Nothing Jews haven't been living with since, oh, forever and a weekend, but it's says something that Hamas has no worries about trumpeting their sadistic little views to the world:



Israel. Hamas. Watch the video again, and you do the math.

I titled this post, "YouDecide" as a play on the name, YouTube. Hmm. Saying "YouDecide" aloud, I just heard the unintended pun it represents...

More MFA vids here.

Holocaust Rememberance Day: The Children

From Haaretz:

"If not for the Holocaust, there would be as many as 32 million Jews worldwide, instead of the current 13 million, demographer Professor Sergio Della Pergola has written in a soon-to-be published article."

This coming Monday is Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day.

The central theme this year is Children in the Holocaust.

Information on Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as online exhibits, educational materials, video testimony and more is available at www.yadvashem.org.

Israel & Iran: 'Play-Acting' Over US Regional Interests (updated)

David Samuels, over at Slate has a worthwhile read on why he thinks Israel will likely go it alone against Iran's nuke aspirations:

"The success of the American-Israeli alliance demands that both parties be active partners in a complex dance that involves a lot of play-acting—America pretends to rebuke Israel, just as Israel pretends to be restrained by American intervention from bombing Damascus or seizing the banks of the Euphrates. The instability of the U.S.-Israel relationship is therefore inherent in the terms of a patron-client relationship that requires managing a careful balance of Israeli strength and Israeli weakness. An Israel that runs roughshod over its neighbors is a liability to the United States—just as an Israel that lost the capacity to project destabilizing power throughout the region would quickly become worthless as a client.

A corollary of this basic point is that the weaker and more dependent Israel becomes, the more Israeli interests and American interests are likely to diverge. Stripped of its ability to take independent military action, Israel's value to the United States can be seen to reside in its ability to give the Golan Heights back to Syria and to carve out a Palestinian state from the remaining territories it captured in 1967—after which it would be left with only the territories of the pre-1967 state to barter for a declining store of U.S. military credits, which Washington might prefer to spend on wooing Iran."

Globetrotting journalist Michael J. Totten, reports from Lebanon:

Christopher Hitchens recently went to a rally in the suburbs south of Beirut and found Hezbollah ratcheting up its belligerence. “A huge poster of a nuclear mushroom cloud surmounts the scene,” he wrote in the May issue of Vanity Fair, “with the inscription OH ZIONISTS, IF YOU WANT THIS TYPE OF WAR THEN SO BE IT!” Last week James Kirchick reported seeing the same thing at the same rally in City Journal. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time Hezbollah has threatened nuclear war.

Hezbollah isn’t broadcasting this to the world. If Hitchens and Kirchick hadn’t written about it, few would know the mushroom-cloud banner even exists. It’s not so much a threat as it is a revelation of Hezbollah’s dark psyche. But perhaps Hezbollah’s not shouting “nuclear war” for all to hear means its threats are more dangerous than public taunts from the Iranian government. Empty threats and hyperbole are rife in the Middle East. Death threats are rarely carried out anywhere. Most assassins don’t announce their intentions. They kill their victims without warning. Whatever Hezbollah’s mushroom-cloud banner means, we know this much: intimations of nuclear war with Israel are now coming from Lebanon as well as Iran. The worst case scenario — a mushroom cloud over Tel Aviv — might be slightly more likely than some of us thought.

From Omri over at Mererhetoric:

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned against an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, asserting that such a strike would have dangerous consequences, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. According to the report, Gates explained that a strike was dangerous because it would unify Iran, "cement their determination to have a nuclear program, and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them."

This argument is awesome for at least two reasons:

(1) It's unblinkingly stupid. It doesn't matter how many times Iran declares that they'll never give up nuclearization. It doesn't matter how obviously true it is that we can't give them anything they want more than a bomb. It will still be Israeli self-defense that causes them to cross the nuclear threshold. Of course it will be.

(2) It's obnoxiously predictable. Of course the Obama administration is going to tag Israel for the length and breadth of Middle East instability. The only people who really denied that during the campaign were pro-Obama Jewish shills. And I don't think they ever really believed it.

Some earlier posts about Israel and Iran are here, here, here, here, and here, and the linkdump is here.

Israeli 'Southpark' + Terrorists = Toxic Hilarity Ensues

From YnetNews:

"'Ahmed and Salim,' a provocative, humoristic animated web series created by two Israelis describes the life of two brothers whose father is an arch terrorist. Highly popular series also shocks many surfers."

After watching just one episode, "shocks," is putting it very mildly... what's more, boast the animators: "We don't care if people are offended."

Wonder if that uber-hip, devil-may-care, f-ck conventions attitude includes Israeli victims of terrorism - not to mention the animators' families and friends. Just a curmudgeonly thought from one's who's seen enough real terror, up close and personal.

Read the rest, if you have a strong stomach.

Passover Ends: '...and the Traffic Coming Home? Fuggedaboudit!'

This holiday eve marks the seventh night of the week-long Passover festival. Gotta' love a site that sports a Moses looking like this:

Hopefully this is what Jews worldwide will have to look forward to, driving home tomorrow night. No, no - not to our present ones, outside of Israel:

The aforementioned Moses, having grown a few inches and wearing his Red Sea togs, can been seen, aka, "Where's Waldo," in the lower left-hand corner. The writing on the back of the truck says, "Moses Transports," and the road sign graphic shows a vehicle between two parted waves. Gotta' love Photoshop...

And Disney, for the Cliff's Notes:



And for those so inclined, (yeah, as in leaning during the Seder; haha, funny but pretty lame-o pun, huh?), Nefesh B'Nefesh has a great offer:



And yes - getting serious for a moment - I'm seriously considering taking them up on it, after residing here in the "Land of The Round Doorknobs," for over two years in what I refer to as an "etnachta..."

In "Why Would you Live Here?" Veteran American immigrant to Israel, Jewish commentator and author, Daniel Gordis, helps explain why:

"So there we are, sitting at the Shabbat lunch table, guests of friends we hadn’t seen in far too long. We were three couples, all of us immigrants, each with kids, ranging from 22 (with a boyfriend) to 4 (without a boyfriend). And another couple, parents of our hosts, visiting from the States, both of them well known and highly regarded academics. Sometime in the middle of lunch, the mother of the hostess, whose academic interest is “identity,” asks us all, without even a hint of irony or condescension, 'Can you please explain to me why you would choose to live here? What got you to leave what you had and come here?'"

Read the rest.

(Photo H-T: Muqata)

This Just In: Jews Behind Somali Piracy

No, really. Who knew? A "jewish lake?!" Like over Passover in the Catskills way back when? Wondering minds want to know...

"Analysts are openly accusing Israel of sponsoring piracy off Somalia waters with the aim of transforming Red Sea into a Jewish lake. The immediate objective of USA, Israel and European countries is to prevent the inflow of arms to Islamist Al-Shabab that is on the verge of snatching power in Somalia and to steal Arab oil. Sea piracy has been blown up into a big threat to oil supplies to the west, Japan, China and others in order to internationalize the issue.

"Internationalization of security in Red Sea is being done under the pretext of fighting piracy to safeguard critical seal lanes and choke point of Suez Canal with the help of a combined multi-national naval force.

"Sooner than later, Israel would be asked to take control of this flotilla..."

I dunno', I hear the dolphins got there first...

More lunacy here.

Damn, but we're good at this world domination stuff. Now where's my Zionist World Domination check?

(H-T: visciousbabushka)

The Temptations sing: 'Fiddler on the Roof'

Now this is Hazzanut!

Yeah, I also thought it was a bait-and-switch joke when I saw the link, but - here tis'. Turn up the speakers:



I've heard of internet mashups, but this, this is from the 1960's! Wild. Just wish there was video of their moves as they sang...

...and here is the video is all it's 1960's shaky, blurry RCA CraptoVision glory, as Diana Ross intros the group. The embed is disabled, but you can watch it there.

(H-T:, Sina, Random Thoughts)

Cool Things To Do With Leftover Matzah (music video)

Ok - this passes my "not too geekily Jewish web content" bar...



(H-T: Israelinsider.com)

Passover: Priestly Blessing at the Western Wall (exclusive photo)

Watching the ritual, Passover 2005. (Photo: Dave Bender)

Ultra-orthodox youths on scaffolding at the Western Wall get a better view of the ancient Passover ceremony of the priestly blessing of multitudes of worshipers packed into the plaza. Click on the photo to see a full-sized image.

More on Passover here.

Panorama photos: Atlanta Jews Bless the Sun

Rabbi Emmanuel Feldman, Rabbi Emeritus of synagogue Beth Jacob, enveloped in tefillin (phylacteries) and talit (prayer shawl), in preparation for the ceremonial proclamation of the blessing, along with the congregants. (All photos: Dave Bender)

Close to 1,000 members of several Atlanta synagogues celebrate the "Blessing on the Sun," Birkat Hahama, at Torah Day School Atlanta's sports field, Wednesday, April 8, 2009/Passover eve, 14th of Nisan, 5769.

Click on the photos to pan around a larger image.


(All photos: Dave Bender)


R' Feldman and worshipers who took part in the previous Birkat Hahama ceremony, 28 years ago. (All photos: Dave Bender)


Rabbi Emmanuel Feldman, Beth Jacob. (All photos: Dave Bender)


Rabbi Ilan Feldman, Beth Jacob. (All photos: Dave Bender)


(L-R) R' Adam Starr, R' Shmuel Koshkerman, R' Ilan Feldman, R' Emmanuel Feldman. (All photos: Dave Bender)

From Aish.com:

The fact that you're reading this article is a minor miracle. Think of all the things that needed to fall into place: the computer, the hard drive, the labyrinth of the Internet, the web browser -- even the electrical power driving it all.

There is incredible complexity built into the simple act of reading this article. And yet, we sit before these machines every day without giving them a moment's thought.

Until they stop working.

When that blue screen appears and the computer freezes, we hold our breath hoping that nothing has failed, that we haven't lost weeks of hard work. Only when we reset the computer and it functions properly again, do we let out a sigh of relief, return to work... and take it all for granted again.

The Talmud (Brachot 59b) teaches:

He who sees the sun at its season, the moon at its strength, the stars in their paths, and the constellations in their order, recites "Blessed is the One Who performs the act of creation." And when does this happen? Abaye says: Every 28 years, when the cycle returns and the season of Nissan falls in Saturn, on the fourth day of the week.

On April 8, 2009, the eve of Passover, Jews around the world will rise early, gaze at the sun and recite the least-frequently-recited blessing in Judaism: Birkat HaChama, the blessing on the sun. We recite this blessing once every 28 years, and it's coming to your neighborhood very soon. Assuming, of course, that the sun rises that fateful Wednesday the same way it has every day until now...

Read the rest.

Happy Passover!