Interest Free Loan Funds: A Tale Of Two Families, Two Countries

Collection boxes in a Jerusalem neighborhood for canned good the be distributed to the needy. (Dave Bender: All Rights Reserved)

"While, on the face of it, Atlanta, Ga. and Jerusalem, Israel may not seem to have much in common, one thing both cities unfortunately do share is the growing burden of a tough economy since the onset of the international monetary free-fall in 2007.

"In both countries, hundreds of thousands of people have lost jobs and businesses, with many falling through the cracks in a daily struggle to pay for food, rent, bills, and then the interest on credit cards and bank overdrafts.

“'I had a company, and I grew and grew and grew, but eventually the economy slapped me in the face,'" one Jewish Atlanta-area businesswoman, who requested anonymity, told AJN.

"After seeing her firm lose client after client as the hospitality industry her business served laid off thousands of employees, she finally had no choice but to close down more than a year ago."

Read the rest.

Israeli Newspaper Halts Online Presence for Abducted Soldier

Screenshot of Ma'ariv Hebrew-language daily: "We're halting operations for the sake of Gilad Shalit."

Hamas terrorists abducted Israeli Defense Forces Cpl. Gilad Shalit from an army lookout along the Israeli side of the border with Gaza Israel five years ago, and have not allowed any visits by the International Red Cross or any other humanitarian organization, in contravention of The Geneva Accords on treatment of military prisoners.

From The Jerusalem Post:

At 11:00 AM on Tuesday morning, people throughout the country stopped, observing five minutes of silence in honor of Gilad Schalit.

Rather than the customary one minute of silence, Ofer Ben Tal, one of the organizers for the campaign to free Gilad Schalit, asked the public to stop for five full minutes, one minute for the nearly five years Schalit has been held in captivity by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

RELATED:
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"Traffic jams were observed throughout Tel Aviv, as cars stopped in the streets in Schalit's honor.

"'For the past five years, the entire nation has been united in its hearts in the hope that Gilad Schalit will be here with us, healthy and whole,' President Shimon Peres said at Tuesday's Negev Conference in Eilat."

More, including video, is here.

Jerusalem: Night Flight (Photo)

'Jerusalem: Night Flight'
(Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Pillar and supporting cables of Jerusalem's Calatrava-designed "Bridge of Chords," that supports a bridge for the city's light rail trams, glow orange against a darkening sunset by dramatic lighting from below.

Israeli Firm to Give Bionic Vision to the Blind

Nano-Retina, founded in 2009, aims to make a science-fiction staple, bionic vision, a la Geordi La Forge in Star Trek, a reality within the next few years.

But they want to go further by building a simpler, smaller, lighter and less invasive device.

Read more.

They Cry 'Apartheid,' While Israel Fast-tracks Arabs Into High-tech

"Bridge of Size" at Tel Aviv's Azrieli office towers. (Dave Bender, All Rights Reserved)

Israel's prowess as the “startup nation” is in no small part due to a relatively small, but well-trained, workforce of engineers and technicians.

However, good intentions and a development plan will get a small company only so far if it does not have sufficient personnel to design and produce the product. Israeli technology employers need substantially more people online and on the cleanroom floor.

Turns out that the call for more, and better-trained high tech personnel dovetails well with an oft-stated, long-term goal of Israeli President Shimon Peres: to better integrate Israel's Arab sector (which makes up over 20 percent of the population) into Israeli society and the Israeli job market.

Read the rest.

Libyan Rebels 'Rock the Casbah' to an Israeli Beat

From The Jerusalem Post:

"Zenga Zenga," a YouTube clip, has gone viral amongst Libyan rebels in the past few days. What many of those opposing Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi don't realize is that the video, a mash-up of Gaddafi's speech and the hip-hop song "Hey Baby," is from Israel.

"The clip shows Gaddafi's speech on a balcony in Tripoli, and uses autotune to turn his words into a song. In the chorus, the Libyan dictator "sings" that he will clean Libya "inch by inch, house by house, room by room, alley by alley." It also features bikin-clad women shaking their hips in time to the music."

Name That Flower, Win Valuable Prizes!

Not too shabby for a cellphoned, P'shopped and chopped foto, eh?

Egypt: Tahrir Sq., democracy, Twitter, Facebook, and Slaughter the Jews

Wait, what? But I thought Tahrir Sq. was all about democracy, Twitter and Facebook, bread and jobs...

...and why is this obscene child abuse lauded throughout the Arab world?

IBM's Watson Computer Explains The Israel-Arab Dispute

(HatTip: EoZ)

Mt. Hermon (photo)

Click on the image for a larger version.