The Middle East: 5000 years in 90 seconds (Flash Video)

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Duly noted: a little something to tell God

For those here and abroad who couldn't bear the drive and crowding at the Western Wall plaza for the mass priestly blessings during the holiday, Ynet News offers a solution:

A recent innovation at Mini Israel allows visitors to leave notes in the cracks of its miniature Western Wall. The notes will be transferred to the real Western Wall in Jerusalem once a week.

Mini Israel CEO Haim Rogatka said that since the opening of the park, hundreds of thousands of visitors had stood in awe before the miniature Western Wall each year.

“It was as if they were standing before the true Western Wall in Jerusalem, the capital city,” Rogatka said.

For my close-up look at Mini Israel, go here.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

JerusalemOnline news update: 00:00, Oct. 8th. (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• PM Olmert, Lieberman near coalition deal
• Police push for indictment in Katsav sex scandal
• Israelis flock to dozens of Succot festivals

• 
  Click on image for latest Israel
  Channel 2 News update
  

Watch This Space: Israel and the future of video (Podcast)

Seven of Israel's most prestigious companies in the video infrastructure and applications delivery field have joined forces to create a new paradigm for viewing video content. Their goal? To enable individuals to view video content of their preference, any time, anywhere, on their device of choice, without any kind of hitch.

The three-year NeGeV project, which is expected to cost $20 million, aims to tackle and solve a range of thorny technical, architectural, sociological and even psychological issues that surround the adoption of this new TV and video technology.

Ziv Ringer, NeGeV's general manager talks about what they've got in store in a podcast excerpt of the article, cross-posted at Israel21c)

One of these things is not like the other... (Photo)

Except maybe the ovoid shape of both objects, both found at the Mahane Yehuda market for Succot...

(Photos: Dave Bender)

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

Succot food porn: Shakin' it like you just don't care (video)

Halva at Jerusalem's Mahane Yehuda open-air market
(Photo: Dave Bender)

Halva. About four trillion tooth-melting calories per serving as a Succot festival dessert. That's why we are commanded to do the following acts daily for the week-long holiday:

For more about Succot, click here.


I'll try to post more pics before the holiday comes in this evening, so please check back later.

HT: Yo Yenta

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

How do you say 'Coming out of the closet' in Arabic?

Brian Whitaker at the UK’s Guardian, has a lenghty article about the experiences of an Israeli Arab lesbian (who prefers considering herself Palestinian) who went public in 2003, after giving an interview to Yediot Ahronot:

“All of a sudden, the Arab population of her home town [in northern Israel], which she generally assumed to have no interest in the literary supplements of Hebrew newspapers, seemed to have read the article and had something to say about her. Local corner shop owners made photocopies and distributed it, because, after all, everyone knew it was about the daughter of so-and-so from their own town.

“The consequences of that article were far more serious than Ms Morcos had imagined: her car windows were smashed and tyres were punctured several times, she received innumerable threatening letters and phone calls, and, to top it all, ‘coincidentally’ lost her job as a school teacher, since parents of pupils complained that they did not want her as a teacher.”

Since this is the Guardian, Israel must, of course, come in for a body slam, but Whitaker does first point out Israel’s (relative) openess to homosexuality:

Israel legalised same-sex relations between men in 1988. Four years later, it went a step further and became the only country in the Middle East that outlaws discrimination based on sexuality. A series of court cases then put the theory into practice - for example, when El Al was forced to provide a free ticket for the partner of a gay flight attendant, as the airline already did for the partners of its straight employees.

These are undisputed achievements but they have also become a propaganda tool, reinforcing Israel’s claim to be the only liberal, democratic society in the Middle East. At the same time, highlighting Israel’s association with gay rights has made life more difficult for gay Arabs, adding grist to the popular notion that homosexuality is a “disease” spread by foreigners.

Interesting reading.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

Sderot: Palestinians aiding Israel caught between a Kassam and a hard place (Video, Podcast)

The government is relocating hundreds of Palestinians who have aided Israel in - wait for it - Sderot, the bullseye of thousands of Kassam rockets from nearby Gaza.

According to Ynew News,

The falling property values allowed many families of Palestinian cooperating with the Israeli government and defense forces to buy homes, even mansions, in the more targeted areas of the city.

In the past six months, some ten Palestinian families arrived in Sderot, joining the 250-300 Palestinians already living there. Attorney Nathan Shreiber, who represents the Palestinians in the region, told Ynet that lowered housing costs are not the only incentive for the families to move to Sderot.

"As the situation in Gaza escalates, so the flow of people will increase," he says.

Eli Moyal, the town's beleagured mayor must feel sandbagged about this development. Here's what he told Americans when I spoke with him (audio podcast) about coping with Kassams. And here is the video of his comments at a press conference.




Sderot resident and youth counselor, Avital Morer, 19.
Click here if video does not appear. (Video: Dave Bender)


Morer told me her feelings about the situation (audio podcast) in an interview at the height of the bombardment.

(Cross-posted at Israelity)

JerusalemOnline news update: 00:00, Oct. 5th (Video - Channel 2 TV)

• Rice assures Abbas of US support
• Al-Qaida threatens PA officials
• Russian FM: kidnapped Israelis in good health
  
  
  
  Click on image for latest Israel
  Channel Two news update
  

'Rejoice Over Jerusalem' (Photo)

Rejoice Over Jerusalem (Photo: Dave Bender)

A little* something for the upcoming Succot Feast of Tabernacles holiday.

Stayed up until 0300 getting this one, so I appreciate the second verse on the Psalm below; a view of Jerusalem looking north towards the Malcha Mall area (foreground) from the edge the southernmost neighborhood of Gilo (Gilo = rejoice in Hebrew).

Lots of Photoshop tweaking to cut through the late night dew, but still bring out the definition in the clouds, and, in general - clarify. Also, not to mention a quick (but friendly!) ID'ing by a police patrol wondering what - or who - I was REALLY trying to photograph, alone, so late at night... (good thing they're out there, though...)

And that asterik up there? Well, friends (smirking photographers out there already know what's coming and can jump ahead to the Psalm); did you know that a nine megapixel camera, photographing ONE photograph in RAW format, and then translated and saved on a computer in .TIFF format takes up a freakin' ONE. HUNDRED. AND. THREE. megapixels?!

That's per shot. I shot about 30 images to get that final one above. Save your applause; a bigger hard drive will do for now...

Translation:
REJOICE OVER JERUSALEM

Chorus:
Rejoice with Jerusalem, be glad about her,
be glad all you that love her,
all who love her.

On your walls, Oh city of David
I have stationed watchmen,
all day and night.
(repeat)

Chorus

Do not fear, my servant Jacob,
for your enemies shall be scattered before you.
(repeat)

Chorus

Look about you and behold; see all
as they are all gathering and coming unto you.
(repeat)

Chorus

And your people
are all holy
and forever shall inherit the land.

Chorus

(Cross-posted at Israelity)