Archive for the 'news is news' Category
July 22nd, 2008 by elie
I get a URL sent to me at work. I open it. I’m about to reply to my coworker, why are you sending me old news articles? when I decide to look at the date. July 22nd. That’s… today.
I didn’t write about the first tractor attack in Jerusalem in the beginning of the month, because in my head I dismissed it as a case of a mentally unstable drug addict who went haywire. Sometimes you have to do that here in Israel; make excuses for your peace of mind.
This just happened 20 minutes ago but already looks more like a terrorist attack than anything else.
As my secular friend would say, Hashem yishmor.
June 24th, 2008 by elie
Amidst the cries for Olmert to quit, be embarrassed and work harder towards the release of the kidnapped soldiers, there was plenty of emotion to go round.
Of course, the major focal point of sentiment came from Noam Shalit’s short but necessary speech to open the rally outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem.
It’s an absolute shame when fathers have to become politicians. It’s everything wrong.
June 24th, 2008 by elie
Today is two years from the day that Gilad Shalit was kidnapped by Hamas on the Israeli border during non-war time.
There will be a rally held outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Kikar Paris in Jerusalem, from 7-9pm.
All day I’ve been reading Facebook status updates and Twitter messages from people who are waiting for Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev to be returned home.
Without the efforts from the boys’ families and citizen protests, I’m fairly sure the Israeli government would not have this on the forefront of the agenda. I know it’s difficult to balance these individual lives with the rest of the government’s duties, but someone has to remember, someone has to persist.
Because God-knows these soldiers - dead or alive - are in no power to right now.
June 16th, 2008 by elie
I know, I know. I won’t believe it till I see it, either. The Israeli in me is skeptical/angry/excited, the spouse in me is tormented/emotional/hopeful, and the mediator in me is curious/reflective/fatigued.
For better or worse, I’m indulging in this:
Eldad Regev’s father: Deal finalized for abducted troops’ return
The father of abducted Israel Defense Forces soldier Eldad Regev said on Monday that his family and that of Ehud Goldwasser, the other soldier kidnapped by Hezbollah, have been informed that a deal for the abductees’ return to Israel has been finalized.
The sources did not relay any other details about the swap except for the fact that it had been agreed upon after expedited negotiations between Israel and Hezbollah, through German mediation. (source)
Arab media say Israel-Hizbullah prisoner exchange deal expected in coming days
While Jerusalem awaits developments that may lead to a possible prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, Arab media reported Monday that a deal in which kidnapped Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev would be returned to Israel in exchange for Samir Kuntar and four other Lebanese prisoners is expected to be carried out in the next few days.
Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar said the deal may materialize this coming Tuesday or Friday, while As-Safir reported that it will take place sometime between the 20th and the 25th of June. (source)
June 15th, 2008 by elie
I just received a tweet from a friend:
“just heard terrible news…reeling from the shock. baruch dayan ha-emet”
And I immediately went to check my favorite news services to find out what happened. First I thought Ariel Sharon, then I thought Gilad Shalit. I scoured the Israeli news sources and then spread out wider to my international news sources, like a ripple effect.
It’s that mentality that the news is always alive, always happening and at any moment, anything can happen here in Israel… Mixed with the immediacy of the way we hi-tech geeks communicate and share… Mixed with my own morbidity, I suppose.
In the end, it turned out to be a personal thing. But those few minutes before I knew that… Those are the moments when I remember where and in what age I live in…
May 2nd, 2008 by elie
As I mentioned briefly in my last post, the Jerusalem Post is reporting that the Israel at 60 logo is a no-go for some:
Want to use Israel’s 60th birthday logo to help spread the celebration? Not so fast. A request by The Jerusalem Post to use it on its Web site revealed this week that specific approval is required for such requests, requiring first navigating a bureaucratic path that may take some of the cheer out of the process.
While some questioned whether such a move might be undermining the very public relations opportunity the anniversary poses, those responsible for administering the use of the logo explained the bureaucracy was aimed at preventing misuse or commercialization of the symbol, which features the image of a child creating the number 60 with a blue ribbon. (jpost)
Well, I defy thee, bureaucratic Israel-at-60 logo! Defy thee!
April 13th, 2008 by elie
I gave away the punch line in the title, but there ain’t much more to say than that. Here’s the headline of a Ynet news article from today:
Classified info exposed on Facebook
Basically, some members of the Israeli security establishment were caught with photos of classified soldiers and locations exposed on their Facebook accounts. But what interests me more - aside from the stupidity of the Israeli security establishment - is Ynet’s perception of Israeli soldiers surfing the web:
Is Ynet so desperate for female readership?
April 9th, 2008 by elie
I was passed an article about a Charedi wedding that took place after being protested by the bride’s parents and the “most prominent Orthodox rabbis.” The daughter of multimillionaires was sent to Israel to seminary and fell in love with a Charedi “yeshiva dropout.” They managed to get married yesterday after getting through protests from all sides (even picketers at the wedding).
I will defer my own original wording and frustration to the talkback of this article I just read, and it’s not about the actual story.
First, excerpts of the article reflecting the prominent Orthodox rabbis’ actions, then the talkback:
West Side Story, Meah Shearim style
The bride’s parents objected, rabbis protested and the public took to the streets – but the young couple refused to give up. Against all odds and despite violent demonstrations outside the wedding hall, a young ultra-Orthodox woman from overseas and her Jerusalemite fiancé were married in the capital Tuesday evening…
The family also appealed to the most prominent Orthodox rabbis, asking that they exert efforts in a bid to cancel the planned wedding. The rabbis even issued a manifest against the engagement, but to no avail…
At the beginning of the week, the family discovered that the wedding would take place Tuesday evening. Claiming that the young man’s family had exploited wealthy families in the past, the woman’s family managed to convince prominent rabbis to issue another manifest against the wedding…
Leaflets slamming the marriage were hung in haredi neighborhoods, carrying the signatures of Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, Rabbi Nissim Karelitz and Rabbi Michal Yehuda Levkovitch…”Who can tolerate such a marriage with such great sorrow on the part of the daughter’s mother and father? It is a defamation of God to marry a person from the street considered problematic like the groom.”
Addressing the groom’s father, the rabbis wrote, “After hearing from important scholars that your son is about to marry a girl as opposed to the Torah’s wishes, we demand that you prevent this marriage which will not be held according to our dedicated Jewish law… (ynet)
For the whole story, definitely click and enjoy. It gets more ridiculous by the paragraph.
However, my focus in this story is the following… Thank you, שרה, for highlighting this in your talkback, which everyone else seems to be missing:
Does anyone else find it totally disturbing that all the rabbis come out of the woodwork to speak out against this marriage but none of them are speaking out against the horrible stories of child abuse we’ve been seeing in this country lately!? They’re busy protecting this young woman from a marriage to another religious Jew when down the road, there are mothers/monsters in prison for beating their children…and the rabbis haven’t banded together to say anything about that?!
April 4th, 2008 by elie
Next week the country is conducting a series of horrible scenario simulations for the purpose of drilling government agencies, the army, government employees and students on how to react in the case of a national emergency.
Civil defense drill starts Sun.; to include mock chemical attack
“The exercise will continue throughout the week, with scenarios that include a simulated hazardous material spill in the Haifa Bay, the rescue of survivors from a collapsed building in the Meron and Nazareth areas and the firing of ground-to-ground missiles equipped with chemical warheads.
During the exercise, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are to conduct situation reviews and to make decisions based on the various scenarios as they unfold.” (Haaretz)
The last line is what actually depresses me about the whole thing.
March 7th, 2008 by elie
Merkaz HaRav, the yeshiva chosen by the Arab gunman for last night’s massacre, is a flagship yeshiva that stands at the heart of the Religious Zionist movement and should not be confused with the extreme anti-Israel strain of yeshiva population. One Merkaz HaRav student shot the gunman twice in the head with a pistol he had at his side; I assume they are very realistic about the situation in Israel.
But it makes me wonder about the yeshivas that are anti-Israel; that yeshiva boys can dodge the army all they want, but as long as Jews live in this land, they will be involved in the blood that is spilled over it. Whatever their politics. So it works both ways, for peace-loving secularists and for Israel-hating Charedis. I wonder how the Charedi community - the anti-Israel one - is working this out.
“It’s the secularists fault for not studying Torah.”
“It’s because Mashiach is not here yet, this country is impure.”
“More proof that Arabs are animals, sent by God to destroy us for our sins.”
Just my own speculation. And it’s certainly not close to all Charedis Jews - that would be a very unfair and unrealistic generalization… I do think it is a bit eerie that just yesterday Barak refused to exempt 1,000 yeshiva students from army service.
All I know is that from thousands of years ago to yesterday to tomorrow… whether the yeshiva community likes it or not… blood and books are an inevitable mix.
(ynet)
They released the names of the 8 boys killed:
Yohai Lifshitz, 18, of Jerusalem
Yehonatan Yitzhak Alder, 16, of Shilo
Yonadav Haim Hirshfeld, 19, of Kochav Hashahar
Neria Cohen, 15, of Jerusalem
Roy Rot, 18, of Elkana
Segev Peniel Avihail, 15, of Neveh Daniel
Avraham David Mozes, 16, of Efrat
Maharta Tronoh, 26, of Ashdod
Keep their memory in our prayers, along with the dozens wounded.
