Happy Purim all,
Jameel @ Co.
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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
Supporters of Mossad are showing their pride sales of T-shirts glorifying the spy agency have risen tenfold since it was linked to the murder of Mabhouh, a leading mail-order company of Israeli products told the Irish Times.
Its not easy being gray in the Orthodox world. Another Eli Clark Classic.
After yesterday's breaking news that the Dubai police "identified" another FIFTEEN alleged Mossad agents / hit squad, today the Dubai police published yet another list and photos of the Dubai hit squad:
Jews still can't find J-Street in Washington DC.
Missing in action: There’s no J Street on pro-Israel map of D.C. Some say it’s on the far left side of town.
After almost two years of existence, J Street, a left-wing political peace movement, still cannot be found on any pro-Israel map of Washington, D.C. Google maps and GPS are equally unable to identify the controversial lobby. “I’m sorry I don’t think there is a J street in D.C.,” said a confused Zionist tourist checking his map again. “Did you say it was pro-Israel? Nope, I got nothing here.”Map officials say that J Street can be found on pro-Palestinian maps of Washington, though.“If you open a detailed map and look all the way to the left you’re sure to find it,” asserted Lawson Found, chair of Charting Your Course Maps of D.C. (more here).
Going to Israel?
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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
"I wish I were in Gaza now," Yousef said by phone from California, "I would put on an army uniform and join Israel's special forces in order to liberate Gilad Shalit. If I were there, I could help. We wasted so many years with investigations and arrests to capture the very terrorists that they now want to release in return for Shalit. That must not be done."
Haaretz journalist Gideon Levy had asked him [Ehud Barak] then, as a candidate for prime minister, what he would do had he been born Palestinian and Barak replied frankly: "I would join a terror organization." (Haaretz)
This week I spoke with my students about the Gaza war, in the context of a class on national security. One student, who had expressed rather conservative, accepted opinions - that is opinions tending slightly to the right - succeeded in surprising me. Without any provocation on my part, he opened his heart and confessed: "If I were a young Palestinian," he said, "I'd fight the Jews fiercely, even by means of terror. Anyone who says anything different is telling you lies." (Haaretz)
Thomas told PM host Eddie Mair, “They have a whole backup system called ‘asylum.’ These are people, local residents, Jewish people, who help the Mossad. It is estimated to be in the world about half a million; some people say a million; I tend to say it’s about half a million, all of them Mossad people.” (JPost)Should Israel challenge such a statement? Maybe its better to leave that impression...
The New York-based American Jewish Committee blasted the BBC on Sunday for airing an accusation that Jews around the world assist in supposed Mossad assassinations.I did almost go to Dubai a few years back. Hmmm.
The AJC said in a statement that it was “dismayed that a guest on BBC Radio 4 was allowed to state unchallenged” that the Mossad relies on Jews for assassination plots.
“This baseless accusation crosses every red line between legitimate public discussion and bigoted fear-mongering,” said AJC executive director David Harris. “In less than a minute, the BBC has cast a shadow on the lives of Jews worldwide.” (JPost)
"The Rabbinical Council for Public Transportation, which is also representing the haredi community on the issue of gender-segregated “mehadrin” buses, is now placing advertisements in haredi newspapers encouraging the community to purchase the traveler mehitzas.Instead of publicizing the story right away, the Muqata blog seriously investigated this issue and is the first blog to have an actual picture of these new personal mechitzas!
The new mehitzas, made of white nylon, stick onto the fabric of the airplane chair using Velcro and can be arranged to make a protective “shield.” The mehitza goes around the head and is mostly in front of the passenger’s face, protruding only a little to the sides. Its designer, who asked that his name not be published, declined to share pictures and his design details, but said the mehitzas were “airy” and did not bother anybody.
“They’re very nice,” said Rabbi Shimon Stern, spokesman for the Rabbinic Council for Public Transportation. “Very cute. It’s very practical.”
The mehitzas are designed to be portable and fit into a small box, which passengers can bring on the plane.
The airplane mehitzas come in the wake of other recent steps by the haredi community to avoid immodesty, such as the mehadrin bus lines and separate-sex sidewalks in Jerusalem’s Geula neighborhood.
Stern said the main reason for the latest recommendation was to enable haredi passengers to block out in-flight movies. Television sets are banned in haredi communities, and movies are forbidden. In aircraft with large movie screens, it is difficult to avoid watching the films."
Pro-Palestinian groups headed by Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, [JR: YNET is apparently incorrect, this is Adalah-NY] staged a protest rally outside an Israeli Ballet performance in the Flynn Theater in Burlington, Vermont, on Friday.Naomi Chazan must be extremely proud that her organization is funding those who actively encourage boycotts of Israel and Israel's National Ballet.
According to an Israel Radio report, four demonstrators eventually forced their way into the theater, waving signs saying that anyone who watched the performance was "supporting Israel's apartheid policy."
Company director Dan Rudolf alerted the theater's security personnel, as well as the local police, who promptly arrived at the scene and escorted the demonstrators outside.
The show resumed after a short intermission.
The Israel Ballet Company is currently touring the US as part of an official state campaign, and is scheduled to perform in Buffalo, Brookline and Washington.
[Source: Ynet]
Advocates for Palestinian rights have called for a boycott of the Israel Ballet, which is performing Sunday at Brooklyn College. The advocates said that there would be protests at the college’s Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts to denounce what they call Israel’s “apartheid and colonial policies,” part of a broader call by some critics of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians for a boycott of Israel in cultural and academic circles. The protest was announced on Friday by the group Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East. Israel’s Batsheva Dance Company faced similar protests during an American tour last year.Of course, the NIF CEO would rather you didn't know that NIF donations are going to
In recent weeks, some very angry — and wildly inaccurate — accusations have been leveled against the New Israel Fund, the philanthropic partnership largely responsible for the establishment of Israel’s progressive civil society. Not only have we been accused of enabling the hated Goldstone report, but the NIF’s president, former Knesset Deputy Speaker Naomi Chazan, has been grossly defamed and publicly caricatured in an incendiary and disgusting publicity campaign.Remember -- if you're part of the Israel’s progressive civil society, you
False arguments and dangerous demonization must not be allowed to stand, and the NIF has already acted to refute both. Israelis and the Jewish community worldwide remember how easily delegitimization led to political violence when Prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and it must be rejected quickly, in all its forms.
Israeli computer and telecommunications giant Comverse has unveiled a multi-sensual feature for cellphones.Tell me, do you really want to know what the person on the other end of of your call smells like?
Presented on February 16 at 2010 Mobile World Congress, Comverse's new feature will enable callers to send smells. Comverse hopes to convince mobile operators to purchase the application, which will absorb and transmit the scent of the caller's environment or cologne to the person he or she is calling, according to Globes online business magazine. The scent may also be used as identification of the caller. [a7]
Multi-sensual communications enables the caller to add the aroma of his or her environment or a personal scent to an SMS. The recipient will be able to identify the sender by his or her scent, or perhaps realize that the sender is in a cafe.Comverse Chief Innovation Officer Daphna Steinmetz said, "This is technology that in future will transmit molecules via the telephone. We can currently provide this as a pilot on just one Nokia handset." [globes]
A man in Israel with the same name as an alleged member of a hit squad that assassinated a top Hamas militant in Dubai said on Tuesday he was "angry, upset and scared" over what he called a misidentification.
Meanwhile Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs said three alleged Irish citizens that Dubai authorities claim helped with the assassination do not exist.
Dubai police listed "Melvyn Adam Mildiner", a British national, as one of 11 Europeans suspected of killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a luxury hotel in the Gulf emirate last month.
Speaking in British-accented English, Melvyn Adam Mildiner, resident of a town near Jerusalem, told Reuters he had nothing to do with the assassination and had never been to Dubai.
"I woke up this morning to a world of fun," he said in a sarcastic tone, after Israeli newspapers splashed names and photos of the suspects distributed by Dubai.
"I am obviously angry, upset and scared - any number of things. And I'm looking into what I can do to try to sort things out and clear my name," he said in a telephone interview.
"I don't know how this happened or who chose my name or why, but hopefully we'll find out soon."
A photo of "Melvyn Adam Mildiner" released by police in Dubai did not match a picture of the Israel-based Mildiner on his Twitter social networking page, though it had some similar features.
"It's not me. Which is one silver lining on this entire story because at least I can point to it and say, 'Look, that's not me. It's not the picture that I have in my passport, and it's not the picture that I have on my face that I walk around with every day', Mildiner said.
"I have my passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody else in my family, and there's no Dubai stamps in it because I've never been to Dubai," he said.
Acknowledging that his name was uncommon, Mildiner said: "There's probably not many of us."
Meanwhile Ireland announced that the trio of alleged Irish passport-holders identified Monday in Dubai as Gail Folliard, Evan Dennings and Kevin Daveron do not appear in Ireland's records of legitimate passport-holders.
"We are unable to identify any of those three individuals as being genuine Irish citizens. Ireland has issued no passports in those names," the department said in a statement to The Associated Press.
The government says the Irish passport numbers publicized by Dubai authorities also are counterfeits, because they have the wrong number of digits and contain no letters.
A rabbinical forum dedicated to preventing sexual harassment within the national-religious sector issued an announcement Monday warning the public of prominent national-religious Rabbi Mordechai (Motti) Elon, who allegedly committed “acts in contradiction to the values of sanctity and morals.”The public statement from Takana is here, on their website. Within an hour, R' Motti Elon issued a statement that this was a case of "extortion"...and a press conference would be forthcoming. On the radio this morning, R' Motti's sister in law, Emuna Elon defended him on the radio:
According to Takana, after receiving complaints about Elon’s implicit sexual misconduct, the forum demanded of Elon to end all public activity, step down from any educational and managerial positions and cease conducting one-on-one counseling. The forum, composed of prominent national-religious rabbis and legal experts, refrained from making the affair pubic till this point in time in order to preserve the dignity of the complainants and the alleged perpetrator, the announcement said.
The rabbi had relocated from Jerusalem to the northern Moshava Migdal some four years ago, citing health reasons as the reason for the unexpected move.
However, the forum recently learned that Elon didn’t uphold all of the terms he committed to, the announcement said, and therefore was forced to air the story in order to “safeguard the public and prevent transgression.”
The hearing of testimonies in [ex-prime minister and on trial for major corruption and fraud] Ehud Olmert's trial on the Talansky, Rishon Tours and the Investment Center affairs, are scheduled to begin next Monday. Corb had been assigned to conduct the trial in court, and is the one who knows the prosecution's case best.Knowing full well how Israel completely and utterly prostates itself before the Judiciary, this was bound the generate the usual "don't you dare criticize Israel's judiciary" (with Nahum Barnea even comparing Corb's statement, to that of someone who threw their shoe at Chief Israeli Justice, Dorit Beinish.)
In a statement issued by the ministry, Corb said that "following the many reports in recent days, including many distortions targeting me, I am asking at this stage to take a short leave. I have already expressed to you [referring to Jerusalem Chief District Attorney Moshe Lador] and the media great sorrow at the damage I have caused by making use of a style that was out of place. I intend to find a way to clarify things in the coming days, and will do my best to correct the bad impression." (Haaretz)2. There are calls for Corb to be fired.
While on leave, Corb's case will be examined by the disciplinary department at the Civil Service Commission. If he is found to have committed serious violations, a complaint will be filed against him at the commission's disciplinary court. At the end of such a process, the court may opt to sanction Corb - which could range anywhere from a reprimand to dismissal. (Haaretz)3. And for the kicker...Olmert who has been desperately trying to get a delay for his trial, and his defense counsel's previous requests were already rejected by the court...has "magically" managed to get the State Prosecutor to request a 3 month delay for Olmert's trial!
The State Prosecutor's Office has requested a three-month delay in hearing evidence in the corruption trial of former prime minister Ehud Olmert on Monday, following Sunday's meeting between State Prosecutor Moshe Lador and Deputy Jerusalem District Prosecutor Uri Corb. (Haaretz)Olmert's legal team are probably slapping themselves on the back over this perfectly executed "leak"...