Media

The author of “The Color Purple,” refused to authorize a Hebrew translation of her prize-winning work, citing what she called Israel’s “apartheid state.” She added: "It is my hope that the non-violent BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement, of which I am part, will have enough of an impact on Israeli civilian society to change the situation."

A scoop by nature is a "preliminary report." On the one hand, it has a huge impact, but on the other hand there's a risk that the report is partially or completely false. Anyone who reads a scoop on the Internet, knows it can be inaccurate or even not correct at all, and yet they all relate to scoop as news until it is refuted.

"Law and Order SVU" star Richard Belzer is in hot water over what he insists was a comic homage to the late Charlie Chaplin and not, say, an expression of his fealty to the Nazi tradition.

“AI intends to fund dozens of start-ups, bringing them on Aliya to build their dream," says David Goldberger, "starting at $500k per deal for the business launch.”

American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, fashion designer, and occasional professional wrestler David Arquette is in Israel to film a segment in the popular Travel Channel series "Mile High." On Monday he celebrated his bar mitzvah at the Wailing Wall.

In the "World Wonders Project" the "White City of Tel Aviv" is under the Israel category, but Jerusalem is presented as "Jerusalem, Asia," with no connection to Israel.

Four leading actors from the hit shows CSI:NY and CSI:Miami are touring Israel as guests of the Tourism Ministry. Jonathan Frederick Togo and Omar Benson Miller (stars of CSI: Miami) and Carmine Giovinazzo and AJ Buckley (stars of CSI: NY), will visit Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea and Masada and the Galilee.

These days, the dream of Aliya often goes hand-in-hand with the dream of making it big in hi-tech. An increasing number of immigrants are entrepreneurs. A group of highly educated, creative and motivated brainiacs is at the core of what is now commonly referred to as “Start-up Nation.” The maker of a new quiz app is a new Israeli company, run by American olim, and vying to become the next big thing.

More than 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jewish men packed Citi Field in Flushing, Queens, on Sunday, for the Asifa, a gathering decrying the dangers of the Internet. Organizers have also rented the nearby Arthur Ashe Stadium for the overflow crowd. Event spokesman Eytan Kobre said the group wants to teach families how to use technology responsibly.

Press TV, Iran's television network, broadcasting in English round-the-clock, on Sunday published an interview with Mark Glenn, of The Crescent and Cross Solidarity movement, who said that Israel is the only regime that “has threatened to take the entire world down in a nuclear Armageddon in the instance that her precious experiments in Jewish self-rule in the Middle East ceases to materialize.”

American clothing retailer Urban Outfitters is in hot water for selling a yellow T-shirt with a patch over the breast pocket that looks like a designer's idea of how to improve that old fashioned yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. Make it blue, for one thing, yellow is soooo 1941.

An online petition headlined "Tell the International Olympic Committee: 40 Years is Enough!" has garnered thousands of signatures. It is urging the Committee to honor at the Olympic Games this summer, the memory of 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the 1972 Olympics in Munich by the Palestinian terrorist group Black September.

In order to provide a proper response to the extreme left wing and anti-Israel ambushes staged against the security forces in Judea and Samaria, Tazpit News Agency is establishing a team of photographers who will have a presence at all flashpoints in Israel.

If you're an American Jew looking for an Independence Day recipe, Ha'aretz in English is a safe place for you. You'll find there a discussion of the perfect hamburger, as befits the national holiday of outdoors barbecuing. But click over to the same paper's Hebrew language website, and you'll discover an additional component, besides beef: goat cheese.

Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon on Sunday presented "Christians of the Holy Land," a piece of complex, anti-Israeli propaganda that was clearly intended to cause Israel damage among US Christians. It throws unfair accusations at Israeli Jews—who are essentially blameless in the story of the vanishing Arab Christians—while ignoring the role of Muslims in pushing Christians out of Bethlehem.

Earlier this week, Meretz Chairperson MK Zahava Gal-On had a severe case of hoof and mouth disease when, while speaking to the Army Radio, she said it would be intolerable for Israel's future to be decided by a bunch of "Yehudonim from Brooklyn," or, if you will, the good, old Polish term "Zhidki." Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman's Anglo supporters told the Jewish Press Gal-On should apologize for the slur and for equating the right-wing coalition to the Nazis.

The latest Israeli Police figures: 43 activists altogether have been detained at Ben Gurion airport. Out of this number, 31 were transported to the Givon detention facility for processing and 12 were put on returning flights. Nine Israeli activists waving pro-Palestinian banners were detained for questioning.

An April 13 short item on the number of inmates in the NYC jail system who receive kosher meals was headlined: "20 inmates fat on glatt." Now, is this a suggestion that City jail kosher meals be made more healthful, perhaps with larger salad portions and less fatty, albeit kosher, meat – or was this a callused NY Post insult to Jewish criminals who are so insolent, they won't even eat pig like a decent Christian convict?

Israeli security forces are preparing for a "fly-in" of as many as 2000 pro-Palestinian provocateurs, who will be trying to push their way in front of the cameras at Ben Gurion airport on Sunday. Those activists who will make it through, coming in mostly from Europe, will be turned around and sent right back to their ports of origin, but not before being handed a leaflet expressing the sentiments of their brief hosts.

In an explosive letter, Hollywood screenwriter Joe Eszterhas ("Basic Instinct," "Jagged Edge") writes Mel Gibson, Joe is accusing Mel of “hating Jews” and of using him to deflect his anti-Semitic reputation. Eszterhas wrote that Gibson, the director of a sadomasochistic flick about how the Jews killed you-know-who, never actually intended to make the movie about Jewish heroism, titled “The Maccabees.”