Postcard From Israel: Stormy Weather (Photos & Video)
This short film made by Oz Segev of Ma’ale Gamla last week, shows some of the swollen streams of the south and central Golan Heights which all drain into the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee).
‘Articles of Faith’: The Absence of Critical Thinking About ‘Settlements’
Those who insist that the "settlements" represent the biggest obstacle to peace should be asked to explain why their theory doesn't match with the history.
Postcard from Israel: Nachlaot
The picturesque Nachlaot neighbourhood in Jerusalem started out as what we might call today ‘social housing’. From 1875 onwards benefactors such as Moses Montefiore began building new neighbourhoods outside the walls of the Old City to house the growing Jewish population and relieve some of the overcrowding and squalor of the Jewish Quarter. Thus, Nachlaot is in fact a cluster of fused neighbourhoods, with each one originally having a specific ethnic character and its own synagogue.
How One British Paper Commemorated Int’l Holocaust Memorial Day
Spare us your Holocaust pieties and consider honoring Jews who are still among the living.
Abbas Announces 10-Month Moratorium on Jew-Hatred (Satire)
Imagine if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced a 10-month partial freeze on incitement and antisemitism in the West Bank in a bid to restart stalled peace talks with Israel.
Arabs Sending Children to Provoke and Be Killed by Israeli Soldiers
Placing innocent Palestinian children in potentially dangerous situations, cynically hoping for a media coup stemming from any overreaction by IDF soldiers, is indeed shameful. However, such provocations by the Tamimis pale in comparison to an antisemitic Palestinian political culture which consistently sends messages to their youth that martyrdom – dying, or even murdering Israeli Jews, to advance the Palestinian cause – is one of the most important political values they should aspire to.
Postcard from Israel – Hatzav
Drimia Maritima, or the Sea Squill, is known in Hebrew as Hatzav (from the word Hatzeva; quarrying, hewing or tunnelling) probably due to the ability...
Sounds Israeli: Ofra Haza
The late Ofra Haza sings "Jerusalem of Gold" in 1998.
Postcard from Israel: Machane Yehuda Market
Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem has its roots back in the late nineteenth century when it was known as Shuk Beit Ya’acov after the nearby neighbourhood of the same name which was established in 1885. Two years later, the Machane Yehuda neighbourhood was built and the market continued to grow. Under British Mandate rule the market was given a make-over, permanent stalls and roofing were built and the new name caught on.
Israeli Culture Wins at the United Nations
Many commentators on the far left scolded those who would suggest a connection between culture and success – imputing racism to such arguments.
Guardian Staff Perplexed by US, UK Support for Israel
Another ‘anti-Zionist head-exploding’ moment occurred when the U.S. House and Senate overwhelmingly passed non-binding resolutions backing “Israel’s right to self-defense.”
Postcard from Israel: The Haifa Flea Market
Definitely not on the standard list of tourist destinations in Israel, and less well-known than its counterpart in Yaffo (Jaffa), the flea market in down-town Haifa is well worth a visit whether you’re buying or just browsing. The market is open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and of course it is best to get there as early as possible – with well-honed haggling skills!
UNRWA Gaza Head Blames Anyone but Hamas
UNRWA Gaza chief Robert Turner’s “prescription” for saving Gaza’s Palestinians, set out in an article on the Guardian's Comment is Free site, is based on a severe case of historical myopia. For it’s the one word that Mr. Turner neglected to use in his anti-Israel screed that is in fact behind Gaza’s rapidly devolving state: Hamas.
Harriet Sherwood Completely Mischaracterizes Iran Sanctions Bill
The bill (by Senator Robert Menendez, along with 58 co-sponsors) has been accurately described by multiple media sources.
Guardian Misleads Readers on Israeli Druze
The war, if it comes, may not be a disaster, if it delivers Golan back into Syrian hands.
UK Writer Compares Security Barrier to the Warsaw Ghetto Wall
The Observer (sister publication of the Guardian) published a review, by film critic Philip French, of the film '5 Broken Cameras,' a documentary produced by a Palestinian about his “resistance” to Israel’s security fence in Bil’in. In in addition to the story’s predictable Palestinian narrative, French writes that "Inevitably, seeing this barrier going up in Israel we think of the wall surrounding the Warsaw ghetto, the one that appeared overnight in Berlin…."
Ahmadinejad more Popular than Obama? Iranian News Agency Tricked by the Onion
The satirical news website, The Onion, published a story on shocking poll results, showing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - who is widely viewed with disdain in the U.S - to be more popular than President Barack Obama among rural whites in the U.S. The Iranian FARS News Agency was quick to republish the obviously fake story. When the agency realized its mistakes they claimed that "if a free opinion poll is conducted in the US, a majority of Americans would prefer anyone outside the US political system to President Barack Obama and American statesmen."
The Rocket Barrage on Southern Isael
Earlier, I took part in a briefing with Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich of the IDF Spokesman’s unit regarding the intensified rocket fire upon the south of Israel over the past few hours, which –at the time of writing – the Guardian has not yet seen fit to report. Lt. Col. Leibovich reported that 68 rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip in the past twelve hours. Two foreign nationals – farm workers from the Kissufim area – were critically wounded by rocket fire and three or four additional civilians are suffering from lighter injuries. Several homes have been damaged.
Postcard from Mount Tabor
Mount Tabor, standing 575 meters above sea level at the eastern end of the Jezreel Valley, is the site of the battle fought by Deborah and Barak against the Canaanite king Sisera, according to the Bible. Now it is the site of two monestaries, with three Bedouin villages nestled at its base.
Guardian’s Israel Correspondent Won’t Publish Hamas Brutality
On March 8, the Guardian published “International Women’s Day highlights hurdles obstructing women," (co-authored by 12 Guardian correspondents, including the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent, Harriet Sherwood), on the subjugation of women around the world. Harriet Sherwood not only ignored the egregious violation of womens’ rights in the Palestinian territories, but, instead, devoted 118 words to the alleged injustice meted out to a female Palestinian terrorist affiliated with Islamic Jihad held in an Israeli jail named Hana Shalabi.
Guardian Editorial Takes the Side of Morsi (or Mubarak?)
Even the Guardian's own writers criticized the Guardian's editorial.
How the British Media Covered Omar Misharawi’s Death
The damage done by the now iconic image of Misharawi clutching his slain child can not be ameliorated by even the clearest retractions.
The Obligation to Avoid Anti-Semitic Behavior
By comparison, whites who avoid evoking anti-black narratives and imagery in America, by and large don’t bemoan the so-called “restrictions” placed on their artistic or intellectual expression.
Postcard from Israel – Tel Megiddo
If the building which houses the ticket office and museum at Tel Megiddo national park seems somewhat incongruous to its surroundings – being more reminiscent of the style of an English country gentleman’s residence, with its chimney and paned windows, than of the local architecture – that is because it was built by the British army after its victory against the Ottomans, including at the Battle of Megiddo. So important was that battle that its Commander in Chief, Sir Edmund Allenby, was later awarded the title of 'Viscount of Megiddo.'
The Guardian’s Prisoner of the Day
Here’s what a Guardian reader casually glancing at the Palestinian “prisoner” wouldn’t have known.
Postcard from Israel: Bahan
Kibbutz Bahan in the Hefer Valley in central Israel is the site of a park named ‘Utopia' .
Let’s BDS Turkey!
Dear friends of the BDS movement, now is your chance to prove that you are not just shills for terrorists and Arab rejectionism.
The Foreign Media’s ‘Rightward Shift’ Never Happened
The Guardian and other foreign media invested heavily in promoting their desired political narrative of a Jewish state lurching dangerously towards the right.
Guardian Wants 5 Million Returned to Where They Never Lived
The number of actual Palestinian refugees from the Arab-Israeli War, out of the initial 750,000 or so after the war, is estimated to be closer to 30,000.
Defamation: Combating the Assault on Israel’s Legitimacy at the Guardian
Benjamin Pogrund, a former South African journalist, and anti-Apartheid activist, who made Aliyah in 1997 and founded Yakar’s Centre for Social Concern, published a piece at ‘Comment is Free’ on Oct. 25 titled ‘Israel has moved to the right, but is not an apartheid state.' Pogrund refuted the recent poll on Israeli views of Arabs, and the profound distortion of the poll results, which smeared Israel with the charge of apartheid, by Gideon Levy of Ha’aretz.