Miracle:NYT praises Israel

When I see an editorial in the New York Times on Israel, I usually cringe.  The New York Times traditionally pitches a curve ball to Israel. So imagine my surprise when today’s editorial praised Israel.

The New York Times said, “Israel is increasingly willing to explore conversations with states and groups Washington would prefer to ignore and isolate.” Further down…”Israel is still right to try.”

I never thought that I would see the day when the New York Times used right and Israel in the same sentence.

Shark in the desert

 The NewYorker profiles Las Vegas casino tycoon Sheldon Adelson and his activities in israel this week. The NakedIsraeli generally does not focus on Jews in the Diaspora but I will make an exception for the ”Richest Jew in the world” as Mr. Adelson likes to call himself.

 Sheldon Adelson is a maelstrom of activity in Israel partially because he wants to bring casino gambling here over the objections of many.  He is the publisher of the right wing rag Israel Ha Yom which is unofficially the house organ for former PM Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu. During Peres’ Presidential conference, it was Sheldon Adelson not an Israeli that sat in the front row with President Bush, Olmert, and Peres.  To be fair, Adelson has made outsized donations to the Birthright program and Yad Vashem.

 I do not like that Adelson press his right wing views on the populace without paying taxes. No taxation without representation was the rallying cry for the Boston Tea party. I say, ” No representation without taxation”.

iPhone, phone Israel

Steve Jobs has almost mythic reputation as a CEO. Here’s why. The Israel Iphone Facebook group wrote Jobs to convince him to bring the iPhone to Israel. He took the time to personally write back.

He’s still cool even though his answer is wrong. He wrote, “The iPhone does not currently support right to left text. Don’t you think that will severely limit its success in Israel?”

Steve, our Arab neighbors also write right to left. Apple has signed selling agreements for the iPhone in Egypt. Jordan, and Qatar among others.

 

Massacre of athletes at the Munich Olympics revisited

Although I do not agree, I sometimes understand why the rest of the world does not always see hi tech powerhouse Israel as the victim. But a German sports lecturer has gone too far when he blames the Israeli Olympic athletes themselves for their massacre at the Munich Olympics in 1972.

He unreasonably claims that the athletes knew the security at the Olympic Village was poor and sacrificed themselves for the interests of Israel.

To me, this feels similar to blaming the rape victim for the attack by her rapist.

defending Mel Gibson’s drunken tirade

I often mention anti Semitism on this blog because I was a minor victim of it. When I was in high school, fellow students throw pennies at me while yelling “jew catch the pennies. You love money.” My college boyfriend’s family belonged to a club in Palm Beach that did not allow Jews to even eat there as guests of members.

Having said all that, I am not in favor of harshly judging drunk people.  I am more concerned with what people say sober. In that vein, I did not believe that a story of the Holocaust should be silenced to punish Mel Gibson.

In Ynet, I wrote a funny piece about my contact with the producer of the proposed film

 

Make divestment not war

Before we considering going to war with Iran, I am all for the world cutting their economic with the terrorist nation. Today, British Treasury Secretary Kitty Ussher has warned companies about doing business with Iran and Pakistan. She said that British firms trading with companies in these countries could be assisting money laundering and terror financing.

Israelis asking where is the iPhone?

Israel, aka Silicon Wadi, considers itself the second most important tech center next to Silicon Valley.   As self respecting techies, many Israelis need or at least covet an iPhone. Although Apple signed selling agreements with more than 70 countries including our Arab neighbors, it did not sign one in Israel.

Thousands of Israelis have banded together on Facebook to protest to Apple. In my opinion. they are protesting to the wrong corporation.  I suspect that the two major cellphone providers in the country, Cellcom and Partner, have refused to make a deal with Apple because they do not want to subsidize the cost of the iPhone.

The problem with living in a county with no competition and many oligopolies is that service and new product introductions suffer.  Each of them has more than 30% of the nation’s mobile phone calls. The iPhone probably will not bring them much more.

UNICEF rejects an Israeli’s money.

There can never be enough money for the world’s children. Although it takes money from the Islamic Relief Organization, UNICEF has taken the trouble to announce that it is stopping to take donations from Israeli billionaire, Lev Leviev. Their ostensible reason is that one of the companies in his vast empire builds Jewish homes in the Palestinian terroritories. The ADL complains that this is anti-Semitism.

Chris Martin of Coldplay an Anti-Semite??

I was shocked that Chris Martin, frontman for the rock group Coldplay, said this during his interview with Rolling Stone. “It sounds silly to say it now, but when you’re a kid you think, ‘I’m going to burn in hell for eternity if I like other guys or if I marry someone Jewish’.

I know that his wife, Gwyneth Paltrow, is partially Jewish. I just never thought that people would think and let alone say out loud to a major magazine that they thought one would burn in hell for marrying a Jew.  Although there is nothing wrong with being homosexual, I was surprised that marrying a Jew was compared to that.  

Thumbs up for the Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade.

The heads of the 3 major religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, agree on something. They are all against a gay pride parade being held in Jerusalem. They want the parade only to be held in Tel Aviv.

But I am proud that in the only democracy in the Middle East that the gays can march even in the holy city of Jerusalem. This is certainly a more enlightened attitude than the Iran President Ahmadinejad who claims that there are no homosexuals in Iran.