I have met Elie Wiesel and have great admiration for his work  It has special resonance with me because I am the child of Holocaust Survivors.

I may be pilloried for this, but Elie Wiesel seems to  have lost his way.  At a Portfolio magazine forum at the 21 club yesterday, Elie Wiesel said, “We thought Madoff was god.”  Elie, there is only one god and she is in the heavens. I can not believe that I, a secular Jew, have to remind the religious Wiesel where god is.

As a money manager for 28 years,  I can say this unequivocally, “Money managers are never god.” I hate to admit this about my profession, but typically money managers are the farthermost thing from God.  

Elie Wiesel’s comments echo my own to the Palm Beach Post about the Jewish Madoff investors. “Jews believed in Madoff more than God.”  Sadly, the people of the book have become the people of the putter.

Last night, Paul McCartney gave an incredible concert in Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv. 45, 000 Israelis attended the event dubbed as the Israeli Woodstock.  It was magical.  Living in a country where death is often a daily occurence, it was wonderful to see so many Israelis letting lose and enjoying themselves.

My hats off to Paul McCartney for performing even after receiving death threats.

I am laughing at the media reports that all four of the Beatles  were supposed to perform in Israel, but the show was cancelled when religious and political leaders decried its likely corrupting influence on Israeli youth.  The original leaders and the majority of citizens of Israel at that time were secular acolytes. Unlike our wimpy leaders now,  there is no way that they would have bowed to the pressure of the rabbis.  At that time, Israeli society was even more libertine that it is today.

In 1965, the young country was only 17 years old. They did not have the foreign currency reserves to pay the Beatles, but were too ashamed to admit it. So they made up the religious controversy.  I learned this from one of the senior lawyers in the country.

The answer is apparently yes. After Mahmoud Ahmadinenjad gave a speech to the UN dripping in anti-Semitic rhetoric, the other heads of state stood up and clapped. How dare they?

When you read the speech, replace the word Zionist with the word black or women and imagine the response.  Jesse Jackson and Hilary’s 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling would be foaming at the mouth that all the world leaders did not walk out of the General Assembly en masse.

These are the highlights or rather lowlites of the speech.  (The entire speech is linked to above.)

The dignity, integrity and rights of the American and European people are being played with by a small but deceitful number of people called Zionists. Although they are a miniscule minority, they have been dominating an important portion of the financial and monetary centers as well as the political decision-making centers of some European countries and the US in a deceitful, complex and furtive manner.

This means that the great people of America and various nations of Europe need to obey the demands and wishes of a small number of acquisitive and invasive people. These nations are spending their dignity and resources on the crimes and occupations and the threats of the Zionist network against their will.

Today, the Zionist regime is on a definite slope to collapse, and there is no way for it to get out of the cesspool created by itself and its supporters

The ruling party, Kadima, held elections yesterday to replace scandal ridden Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.  Only 74, 000 people out of a population of 7 million were eligble to vote.  In order to vote this election, you need to join the party and pay a fee, sort of like a poll tax. America abolished the poll tax years ago because it was discriminatory.

The winner, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, received 16, 936 votes ( 43.1% of the total).  To put it in perspective, more people are going to the Paul McCartney concert.  She bested her opponent by only 431 votes.  

Tzipi Livni has 42 days to form a government or there will be elections.  I like Tzipi Livni.  For democracy’s sake I hope that she can not form a government. I do not want a prime minister that has only be voted into office by 16,000 people. Maybe it is the American in me, but I can get used to the British style of democracy.

By their inherent nature, democracies are messy. I do not mean to pick on Israel.  I am also not so proud of the United States’ record of democracy.  Our last President was crowned by the Supreme Court with some of the justices having been chosen by his father. This kind of interconnectiveness are traits most often shown by a monarchy. Basically, there is something wrong with a democracy where I have to learn the word chad.

All day long I have seeing everywhere on the net the article about Alvin Ailey dancer, Abdur Rahim Jackson, and I am mortified. When the dancer landed in Israel after a long, exhausting flight, the Israel security forces took him aside and asked him to dance to prove his identity.  I can understand how humiliating this appeared. Israel should have apologized for the inconvienence but explained the need.

 I defend the security forces in this case. We have the right to protect our borders. Unfortunately, Israel is a victim of many terrorist plots. Only with overzealous security do the security forces thwart many attacks.

Jackson was not targeted simply because he was a Muslim. My friend Todd, white, non Jewish and  one of the top 200 lawyers in the US, came to visit me twice in Israel last year. On his second trip with his wife and three daughters, he was separated questioned by the security forces for hours. They did not understand why he was coming to Israel twice in one year. They were also suspicious due to weird route to Israel due to frequent flyer miles.

I can not undo what has happened to Abdur. But I can invite him to dinner on me. I and my friends extend a warm invitation to Mr. Jackson. We will show you the best of Tel Aviv and hopefully erase the bad memories from the airport. 

For those that are always nattering about branding Israel, they missed a golden opportunity to show the hospitality of Israel.

We need to get a real English paper in Israel not the right wing piece of crap that the Jerusalem Post is.  Please just say no. Stop buying the newspaper.

I drew the line at Daniel Pipes editorial that called Obama a Muslim because his absentee father was a Muslim. The Jerusalem Post has to stop printing these racist rumors. It is making Jews look bad.

Why should this historic American elections be about us? It is not always about us.

Jeff Pulver, a good friend of Israel, is the father of VOIP. Check out the Pulver order. He has been involved in the telecommunications for thirty years and many of those companies are in Israel.

It is appropriate that I met Jeff Pulver the same week as the anniversary of MLK’s “I have a dream speech.” Jeff is a dreamer. Even by writing this post, I am violating one of Jeff’s tenents for success.  Ignorance is a key factor in entrepeneurial success. He wants people that are too ignorant to know that something will not work.

Luck has played a big role in his life. He sold his business for $60 million on September 10, 2001.

The Naked Israeli promised you a transparent look at Israel. It has been widely reported in the media that a four year old girl is missing and was alleging murdering by her grandfather, Ronnie Ron, and mother, Marie Pizem. As gruesome as this murder is, I am ashamed to say that this does not surprize me. The only suprise is that is has not taken this long to happen.

Israel is not the friendly, caring country that it would like the world to think it is. Maybe, the internet and its isolating effect has spread like a virus through the country. I hardly know any of my neighbors.

There is a saying in Israel. Love the Aliyah ( the immigration) hate the immigrants. Israelis are not kind to new immigrants. Rose was originally from France.

I hope that this shakes up the country and people start caring for each other again.

May Rose rest in peace.

 I am Democrat but I am thrilled that Sarah Palin is on the ticket. She is the mother of five children. That is enough experience for me. Negotiating with Putin can not be as hard as dealing with a tired and cranky two year old. Besides as governor in Alaska, she worked with the oil companies; not an easy task.

I am pro Choice but it is not the issue that defines me.  Women can not continue to be prisoners of our uterus. It is far more important that women advance in the workplace.

Is Palin, Dan Quayle in a skirt? I do not think so. Quayle, Senator of Indiana, came from one of the most prominent and wealthy families in Indiana. His family connections helped him become Senator. Palin has the opposite story. She fought the most politically entreched family in Alaska to become the governor. Her warmth and charisma not family connections melted Alaskans.

Will I vote for her? No. I only vote for the top of the ticket. It is too morbid to vote for VP. She will only get into power if he dies. But I have a lot of respect for McCain for putting her on the ticket.

Much to my own surprise, I found myself at the Nefesh B Nefesh first international Jewish bloggers conference in Jerusalem. As someone whop disdained pep rallies even for the high school football team, I had vowed to never go to another one. But despite the ra ra sis boom ba cheerleading, I enjoyed myself. It was great to meet the faces behind internet institutions such as Janglo.

The enthusiasm of the new Olim was infectious even to this old and cynical immigrant. It was clear that the new immigrants that came with Nefesh B Nefesh and attended the conference were happy and had a good transition to Israel. Along with giving blogging tips, the conference was geared to providing information that Olim can use.

Sometime blogger former Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu kicked off his talk with a complaint about the time that blogging takes. Most of us could agree. Several success bloggers said that the secret to their prolific blogging was no sleep.

Netanyahu spoke about electoral reform and urged Israel to adopt direct elections like the United States. Although it is clear to everyone that Israel can not continue having governments lasting two and half years, I am not sure that the electoral system of the United States should be held up as an example to anyone. A system that elects Bush twice and requires me to learn the word chad due to the tight Presidential race in Florida has some problems of its own.

Of course, Netanyahu had to throw some red meat to this mostly religious and right wing crowd. He promised an undivided Jerusalem if elected Prime Minister. Even with that promise, many in the room joked that Netanyahu was too left for them. .

Nefesh B nefesh has already brought 15,000 people on Aliyah. Over time, they will become a major force in elections.

Zavi Apelbaum, director of the brand management team of the Foreign Ministry was the next featured speaker. Everyone was all ears.  One of the favorite hobbies of those of us that make Aliyah from English speaking countries is the blood sport of knocking Israeli Hasbara (outreach).

I, for one, was delighted that the Israeli government had embraced marketing to such a degree that they had a director of brand management. Many of us never thought that this day would come. It may seem antithetical to some that a country has to be sold at all or like a widget but the majority of the world does not wake up in the morning and say that they want to come to Israel on vacation. Marketing has to place those thoughts in their heads.

Zavi convinced the conference participants that the Israeli government finally understands that the proper branding of Israel is important not only due to the combat and media wars with the Palestinians, but also because it will pay economic dividends in terms of tourism, trade etc. It seems that the Sacha Baron Cohen and the movie “Borat” played a role. Israel did not want to be branded like Kazakhstan by a Borat imitator.

She reported on the results of some market surveys on Israel taken in the United States. Well educated non Jewish participants were asked to describe many countries as a house and the activities within the house. There was a stark contrast between the two houses of Italy and Israel.

The Italian house was describes by survey participants as warm and inviting, pizza was served, wine was drunk, and residents of the house were playing cards. When asked to describe the Israel house, the participants threw out words such as concrete. The black participants feared that they would not be welcomed in the house of Israel. No one could name a food eaten in Israel.

It was the only house surveyed where there were no women in the house. Zavi acknowledged how weird this was, “You would think that women would be pictured in a house as that it their traditional domain.” She also noted, “This is particularly bad because these survey participants are from the United States, the country friendliest to Israel.”

Based on this compelling research, the idea of branding the country of Israel has moved forward. Zavi gave two examples of successful branding. The symbol of the Big Apple not only appeals to tourists coming to New York but New Yorkers themselves have adopted it. Zvia said, “You can see the Big Apple logo on stores all over New York. It is important to create a brand that the people themselves can relate to or the branding will not be successful.”

I always thought that the apple was just a fruit. But I learned that drawing from Adam and Eve in the bible it is a symbol of temptation to many. The illusion to sin is part of the logo and slogan “Big Apple.”

Zavi further elaborated, “The branding has to embrace both the good and bad of the location. “ Las Vegas has a reputation as being a little bit naughty. “The slogan what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas plays on that,” said Zavi

Israel is about to embark on branding the country. The finance ministry has allocated money in the budget for it. Israeli has signed this month with a London firm, Acanchi, to do the branding. They will meet with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni next month. Anachi has done work for Britain, the blue mountains of Australia, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Northern Ireland, Belfast, Zambia, Wales, and the Dominican Republic.

Let’s hope that all of this good work is not derailed by the upcoming elections.

One of the sponsors of the conference was Sun Microsystems. Edward Resnick, manger of start ups and emerging markets EMEA, told me about a new Sun program for startups.  Sun is providing start ups in 9 countries, mostly in the web 2.0, arena with intellectual property support and huge discounts on Sun products. Israel is one of the countries. This kind of support can provide a big boost for a nascent stage company.

If you are a blogger and can drink pro Israel cool aid for one night, then you should put the second annual Jewish bloggers conference on your calendar for next year.

Originally published in Globes on August 25, 2008.