Posts under ‘In the News’

Once again, I see the same dynamics in action. An Israeli posting something negative, but true, about Israel. It could be criticism of the government’s policies in the West Bank, about soldiers mistreating Palestinians at checkpoints, or about some cab driver making a racist comment against Arabs. Things that happens in Israel, unfortunately on a [...]

What? Haven’t you heard? Israel has turned into a police state. Censorship all over the place and people are afraid of talking about “the affair” lest they get thrown in jail. “The authorities” were considering renting out a Gulag in Siberia for offenders, but it’s almost summer here and spending July in a cooler place may be [...]

Looks like Israel is about to join the list of places where American photographer Spencer Tunick has taken one of his mass nude photographs. You can see his previous work here. Personally, I find his pictures somewhat disturbing. In my world, masses of naked bodies, especially when lying down like in this picture, are automatically [...]

Tornadoes are so rare in Israel most people don’t believe they exist here. In fact, they are so rare, your average Israeli doesn’t know the difference between a tornado and a hurricane and they two are almost synonyms here. So, when my brother-in-law from Kibbutz Ortal called us to say he was within tens of [...]

Some interesting people and “issues” in this season’s Big Brother in Israel. In my posts about Big Brother Men and Big Brother Women, I reviewed the “special” people. We had one guy with Tourrette syndrome, one girl who used to be a guy, one deaf person (and a bit crazy too), one Polaniya (Polish woman [...]

First of all: Ha! Told ya! I said in my last post that Daleet Leumi won’t be staying for long and indeed she was the first participant to leave the house. With that out of the way, I can continue with part two of my Big Brother participants post and this time let’s address the [...]

I confess, I am a reality shows addict – specifically Big Brother and Survivor in their Israeli versions. IsraeliDad is concerned about the effect this has on my brain, but I think he’s just being a cultural snob. I keep telling him these shows have intellectual value, mirroring key sociological (anthropological?) rifts in Israeli society. [...]

If you haven’t seen them yet, here are the famous zebras of the Gaza zoo: A recap, if you don’t want to watch the movie: Gaza has a small zoo. The zoo used to have two zebras, but alas both have starved to death (blame the Zionist opression here). The zoo can’t import new zebras [...]

I have always wondered about the root of the conflict between Lebanon and Israel. A tiny piece of land (Shaba farms) just doesn’t seem to justify the continuous bloodshed to me. Lebanon and Israel are actually a lot a like, and you’d think they’d get along well, but surprisingly this is a very hostile border. [...]

I was asked by a Facebook friend for my opinion on the Israeli organization of “Shovrim Shtika” or “Breaking the Silence“. For those who don’t know, this is a relatively new organization which aims at collecting testimonials from Israeli soldiers who have served in the Occupied Territories, i.e. the West Bank and Gaza, during the [...]