Oddly though, the 1949 Armistice Agreement line appears!

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Though as it was pointed out in the comments on Ouriel’s blog, the English maps are just a matter of time. If you type in an address in English in the Hebrew map section, it will take you to the proper address. Safe to say it is just a matter of time.

Now, if they only got that damn API working so we can really maximize the usage of the maps. Again, just a matter of time I suppose.

It turns out that Israel takes on different appearances depending on whose eyes it’s viewed through. An early twenty-something steps off the plane and sees through wide eyes a sun-kissed land filled to brimming with young olive skinned honeys filling out olive-toned uniforms in all the right places, deliciously greasy buckets of shwarma meat seductively rotating on their spits, glistening bottles of Goldstar and milky glasses of arak, and idyllic kibbutzim whose apparent main agricultural product isn’t exactly found in the SuperSol, all set to the exotic high-velocity throat music of modern Hebrew. A thirty-something longtime resident of Israel sees exactly the same thing, except it’s through the windshield of a somewhat sensible sedan as he drives his toddler to daycare. It’s all about perspective, and to understand how one perspective slowly but surely evolves into another, you have to understand how one falls in love in Israel and stays there.

• 1974. Was born.

• 1982. The son of my chazzan (cantor) visited my synagogue while on leave from the IDF. I was somewhat in awe.

• 1984. When I was ten a friend returned from a summer trip to Israel. I recall asking if there were any amusement parks there. She asked her father, and he said there was one called “Ferris Wheel” in Rishon Leztion. Israel had suddenly become an appealing place for me to visit. I enjoyed Dollywood, so I figured I’d enjoy Israel too.

• 1986. Mrs. Osmon, my Israeli Hebrew teacher at Hebrew school, had it in for me and became one of my childhood enemies. She did not endear me to Israel.

• 1987. Two Israeli students visited my Hebrew school and brought with them a cassette tape of Israeli rap. I ran like DMC.

• 1986 – 1990. Through my involvement in USY, my connection to and knowledge of Israel grew. Fought incessantly with leftist teachers at my high school about Israel. Digested every book possible about Israel to use as ammunition, Exodus included. Saw movie. Had crush on Karen Hansen Clement. Worried about Israel and was glued to CNN during the Gulf War. The chazzan from my synagogue went to volunteer. Was in awe.

• 1991. Visited for the first time as a participant on USY Poland Seminar/Israel Pilgrimage. Holocaust bad. Israel good. Refused to wear sandals. Drank a lot of Kinley. Was in awe of the IDF.

• 1994. Ms. Carmel, my Israeli Hebrew teacher in college, had it in for me and became one of my adulthood enemies.

• 1994 – 1997. Became heavily involved in pro-Israel activism on the campus of SUNY Albany. Many debates with Anti-Zionists and Israel-haters. By the time I left they were still Anti-Zionists and Israel-haters. Started to hate myself. Was in awe of all of friends who made aliyah and served in the IDF. Decided that I too want to serve in the IDF.

• 1997 -1998. Made Aliyah. Got drunk a lot. Ate kubbe soup for the first time. Rejoiced. Enjoyed hummus as a meal. Naomi, my Hebrew teacher at ulpan, did not have it in for me. Left ulpan early to be drafted into the IDF. Served in the Armored Corps. Learned to love, then hate and finally respect tanks. Got dirty. Wasn’t as a good shot as I thought I was. Spent Israel’s 50th anniversary on guard duty. Thought that was cool. Lost 30 pounds. Began a life long relationship with baby wipes. Gained perspective. Listened to Berry. Met my future wife.

• 1999 – 2007. Bourekas, majadra, meorav yerushalmi. Cremshnitz, za’atar, Golan apples. Lahmajun, sabich, samboosak. Hummus. Worked at a myriad of start-ups. All failed. Not my fault. Got married. Strong relationship. Worked in print journalism and then ISRAEL21c. Learned that Israel is hi-tech and cures diseases. Started business. Business succeeds. Had baby. Was in awe. Baby succeeds. Named her Tzofia after my favorite line of Hatikvah. Am in awe.

• 2008. Hate the politicians. Left and Right. Secular and Religious. Frustrated with the leadership. Demand change. Understand why they don’t but wishing our greatest minds would run this country. Love my family. Love my friends. Love my country. Want to help fix it. Hummus still delicious.

The 60 Bloggers project is co-production of Jewlicious.com and the Let My People Sing Festival. It is published daily for 60 days to celebrate Israel’s 60 birthday.

Former Stone Roses lead singer Ian Brown who once took a vow never to perform in Israel, because “he doesn’t agree with the government’s regime” will be coming for one performance in the end of May.

The former STONE ROSES frontman is close friends with Israeli pop star Nimrod Levy (editors note: who?), who advised the ONE LOVE hitmaker to stay away from his homeland.

Brown says, “Nimrod has told me it isn’t safe to me to go over there. Nimrod told me that it isn’t safe to be in a club, in a city or in the country.

“Palestine is the biggest open-air prison in the world.

“Israel is a brutal regime, but if I didn’t play countries where I didn’t agree wit the regime, I’d never have played a show.

“I can say that without worrying. Let’s put it this way, I haven’t noticed any Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) agents outside my front door.”

Source.

He followed last year with this gem of a song called “Illegal Attacks” which featured these quite silly lyrics which could have been written by a undergraduate poetry major with an anti-war fetish at a bad liberal college:

So what the fuck is this UK
Gunnin’ with this US of A
In Iraq and Iran and in Afghanistan

Does not a day go by
Without the Israeli Air Force
Fail to drop it’s bombs from the sky?

How many mothers to cry?
How many sons have to die?
How many missions left to fly over Palestine?
‘Cause as a matter of facts
It’s a pact, it’s an act
These are illegal attacks
So bring the soldiers back
These are illegal attacks
It’s contracts for contacts
I’m singing concrete facts
So bring the soldiers back

What ever happened to metaphors and allusions in tunes? You can read the rest of the lyrics and watch the video here. And yes, that is Sinead O’Connor singing background vocals. Sinead of the famous “Sharing Jerusalem: Two Capitals for Two States” debacle of 1997.

I love the Stone Roses as much as the next guy (really, an incredible band), but I will not be attending Ian Brown’s show. First of all, Ian Brown is not the total sum of the Stone Roses and if the lyrics above even remotely represent his current body of work, I think I’d find listening to the sounds of my own bowel movements more appealing.

AN AMERICAN HIPPIE IN ISRAEL. Apparently seen by a few people in a few late night showings in Tel Aviv in the seventies. Never released beyond that.

Yes, an American Hippie in Israel. Horrific dialogue, horrendous direction, LSD soaked scenes….oh just watch it.

But be warned, there is nudity, violence and killer mimes.

And robots being hit with a giant sledgehammer.

Seriously.

Please clarify, does he say “A push of a button and we are turned into wild animals or wild dynamos? Because wild dynamos would be that much more awesome.

DVD release is coming soon. Viewing at my house.

What is your favorite line from the trailer?

Enter Ilan Harari, Lod’s current Mayor who was appointed after Benny Regev was removed due to rampant corruption. Regev, highly influenced by Rudy Giuliani, has a plan. Increase visible police presence, security cameras and set up roadblocks in the town to prevent junkies from coming in. A decent plan, but when 1 out of 130 residents of your town has a drug file with the Police the cards are stacked against you. (More here)

Enter Ikea. According to today’s Globes (Israel’s daily business paper) the PMO has offered 3-4 Million shekels (roughly one million dollars) towards the infrastructure of the building should IKEA choose to open in Lod.

At a meeting held on October 16, 2005 (parallel to IKEA Israel’s negotiations with the Rishon LeZion municipality), with the then mayor of Lod Benny Regev, Avishai Cohen, then head of the PMO Division for Coordination, Follow-Up and Control, said the state would give the project a “green track,” and that “it would not be a problem for the division to attend to the necessary business with the Ministries of Interior an Industry, Trade and Labor regarding the Investment Promotion Center and discounts for superstores.”

A document obtained by “Globes” reveals that the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) has been promoting the opening of a branch of Swedish home furniture chain Ikea in Lod and even offered IKEA Israel various benefits, including NIS 3-4 million in aid through the Lod Municipality, which would be used to develop a superstore in the city.

Cohen also declared at the meeting that, “beyond that, we will, as a rule, be on your side.” He went on to say that the PMO could not be of help with regard to discounts to employers since these are usually given only in frontline regions, but suggested a way round this. “We’ll find a special way in which to help a project of this scale. Instead of giving grants, the municipality will receive a one-time budget for infrastructures of NIS 3-4 million.”

(link)

I believe that opening a branch of Ikea in Lod would be a godsend for the community. It will provide hundreds (potentially thousands) of jobs and bring hundreds of thousands of shekels in revenue to the struggling town. It will also be the impetus for other businesses to open nearby. One just has to look at Ikea in Netanya as an example. Since opening, numerous specialty supermarkets, cafes, restaurants and other stores have opened within the vicinity. Opening Ikea in Lod will without a doubt create a snowball effect that will only have a positive influence on the city.

If Times Square can be cleaned up, why can’t Lod? Granted, I’m not an urban planner nor a criminologist, but my gut feeling tells me this is a great idea. Lod is easily accessible from both Jerusalem and Tel Aviv (direct train!). And soon with the advent of the southern part of Road 6, Beersheva.

What do you think? Would the opening of Ikea in one of Israel’s most criminal cities help the city or just backfire?

My dear friend Yochai sends his two of his children to the Gesher Al Hawadi (Giser Al Hawadi/Bridge Over the Valley) school, created in 2003 is the first (and currently only) Jewish/Arab school in Israel located in an Arab Village (Kfar Kara). It is part of a network of bi-lingual, bi-cultural schools called Yad B’ Yad (Hand in Hand) and it serves to bring Israeli Jewish and Israeli Arab children from all over the Wadi Ara region closer through education.

Please read an article about the school here.

Financial support for this cause is mandatory for its survival and as well as for making it available to any and all interested parties.

There is currently a “Giving Challenge” on Facebook. There is a daily award of $1000 dollars for the cause with the most unique donors for that day. Just yesterday, a cause with 38 donors won the challenge. We figured that since tomorrow is Christmas day, Internet traffic will be low, so if we mobilize we’ll be able to easily win the daily prize. This contest will continue through February 1st when they will award $50,000 to the cause with the most unique donors. If you have a Facebook account and are interested in joining the cause that is making a real difference in children’s lives and can donate $10 ( though more would be appreciated of course) please click here. Gesher Al Hawadi subsidizes tuition so all who want to participate can enroll. One thousand dollars will cover tuition for a student for four months. So again, your small donation will make a huge difference.

Remember, the key here is donate on December 25 (Christmas Day). One thousand dollars may not sound like a lot of money to you but rest assured it can go a long way for the school.

Click here to join the cause.

Check out these videos about the school. I warn you, the second is soooooo cheesy.

Back when I lived in Jerusalem I used to hit Mordoch in the Machaneh Yehuda market every Friday for a nice big hearty bowl of kubbe soup. Since moving to Modi’in, I go once every couple of weeks for lunch and certainly not as often as I would like. Now that winter has rolled in and we are experiencing our first cold weekend (well, at least cold for us) I can’t think of better time to make some homemade soup. Since I don’t have the hands, experience or time of a Kurdish grandmother I buy the kubbe (meat filled semolina dumplings) in the frozen section of our local supermarket. There are many brands and not all of them very good. I only go with Yasmin. Their kubbe are better than I have had in some restaurants, though not quite as good as the kubbe I used to get from my Kurdish neighbor many years ago. Since I don’t make the dumplings myself I put all my effort into the broth.

Red Kubbeh Soup (Marak Kubbeh Adom)

Olive oil, 3 Tablespoons
Onion, chopped
Tomato Paste, 3 Tablespoons
Chicken stock, 2 1/2 liters (most Israelis use water and add 2 Tablespoons of chicken bouillon)
Salt, 1 Teaspoon
Pepper, 1/2 Teaspoon
Sweet Paprika, 1 1/2 Teaspoons
Sugar, 1 Tablespoon
Swiss Chard, a bunch of leaves
Lemon Salt, 1 Tablespoon

You have a lot of options for vegetables. I’ve had kubbeh soup with zucchini, squash, celery, pumpkin, sweet potato, carrots and beets. Most include chard as well. Since it is now winter here in Israel, I really wanted a sweet and earthy taste so use a lot of beets, carrots and sweet potato. Chard is the most common green used in Kubbeh soup and its bitterness contrasts wonderfully with the sweetness of the vegetables.

Heat the oil in a soup pot and cook the onions, once cooked to your satisfaction add the beets and carrots. Marvel at the color the onions mixed with the beets. Cook for about five minutes and add the tomato paste stirring in order to prevent burning. I usually add the paprika at this point as well.

Add the stock and lower the flame. If you are using zucchini and chard, now would be the time to add it to the pot. Throw in the salt, pepper, sugar, lemon salt ( I don’t use this) and cook down about ten percent.

Add the kubbeh dumplings (either homemade or store bought) and cook for about twenty minutes. The broth will thicken a bit. Take off heat and once the soup is at room temperature, refrigerate and enjoy the next day. Sure you can eat it right away but soups are always better the next day. Especially kubbeh soup. The dumplings nicely absorb the flavor of the broth.

This is not an attempt to make the holy book more portable, but an exercise meant to arouse public interest in nanotechnology. It was part of an educational program developed at the Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute at Haifa’s Technion-Israel Institute of Technology aimed especially at young people….

The nano-Bible was produced at the Technion with a special computer program that can create any text on a tiny surface. The question of “How small can the Bible be?” is really about the larger question of how to store data in a very small space. In the future, nanotechnology experts hope to inscribe data on DNA or other bio-molecules…

They’ll be photographing it and blowing it up 10,000 times its original size and will display the nano-bible at the Technion. The original nano-bible, the size of a piece of crystal sugar will be on display next to photograph.

Source: The Jerusalem Post

How to make a plastic bag keeper.

R.E.M.’s music catalog dissected once song at a time.

“Now That The Day Is Over“, The Innocence Mission’s beautiful collection of lullabies, will make you want to burn your Baby Einstein collection. Buy it for your baby.

Keren Ann makes aliyah. At least one good thing came out of the Second Lebanon War.

Michael Chabon’s new book, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union is finally out. Chabon briefly mentions in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that the movie film version of Kavalier & Clay, which was going to star Tobey Maguire and Natalie Portman has “stalled, totally stalled.” Sigh.

Every child should have a plush Minotaur. I’ve ordered one for mine.

Keren Ann – Roses and Hips (MP3)