My country is arguably one of the smallest in the world. With little over 8000 sq. miles (20,000 sq. km) in size, it can fit 19 times inside California. Even more so, 60% of it is desert.
Nonetheless, it is one of the most successful and thriving countries on earth.
See if you can guess which country it is, by these interesting clues:
1. Here you can find the lowest point on earth, the world’s oldest continuously inhabited town and the oldest continuously used cemetery.
2. It is only 70 years old as an independent state, even though its history dates back more than 3000 years.
3. It has a major influence on the world’s advancements in science, technology and medicine, and has produced 12 Nobel Prize winners so far.
4. It is the only liberal democracy in a region of ongoing political turmoil.
5. The nation’s official language had not been spoken for centuries and was revived when the country was established.
6. All major religions consider this country to be the birthplace of the world.
These clues may have helped you understand that the country I’m referring to is of course, Israel, also known as the Holy Land.
I was born and raised in Israel, and that’s where I lunched my career as a professional photographer. I’ve been shooting my country’s incredible landscapes for over 10 years now.
Palestinian young men on Monday evening attacked Israeli buses carrying Jewish settlers on a main road in the north of al-Khalil city [Hebron] in the occupied West Bank.
Local sources told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) that young men threw Molotov cocktails at buses boarded by settlers as they were traveling on the main road near al-Arroub refugee camp in northern al-Khalil.
They added that the buses sustained some material damage during the attack, while Israeli media sources claimed it caused no vehicular damage or human injury.
This is more prominently reported in Palestinian media than in Israeli media. Because they are proud of their youths trying to burn dozens of Jews alive.
The mainstream media doesn’t deign this worthy of coverage at all, of course. They want their readers to see only the cute stone-throwers, not the firebombers.
I started Hebrew, which is why I’ve been dead on this blog, but I don’t think I can ever properly convey to you guys the sheer cultural whiplash of spending years learning Japanese from Japanese teachers and then trying to learn Hebrew from an Israeli
Japanese: you walk into class already apologizing for being alive Hebrew: you walk into class, the teacher insults you and you are expected to insult her back
Japanese: conjugates every single verb based on degree of intended politeness, nevermind keigo and honorifics Hebrew: Someone asked my teacher how to say “excuse me” and she laughed for several seconds before saying we shouldn’t worry about remembering that since we’ll never need to say it
Japanese: if you get one stroke wrong the entire kanji is incomprehensible Hebrew: cursive? script? fuck it do whatever you want, you don’t even have to write the vowels out unless you feel like it
Japanese: the closest thing there is to ‘bastard’ is an excessively direct ‘you’ pronoun Hebrew: ‘bitch’ translates directly
Fun fact: Israel has possibly the lowest power-distance metric of any culture in the world, while Japan has one of the highest. I didn’t realize that the CTO of my company was the CTO until somebody else told me, because everybody called him by his first name and engaged in mutual shit-talking/playful insults with him.
In Japan, even calling your boss by the wrong honorific is liable to get you in trouble.
And apparently there’s some sciencey cooperative venture going on between Israel and Japan in an official diplomatic capacity. I want to be a fly on the wall when Japanese and Israeli scientists work together.
The IDF on Sunday issued a new report featuring updated data on terror attacks in 2017.
According to the report, last year there were 99 terrorist attacks in Judea and Samaria or terrorist attacks carried out by terrorists from Palestinian Authority (PA)-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria. In 2016, there were 269 such terror attacks.
At the same time, while there was a decrease in the number of attacks, the number of Israeli victims has increased: In 2017, 20 Israelis were murdered in terror attacks and 169 were injured. In 2016, in comparison, 17 Israelis were murdered and 263 were injured.
The report also noted that 10,061,120 shekels of “terror money” were captured during IDF operational activity in Judea and Samaria in 2017. The money that was seized was meant to fund terrorist attacks or to reward terrorists who carried out an attack against Jews.
In 2017, security forces shut down 42 shops in PA-assigned areas of Judea and Samaria that were used to manufacture weapons. 455 illegal weapons were seized.
According to the figures released by the IDF Spokesperson, 3,617 terrorists were arrested in 2017, compared to 3,143 terrorists who were arrested in 2016.
On the Gaza front, the IDF data indicate an increase in the number of rockets fired by terrorists towards Israel: 35 rockets were fired in 2017, compared to only 15 rockets fired in 2016.
In retaliation for these attacks, the IDF attacked 59 targets in Gaza. Among the targets attacked were launchers, outposts and training camps, weapons production sites, observation posts and more. Zero infiltrators entered Israel from the Egyptian border in 2017.
For more than four years, the IDF has been assisting the residents of the Syrian Golan Heights in surviving the difficult civil war that is taking place in their country.
In 2017, according to Sunday’s report, 917 Syrian victims were treated by Israeli doctors, 542,880 liters of fuel were provided to victims of the Syrian civil war and 694 tons of food was transferred to them. Israel donated 6,351 baby diapers to Syria and 14,138 boxes of prenatal multivitamin to the victims of the Syrian civil war.
Since the beginning of 2017, 2,679 patients have been treated at the American Mazor Ladach Hospital, which was established near the Israel-Syria border.
May Allah protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the harm of the Jews. Oh Allah, protect our brothers in the land of Palestine. Oh Allah, let us pray in the Al-Aqsa Mosque before we die. Oh Allah, allow Jerusalem to be liberated. Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of the Jews. Oh Allah, show us the wonders of Your ability that you inflict upon them. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon them. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon those who wish ill upon [the Al-Aqsa] Mosque. Oh Allah, keep them preoccupied with one another, and make a deterrent example out of them. Oh Allah, count them one by one and destroy them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them. Oh Allah, destroy them and do not spare their young or their elderly. Oh Allah, show us the black day that You inflict upon those who occupy Palestine. Oh Allah, show us the wonders of Your ability that you inflict upon them. Oh Allah, turn Jerusalem and Palestine into a graveyard for the Jews.
In a July 21 sermon, Shahin condoned the annihilation of Jews and those restricting access to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The truth of course is that Shahin did not condone the annihilation of Jews – he was encouraging it. His apology is noted, but leaves unclear how an imam can talk about annihilating Jews yet can apologize – and apparently have his apology accepted.
As opposed to The Washington Post (30 paragraphs) and the Sacramento Bee (23 paragraphs) which go into depth in their whitewash of Shahin’s sermon, The New York Times uses the AP story, which amounts to playing down the incident in 9 short paragraphs, as if the whole thing is not worth the reader’s attention.
How did Jew-hatred suddenly become so unworthy of being considered a news item?
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