--Meretz party chief, MK Zehava Gal-On, responds to the lambasting of Israeli human rights NGO, Breaking the Silence, by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon, Israeli TV 'Heritage Channel' 20, and numerous other Israelis.
You Must Be Kidding:
"I’m dying to shit on his face, and after (age) 120 he will die on his tombstone, son of a bitch, even God does not love him."
--Reader's comment to a Facebook post by Israel's 'Heritage Channel 20' that slammed President Reuven Rivlin for speaking at the Haaretz Conference in NY, where the Breaking the Silence organization also spoke on a panel.
This week, Alpher discusses who is the real Reuven Rivlin and how much influence does he wield back home in Jerusalem; does Yossi Cohen's appointment as new head of the Mossad tell us something about the future direction of Israel’s overall security strategy; what will be Cohen’s primary intelligence collection and operational priorities in the Mossad in the years ahead; how can one explain Tehran removing most of its Revolutionary Guards Quds forces from the Syrian battlefield and sending them home to Iran.
Quote of the day:
--Haaretz’s Benny Ziffer writes that Donald Trump’s call to bar Muslims from the US has been implemented for years in Israel.
--A post written on Facebook by the father of one of the suspects in the Dawabsheh family arson-murder case.
One of the many things that Israelis and Palestinians have in common is the role that poetry plays in their popular culture. For both Israelis and Palestinians, poetry is a bridge that connects their personal experience to the national, collective narrative of their people.
Yehuda Amichai is Israel’s most prominent modern poet, widely considered the country’s poetic voice of peace. When Yitzhak Rabin was invited to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994, he asked Amichai to join him and read a couple of poems. One of his selections was his piercing anti-war poem, God has Pity on Kindergarten Children.
Recently, amidst the recent outbreak of violence in Israel, a restauranteur offered a 50 percent discount on each plate of hummus ordered by Jewish and Arab patrons who dined together. This story went viral. It reminds us that food can bring people together.
Food brought Yotam Ottolengi and Sami Tamimi together. They are the chefs behind the runaway bestseller Jerusalem: A Cookbook. It highlights an odd mix of flavors drawing upon recipes indigenous to Jerusalem. But the truly pleasing odd mix is that Yotam is from West Jerusalem—an Israeli, and Sami is from East Jerusalem—a Palestinian. They are the best of friends and food is their common bond.
Jews are called “the people of the book” for a reason. Over thousands of years, despite endless persecution, adversity and exile, we have remained a people, linked to one another and our history by our sacred texts, ideologies and teachings. The words in these texts—interpreted anew with each generation—are what binds us together, nourish our Jewish identity, and inspire provocative, mind-expanding (occasionally maddening) discussions in our communities and at our dinner tables.
As it is said: ask two Jews, you’ll get three opinions.
APN's daily news review from Israel
Quote of the day:
--Guess which group of people this quote was referring to and who said it in defense of that group for acts they allegedly committed. (Answer: See the next quote.)
You Must Be Kidding:
-- MK Bezalel Smotrich (Habayit Hayehudi) wrote in an Op-Ed Thursday, describing the murder of a Palestinian family allegedly by Jewish settlers to be a serious crime, abominable crime, or nationalist crime, but not terrorism. (Read more)
News from Peace Now's (Israel) Settlement Watch:
The main purpose of this declaration is to retroactively legalize construction in the settlement of Karnei Shomron, and to allow it to expand (see photos). Palestinians landowners have already submitted an appeal to the Civil Administration against the declaration. Although the declaration is small in size and is adjacent to an already built area of a settlement, it is still a clear step taken by the Israeli Government which is taking over land and handing it over to the settlers.
Number of the day:
You Must Be Kidding: