MetaFilter posts tagged with israel

Iranian Photoshoping Skills

gman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 07:50:25 -0800

In response to Israel's show of might, Iran tested long range missiles capable of hitting Israel and other U.S. targets in the region. Was the image AFP used photoshopped?

Medinat Weimar

Sar HaPanim — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 09:54:14 -0800

Medinat Weimar wishes to establish a Jewish state in Thuringia, Germany, with the city of Weimar as its capital. A land without a people for a people without a land! Oh, wait ... The site's homepage contains the 13 principles of the movement; a video with anthems and manifesto in four languages (Yiddish, English, Russian, and German - but no Hebrew); and plenty of links. Graduate student pushes for Jewish state in Germany - an article in English from Ha'Aretz on the movement and its founder, Ronen Eidelman. For those who read Hebrew: Don't you feel like establishing a Jewish state in Germany? - a blog entry on Ha'Aretz by regular contributor Benny Tzipper, in which he laments Israel's fading connection to Western culture and points out some of the benefits of moving to the heart of Europe. The Movement for a Jewish State in Thuringia - the entry in Ronen Eidelman's blog on the project. Check out the (not so supportive) reader comments, particularly the first one.

Birthright Israel

TheOnlyCoolTim — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 15:10:10 -0800

Birthright Israel , funded by the Israeli government and Jewish philanthropists, provides free all-inclusive 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults. The program's goal is to promote Israel along with general Jewish unity and engagement. The blog Jewlicious has a category about these trips. (Scroll down past many promotional entries for the interesting stuff.) Some question its efficacy and results, while some Jews subvert the program. The trips end with a "Mega Rally" featuring entertainment, giant inflatable Stars of David, and speeches by dignitaries including PM Ehud Olmert. Here is video coverage (FLV) of the most recent rally. There is also a satirical Something Awful report.

National Lampoon's Palestinian Vacation

WCityMike — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:56:49 -0800

Alright, Mefites, what did you do on your summer vacation? "Hit the pool a lot." "Sweated like hell." "Got through a lot of summer reading." ... "Went overseas and built a playground for children in a land not my own." Metafilter's own Baby_Balrog, Nathan Dannison, was awarded a fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education to build a playground for Bethlehem children in collaboration with Playgrounds for Palestine, and has been spending his summer doing exactly that, which has included getting EMT training from the Red Crescent. In his most recent entry in a blog definitely worth reading, he passes along video of him running from 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile released to break up a march centered around a local border controversy. (And, although it has nothing to do with the above, the guy has a good set of pipes.)

Gaza: The Killing Zone

Surfin' Bird — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:45:40 -0800

A Dispatches documentary Gaza: The Killing Zone shows the shocking reality of seemingly ordinary Palestinians caught in the crossfire between Hamas and Israeli forces. Feels almost like a sci-fi movie about some fictional totalitarian regime. Hard to believe it's their everyday life. WARNING: contains scenes of graphic violence, which you may find disturbing.

Spertus Museum pulls plug on controversial map exhibit

hydrophonic — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 22:08:28 -0800

The Spertus Museum/Spertus Institute for Jewish Studies has just canceled Imaginary Coordinates due to complaints that some of the artwork (NSFW: nudity, disturbing imagery) in the exhibit had an anti-Israeli slant. This comes less than a year after the opening of their much-heralded new building. The show, which was part of Festival of Maps Chicago, was first shut down a few weeks after it opened in May, then retooled and reopened with limited access by guided tour only. Spertus has purged information about the exhibit from their website, but you can still catch a video tour produced by the museum (exhibit tour starts at about 1:40).

They insist it is not a gimmick.

fleetmouse — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:34:36 -0800

Are lice art? "Seven young artists from Berlin are trying to stretch the boundaries of art by living in an Israeli museum for three weeks with lice in their hair." Video.

By the rivers of Babylon

adamvasco — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:45:15 -0800

Tul Karem’s refugee camp, the time, if I remember correctly, Chanukah 2003, it was to execute there about 9 people. Sorry, I don’t remember the pretense we were given for the mission.

From Shovrim Shtika or Breaking the Silence where Israeli soldiers confess the horror they have visited on Hebron

IDF Hit Syrian Nuke Site Built with NK Help

KokuRyu — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:09:47 -0800

According to the English language edition of the Asahi Shimbun, an Israeli airstrike against Syria last September targeted a nuclear-related facility that was under construction with technical assistance from North Korea, according to Israel's prime minister...It is apparently the first time that the intended target had been disclosed to the head of a foreign government. Original Japanese link here. Via the wonderful Marmot's Hole. Previously on Metafilter here, here, and here. A Strike in the Dark, by Seymour Hersh.

The Great Middle East Peace Process Scam

bhouston — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:01:37 -0800

"The Middle East peace process may well be the most spectacular deception in modern diplomatic history." Henry Siegman, the former executive director of the American Jewish Congress and more recently the director of the CFR's US/Middle East Project, argues in this essay from the London Review of Books that:

...all previous peace initiatives have got nowhere for a reason that neither Bush nor the EU has had the political courage to acknowledge. That reason is the consensus reached long ago by Israel’s decision-making elites that Israel will never allow the emergence of a Palestinian state which denies it effective military and economic control of the West Bank. To be sure, Israel would allow – indeed, it would insist on – the creation of a number of isolated enclaves that Palestinians could call a state, but only in order to prevent the creation of a binational state in which Palestinians would be the majority.