IsraelBagel

Mr Bagel is Back

2008-01-11T02:36:00.000+11:00

Yes its true, despite a spectacular absence of blogging for over two months, Mr Bagel has returned.
Mr Bagel has been 'moving' from a remote country location to a more civilised part of Australia.

Moving has required Mr Bagel to do five seperate trips of over 2,000kms each, despite selling what we thought was almost all of our worldly possesions, we still had to do five trips to move our 'personal belongings'. Which raises one very valid point, how personal can 5 trailers worth of belongings be? Do you think Mr Bagel might just be a horder? mmm?

Anyway after selling all our furniture we have been rushing around buying beds and fridges and lounges and just about everything else required to life a civilised life. Now that Mr Bagel has moved to civilisation he has decided to stop talking to the soccer ball with a wig. (Tom Hanks.)

We've only been in town a week but, living where there are shops, and services is such a refreshing break from living hours away from the most basic shopping. Its taking some adjustment, I generally spoke to about 3 peaople a month where I lived, now I see hundreds a day.

Mr Bagel: Thank you to all the well wishers and the emails I received

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Smells Fishy: Frozen Fish being tampered with

2007-10-26T17:41:00.000+10:00

Amnon Levy's candid camera catches frozen fish importer 'fixing' sell-by dates

Amnon Levy's television program Screen Saver (Shomer Masach) claims that Haim Paskovich & Sons of Ashdod is importing frozen fish and replacing the sell-by dates with ones that are eight months to a year later.

The show was aired on Channel 10 television last night. Evidently Rafi Ginat's Kolbotek and cats in Tiv Taam's logistics center isn't the only consumer chronicle in town.

When Kolbotek attacked Tiv Taam for the second time in a year, the supermarket chain claimed that shots of cats eating meat meant for consumers were staged by disgruntled ex-workers. True or not, Screen Saver came across the fish case when two former Haim Paskovich workers leaked. The Screen Saver team planted a mole at the company.

On "Alon's" second day of work at Haim Paskovich, he documented on candid camera how workers at the plant would remove the sell-by labels from boxes of frozen fish that were near or past the deadline. The workers then affixed new labels to the boxes, extending the sell-by date by eight to 12 months.

Alon shot footage of the old labels being collected and bagged, presumably for destruction, and also filmed two veteran workers admitting that replacing labels was the norm at the company.

A week before the scheduled broadcast, the Screen Saver team notified Haim Paskovich, which denied the allegations, somewhat.

Through the offices of advocate Ilan Bombach, the Haim Paskovich corporation stated: "All the imported frozen fish arrive in chilled containers, at the temperature required by law. All the types of frozen fish undergo laboratory tests, as the Health Ministry requires, and are released for sale only after having passed the tests. All the products leaving the company's central warehouse in Ashdod are supervised and approved by a certified doctor who works according to Health Ministry directives, and are subject to the standards and requirements of the Health Ministry."

The company added that a corner of the warehouse is allocated for destroying bad products. "Sometimes, for technical reasons, the overseas supplier doesn't print all the information the Health Ministry requires on the products. The company is forced to update these details. This is done under the supervision of a doctor and in coordination with the authorities and the supplier. We regret that Screen Saver is clinging to facts that we cannot respond to properly and deny."

Mr Bagel: If the allegations are true then this has to be very disturbing. The tampering of use by dates on Frozen Products is not only unethical it essentially puts peoples lives at risk

References:
Haaretz.com: Amnon Levy's candid camera catches frozen fish importer 'fixing' sell-by dates

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A Population implosion?

2007-10-17T01:13:00.000+10:00

Young Jewish people wave the Israeli flag in Jerusalem

Israel seeks to boost Jewish population
From AFP
ASHDOD, Israel — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged Jews worldwide to migrate on Tuesday as his government unveiled new incentives to woo back expats and reverse declining immigration.

"Come and join us here because it's the best place to live," Olmert told the opening of an immigration conference in the southern city of Ashdod.

Under a new campaign for 2008, the immigration and absorption ministry said it was looking to repatriate 15,000 Israelis living abroad and bring in 20,000 new Jewish immigrants next year.

More than half a million Israelis live abroad. The ministry said it would offer a series of cash incentives and tax breaks to encourage them back.

"These Israelis won't have the difficulties facing new immigrants in integrating. We should use economic arguments to encourage them to return," Immigrant Absorption Minister Yaacov Edri told AFP at the conference.

"We seem to be going in the right direction. I hope aliya (immigration) statistics will double in 2008," he said.

The rate of immigration is set to fall this year to the lowest level since 1988, with only 14,843 new immigrants since January 2007 compared to 19,624 in 2006, according to ministry statistics.

The ministry also advocates simplified conversion procedures. Half of the estimated 300,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union are not considered Jewish in the eyes of the country's Orthodox Rabbinate.

Under Israel's "law of return," anyone who is Jewish or has a Jewish parent, grandparent or spouse, or is the spouse of someone with such a Jewish relative provided he did not voluntarily convert from Judaism, can settle in Israel.

Of the 7.1-million-strong population of Israel, 76 percent is Jewish and 20 percent Arab.

Mr Bagel: With the declining rate of immigration, surely the time has come for Olmert to explore the possible reasons for this decline?

One factor may be the political instability currently present in Israel, another might be that some legitimate seekers of Aliyah are not really being welcomed the way you would expect, especially from the US. The process is bound in red tape, there's little genuine support offered to prospective immigrants until actual arrival.

Should the Aliyah program be expanded and assistance provided to the Jewish Populations in other countries such as Australia and Argentina?

What are you thoughts as to why immigration is on the decline?

References:
AFP: Israel seeks to boost Jewish population

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Iranian born soccer player plays racist card

2007-10-09T10:03:00.000+10:00

Iranian-born German refuses to play in Israel

Hertha Berlin’s striker Dejagah says his refusal to play for Germany against Israel has political reasons.

BERLIN - German under-21 international Ashkan Dejagah has said he will not play against Israel in Tel Aviv on October 12 for political reasons, Bild newspaper reported on Monday.

Dejagah was born in Tehran and he explained his Iranian roots meant he would not be able to play in Israel.

He said his refusal "had political reasons. Everyone knows I am an Iranian-born German," he said.

The president of the German football federation Theo Zwanziger however criticised Dejagah's stance. "If we start doing things for political reasons, it will be sport itself which loses," Zwanziger said.

The DFB did however agree that he would not play in the qualifying match for the 2009 under-21 European championships.

Mr Bagel: What an appalling gesture. In a sport known as the World's game this poor little man tries to make a statement displaying his ignorance and antisemiticism. The world needs to react to gestures such as this, which are simply unacceptable. Theres no room for racism in World Soccer, and trying to hide it under the guise of political protest isn't going to work.

If you would like to let Hertha Berlin know of your feelings for this players actions then click:

Hertha BSC Berlin
Public Relations

Magdalena Palewicz (Assistant Public Relations Officer)

email: Magdalena.Palewicz@herthabsc.de

Sample letter:

Dear Ms Palewicz,
As a fan of World soccer I must convey to you my disapproval of Hertha Berlin's striker Ashkan Dejagah actions in context to the upcoming game against Israel in the under 21 European championship.

Soccer is well known for being the world game, and as a representative of its game I find his actions deplorable.

The simple fact is this isn't about 'politics' its about pure racism.

Hertha Berlin's stance in this matter is bound to be under close scrutiny, surely the club is in a position to make a bold, and affirmative statement against racism.

I hope you will convey to management the damage this players stance is doing to your clubs image.

Kind regards

References:
Middle East online: Iranian-born German refuses to play in Israel

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Prominent Christian kidnapped and murdered in Gaza

2007-10-08T13:24:00.000+10:00

Palestinian Christian activist stabbed to death in Gaza

A Palestinian Christian activist who had received repeated death threats was found stabbed to death in a street in Gaza City early Sunday.

Rami Khader Ayyad, 32, was director of the Teacher's Bookshop, Gaza's only Christian bookstore, which is run by the Bible Society of Gaza Baptist church.

Health Ministry officials confirmed his death.

Ayyad had been missing since Saturday evening. Over the years he had received repeated death threats from 'unidentified people' displeased with his missionary work.

The Interior Ministry run by Gaza's Islamic militant Hamas rulers condemned the killing and said it launched an investigation.

"This grave crime will not pass without punishment," the ministry said in a statement.

About 3,200 Christians live in Gaza, most of them Greek Orthodox. Relations with Gaza's Muslims are generally good, and have not deteriorated since Hamas wrested control of the strip in mid-June.

But there have been occasional acts of violence, and in April, a bomb severely damaged the Palestinian Bible Society building in Gaza, which has been operating since 1999.

Mr Bagel: Selling books and being a Christian means you're an activist? It's a sad day when a Christian bookseller can be compared to an Islamic terrorists under the 'one size fits all' AP sanitized term 'Activist'.

If we look at a less appeasing article that appeared in the Christian based Adventist Press Service (APD) the language isn't so 'mellow'.

Christian Bookstore Manager in Gaza City kidnapped and murdered

The manager of the Gaza Strip's only all-Christian bookstore was found stabbed to death on Sunday (October 7) in what appears to have been an act of aggression. Rami Khader Ayyad, a prominent Gaza Christian, disappeared on Saturday (October 6), following months of death threats from local Muslims.

Ayyad ran the Teacher's Bookshop, which is a ministry of the Palestinian Bible Society (PBS) and the local Gaza Baptist Church. Ayyad was accused by area Muslims of spreading the Gospel. The 32-year-old Ayyad left two young children and a pregnant wife.

The body bore a visible gunshot wound to the head, and an official at Gaza's Shifa Hospital said he was also stabbed numerous times. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemned the killing and said the Islamist movement "would not allow anyone to sabotage" Muslim-Christian relations.

We feel Rami was killed for his Christian faith," said Simon Azazian, a spokesman at the Bible Society's head office in Jerusalem

Gaza's 2,500 Christians, who live among 1.5 million Muslims, have increasingly become a target of aggression since Hamas wrested control of Gaza last June.

The Palestinian Bible Society (PBS) headquarters in East Jerusalem and her bookstore in Gaza City were the targets of frequent attacks, including a bombing earlier this year that severely damaged the Bible Society. The Palestinian Bible Society is a member of the United Bible Societies/USB), the worldwide roof organisation of 140 national Bible Societies.

_____________

Why does a small Christian News agency have exclusive information that there was ' a visible gunshot wound to the head' yet the AP sourced Haaretz report is headlined "Palestinian Christian activist stabbed to death in Gaza"

Seems it is unlikely you've been ' stabbed to death' when theres a visible gunshot wound to your head.

As for the Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh condemning the killing, the world waits to see Hamas reveal the perpetrator of this horrendous crime.

References:
Haaretz: Palestinian Christian activist stabbed to death in Gaza
APD: Christian Bookstore Manager in Gaza City kidnapped and murdered

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Yom Kippur driver suspected of murder

2007-10-03T19:54:00.000+10:00

The Northern District Attorney's Office instructed police on Sunday to investigate Assad Shibli, the man who ran over nine-year-old Tal Zino on Yom Kippur, on suspicion of murder.

Tal Zino was killed while riding her bicycle on Yom Kippur in the northern community of Kfar Tavor, where she was hit by an fast moving all-terrain vehicle and sustained critical injuries. She was rushed to Ha'Emek Hospital in Afula, but doctors were unable to save her life.

Police arrested Assad Shibli, 20, who was driving the vehicle and was lightly injured after the vehicle rolled after the collision.

Shilbli was driving the ATV despite recently losing his license over a traffic violation.

Assad Shibli, from the nearby village Shibli, maintained that he had entered Kfar Tavor to withdraw money from an ATM and had then been frightened off by local residents. He said he had hurried away from the scene and lost control of the vehicle.

Investigators were hesitant to accept his account, since the ATM was at the entrance of Kfar Tavor, while the scene of the accident was in the center of the community where the synagogue is located.

Another Shibli resident involved in the crash turned himself in on Friday after police searched for him for nearly a week.

Residents of Kfar Tavor have accused the young Arab driver of killing the girl on purpose. The collison occured near the local synagogue after Assad Shibli had ignored numerous requests to leave the area.

Eyewitnesses stated that Shibli had been driving at approximately 120kph down a street full of children. Many asked why Shibli and his friend had entered the Jewish town where all the shops and businesses were closed for the holiday if not to harass Jewish worshipers.

Accusations were leveled at the police for refusing to define the incident as a terrorist attack, saying if a Jewish driver had done what Shibli did in an Arab village, he would have be charged with racially based murder.

Composed from various news sources
References:
JPost: Yom Kippur driver suspected of murder
Haaretz: Yom Kippur road crash that killed girl to be probed as a murder
Arutz Sheva: Kfar Tavor Residents Accuse Driver of Murder

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Bar Refaeli attacks Israeli Press and confirms she draft dodged

2007-10-03T12:28:00.000+10:00

Model Criticizes Paparazzi in Israel

JERUSALEM (AP) — After Leonardo DiCaprio's visit earlier this year resulted in a scuffle with journalists, Bar Refaeli says she will no longer bring her famous friends to Israel.

The Israeli media have closely followed the 22-year-old supermodel and DiCaprio with a hint of pride that a local girl snagged an A-list Hollywood beau.

When Refaeli brought DiCaprio to Israel in March, the couple created a paparazzi storm. After eluding journalists for days, they were met by a group of waiting photographers in Jerusalem. Their bodyguards scuffled with photographers, punching some and damaging equipment.

"I won't bring anyone famous to Israel because there is a chutzpah here that you won't see anywhere else," Refaeli said in comments published Tuesday in the Yediot Ahronot daily.

Refaeli also said she has no regrets about dodging mandatory military service and announced that she's moving to Los Angeles.

"I don't regret not having been drafted into the army, because I made out big," Refaeli said.

The newspaper said the full interview would be published Wednesday.

While military service has historically been a rite of passage in Israel, a growing number of youths, including several prominent celebrities, have figured out ways to avoid it.

DiCaprio, 32, has received Oscar nominations for his roles in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," "The Aviator" and "Blood Diamond."

He and Refaeli have been romantically linked for about 18 months, and Israeli newspapers regularly run updates on their relationship.

Mr Bagel: Sorry this might ruffle a few feathers, but when it comes to the draft, it's not right that celebrities and children of the rich and powerful are able to avoid it. Bar Refaeli should be ashamed of her actions. Thats my two cents.

I've never thought much of supermodels, its not like they contribute anything of great worth to society, in fact most of the time they espouse the very shallow values of vanity and self indulgence. Moving to L.A? bye..

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Ancient Channel discovered in Jerusalem from the time of the Second Temple

2007-09-10T11:34:00.000+10:00

From AP

An Israeli archeologist walks along a drainage channel recently discovered in the City of David next to Jerusalem's Old City, Sunday Sept. 9, 2007. Israeli archeologists have stumbled upon one of the great dramatic props of the Roman sacking of Jerusalem 2,000 years ago: The subterranean drainage channel Jews fled to, seeking sanctuary from their Roman conquerors. The ancient tunnel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem in the days of the second biblical temple, which the Romans destroyed in the year 70, said the dig's directors, archeology Professor Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Ancient escape hatch found in Israel

JERUSALEM --Under threat from Romans ransacking Jerusalem 2,000 years ago, many of the city's Jewish residents crowded into an underground drainage channel to hide and later flee the chaos through Jerusalem's southern end unnoticed.

The ancient tunnel was recently discovered buried beneath rubble, a monument to one of the great dramatic scenes of the destruction of the Second Temple in the year 70 A.D.[sic]

The channel was dug beneath what would become the main road of Jerusalem, the archaeology dig's directors, Ronny Reich of the University of Haifa and Eli Shukron of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said Sunday. Shukron said excavators looking for the road happened upon a small drainage channel that led them to the discovery of the massive tunnel two weeks ago.

"We were looking for the road and suddenly we discovered it," Shukron said. "And the first thing we said was, 'Wow.'"

The walls of the tunnel -- made of ashlar stones 3 feet deep -- reach a height of 10 feet in some places and are covered by heavy stone slabs that were the road's paving stones, Shukron said. Several manholes are visible, and portions of the original plastering remain, he said.

Pottery shards, vessel fragments and coins from the end of the Second Temple period were also discovered inside the channel, attesting to its age, Reich said.

The discovery of the drainage channel was momentous in itself, a sign of how the city's rulers looked out for the welfare of their citizens by developing an infrastructure that drained the rainfall and prevented flooding, Reich said.

The discovery "shows you planning on a grand scale, unlike other cities in the ancient Near East," said Joe Zias, an expert in the Second Temple period who was not involved in the dig.

But what makes the channel doubly significant is its role as an escape hatch for Jews desperate to flee the conquering Romans, the dig's directors said.

The Second Temple was the center of Jewish worship during the second Jewish Commonwealth, which spanned the six centuries preceding the Roman conquest of Jerusalem. Its expansion was the most famous construction project of Herod, the Jewish proxy ruler of the Holy Land under imperial Roman occupation from 37 B.C.

As the temple was being destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D., numerous people took shelter in the drainage channel and lived inside it until they fled Jerusalem through its southern end, the historian Josephus Flavius wrote in "The War of the Jews."

"It was a place where people hid and fled to from burning, destroyed Jerusalem," Shukron said.

Tens of thousands of people lived in Jerusalem at the time, but it is not clear how many used the channel to escape, he said.

About 100 yards of the channel have been uncovered so far. Reich estimates its total length will reach more than a half-mile, stretching north from the Shiloah Pool at Jerusalem's southern end to the disputed holy shrine known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al Aqsa Mosque compound. The shrine is the site of the two biblical Jewish temples.

Archeologists think the tunnel leads to the Kidron River, which empties into the Dead Sea.

Bagelblogger: I'm amazed almost every time significant architectural discoveries are made in Jerusalem. They show a level of sophistication that we often assume was not existent. Imagine the sense of history one must have to witness such discoveries.

One wonders is it just possible that this tunnel may have been not Jerusalem's escape hatch but rather its downfall, causing the breach of its walls?

References:
Boston.com: Ancient escape hatch found in Israel

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Tension between Syria and Israel escalates: 'Israeli Planes shot at'

2007-09-07T14:52:00.000+10:00

Syria Says It Shot at Israeli Aircraft

From AP
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The Syrian government charged Thursday that Israeli aircraft dropped "munitions" inside Syria overnight and said its air defenses opened fire in a new escalation of tensions between the decades-old foes.

It was unclear what happened. Syria stopped short of accusing Israel of purposely bombing its territory, and an Israeli spokesman said he could not comment on military operations.

Analysts speculated such a foray could have been probing Syria's defenses or monitoring long-range missile bases. The reported path also would have taken the jets near Iran, whose growing power and anti-Israel government worries leaders of the Jewish state.

The incident came after a summer of building tensions that have fed worries of a military conflict erupting between Syria and Israel. Syria accused Israel last month of seeking a pretext for war, and the Israelis are keeping a close watch on Syrian troop movements.

Both sides have insisted they want no conflict along the disputed frontier. But Syria fears it is being squeezed out of a U.S.-brokered Mideast peace conference planned for November and will be left at a disadvantage in the standoff with Israel.

Syria has grown more vocal in pressing its demand that Israel give back the Golan Heights. Israel, in turn, seeks the return of three Israeli soldiers held for more than a year by two Syrian-allied militant groups, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Hamas in the Palestinian lands.

The official Syrian Arab News Agency quoted a military official as saying Israeli jets broke the sound barrier flying over northern Syria before dawn Thursday, then "dropped munitions" onto deserted areas after being shot at by Syria's air defenses.

Syria did not claim the aircraft bombed its territory, however. Asked if Israel attacked Syria, Cabinet Minister Buthaina Shaaban said only that the aircraft violated Syrian air space.

"We are a sovereign country. They cannot do that," Shaaban said on Al-Jazeera television's English service.

Syrian officials did not specify the type or quantity of Israeli aircraft that purportedly crossed the border or describe the "munitions" dropped. Pilots sometimes jettison extra fuel tanks when warplanes come under fire to make the craft lighter and easier to maneuver.

Israel's army spokesman declined to comment on the report, saying he could not discuss military operations.

In Washington, the State Department had no specific comment on the incident, citing the lack of details about what happened.

"I'd leave it up to the parties to describe what happened. We'll leave it to them to try and sort this out," deputy spokesman Tom Casey told reporters.

Some officials suggested the Bush administration did not want to stoke tensions further by taking sides between Israel and Syria.

Syrian military and government officials condemned Israel.

"We warn the Israeli enemy government against this flagrant aggressive act, and retain the right to respond in an appropriate way," the Syrian military said.

Information Minister Mohsen Bilal told Al-Jazeera that Syria's government was considering how to respond, but refused to say whether it would opt for diplomatic or military means.

He said the incident showed "Israel in fact does not want peace" and charged that a recent increase in U.S. military aid was fueling aggression by the Jewish state.

The route reportedly flown by the Israeli planes, east from the Mediterranean deep into northern Syria, would have taken the craft to Syria's closest point to Iran, separated only by Iraq's Kurdish region.

Israel is concerned over the growing strength of the Syrian-allied Iran, whose leaders strongly oppose the Jewish state's existence.

The U.S., Israel and other nations fear Iran is using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies that, saying the program is solely geared toward generating electricity.

Both Israel and the U.S. have refused to rule out airstrikes on Iran should diplomatic efforts fail to get Tehran to curb its atomic program.

Israeli aircraft fly over Lebanon routinely to monitor Hezbollah guerrillas, but it is unclear how often its planes fly over Syria.

Before and during last summer's war with Hezbollah, Israeli warplanes twice buzzed the residence of Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus. Analysts called the flights a warning to Syria to keep out of the fight next door.

In October 2003, Israeli warplanes bombed a Palestinian guerrilla base near Damascus, the first airstrike inside Syria since the 1973 Mideast war. During Syria's three-decade occupation in Lebanon, which ended in 2005, Israeli planes occasionally attacked Syrian military units in that country.

But the last major confrontation took place during Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, when Israel's air force shot down dozens of Syrian warplanes and ground troops destroyed Syrian armor in central and eastern Lebanon.

Bagelblogger: Why? What is to gain? Did Israel really enter into Syrian air space? Or is this another case of Syrian paranoia. Is Assad grandstanding in a bid to ensure he is included in the prospective peace talks , is Syria really responding to 'Israeli aggression' or is there a little orchestrated music being played?

References:
AP: Syria Says It Shot at Israeli Aircraft

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Israel's renovated north, 2007

2007-07-08T01:30:00.000+10:00

Ynet photographers return to sites hit and damaged by Hizbullah rockets in summer of 2006. A year later, there is some hope

Haifa – July 17, 2006

In the afternoon hours, a 220-milimeter Katyusha rocket hit the side of a building on Nahalal Street in the Bat Galim neighborhood. A large part of the building's wall collapsed and several people were injured. Luckily, no one was killed.

To see more of this great Photo essay click read more

Photos: Up – Yaron Brener, down – Doron Golan)

Tiberias – August 2, 2006

A rocket directly hit an apartment building on HaShizaf Street, causing it to collapse. The tenants, who were at a bomb shelter at the time, were not hurt. The five families living in the building were evacuated to alternative homes until the building was renovated. In the photo, Tiberias Mayor Zohar Oved.

(Photos: Hagai Aharon)

Safed – July 15 2006

On Saturday at 4 pm, two rockets hit the Maman family home. Upon hearing the air raid siren, the 11 family members entered the house basement. The head of the family, Ya'akov, died several months after the incident as a result of the pressure and anxiety the family suffered. Only now, a year later, the family members are returning to their renovated house.

(Photos: Avihu Shapira)

Haifa – July 21, 2006

On Friday afternoon, a rocket barrage hit the city of Haifa as an air raid siren was sounded. The Post Office building, one of the Hadar neighborhood's commercial symbols, suffered a direct hit.

(Photos: Up –Raanan Ben-Zur, down – Doron Golan)

Haifa – July 16, 2006

Katyusha rockets hit Haifa's crowded industrial zone in the morning hours. One of the rockets directly hit an Israel Railways train depot, killing eight workers. Another rocket landed in the same place several days later.

(Photos: Up – Yael Golan, down – Doron Golan)

Nahariya – July 13, 2006

A woman was killed by a rocket in the morning hours of the war's second day. The Nahariya hospital filled up with injured people – residents and soldiers. President Moshe Katsav visited Nahariya as another barrage landed in the city center. A transformer on an electric pole was hit, while injured people were evacuated from a nearby building under fire.

(Photos: Right - Niv Calderon, left - Doron Golan)

Nazareth – July 19, 2006

The north's Arab population was not spared of bereavement and destruction. The Talussi brothers, 7-year-old Mahmoud and 3-year-old Rabiah, were killed by a rocket while playing in their backyard.

(Photos: Up - Omri Eilat, down - Hagai Aharon)

Meron – July 14, 2006

Friday evening in Moshav Meron. A rocket infiltrates the Pesachov family home. Nahariya resident Yehudit Itzkovitch and her 7-year-old grandson Omer were killed at the Shabbat table.

(Photos: Right - Hagai Ahron, left - Avihu Shapira)

Kiryat Shmona – July 23, 2006

A barrage of about 100 rockets hit northern Israel that day. One of them hit a house on Menachem Begin Street in the Vradim neighborhood. The tenants of the house in the photo left it after the attack nd never returned. Today it is populated by a family of new immigrants.

(Photo: Avihu Shapira)

Nahariya – July 13, 2006

On the second day of the war, workers at the Nahariya hospital began moving the patients underground. The northern hospital is the only one which is fully prepared to continue functioning at a time of emergency, and some of its operation rooms are also located underground. The Ophthalmology Unit, which was directly hit by Katyusha rocket, was not renovated to this day.

(Photos: Up - Niv Calderon, down - Doron Golan)

This article appeared in Ynet News on July 7 2007
Israel's renovated north, 2007

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Jerusalem: The magic of Shavuot 1967

2007-05-25T15:13:00.000+10:00

On the morning of Shavuot, June 15, 1967 just 6 days after Jerusalem was Liberated 200,000 Jews converged into Jerusalem to the visit Kotel.

This article is taken from Aish.com

Over the last two millennia, Jews have visited Jerusalem in honor of the festivals, in lieu of the biblically-ordained pilgrimages. On the holiday of Shavuot, there was also the custom to visit the purported grave of King David on Mount Zion, since the date of his death was on Shavuot.

When Shavuot arrived in 1948, it was a month after the establishment of the State of Israel, and Jews could no longer continue to make the pilgrimage to the Western Wall. The Jordanians, who occupied the eastern half of the city since the War of Independence, blocked all rights of passage to the Jews.

However, the pilgrimage to King David's tomb on nearby Mount Zion, located on the Israeli side of divided Jerusalem, continued. Over the next 19 years, crowds made their way to Mount Zion, where across barbed wire they could view the Old City and the Temple Mount.

On the morning of Shavuot, June 15, 1967 -- just six days after the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem in the Six Day War -- the Old City was officially opened to the Israeli public. (The army wanted to be sure there were no landmines or snipers still in the Old City.) For the first time in almost 2,000 years, masses of Jews could visit the Western Wall and walk through the cherished streets of Judaism's capital city as members of the sovereign Jewish nation. Each Jew who ventured to the Western Wall on that unforgettable day was realizing their ancestors' dreams over the millennia. It was one of those rare, euphoric moments in history.

From the late hours of the night, thousands of Jerusalem residents streamed toward the Zion gate, eagerly awaiting entry into the Old City. At 4 a.m., the accumulating crowds were finally allowed to enter the area of the Western Wall. As the sun continued to rise, there was a steady flow of thousands who made their way to the Old City.

The Jerusalem Post described the epic scene:

Every section of the population was represented. Kibbutz members and soldiers rubbing shoulders with Neturei Karta. Mothers came with children in prams, and old men trudged steeply up Mount Zion, supported by youngsters on either side, to see the wall of the Temple before the end of their days.

Some wept, but most faces were wreathed in smiles. For 13 continuous hours, a colorful variety of all peoples trudged along in perfect order, stepping patiently when told to do so at each of six successive barriers set up by the police to regulate the flow.

In total, 200,000 visited the Western Wall that day. It was the first pilgrimage, en masse, of Jews to Jewish-controlled Jerusalem on a Jewish festival in 2,000 years, since the pilgrimages for the festivals in Temple times.

An eyewitness described the moment:

"I've never known so electric an atmosphere before or since. Wherever we stopped, we began to dance. Holding aloft Torah scrolls we swayed and danced and sang at the tops of our voices. So many of the Psalms and songs are about Jerusalem and Zion, and the words reached into us a new life. As the sky lightened, we reached the Zion gate. Still singing and dancing, we poured into the narrow alleyways beyond."

On Shavuot, 3,279 years earlier, the Israelites stood at Mount Sinai and forged a unique relationship with their Creator. On the day of Shavuot following Israel's amazing victory in the Six Day War, multitudes ascended to the Western Wall, and they, too, felt the eternal magic of this moment. After all, "For from Zion shall come forth Torah, and the Word of God from Jerusalem."

This "pedestrian pilgrimage" has now become a recurring tradition. And on this year as well, early on Shavuot morning - after a full night of Torah learning -- the streets of Jerusalem will be filled with tens of thousands of Jews, walking with and anticipation and awe to the Western Wall.

Published Aish.com on 13 May 2007

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