Editor’

This past week there was a terror attack on two Israeli Embassies; One in India and the other one in Tbilsi, Georgia. Luckily just one woman (an Israeli diplomats, wife) was hurt. Israel accused Iran and Hezbollah of  planning this as part of the war against Israel and as  revenge for  the assassination of Imad Mornia (Hezbollah force leader) four years ago to the date.

All the shlichim like me, got a warning message in the morning, and the  situation is still highly sensitive. The motivation of Iran and Hezbollah to hurt Israeli and Jewish targets is very high and we need to pay a lot of attention.

So this week I will not write just about Israel, but I will write about an experience of mine that happened here…

I was in in St. Louis. And I have a really good story to share with you that will illustrate  Midwest hospitality…

Jenny and I drove from St. Louis back to Peoria and it was already midnight…Just when I noticed that I didn’t have enough gas I drove past a gas station. I was sure I would see another one in an exit or two, but unfortunately I didn’t.

After a while the gas light came on and  we looked for a gas station in the GPS. The closest one was off the highway  6 miles east in some   little town.   There were no other cars on the road and when we found it the gas station was closed. I saw a policeman and asked him for advice; he said that the closest gas station was 15 miles down the road.

Okay-we thought, worst case  scenario we will spend the night in the car, or some nice Jewish family will bring us gas from Peoria… we don’t have anything to lose…I start to drive really fast, the road was empty’; Central Illinois at midnight. All of a sudden I see a cop coming from the side of the road, “great” I told Jenny now I will get a ticket and no gas… haha

After a few moments the police car passed us and we noticed that there is another one after us. So here we are driving, one before us and one behind us. Luckily we got to the gas station- Chanukah miracle..! (Even though it’s February) The policeman opened the door saying that his best friend from forever (the policeman from our first stop) called him and asked him to make sure we were OK. Eventually they were both  with us escorting our car and making sure we were safe.

We were very impressed!

Editor’

Happy Tu Be’svat! I hope you all ate dried fruits this week ☺
The holiday is a great opportunity to do something for the environment!
Even something small; maybe just pick up a plastic bag from the floor or decide to start torecycle… these acts are helpful for keeping our environment healthier!
Yesterday, the unity workers in Israel decided go on strike because of  work conditions of the “contract workers”. The strike is without a time limit and includes most of the big organizations in Israel like all the city workers, country’s workers, Airport, Harbors, municipal authority, trains, Banks, social security office and so on…
The Palestinian authority signed a unity agreement with Hamas in Gaza.
No one can really count how many times they’ve signed agreements between them and no one really knows how long this agreement will last. Anyway, this kind of agreement is problematic to Israel because Israel cannot negotiate with the Palestinian authority if Hamas is a partner because Hamas is a terror organization  calling for the destruction of Israel. Abu Mazen will need to choose; Hamas or Israel
I promised to update you about the dead baby in Israel. So, today the court announced that they are releasing the baby’s father on house arrest and not in jail, because the police don’t have enough evidence. We will wait and see what  will happen.
The United States and Israel have announced that in October 2012 they will have the biggest military training that has ever been done between the countries. It will be another step among many that illustrate how close and important the relationship is between the two countries.
Have a great weekend!

Hope you are all having a great week!

Two months ago PM Netanyahu announced elections would be held in the Likud party to determine who would lead the party. The elections were held this week.There were two candidates, one is Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu the current PM and the other one is Moshe Feiglin. Feiglin lives in the settlements and  is extremely on the right wing. In fact, most of the people who chose “Likud” for the parliament are finding Feiyglin too extreme for them. Netanyahu won the election with 74% and Feiyglin got 24%.This means that Netanyahu will run from the Likkud party in PM position  in the next election.The fact that the election was now, gives us a hint that maybe general  elections will be before March 2013 as  planned.

A lot of people in Israel are talking recently about a couple who brought their 4 month old infant to the hospital. The infant had severe wounds and a week later he died.The Police think the parents are responsible for the wounds while the parents claim the baby had a very rare disease that caused these wounds. Meanwhile, the parents were  arrested and everyone in Israel is waiting to see what will happen, and the reason for the infants death. In such a small country like Israel this story really touched people and they want to know who is responsible for the poor babys death. This story has been in the news every day.  I will update you  when they reach a conclusion.

And optimistic news:

Yesterday the OECD  published that Israel is the number 2 country in the world based on  the level of education that the citizens hold. According to the OECD 45% of  Israelis  continue to study after finishing high school. The number one country in the world in the level of education is Canada.

Have a great weekend!

And Shabbat Shalom!

Editor’

So proud to tell you that American Airlines named Tel Aviv the World’s Best Gay City!  In an American Airlines competition, 43 percent of voters named Tel Aviv the world’s Best Gay City of 2011. New York City trailed behind with 14 percent of the vote, followed by Toronto, Sao Paulo, Madrid, London, New Orleans, and Mexico City. The survey described Tel Aviv as “the gay capital of the Middle East, exotic and welcoming, with a Mediterranean c’est la vie attitude.”
So the next time someone tells you that Israel is like a third world country without any liberal values you can tell them about this survey …!
And some kind of optimistic news…
After a year long  stalemate in the negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians, at  the beginning of the month the Israeli and Palestinian representatives met for negotiations meetings in Jordan, trying together to re-open the Peace process between both sides… We all hope that maybe this time it will work!  But, most of the Israelis and the Palestinians are apathetic to this effort after 20 years of dead ends in this long and frustrating process.

On Monday this week, the Oscar committee  announced that the Israeli  movie “Footnote” (in Hebrew “Hearat Shulaiym” )is one out of the five  movies that were nominated for the Academy Award in the category of Best Foreign Film.
It’s the fourth Israeli movie  to be nominated for the prestigious award in  the last five years!
During  the last few days everyone is Israel is talking about it. Israel is very small country with an amazing family feeling, from the
president of Israel to the people in the streets everybody feels honor  to be Israeli and everyone is praying  that the Israeli movie will win the Oscar!