Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much

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’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

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!

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

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’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

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!

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

News from last week…

The famous Israeli media talent Yair Lapid, (the former TV reporter in the most important TV station in Israel and a well known journalist ) announced  he is quitting in order to get ready to run for a position in the Israeli parliament. He is also considering establishing  a new political party.

Yair Lapid is the son of Tommy Lapid, Tommy was also a media talent who quit his job and established a new party that had as its goal to confront the ultra orthodox in Israel, the party had  huge success during their first years.  They got 15 parliament seats out of 120 in the Israeli parliament. After a  few years the party vanished. Now the son  is following his dad and according to recent  surveys he is getting a lot of support from the public.

This is an interesting fact in view of the different voices in Israel that are already talking  about an early election  at the end of the year 2012, a year before it is supposed to be…

Turkey choose Can Bonomo as their representative for the Eurovision contest (the once a year music contest in Europe). The surprising fact is that even though there is a lot of bad energy between Turkey and Israel, Turkey choose Can Bonomo as their representative- A Jewish Turkish artist from a well- known Jewish family in the city Izmir in Turkey. Respect for the Jewish community in Turkey! Wish him luck! But more luck to the Israeli representative!

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 22-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

Hope you all have a happy New Year and you all had a good New Year celebration…!

As you probably know, in Israel we wish each other  a happy New on Rosh Hashanah and not on December 31, still, we mention the beginning of the New Year in January, but the big New Year we celebrate is  Rosh Hashanah.

Israel has two official calendars, one is the Jewish calendar and the other one is the Gregorian calendar.

In Israel almost no one mentions Christmas, so it was a really unique experience for me to see all the lights and the trees and listen to all the Christmas songs, I even went to the Festival of Lights in East Peoria. I know you are used to it but for me it was my first time so it was special.

At the beginning of the week a Saudi internet website published a list of 400,000 Israeli names  and credit card details. They  claimed that a few Saudi hackers stole the information of Israeli credit card companies.  A few hours later the Israeli credit card companies confirmed the news but  said that the number was substantially less than 400,000. Still it is going to be a real hassle for the Israelis whose information was stolen and for the Israeli credit card companies. After the Israeli credit card companies checked the numbers they found that there are 14,000 Israelis whose information was published. After we all thought this was behind us, yesterday morning the same Saudi hacker published another file with information on another 18,000 Israeli names, claiming that each day he will publish more names…

The wars in the world today are sophisticated, the wars doesn’t start and end on the field. There is always a  conflict and the Internet is one of the arenas.

Have a great weekend!

Gal

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 21-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

Happy Hanukah to all of you! Hope you will have fun during winter break and take advantage of the days off!

Enjoy lighting candles with your families and eat delicious Latkes and Sofganiot (Donuts)! But not too many

In Israel Hanukah it is not as big a  holiday as in America. But still most  families light the menorah and put it in their windows. During  a short trip in an Israeli neighborhood you will see a lot of candles in the windows… a different view than the Christmas lights hahaha…

Remember- the Hanukah candles are just for being seen and we cannot touch them!

Hanukah is good holiday to talk about cruel leaders like Antiochus, so today we will talk about North Korea’s leader – the great dictator of North Korea, Kim Jong Il, died this week. His young son will  inherit the position of President just as Kim Jong  Il inherited his dad’s. North Korea is a poor country but has a  very powerful army thanks to Kim Jong Il.

No one really know what happen in North Korea, and if they have nuclear weapons or not. This is one of the reasons that North Korea’s neighbor from the south, South Korea, is afraid to go to war with them.

While in the western world a lot of people made fun of Ill’s character, in North Korea he is revered and held in very high esteem.

The news reporter that announced  Il’s death couldn’t stop crying during the announcement.  There are videos of thousands of people who came to the main squares in the country to mourn the death of their loveable leader.

According to the press the nuclear reactor that Israel destroyed in Syria in 2006 was built by North Korea. Because North Korea has a poor and unsophisticated economy,  Kim Jong Il decided to export his Military knowledge and make this industry the country’s leading industry.

We hope that the new young president of North Korea will change the country and make it more open to the western world, but TV commentators said it likely that the new president will be just like his dad. “Like father like son…”

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 21-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

This December, Hanukah is celebrated at the same time as Christmas. I notice that many Americans think Hanukah is one of the most important holidays in Israel and for Jews, when in fact, it is a minor holiday in Israel. Most people don’t even get a day off work.

Why do most Americans think this about Hanukah? The answer is simple; it because it coincides with Christmas.

Why do we celebrate Hanukah?

We remember that 2,200 years ago the Jews in Israel were forced by the Syrian king Antiochus to change their beliefs and pray for to the Greek gods.

Judah the Macabee rebelled against this and remained loyal to his beliefs, he gathered his four brothers and some of his friends and fought back against the Syrians. He fought for freedom of religion and won. The Jews were able to continue and pray for their beliefs.

The story of Hanukah relates to these times when the president of Iran, just like the King Antiochus of ancient times, called for the destruction of the state of Israel and the Jewish people. Ahmadinejad claims the land of Israel should be controlled by Islamic forces and not by the Jews.

The situation is made more complex because Ahmadinejad is working on the development of a nuclear weapon in order to achieve his goal.

Ahmadinejad’s targets are Israel, the United States and the Western world in general; we can only imagine what the impact of a nuclear Iran would be on the world. According to Iran, Israel is the small Satan while the United States is the big Satan. A nuclear Iran is not just an Israeli problem, but also a problem to most of the world. Iran is against everything that is not radical Shia Islam.

Iran’s rockets can reach Europe. Iran’s nuclear weapons program is hugely problematic to Iran’s Arabic neighbors as well as to Israel’s Arabic neighbors. The Arab countries are very concerned about Iran’s dreams of domination of that region of the world.

Judah the Macabee fought back against the Syrians for freedom of religion. You can be sure Israel will do everything she can in order to continue our traditions and fight back against those who call to destroy us.

All the countries in the Western world should be concerned about Iran’s nuclear program and should join Israel in this fight for the future of democracy.

Editor’s note: Gal Israeli, a 21-year-old Israeli will be here in Peoria for approximately the next nine months as our shaliach or Israeli  ambassador. His job, among other things, is to present views on issues that face Israel and Jews worldwide. Each week, he will try to post on various topics, some serious, others not so much.

Hope to see all of the TGIS families at the Fishkin’s house on Saturday for our early Hanukah party!

On Tuesday we will have the Israeli lunch with me. So instead of eating your lunch alone come at noon to the Federation to be with with other people in the community and hear what’s new in Israel, and  learn  one or two new words in Hebrew!

I’d like to  remind everyone that the Federation will be ordering  the bestselling Israeli book “Homesick“.  I will be leading  the book club discussion on Tuesday. Feb. 28 at 7:30, so if you have not ordered  it yet please call the office and place your order, Great Book!

This week was embarrassing  for the people in Israel.

The former president of Israel, Moshe Katzav was sentenced to seven years in jail. Katzav will be in jail  after being convicted of raping an employee while he was a minister in the Knesset. Interesting thing is the fact that the judge who  sentenced  Katzav was an Arab judge in the Israeli Supreme Court; think about that fact the next time you  hear someone  claiming that Israel is an apartheid state that discriminates against  its Arab citizens. No one in Israel pays attention to his background, because for the people in Israel it is obvious that an Arab  can be a judge, we know that he is Arab based on his his name…

The cold war between Iran and the western world continues; this week  Iran  captured a very sophisticated Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle or Drone that belonged to the US. The US Air Force confirmed this fact. The Iranian government announced that their response to this incursion will be outside Iran’s borders.

Have a great weekend and Shabbat Shalom!

“Homesick” a popular book written by Eshkol Nevo will be our first book to study.  Discussion led by Gal Israeli.

Order your copy of “Homesick” by December 14, 2011.  Cost: $16 per book.

This heart-warming, charming and clever first novel dips into the lives of each of the inhabitants of a village in Israel.

It is 1995 and Noa and Amir, a student couple, have decided to move in together.  Noa is studying photography in Jerusalem and Amir is a psychology student in Tel Aviv.  They choose a small apartment in a village in the hills, midway between the two cities.

Originally called El-Kastel, the village was emptied of its Arab inhabitants in 1948 and is now the home of Jewish immigrants from Kurdistan.  Not far from the apartment lives a family grieving for their eldest son who was killed in Lebanon.  The younger brother left behind, Yotam, forgotten by his parents, turns to Amir for support.

Further down the street, Saddiq watches the house while he works at a building site.  He knows that this house is the one from which his family was dirven by the Jews when he was a boy, and to which his mother still has a rusty key.  Despite friendships that develop and lives that become entwined, tensions among this melting pot of characters seem to be rising to the surface.

Order your copy of “Homesick” today, and join us!