Geneal who raised flag over Umm Rashrash flies on El Al’s inaugural Tel Aviv-Eilat run
EILAT, Israel (Press Release)– EL AL Israel Airlines launched its newest route between Tel Aviv and the popular beach resort of Eilat this week with a historical and heartwarming father/son connection. General Avraham Adan, who was immortalized in the famous 1949 photograph when the Israeli flag was first raised in Umm Rashrash (now known as Eilat, located on the Red Sea in southern Israel) was invited to join the maiden flight as his son Omer is an EL AL pilot who will be flying between these two destinations in Israel.
EL AL President and CEO Elyezer Shkedy personally invited General Adan to participate in this inaugural flight and also hosted the Minister of Transportation, Israel Katz. Other dignitaries included EL AL Chairman Amikam Cohen, the Chairman of the Eilat Hotel Association as well as leaders in the Israeli tourism, aviation and transportation industries.
A special roundtrip fare of $40 from Ben Gurion Airport to Eilat is available when purchasing a roundtrip EL AL flight from the USA to Israel. EL AL operates 3 daily roundtrip flights between Eilat and Tel Aviv, every Sunday through Thursday, plus there are departures every Friday morning and Saturday evening after Shabbat. The 17 weekly nonstop flights arrive into and depart from Ben Gurion Airport, thereby offering easy connections to EL AL international flights.
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Preceding provided by El Al Airlines
Hand grenade explodes 100 meters from Ahmadinejad car in Hamedan
HAMADAN (WJC)–Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly escaped an assassination attempt in the western Iranian city of Hamadan. Several people were wounded in the blast, said media reports. The Arab news channel ‘al-Arabiya’ said the Iranian presidency had confirmed that Ahmadinejad “escaped an assassination attempt as his procession was targeted by a bomb.” The conservative Iranian website ‘Khabaronline.ir’ said: “This morning, a hand grenade exploded next to a vehicle carrying reporters accompanying the president in Hamedan. Ahmadinejad’s car was 100 meters away and he was not hurt.”
In his speech, which was broadcast on state television, the hard-line Iranian leader did not mention the attack. He claimed that Iran did not care about the latest US sanctions but warned countries against joining them. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department in Washington had named 21 firms and banned Americans from engaging in business with them. Thirteen of the companies are based in Europe – nine in Germany, two in Belarus, and one each in Luxembourg and Italy.
“You can make resolutions and sanctions against us as much as you want until you get fed up. As far as the Iranian nation is concerned, we do not care at all and will never beg four your goods,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in Hamadan. The president said all the sanctions in the last four years just made the country more self-sufficient and improved its technological output. He warned all countries against joining the sanctions, saying that they would be excluded from further business with Iran and “be wiped out from Iranian markets.”
Meanwhile, Japan also imposed sanctions against Iran, in line with the recent UN resolution. The government in Tokyo said it planned to announce additional punitive measures later this month.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
Museum of Photographic Arts hosts Human Rights Watch Film Festival
SAN DIEGO (Press Release) — For the first time in its 21 year history, the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is coming to San Diego. The 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival is the world’s foremost showcase for films with a distinctive human rights theme and creates a forum for courageous individuals on both sides of the lens to empower audiences with the knowledge that personal commitment can make a difference.
“The Human Rights Watch Film Festival reflects the condition of the world we live in, including the top news events around the world,” said John Biaggi, the festival director. “No one is immune to the rippling effects when human rights are violated, whether here in our country or far away. It affects us all.”
“MoPA is proud to host the inaugural San Diego showing of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival,” said Deborah Klochko, executive director, MoPA. “It is essential to our mission to serve as a forum for educating through all forms of the photographic medium, which is exactly what the Human Rights Watch Film Festival is all about.”
Community partners of the Human Rights Watch Film Festival include the United Nations Association of San Diego, the San Diego World Affairs Council, the San Diego Latino Film Festival, the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice and the Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies University of San Diego.
Additional information on HRWFF as well as downloadable images can be found at its website.
All films are screened at the Museum of Photographic Arts, 1649 El Prado, Balboa Park, San Diego, CA 92101.
Saturday, September 18, 11:00 am
Youth Producing Change portrays human rights crises from the perspectives of youth worldwide. Two of these young filmmakers will be present at the screening.
Saturday, September 18, 1:00 pm
Mountains & Clouds
Mountains and Clouds revisits a seminal moment in the push for immigration reform, with implications for the immigration battle currently brewing for the Obama administration and Congress.
Sunday, September 19, 6:00 pm
Pushing the Elephant (Rose & Nangabire)
Congolese Rose Mapendo was separated during the conflict from her daughter, Nangabire. Through the story of their reunion, we come to understand the excruciating decisions Rose made in order to survive and the complex difficulties Nangabire faces as a refugee in the US.
Thursday, September 23, 6:00 pm
Enemies of the People
Follow filmmaker Thet Sambath as he uncovers terrifying personal explanations for the Cambodian genocide by allowing the perpetrators to speak for themselves.
Friday, September 24, 6:00 pm
Camp Victory Afghanistan
Drawing from nearly 300 hours of vérité footage shot between 2005 and 2008, Camp Victory, Afghanistan skillfully explores the reality of building a functioning Afghan military.
Saturday, September 25, 1:00 pm
Iran: Voices of the Unheard
The untold story of Iranian secularists through three characters—each from a distinct social, economic and educational background but all sharing a need for a country free from political repression and theocracy.
Ticket Information: Single screening tickets for the 2010 Human Rights Watch Film Festival are $5 for MoPA Members, $8 for students and $10 for the general public. Single screening tickets may be bought at the door the night of the event. Festival passes are available for purchase and cover admission to all six festival films. Festival passes are $20 for MoPA Members and $55 for the general public. Festival passes may be purchased online.
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Preceding provided by the Museum of Photographic Arts
Theater Review: Orlandersmith’s ‘Bones’ hurts to the core
Kittles and Auberjonois in 'Bones' at Kirk Douglas Theatre. Photo: Craig Schwartz
By Carol Davis
Carol Davis
CULVER CITY, California— Have you ever been so angry, upset, frustrated or agonized over something that happened to you that it hurts to the core, digs to the bone and gets in the way of your life?
Well if you trek it to the Kirk Douglas Theatre between now and Aug. 8th you can catch a look into the torment and hurt felt by three family members acting out their resentments and rage on and to each other in Dael Orlandersmith’s latest study or reflection on the human condition in the world premiere of Bones.
(The CTG commissioned “Bones” and it is being performed as part of DouglasPlus Programming. DouglasPlus is “an eclectic mix of theatre choices, ranging from fully-staged or minimally-staged events to workshops and readings…”)
Three family members have arranged to meet for a showdown, or cleansing of sorts. Mom Claire (Khandi Alexander) and her two grown children, twins Leah and Steven (Tessa Auberjonois and Tory Kittles) are all in their separate rooms (Takeshi Kata) in a shabby hotel near the Newark airport getting psyched up for ‘their’ moment. Leah has arranged the meeting. The siblings have not seen each other since their father’s funeral.
As one might guess, the deceased father is at the core of most of this family drama but not the only guilty party here. There is enough blame to go around from LA to San Diego and back.
Leah is an artist without a portfolio and to curb her memories, Vodka is her choice painkiller but in her way of thinking, it helps her creativity. Aberjonois is jumpy and very much on the verge of a breakdown. Kittles ‘don’t tread on me’ persona in Steven is steady throughout and Alexander’s Claire is a perfect study (‘don’t blame me, I was only 22’) of a binge in progress.
All three characters have enough pent up anger to literally rip into each other, chew it up and spit it out. The horrific deeds done to them by their parents when they were about 6, and if we are to trust the memories of the siblings, to each other when they were older, are about as graphic and sick as one can imagine. They are now in their 30’s and memories either fade or become exacerbated depending on the circumstances, but they linger.
Orlandesmith’s spoken words are vivid and rhythmic, grizzly as they might be, as a poetic work. Child abuse is never easy to comprehend but sex and incest are the worst offenders. Mix in lots of scotch, infidelity, lack of responsibility and what you have is disaster or even worse as it accumulates over the years.
Damaged, both Leah and Steven have managed to grow into adulthood thinking that one last face-off or showdown might be able to break the cycle for them so they don’t have to follow in their parent’s footsteps.
But even their own acknowledgements of what happened to them at the hands of those who were supposed to be protecting them can’t seem to wipe the slate clean. The more they try the more conflicting the stories become the heavier the tension falls and the downward spiral just continues until finally they become exactly what they had hoped to wash away.
In the background two jazz musicians, Doug Webb on Sax and Nedra Wheeler on Bass are playing mood music throughout this seventy-five minute exercise or exorcism. All three actors have their chance at getting it right and they do with expertise.
Lap-Chi-Chu’s lighting is a fine indication of location and condition especially with the shadows from an overhead door-like opening in the ceiling that reflects a skewed ray of light that’s indicative of all their lives.
Credit director Gordon Edelstein for his fine handling of Orlandersmith’s bold foray into the darkness; into the bones and soul where the pain lingers and festers like a chronic case of arthritis.
(Leah: “I don’t want to be ‘Cured’, there is no cure…this is not just in my head/it’s in my bones…”)
The combination of excellent body language by all involved and a vivid understanding of Orlandersmith’s compelling story make this one heavy drama to sit through and might strike home for some. The material might not feel entirely comfortable though for everyone.
Before the show it was announced that at the talkback after the performance (the night I attended) a family therapist would be one of the panelists. While there is no age suggestion, I recommend this piece is more suitable for adults.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: July 30th– Aug. 8th
Organization: Center Theatre Group
Phone: 213-628-2772
Production Type: Drama
Where: 9820 Washington Blvd., Culver City, Ca 90232
Ticket Prices: $20.00/open seating
Web: CenterTheatreGroup.org
Venue: Kirk Douglas Theatre
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic.
Commentary: Unprovoked attack from Lebanon latest by Israel’s hostile neighbors
Shoshana Bryen
WASHINGTON, D.C. –It wasn’t Hezbollah; it was the LAF that killed one Israeli officer and seriously wounded another. It wasn’t in Lebanon; it was in Israel that they were attacked.
The IDF had notified the UNIFIL liaison that it would be working on the Israeli side of the Blue Line – the international border accepted by the UN Security Council in June 2000 – clearing brush to ensure that there had been no Hezbollah infiltration and removing a tree with a crane. The work was routine and UNIFIL routinely notified the LAF. And the LAF fired on the IDF. After giving UNIFIL time to get out of the way, the IDF attacked a LAF brigade headquarters. Three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist were killed.
What seems to have confused a lot of people who jumped to say Israel was in Lebanese territory was a photograph that shows an Israeli crane reaching beyond a fence that they misconstrue as the border. They are wrong; it is not the border. Inside the Blue Line, Israel has built what it calls the “technical fence.” The space between the fence and the Blue Line is Israel, simply Israel – not occupied territory, not Lebanon, not no-man’s land, not Hezbollahland. Just Israel. The tree was in Israel, the crane was in Israel, the soldiers were in Israel.
It bears emphasis because the attack was only the latest in a string of attacks on Israeli territory from outside its borders.
- On Friday morning, a GRAD rocket hit the city of Ashkelon.
- On Saturday night, an upgraded Qassam scored a direct hit on a children’s hydrotherapy center in Sderot. The center serves children from around the Negev region.
- On Sunday, five rockets hit the Israeli port of Eilat.
- On Monday, a GRAD rocket landed in the Jordanian city of Aqaba, injuring four people, one seriously. It appears that it was meant to hit Eilat.
In a not unrelated event, Congress just approved $422.7 million in missile defense aid for Israel to enhance a range of missile and rocket defense systems, including the development and deployment of Arrow-3 upper-tier system, low-tier David’s Sling and the tactical Iron Dome, designed to intercept short-range missiles and rockets. Rep. Steve Rothman used the occasion of the funding measure to pat the Democratic Congress and the President on the back for its support of Israel.
Not so fast. The United States has been playing both sides, supporting defenses for Israel, but arming and training the LAF, arming and training the Palestinian army and funding civilian projects in Gaza which allows Hamas to use its funds for weapons. And the President insists that Israel be prepared to concede additional territory and political control of space to a Palestinian government that has no internal mandate and remains unreconciled to the existence of a Jewish State in the Middle East.
We are grateful for Congress’s support of missile/rocket defenses, but at the end of the day, defense is not enough. Israel is faced with aggressive enemies who are ratcheting up their attacks, and at some point Israel will have to respond with offense. Today’s firefight with the LAF and the precision bombing of a Hamas bomb maker’s house in Gaza are necessary, but not necessarily sufficient measures to restore equilibrium. And equilibrium is only tentative.
The real measure of American support for the security of Israel will be its attitude toward hard decisions the Government of Israel may have to take to protect its people from enemies outside its borders. Today’s response by State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley – “The last thing that we want to see is this incident expand into something more significant” – was weak and disappointing under the circumstances.
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Bryen is senior director of security policy of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs. Her column is sponsored by Waxie Sanitary Supply in memory of Morris Wax, longtime JINSA supporter and national board member.
Commentary: Israelis divided on fate of children of foreign workers
By Ira Sharkansky
Ira Sharkansky
JERUSALEM — The New York Times headlines its article about a recent Israeli government decision dealing with the children of illegal immigrants, “Israelis Divided on Deporting Children.” Its first paragraph claims that
“Deep divisions emerged here on Monday over the fate of about 400 children of foreign workers who have no legal status in the country and are slated for deportation. The issue has touched on sensitive nerves in Israel, which sees itself as a nation of Jewish refugees and defines itself as a Jewish and democratic state.”
The issue does stir emotions. However, the results of one media query seem short of “deep divisions.” The country’s most popular news web site asked about the government decision that would allow approximately 800 children of foreign workers to stay in Israel, and deport about 400.” The criteria employed by the government would take into consideration length of residence, fluency in Hebrew, and enrollment in public school.
Of more than 1500 respondents, 17 percent thought the decision an appropriate compromise, 54 percent chose the option “Disgrace; there is a need to deport them all,” and 29 percent chose “Shameful; the government should allow all to stay.”
The issue of illegal immigration touches the same buttons here that it does in the United States and Western Europe. Israel is the only well-to-do western country having a land border with Africa, and the route from Egypt over the Sinai with Bedouin guides has resulted in substantial illegal foreign worker communities in Eilat and the poorer neighborhoods of Tel Aviv. Official estimates of close to 150,000 illegal residents include these migrants, as well as individuals who came as part of official agreements with several Asian countries (especially the Philippines, Thailand, China), and overstayed their visas. European prostitutes also come over the Sinai, typically organized by Israeli criminals whose own origins are in the women’s homelands of the former Soviet Union.
As elsewhere, businesses and families have trouble attracting menial workers who are legal, and provide jobs despite threats of inspections and fines. Egyptian police and soldiers make occasional sweeps against Bedouin traffickers, but their practice of shooting and killing the migrants does not go down well with Israelis.
Israel’s media has cooperated with activists who portray many of the African migrants as refugees seeking asylum from Darfur, although there may be few if any who have documented such origins. The vast majority are economic migrants, with large numbers coming from Eritrea and Nigeria. Efforts to arrange orderly programs of work permits with those governments along with procedures for returning illegals have not succeeded. While Israel’s government was pondering the issue of deporting children and their families over the course of several weeks, the media provided coverage for children who spoke, in Hebrew, about their love of Israel, their aspirations to become Israelis and eventually to serve in the army, and their lack of any connections with any other place. Media personalities press individuals speaking for the government, or Knesset Members in favor of deportation, with questions like, “How can you deport such children?”
Israelis do have sensitive nerves, but it is not clear how they differ from other populations. Perhaps 100,000 have expressed concern for Gilad Shalit, the soldier held prisoner in Gaza more than four years, but there are no overt signs of a movement to undercut the government’s refusal to free all the prisoners demanded as his price by Hamas.
More likely to be emotional than other events is the death of military personnel. When an IDF helicopter crashed with the loss of six lives during a training mission in Romania, the media devoted extensive coverage of the incident over the course of several days: from the first report of a missing helicopter missing to the funerals of the men on board. There were numerous interviews with experts speculating about the cause of the crash, and reports about the technicians, officers, and military rabbis sent to Romania in order to collect material for inspection and to identify the remains. As has occurred in the case of other military loses, there were stories about each of the individuals, interviews with friends and family members. Thousands of people attend these funerals, many of whom have no direct connection with those killed.
While there are Israelis who feel strongly about pleasant looking Africans and other children of illegal immigrants, there is no indication that they are able to shape public policy. It is hard to argue with the statement, expressed by several in the government’s majority, who said that an excess of leniency would only add to the problems of a small country, wanting to remain Jewish, and having a border with the poorest region of the world.
Among those quarreling with this sentiment was a prominent television personality who held forth on the value of ethnic variety, and the greater willingness of these immigrants than the ultra-Orthodox to work and to serve in the army.
The government has taken initial steps to build some kind of barrier through the long wasteland that is the border between the Sinai and Israel, but the Bedouin will be crafty at poking holes in whatever Israel builds. And it is cumbersome at best to deport individuals who have no documents, may not report truthfully about their origins, and are not likely to be accepted by whatever homeland Israel would decide is theirs.
Israel has approached European countries with a request to accept some of these people. So far there are no reports of success.
Anyone think that the United States would cooperate?
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Sharkansky is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University.
Peres says remarks critical of British were misunderstood
JERUSALEM (WJC)–Israel’s President Shimon Peres has denied accusations that in a newspaper interview he had labeled Britons as anti-Semitic. Peres said that he believed that “relations between Britain and Israel are of the greatest importance.”
The 87-year-old was quoted in an interview with ‘Tablet’ magazine as saying: “in England, there has always been something deeply pro-Arab, of course, not among all Englishmen, and anti-Israeli, in the establishment”. He also said that while Israel’s relationships with Italy, Germany and France were “pretty good”, the English attitude toward Israel’s was the latter’s “next big problem”.
Peres added: “There are several million Muslim voters, and for many members of parliament, that’s the difference between getting elected and not getting elected.”
His remarks drew criticism from parliamentarians, Jewish leaders and Christian and Muslim commentators after some British newspapers reported that Peres’ had accused the British of being deeply anti-Semitic. A statement from the president’s spokesman said: “On the contrary, he has the highest regard for Britain’s resolute opposition to Nazi Germany. Without the war on Nazism, waged entirely alone at times, the Jewish people would have faced an even greater tragedy.”
Pointing out that more than 10,000 missiles have been fired at Israeli civilians from Gaza, the spokesman added: “The president did express concern that some people in Britain do not fully appreciate difficulties of facing an onslaught of terror whilst adhering to democratic practice as Israel does.”
However, he added that while Peres had “expressed his sorrow over certain points in the relationship between Israel and the UK”, including Britain’s abstention in the 1947 UN Partition Plan vote, or the arms embargo imposed after Israel gained independence, these were “historical disagreements. “They have no impact on current relations between the two countries and of course have nothing to do with anti-Semitism.”
The controversy comes just days after Prime Minister David Cameron sparked Israeli anger by describing Gaza as “a prison camp” while on a visit to Turkey. However, Peres gave the original interview before the incident.
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress
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