Poll - Most Israelis believe in God

An interesting thing to quote next time sometime tells you most Israelis are Atheists - A poll by YNet news show that most believe in God:

According to the results of last week's poll by Ynet and the Smith Institute, seven out of ten Israelis believe in the existence of God, and six out of ten believe it was God who created the world in which we live today.

A study conducted by Rafi Smith of the Smith Institute, examined the public’s stance on faith and Judaism. Data was collected by two simultaneous methods; a telephone survey of the older community, and an internet poll posted on Ynet which had over 40 thousand participants.

Smith explained that the internet poll contained questions on the socio-demographic background of participants, which allowed the results to be calculated in such a way that they represented the public desire of the over-18 Jewish community in Israel.

Who created the world we live in?

God: 60% (100% religious, 79% traditional, 29% secular)

Big Bang: 40%

Have you become closer to Judaism in recent years?

Yes, became closer to Judaism: 39% (78% religious, 35% traditional, 23% secular)

No, moved away from Judaism: 9% (1% religious, 6% traditional, 14% secular)

Neutral: 52%

Do you think schools should provide more traditional studies?

Yes, increase traditional studies: 53% (78% religious, 35% traditional, 23% secular)

No, decrease traditional studies: 4% (1% religious, 6% traditional, 14% secular)

No, no change necessary: 32%

Not sure: 11%

How would you like to see Israel?

More religious: 23%

More traditional: 26%

More secular: 27%

No change needed: 24%

Do you keep Kosher?

Yes: 53%

No: 36%

Sometimes: 11%

Do you keep Shabbat?

Yes: 35%

No: 57%

Sometimes: 8%

Do you fast on Yom Kippur?

Yes: 62%

No: 31%

Sometimes: 7%

Massey Student lies at Israeli Immigration

The Herald "reports", Massey Student, Amy Thomson tries to enter Israel, and lies on her immigration.

A peace activist was detained for 48 hours before being sent back to New Zealand for trying to enter Israel on a tourist visa.

What qualifications does she have to call herself a "Peace Activist"?  None I can see.  She is a Palestinian advocate.  Not looking for peace, except on her terms

Amy Thomson, 26, was held at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv on February 26. She tried to enter the country for a three-month voluntary internship at a non-government organisation promoting peace.

Thomson said the Israel Palestinian Centre for Research and Information told her she should claim to be a tourist.

Suspicions were raised when Israeli immigration authorities saw she had recently visited Lebanon, which is in ongoing conflict with Israel.

Duh, like its not hard to Google her and see these for yourself.

The Palmerston North student was ordered to hand over her mobile phone. After refusing to give up her Hotmail account password, she believed her email account may have been hacked.

Thomson was questioned for eight hours about her visit to Israel, who she knew, and her intentions.

She said they asked if she knew Arabic because of her Lebanon visit.

"I said there hadn't been enough time to learn it, given I was there for only three weeks.

"A couple of hours later I was summoned by a new guy who said I think something about being security and intelligence. He asked me a lot of the same questions and grilled me about who I know there.

"He demanded that I tell him about everyone I knew in Israel. It was awful knowing that I may have compromised others working for the peace organisation."

Why?  Is it a secret?  This sounds like the organisation is not so principled after all.

One interrogator mockingly congratulated her for winning a $500 prize for an essay she had written on Iranian politics which appeared on the Massey University website.

She is a student of Nigel Parsons at Massey University.  He is not a peace advocate.  He has a picture of Arafat on his wall, and states that Arafat was a hero for breaking off the peace process.  

"I felt humiliated and ashamed. Eventually it seemed to me that he had found something out and knew that I had lied about something."

Well you are pretty dumb, so you should be ashamed of that.

Exhausted, after a 24 hour flight and 12 hours questioning, Thomson admitted that she was to work for a non-governmental organisation.

She was transferred to a detention centre and held with other detainees for 36 hours.

Her belongings were confiscated except for an electronic book reader. She was allowed one phone call to the nearest embassy in Turkey.

She said she regretted not being honest but it was a valuable experience.

"I know what it's like for the Palestinians to deal with what they deal with every single day."

This is a secret code, stating that Israel has no right to protect itself against Terrorism.

The centre said it advised interns to travel on tourist visas as they could not get volunteer visas from Israel.

Thomson said the organisation was very apologetic. They said their interns had never been detained.

Thomson was banned from Israel for 10 years.

Seriously, she got off lightly.  See what it's like for Jews traveling in Saudi Arabia, or Iran.  Perhaps she should see what it's like for Jews to live in Iran, with a constant threat that they could be dragged from the street, tortured or shot without trial.  She acknowledges this in her online essay, with almost clinical bypass.  None of the emotion that she likes to display here for Palestinians.

 

Did you know - Animal testing banned in Israel

A fact I did not know, via Israel in New Zealand and Israel21c - Testing on animals has been banned since 2007

Now, all imports which have been tested on animals are banned.

A new Israeli law has made animal welfare a top priority by officially banning the import, marketing and sale of any toiletries, detergents or cosmetics whose manufacturing process involves animal testing. The new regulations took effect January 1, 2013.

“Animal testing in the Cosmetics Industry inflicts horrific suffering on these animals. Each product requires between 2,000-3,000 tests, and animals die in agony,” said MK Eitan Cabel.In 2007, Israel banned animal testing for cosmetics and other products. This new law focuses on products that are imported from other countries.“The end of animal testing for cosmetics has come a step closer today,” Troy Seidle, director of research & toxicology for Humane Society International, told Care2. “Whilst we commend Israel for taking this truly historic action, strict enforcement of the law alongside active assistance from cosmetic companies, will now be vital.”

This means a few things:

1) Israel is leading the way in strides against animal cruelty
2) This contradicts what SAFE had to say about Kosher Meat
3) If Israeli imports are blocked, you may be increasing cruelty against animals

Israeli Election Results

What a close call!  This was much closer than any previous predictions or polls (exit or otherwise)

In order of seats counted

• Likud-Yisrael Beiteinu  31 seats

• Yesh Atid 19

• Labor 15

• Shas 11

• Habayit Hayehudi 11

• United Torah Judaism 7

• Hatnuah 6

• Meretz 6

• United Arab List-Ta’al 5

• Balad 3

• Kadima 2

The Right vs Left Bloc shows as 60:60, although this includes the Ultra Religious and the Arab Parties. 

Now come the coalition negotiations.  Shas is likely to be on the outer, especially after their accusation against Habayit Hayehudi are against the Torah.  HH are likely partners for Likud.  This leaves Yair Lapid's Yesh Atid, as a seemingly good fit.

This demonstrates an obvious move to the Left, mainly a desire for change, and a new leadership style.  Bibi should retain power, but this will be a much different coalition, I would expect.

Labour have continued to be self defeatist, and the Arab parties negotiated a larger than expected turnout.  Tzipi Livni returns, even after most polls suggested she wouldn't

Which Freedom Index is correct?

Last week the Fraser Institute reported a Freedom Index.  Israel ranked 105th

Now the Freedom House ranks them as the most free in the region.

Something is wrong in one of these!  It looks like the Fraser institute is including the Palestinian Authority and Territory in its scoring. 

Where do you sit on the Israeli Parliament spectrum?

This is interesting, you can sit a test to see where you compare on a scale to the Israeli Political parties.

I sat it, to those who call me right wing, you will see I am very much a run of the mill centrist, if not slightly to the left.

I figure that most people in Israel are fairly centric, which is why it is such a pity that the political system is so pathetic.

The Proportional Representation system has such a low threshold, that the parties often tend to cater towards the minorites, rather than the centric majorities.

It also means that the politics are heavily based around personalities - Netanyahu, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid etc.  One of the questions of the survey was electoral reform.  I stated that I strongly agreed!

Israel bans skinny models

In a world first, Israel has banned skinny models

Israel now has a law setting minimum model body mass index for advertisements and requiring that fashion magazines disclose Photoshopping that cuts pounds off of models in editorial spreads.

I think this is a great initiative, although there is sure to be a backlash in the fashion community.  Personally, I think that body shape should not be a pre-cursor to wearing well designed clothing, or for our ideals of beauty.  Also images should not be altered to unrealistic proportions.

Meanwhile, lets see where the Arab world is at.  Many still have medieval class for women.

Israeli Election graphic for the perplexed

NU Campaign posted this graphic - a guide to the Israeli election.

It's a joke, but I think a worthy one to post here.  It shows all the players in the Knesset, but also what a complicated minefield Israeli Politics is.  Also worth noting the top topic is the West Bank - technically not even part of Israel!

Not Election related

I've already dismissed any relationship between the Gaza conflict and the upcoming Israeli elections.

This announcement that Ehud Barak is retiring, pretty much nails it.

Strangely, even Gwynne Dyer in the Manawatu Standard also agrees.  

So here we go again, perhaps? Netanyahu is still the prime minister, and the next elections are due in January. What better way to ensure success than to go and bash the Palestinians again? A week later, with close to 150 Palestinians and three Israelis dead, and still counting, his re-election is assured: Israelis overwhelmingly support the current military operation.

That's the case that is made against Israel. Does it hold water? Well, actually, no, it doesn't.

Note - I usually struggle to find common ground with Mr Dyer, and for the bulk of this article, I am still struggling.

Ceasefire in Gaza!

Ceasefire in Gaza is announced!  Israel stops immediately, Hamas about 3 hours later.

Whilst this is a good thing in the short term, it is surely just a matter of time before Hamas rearms and launch their next round of terror.

Also, I expect that either Hamas or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt  will be rewarded by accepting aid packages or similar support.  This would be essentially rewarding terrorism.

Operation Pillar of Defense

Operation Pillar of Defense has started.  Apparently the media is reporting this is because of the killing by Israel of the Terrorist leader Ahmed Jabari.  The fact that Hamas had escalated rocket activity in the last month had been completely ignored by all outside of Israel.

Can you imagine the gall of people who say "Israel broke the Truce".  What Truce, where you are able to rain missiles on innocent civilians?

The usual response in the media is that Palestinian rocket fire is harmless.  Supposedly small homemade firecrackers.  Well one of those rockets killed 3 people, including a baby.  And they are landing in Tel Aviv!  That is some serious distance.  These are Grad missiles smuggled from Iran.  Cynically fired from underground sites within densely populated areas.  Hamas will do whatever they can to provoke Israel and attempt to make more martyrs.  Nobody complains that they are putting their own people in the firing line.  To do so would risk death from their own leaders.

Iron Dome is intercepting about one in three.  I guess that is something.

Locally, cynical people are referencing the upcoming Israeli election.  Firstly, the operation is being undertaken by the IDF, not the government.  And it has bipartison support.  There is only so much terror activity that civilians will put up with.  Whilst protecting citizens would definitely be a popular topic, this can hardly be taken just to win political points scoring.  If anything, this is a risk to government if the military operation goes bad.  The Lebanon operation in 2006 was politically bad for the Olmert government

However, speaking of elections, any word on Palestinian elections?  People seem to forget about those.  If you want to be cyncial about anything, remember that only the other week, Mahmoud Abbas renounced his right to live in Sefad, to the anger of Hamas.  Next week, Palestine go to the UN to recognise Statehood.  How does it look if they are firing rockets wanton into Israel.

This operation is being documented in Social Media like never before.  Hamas and the IDF are tweeting each other.

And right on cue, if you search twitter for "Israel" or "Gaza" you will see a war going on.  My facebook account has been awash with Memes.  I'm not going to reproduce any here - in essence I don't feel they achieve anything but whip up more fervour.

Hamas are keen to promote the idea of Israel as "baby murderers", and that is the majority of what is posted under the Gaza hashtags are such.  Again, just to get the emotions going to try and promote and justify their own atrocities.  Given they are attempting to generate their own martyrs (in the name of God!) is disgusting and despicable.

Women in Israel: Beit Shemesh and Science Achievers

Two links for Women in Israel:

The Beit Shemesh Flash Mob.

Advancement of Women in science

Israel trades with Asia

No issues with BDS, or Asian clients recognising Israel

Israeli Media Tour in China

Israeli Aerospace deal in Asia

Linkage of faiths in YMCA in Jerusalem

An excellent article from NY Times:  The linkage of faith at YMCA in Jerusalem

His plan is to keep promoting tolerance, at the YMCA and beyond. Recently he went to Morocco to give a talk, as a Palestinian Arab, on the horrors of the Holocaust. He speaks frequently on the need for understanding "the other."

In the long term, he hopes to be able to build business relationships between Israelis and Arabs. "That would be my ticket to a greater vision," he says, "of a new Middle East, interdependent and interconnected."

If Forsan Hussein won't give up, how can we?

It's great to see that tolerance still exists and gives us hope for the future.

Saudi Hacker targeting Israeli accounts

Looks like there is a Saudi Hacker targeting Israeli accounts.

I have to really say, politically motivated or not, Hacking is hacking and you need to take responsibility for your own data security.  It appears that he is an individual, not government related.

There are lots of crooks out there.  I'm sure there is Israeli ones also.  So, nothing new to see here .. moving on.

Beit Shemesh - in the words of religious men

My friend David, who is a religious Jew, had this to say about Beit Shemesh.
Michael Lawrence, Israel speaker, agreed on facebook with a poster that said it's a Chillul Hashem (desecration of the name).

It's hard not to agree with both  here.  For the record, I find the actions of the Haredi at Beit Shemesh disgusting and disgraceful.  Government leaders and Rabbonim have all condemned this.  There have been mass protests, and I believe it is all long overdue.

One thing that is positive, is that these Charedi are not representative of all Charedi (a fact lost to the press).  All religions have their extremists, but I think its wrong to compare to extremists of other religions who kill people in the name of God and rule entire countries, putting down all rebellion.  These extremists are not even on the same page as that.

Great Israel Videos from Danny Ayalon

Danny Ayalon has some great videos on Youtube.  Make it very easy to understand the peace process.

Other great videos include the Refugees and West Bank explained

Palmer report released

I broke the news of the Palmer Report on Kiwiblog.

Didn't get much credit.  In my opinion it looks fair.  What the hell were all those terrorists doing, looking for a fight.  The ships were loaded with Out of date medicines, defunct machinery and belligerent Jihadis.  By the time Israel passed it on, it became clear they didn't really want that junk.

I still love this song:  We con the world.

Kevin Rudd luncheon

On Friday I attended a luncheon with Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia. The lunch was hosted at one of Melbourne’s largest function centers, by the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce, with approximately 1200 guests. There were multiple large screens so that gustes could see a close up of the PM.

The luncheon was opened by Peter Cosgrove, former chief of the Australian armed forces, who discussed the General Sir John Monash Award – and presented one of the eight winners to speak. This is an award for Australia’s best and brightest – each of the 8 winners had multiple university degrees in firts class honours, spoke several languages, had worked overseas in high profile posts, and performed high profile volunteer work. In their spare time, several of them run marathons! The prize is a scholarship to complete a PhD at any University in the world. The award was a worthy investment in the future of the country – and the award winner noted she had been issued a challenge. During Kevin Rudd’s speech he later announced that the federal govt was giving $720,000 towards the 2010 prize (enabling 4 extra winners).

Sir John Monash was credited with being the first to commerate ANZAC day, in 1916. Much was said to honour him as a great Australian and very much a people’s leader within the armed forces.

Kevin Rudd opened his speech by reaffirming himself as a lifelong friend of Israel. He also publicly stated “I condemn the anti-semitic comments and sentiment made by the leader of Iran”. An interesting contrast to NZ’s Grant Robertson. He stated that Australia decided to pull out of Durban II, only when it was plainly obvious that Israel was going to be singled out in the conferences findings.

He then talked at length about GFC, and the local stimulus package.

At the G20 Summit, the 1929 depression was discussed – at that time it was noted that countries decided not to work together, but to try and protect their own interests, which made the depression longer and harder, ultimately culminating in the great war. The resolve for G20 was made for countries to work together such that each provided their own stimulus packages.

For Australia, he talked of the stimulus packages here as an investment for the future. By Upgrading Schools across the country, they intern stimulated the economy now, so that when recovery came, they would have the infrastructure to cope with the future’s demands.

A lot of Australian’s will take these statements with a grain of salt. I was not a citizen at the last election, nor do I have political affiliation, but I was very impressed by the speech. I will try and find if a full transcript is available.