Monthly Archives: April 2008

Soldier jailed for Facebook pic

April 25, 2008 By in Israel, Israel Defense Forces, Uncategorized Tags: , , 2 Comments

Seems like the message is finally starting to get through to the army, which has really let this thing go on for far too long. This is the first tangible thing to have happened since I published the original article exposing all this stuff.

A soldier serving in the IDF’s elite 8200 military intelligence unit was sentenced to 19 days in prison on Wednesday for uploading a picture onto the Facebook social networking site.

The IDF would not comment on the exact nature of the photograph, but said the punishment was in proportion to the committed offense. Military sources said an IDF directive prohibits photography on bases without official approval.

The sources said the soldier in question would be punished for taking pictures on a military base without permission. Continue reading →

Religious views

April 21, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , 3 Comments

I can’t believe how popular this blog post is continuing to be, there seems to be a real fascination with what people put as their religious views on Facebook. I’ll keep on updating it when I come across new and interesting religious views.

On to the blog post:

Had too much time on my hands over Passover and was thinking about what my religious views were, and I’ve never really been able to pin them down, except for something I came up with a while back which I like to call ‘open source Judaism’.

The idea comes from open-source computer coding, where a basic codes exists, and to which everyone is free to tinker with, improve and update. According to the Open Source Initiative [non-religious software association], open source aims to “harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost, and an end to predatory vendor lock-in.” Which is pretty much how I feel about religion.

I put that on my Facebook account under religious views, but Facebook only lets you put in one religious view, which is interesting in itself, and forced me to make a clear-cut choice. Problem is I have a bunch of others, and the more I think about it the more they pop up. So here are some of the alternative religious views I would put on my Facebook profile if it let me:

What if God was one of us?

Everybody is looking for something.

Goodness. Gracious. Me.

God would never kill a curious cat.

Dopamine for the masses.

Help God help us.

Soultime achievement award.

Modern ultra-Flexidox.

Some of my friends on Facebook have really interesting religious views:

Angels. [This person likes to fly a lot]

Moses was the dude. [Spends a lot of time in nature]

Jesus built my hotrod. [Mostly rides a bike]

Secular Socialist Chalutzik Zionist. [anti-Materialist]

Radical Infidel Jihadist. [This person is actually an observant Jew but has some issues]

skysophonicnewferklinker. [This person also has issues]

Jewish – Liberal Orthodox [One of the nicest, most spiritual people I know]

Jewish (see Berkovitz, Heschel) [?]

Eat me [This person would really say that to God and God would love him for it]

Kaleidoscopic. [Don't know this person so well]

Purely Karmic. [Musician]

Opposed to institutionalized religion [just married] Like all good things its complicated

I like God. [Beautiful person]

My personal laws of Kosher include shellfish. [Also likes hummus and chicken]

Nonreligesaurus, love and light [works with electricity].

Worldly.

Some people I don’t know:

Sinner

Roman Catholic

IDF YouTube

April 13, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , 2 Comments

I’m blown away by the amount of material posted by Israelis during their service in the Israel Defense Forces, including Facebook and YouTube. I published the story below in today’s paper and on this blog, and since then several people have drawn my attention to more material out there, stuff I think should be classified. It seems that the most incriminating stuff has been posted by soldiers on reserve duty, pretty much wanting to show off to their friends and perhaps recapture some of the glory they felt when they were in their mandatory service. These guys are literally filming their tours of duty, including weapons training, going back home and uploading their videos onto YouTube. Some are even editing them and adding music and titles. I sincerely hope that somebody is starting to take a serious look at this problem.

Michael Freund pointed out some IDF training exercises he found on YouTube. This stuff is out in the open and anyone typing in Israel and military into YouTube will find this stuff, so I don’t feel like I’m revealing state secrets here. Continue reading →

IDFacebook

April 13, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , 3 Comments

Got this response from the IDF Spokesperson’s Office today for both the Facebook and YouTube stories:

Regulations stipulate that it is not permissible to film or take pictures inside any IDF facility or during an IDF operation unless the photographer has express permission. These regulations are designed to prevent people without proper security clearance from accessing classified information and the appearance of such materials in the press or on the internet. The IDF is working to raise awareness among soldiers and reservists about operational and security dangers that maybe caused by classified information carelessly uploaded to the internet. The IDF is taking a broad response to the problem, which includes education, monitoring and disciplinary enforcement.

And now, on to the story:

Dozens, perhaps hundreds, of photographs of classified Israeli military information are available freely for perusal on the popular Facebook social networking Web site. [PICTURES AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS POST]. Continue reading →

Bnei Akiva look ahead

April 11, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , Leave a comment

The decorations on the Hyundai parked outside Bnei Akiva’s headquarters in Jerusalem’s Rehavia neighborhood tell you quite a lot about where Israel’s second largest youth movement came from, where it is now and where it’s headed. Stuck onto the rear window is a sticker reading: “Follow Me to the Paratroopers” – an iconic Israeli message borne of the famous Paratrooper captains’ battle cry in 1967. On the rear bumper is a more recent catch phrase – “No Soldier is Left Behind in the Field” – tied to kidnapped soldiers Gilad Schalit, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. Hanging from the rearview mirror is an orange ribbon – the symbol of the campaign against the evacuation of Jewish settlements in Gaza and northern Samaria that constituted the 2005 disengagement.

The car belongs to Neriya Meir, Bnei Akiva’s Jerusalem District coordinator. Meir is a resident of Eli, a settlement north of Ramallah – an area Bnei Akiva teaches its kids is the Jewish heartland. The 26-year-old father-of-two (“They keep me up at night”), whose wife’s photo is his cell phone’s screensaver, is a combat soldier in the reserves. Even in civilian life, he carries a handgun with him at all times, however, because he and his family live deep in the West Bank. Continue reading →

This is a drill

April 9, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , 2 Comments

The following story dramatizes how the Turning Point 2 preparedness drill unfolded at Ben-Gurion Elementary School on Rehov Poale Harakevet in Givatayim on Tuesday, April 8, between 9:30 and 10:30 a.m.

Amit powers past two defenders, passes the ball to Roei, who fakes, then takes a shot from inside the circle. The ball bounces off the rim, but Amit is there to pick up the rebound. Roei circles round as Doron blocks another defender.

Amit and Roei try the routine again: Again it doesn’t go in, and this time the opposing team picks up the rebound.

All around the six older boys, many of the school’s other 331 pupils are at play. Two girls, holding hands, skip past two others who are hugging and singing. Two other girls are tormenting a younger boy, taking his left leg, then his right leg, and teaching him how they think he should walk.

Some of the older girls, in their very early teens, are singing, and one even has the gall to ask another if she brushed her teeth this morning, “Oh my God, your breath stinks,” she chuckles, and all four girls giggle.

Four 10-year-old boys race each other from one end of the playground to the other. In the other direction, little Tomer outruns a girl twice his size.

Two scruffy-looking boys are playing a soccer penalty shootout with a small rock, but it hurts their feet too much for the game to go on for long. In any case, the bell rings and everyone rushes to class.

But before they can even catch their breath, a siren goes off. A few seconds go by, then Daphna the principal’s voice comes over the PA system: “This is not a drill, everyone has one minute to get to the bomb shelters. Go!”

A teacher in a class of six-year-olds says calmly: “Remember how we prepared for this? We’re ready. Now, like big children I want you to line up, hold hands and follow me. Remember to play the sweet music in your head that we talked about.” Continue reading →

Gideon Prodgers, 1987 – 2008

April 7, 2008 By in Uncategorized Leave a comment

Terribly sad story this.

A heart-wrenching struggle for the life of young South African Jewish youth leader ended sadly this weekend with the death of Gideon Prodgers, 20, from Cape Town.

Gideon passed away this Saturday at Rambam medical center in Haifa after an eight-month battle with leukemia. He will be buried in Cape Town later this week.

Gideon came to Israel on a gap-year program with the Habonim Dror youth movement. He spent his first three months at the Jewish Agency’s institute for training youth movement leaders in Jerusalem. He took ill and collapsed on one of the hikes organized by the institute in July and was taken to a Jerusalem hospital, where he was diagnosed with leukemia. According to his Habonim friends, Gideon’s doctors were very pessimistic about his chances. Continue reading →

Religious 1: Secular 1; God: 0

April 6, 2008 By in Uncategorized Tags: , , , Leave a comment

I wrote this post yesterday, and since then another interesting Synagogue versus State case has come up today. A Haifa court ruled today that it was not going to interfere in a mother’s request to cremate the body of her daughter, who committed suicide over the weekend. Judaism prohibits cremation. During the court hearing on Monday, members of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox ZAKA [burial society] organization appealed to the High Court of Justice. So on Tuesday, Israel’s highest court will have to rule between laws of God as interpreted by the ultra-Orthodox and the wishes of a private citizen. This should be interesting.

Anyway, here is Sunday’s post:

What a weird and wonderful country we live in, where the religious and secular jostle daily over the character of the state. As Israel prepares to celebrate its 60th birthday, the country is clearly still a work in progress, with one of the main issues still to be decided is the balance between civil and religious laws. Continue reading →

Foreign Ministry opens Sderot office

April 6, 2008 By in Gaza, Israel, Sderot, Uncategorized 1 Comment

It took over seven years, but the Foreign Ministry on Sunday opened up an office in the rocket – plagued city of Sderot so as better to coordinate foreign news coverage and facilitate fact-finding and solidarity missions of the city and other Gaza envelope communities under fire from the Gaza Strip.

“It took us a while to get the fax machine here today and the phone line hooked up, six or so years too late, but better late than never,” Hannan Godar, one of two Foreign Ministry officials who will be manning the office told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday. The two officials, public diplomacy and media experts, who do not live in Sderot, will work in shifts during “normal times” – when there is no major barrage of the city – and will receive reinforcements during times of greater violence. The office, housed in the Peretz Bonei Hanagev complex is not fortified against Kassam rockets. “I’ve been advised not to close the office window completely so that if it shatters the glass won’t go flying everywhere,” Godar said.

Continue reading →

Blame Canada

April 5, 2008 By in Canada Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

WordPress says this is one of the fastest growing blogs on its platform.

That’s worrying as it is very extreme. Besides for that I’m not going to make any comment about the blog itself, which argues that Canada has been taken over by Zionist agents, or something like that.

But I wonder what the author thinks of this: Hamas snipers shooting at a bunch of Canadians on a fact-finding mission of the Gaza border?

None of the Canadians were hurt, but Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter’s chief aide, Mati Gil, was moderately wounded. I work closely with Gil and wish him a speedy recovery.

The Canadians got a first-hand look at what life is like along the border with the Gaza Strip, which Israel evacuated in the summer of 2005.

Mati Gil hit by a Hamas sniper

A BBC poll released last week testing people’s attitudes towards Iran and Israel showed that Canadians were increasingly thinking of Israel in negative terms, a jump from 15% to 27% of Canadians viewed Israel negatively.

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