02.28.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:06 by Oded Ambar
Canadian Council for Israel, Jewish Advocacy release 54-second ad depicting a couple in bed as part of campaign aimed at enticing Canadian university students to visit Holy Land. Not everyone seems to be pleased Christal Gardiola Published: 02.26.10, 14:25 / Israel Travel VIDEO – If sex truly sells, then the Canadian Council for Israel and Jewish Advocacy just boosted tourism in Israel. In conjunction with the Israeli consulate in Canada, CIJA recently released a 54-second spot as part of the “Size Doesn’t Matter” campaign, which aims to entice Canadian university students to visit the Middle Eastern country. The ad depicts a couple in bed, with the woman looking at the man’s crotch saying she can’t go there because “it’s too small.” The man replies, “I consider this a spot of worship. It may be small, but it’s brought the driest places to life. Baby, this is paradise.” The camera then pans to Israel maps and pocket guides placed strategically on the man’s lower body parts. The video attempts to promote the more attractive side of Israel, but not everyone seems to be pleased. Jewish blogger Richard Silverstein thinks the ad was made in “bad taste” and says it ignores the cultural complexities any tourist will discover while visiting Israel. He says, “I’m simply flabbergasted that Israel would use the promise of fellatio and cunnilingus to promote itself.” Writer Neal Ungerleider, who is based in New York but spent a good amount of time in Israel, believes the ad was humorous but completely missed the mark in promoting the country itself. He says, “It is hard to believe even a single viewer will show interest in visiting Israel or have a higher opinion of Israel because of the ad. As even a first year employee at an advertising agency will tell you, associating your country with small genitalia isn’t the smartest move to attract tourism.” This is not the first time, however, that Israeli governing bodies have opted for sex-themed promotional material. In 2007, four bikini-clad women from the Israel Defense Forces posed in sexy army-wear for Maxim magazine’s July issue. David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs in New York, said to the New York Post that the spread was supposed to improve the image of Israel among men aged 18-38 years old. But the Maxim photos received a lot of backlash from critics and even Israeli female legislators who found the images to be pornographic. Fast forward to present times and Israel promotions continue to stir controversy with the Size Doesn’t Matter campaign. Shalom Life made an attempt to contact the CIJA for comment, however no one was available.
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02.23.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 19:58 by Oded Ambar
Home renovation in Old City yields rare 1,100-year-old plaque offering insight into capital’s history under Muslim rule A home renovation in Jerusalem’s Old City has yielded a rare Arabic inscription offering insight into the city’s history under Muslim rule, Israeli archaeologists said Wednesday. The fragment of a 1,100-year-old plaque is thought to have been made by an army veteran to express his thanks for a land grant from the Caliph al-Muqtadir, whom the inscription calls “Emir of the Faithful.” Dating from a time when Jerusalem was ruled from Baghdad by the Abbasid empire, the plaque shows how rulers rewarded their troops and ensured their loyalty, archaeologists said. The Abbasids conquered Jerusalem after numerous wars with the Fatimid empire in Egypt. The Abbasid caliphs valued Jerusalem as an Islamic holy site. “The caliph probably granted estates as part of his effort to strengthen his hold over the territories within his control, including Jerusalem, just as other rulers did in different periods,” said excavation director Annette Nagar. The white marble plaque measures four inches by four inches (10×10 centimeters) and was found approximately five feet (1.5 meters) beneath the floor of a home in the Old City’s Jewish Quarter. The house’s owner planned a renovation and – as required by law – brought archaeologists to carry out a salvage dig meant to prevent harm to valuable antiquities. The plaque has been removed from the site and is now in the hands of Israel’s Antiquities Authority. The writing was deciphered by Hebrew University professor Moshe Sharon, who traced it to 910, during the early part of al-Muqtadir’s 24-year rule. The finding will help scholars better understand 10th-century Jerusalem, populated by Muslims, Christians and Jews, and the methods used by Muslim rulers to solidify their control.
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02.04.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:00 by Oded Ambar
New archaeological exhibition displays for first time beautiful 1,700-year-old sarcophagus lid decorated with mythological medusa heads, along with other ancient artifacts
A unique archaeological exhibition has opened in the Caesarea harbor: For the first time, the general public can see an extraordinary 1,700-year-old sarcophagus cover that is one of the most impressive ever discovered in Caesarea.
The cover, which weighs more than four tons, is decorated with snake-haired medusa heads and joyful and sad-faced masks. These were taken from the world of the ancient theater where two kinds of plays were customarily presented: comedy and tragedy.
The meaning of the Greek word “medusa” is “guard or sentry”; whoever looked directly at the mythological medusa would be turned to stone immediately. In antiquity they used to produce medusa reliefs on, among other things, tombs and various shields, in the hope that this would ward off the threat.
Interment in large stone coffins (sarcophagi) was widespread in the Mediterranean basin in the second to fifth centuries CE. This funerary custom was first practiced among pagans and was later also adopted by Jews, Christians and Samaritans. The word sarcophagus is Greek in origin, meaning “flesh-eating”.
The sarcophagus has two parts: A rectangular chest-like receptacle in which the deceased was placed and a lid. The sarcophagi were interred inside burial structures (mausoleum; pl. mausolea) or in rock-hewn burial caves. The residents of ancient Caesarea were buried in cemeteries that were located in regions outside the built-up area of the city.
The impressive sarcophagus cover, which was probably used in the burial of one of Caesarea’s wealthiest denizens in the Roman period, is one of an assortment of unique stone items that were exposed in archaeological excavations and by other means in Caesarea. The items constitute living and tangible evidence of the lives of the rich in Caesarea, at a time when the city was a vibrant Roman provincial capital.
Rich source of information on history
The Israel Antiquities Authority organized this exhibition together with the Caesarea Development Corporation and Israel Nature and Parks Authority, and views it as the first of many other archaeological exhibitions that will be held in the Caesarea harbor compound, based on the many artifacts that the IAA uncovered there over the years. The exhibition curator is Ayelet Grover of the Israel Antiquities Authority, and the exhibit designer is Architect Boaz Kedar.
Another unique find presented in the new exhibition is an item that was part of a large magnificent building and which bears a dedicatory inscription by a woman who was apparently named Cleopatra. It seems that she and her son or daughter were members of a family of local nobility that donated the structure to Colonia Caesarea.
Also on display here is a sarcophagus that bears an inscription written by Eliphis, a husband, who dedicated the sarcophagus to his beloved wife Manophila. The inscription also states that “man is not immortal and such is life…”
The inscriptions are a rich source of information for understanding the history of Caesarea in the Roman and Byzantine periods. We can learn from them about public life in the city; its institutions, political ties and personal relations, and about the city’s residents – their names, professions and religious beliefs.
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01.30.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 09:05 by Oded Ambar
water fall on Golan
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01.17.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 21:13 by Oded Ambar
Fascinating artifacts discovered in Ramat Aviv neighborhood include hippopotamus bones, 100,000-year-old flint tools
Remains of a prehistoric building, which is the earliest ever discovered in the Tel Aviv region and estimated to be 7,800-8,400 years old, were exposed in an archaeological excavation the Israel Antiquities Authority recently carried out prior to the construction of an apartment building in the “Green Fichman” project in Ramat Aviv
Ancient artifacts that are thought to be 13,000 and 100,000 years old were also discovered there.
According to archaeologist Ayelet Dayan, director of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, “This discovery is both important and surprising to researchers of the period. For the first time we have encountered evidence of a permanent habitation that existed in the Tel Aviv region c. 8,000 years ago.
“The site is located on the northern bank of the Yarkon River, not far from the confluence with Nahal Ayalon. We can assume that this fact influenced the ancient settlers in choosing a place to live. The fertile alluvium soil along the fringes of the streams was considerate a preferred location for a settlement in ancient periods”.
During the Neolithic period (also known as the New Stone Age) man went from a nomadic existence of hunting and gathering to living in permanent settlements and began to engage in agriculture. Remains of an ancient building that consisted of at least three rooms were discovered at the site.
The pottery sherds that were found there attest to the age of the site, which dates to the Neolithic period. In addition, flint tools such as sickle blades were discovered, as well as numerous flakes left over from the knapping of these implements, which are indicative of an ancient tool-making industry.
Flint implements that are also ascribed to earlier periods were discovered at the site: A point of a hunting tool from the Middle Paleolithic period (c. 100,000 YBP) and items that date to c. 13,000 YBP.
Other interesting finds were also uncovered in the excavation, among them a fragment of a base of a basalt bowl and animal remains: Hippopotamus bones and teeth that probably belonged to sheep or goat.
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01.15.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 18:15 by Oded Ambar
Hamas’ ministry of antiquities announces discovery of 1,300 antique silver coins, remains of walls, arches believed to have been built in 320 BCThe Hamas-run ministry of tourism and antiquities in Gaza on Monday announced the discovery of ancient artifacts near the Egyptian border town of Rafah.
“The most important of the findings are 1,300 antique silver coins, both large and small,” said Mohammed al-Agha, tourism and antiquities minister in the Islamist-run government. He said archaeologists had also uncovered a black basalt grinder, a coin with a cross etched on it, and the remains of walls and arches believed to have been built in 320 BC. They also discovered a “mysterious” underground compartment with a blocked entrance that appeared to be a tomb, Agha said. The Palestinian Authority has been carrying out archaeological excavations since the 1990s, but this was the first major find to be announced by the Hamas-run government. The Islamist movement seized control of the impoverished coastal territory in June 2007 when it drove out forces loyal to the Western-backed Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas. The rchaeological dig, still under way, is close to where a vast network of smuggling tunnels provides a vital economic lifeline amid strict Israeli and Egyptian closures imposed after the takeover.
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01.13.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 14:31 by Oded Ambar
Jordan files official complaint to UNESCO claiming scrolls belong to Hashemite Kingdom. Country’s antiquities department says ‘government has legal documents that prove Jordan owns scrolls’
Jordan has complained to the United Nations in a bid to acquire the Dead Sea Scrolls from Israel, saying the Jewish state seized the ancient texts during the 1967 Six-Day War, an official said on Monday.
“The kingdom has filed a complaint to UNESCO that the scrolls belong to Jordan,” Rafea Harahsheh of the country’s antiquities department said in a statement.
“The government has legal documents that prove Jordan owns the scrolls.”
Harahsheh did not say when the kingdom, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, filed the complaint to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
The scrolls, some of which are as old as the third century BC, were part of a display at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum in Canada that ended on Sunday.
“We have been trying our best to restore our stolen antiquities, including the scrolls. Stealing our antiquities violates international treaties and ethics,” Harahsheh sai
“Israel seized the scrolls and other antiquities from the Palestinian Museum, which was managed by Jordan, in east Jerusalem when it occupied this part of the city in 1967.”
Jordan has asked Canada to seize the scrolls, invoking the 1954 Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, to which the two countries are signatories.
“So far, Canada has reservations. We are still studying our options,” Tourism and Antiquities Minister Maha Khatib told AFP, without elaborating.
A Canadian foreign ministry spokesman told AFP earlier this month that “it would not be appropriate for Canada to intervene” in differences between Jordan and Israel over the scrolls.
In April, top Palestinian officials called on Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to step in to cancel the exhibition.
In a letter to Harper, they argued that the texts were acquired illegally after Israel annexed east Jerusalem.
The parchments have shed light on the earliest origins of Judaism and Christianity, and are considered to be one of the greatest archaeological finds of all time.
Also called the Qumran manuscripts, the scrolls, attributed to the Jewish Essenes religious community, are of huge historical interest, especially for biblical scholars.
The first fragments were discovered in arid caves along the shores of the Dead Sea by a Bedouin shepherd in 1947.
“The Bedouins sold them to a group of Syrian Christians. They gave the scrolls to their Orthodox bishop, who took them to the United States in 1948,” Harahsheh said.
Israel’s antiquities authority has said Israel is the rightful custodian of the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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01.11.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 06:39 by Oded Ambar
Jewish service organization says reestablishment of Hebrew as common uniting language for all Jews ’stands as a pivotal evolution in the formation of Israel as a Jewish state’
B’nai B’rith International on Wednesday strongly endorsed Israel’s creation of National Hebrew Day, which is slated to fall annually on the 21st of the Hebrew month of Tevet, the birthday of Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, the father of modern Hebrew and an active member of B’nai B’rith Israel in its formative years.
In a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, B’nai B’rith International President Dennis W. Glick and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin wrote, “Along with the rebirth of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, the reestablishment of Hebrew as the common uniting language for all Jews, an initiative spearheaded by Ben Yehuda, stands as a pivotal evolution in the formation of Israel as a Jewish state.” B’nai B’rith’s connection to the advent of Hebrew in Israel goes back further than even the first Zionist Congress. In the spring of 1888, a small group of idealistic and enlightened young men established the Jerusalem Lodge of B’nai B’rith, the first lodge in what was then Palestine. Principal among the goals was to promote the revival of Hebrew as the living vernacular of the growing Jewish community. Ben-Yehuda served as the lodge’s first secretary, and referred to the Jerusalem Lodge as “a center of visions.”
The Jerusalem Lodge became the first public body in Palestine in which Hebrew was the official language. In 1890, it founded and elected the Va’ad Ha-Lashon Ha-Ivrit (the Hebrew Language Committee), the precursor of the Academy of the Hebrew Language. A year later, it established the Midrash Abarbanel Library, which became the nucleus of the Jewish National and University Library. Hebrew was the common denominator between the Ashkenazi and Sephardic communities, and the importance of maintaining its use at lodge meetings was constantly stressed. According to B’nai B’rith, molding it into the national language ensured that Israel would be a stronghold for all Jews, regardless of their ethnic, cultural, or religious differences.
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01.06.10
Posted in Uncategorized at 21:31 by Oded Ambar
Once and for all, we must solve the riddle and ask what we’ll really receive in return for peace with Syria. And no, I am not referring to some lofty-sounding hollow concept like “normalization.”
So what if a building on Tel Aviv’s Basel Street, already home to the Egyptian Embassy, will have a Syrian flag flying over it and a Syrian security guard sitting and eating sunflower seeds?
Does someone really think that it is worth it to remove even a single ranch from the Golan Heights so that we can read in the newspaper about what the Syrian ambassador’s wife bought at a supermarket in Herzliya Pituah, or so we can see an interview in a magazine about what the ambassador’s daughter thinks about Israeli teenagers?
We already have that kind of peace – with Egypt and Jordan. What we want is genuine peace. Like the one we had with Great Britain during the Mandatory period in Palestine. Or like the peace we had with France, when we smuggled out five missile boats from the Cherbourg shipyard on Christmas Eve in 1969. Or like the peace with Angola, for example.
Let’s face it: Data on the “anticipated volume of trade in the coming year with Syria” interests no one. The Syrians have no money. The annual income per capita in that country is something like $4,000. You can manage with that kind of wage in the southern neighborhoods of Damascus, but it sure won’t get you far in places like Best Buy, the Mol Yam mall in Eilat, or IKEA.
Granted, there is a small class of really affluent people in Syria, but they seem to prefer the hotels of Paris and Vienna, and it is doubtful they would be interested in staying at the Sheleg Halevanon Hotel in the northern town of Metula.
If we won’t get any money from Syria, perhaps we could enjoy its culture? Well, better books are printed in Lebanon, which has still not invited us to participate in negotiations. Like us, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah has conducted a feasibility survey about what peace with us would net him; so far, the final figures have not yet come in from his Iranian auditors.
True, there are some excellent Syrian television series as well as some Syrian movies that are better than the ones produced in Egypt – but are we willing to give up the vineyards on the Golan Heights for the DVD of a Syrian movie that we could easily order from Amazon?
If the Syrians promised – solemnly vowed, with papers signed in lawyers’ offices and without any attempt to pull the wool over our eyes – that they would provide us with Lebanon as a dowry, we could understand the idea of making peace with Damascus. Lebanon is a lovely piece of real estate on the sea (with penthouses selling for $300,000). It has a per-capita annual income that is several thousand dollars higher than that in Syria, plus some Shi’ite laborers who understand Hebrew – from their years working under us when we occupied southern Lebanon.
Lebanon also has that delicatessen in Jounieh and the bars on Beirut’s Hamra Street. Lebanon has the finest hashish money can buy – direct from Baalbek – and it also has a great beach in northern Beirut.
Oh, and I almost forgot: Lebanon has beautiful singers, like Nancy Ajram and Haifa Wehbe, international festivals in Baalbek and Beit ed Dine, and great jazz clubs and art galleries. Peace with Lebanon is also a highway that leads to Turkey. However, on the other hand, peace with Lebanon would spell disaster for the rustic bed-and-breakfast lodges in the Galilee or the Mount Hermon ski resort’s parking lot, which would become a wasteland.
So we should immediately stop indulging in this pipedream. Peace with Lebanon would be a total disaster.
However, a decision must be made: Do we or don’t we make peace with Syria? As we can see from the above, not much benefit would be gained from it. But wait – there’s something else, some other advantage that would be of supreme importance. What has been our greatest dream? Does anyone remember? No, I am not talking about the railroad line leading to Damascus nor about sea shell tables and ornamental backgammon boxes. Right, Fuad. I am thinking about Syrian falafel. Not the kind that is sold in four flavors or in five different shades. Not the organic stuff with cholesterol-free oil, and not the kind with shrimp on the side.
I am talking about F-A-L-A-F-E-L. And if we can also get a side order of some dreamy Syrian hummus, then it is high time for us to sit down and sign that peace agreement with Damascus.
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