Fishy tale about Israeli mermaid swamps the net! $4 million shekels offered for a snap

Have you seen something curious in the water? Huffington Post apparently took the bait and linked to a cute ABC news online filler piece about how Israeli officials are offering a million bucks...or four million shekels...for a verifiable snap of an Israeli mermaid. This certainly is not the typical siren that concerns Israelis in places like Sderot --- and this sea creature supposedly was spotted off the coast of Haifa. Multiple sightings, according to Murdoch's SKY News.

"Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other. People say it is half girl, half fish, jumping like a dolphin"

Hmmm. Good score for the tourist board. Some snide commentators suggest that photoshoppers will be working overtime and that a Jewish siren would be known as Ethel Merman! Even though mummified mermaid remains have proven to be a hoax, it's remotely possible that a Mediterranean version of a Stellar Sea Cow or dugong,
has surfaced. But the whole thing is, er, fishy -- so it must be August Silly Season!

(crossposted from Feral Beast. Hat-tip, or tail flip, fellas.)

Suicide is painless ?? Tough Israeli walks away after a train runs over her

Israelis were astonished by recent security camera footage (click here to view it) The clip shows a train running over a despondent Sabra who lay on the tracks, and allowed the high speed train to thunder over her. Next she picked up her shoes and walked away, practically unhurt. Reuters news service released the clip above from the closed circuit security TV system at the Kfar Vitkin level crossing in northern Israel
One report said that police had not yet found the woman. Another said she had been taking for treatment. The lesson to take away? Better not mess with an Israeli woman!

Safa's Slap-Happy New Year in Gaza City

photo by Abid Katib, courtesy of Care International West Bank and Gaza

January 1st 2009 brings a new year and a time for reflection. Safa, bunkered with her family in Gaza City, shares her thoughts with Israelity Bites. How one family copes with the violence around them is instructive. Anyone from Beersheva or Sderot want to contribute their experience, too?

It's interesting how, at the most terrifying and horrific of times, we still manage to make light of the events, and even enjoy a dark sense of humor that surprisingly comes out not inappropriate and even the more amusing given the constant state of tenseness and apprehension.

My 10 year old cousin was eating a sandwich, when my younger brother, 12, looked at him and, quoting a line from one of his favorite video games in his dead on imitation of the characters voice, while being extremely amused by the fear in the younger boys eyes, said "enjoy it, it could be your last!" I looked at him for a second and began laughing almost hysterically.

On another occasion, we looked around for my twelve year old and 14 year old brothers during an intense bout of air strikes and realized that they had snuck back to the living room, the room directly in front of the area being bombed, and were watching a sports channel. "But we had to see the scores" they retorted after being severely reproached". They're becoming desensitized, I thought, I went through this before while living in Ramallah in 2002. I laughed so hard, they had become totally oblivious!

I've had a lot of time to contemplate, the last few days, and looking at my siblings, I wonder how the rest of the world envisions the people who occupy the most despondent and unruly military zones in the world.

My younger brothers spend their free time out with their friends, or playing basketball and soccer at youth clubs. They are passionate about sports, play station, and music. They play the guitar and are exceptional students. My brother who's in collage is obsessed with computers and gadgets, he's an engineering student who comes up with the most ingenious projects for his classes. He listens to music and plays the guitar and prays regularly. He's an honor student who has big goals and big dreams.

So please understand why I am infuriated when I see how we are portrayed on television. Hordes of bearded, teeth-gnashing, stone throwing blood thirsty savages in rags and tatters. And please don't blame me for feeling utter rage against the state of Israel, that has been intentionally targeting the unwary, guiltless, promising children and youth of the Gaza Strip in its vicious attacks over the past 5 days. Already, between 40 and 50 children are dead while hundreds lie in the hospitals, seriously injured or disabled for life.

The people of Gaza have been suffering for decades under systematic and tyrannical oppression by Israel, the latest of its measures has been the siege and closures imposed on the strip that have completely devastated the livelihoods of Gaza residents and caused the economy to fall into an unprecedented and crippling depression. The people of Gaza have long been denied the means that have been afforded to the residents of countries with the same, possibly less, resources. And yet the amount of resourcefulness and zeal we demonstrate is a testimony to the potential of progress and advancement that lies within us.

To the rest of the world, Israel represents the democratic, civilized, patriotic, western, state whose representatives are well groomed, clad in smart suits and silk ties and talking all sorts of political correctness, stringed with terms such as self defense, civilian population, Palestinian terrorists and middle east peace.

And so after Israel launched its military offensive against Gaza 5 days ago, claiming that offensive was a retaliation against Hamas' firing rockets into Israel following the cessation of the period of calm, to many, the Israeli attacks were justified. Never mind that Israel failed to at least ease the siege that has been slowly killing us over the past year (to be more precise over the last 3 years.) Never mind that Israel continued its incursions into the strip and its murder of innocent civilians throughout the truce. Never mind that compared to Isaeli gunships, war planes, tanks and other weaponry, Hamas rockets seem like toys. Never mind that our children are robbed of anything that resembles a normal life and future.

And yet we are continuously accused of being on equal terms with one of the strongest military forces in the world.

So while being cooped up in the house, watching local news stations when we have electricity, still in a state of disbelief, I wonder if the rest of the world would be so harsh in its judgments if they had the opportunity to understand. I wonder if people would as easily accept the unsubstantiated claims that the engineering faculty building of the Islamic university, which has been flattened during the attacks, was a workshop that produced qassams, if they had seen my brothers reaction. When he came back from a walk to the university building the next day, his face was white as a sheet and he had tears in his eyes. "Its all gone he said, even the project (electric car) we've been working on all semester." We'd seen pictures, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Did he seriously have any hope that the car had survived.

A few hours ago, the home of one of Hamas' senior leaders, Nizar Rayan, was struck by 4 missiles. Not only was the entire building flattened, killing all who were in it, but several other buildings surrounding it looked like they were about ready to collapse. It is said that there were over 19 deaths, most of them women and children, and scores of injuries. The entire street was littered with debris and rubble. We saw the images on tv, children being lifted from beneath the rubble, headless corpses loaded into plastic body bags, the whole works. We sent a taxi to pick up my aunt, whose home lies 100 meters away from the Rayan building, and had caved in due to the attack. She and her children arrived, shaken, but all in one piece.

Today the temporary halt of rocket fire coincided with the restoration of power to our home, at least for a few hours, at about 5pm. My brothers went to their rooms and played their videogames, I sat on the couch and read, and my sister went to take a nap. We tried to busy ourselves with regular daily activities in a situation that is anything but commonplace.

Typical Israeli doesn't fit the stereotype

Was this contest rigged? Over at Checkpoint Jerusalem, they are posing that question after the nerdy little guy above was selected as the emblem of all Israelis and is set to appear on a postage stamp for the country's 60th anniversary. It doesn't merit everyone's stamp of approval, apparently.

Any alternative suggestions will be posted in this space.

"My design," said winning artist Eli Kameli, "is an integration of security, youth, peace, soccer fans and hi-tech." Hmmmm. Izzy Bee would have the little guy shod in crocs and sporting a shaved head. And not necessarily smiling. And there should be a female version as well.

Despite hang-ups, bereaved parents call across the Israeli-Palestine barrier

An unlikely line of hope links Palestinians and Israelis, Jeremy Grange reports for the BBC. Most Israelis have never met a Palestinian and most Palestinians have never met an Israeli - apart, that is, from soldiers and settlers. Yet some, who have lost what's most important, are speaking to one another.

A unique phone service linking Israelis and Palestinians, called Hello Peace, has made nearly a million telephone conversations possible since it began operating in November 2000.

As we sit talking in his office in a Jerusalem apartment block, graphic designer Rami Elhanan pauses for a moment, deep in thought, recalling the day his life changed forever.

On 4 September 1997, just after three o'clock in the afternoon, a suicide bomber detonated a device in the busy Ben Yehuda Street in central Jerusalem.

Among those killed by the explosion was Rami's 14-year-old daughter, Smadar, who was in town with two friends to buy textbooks for the new school term.

"You never think that the finger is going to point at you," Rami shrugs, remembering the moment his worst fears were realised.

Many parents in the same circumstances would have retreated into the entrenched positions of hatred and the desire for revenge which have characterised Israeli-Palestinian relations for decades.

But Rami is different. About a year after the tragedy he joined the Parents' Circle, a 500-strong organisation which brings together bereaved families from both sides to create dialogue, understanding, even friendships between Palestinians and Israelis.

Ali Abu Awad, from the West Bank town of Beit Ummar near Hebron, is a member of the Parents' Circle. His brother Yousef was killed by an Israeli soldier.

"You just have this question. Why? Is killing my brother securing Israel? What shall I do with this?" Ali says.

"At that moment you have the feeling that you want revenge. But revenge on whom? How many people shall I kill? For me Yousef is worth the whole Israeli people. Even if I kill them all I will not feel better, I mean he will not come back."

One day Ali was contacted by Ishaq Frankental, a member of the Parents' Circle. Ishaq lost his son, who was kidnapped and killed by Hamas. Ali's immediate family ended up joining the Parents' Circle.

"It's so hard, we are not angels. I am a normal person and I have so many hardships every day at the checkpoints and even in talking to people," he says.

"But the difference is that before joining the Parents' Circle I was carrying my brother's story, my personal pain, my nationality as a Palestinian... but today I feel like I am carrying both nations on my back. This is what I want politicians to feel, to feel responsible for the two people who are human beings."

At the Parents' Circle office near Tel Aviv another member reminds me of a few of the harsh truths of the situation.

"Most Israelis have never met a Palestinian and most Palestinians have never met an Israeli - apart, that is, from soldiers and settlers," Robi Damelin says.

That barrier to communication - which has now been given physical reality in the form of the West Bank barrier - is the reason why the Parents' Circle set up Hello Peace, a phone line which allows any Israeli or Palestinian to pick up the phone and speak directly to somebody from the other side.

This initiative, which has now been running for five years and is funded by the European Union, began with a wrong number.

In 2000, in the early days of the second intifada, a young Israeli woman called Natalia Wieseltier dialled a Jewish friend in Tel Aviv but found herself talking to a Palestinian living in the Gaza Strip.

Instead of hanging up she started a conversation.

"He told me his name was Jihad and that things were not going well. He told me that food is rotting at the checkpoints and that his wife was expecting a baby any day and he had no way of getting to the hospital," she says.

Jihad was surprised to find an Israeli being so open and understanding and Natalia was soon receiving regular calls not only from Jihad but from his friends and family too.

She in turn put them in touch with her friends and soon a network of contacts had developed.

When Natalia approached the Parents' Circle with the idea of turning this into a national phone line linking Israelis and Palestinians they embraced the idea.

Since its inception Hello Peace has logged over a million calls.

They may begin as screaming matches between the two sides but many calls have led to lasting friendships.

One Israeli family, for example, regularly met their Palestinian counterparts at a checkpoint to hand over insulin, a medicine that's hard to come by in the Palestinian territories, for their diabetic son.

Back in Jerusalem, Rami ponders the success of Hello Peace and the millions of minutes of dialogue it has generated.

"Just imagine what would happen if the leaders of these crazy nations of ours spoke with each other for even one minute!" he observes.

Jewish-Muslim doubles trouble: skirting the issues at Wimbledon

Tensions in the Middle East reverberate even on the green grass of Wimbledon. When a Jew doubles up with a Muslim to take on all comers, the world must acknowledge that such cooperation is possible. Beneficial, even.
Shaha Pe'er, a strapping 20-year-old Israeli pro with a big backhand is set to play ball with her new partner, Sania Mirza, a Muslim from Hyderabad in Southern India.

Controversy is nothing new to feisty Sania Mirza, also 20. For years, she has been criticized for "playing half-naked" on the court in skimpy clothes that leave "nothing to the imagination".
She's had to overcome traditional attitudes about women's comportment in South Asia. Inside India and Pakistan, female tennis players used to compete on hardcourts finished with dried cowdung, clad in the traditional baggy pants and tunic, Shalwar Kameez. But Mirza is a pro athlete with a strategy for victory. And partnering with the higher-ranked Pe'er (pictured here) is a clever move.

Mirza (above) and Pe'er now are seeded 16th in the grass court championship, and prefer to concentrate on winning tactics rather than religion. Let's hope they advance in the tournament with nothing to worry about other than their opponents.

According to a wire story from Reuters,

The last time Mirza, a Muslim, joined forces with Pe'er at the 2005 Japan Open, their association was short-lived.
Under pressure from militants furious over a Muslim and a Jew playing together, Mirza called for some time out.
She hopes their second stab at success will be remembered more for their on-court exploits.
"We've grown up together. We're great friends. So we said, why not?" said Mirza, who comes from the southern Indian city of Hyderabad.

The other Israeli woman player at Wimbledon is Anna Smashnova, a determined little baseliner whose family immigrated from Belarus. Her wonderfully apt surname, Smashnova, is more remarked upon than her citizenship. But the 30-year-old did not quite live up to her name this year: she was routed 6-0, 6-0 in the first round by a German powerhouse player, Martina Mueller.

Pointedly hostile

Once the Erez and Rafah crossings reopen, expect thorough security at border checkpoints leading in and out of the locked cage of Gaza. This Reuters wire photo of a Hamas gunman at the ready shows a new use of baggage x-ray machines; presumably it's not a new way to inspect for pointedly obvious weapons.

Although the Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu and his ilk scolded Israeli pols for allowing the rise of "Hamastan" and now call for an Israeli siege that will cut off Gaza's electricity, fuel, and even water, most Israeli human rights advocates insist that for the 1.5m trapped inside, the misery inflicted would be unacceptable. Food stocks will last less than two weeks

Hardliners scorn Egypt for not halting weapon-smuggling through tunnels into the Strip. They predict that Israel will be blamed for any suffering regardless of its actions, and suggest that in order to eliminate Hamas terror strikes, IDF drones might as well take out anyone inside the enclave who has a weapon. Others sense that the Palestinians' internecine hostilities are not so clear cut by geography, and caution that clandestine Hamas-supporters inside the West Bank will soon resort to assassinations and bombs. It's tense out there.

Viper and Heron- Israel's latest war robots

This is not a toy. Meet the ViPer, the newest weapon of the Israeli Defence Forces, a hunter-killer robot designed expressly for urban guerrilla warfare. It shoots a mini-Uzi or plants stun grenades. This deadly counterinsurgency gadget is the size of a vacuum cleaner and sniffs out bombs. According to Elbit Systems, the manufacturers, ViPer moves relentlessly on its treads "undeterred by stairs, rubble, dark alleys, caves or narrow tunnels". There's a videocam and some laser sensors on board, so IDF soldiers can aim it from a distance with considerable precision or program in electronically. The Elbit press release points out how the new ViPer could lower the risk to soldiers in hand-to-hand combat situations akin to last summer's streetfighting against Hizbullah.
Israel plans to deploy the VIPeR among its infantry units after field tests are done. The makers also hope to market this little robot to foreign police units or American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. If only it could negotiate as well, the ViPer would be like R2D2 on steroids, packing heat. No wonder scientists in Korea are trying to come up with a robot ethics code.

"What was science fiction until not so long ago is now becoming operational...tools that will create a revolution in counterterrorism," said an Israeli weaponry expert. A soldier can haul a ViPer to the battle in a backpack, because it weighs less than 5 pounds.


Meanwhile, Israel’s Air Force has a new Heron (Mahatz in Hebrew), a drone with a 50-foot wingspan, which can fly up to 30,000 feet high with a 550-pound payload. It can fly up to 30 hours without refueling and can be operated completely by remote. The large UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle in mili-speak) also can pinpoint the launch sites of missiles and is said to be able to launch air-to-surface missiles, eliminating targets as far away as Iran.

The Heron is considered cutting-edge and can carry a heavier payload than any other aerial drone. Israel already has rush orders to send Herons out to American forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

If the other side manages to gear up and fight with robots as well, perhaps there will only be civilian casulaties in future combat.

Sleeping with the Enemy

Here’s a dismaying tale about Jerusalem newlyweds who get wrenched apart by social separation barriers just as daunting as the Israeli security fence. Love cannot always find a way around conflict when hatred festers on home ground. BBC news ran a poignant feature clip this week about the challenges when a Jew marries a Muslim in Israel today.

Osama --not a hassle-free name for any Muslim Romeo who must regularly cross a West Bank checkpoint-- discovers that love is not enough to smoothe the way for a secure future with his Jewish bride, Jasmine. Three years into their convention-defying marriage, this besotted couple in their mid-20s cannot find any way to live together without menace. So ultimately Jasmine packs up for exile in Europe, where she hopes her man can join her once he gets permission to travel. Her permit to reside in the West Bank can't be renewed and on Jasmine's Israeli passport, an official stamp says her marital status is "under investigation". So Osama cannot even see his wife off at the airport: the authorities won't recognizes their inter-faith union. The dejected husband is held back by armed guards at the security barrier.

Let's hope the British artist Banksy's vision of breaking through such walls can somehow, someday be made reality. See one of his poignant murals below.



(photo of a bridal couple courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)