Giraffe milk as kosher as its meat

The giraffe, long considered a kosher animal, poses a challenge for butchers to find exactly where on its exotically long throat to make the cut for ritual slaughter. Yesterday its milk got approved for kashrut consumption by one of Israel's prominent Rabbis.

An Israeli rabbi has declared giraffe meat and milk to be kosher, although his pronouncement is unlikely to have observant Jews clamouring to consume the exotic products, a daily reported on Friday.

"The giraffe has all the signs of a ritually pure animal, and the milk forms curds, which strengthened that view," the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot quoted Rabbi Shlomo Mahfoud as saying.

The rabbi based his ruling on a recent finding by researchers from Bar Ilan University who took a milk sample while treating a giraffe at Ramat Gan safari park near Tel Aviv.

They found that the milk forms curds as required under Jewish religious law, a finding confirmed by another research institute, the daily said.

Giraffe meat is also considered ritually pure because the animal has a cloven hoof and chews the cud.

"Indeed, the giraffe is kosher for eating," said Mahfoud, who was present when the researchers made their finding.

Yigal Horowitz, chief veterinary surgeon at the safari park, is not overly worried by the development.

"This doesn't mean that tomorrow we are going to drink giraffe milk or eat soup made from giraffe necks," the paper reported him as saying. "After all, this is an animal in danger of extinction."

Gaza students get goahead; Fulbright grants reinstated

For talented students Gaza's education system has its limits, reports the BBC. Now the US state department has reinstated Fulbright grants for seven Palestinians in Gaza to study in the US.

This reverses a decision to withdraw the scholarships because Israel has not provided exit permits to the students.

Israel tightened its blockade of Gaza after Hamas seized power there a year ago, largely cutting off the territory from the outside world.

The US consulate in Jerusalem has told the students that it is working to get them out of the territory.

"We are working very closely with the government of Israel in order to secure its co-operation in this matter," an e-mail message to the students read.

'Complete horizon'

Dozens of Palestinian students from Gaza have been told they will not be able to take up university courses abroad because of the Israeli blockade.

Human right groups and some Israeli politicians have described the policy of not letting the students out as "collective punishment".

Israel says that as long as Palestinian militants fire rockets from Gaza at Israeli towns, nobody - apart from the most urgent of medical cases - can leave.

On Sunday, an Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said Israel would try to assist Palestinian students following a US request that the issue be looked into.

The prestigious Fulbright scholarships are run by the US state department.

On Friday US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has promised to investigate the withdrawal of the scholarships.

"If you cannot engage young people and give complete horizon to their expectations and to their dreams, then I don't know that there would be any future for Palestine or, frankly, since I believe the two-state solution is so important to Israelis and Palestinians, to the people of that region who want to have decent lives," Ms Rice said.

Israelis clown around to make babies

A recent medical study in Israel shows that laughter therapy following IVF boosted fertility by 15 per cent. (200 women participated in this unusual study; the one hitch is that it cited no statistics on how many Israelis also suffer from coulrophobia, fear of clowns, which would certainly contraindicate this technique!) In the general population, this clown-phobia is estimated to be as high as 7 percent; the infertile number about seven per cent in developed countries, but surely this is not necessarily the same seven per cent!

Besides laughter therapy, Israeli doctors have innovated many effective IVF procedures to complement their "fertility tourism" packages. Interestingly, academic degrees in medical clowning have been on offer at the U of Haifa since late 2006. Now many state hospitals hire trained medical clowns to boost the nursing staff, apparently. (Shades of Patch Adams?)

Check out the link to Jerusalem Post's "Laughter is the Best Fertility Medicine"



Nicky Blackburn reported for the London Times several years back:

For many Israeli couples IVF treatments become a way of life. Some women undergo 20, 30 — even 35. IVF is by no means an easy procedure, but the women are prepared to do anything if it gives them a chance to have a baby of their own. [Note- even subject themselves to medical clowns!]

Unlike most countries, Israel supports their every effort. Married and single women are allowed virtually unlimited attempts up to the age of 45, not just for baby No 1, but baby No 2 as well. From 45 to 51, women are allowed to continue treatments with donated ova. Couples pay just a percentage of the costs, which works out at about £180 a treatment. Women aged 45 and up pay more because donated ova must come from abroad.

Israel’s generous policy towards IVF has turned it into a specialist in IVF babies. There are more fertility clinics in Israel per capita than in any other country, and the highest per capita rate of IVF procedures. According to Treasury statistics, Israel provides 3,400 treatments per one million people, compared with 300 in England. Nearly 5 per cent of babies born in Israel today are test-tube babies. There are no waiting lists: once the problem has been isolated, treatment begins.

The obsession with babies is not unique to Israel. The difference is the combination of strong personal desire and a fully supportive Government. Since the state was founded in 1948, a high premium has been placed on enlarging the population. Memories of the Holocaust are still strong, and there is a very real fear among certain sectors of society that demographically Jewish Israel is being “outnumbered by Arabs”.(Though a report published today shows that the Arab birth rate in Jerusalem is actually declining, for the first time!)The Government, then, is prepared to support any measure that will bring more citizens.

At the same time, Israeli couples feel huge social pressure to have babies. Family life is very significant and children are a keystone of the Jewish religion. Rabbis of all persuasions often urge their flocks to go forth and multiply, and several religious charities offer free advice and support for couples suffering from infertility. As a result it is not uncommon to find religious women doing IVF treatments for their third, fourth and fifth children. There is also an unspoken awareness that Israel is a dangerous place to live, and that one child is just not enough.

“In Israel, a family without children is nothing,” says Professor Shlomo Mashiach, who has been a pioneer of fertility treatments for over 40 years and heads Israel’s largest IVF clinic, Assuta Medical Centre in Tel Aviv. “There is enormous pressure from grandparents, parents, neighbours and friends. Couples who do not have children soon find themselves outsiders. They feel they have no place in society and must apologise all the time for their childless state.” s

On average, about 20,000 IVF procedures are done annually in Israel, compared to about 100,000 per year in the United States, which has a population nearly 50 times the size of Israel’s.

According to some estimates, as many as 5 percent of Israeli kindergarteners today were born through IVF. Izzy Bee broke bread last Sabbath dinner with a pair of eight-year-old IVF twins and their single mum. No one batted an eye at their odd parentage.

“Be fruitful and multiply,” God proclaimed to Adam and Eve in Genesis. Later in the Bible, the issue of infertility was dealt with at length: Three of the four biblical matriarchs were infertile until God decided to “open” their wombs.

Israel has taken the biblical injunction to reproduce very seriously.

New National Bird considered 'unclean' !!

Is the hoopoe a foul fowl?
The scientific name of Israel's new national bird, which was announced last night, gives a hint: Upupa epops.
With considerable fanfare, the hoopoe was dubbed the country's latest new symbol after a popularity contest. Yet some commentators questioned the choice of a non-Kosher feathered friend, known in Hebrew as the Duchifat. (Doves or hawks were not vote-winners.)
The hoopoe diet of bugs and worms may have been among the reasons it makes the Old Testament's list of unclean birds and raptors (see Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18).

The flashy Hoopoe sports an erect crest like a mohawk and is known for erratic flight. It strides on the ground, and calls, rather than sings: "oop-oop-oop". Like many Israelis, hoopoes flit about from country to country, although there are many full-time resident in the Holy Land. (Facts on the Ground?)

These birds tend to hole up in a tree or wall in fetid-smelling quarters which discourage predators. Nesting hoopoes are capable of squirting fecal matter at intruders. (Shit happens)

The Hoopoe is associated with King Solomon,(in Arabic, known as the Prophet Suleyman). Folklore says he told the bird about the Queen of Sheba's excesses and the magnificence of her kingdom. Quran 27:20-28.

Also-rans in the national contest were the goldfinch and the warbler. The red falcon, biblical vulture, the spur-winged plover, the honey-sucker, the white-chested kingfisher, and the white barn owl were all in the running. Early favorites included ordinary garden birds such as the babbler or (bul-bul), or the Palestine sun-bird, pictured below, which would obviously have needed a new sobriquet. Sumerian sunbird out, Hebrew Hoopoe in. (Israel is a main crossroads for birds migrating between Europe and Africa, so there was a vast choice. Only 155,000 out of 7 million Israelis cast ballots for the national bird vote.)

Tourists or terrorists? Frisk 'em like they do at Ben Gurion, and screen out the evildoers

The bumbling Michael Chertoff, America's Homeland Security czar, who is best known for being under fire after Hurricane Katrina, is presently in Israel to see how things get done the Sabra way. He likes what he sees, apparently. He wants "behavioral evaluation", Ben Gurion style, to become part of the airport security process inside the States, according to Reuters wire service reports.

Cybergame probes Olmert probe

Click below for the latest interactive current affairs roleplay from playthenewsgame.com. The game showcases how the Israeli Prime Minister may approach his fifth corruption scandal, the day after the Defense Minister Ehud Barak threatened to pull out of the coalition and bring down the government unless the PM resigns. (This of course would derail any peace process.) But for now, Olmert seems defiant and determined to hold onto power. Cross-examination will not take place until July, after all. But the testimony of the New York millionaire Morris Talansky is explicit: envelopes stuffed with $150,000 cash. Outstanding loans. The cigars and big fountain pens that Olmert tended to blow his cash on are obvious phallic symbols, noted at least one of Jerusalem's certified geniuses. And going down in a submarine as Uncle Morris spilled the secrets surely is open to Freudian interpretation too. Murky waters ahead? Anyone need a periscope ? Watch this space. Many think that the "Prince of the Likud" will wriggle free again. Others point out that if you change one letter of the name Talansky, you get the Hebrew word for Hangman.
Bring it on.

Sleaze and scandal in Israeli politics

* Omri Sharon, son of ex-prime minister Ariel Sharon, began a seven-month prison term in February 2008 after conviction on campaign funding violations. His father is mentioned in the inquiries but has not been charged.

* Finance minister, Avraham Hirchson, resigned in July 2007 under suspicion of embezzling millions from a union he used to run.

* Israel's President, Moshe Katsav, forced to resign in June 2007 amid rape and sexual harassment charges.

* Olmert ally, Haim Ramon, convicted in March 2007 of forcibly kissing a female soldier. After a light sentence, Ramon returns to Olmert's cabinet as Vice Premier.

* President Ezer Weizman is forced to resign in 2000 under suspicion of accepting money from a businessman.

* Prime Minister Ehud Barak and aides suspected in 2000 of campaign finance irregularities. No charges are filed.

* Decorated general Yitzhak Mordechai resigns from cabinet in 2000 after being charged with sexually assaulting female workers. He is convicted and given suspended sentence.

* Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suspected in 1997 of engineering appointment of attorney general in exchange for support from the Shas party, but is not charged.

* Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin resigns in 1977 before an election in which his wife is found to have an illegal foreign currency account in the US.

IDF don't mess with Tutu on his long-blocked visit to Gaza strip

Bishop Desmond Tutu, in Gaza today, spoke to survivors of the Beit Hanoun shelling, which killed 19 civilians, 8 of them kids, in their sleep. It was a long-postponed fact-finding mission for the Human Rights council in Geneva. Israeli authorities had denied the peace envoy and Nobel laureate entry to the Gaza strip in December 2006, so he entered through Rafah, the crossing controlled by Egypt. There had been fears that security concerns cited by the Israelis, who by treaty have a say in the operation of this border, would block his entry again. Had that occurred, peace advocates had suggested that the Bishop might resort to moving from Port Said, Egypt to Gaza City port in a flotilla or even a zippy Zodiac craft (which might have been legally thwarted by Israeli naval officers.)

Tutu said he had asked Ismail Haniya, prime minister of Gaza's Hamas government: "Can you stop the firing of rockets into Israel?"

Haniya was dismissed by Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian president, last June when Hamas seized control of Gaza from forces loyal to Abbas."The incident we are meant to investigate was a violation of human rights in the fact that civilians were targeted," Tutu said.

"We have said to the prime minister [Haniya] that equally, what happens with rockets fired at Sderot is a violation."

Tutu was referring to the town in southern Israel that has borne the brunt of rocket and mortar fire by Gaza fighters.

He also condemned the blockade that Israelis say puts pressure on the Hamas authorities to end the attacks by their gunmen and rocket launchers.

"What is happening in Gaza is unacceptable. We have already seen and heard enough to move us to tears," Tutu said after his 40-minute meeting with Haniya.

Tutu, who was a prominent anti-apartheid activist when South Africa was still under white minority rule, said it was crucial that the two sides negotiate.

"That was our experience in South Africa. Peace came when former enemies sat down to talk," he said.

On Wednesday, the team was due to visit Beit Hanoun, where the 2006 killings occurred, to interview witnesses and survivors of the attack.

They will prepare a report to present to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The Israeli attack on Beit Hanoun on November 8, 2006, was widely condemned by the international community for killing 19 civilians, including five women and eight children, in their homes.

In February, the Israeli army announced that no charges would be brought against Israeli soldiers over the attack.

After conducting an internal investigation, Israel concluded that the shelling of the civilians' homes was "a rare and grave technical error of the artillery radar system".