18 Sep
Culture, Latest

This Week's Links

Yeesh. A radical Muslim leader threatened to have Paul McCartney killed on his upcoming trip to Israel. Come on. His solo albums aren't that bad. Finally. We've defined a "Chassidishe tuna beigel." Yael Larer is conflicted about his work translating recently deceased Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish's poems into Hebrew. "There is a wine revolution going on" in Israel right now. Sounds good to me. I guess I no longer have to buy Israeli wines just to feel like I'm supporting the homeland. Now, who's got an opener? Germany's federal archive made a list of some 600,000 Jews who were harmed by Nazis. The hippest hebrew magazine, Heeb, has its super hip fall music preview out. Did I mention how hip it is? 900 rabbis were on a conference call with Barack Obama the other...

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15 Sep
Culture, Latest

Inappropriate Politics at Beijing Games Continues

This weekend, the Iranian men's wheelchair basketball team competing at the Paralympic Games in Beijing quit the tournament. The reason given was "dissatisfaction" with their "schedule," although there is speculation that they quit because of the possibility they would play the Israeli team in the next round. According to theTehran Times: The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and the International Paralympics Committee announced that Iran has pulled out of competition "due to their dissatisfaction with the draw proposed for the cross-over round and subsequent schedule". The draw placed Iran and Israel on the same side of the bracket, so that if they both won their quarterfinal matches (against the USA and Canada, respectively) they would play each other in the semifinals. We wrote about two similar incidents during the Olympic Games in August, when Iranian and Syrian swimmers pulled...

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15 Sep
Culture, Latest

As Chinese Come to Israel, Recalling One Israeli in China

We've come a long way since 1985, when Israeli travelers I met in China had to hide their "real" passports from local authorities and most Chinese I met had never left their home province, let alone crossed a national border. The China Daily recently reported that, on September 25, Chinese tourists will visit Israel for the first time without special business visas. I hope Israel's new guests find friends around Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, which top their itinerary. I know I was never lonely during the year I spent roaming the People's Republic with a manual typewriter and three changes of clothing. Besides billions of Chinese for company, I encountered a small army of other "foreign ghosts" traveling, like me, without tour guides or coach buses. In our dorm-style accommodations and in the streets, train...

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