Hot Off The Press: Nakba II -Israel is Testing The Water

Simultaneous protests took place on Saturday in Hifa, Tayibe and Jerusalem over Praver Bill -a plan to evict Bedouin communities in the Negev. The Bill has provoked a storm not only amid the Arab MKs who voted against it, but mainly among those it is aimed against, the Bedouin residents of southern Israel.

It seems as if Israel is testing the water examining the reaction to another mass expulsion of Palestinians. Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said today "Nothing has changed since the Tower and Stockade days. We are fighting for the lands of the Jewish people and there are those who intentionally try to rob and seize them."

Lieberman, didn’t leave much room for a doubt. Once again, it is the Jewish state that is evicting Palestinians from their land in favor of the Jewish People and their Jewish interests.

Israel is testing the water examining the possibility of another Nakba. The only question that is left open is whether the Palestinians are ready for a 3rd Intifada.

 

 

 

 

Jazz Journal's Review: Gilad Atzmon at LJF

Review: Gilad Atzmon at LJF

http://www.jazzjournal.co.uk/jazz-latest-news/679/review-gilad-atzmon-at-ljf

Ronald Atkins catches the virtuosic Gilad Atzmon in a series of city-inspired pieces at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, London Jazz Festival

Since coming here from Israel and winning over pundits with his jazz, Gilad Atzmon has taken an increasingly controversial political stance that even leads occasionally to banning requests. Anyone attending this gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of the London Jazz Festival would have got an idea from the stage-side chat what the fuss was about, though it seems possible the reed virtuoso uses such utterances primarily to wind himself up for the blow. Once he starts playing, politics fly out the window.

The first half featured mostly pieces dedicated to various cities, starting with Paris, a pretty ballad Atzmon fittingly kicked off on accordion before switching to clarinet, on which he produced the occasional Artie Shaw-type glissando. On this and the following Tel Aviv, with Atzmon now on soprano, one appreciated the fresh thinking behind the routines, changes in decibel level and the order of appearance getting away from the usual round of solos.

The Sigamos String Quartet joined in for another ballad, Moscow, featuring the alto plus a brief accordion interlude leading to a chase between saxophone and pianist Frank Harrison. Two more guests, Jennifer Bennett on the cello-like viola da gamba and Yair Avidor on theorbo, a kind of lute with an extremely long neck, came on for Leipzig: Atzmon referred to this triple-time piece as being in the spirit of Bach and it certainly contained pleasing counterpoint between soprano and violin.

Bennett stayed for the follow-up, though now very much in the role of topping and tailing. This turned out to be the jazzy highlight, a triple-time romp through Scarborough Fair reflecting to some degree the legacy of John Coltrane’s My Favourite Things period. The quartet really shot off the ground during the saxophone solo, cooled down briefly when Harrison took over but soon erupted again with the remaining members of The Orient House Ensemble, Yaron Stavi on bass and Eddie Hick on drums, thundering in the background. More triple time and a brief glimpse of oompah on Berlin before the deserved break.

That was almost it, a number featuring singer Sarah Gillespie - diction a bit off from where I sat - ending as I departed. That sadly meant missing the follow-up, Atzmon’s take on Charlie Parker with strings. Once, I would have done the decent thing: with old age and the experience of trains that do a runner, or rather don't, I chickened out. If the first half was anything to go by, I must have missed some great music.

Photography by Brian Payne

Gabi Weber: Ticking Bombs – New Attempts to Silence Cafe Palestine Freiburg

http://othersite.org/

 Over the last three years Cafe Palestine Freiburg has been harassed by both major and minor institutions in the City of Freiburg. We took the mayor and also the University of Freiburg, influenced by Holocaust scholar Dr. Schwendemann, to court and won both cases and we also easily survived Henryk M. Broder (infamous German Hasbara-Islamophobe), German Israeli Society and Antideutsche’s attempts to destroy the Cafe’s reputation.

But apparently, Zionists and supporters of Israel, still determined to stop us, are now reverting to terror.

Yesterday, we hosted Israeli filmmaker Yotam Feldman and his latest documentary " The Lab" – a film that discloses the Israeli military industry and presents Israel, its weapon dealers and death merchants in a very dark light.

However, as soon as the screening commenced, we learned that alarm clocks had been planted in the hall, set to go off during the screening in order to evoke panic.
 
 
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Concealment and Truth in Palestine and Beyond

By Gilad Atzmon

The following is the text of a talk I gave at the Seek, Speak and Spread Truth Conference in London last Saturday, 23 November, 2013.

History, we are told, is an attempt to narrate the past. But in reality, more than often history has little to do with revealing the past. It is instead an orchestrated and institutional attempt to shove the shame deep under the carpet.

Image

Much Jewish history texts, for instance, are there to divert the attention from the peculiar and tragic fact that along their history, Jews have managed to bring on themselves an endless chain of disasters. But Palestinian history at large,  is no different. After more than a century of liberation struggle, the situation in Palestine is worse than ever, yet Palestinian scholarship, as we will soon see, is drifting away from any possible understanding of the circumstances that led to their ongoing disaster. 

Although the Brits have many war crimes attached to their names, the British Imperial War Museum decided to allocate a whole floor to the Jewish Holocaust instead of featuring one of the British-made genocides. The Brits, like everyone else, prefer to conceal their shame.

Historical accounts are commonly there to suppress the truth and conceal our shame. Yet, it is far from clear who is in charge, who decides what must be covered up and which path must be taken in order to suppress the truth.

Apparently, restricting the terminology and limiting freedom of expression by means of (political) correctness are probably amongst the most popular methods. Sadly enough, Palestine solidarity discourse is a spectacular test case in that regard. 

A brief examination of each of the terminological pillars and the principles that shape our vision of the conflict, of its history and of its possible solution are there to conceal the obvious causes, ideologies and belief system that drive the crimes in the Middle East in general and in Palestine in particular.

 Zoom in

We’ll now scrutinize the terminology and notions that are involved in the debate over Palestine and expose once again the deceitful nature that is unfortunately intrinsic to the contemporary progressive discourse. 

Zionism – Palestinian solidarity members are required to avoid the ‘J’ word and to use the word 'Zionism' instead. I recently revealed that Ali Abunimah, one of my current arch detractors, advised me a few years ago to refer to Zion when I really think Jewish so he and I “might find grounds for a lot of agreement….” In fact  Abunimah was not alone. Jewish Voice For Peace approached me with a pretty much similar offer about the same time.

The truth of the matter is that Israeli politics has little to do with Zionism. Israelis  are hardly familiar with Zionist ideology, nor they are concerned or motivated by Zionist praxis.  Zionism is largely a Jewish Diaspora discourse that vows to establish a Jewish National home in Palestine  and to civilize the Jew by means of nationalism. Israel is obviously the product of the Zionist project; however, the Israelis see themselves as post-revolutionary subjects - they transformed the Zionist dream into a practical reality.

Thus, criticism of Zionism per se hardly touches Israelis or Israeli politics. If anything, it actually diverts the attention from the crimes that are committed by the Jewish State in the name of the Jewish people.

But then, why do we use the term Zionism instead of referring to Jewish power, Jewish politics or the Jewish State?  Simple: we do not want to offend the ‘anti-Zionist' Jews and Jews in general. We consciously choose to let Israel off the hook. Apparently we much prefer to target a phantasmic imaginary object that means very little rather than simply calling spade a spade.

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The Times' Live Review - London Jazz Festival



John Bungey

 November 25 2013

"This year’s epic of 280 shows around the capital may have been a celebration of jazz music, but it was an old rocker who provided one of the most poignant moments. The saxophonist Gilad Atzmon, joshing his way through a fine show marking his 20 years of playing in Britain, introduced a surprise guest: “He’s a man who definitely defies every law of biology and physics . . . He’s better to play with than John Coltrane . . .” And on stage walked Wilko Johnson, the former Dr Feelgood guitarist who announced his terminal cancer to the world in January and whom medical experts confidently predicted would be dead by last month.


Johnson, very much alive and doubtless surprised to be compared with an American saxophone shaman, proceeded to rattle out some searing rhythm’n’blues with Atzmon’s Orient House Ensemble as the evening reached a climax. Johnson says it could become embarrassing if his bookings continue into next year..."

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Les Visible On The Seek-Speak and Spread Truth Conference.

http://www.visibleorigami.com/2013/11/the-seek-speak-and-spread-truth.html

Dog Poet Transmitting........

May your noses always be cold and wet.

Wow! What can I say? By any standards, the Seek-Speak-Spread Truth conference was a rousing success. For this, massive kudos must go to Tahra with the able assistance of Tyler Vincent, James and Steven along with Tom Fry and Anthony doing the video which you will see shortly somewhere. I'll link it when possible.


Visible with Able-MayWe'll forget about my presentation. It's not my place to comment on it. Someone or several someone's will come around with their two pence at some point.


Alan Hart started it off and was lucid and very well informed. After that the day took off and never stopped. Ken Shott came up and did a slideshow about his amazing work in Sweden. The amount of work and industry put out by himself and his associates is impressive. There are a lot of good things going on on this planet.


I had an epiphany of sorts at the conference where my former perceptions about someone did a big 180. In keeping with Visble's Full Disclosure Act of 2003, I'm left with no choice. I'd had certain reservations about Gilad Atzmon, on the publicity end and Litmus Test end and what I found in real life was a larger than life personality, which canceled out my concern on the first concern and made moot my second concern. Gilad is, as best I can tell, a social philosopher. That's the best definition I can come up with. He's also an, off the charts, jazz musician. He's a consummate showman as well as a very articulate and subtle speaker. I was impressed and I am not easily impressed. He's also a generous soul who came over to me and laid his books and a musical CD on me, following my moments on the dais.

I missed David Messenger, I'm sorry to say but... it was 12 hours of non-stop action, except for lunch and there were all kinds of people I was supposed to speak to; had no choice but to speak to (grin) and this is just how it wound up. I came and went without thinking about who was or wasn't coming next because it was a terrifically high energy scene, still, I managed to catch most everyone.

Ken O'Keefe followed Gilad and continued in the spirit of the extemporaneous, which seemed to be the order of the day for nearly all of us. You hardly ever see anyone speaking off the cuff anymore. They're either reading directly from a script or a teleprompter and it's also usually nothing but lies. Ken was as lucid as anyone I've ever seen in my life; clear and sustained power of precisely organized thought. That's how it comes to my mind now, on reflectio

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Gilad Atzmon on Press TV: World tired of Israel war policy on Iran

Political activist Gilad Atzmon says there is a growing international fatigue of Israel’s war-mongering policy and its effort to discredit a nuclear deal with Iran.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he plans to send his national security advisor to the United States to discuss the interim deal with Iran on its nuclear program.

“Netanyahu and his cabinet are not yet used to the idea that there is a growing international fatigue of Israeli and Jewish lobby belligerence and war mongering,” Atzmon told Press TV on Tuesday.

He said that Israel and its powerful lobby in the United States “fail to understand that the world is telling them ‘enough is enough’.”

“We don’t want to fight anymore Jewish wars… we are not going to bomb Iran for you,” he added.
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Meet The New Israeli Pioneers

 

The following is a comment  made in September  by my favorite Palestinian poet Nahida Izzat*:

A reflection on the implication of politicisation of sexual behaviour/ orientation and its infringement on children’s rights, all this in relation to the Palestinian cause

Now, is the issue of promoting and celebrating homosexuality (again, I reiterate, a private act which should not be anyone’s business)  related to the Palestinian struggle for Liberation?

Are we obliged to start teaching our young Palestinian boys and girls about homosexual and LGBT “persecution” and “abuse of human rights” in order to be “accepted” as “progressive” society worthy of support?

Are we obliged to start competing with”Israel” which prides itself of being gay heaven in order for our supporters to be satisfied?

Just like attempting to tie our Palestinian struggle for liberation with causes which only distracts us from focusing on our goals and deplete our energies, like fighting “antisemitism”, “holocaust denial”, or “conspiracy theories”, pretending that this is the way for Palestine liberation, we refuse the imposition and the premises that the issue of “homosexuality is central to our cause”.

We refuse to consider sexual orientation issues as primal or urgent issues to be dealt with immediately, or that it the most burning issue in our quest for justice and freedom, when we have not yet achieved the most basic and fundamental human right ever, the right of SURVIVAL,

We do not accept to see our Palestinian struggle for freedom hijacked and used by some campaign groups who try to piggy-back on the Palestine cause in order to promote their own agenda and campaigns for “sexual freedom”, which would only distract, complicate and skew the essense of Palestine issues.

Moreover, this issue should be left to the Palestinians and other societies to examine, discuss and deal with, in its own time and in accordance with its own ethics and what is best for those societies.

We refuse to be distracted and our aims obscured by side issues while we struggle for survival facing threats of genocidal magnitude.

 

* Nahida added to her article the following disclaimer:

This article is not a condonation or justification of any form of discrimination or persecution against people with various sexual orientations or disorders, it is a mere expression of an opinion and sharing of concerns associated with promoting explicit sexual education amongst children and pressurising other societies to change their codes of ethics, thus destroying the cradle of child-protection, the family unit being the foundation of these societies.

 

 

Concerts, Master-Classes and Talks

November

 

29th With The Blockheads  St Paul's, Worthing

30th With The Blockheads Arts Centre, Aberystwith

 December

3rd Amina Figarova & Gilad Atzmon @ The 606 Jazz Club

4th Amina Figarova & Gilad Atzmon – House Concert, North West  London, for details please contact info@pinemail.co.uk

 6th With The Blockheads  Arts Centre, Norwich

 7th Gilad Atzmon & The Orient House Ensemble @ Arena Theatre at University of Wolverhampton + Workshop during the day

8th With The Blockheads ABC, Glasgow with From The Jam

9th Master Class @ EJMA - Ecole de Jazz et de Musique Actuelle, Lausanne, Switzerland

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Israeli-Ukrainian soldier admits she killed Palestinians on TV

By Abir Kopty 

https://www.oximity.com/article/Israeli-Ukrainian-soldier-admits-she-k-1

Elena Zakusilo, an Ukrainian young women, decided at her young age to leave Ukraine and go to serve in the Israeli military. On November 4th, she participated in Ukrainian TV game show, “Lie detector” The Ukrainian version of “The moment of truth”. Contestants (connected to a truth detector) answer a series of personal and embarrassing questions to receive cash prizes. During the show she reveals horrible information on her military service.

Zakusilo admits killing Palestinians including Palestinian children. She answers the question “did you kill people” with “yes”.. she explains “we had to fire, had to kill, because it was either they [get] us, or we – them.”

Host: Did you happen to shoot at children?

Elena: Yes.

Host: How many people did you kill?

Elena: I don’t know.

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GOLIATH; Life and Loathing in Greater Israel

Book Review By Eugene Schulman

As most of you know, I have been following events in the Israel/Palestine conflict for years.  I have built up a library over those years of hundreds of books, both pro and con on the issues.  This is the first one I have read that has turned my stomach.  Not because it is untruthful or poorly written, rather, whether you believe the author or not, the tale he describes is one of unrelenting cruelty.  Have a gander at the Amazon link below for a description of what I would say is the most important book on contemporary Israel I have read.  Don't forget to read the customer reviews.

Of all the reviews I had read prior to reading the book: Chris Hedges at Truthdig; Larry Gross, also at Truthdig; Tablet, a magazine of Jewish writing, which laughably calls it a novel, the best one is Gilad Atzmon at Common Dreams who, after praising the book, asks the most important question of all - WHY is Israel the way it is?  Of course, anyone who has read his "Wandering Who?" will know the answer.  It is a Jewish identity crisis.
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Amina Figarova & Gilad Atzmon in London

A special opportunity to listen to legendary New York based pianist Amina Figarova, originally from Azerbaijan and London based virtuoso saxophonist Gilad Atzmon. These two masters will be playing together in the USA in 2014 but you can listen to their incredible duo next week in London at the 606 Jazz Club on 3rd December  8:00 PM and also in a house concert in Mill Hill, NW London (contact info@pinemail.co.uk) on 4th December.

On Figarova:

"...With this rewarding date, Amina Figarova makes her case as an important composer of her generation..."  www.allmusic.com

"... Figarova is among the most important composers to come into jazz in the new millennium..."
Thomas Conrad, Jazztimes

"... She is a major artist..." London Evening Standard

On Atzmon:

“A formidable improvisational array...a jazz giant steadily drawing himself up to his full height.” The Guardian.

 “The best musician living in the world today” Robert Wyatt, The Guardian

“One of the most charismatic and focused reedsmen on the planet.” Chris Parker LondonJazz



 

Alan Hart: Are we stupid?

 

The following is the text of the address I made to the Seek, Speak and Spread Truth Conference in London yesterday, 23 November.  Its main thrust is about the need for citizens to become politically engaged to make democracy work (before it’s as dead as the two-state solution for Israel-Palestine) in order for our children and grandchildren to have the real prospect of a future worth having.

 

I want to start with a promise. I won’t be disturbed and you won’t be disturbed by my mobile ‘phone because I don’t have one. I have thrown mine away because I am trying to stay human.

That said I’ll give you my one-sentence overview of the state of affairs on our small, fragile, endangered planet. Modern life is a de-humanizing process which has reduced us, most of us, to units of consumption, digits in corporate computers, figures on accountants’ balance sheets.

What this suggests to me is that the prime task for each and every one of us is to claim back our humanity. I’ll be offering some thoughts on how we can do this, but first of all we have to address what I consider to be THE most important of all questions - the question of human nature.

What, really, is the quality of it?

There are, broadly speaking, two views.

One, the pessimistic view, which is more or less an article of faith for most politicians and mainstream media people and many corporate executives, bankers especially, is that we human beings are inherently and unchangeably short-sighted, selfish and greedy, preferring to live for today at the expense of tomorrow and are, on balance, more “bad” than “good”. In other words, we are really quite stupid. And that, our so-called leaders tell themselves, is why they can’t tell us the truth about real choices and options for the future.

If the pessimistic view is the correct one, it seems to me that nothing matters because the end, catastrophe for all, was inevitable from the beginning; in which case we would all be well advised, as individuals, as communities and as nations, to go on screwing each other for all we can get. Praising the lord and passing the ammunition.

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Iranian Jews rally in support of nation's nuclear program

An Iranian Jewish man walks past a banner during a gathering of Iran's Jewish community outside a UN office in Tehran supporting their country's nuclear program, Tuesday, November 19, 2013 (photo credit: AP/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Haartetz reported last week that “hundreds of Iranians, including university students and members of the country's Jewish community, rallied Tuesday in support of the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear program on the eve of the resumption of talks with world powers.” Unlike the so-called ‘progressive’  and ‘cosmopolitan’ Jews who, for some reason, occasionally support Zionist interventionist wars, Iranian Jews are actually patriotic and authentic.  

“Iranian state TV showed students gathered at the gate of Fordo enrichment facility, carved into a mountain south of Tehran. They formed a human chain, chanted "Fordo is in our hearts" and denounced the West, which has put pressure on Iran to curb enrichment activity which can be a step toward weapons development.

In Tehran, meanwhile, several dozen people identifying themselves as Iranian Jews gathered outside a UN building. It was a rare public display by the community, which tends to keep a low profile despite being the largest in the region outside Israel and Turkey.”

Gilad Atzmon gets globetrotting at the Queen Elizabeth Hall – EFG London Jazz Festival 2013

http://www.jazzwisemagazine.com

Gilad Atzmon’s performances inspire a quirky and contradictory set of adjectives not usually applied to other jazz musicians: exuberant, belligerent, droll, generous, unapologetic, outrageous, exquisite, tragi-comic, edgy, folksy, caricatured, tumultuous… should I go on? It’s that edge-of-your-seat quality that I like so much; never quite knowing either in a solo, a setlist or his guest line-up, what’s going to happen next to deliberately disrupt the flow.

Tonight’s show was no exception, beginning with a whistle-stop tour of a few favourite cities: ‘Paris’, ‘Tel Aviv’, and ‘Moscow’. Yaron Stavi (bass), Frank Harrison (keys) and Eddie Hick (drums) who make up the other three quarters of the Orient House Ensemble, know how to conjure up a sense of place that’s vibrant and dynamic. But the OHE were just the opening act in terms of what Gilad had up his sleeve. Having warmed up his instruments (accordion, clarinet, soprano, alto), wound up his audience with some nicely non-PC jokes, and chatted up the very fine Sigamos String Quartet, arranged and led by Ros Stephen, ‘the hippies’ – Jennifer Bennett (violin and viola de gamba) and Yair Avidor (theorbo) – joined him on stage for the deconstructed and expansive ‘Scarborough (Fair)’ and ‘Leipzig’, a rendition of a portion of Bach’s St Matthew passion. The set ended impeccably with a tour through sleazy, carnivalesque ‘Berlin’.
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Sarah Salibi: Turn the Gaza Lights On

http://othersite.org/
Imagine that you have to spend your night in utter darkness, to arrange your plan for each day according to a power-cut plan, or to force yourself into bed as there is nothing you can do other than to sit in the dark. Picture yourself studying for your exams using a candle, or spending all day long waiting for the electricity to come back, or walking in streets at night that are only lit by cars' headlights. If you find it hard to imagine all of these things combined, just seek the help of a Palestinian from Gaza. No one could explain it better.

It has been a week since the government announced the new electricity schedule. Yet I still find it very difficult to adapt to. Previously, power used to be off for 8 hours a day. We accustomed ourselves to that schedule despite the fact that it took us a while to get used to it.

The electricity crisis seems to be moving from bad to worse. Never better.  Currently, we only get to see electricity for 6 hours a day. That means that power is off for 18 hours! When I heard the news about the new power-cut plan, I was stunned, my mind froze. I’m not sure how successful I will be at adapting myself to it. I got mad just wondering how I’ll get through the day. What should we do during the 18 hours of darkness? Or should the question be “How can we make the most of the 6 hours of electricity?” Should I Study? Use the Internet? Do the housework? Watch TV? Do the laundry? Ughhh! This is very confusing. Deciding what to do during the 6 hours with electricity is much harder than the 18-hour power-cut!  What a busy 6-hours it’ll have to be!

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Jewish Light Bulb Jokes

memorial lamp

In the light of the darkness in Gaza, here is a collection of Jewish Light Bulb Jokes

Q: How many Orthodox Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
A: What is a light bulb?

Q: How many secular assimilated Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
A: My grandmother, who lived in a Shtetl changed lightbulbs. Today, we get a Goy to do it.

Q: How many Israelis does it take to screw in a light bulb?
A: 26: 18 to surround the building,  6 to storm the room and kill the terrorists, one to forcibly expel the old bulb, and another one to screw the new one in and forever.  

Q: How many progressive Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Vhy, we don’t need any! we’ll form Jewish Voices for Light Bulbs (JVLB) and use it to keep the rest of humanity forever in the dark.

Q: How many Reform Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
A: Change it? Who wants to change it? We just want to improve it!

Q: How many Lubabavitchers does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, it never died.

Q: How many Marxist Jews does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None, after the revolution the proletariat will do it for us.

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Israeli Ex-Chief Rabbi Arrested For White Collar Crimes

 


Rabbi Yona Metzger, former chief rabbi of Israel, was arrested on Monday morning on the suspicion of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, money laundering, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Metzger was also arrested five months ago. Israel Police said it suspects that the scope of the funds connected with the alleged crimes has reached the millions of shekels. later today, the police will request to extend Metzger's custody for an additional 10 days.

The previous Israeli president Moshe Katzav is locked behind bars for more than a while. He was indicted for rape and other sexual offenses. Seemingly, the Ex Chief Rabbi is destined to join him soon. The Jewish State, is, no doubt, an interesting  glimpse  into Jewish culture and ethics.