12% of Israelis admit paying bribes
Israeli press reported today that 12% of Israelis paid a bribe in the past year, and political parties and religious organizations are perceived as Israel's most corrupt public institutions, according to the Global Corruption Barometer 2013 published today by Transparency International.
12% of the respondents said that they paid a bribe in the past year. Almost one in ten Israelis (9%) who came in contact with government real estate services said that they paid a bribe.
In ‘the only democracy in the Middle East’, 89% of the population believe that personal connections or the use of power are essential for promoting their interests vis-à-vis the authorities. This is the highest percentage of all the countries covered by the Global Corruption Barometer; the global average is 63%.
Summer 2013 (gigs, workshops, festivals)
(9th-14th August GMF International Jazz School, Saarwellingen, Germany)
July
9 - With Christian Brewer, The Lower Ground, West Hampstead, London
10-11- Sarah Gillespie's Album Launch, Pizza Express Jazz Club, Dean St, Soho London
13 - Swanage Jazz Festival 3 concerts: Gilad Atzmon & the OHE, Gilad Atzmon & The OHE, Power Cats and with Sarah Gillespie quartet
15 - With Nick Hill at the Bedford Arms, Bedford
18 - With Asaf Airkis and Tim Thornton London, Jazz At the Tavern, The Great Northern Railway Tavern. 67 High Street, Hornsey, London N8 7QB
20 - Gilad Atzmon and the OHE, @ Hideaway, Streatham, London. Last Orient House Concert in London ahead of the London Jazz Festival (QEH 21 of November)
24 - Norman Watt-Roy Album Launch at Rough Trade, London
25 - Gilad Atzmon Frank Harrison Duo Cotswold Cricket Museum, Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire
26 With the Blockheads, Fringe Festival, Llangollen
28 With the Blockheads, Rewind Festival at Scone Palace, Perth, Scotland
August
3. With Mauro Grossi’s Trio Chiavari, Italy
4. With the Blockheads, Wickham Festival, Hampshire
5. Jazz Legend Gilad Atzmon Plays John Coltrane, Pizza Express Jazz Club, London
9 Gilad Atzmon & The OHE, Brecon Jazz Festival
9-14 GMF International Jazz School, Saarwellingen, Germany
http://youtu.be/AdcYdhN9W60
17 With The Blockhead, Crystal Palace Garden Party, London
18 Gilad Atzmon & The OHE Ipswich Jazz Club
September
1 With The Power Cats, wall2wall Jazz Festival, Swan Hotel, Abergavenny
Oy Vey - Brazilian Jews Take to The Streets To Push for Change ..
“I believe the highest call of my Jewish identity is to change the world. I hold tikkun olam [repair of the world] as the most coherent expression of Jewish values,” said Bruno Cintra, a blogger well known in the Jewish community for his writing on Brazilian culture and politics.
Read more:http://forward.com/articles/179925/brazilian-jews-take-to-streets-to-join-massive-pus/?p=all#ixzz2YLtUrIXS
I think that time is ripe to launch a fund for Tikun Olam's victims - those who were destroyed in the name of Jewish progressive ideology.
As I have mentioned many times in the past, before those Tikkiun Olam enthusiasts 'repair the world' they may want to consider fixing their Jewish State and dismantling its forceful Lobby.
Here is a short Israeli video about IDF military tactics being exported to Brazil
The Wandering Who? A Study Of Jewish Identity Politics in general and Jewish Left's spin in particular Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk
Tony Blair hired ex Israeli army intelligence officer
The Telegraph reported today that “Tony Blair has hired a former Israeli army intelligence officer to work in his private office, despite his role as Middle East peace envoy.”
Lianne Pollak, who has led intelligence teams in the Israel Defence Forces, was recruited as a private consultant between October 2012 and April this year.
The 30-year-old Israel was previously a policy adviser to Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, working with security agencies and senior officials.
British Former prime minister is the envoy to the Middle East for the Quartet – the group that represents the US, Russia, the United Nations and Europe.
His role includes encouraging development in Gaza and the West Bank and helping to forge a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, having been appointed when he left Downing Street in June 2007.
Atheism Vs. Christianity
Listen to the voice of reason
I do not have the means to verify the authenticity of this video. but let's face it, he sounds as neurotic as this guy...
Ariadna, Thanks for the link..
The Arabs And Their Spring
By Gilad Atzmon
It is not a secret that summer skipped Europe this year and some meteorologists even predict a sun eclipse for the next seven to ten years. When asked to explain this dire prediction a few experts ended up blaming the Arabs, ‘it is all because of the Arabs, they took all the spring.’
Joking aside, looking at the Arabs and their "Spring" reveals a chilling sight. It is basically an ongoing bloodbath.
A vast popular uprising in the name of "liberation," "human rights," "democracy" and other big words has matured in a very short time into regional chaos, civil wars, carnage, loss of life on a huge magnitude scale and scores of interventionist apparatuses that guarantee more havoc to come.
What happened? Why did the "Arab Spring" turn into a regional winter? Why didn't the Egyptian democracy last more than a year?
We Razed Arab Villages, So What? Says 100-Year-Old IDF General
Introduction by GA: Earlier this month, Israeli media outlet Arutz 7 interviewed 100-Year-Old Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak who was honest enough to admit that his “conscience is at ease" in regard to the ethnic cleansing of Palestine "because if we hadn't done so, then there would be no state by now. There would be a million more Arabs.”
The IDF elder general also suggested that Israelis are as devoted now as they were in 1948 "He predicted that if a war breaks out again, Jews will be capable of the same kind of self-sacrifice as in 1948."
100-Year-Old General: We Razed Arab Villages, So What?
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak: If we hadn't done it, there would be a million more Arabs and there would be no Israel.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak: If we hadn't done it, there would be a million more Arabs and there would be no Israel.
Brig. Gen. (res.) Yitzhak Pundak is celebrating his hundredth birthday. Pundak was the commander of the 53rd Battalion of the Givati Brigade in the War of Independence and went on to supervise the establishment of the Armored Corps. He was also Ambassador in Tanzania and a founder of Arad.
In an interview on IDF Radio, Pundak confirmed that forces under his command razed Arab villages in 1948. “My conscience is at ease with that, because if we hadn't done so, then there would be no state by now. There would be a million more Arabs,” he said.
Asked why he still finds it so important to lecture to soldiers, at his advanced age, he explained: "Just like in 1948, the country is in a state of danger – and if the Jews do not fight as we did in the War of Independence, the state is in danger.” He predicted that if a war breaks out again, Jews will be capable of the same kind of self-sacrifice as in 1948.