Israel in the News May/Jun 2013
Getting Ready for Third Temple
Jewish groups held a mock Passover sacrifice in March opposite the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The ritual slaughter, they said, was practice in advance of the reconstruction of the Temple.
The sacrifice has been held annually for several years. Rabbi Yehuda Glick told Arutz-7 the ritual was carried out with as much biblical accuracy as possible. “We took the goat, as the Torah commands, we had an altar built like the real one, and a cooking pit built according to halacha [Jewish law],” he said. “We slaughtered the goat with Leviim [Levites] singing and priestly clothing, just like in the real Passover sacrifice.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Italy’s Grillo Hates Israel
Beppe Grillo, the comedian turned politician, has become the leader of Italy’s largest party, the Five Star Movement. He got one fourth of the popular vote. He is the idol of Italy’s youth. He is the anti-corruption crusader. He is the guru of the Internet.
But Beppe Grillo is also a demagogue with a virulent hatred for Israel and the United States. And his popularity, despite his despicable remarks, shows that the word Jew has become an accepted insult again in Europe’s public square.
During a show, Mr. Grillo declared, “There is a saying, ‘Where Attila has passed through, no grass will grow.’ We can say, ‘Where the Israelis have passed, no Palestinian will grow.’”
He said his Iranian father-in-law explained to him that “the translations were not accurate,” referring to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s expressed desire to erase Israel from the map.
Grillo’s Facebook page and weblog, which is one of the few non-English language platforms that has become wildly popular worldwide, is full of anti-Jewish attacks from Grillo’s readers, fans, and supporters: “Israel is like Nazi Germany,” “I hope that someone will use any means to stop this killer state,” “The Jews are God’s cursed people,” “Zyklon B for you; peace and justice in Palestine,” “the Israeli leaders are monsters,” “Hamas is much better than all the Zionist governments.”
People laugh all the time at Grillo’s shows and speeches. His obscene sneer, which conquered the most popular spot in Italy’s elections, shows a primitive hatred for Israel and Western values. Behind this orgy of Judeophobic vulgarities, you find Europe’s old anti-Semitic hatred resurrected by a clownish trifle.
by Giulio Meotti, Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
If Assad Falls, Israel Suffers
Ehud Barak said recently the certain fall of Syria’s Bashar Assad will not be good for Israel.
“There are two major issues,” Barak said in his final appearance before the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as defense minister. “We are on alert for the transfer of advanced weapons from Syria to Lebanon” into the hands of Hezbollah terrorists, as well as “the possibility that chemical or other weapons of mass destruction will fall into the hands of terrorists. We have said that if there is an attempt to transfer these weapons we will stop it.”
Barak said Hezbollah has more than 60,000 rockets and missiles. “The Middle East today is far less stable because the forces leading much of it are Islamist. We can redefine the Arab Spring as an ‘Islamic Winter,’ as we see radicals leading it to social and national extremes.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Neo-Nazis in Jerusalem
Anti-Semitic graffiti found recently in Jerusalem may indicate a Russian neo-Nazi gang is back in business. The graffiti was found in the neighborhood of Pisgat Ze’ev in northern Jerusalem. It included swastikas and praise of Hitler.
Anti-Jewish graffiti in the capital is usually attributed to Arabs. However, Rabbi Zalman Gilichinski, who heads a center to assist victims of anti-Semitism in Israel, said, “The style of writing is not an Arab style.”
He said it “could be from the anti-Semitic gang Patrol 36. It’s a gang that serves as a local branch for Russian neo-Nazism.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Farmers Fight Arab Crime
Desperate Jewish farmers in Judea and Samaria are tired of looking for help that does not come in fighting an Arab crime wave. Now many of them are taking security into their own hands with Hashomer Yosh, a new civilian security group.
More than 1,000 cattle, sheep, and goats were stolen from Jewish farmers in Judea and Samaria over a two-month period alone. Agricultural theft caused millions of shekels in damage.
The stolen livestock is taken to Palestinian Authority-controlled areas where Israeli police have no power to act, leaving Israeli farmers with no way of retrieving their animals.
“The Arabs are using these thefts to damage the development of Jewish agriculture in Judea and Samaria,” said Shmuel Herzlich, whose father Avraham recently lost a huge herd to Arab thieves.
Hashomer Yosh volunteers will assist farmers in setting up a rotation of guards to watch over their flocks.
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Tour Israel!
The Israel Ministry of Tourism has launched a new advertising campaign geared toward Christian travelers in cities across the United States. The new billboards feature images of the Old City of Jerusalem and the Sea of Galilee, two of Israel’s most important sites for Christians. The billboards can be seen on major city highways across the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, and Tampa.
Anyone for Fried Locusts?
When news broke of locusts swarming over Egypt, Israeli farmers trembled. Locusts can cause millions of dollars of damage to crops. Pesticide experts went on high alert and eventually were deployed.
But when Jerusalem Chef Moshe Basson heard about the locusts, he thought about two things: schnitzel and social justice. Schnitzel, because that’s his favorite way of eating locusts. A light dusting of bread crumbs, fried up in olive oil, served with a touch of salt. And social justice?
“Locusts eat the rich peoples’ food, and poor people eat the locusts, and they get an excellent source of protein for free,” explained Basson, an award-winning chef who owns the Eucalyptus Restaurant in Jerusalem that specializes in local heritage and biblical foods.
Despite many clients clambering for a taste of the crunchy pests, you won’t find locusts on the menu at Eucalyptus. That’s because locusts exist in a kosher gray area. But that doesn’t stop Basson from frying them up for dozens of curious clientele and foreign journalists.
The current swarm of locusts first appeared near Cairo on March 2. After massing near the border, they descended on Israel on March 6, and the Israeli Agricultural Ministry took aggressive steps to stop the swarm from continuing northward. So after the pesticide spray, it’s been hard for Basson to get fresh locusts.
When he drops the live ones in boiling oil, they make a hissing sound, just like shrimp, as the air escapes from their hard shells. Their brown bodies turn a brilliant red as they cook.
Basson makes both savory and sweet locusts. In one dish, he sautés deep fried locusts with a yellow sauce made from pickled lemon and saffron, mixed with a fresh roasted red pepper salsa and freshly blended almond milk.
In the next dish, he creates a candied locust caramel. After removing the head and wings (the parts with no nutritional value that tend to get stuck in your throat), Basson pours boiling caramel over the bodies and detached legs, creating an amber-colored locust candy that he sticks in a mound of coconut whipped cream, decorated with beet leaves.
I couldn’t help but think, if Israel had to experience one of the Ten Plagues before Passover this year, I’m sure glad we didn’t end up with lice.
by Melanie Lidman
The Jerusalem Post (jpost.com)
