Holy Exposures

Today was NYC’s annual 5th Avenue Israel Celebration “Salute to Israel” Parade. Tens of thousands filled the streets of midtown Manhattan for the annual celbration.  The parade marks the anniversary of Israel’s independence in 1948.

I love a parade.  Everyone loves a parade.

Bloomberg Israel Celebration Parade - AP/Boston Globe

I saw the headline and had fond memories of the time a few years back, in 2002, I had just flown in on business to Kennedy Airport and hired a taxi to take me to the hotel I had reserved near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan.   Unbeknownst to the driver (and me), that was Israel Celebration Day in New York City.  We reached the midtown tunnel with relative ease and then came to a standstill around 43rd and Lexington Ave.  After about 20 minutes of wondering what was going on, the driver turned on the radio and we heard the play by play of the 5th Avenue Parade.

I remember the smile I gave to Mohamed my driver.  It was sweet but knowing.  Ah, the pleasures of being Jewish in NYC (as a tourist).  Eventually, I did make it to the hotel, and I even had enough time to throw down my belongings and run back to the event.  For Israeli citizens, our Israeli (and Jewish) pride swell at outward displays of affection to Israel and Zionism.  The feeling is exponentially greater when the affection is showered from outside our little country.

Thanks New York!

You can’t find work in your field?  You have a great idea. Now may be the time to start a business!  What do you do next?

Get started right here in Israel- find partners, brokers, investors, more – they’re all here.  No need to look to USA (or India)!

There’s a whole sub-culture of parlor meetings and entrepreneur meetups happening all the time in a city near you.

Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa, in particular, have a healthy number of forums where entrepreneurs can meet potential angel investors, and even present to interested parties for business development and other networking opportunities.

I’ve attended a fair number of these events.  Some have been quite rewarding.

The Tel Aviv crowd is generally (and here I’m generalizing) a more Israeli crowd. The investors usually are more sophisticated, e.g. they are representing funds or larger private equity groups. Whereas, the Jerusalem scene is generally filled with speculating angels, often accomplished anglo olim businessmen who still have a taste for startup investment.

Startups in Israel have attracted so much attention from many interested capital parties that one would assume that the streets are paved in gold. In reality, with the current world economic conditions, raising money these days from venture funds is nearly impossible. This reality has offered the ‘angels’ to take a more prominent role in helping new ideas to market.
The internet may be considered ‘old news’, but life sciences, renewable energy, and homeland security are extremely hot now.
I’ve attended several meetups in the recent months and although the mood has been somber compared to the ‘good old days’, there is a lot of activity now in networking and exchanging of information between interested parties.

How do I get started?
That depends on what you’re looking for… If you are generally interested in “getting in the game” whether as an angel investor or as an entrepreneur with an idea, the best place to get started is by speaking with your entrepreneurial friends and see whom they are speaking with and try to expand your network through the personal touch. A ‘warm’ connection is almost always better than a cold network group connection.

Next, go to meetup.com, which is a great place to ‘shop’ for interesting parlor and networking meeting groups in your area. You’ll want to sign up for an account and add to your profile with your networking needs. Search for Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, or Haifa, (even Bet Shemesh!) and you’ll see a dozen or more networking groups that meet on a regular basis on a wide variety of topics.

Please share with us any of your business networking ideas.

More specifics to come…(you’re going to need a business plan)

It’s always gratifying and refreshing to hear Arab pundits and experts admit the cracks in their political foundation.

The whole world it seems would be a much better place if Israel and the Palestinians could just get along.  The western world, led by US President Obama, believes that the two-state solution would be the best way to solve this century-long conflict.  Israeli PM Netanyau will be cajoled, then pressured, then threatened to accept a solution that gives the Palestinians a USA embassy.

Now comes the rub…  Where will be the capital of this new Arab state?  Hamas and their terrorist allies will insist on Gaza City to be the seat of government.  Whereas, Abbas and his Fatah terrorists (don’t be deluded to think they are moderates) will stake claim to Ramallah as the new capital.

Political scientist Mkjaimar Abusada, a professor at Al-Azhar University in Gaza said, “It is hard enough to see how peace talks will succeed anyway.  Maybe we’re headed for a three-state-solution:  Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.”

This is getting harder to score than a credit rating for AIG. Do the Palestinians really want a state right now, or do they want to continue arguing with us. Let’s say we can come to an agreement… To whom do we give the keys?

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1086115.html

This headline would come as a shocker in any other country, in any other context, in any other time.
However, here in Israel in 2009, I was only surprised that the percentage was less than half.

The survey shows that Holocaust denial among Israeli Arabs has become more prevalent in recent years. In 2006, 28 percent of Israeli Arabs polled denied that the Holocaust occurred.

That didn’t surprise me either. Why do Arab children in Israel get such a different education than their Jewish counterparts?

Moreover, only 53.7 percent of the Israeli Arab public believe Israel has a right to exist just as an independent country, according to the poll, down from 81.1 percent in 2003.

Is there a solution to all this? Someone? Anyone?

This tattoo reads “If I had two souls, I’d give them both to you (Macabi Haifa – A football team).
I guess this was part of Herzl’s dream.

Source – Walla

I read an interesting interview yesterday with a Rabbi from a program that specializes in keeping religious soldiers on the path of learning Torah _after_ they leave the army. I can’t remember the Rabbi’s name, but this was the gist of his argument on why Hamas and Palestinians seem to be gaining so much of the world opinion against us. Here’s his point in a nutshell:
The Arabs, and particularly the Palestinians, have locked horns with Israel since 1948 using three distinct methods. The first phase was conventional war – army to army. That tactic failed them miserably. The second phase was terror. It’s nascent steps of hijackings and international staged terror events began in the late 60′s and continued through two intifadas in the 80s and 90s. This phase failed as well, since despite all the terrible pain inflicted on us, we are a stiff-necked nation (?? ??? ????).
We’ve been in the third phase in the past couple years as Arab nations build mock trials and judicial hearings and use the soft tongue of Arab diplomacy to assure the world that everything would be better if there just wasn’t Israel. Putting it bluntly, they couldn’t beat us by force, so they are trying to gain in the world forums by persuading world leaders, including newly elected Obama, and European Nations (with their own Islamic population problems) to join together against Israel.
–End of the Rabbi’s hypothesis–and on to my analysis:
The early indications show that Phase three is potentially the deadliest.
When Ahmadinejad in Iran threatens, we listen, and we respond. When President Obama tells us to lighten up and accept the Fatah as our partners, we say “well at least we’re better off than with Hamas. Remember the so-called ‘moderate’ Fatah. In 1995 we gave Fatah assault weapons (as part of the Nobel Prize winning Rabin and Peres’ Oslo Accords). In 1996, they turned their weapons on the Israeli checkposts.
It was the Fatah who butchered the two Israeli reservists who ended up unfortunately in Ramalah and were dragged to a Fatah controlled Police Station to meet their untimely demise. By the way, this was during our ‘period of peace’. It was the Fatah who danced on their rooftops for joy when the twin-towers fell to Osama Bin-Laden’s deadly attack.
Today’s headline: ?????: ???? ???? ???? ???????? ???? The Russian Foreign Minister met with Khaled Mashal (Hamas Terrorist #1) in Syria, and then told the world that Hamas is “ready to share it’s responsibility in Gaza” and that we (e.g. the western world) should be speaking with Hamas and not shunning them.
As much as we’d like to think that world opinion couldn’t possibly make a difference, it does. Have a look a this article from the well-respected political affairs magazine Commentary – Israel Today, Tomorrow the West. Very depressing stuff…
I suppose the question we need to ask ourselves is, are we ready to fight the third phase?

Does anyone really think that Adam Lambert wouldn’t have won American Idol had it been voted on by talent judges,  rather than as a popularity contest?

Well, here’s another reason to like Adam.  Aside from his incredible talent, he’s also a member of the Tribe (MOT – the Tribe of Jews that is…).

Here’s Adam singing a heart-warming rendition of Shir Lashalom (Song for Peace) in Hebrew. ??? ?????

Adam Lambert Singing Shir Lashalom

Here’s a beautiful duet with Nora Dori singing “The Prayer” – what a voice!

I am sure he will go on to tremendous success with his great talent.

Actual footage of the Israel Defense Forces entering and capturing the Temple Mount in the Six Day War.

??? ??????? ???

http://tinyurl.com/pkxoul

1967 Temple Mount Jerusalem Captured

I went to the local electronics store yesterday to pick up a new bread machine.  The owner keeps the store open in the late afternoon and early evening hours.  He learns Torah during the day and then opens the store to sell appliances to locals.

This is Ramat Bet Shemesh in 2009.  The owner of this shop is a young man, late 20′s at most.  He answers all questions and even offers extra information honestly, even when it leads you not to buy his merchandise.

So as I’m paying for the bread machine, (which he tried to talk me out of buying until we’d baked a loaf or two with a neighbor’s machine to make sure we were really going to use it), I asked him if the economy has affected his sales.  He asked me what I was refering to.  I told him about the economy and stock market in the USA and the world downturn, etc…  He had no idea what I was talking about.  No TV, no radio, no newspapers.  He doesn’t listen to or read the news.

However, he’s very knowledgeable about all his products.  He knows the appliances industry.  You want to buy a stove or a refrigerator? He’ll tell you what importer is unloading stock they couldn’t sell in France, and what products have the best repair record.  He doesn’t go by the adage that you must sit and learn Torah and do nothing else.   Part of his service to the community is to sell quality products at a fair price, and then back them with solid service should something go wrong.

He learns Torah by day and night, and sells appliances by afternoon so that he can continue learning Torah.

For a second, I thought he was kidding about not knowing the news. But then it became apparent that not only was he serious, but truly the happier one.  Quite refreshing.