KOL Israel on 11590 kHz @ 350 UTC - So It Must Be . . .
.
S-Meter : S3~S6 with Fair Audio and what sounds like
the Hebrew Language {Being Spoken} and from the
place names it must have been the Top of the Hour News.
.
"KOL-ISRAEL" Short-Wave Program Schedule
From 1 April 2007 To 27 October 2007
http://israelradio.org/sw.htm
http://bet.iba.org.il/shortwavws.html
.
ABOUT - KOL: Israel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kol_Israel
.
Israel Radio International
KOL Israel Overseas Service Schedule
KOL = http://israelradio.org/sw.htm
Frequencies from APR 1 2007 to OCT 27 2007
.
Israel Radio International
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Radio_International
.
Israel Broadcasting Authority (IBA)
Kol Israel - "The Voice of Israel"
IBA = http://israelradio.org/
IBA = http://www.iba.org.il/
IBA = http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_...ting_Authority
.
.
The World Clock - Time Zones
UTC-to-Local = http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/
Map of Daylight-and-Nightime Around the World
UTC MAP = http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?UTC/s/0/java
The Grey-Line between Daylight and Darkness Map
GREY-LINE = http://dx.qsl.net/propagation/greyline.html
.
RHF's Standard "QSL" Information Posting
for Shortwave Radio Listeners (SWL)
[ Reference Message with Links and URLs ]
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.r...5a245dc0f5d16f
.
My Radio/Receiver : Icom IC-R75 (R-75) with Kiwa Mods
Using an external RCA 4" Full Range Mini-Speaker [5" Cube]
.
This Week's New Shortwave Listening (SWL) Antenna :
Four Element Flat 5-Wire TV Rotor Cable 25 Foot
Long Horizontal Wire Antenna - - - a la John Doty
Laid-Out : South-West to North-East (Far End)
22 Foot Up about Two-Feet above the Back Roof
TV 'type' 300 Ohm to 75 Ohm Matching Transformer
RG6 Coax Cable Feed-in-Line about 25 Feet Long
.
o------------------------------------------------X 50 Feet Two
X------------------------------------------------X Wires Folded
X------------------------------------------------o 25 Feet Wire
X------------------------------------------------X 37.5 Feet 1 1/2
X----------------------x x---------------------X Wires Folded
12.5 Ft 1/2 Wire
.
= 50 Feet ~ 1/4 WL for 60M Shortwave Band
= 37.5 Feet ~ 1/4 WL for 49M Shortwave Band
= 25 Feet ~ 1/4 WL for 31M Shortwave Band
= 12.5 Feet ~ 1/4 WL for 16M Shortwave Band
.
Remember 55.5% of Shortwave Radio Listening (SWL)
is the Shortwave Antenna = http://tinyurl.com/ogvcf
.
My Location : OK-Land, Cali-4-Ni-A, USofA
Metro-Area : SF Bay Area
Geographic Region : Northern California
World : West Coast of the USA (North America)
Global : N 37.78° Latitude by W 122.24° Longitude
.
|
|
|
/ \
........! .......

Since July 29 I think the overseas service (Reshet Heh) has been
relaying Reka. (immigrant service http://reka.iba.org.il) I know the
25 minute English program at 22000 GMT+2/+3 has disappeared.

The IBA cut way back on foreign (other than Hebrew and Arabic)
languages. Also, the English service ain't getting the studio and
production facilities it had so there ain't going to be a lot of
programming other than news bulletins.

Just now, I tried listening to Windows Media

mms://66.28.252.69/today/kolisrael_english_2000.asf from WRN

and I got a Russian program ID'ed as coming from Reka.

Tester wrote:

Since July 29 I think the overseas service (Reshet Heh) has been
relaying Reka. (immigrant service http://reka.iba.org.il) I know the
25 minute English program at 22000 GMT+2/+3 has disappeared.

Yes, that would be the 1900 GMT broadcast... sadly missed as I generally
listened to it most every day.

dxAce
Michigan
USA

Yep, basically all that is left of Israel Radio International (Reshet
Hey) programming is 1.5 hours
of Persian. Besides that, shortwave is relaying parts of the domestic
REKA schedule.

As of yet, there is not updated schedule on www.iba.org.il/reception
or israelradio.org

On reka.iba.org.il , the margin has much of the domestic schedule, but
not all.

On Aug 6, 4:33 pm, " wrote:
Yep, basically all that is left of Israel Radio International (Reshet
Hey) programming is 1.5 hours
of Persian. Besides that, shortwave is relaying parts of the domestic
REKA schedule.

As of yet, there is not updated schedule onwww.iba.org.il/reception
or israelradio.org

On reka.iba.org.il , the margin has much of the domestic schedule, but
not all.


From what I've heard, the Israeli government has serious budget
problems, mainly because they never recovered from the dot.com bust,
and tourists have been largely scared away by the wars. I'm sure that
Tel Aviv is relatively safe (I know some Israeli is gonna respond and
say so) but that's not what the average American hears. The big draws
are the holy sites, and many of those are in Palestinian territory,
cut off from the world.

In the late 90s the Palestinians built several big hotels in East
Jerusalem to cater to Americans, only to see their investment fail
when the Israelis closed the border and kept it closed. The Waqf (the
keepers of al-Haram al-Sharif, aka the Temple Mount) are so paranoid
now that ANYBODY poking around is gonna raise suspicion, even if
they're clearly American. Evangelical Christian groups have to be
satisfied with standing outside the gates now. Americans largely don't
want to go anywhere near the holy sites now anyway, unless they get
prodded by some preacher. They'd rather visit the great cathedrals of
Europe.

All this fun and games has cut off a big source of revenue for the
Israelis. That, the lack of business investment by Americans who
envision their money going up in smoke, and the general political
chaos has sunk Israel's budget. Warren Buffett tried to buy an Israeli
factory, only to have a war (with Hizbullah) break out a week after
his tour, after which Buffett told the Israelis he wasn't interested.
The only thing keeping them around is the American taxpayer and a
handful of superwealthy American Jews. The US doesn't want another
Holocaust, because it would get blamed even though the world wants us
to abandon Israel. Also, Israel is the only thing holding the Muslims
at bay. So the US sends Israel billions.

American Insurgent wrote:
From what I've heard, the Israeli government has serious budget
problems,
(pardon my spelling, my news posting program does not have a spell
checker)

That's really not the problem in this case. The IBA is supported by
a television tax, about $150 a year. This pays for TV channel 1
and all of the various radio stations that the IBA runs e.g.
the regular IBA channels, Voice of Music, Immegrant network (REKA),
etc.

The last few years the immegration from English speaking countries
has fallen off among the general public, and the majority of immegrants
are relgious and won't buy a TV. If they don't buy TV's, they don't pay
the tax, and they are not entitled to the programs. Many of them have
computers and feel that having a computer gets them the same information
that they could get from the radio or TV including the broadcast news.

The IBA news is also very much left wing, and many (but not all)
"anglos" as we are called are politicaly right wing. For example,
Channel 7 (Arutz Sheva) a right wing pirate radio broadcaster
abandoned radio and went online totally.

Israel has never been very keen on "spin doctoring" or presenting their
side of the story. Efforts in the last few years to enter the "propaganda
war", have gone nowhere. At one time Israel launced a sattelite TV channel
to counter the Arab propaganda, but it has disappeared from the local
cable TV network, so I expect it was quietly abandoned.

mainly because they never recovered from the dot.com bust,
and tourists have been largely scared away by the wars.

That's ancient history. Downtown Jerusalem is as busy as it
was in the mid 1990's. Restaurants and stores are opening up
in empty places. There has been some change, for example,
Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have failed, but other chains
such as Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and several
home grown coffee shops are doing well. Some of the Israeli
chains have opened restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.


I'm sure that
Tel Aviv is relatively safe (I know some Israeli is gonna respond and
say so) but that's not what the average American hears. The big draws
are the holy sites, and many of those are in Palestinian territory,
cut off from the world.

That's true. Not only are they cut off from the world as you
put it, but the P.A. is very anti-christian, and Hamas's main
agenda is to convert Gaza into an Islamic Republic similar to
(and funded by) Iran.

In the late 90s the Palestinians built several big hotels in East
Jerusalem to cater to Americans, only to see their investment fail
when the Israelis closed the border and kept it closed.

That's not true. East Jerusalem is still open if you are willing
to go there. Most tourists are not. Just as the Jews built twoard
the west starting in the early 1900's, the Arabs built to the east.
Those areas are not closed to tourists and you can go there if
you dare. They are not tourist friendly areas anyway.

What killed those hotels was Arafat's starting of the second
intifada (shrugging off in Arabic) which he started a campaign
of terror to try to force Israel to capitulate. It simply
was no longer safe for a tourist to visit those hotels.

Beacause of the slow economy, there were many empty hotel
rooms in west Jerusalem, which was safe, and tourists went
there instead.

Another big investment that failed was a casino in Jericho, which
was built by an Austrian company. Palestinians were prohibited
to enter except to work there, it was for Israeli's and tourists.
Palestinian terrorists kept shooting people driving to it and
for public safety, the roads were closed and it is closed.

So far, the new improved P.A. has done nothing to secure the
roads to it, and it stays closed.

However the Christain holy sites in Jersualem are open and well
maintained and safe. You can go from the valley where the tree that was
used to make "the cross" was harvested, by a city bus to the old city,
see the remains of the second temple (where Jesus is said to have chased
out the money changers), to the street he carried the cross on (Via
Delarosa) up to the spot where it is claimed he was crucified.

Note that all of these are described in the New Testament, but there is no
evidence that he was there at all. Whatever evidence you see such as plaques
and signs dates from the British Mandate period or later.

I'm not trying to mock anyone's faith, but if you are looking for proof
as opposed to faith, you may not find it. Mark Twain wrote an excelent
description of it in "Innocents Abroad", and it has not changed much.

There are also many churches of significance in the old city which is safe.

If you are a fan of Joseph Cameron, you can go see the tomb where his latest
movie is set, but it is just a hole in the ground in a residential/light
industrial area. The commerical interests and tourist traps have yet to arrive.


The Waqf (the
keepers of al-Haram al-Sharif, aka the Temple Mount) are so paranoid
now that ANYBODY poking around is gonna raise suspicion, even if
they're clearly American. Evangelical Christian groups have to be
satisfied with standing outside the gates now. Americans largely don't
want to go anywhere near the holy sites now anyway, unless they get
prodded by some preacher. They'd rather visit the great cathedrals of
Europe.

I don't know about that. One of the big problems is that Americans think
Israel looks like Mos Eisly (the space port in Star Wars), stone huts
in the sand with a few space ships thrown in for effect. Jerusalem is
a modern city, and Israel is a modern country. There is one part
of the Tel-Aviv Jerusalem highway I call the Garden State Parkway,
because except for the road signs having Hebrew and Arabic in
addition to English it looks like North Jersey. The only big
difference is that there are cement factories in the distance
instead of oil refineries next to the highway.



All this fun and games has cut off a big source of revenue for the
Israelis. That, the lack of business investment by Americans who
envision their money going up in smoke, and the general political
chaos has sunk Israel's budget. Warren Buffett tried to buy an Israeli
factory, only to have a war (with Hizbullah) break out a week after
his tour, after which Buffett told the Israelis he wasn't interested.

Funny, after all the hype about the deal, the part that it fell through
was not published here. Did it really. The factory was undamaged and is
working just like before.


The only thing keeping them around is the American taxpayer and a
handful of superwealthy American Jews. The US doesn't want another
Holocaust, because it would get blamed even though the world wants us
to abandon Israel. Also, Israel is the only thing holding the Muslims
at bay. So the US sends Israel billions.

That's not true. In fact most if not all of the aid money sent to Israel
comes with a price tag. The money most be spent on U.S. made products,
for example the substandard amunition used during the war last summer.
Without the money, Israel would have used anmunition that is made
locally, promoting the Israeli economy. Instead it was used to
buy amunition from the U.S. which is still dangerous on the ground,
and helped subsidize the U.S. defense establishment.

Geoff.



--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/

"Geoffrey S. Mendelson" wrote:

American Insurgent wrote:
From what I've heard, the Israeli government has serious budget
problems,
(pardon my spelling, my news posting program does not have a spell
checker)

That's really not the problem in this case. The IBA is supported by
a television tax, about $150 a year. This pays for TV channel 1
and all of the various radio stations that the IBA runs e.g.
the regular IBA channels, Voice of Music, Immegrant network (REKA),
etc.

The last few years the immegration from English speaking countries
has fallen off among the general public, and the majority of immegrants
are relgious and won't buy a TV. If they don't buy TV's, they don't pay
the tax, and they are not entitled to the programs. Many of them have
computers and feel that having a computer gets them the same information
that they could get from the radio or TV including the broadcast news.

The IBA news is also very much left wing, and many (but not all)
"anglos" as we are called are politicaly right wing. For example,
Channel 7 (Arutz Sheva) a right wing pirate radio broadcaster
abandoned radio and went online totally.

Israel has never been very keen on "spin doctoring" or presenting their
side of the story. Efforts in the last few years to enter the "propaganda
war", have gone nowhere. At one time Israel launced a sattelite TV channel
to counter the Arab propaganda, but it has disappeared from the local
cable TV network, so I expect it was quietly abandoned.

mainly because they never recovered from the dot.com bust,
and tourists have been largely scared away by the wars.

That's ancient history. Downtown Jerusalem is as busy as it
was in the mid 1990's. Restaurants and stores are opening up
in empty places. There has been some change, for example,
Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have failed, but other chains
such as Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and several
home grown coffee shops are doing well. Some of the Israeli
chains have opened restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

I'm sure that
Tel Aviv is relatively safe (I know some Israeli is gonna respond and
say so) but that's not what the average American hears. The big draws
are the holy sites, and many of those are in Palestinian territory,
cut off from the world.

That's true. Not only are they cut off from the world as you
put it, but the P.A. is very anti-christian, and Hamas's main
agenda is to convert Gaza into an Islamic Republic similar to
(and funded by) Iran.

In the late 90s the Palestinians built several big hotels in East
Jerusalem to cater to Americans, only to see their investment fail
when the Israelis closed the border and kept it closed.

That's not true. East Jerusalem is still open if you are willing
to go there. Most tourists are not. Just as the Jews built twoard
the west starting in the early 1900's, the Arabs built to the east.
Those areas are not closed to tourists and you can go there if
you dare. They are not tourist friendly areas anyway.

What killed those hotels was Arafat's starting of the second
intifada (shrugging off in Arabic) which he started a campaign
of terror to try to force Israel to capitulate. It simply
was no longer safe for a tourist to visit those hotels.

Beacause of the slow economy, there were many empty hotel
rooms in west Jerusalem, which was safe, and tourists went
there instead.

Another big investment that failed was a casino in Jericho, which
was built by an Austrian company. Palestinians were prohibited
to enter except to work there, it was for Israeli's and tourists.
Palestinian terrorists kept shooting people driving to it and
for public safety, the roads were closed and it is closed.

So far, the new improved P.A. has done nothing to secure the
roads to it, and it stays closed.

However the Christain holy sites in Jersualem are open and well
maintained and safe. You can go from the valley where the tree that was
used to make "the cross" was harvested, by a city bus to the old city,
see the remains of the second temple (where Jesus is said to have chased
out the money changers), to the street he carried the cross on (Via
Delarosa) up to the spot where it is claimed he was crucified.

Note that all of these are described in the New Testament, but there is no
evidence that he was there at all. Whatever evidence you see such as plaques
and signs dates from the British Mandate period or later.

I'm not trying to mock anyone's faith, but if you are looking for proof
as opposed to faith, you may not find it. Mark Twain wrote an excelent
description of it in "Innocents Abroad", and it has not changed much.

There are also many churches of significance in the old city which is safe.

If you are a fan of Joseph Cameron, you can go see the tomb where his latest
movie is set, but it is just a hole in the ground in a residential/light
industrial area. The commerical interests and tourist traps have yet to arrive.

The Waqf (the
keepers of al-Haram al-Sharif, aka the Temple Mount) are so paranoid
now that ANYBODY poking around is gonna raise suspicion, even if
they're clearly American. Evangelical Christian groups have to be
satisfied with standing outside the gates now. Americans largely don't
want to go anywhere near the holy sites now anyway, unless they get
prodded by some preacher. They'd rather visit the great cathedrals of
Europe.

I don't know about that. One of the big problems is that Americans think
Israel looks like Mos Eisly (the space port in Star Wars), stone huts
in the sand with a few space ships thrown in for effect. Jerusalem is
a modern city, and Israel is a modern country. There is one part
of the Tel-Aviv Jerusalem highway I call the Garden State Parkway,
because except for the road signs having Hebrew and Arabic in
addition to English it looks like North Jersey. The only big
difference is that there are cement factories in the distance
instead of oil refineries next to the highway.

All this fun and games has cut off a big source of revenue for the
Israelis. That, the lack of business investment by Americans who
envision their money going up in smoke, and the general political
chaos has sunk Israel's budget. Warren Buffett tried to buy an Israeli
factory, only to have a war (with Hizbullah) break out a week after
his tour, after which Buffett told the Israelis he wasn't interested.

Funny, after all the hype about the deal, the part that it fell through
was not published here. Did it really. The factory was undamaged and is
working just like before.

The only thing keeping them around is the American taxpayer and a
handful of superwealthy American Jews. The US doesn't want another
Holocaust, because it would get blamed even though the world wants us
to abandon Israel. Also, Israel is the only thing holding the Muslims
at bay. So the US sends Israel billions.

That's not true. In fact most if not all of the aid money sent to Israel
comes with a price tag. The money most be spent on U.S. made products,
for example the substandard amunition used during the war last summer.
Without the money, Israel would have used anmunition that is made
locally, promoting the Israeli economy. Instead it was used to
buy amunition from the U.S. which is still dangerous on the ground,
and helped subsidize the U.S. defense establishment.

OK. Just when might we expect Israel to say "We no longer want your money, and
where would you like the check deposited paying back what we've already received"?

dxAce
Michigan
USA

American Insurgent wrote:

On Aug 7, 2:24 am, (Geoffrey S. Mendelson) wrote:
American Insurgent wrote:
From what I've heard, the Israeli government has serious budget
problems,

(pardon my spelling, my news posting program does not have a spell
checker)

That's really not the problem in this case. The IBA is supported by
a television tax, about $150 a year. This pays for TV channel 1
and all of the various radio stations that the IBA runs e.g.
the regular IBA channels, Voice of Music, Immegrant network (REKA),
etc.

The last few years the immegration from English speaking countries
has fallen off among the general public, and the majority of immegrants
are relgious and won't buy a TV. If they don't buy TV's, they don't pay
the tax, and they are not entitled to the programs. Many of them have
computers and feel that having a computer gets them the same information
that they could get from the radio or TV including the broadcast news.

I understand that some interpretations of Jewish religious law
prohibit using radios and TVs on Shabbat. During the first Gulf War in
1991, when Iraqi rockets were landing on Jerusalem, the rabbis found
that their followers were prohibited from listening to incoming strike
alerts on the radio, forcing them to spin American style to create
loopholes so that people could hear the alerts. One suggestion was to
operate the radio with a stick or your elbow.


The IBA news is also very much left wing, and many (but not all)
"anglos" as we are called are politicaly right wing. For example,
Channel 7 (Arutz Sheva) a right wing pirate radio broadcaster
abandoned radio and went online totally.

Israel has never been very keen on "spin doctoring" or presenting their
side of the story. Efforts in the last few years to enter the "propaganda
war", have gone nowhere. At one time Israel launced a sattelite TV channel
to counter the Arab propaganda, but it has disappeared from the local
cable TV network, so I expect it was quietly abandoned.

Don't feel bad, the Americans suck at it too. During the Cold War all
VOA had to do was read the news and present fluff cultural programs
and the Russians listened. Today, the problem isn't that Muslims don't
know about the West, but that they object to its culture on religious
grounds. That sort of attitude is very difficult to budge. The
Russians wanted to have the goodies of the West, the Muslims don't,
they'd rather live in tents if living in tents means keeping religious
purity. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has said so.


mainly because they never recovered from the dot.com bust,
and tourists have been largely scared away by the wars.

That's ancient history. Downtown Jerusalem is as busy as it
was in the mid 1990's. Restaurants and stores are opening up
in empty places. There has been some change, for example,
Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts have failed, but other chains
such as Burger King, McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, and several
home grown coffee shops are doing well. Some of the Israeli
chains have opened restaurants in the U.S. and Canada.

I haven't heard of Israeli chains opening in the US, unless it's in
heavily Jewish areas such as New York. I do know that American Jews
are making an effort to introduce Israeli goods to the US, especially
foodstuffs. I've had Man's lemon flavored sugar wafers, which are
wonderful. Elite chocolate is also good, although usually only
available widely at Pesach (Passover). I once saw an Israeli made
toolbox for sale.


I'm sure that
Tel Aviv is relatively safe (I know some Israeli is gonna respond and
say so) but that's not what the average American hears. The big draws
are the holy sites, and many of those are in Palestinian territory,
cut off from the world.

That's true. Not only are they cut off from the world as you
put it, but the P.A. is very anti-christian, and Hamas's main
agenda is to convert Gaza into an Islamic Republic similar to
(and funded by) Iran.

Remember what the Palestinians did to the Church of the Nativity,
tearing up the medieval Bible and generally trashing the place? That
rattled American Christians so much that there's a real movement to
buy up holy relics and squirrel them away. Actor Mel Gibson is
reportedly building bombproof vaults in the American desert and
spending millions to buy relics.


In the late 90s the Palestinians built several big hotels in East
Jerusalem to cater to Americans, only to see their investment fail
when the Israelis closed the border and kept it closed.

That's not true. East Jerusalem is still open if you are willing
to go there. Most tourists are not. Just as the Jews built twoard
the west starting in the early 1900's, the Arabs built to the east.
Those areas are not closed to tourists and you can go there if
you dare. They are not tourist friendly areas anyway.

What killed those hotels was Arafat's starting of the second
intifada (shrugging off in Arabic) which he started a campaign
of terror to try to force Israel to capitulate. It simply
was no longer safe for a tourist to visit those hotels.

Beacause of the slow economy, there were many empty hotel
rooms in west Jerusalem, which was safe, and tourists went
there instead.

Another big investment that failed was a casino in Jericho, which
was built by an Austrian company. Palestinians were prohibited
to enter except to work there, it was for Israeli's and tourists.
Palestinian terrorists kept shooting people driving to it and
for public safety, the roads were closed and it is closed.

So far, the new improved P.A. has done nothing to secure the
roads to it, and it stays closed.

Gambling is a big no no in Islam, and they tend not to be very
forgiving of others partaking, unlike say Mormons living in Las Vegas
who have largely learned to live with the sin-in-our-midst thing. The
farther east of Vegas you go, the more Mormon it gets, until you get
to Mesquite and Bunkerville where the population is completely Mormon.
That hasn't stopped casinos from being built there, or farther north
at Wendover which is another Mormon town. In Utah, Mormon rules are
the rule, rules based on Islam. But in Nevada the Mormons tend to let
the outsiders run the show, although they keep an eye on it. Muslims
have yet to learn such tolerance.


However the Christain holy sites in Jersualem are open and well
maintained and safe. You can go from the valley where the tree that was
used to make "the cross" was harvested, by a city bus to the old city,
see the remains of the second temple (where Jesus is said to have chased
out the money changers), to the street he carried the cross on (Via
Delarosa) up to the spot where it is claimed he was crucified.

Note that all of these are described in the New Testament, but there is no
evidence that he was there at all. Whatever evidence you see such as plaques
and signs dates from the British Mandate period or later.

I'm not trying to mock anyone's faith, but if you are looking for proof
as opposed to faith, you may not find it. Mark Twain wrote an excelent
description of it in "Innocents Abroad", and it has not changed much.

I was born in California, where the oldest building in the entire
state was built in 1790. Compared to that, 3000 year old buildings are
inconcievable. Even in places like Massachusetts, the oldest you'll
get is 1650 or so. Other than the gee whiz it's old factor, the main
reason to travel to Israel is faith. Where faith is concerned, proof
is beside the point.


There are also many churches of significance in the old city which is safe.

If you are a fan of Joseph Cameron, you can go see the tomb where his latest
movie is set, but it is just a hole in the ground in a residential/light
industrial area. The commerical interests and tourist traps have yet to arrive.

The Waqf (the
keepers of al-Haram al-Sharif, aka the Temple Mount) are so paranoid
now that ANYBODY poking around is gonna raise suspicion, even if
they're clearly American. Evangelical Christian groups have to be
satisfied with standing outside the gates now. Americans largely don't
want to go anywhere near the holy sites now anyway, unless they get
prodded by some preacher. They'd rather visit the great cathedrals of
Europe.

I don't know about that. One of the big problems is that Americans think
Israel looks like Mos Eisly (the space port in Star Wars), stone huts
in the sand with a few space ships thrown in for effect. Jerusalem is
a modern city, and Israel is a modern country. There is one part
of the Tel-Aviv Jerusalem highway I call the Garden State Parkway,
because except for the road signs having Hebrew and Arabic in
addition to English it looks like North Jersey. The only big
difference is that there are cement factories in the distance
instead of oil refineries next to the highway.

I've heard that Israel tends to use stone and concrete in construction
as opposed to the wood and cinderblock common in America. In fact,
that's the case in the whole Middle East. A few cities such as older
Eastern cities and San Francisco use red clay brick, but in New Jersey
it's wood for residential and cinderblock for commercial. In the 1960s
America invented the "tilt up" precast concrete panel building for
light industrial, but other than that concrete has gotten nowhere in
America, except for paving. The sort of concrete building used in the
Middle East would be illegal on the West Coast because it can't handle
earthquakes.


All this fun and games has cut off a big source of revenue for the
Israelis. That, the lack of business investment by Americans who
envision their money going up in smoke, and the general political
chaos has sunk Israel's budget. Warren Buffett tried to buy an Israeli
factory, only to have a war (with Hizbullah) break out a week after
his tour, after which Buffett told the Israelis he wasn't interested.

Funny, after all the hype about the deal, the part that it fell through
was not published here. Did it really. The factory was undamaged and is
working just like before.

That's what I heard. The deal seems to have been quietly abandoned
after the war. Or maybe everybody was so concerned about the war that
they forgot all about the deal.


The only thing keeping them around is the American taxpayer and a
handful of superwealthy American Jews. The US doesn't want another
Holocaust, because it would get blamed even though the world wants us
to abandon Israel. Also, Israel is the only thing holding the Muslims
at bay. So the US sends Israel billions.

That's not true. In fact most if not all of the aid money sent to Israel
comes with a price tag. The money most be spent on U.S. made products,
for example the substandard amunition used during the war last summer.
Without the money, Israel would have used anmunition that is made
locally, promoting the Israeli economy. Instead it was used to
buy amunition from the U.S. which is still dangerous on the ground,
and helped subsidize the U.S. defense establishment.

That's not surprising. George W. Bush is beholden to his big corporate
donors, and will create any advantage he can for them. The massive use
of latent cluster bombs, daisy bombs, and various other bombs in
Lebanon that can sit idle until somebody steps on them, which Israel
got all the blame for, was I suspect driven by the US makers of the
bombs. I shudder to think of you guys being forced to fight with
M16's, which jam in the desert sand. The Uzi is so much better, but I
suspect that Israel gets US small arms dumped on it, with orders to
use it. The story about bad ammo just didn't get out, even on the
internet. The bomb story did (and Israel was blamed), as well as
various stories about shells filled with uranium being used in Iraq,
but I hadn't heard about the ammo.

Perhaps it's not true. At any rate, I've yet to see Israel refuse the money.

American Insurgent wrote:
I understand that some interpretations of Jewish religious law
prohibit using radios and TVs on Shabbat. During the first Gulf War in
1991, when Iraqi rockets were landing on Jerusalem, the rabbis found
that their followers were prohibited from listening to incoming strike
alerts on the radio, forcing them to spin American style to create
loopholes so that people could hear the alerts. One suggestion was to
operate the radio with a stick or your elbow.

There are other ways too. The most appropriate for this group was during
the war, the radio stations were broadcasting normally, but no audio.
Since the sabbath officialy starts about 45 minutes before sundown on
Friday and ends 15 minutes after sundown on Saturday, there was 25 hours
of "dead air".

I beleive that in the 1991 Gulf War, they set some sort of record.

One person posted a note on a mailing list asking for help tuning in
the station. I told them to tune until the noise stopped.


Don't feel bad, the Americans suck at it too. During the Cold War all
VOA had to do was read the news and present fluff cultural programs
and the Russians listened. Today, the problem isn't that Muslims don't
know about the West, but that they object to its culture on religious
grounds. That sort of attitude is very difficult to budge. The
Russians wanted to have the goodies of the West, the Muslims don't,
they'd rather live in tents if living in tents means keeping religious
purity. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has said so.

I understand. Occasionaly I listen to VOA broadcasts still. You are right,
they really would live in tents if they had to. Worse than that, in order
to keep them pure, their leaders will have them live in tents.


I haven't heard of Israeli chains opening in the US, unless it's in
heavily Jewish areas such as New York.

They are opening in Manhatten, L.A. and Toronto (I know, that's not
the U.S.). They don't identify themselves as Israeli.


I do know that American Jews
are making an effort to introduce Israeli goods to the US, especially
foodstuffs. I've had Man's lemon flavored sugar wafers, which are
wonderful. Elite chocolate is also good, although usually only
available widely at Pesach (Passover). I once saw an Israeli made
toolbox for sale.

Back when I lived in the U.S. (left in 1996) we bought Carmel brand tomatoes
from Israel at the local high end market. And I'm sure everyone reading this
has heard of Jaffa Oranges.

There are all sorts of Israeli products that are not obivous, for example
there is a large movie studio here which makes "Hollywood" movies,
and lots of computer software. If you are reading this on a Pentium computer
there is an 85% chance the processor was made here, and if it is a dual or
quad core, it was designed and made here.

Remember what the Palestinians did to the Church of the Nativity,
tearing up the medieval Bible and generally trashing the place? That
rattled American Christians so much that there's a real movement to
buy up holy relics and squirrel them away. Actor Mel Gibson is
reportedly building bombproof vaults in the American desert and
spending millions to buy relics.

I guess Mel is going to keep his mouth shut about it. After getting
drunk and blaming his problems on "the Jews", I'm sure he does not
want to offend anyone. Actually it's a good idea IMHO. Part of
the practice of Islam is to destroy relegious relics that are
not part of their relegion.

I was born in California, where the oldest building in the entire
state was built in 1790. Compared to that, 3000 year old buildings are
inconcievable. Even in places like Massachusetts, the oldest you'll
get is 1650 or so. Other than the gee whiz it's old factor, the main
reason to travel to Israel is faith. Where faith is concerned, proof
is beside the point.

Yes.

I've heard that Israel tends to use stone and concrete in construction
as opposed to the wood and cinderblock common in America. In fact,
that's the case in the whole Middle East. A few cities such as older
Eastern cities and San Francisco use red clay brick, but in New Jersey
it's wood for residential and cinderblock for commercial. In the 1960s
America invented the "tilt up" precast concrete panel building for
light industrial, but other than that concrete has gotten nowhere in
America, except for paving. The sort of concrete building used in the
Middle East would be illegal on the West Coast because it can't handle
earthquakes.

We have them here. Usually no more than the low 4's, but we have them.
The buildings are not made from wood because there is no wood. It's
mostly cinderblock, steel rebar and in Jerusalem faced with "Jerusalem
stone". A tourist once asked me if I knew where the quary it came from
was because "by now it must be one big hole". :-)


That's what I heard. The deal seems to have been quietly abandoned
after the war. Or maybe everybody was so concerned about the war that
they forgot all about the deal.

Could be. But I think what would really scare him was that the airport
is subject to random closures due to the union striking. The former
minister for defense (the one photographed surveying the troops
with the lens caps on his binoculars) used to be head of the
national labor union and whenever anyone threatened to remove him
from office, he'd arrange for a strike which closed the airport.

He was elected via the labor party and even they had enough, voting
him out of office.
That's not surprising. George W. Bush is beholden to his big corporate
donors, and will create any advantage he can for them. The massive use
of latent cluster bombs, daisy bombs, and various other bombs in
Lebanon that can sit idle until somebody steps on them, which Israel
got all the blame for, was I suspect driven by the US makers of the
bombs. I shudder to think of you guys being forced to fight with
M16's, which jam in the desert sand. The Uzi is so much better, but I
suspect that Israel gets US small arms dumped on it, with orders to
use it. The story about bad ammo just didn't get out, even on the
internet. The bomb story did (and Israel was blamed), as well as
various stories about shells filled with uranium being used in Iraq,
but I hadn't heard about the ammo.

You'd be surprised what gets sold. When I refered to ammo I was refering
to cluster bombs and depleted unranium tank/artillery shells, not
small arms ammo. The M-16's are not bad if you keep them clean.

That's how you can tell a real soldier from a "jobnick". The jobnicks
look good in their clean, well pressed uniforms and polished boots (although
many wear sneakers or sandals most of the time). They also have rifles
that look like they haven't been cleaned since they came off the production
line.

The real soldiers look sloppy, but you could eat off of their rifles,
they are cleaner than most people's dishes. :-)

Geoff.

--
Geoffrey S. Mendelson, Jerusalem, Israel N3OWJ/4X1GM
IL Voice: (07)-7424-1667 U.S. Voice: 1-215-821-1838
Visit my 'blog at http://geoffstechno.livejournal.com/