Shopping on Shenkin

Traveling to Israel this summer season? Here’s the low on the new shops on Shenkin. Brought to you by these guys.

“A Closer Look: Immigrants to Israel”

From Gladiator1611

Israeli Man Wrestles Leopard

Don’t mess with Kibbutzniks…

From the Washington Post:
Man Wrestles Leopard That Jumped in Bed

By ARON HELLER
The Associated Press
Monday, May 28, 2007; 3:07 PM

JERUSALEM — A man clad only in underwear and a T-shirt wrestled a wild leopard to the floor and pinned it for 20 minutes after the cat leapt through a window of his home and hopped into bed with his sleeping family.

“This kind of thing doesn’t happen every day,” said 49-year-old Arthur Du Mosch, a nature guide. “I don’t know why I did it. I wasn’t thinking, I just acted.”

Raviv Shapira, who heads the southern district of the Israel Nature and Parks Protection Authority, said a half dozen leopards have been spotted recently near Du Mosch’s small community of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev desert in southern Israel, although they rarely threaten humans.

Continue reading Israeli Man Wrestles Leopard…

NBA in Israel

As the playoffs unfold here in the States we’d like to take a minute and highlight one NBA star who brought Israel to the promised land on several occasions: Anthony Parker of the Toronto Raptors.

Oprah is Coming to Israel

O sookie nookie now. This is awesome.

From YNET:
Oprah coming to Israel for solidarity visit

American talk show queen accepts Elie Wiesel proposal to come to Israel, says she sympathizes with Israelis’ suffering

By Itamar Eichner

Oprah Winfrey will be arriving in Israel for a solidarity visit in the near future, the queen of American talk shows announced Monday during an event at Manhattan’s Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

In the event, Winfrey was honored by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity for her contribution to promoting humanitarian issues.

Wiesel called on Winfrey to visit Israel, where “the major war against terror is currently taking place.”

In her speech, Winfrey said she sympathized with the suffering of the people of Israel, and that she intended to accept Wiesel’s invitation and come with him to Israel.

Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Gillerman, who attended the event, said that a visit of a figure with such influence on the international media could help bring an end to the indifference towards the terror threat faced by Israelis.

Tel Aviv Architecture

Looks like white is the new ‘black’…

From HAARETZ:

Blinding white

By Shani Shilo

When UNESCO added Tel Aviv’s White City to the World Heritage List of sites designated for preservation, it made white fashionable and desireable. Thanks to the White City’s historical designation, that default color of Israeli architecture is now identified with quality.

“This is a trend that began about 15 years ago as part of Tel Aviv’s branding as the White City,” says architect Sharon Rotbard, author of the books “White City, Black City” and “Avraham Yaski: Concrete Architecture.” “In the mid-1990s, Ram Carmi began to talk about white architecture at the same time that architects began whitewashing raw concrete structures in conjunction with Brutalist architecture - for example, the planned Amal School. Eldar Sharon also painted white the Coor Building - now the Beit Amot Hamishpat Building - which he planned with his father, Arieh Sharon.

“When French architect Jean Nouvel visited Israel, he suggested making Tel Aviv a symphony of white, painting all the buildings in shades of white, and strengthening its identity as the White City, just as Jerusalem is identified with stone,” Rotbard adds.

Continue reading Tel Aviv Architecture…

We Launched a New Political Blog!

In Israel’s continuing efforts to create platforms to directly communicate with people throughout the world, the Consulate General of Israel has launched a new blog exclusively covering political issues in Israel and the Middle East. The new blog, www.israelpolitik.org complements the state of Israel’s other blog www.isrealli.org which covers Israel’s culture, arts, technology, people, nightlife, and just about everything else behind the headlines.

Israelpolitik serves as a vehicle to better communicate the State of Israel’s message of hope and peace directly with the world. Please take some time to interact with the blog, send comments, and help spread the word to your family and friends.

Israeli Models In International Spotlight

We’re glad we could do our part…

From the JPOST:

Model Israeli citizens
By SIMONA KOGAN, ISRAEL21C

Open Sports Illustrated’s coveted swimsuit edition and you’ll see Bar Refaeli’s beautiful bikini-clad body on more than one page. Flip through a past issue of French Elle and you may spot Mor Katzir or Esti Ginzburg on the cover. Beersheva beauty Adi Neumann has appeared in campaigns for Calvin Klein and Israel’s first Ethiopian-Israeli model Esti Mamo has graced big name glossies like Vogue and W. And let’s not forget Haifa-born Moran Atias who has achieved celebrity status among Italy’s elite with cover and runway modeling in Milan that has led to a career in television and film.

And now due to a successful campaign launched by Israel’s New York Consulate, best selling American men’s magazine Maxim recently sent over a full staff to shoot seven sexy Israeli stunners for an upcoming issue.

That gorgeous Israeli girls have always been known to make men drool with their exotic, natural looks is no secret. But now, it seems as if the modeling and fashion world has finally taken it to heart.

Continue reading Israeli Models In International Spotlight…

The Business of Israel is Business

CNBC.com just released a six part internet video series on Israel’s dynamic and globally competitive economy, and its pretty frickin’ awesome. Above is part 4 (see write-up below). Definitely go check out the other 5 to get the low-down.

Video Series: Business in Israel

Business in Israel is booming, despite the ongoing conflict with its Arab neighbors and the ever-present threat of terrorism and war.

In this special six-part CNBC.com video series reported by CNBC Europe’s Guy Johnson and produced by On the Money’s Jason Gewirtz, we’ll show you how Israeli businesses are turning the country’s challenges into opportunities.

Part 4: Exporting Water Conservation

For decades, the desert nation of Israel has been developing technologies designed to help agriculture and business use less water and to recycle the water they do use. Now that technology is a hot export as the world begins to face a water shortage of its own.

Aside from pioneering technologies like drip irrigation, Israel is also a model nation when it comes to water conservation. Today, it uses 70% recycled water for agriculture.

In part 4, we look at how the country has taken advantage of environmental adversity.

Israel to Help Darfur

While this is a good start, and apparently more than most of the rest world, we here at isrealli encourage our government in Jerusalem to continue helping and give as much as they can financially, medically, and morally to what is aptly described as, “the most severe human tragedy in the world today”. Let this be the beginning of a long engagement with like minded humanitarians throughout the world to bring an end to the horrors in Darfur.

From YNET:

Israel to donate $5 million to Darfur refugees

Foreign ministry receives recommendation to donate millions in aid, equipment to victims of Darfur genocide

By: Itamar Eichner

The Foreign Ministry will donate NIS 20 million ($5 million) to victims of genocide in Darfur, Sudan, following a recommendation presented by Daniel Miron, head of the Ministry’s Human Rights Division. “Israel cannot stand by while such a severe humanitarian crisis is taking place - the most severe in the world today - without trying to reach out and help,” he said.

Miron headed the team in the ministry responsible for compiling the recommendations for aid.

Foreign Ministry Director General Aaron Abramovich is expected to hold several meetings regarding the proposed donation.

According to the recommendation, Israel will transfer NIS 16 million ($4 million) to four international aid organizations, and purchase $1 million worth of medicine and water desalination equipment from Israeli companies, which would be given to the refugees.

Continue reading Israel to Help Darfur…