Where there is no contrition, there should be no forgiveness

Along with calls for him to be allowed a furlough from prison for the Bris of his offspring, it has even been suggested that Yitzhak Rabin’s murderer be paroled from prison altogether. Rather than attempt to answer this immoral suggestion, I’ll go through the milestones in reverse chronological order, to work backwards from what shouldn’t be done now, to what should perhaps have been done in the past.

To begin with, the assassin should not be released now, or at any stage in the future. Firstly, he was given a life sentence by one of the finest judiciaries in the world. A life sentence should mean exactly that; he should spend the remainder of his life in prison. Full stop. Secondly, his release would constitute an act of forgiveness. Where there is no contrition, there should be no forgiveness, and as far as I’m aware there’s been no contrition on his part. (It should not have been necessary to pass a special law to prevent his release, but so be it.)

He should not be permitted to attend any of the life-cycle events (Bris or any other) of his spawn. We can only be grateful that the Israeli Prison Service and the High Court have prevented the slide down this particular slippery slope.

He should not have been permitted conjugal visits with his proxy wife, and this should certainly never be allowed again. Maybe my thinking is all muddy, but I’ve always understood that the idea of prison is to punish the offender by denying him/her all the things we take for granted, like freedom, conjugal rights and attending life-cycle events. Privileges such as this should be reserved for petty thieves, not those guilty of regicide. If there’s a law, change the law!

Presumably little could have been done to prevent a proxy marriage between a convicted murderer and one of his groupies. Certainly nothing should have been done to facilitate it.

After having been found guilty, he should have been sentenced to death. At the very least, there should have been a widespread call for his execution. Yes, I realise he would have had the dubious honour of being the only person ever to have shared Adolf Eichmann’s fate in Israel, but that’s exactly the point. The murder of Yitzhak Rabin was probably the lowest point in our history since the Shoah.

Lest we forget, the man he murdered was no ordinary man. Yitzhak Rabin was one of the finest of Israel’s own Greatest Generation, the generation that fought for Israel’s birth, and who shepherded her all the way through to the start of the 21st century. He was irreplaceable, and he was worth a thousand, nay, a million Amirs.

The jury is still out as to whether Israel’s very soul will recover from the blow, or whether it was mortally wounded in the attack. Only time will answer that.

Yitzhak Rabin gave his entire life to the service of Israel. What does Amir and those who think like him, act like him, or fail to condemn him, offer us? Just this: The prospect of another useless Bar-Kochba revolt (but this time against our own elected authorities), the destruction of the 3rd Jewish Commonwealth, the extinction of Jewish life in the Middle East and another eternity in exile.

Let there be no more talk of his release.

Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud - Israel's First Green Kibbutz?

According to this news item on the Israel Ministry of Environmental Protection Website , Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud is Israel’s only "Green Kibbutz”. There may well be other contenders for the title, but this is the impressive list of projects and initiatives on which the claim is based:

• Recycling into six different streams, including separation at source.
• Sale of recycled cardboard, paper and metal. A solution for the disposal of other components is still being sought.
• An ecological garden to be used for educational and demonstration purposes.
• Plans for an ecological-environmental centre, for internal and external promotion.
• A switch to the use of environmentally friendly (degradable) detergents.
• Looking at products which have not been tested on animals.
• An energy survey, with plans to identify clean, inexpensive alternative energy sources and reduce energy consumption in daily life by using electricity saving bulbs and air conditioners, etc. The project is implemented and partially funded in cooperation with the Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology in the Technion, within the framework of an agreement between the Institute and the US Department of Energy to advance clean and sustainable energy development.
• Joint research proposals from the kibbutz and the Neaman Institute. A study on energy efficiency in milk cooling was accepted for funding by the Ministry of Agriculture.

Environmental Protection Minister Gideon Ezra welcomed the initiative of Kibbutz Ein Harod Ihud as a "green kibbutz”, saying that the kibbutz movement has always been environmentally conscious. He intends to formulate a clear theory and criteria along with a more professional definition of the term "green kibbutz."

The item does not, however, make mention of the Green Kibbutz Movement, nor does it mention kibbutzim such as Harduf, Ketura and Lotan that have long been exploring ways to tread lightly on the earth (and in some cases were founded with that objective).

I find it heartening to see that, despite the considerable challenges they face, kibbutzim continue to innovate and lead in Israeli society.

Ein Harod Ihud - Israel's First Green Kibbutz

Ein Harod Celebrates 80 years of Settlement

The Samuel Neaman Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology

Kibbutzim Site | www.kibbutz.org.il

Focus on Israel- Kibbutz

The Greening of the Kibbutz

Teaching farming as a balance of spirit, soil and a healthy culture: Kibbutz Harduf is not just a biodynamic farm, it's a biodynamic community

Kibbutz Ketura - Volunteer and absorption information - Israel

Kibbutz Lotan, Arava Valley, Israel

World Solidarity Day for the Release of the Kidnapped Soldiers

Tomorrow (30 October 2007/18 Heshvan 5768) is being commemorated as a world solidarity day for the kidnapped Israeli Soldiers. No matter what your views on the policies (or lack thereof) of the Israeli government (or your views on Zionism, for that matter), every Jew with the most basic level of commitment or involvement should do something to show solidarity for the soldiers, and for their families and friends. The website (in six languages) includes a Calendar of Events for cities worldwide, as well as links to related sites and an online petition.

While the campaign appears to be driven by and aimed at Jewish students worldwide, there’s no reason why the rest of us can’t also chip in.

Here in ZA, SAUJS also advocates reciting Tehillim (Psalms) and a prayer.

I was actually hoping to find some sort of banner or widget to include on my blog, but I haven’t come across anything as yet. If anyone is aware of anything along these lines, please drop me a note using Comments.

World Solidarity Day for the Kidnapped Soldiers

Cowardice and bullying

According to this JTA breaking news item:

A religious woman and a male Israeli soldier sitting next to her were assaulted on an Israeli bus.

Five fervently Orthodox youth asked the religious woman to move to the back of the Beit Shemesh-bound bus and she refused, according to Jerusalem police. The haredi youth then began to assault her and the soldier.

When police arrived at the scene, several dozen fervently Orthodox men attacked them and punctured their tires before escaping.

The item went on to mention that “The fervently Orthodox, or haredi, community in Beit Shemesh has demanded a special bus line where men and women sit separately.”

This is one of those episodes that is just so wrong on so many levels, that I don’t even know where to begin in writing about it. Instead, I’ve just put down a few bullet points, in no particular order:

• Call me old-fashioned (or whatever), but in my book anyone (Arab, Jew or other) who raises his hand against a women or a member of the IDF (or any of our uniformed or security services) should have his arms broken. I remember a time when this would have been the consensus.
• If this particular route is already a known trouble spot, why is more not being done to protect the public from this sort of intimidation, whether by the bus company, the police or both?
• In most parts of the world, those demanding something like a special bus line would make a case to the relevant authorities, pointing out (for instance) the potential profitability, high usage, the special needs of the community, etc. (Here in SA, they would simply burn the bus and stone the police and emergency services, but that’s another story.) Never would I have imagined this kind of behaviour in the Jewish State, and this from the most observant sector of the population (at least by their own definition).
• The phenomenon of Haredi law-breaking (in all its various forms) needs to be addressed at the highest levels of government and the police, before it becomes a permanent feature of the Israeli environment, and before we become just another “(whatever)istan” in the Middle East. This community needs to understand that they are not above the law of the land, even if this involves a heavy handed approach on the part of the police until the message gets across.
• Cowardice and bullying are two sides of the same coin. In the time of the Ottoman Empire or the Mandate, this particular community would never have dared to act in this way. So, while they may despise Zionism and the Israel, they seem to be happy to take advantage of their status as “royal game” to look for opportunities to put the proverbial boot in. This transformation from cowardice to bullying is no doubt an interesting sociological phenomenon, and will probably be studied by students of sociology in the future…

JTA.org -- A religious woman and a male Israeli soldier were assaulted for sitting next to each other on an Israeli bus.

Alternative SAJR (19 October 2007)

P2 We’re partners with Hashem in creation

Adam and Chaya? Say “Adam and Eve” and almost the entire English-speaking world will know who and what you’re referring to. Talk about “Adam and Chaya” and you’ve lost everyone except those somewhat familiar with Hebrew. Is it really necessary to be politically correct when using the English equivalent of well-known Biblical Hebrew names? To me, this is just in-speak, meant to exclude rather than to communicate, and doesn’t belong in the country’s only remaining Jewish newspaper.

On the same page, “Women’s rights and Jewish law” tells us in glowing terms how:

CONTRARY TO popular belief, Rabbi David Masinter, heading Chabad in Johannesburg, told his audience at the Pine Street Shul on Succot Chol Hamoed that Jewish courts of law protected women’s rights far more than would appear at a glance.

Rabbi Masinter cited the law of marriage as an example and explained how at times the court of Jewish law could even enforce an abusive husband to give his wife a divorce - whether it was physical, emotional or financial abuse.

I’m sure this knowledge of how “Jewish courts of law protected women’s rights” must be a source of great comfort and relief to the estimated thousands of Agunot and Mesurevet get (victims of get refusal) worldwide!

Agunah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

P5 Kerzner brings upmarket One&Only to SA

The article mentions Kerzner International group’s "One&Only Resorts and Atlantis brands of hotels, lead a $3,6 billion (R25 billion) portfolio of five-star properties stretching from the United States, the Caribbean and Central America to Dubai, Mauritius and the Maldives."

I’d always understood tycoon Sol Kerzner to be a proud (if somewhat uninvolved) Jew, and I wonder if he’s aware of Dubai’s role in the economic war against the State of Israel? See my earlier blog piece for the relevant links:

Altneuland: Who says money can’t buy you friends? The case of Dubai

South African Jewish Newspaper - Jewish Community News

Rabin

Is there anything else one can add?

As a person and a leader, Rabin, like others of that generation and the one before it, was very nearly irreplaceable. Nobody else, as it turns out, could be as magnanimous in victory. Nobody else, at the same time, could command the international prestige to face down the terrorists and rally world opinion to Israel's cause in time of need. Will Israel ever have another politician who would voluntarily resign because his wife had a three thousand dollar bank account? Will any army ever have a chief of staff who could ready an army for an operation like the Six Day War? Comparisons are invidious, but consider Rabin as Prime Minister versus the present incumbent. Consider Rabin as Chief of Staff versus the hapless Dan Halutz. Consider Rabin as defense minister versus Amir Peretz.

The "Oslo disaster" need not have happened with different leadership. The planning and conception presumed that Rabin would always be there to fix what was wrong in adversity. But in the event, he was not there. Yigal Amir took him from us. Even before the unraveling of the peace process, we understood then that Israel would never be the same. We hoped however, that some great moral lesson would be learned, a lesson that would make possible a great national renewal in Israel.

Rabin: Legacy, Apathy and Zionism- Zionism-Israel Web Log

The UN: (Unfortunately) it does matter

I was privileged to attend a lecture “Israel at the UN-A Nation that Dwells Alone” by Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch at the Johannesburg offices of Beyachad yesterday evening. For those of us (I’m one) who’ve tended to dismiss the antics of the UN as irrelevant, I think his message can be summed up as “it does matter, and we can do something”. Along with NGOs, the UN and many of its agencies, such as the already discredited Human Rights Council, have become important instruments in the campaign to deligitimise Israel.

We were encouraged to subscribe to UN Watch’s newsletter, which you can do here:

Sign Up - UN Watch

You can select the UN Watch Briefing, News Updates & Action Alerts, or both to subscribe to.

A summary of Hillel Neuer’s talk currently appears on the Home Page of the SA Jewish Board of Deputies here. Hopefully a permanent link will be provided in due course.

South African Jewish Board of Deputies > Home

To get even deeper into this aspect of the latter-day War Against the Jews, there’s also the Eye on the UN website (edited by Anne Bayefsky), with its own weekly Email Updates.

Spreading the net wider, the NGO Monitor website looks at the role of so-called humanitarian NGOs (non-governmental organizations) in this struggle.

NGO Monitor's objective is to end to the practice used by certain self-declared 'humanitarian NGOs' of exploiting the label 'universal human rights values' to promote politically and ideologically motivated anti-Israel agendas.

NGO Monitor- Human Rights NGOs

Social networking tools

Interesting use of social networking tools (Facebook and YouTube in this case) by this grassroots Israeli initiative to protect a forest from encroachment by a shopping mall:

Facebook | Stop cutting trees to make another shopping center in cochav yair!

YouTube - Kokhav Ya'ir (Israel) - save the forest support video

Apparently in this case it turned out to be a false alarm, sort of...

Boutique wineries: a model for the survival of Israeli agriculture?

Does the example of boutique wineries provide a model for the survival and even growth of the rest of the Israeli agricultural sector? I believe it does. Consider the following.

Winemakers in general (and boutique wineries in particular) have succeeded in getting their consumers to care about almost every aspect of their product; the region and vineyard, the soil and climate, cultivars/varieties, the vintage/year, processes and methods, the winemaker and his/her background, even the bottle, label and stopper used. Consumers worldwide have bought into the whole mystique and ritual around the making and imbibing of wine.

The challenge now is to get consumers to extend this passion to other agricultural products. I’m not suggesting that we can completely “port” this whole body of folklore across to the rest of the agriculturally-based products we consume. We can, however, identify a number of trends, niches and markets where some of it could be applied. The list might include:

• The Slow Food movement
• Organic produce
• Vegetarian fare
• Meat produced without growth hormones, animal by-products, etc.
• Non-GM (genetically modified) crops
• Support for locally grown food and/or family farms
• Kosher food
• Eco-Kashrut
• Fair trade (no reason why the principles should be restricted to coffee)
• Local and export markets
• The Produce of Israel/Made in Israel brand (this is equally likely to be the subject of boycotts, but many will go out of their way to buy products from Israel)

All of these serious trends allow the producer- to a greater or lesser extent - to command a premium on his products.

Once appropriate niche markets have been identified, other aspects of this boutique winery revolution might prove useful in other contexts, e.g.:

• Combining agriculture with agri- and eco-tourism
• Direct sales through “farm stalls” and outlets located on the farm or co-operative itself
• Opportunities to cross-sell own or related products, e.g. cheese and wine
• Looking at new distribution models, e.g. farmers markets, community supported agriculture (CSA) and food communes.
• Other changes to the structure of Israeli farming, such as a shift to crops (e.g. tree crops) that do not require extensive irrigation (a perennial criticism of this sector).

In summary, I believe that the boutique model could provide a way to shield Israeli agriculture from the various damaging forces at play, until such time as sanity returns to our outlook on the food we eat and how it is produced. Adopting lessons from this model might allow more farmers to remain on the land, and allow the country as a whole to retain the capacity and capability to produce its own food.

Boutique wineries: Pioneers and dreamers

The best investment in Jewish continuity

I’ve been an admirer of Mr Michael Steinhardt and his brand of Jewish philanthropy since I became aware of his involvement in the Taglit-Birthright Israel program, something I wish had been around when I was of that age. (I’m not just saying this because I’d like to find a patron). As Jay Michaelson points out in the article, Mr Steinhardt has set the gold standard when it comes to Jewish giving.

My understanding is that – apart from the Taglit-Birthright Israel program itself – the most bang for the buck in the field of Jewish giving is coming from activities centred around youth. More specifically, Jewish day schools, but also the whole aspect of Jewish camping, scouting and youth groups. Is Mr Steinhardt considering (or does he already) invest in these endeavours?

While each of the major streams within Judaism has its own networks of Jewish Day Schools, something I’d like to see is an international non-denominational Jewish Day Schools network, offering a consistent “entry-level” Jewish education to whoever requires it. In addition to an above-average secular education, these schools should provide Hebrew and Jewish studies classes, but leaving religion to be dealt with at home and in the synagogue. So, somewhere between the Ben-Gamla charter schools and conventional day schools, but with no bias towards any of the Jewish denominations.

Apart from consistency and the cultural and non-denominational approach, it is essential that attendance be subsidised by philanthropists and the wider Jewish community, to ensure that the education is available to all who want it for their children, without cost being a prohibitive factor. While I understand that there are many who would not – as a matter of principle – send their children to a faith-based school, I believe there are many who would if finances permitted.

I see this as the best investment we could make in Jewish continuity.

Memo to Michael Steinhardt: ‘Duh.’

Who says money can’t buy you friends? The case of Dubai

Like many, I suppose, I have tended to regard Dubai, the UAE and other small Gulf states as tending towards moderate and progressive, making the right anti-Zionist noises at the right moments to deflect suspicion. This excellent article by Laura Goldman - Dubai in, Israel out? (Borse Dubai's stake in Nasdaq could threaten Israel's capital lifeline.) - has done much to disabuse me of this notion. The article is too important to be covered by quoting a few nuggets. The article begins:

In recent weeks, all eyes have been focused on Iran and its President Muhammad Ahmadinejad. We have been ignoring or minimizing the threat that Dubai currently poses to Israel.

Please read it in full, carefully, on the Globes online website. Articles tend not to remain available for very long, so I’ve taken the liberty of Furling it as well.

Globes [online] - Dubai in, Israel out?

Globes [online] - Dubai in, Israel out?

For more background regarding the whitewashing of Dubai’s enthusiastic participation in this holy war, please see another excellent article, this time by DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN and originally published in the NEW YORK POST (March 23, 2007), but also syndicated to a number of other worthy publications. You’ll see quite a few familiar names here, including some you may have thought of as friends of Israel…

THE past few years have seen a concerted international PR campaign to promote Dubai as a tolerant new Mecca of Middle East moderation and amazing economic growth.

And it's working. Corporate giant Halliburton is moving its headquarters there; the famed Louvre is opening a branch in the emirate. Tourists are flocking to Dubai's luxury hotels.

But don't be fooled. Dubai, which is one of the seven princedoms of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is anything but tolerant and progressive.

To put it bluntly: They don't like Jews.

In fact, Dubai, like the rest of the UAE, is blatantly anti-Semitic. It bars all Israeli citizens from ever setting foot in the country. People from other nations whose passport have stamps indicating they've even visited Israel must notify Dubai immigration authorities of the stamp before entering.

Dubai is also actively involved in the Arab boycott of Israel: It bans all products made in Israel and even ones with parts made in Israel.

HOW TO SELL ANTI-SEMITES (THE LEGITIMIZATION OF DUBAI)

Jewish resistance: a reminder

At the end of the day, nothing changes, especially not the numbers. Despite that, however, it’s good to sometimes be reminded that there was resistance – sometimes effective resistance – to Germany’s war against the Jews, and that the Warsaw uprising was not a completely isolated event.

Educating (or being educated) about the Holocaust can numb the very soul. Perhaps it’s time more of this side of the story became part of Holocaust Studies syllabi.

The nod to mole333 for posting this item on the culturekitchen site.

On This Day in 1943: Jewish Rebellion at Sobibor Death Camp | culturekitchen

Sobibor - The Forgotten Revolt, by Thomas Toivi Blatt

Religion and State in Israel Weekly E-newsletter

Almost everywhere in the Western world, Jews enjoy the benefits of freedom of religion (or even freedom from religion, if they so choose). This is achieved by a (mostly) clear separation between religion and state. The exception? Israel! To quote (out of context) from the latest issue of the newsletter referred to below:

Imagine a country with no legal separation between religion and state, no civil marriage or divorce, and significant funding for only one stream of the majority religion. That country is Israel.

Think of just about any aspect of life in Israel; the Who is a Jew debate, Aliyah from the former-Soviet Union, education, conscription into the IDF, davening at the Western Wall, social welfare, Shmita and the possible destruction of Jewish agriculture in Israel. Think of any of these, and you’ll be thinking of an aspect of life in Israel poisoned by this overly cosy relationship between religion and state.

So, if you’re concerned about the incestuous relationship between Religion (read: Orthodoxy) and State in Israel, please sign up to receive the free “Religion and State in Israel Weekly E-newsletter”. If you were not really aware of this relationship, never considered it a threat, or even if you’re an incurable Haredi-basher, you should also subscribe. If you resent the marginalising of other streams of Judaism (Conservative, Reconstructionist, and Reform) in Israel, you should definitely subscribe. Lastly, if you strongly believe in a clear separation between church and state in your country (whether Israel, the US or elsewhere) you should subscribe. Even if you think you’re already subscribed to too many newsletters, you should subscribe!

You will receive a concise weekly (no more, no less) HTML e-mail highlighting coverage of events and issues affected by this situation, with links to the original news sources or publications. The newsletter is delivered to you Inbox late Monday/early Tuesday, and each edition is guaranteed to contain at least one issue that will make your blood boil.

My only criticism (actually a suggestion) is that no archive of previous issues of the newsletter exists. Or rather, that no publically accessible archive exists on the Web. This should be a relatively easy exercise to accomplish should the demand warrant it.

Religion and State in Israel: Mailing List Signup

An Orthodox Proto-Zionist remembered…

One can only wonder how much stronger the Jewish State might have been (and how many lives might have been saved) had more Jews (both Orthodox and Reform) heeded Rabbi Zevi Hersh Kalisher’s call. There is still much that is still relevant here…

When the Orthodox did finally commit to Zionism, much of the effort went into settlements across the Green Line. Sadly, this settlement enterprise has proved to be an unmitigated disaster for Israel and for the Jewish people as a whole. What should have brought the secular/traditional and national-religious together under the banner of Zionism has divided us as never before.

1874 (5 Cheshvan 5605): On the secular calendar, the anniversary of the death of Rabbi Zevi Hersh Kalisher. Born in 1795 in the Polish town of Lissa that had just become part of Germany, Kalisher was unique because he was an Orthodox Rabbi who believed that Jews develop a practical program for returning to Eretz Israel instead of just waiting for the coming of the Messiah. In 1860, he published Derishat Tziyyon, his blueprint for the return to the Holy Land. Almost forty years before the advent of Herzl and Zionism he called for a systematic purchase of land, the development of agriculture, the development of a self-defense force and the need to develop viable businesses to replace the charitable institutions that traditionally supported the Jews in Palestine. The Reform opposed Kalisher because of the nationalist content of the proposal. The Orthodox saw it as a form of blasphemy. One of the practical results of his work was the establishment of Mikveh Israel, a school located near Jaffa, designed to treat the new generation of pioneers the scientific agricultural skills that would enable them to reclaim the land.

This Day ... In Jewish History: This Day, October 15, In Jewish History

Kalischer's essay "Seeking Zion" was included in Arthur Hertzberg's absolutely invaluable reader "The Zionist Idea", which is still in print.

The Zionist Idea: A Historical Analysis and Reader

King Solomon's Mines. No, really…

Here’s an interesting grassroots Israeli initiative to prevent a hotel complex from being built in the environmentally sensitive Timna Valley (about 30 km north of Eilat). Some navigation and content is in English.

http://www1.freewebs.com/timna-/index.htm

The various related presentations can be viewed here:

To_Segol eSnips Folder

The cause has apparently not yet been adopted by the mainstream Israeli green organisations. (In all fairness, I think their hands are pretty full these days.)

Thanks to the JPOST website for highlighting the issues in this recent article:

Pave paradise and put up a hotel complex

The URL given in the JPOST article was incorrect. The correct URL is as above.

The site includes a guestbook. I made several attempts to sign the guestbook; unsuccessfully, or so I thought. Although the system appeared to have rejected my entry with a "Please post a message" error routine, I did subsequently receive an acknowledgement with a subscription request.

My dunam in Israel…

A couple of comments regarding this recent Globes online article concerning the latest wave of real estate purchases in Israel by Diaspora Jews.

• Firstly, I have no problem in principle with the idea. Heck, if I had the resources, I’d be joining the trend. (Correction, I would have joined the trend several decades ago.)
• Secondly, I would think that there needs to be some form of government policy or regulations regarding land purchases by non-residents. Not just to create another bloated bureaucratic apparatus, but to protect the interests of residents, who may find availability and pricing increasingly pushing the prospect of home ownership out of reach, especially for first-time buyers. One suggestion would be to limit purchases by nom-residents to new developments, leaving existing housing stock for residents. I know that there are also concerns regarding areas primarily owned by non-residents becoming ghost-towns.
• Lastly, the trend of buying and holding large tracts of agricultural land is a concern. While agriculture in Israel is perceived to be on the wane, a host of factors will eventually restore farming to its true place in the economy and mind-share of the country. In the meantime, land zoned as agricultural needs to be held in trust for the Jewish people, in some form of agricultural or rural reserve. Developers should be persuaded to “back-fill” within the boundaries of existing urban and metropolitan areas.

Israel, at the beginning of the 21st century, is witnessing the resurgence of a trend from the distant past - the buying of agricultural land in outlying regions. Prices of such land are substantially lower than building land, so purchases like these are usually large. The aim is to buy up stretches of land that will be rezoned in the future. In any event, the passage of time, coupled with the latest decisions on agricultural land rights, and the levies and taxes that buyers have to pay for such an upgrade, make any such deal virtually devoid of any economic benefit. Lawyers from the realty sector who are familiar with the trend and who act for foreigners involved in real estate deals, told "Globes" what sort of properties Diaspora Jews are now shopping for. Price, so it would seem, is not the only factor at play.

The Zionist factor
Jews are buying land in Israel for ideological as well as financial reasons.
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/docview.asp?did=1000260991

I wonder whether they’ve told their call centre this time.

Some time back, the JPOST website ran a campaign offering free trial subscriptions to the various paper editions of JP publications. As I was interested in checking out the Jerusalem Report, I completed the online coupon. I duly received a phone call from the JP call centre. A lady with an absolutely captivating Israeli accent had been given my details, but knew nothing whatsoever about the offer on their website. She undertook to refer the matter to her manager/supervisor and get back to me. This was the last I ever heard on the matter.

A similar campaign is currently being run on the JPOST website (see links below). The banner ad reads “For a free issue, with no commitments, click here. The Jerusalem Post”. I wonder whether this time their call centre has been briefed regarding the campaign, and is able to handle the coupons correctly. As a Lover of Zion, I’m quite prepared to try again, but many might not be that persistent…

http://static.jpost.com/RealMedia/ads/Creatives/JpostHouse_728x90_Oct07/728x90.gif

http://www.globalvisionsisrael.com/clients/jpost/minisite1/email2.asp