In the thirteenth chapter of Rosenthal’s Book “The Israelis” she focuses on the Bedouin. The Bedouin are an ethnic group in Israel that settles in Negev. The Bedouin used to be a nomadic group. Since the creation of the state of Israeli their nomadic ways have been affected. The majority of the Bedouin population is below the poverty level. They live under terrible conditions. They do not have electricity, running water, and have poor educational facilities. The Bedouin culture is extremely patriarchal. Rosenthal illustrates how a male ruled society affects women in this culture. One of the major points she makes is how due to fact that they can no longer live nomadically the role of women has drastically changed (Rosenthal, P. 282). There has been a slow progress in allowing women to get educated, some have been able to attend universities, but the numbers are still extremely low.
Rosenthal cites that the 99% of Bedouin women over forty are illiterate (P.281) that is extremely high. In the time when the Bedouin were a nomadic people the role of women is described as “whole factories” (Rosenthal, P.282) and men were their helpers. It seems that before women did a lot of the work, they sewed, cooked, harvested, and milked animals. It seems that the roles have shifted now women are the least educated and they also do not contribute to the tribe as much as they used to. It seems now they are there to bare children and take care of them. They no longer have the one active role they once did and this can take a toll on ones life. Women begin to only be wives and mothers and nothing else (Rosenthal, P. 282). Rosenthal describes them as “prisoners” in their own homes (Rosenthal, P.282). Women’s lives at home are also mentioned in an article on the UN Refugee Agency website. It says that Bedouin women are confined to their homes and are not participating outside of their homes. This is why it is important to educate these women and even the Bedouin men. Education can provide them with the knowledge they need in order to survive in this ever changing society, especially when their traditions are being affected. The Bedouin in Negev have bad educational facilities and they are not funded properly (Rosenthal, p.280).
There have been some women who have broken the social norms and attend school. Although a lot of the young girls who do attend school are prone to harassment. Women are not suppose to go anywhere without a male escort, and some girls have actually left their villages and studied on campus in the dormitories of a university. This challenges the norms of the patriarch rules of the Bedouin (Rosenthal, P.283).
So, what is the Israeli government doing about these poor educational conditions and how is it going to change Bedouin women’s lives?
According to Israels Ministry of Foreign Affairs website outlines what the government wants to do in order to help Bedouin conditions. They have started taking a focus on education. To begin they have established plans to fund Arab education. The schools in Israel teach are not Arab focused. Bedouin would benefit from having schools that do have a focus on Arabs culture or are at least culturally sensitive. The funding for Arab schools could continue to wedge a hole and separate the Bedouin from the rest of Israel. It is clear though that education will help the Bedouin in changing their economic situation. These changes are difficult as described by Dr. Yosef Ben-David in the MFA website, “the transition from a traditional, conservative society which only a generation ago was nomadic, entails relinquishing values, customs and a traditional economy.” These changes will be met with resistance because the Bedouin have strong cultural values that do not coincide with those of the rest of the country. According to the MFA website a lot of the schools for the Bedouin have been renovated and conditions have changed. Resources are being provided. Some schools do have young girls enrolled, although it is mostly boys. The Bedouin are really a displaced people their beliefs do not work in the dominant society that they are living in.
Education opens many doors for any individual. In Israel, the Bedouin are very traditional and it makes it hard to provide education for them. It’s a very difficult situation, because how does one help a community, when that help is against their beliefs? The important thing is that there are changes, women are becoming educated and they are returning to their communities to share the information. They want to change those prison walls that the women call homes to something more liberating. It is through education about birth control, human rights and health services that these women will no longer suffer the oppression of their communities and perhaps help their entire villages with this knowledge.
In thinking about the reliability of these articles, I understand that the MFA would put out information that would make them look good, considering that the Bedouin are extremely unsatisfied with the fact that budgets for their cause are often cut. Although it is clear that many Bedouin do receive financial help from the Israeli government. The website does outline some of the things Israel is trying to do to make better conditions for the Bedouin. The Refugee Agency website dedicated much more time to the situation of women as we see in Rosenthal. It is acting as a voice for many of the Bedouin women who suffer domestic violence or abuse and therefore I do not see why it would be unreliable.

Keeping Kosher?

In Rosenthal’s book “The Israelis” part three is dedicated to the different ways a person can be Jewish.  She begins with the description of the Haredim, who are extremely religious. They follow Jewish laws in detail Rosenthal, P.175). Rosenthal then moves on to describe the Orthodox Jews, who are do not follow Jewish laws as detailed as the Haredim yet they still hold true to a lot of what is in the Torah. Rosenthal goes into detail of how the many cities in Israel hold religious value to the Jewish people. She points out scriptures from the Torah that shows how Abraham first got the land and how it was a promise from god (Rosenthal, P. 207-9). Rosenthal provides the stories of the Non-Orthodox Jews and how there lives are affected by their religious practices. This chapter shows how Non-Orthodox Jews often feel marginalized by other Jews because they do not follow such strict Jewish laws. This also exhibits the harassment that Non-Orthodox Jews often experience because they do not follow religious laws as others due (Rosenthal, P.225).

            One of the distinctions made throughout this section of the book was how there are distinctions in what is “Kosher.”  Rosenthal points out how there is only one kosher sanctioned label that the Haredim will buy. Haredim only buy She’erit Yisrael, which follows the laws to keep Kosher by the Lithuanians. The Haredim follow the laws so strictly that a woman who attended a wedding of the daughter of a friend. At the wedding the Haredim woman did not eat the meat that was being served because she believed they were not kosher enough. She only ate the salad and claimed to have the stomach flu (Rosenthal, P. 182). In the Orthodox section of the book, there is the story of the young Mizrahi girl who is at the Mount Meron celebrating Rabbi Shimon. The young girl offers food to a Haredi woman as a form of sharing. The young girl says that the kosher laws are suppose to unite all Jews, yet it seems to separate them (Rosenthal, P.212)

            On jewfaq.org, there is an article that explains what it means to be Kosher. It explains that being kosher is a Jewish law that deals with what is acceptable to eat, and in what way the food should be prepared. The article explains that eating Kosher is a law that is found in the Torah yet there is not much explanation for it. Some of the laws are: not mixing dairy with meat, some animals and certain part cannot be eaten, the animal must be completely drained of it blood.  The article also mentions how many times people are under the impression that a Rabbi must bless the food, in order to be kosher; I used to think this as well. I did not know that it does not have to be done by a Rabbit. Although it is a ritual called “Schechitah” performed by a “Shocher,” the ritual is considered human from the many other grotesque forms.  Another interesting fact I was not aware of is that the utensils must also be separated when one cooks meant or diary.

The article also focuses on the kosher certificates. The certificate is a way for people who keep kosher to know its okay to eat the food. Rosenthal mentions how restaurants and hotels all have to have a kosher certification in order to serve food (Rosenthal, P.229). One of the really interesting things she also mentions is the opening of the McDonalds in Israel, how so many people were outraged and they wanted to change it to McKosher. Finally, after much protest they agreed to serve Kosher approved food at the McDonalds. 

            These three sections of the book really show the differences among the different degrees of being Jewish, what I found interesting was how a detail like food can really matter. Another interesting fact about being kosher is how healthy it is for a person. It really rids food that harms the body. What especially mind boggling is that this is a tradition that has been going on for many years and its quite advanced it what healthy for people, specifically because now we live in a world were most people are conscious about what they eat. I believe because being kosher involves traditional rules, the article I used is extremely reliable. Although, it does give a very basic explanation, and I am not interested to see in what it is that the Haredim believe to be kosher. 

Hebrew...It's Alive?!?!

Throughout “The Israelis” reading by Rosenthal, I found a consistent subject that cut across every group discussed in the “One nation many tribes” section of the book. What really got my attention were the many different languages that can be found in Israel, which continued to resurface in the reading.  As I continued to read the chapters it become clear that Israel is a country full of linguistic diversity. In the first section, Rosenthal discusses the birth of Hebrew as a spoken language (Rosenthal, P. 101). Ben-Yahuda wanted to make Hebrew the language of the Jews to unite them through a language. He only spoke Hebrew to his son, and his son was the first Jew to speak Hebrew in thousands of years (Rosenthal, P. 102).  Ben-Yahuda, revive Hebrew and now it is one of the official languages of Israel.

            It is especially interesting to read about the different pronunciations of Hebrew. Rosenthal says that Ben-Yahuda wanted to keep the Sephardi dialect. Ben-Yahuda believed that this dialect would bring the Sephardi, Ashkenazi, and Mizrahi Jews closer together and would created less linguistic differences. What is interesting is that even though there was an attempt to create a Hebrew dialect that everyone spoke, there were still certain distinctions in accents. Another major reason Israel is so linguistically diverse is the fact that it is a nation of immigrants. In the reading, Mizrahi Jews could still notice a difference in the Ashkenazi accent, and did not consider it “ ‘real’ Hebrew” (Rosenthal, P. 115). Rosenthal also describes the Mizrahi Jews often using their own way of pronouncing words. She describes Meir a soccer coach as using “Mizrahi Arabic Slang” this is a great example of how many extremely diverse Israel is, and what better way to see it but through the languages spoken there. Rosenthal describes Meir entering his home and his wife is cooking and they greet each other in Hebrew and Judeo- Moroccan (Rosenthal, P. 127). Another example of this great diversity in the book was that of the Mizrahi Parents being spoken to about their children by educators in Hebrew and North African Arabic. 

            As I mentioned before there was a major change in language when the Russians arrived in Israel as well as the Ethiopian Jews. In the introduction of the Russian population in Israel, Rosenthal first and foremost mentions the few Hebrew words a Boris Katz knew upon arriving in Israel. The Russian population as we have discussed in class and in read in many of the readings for class discuss the fact that Russian immigrants had received superlative educations and came to Israel as doctors, engineers and scientists. The influx of Russian immigrants changed the Israeli language demographics, according to Rosenthal one out of five Israelis speaks Russian. Stores have signs in Cyrillic (Rosenthal, P.131).  There are even cities (Ashkelon is one) in Israel where Russian is the dominant language (Rosenthal, P. 132).  In this cities the people do not keep kosher and do not hold many Jewish practices.

            Gregory was a Russian immigrant who recalled wanting to study Judaism but his grandfather would not teach him because he feared they would be persecuted. Gregory describes his experience with Hebrew as “…I feel in love with Hebrew; it awakened a strong Jewish feeling inside me” (Rosenthal, P.135). It is really interesting how a language really does unite people, but can also separate and make us different from one another.

            In looking at Israel and the many languages it has, I must mention the story of the Ethiopian man on the bus. An older Ethiopia Jew was riding the bus when there was a bomb threat the bus driver instructed everyone to get out, the Ethiopian man did not speak any Hebrew and lost his life (Rosenthal, P. 159).

In a haaretz.com article written about a year ago, Making Hebrew the only national language of Israel was up for debate. In the reading the article I could not understand how a small, yet colossally diverse country could make legal changes to the national language. Israel’s national languages are Hebrew and Arabic, yet the state is full of so many more different languages. It really shows how diverse a country it has become over the years.

Overall, I think Rosenthal is a reliable, to begin with these chapters do not have anything to do with the language these different groups speak, this is not the focus of the chapters, yet the chapters are sprinkled with these language differences, and how they often stigmatize groups in Israel. I attempted to find map that would show the Israeli states different language demographics but had a very difficult time finding it. There is not a lot on the web about Israel in a linguistic sense, and most of the material was academic journals that were impossible to access and link to. 

Here is a fun video I found that teaches you some Hebrew words! 

Israeli Nightlife!

In the book “The Israelis” the author Rosenthal dedicates an entire chapter to dating, marriage and sex in Israel. When talking about a culture sex and love are very important social elements. It was interesting to read about Israel culture concerning dating, and this lead to explore what exactly is nightlife in Israel like. As mentioned in Rosenthal the youth of Israel enjoy the nightlife until the early morning (Rosenthal, P. 23). Rosenthal gives examples of Israeli youths dancing and enjoying the night at clubs, and even soldiers partake in the nightlife scene (Rosenthal, P.25). Another, interesting fact that Rosenthal brings up in her book is the consumption of alcohol. It appears alcohol is not consumed as much in Israel compared to Europe and America. I found this very interesting, although they do drink and have fun their use for alcohol is much lower, seeing as how it is a very crucial part of the nightlife in America. Rosenthal, also points out that there is not a lot of liquor stores in Israel (Rosenthal, P.26), it seems strange because in America you can find a liquor store in every other corner. These few pages lead me to look up the nightlife in Israel. In the Tel Aviv Insider website one can read about the beer in Israel. There are two different beers brewed in Israel one is Goldstar and the other is Maccabi. According to this website most Israeli’s drink beet because it is much more refreshing than mixed drinks and Israel had a very warm climate so bee seems life the logical thing to drink. One can find many other beers of the world but it appears that these two are a staple in Israeli culture. There is a feud between the two and apparently most people are either Goldstar drinkers or Maccabi drinkers rarely both.

In Israel21c.org, the video above shows what the nightlife was like, specifically in Tel-Aviv. People in the video describe Tel-Aviv as a place where people never want to sleep. There are bars and dance clubs. The nightlife does not begin until after eleven o’clock at night, and it does not end until the early morning. This video also mentions the diversity one can find in the Tel Aviv nightlife. A website called the Tel Aviv insider explains that Tel Aviv is much better than other city’s in the world known for their night life such as New York, and London. This article mentions that sometimes nightlife starts really kicking off around one or two a.m. This was really surprising to me because living in Los Angeles, clubs open at ten o’clock at night and close at two a.m. its amazing that in other parts of the world timing for nightlife is so different. The Tel Aviv insider website says “On a good weekend you can keep dancing from Thursday evening to Saturday afternoon, if you’re up to it!” In reading about Tel Aviv nightlife, I feel the closest reference I have to it would be Las Vegas. This website dedicates itself to giving tips on how to get around the city. It serves as a guide into the city. It gives tips for example on the kind of people to expect, how people act or how long the lines are to get into a club. One familiar tip I read was that for a group of men it is much harder to get into a club than it is for women, it is the same thing here in L.A.

Overall, these websites seem like extremely helpful guides to the Israeli the validity of the websites overall is not so important because they are opinion pieces. Although it can be argued that perhaps they are trying to advertise and get more people to visit the city. The videos and articles fail to mention the bad things about the Tel Aviv nightlife and therefore one can assume that they are trying to sell the city to get more people to visit it. 

A Boxing Match

In an article called “Orthodox Jewish Boxer ‘Star of David’ to Vie for Crown” by Oren Kessler a correspondent for Haartz.com, discusses an upcoming boxing match between a Muslim and Jewish boxer. The Article gives us a little history on the two individuals who are fighting in December for the WBA light-welterweight crown.

Dmitriy Salita was born in the Ukraine, where he and his family experienced intolerance because of his religion. In the article, it is said that this intolerance made it difficult for Salita to be proud of being Jewish. In Odessa, Ukraine Salita recalls the difficulty his family experienced. It was difficult to find prestigious jobs, and receive schooling at high-ranking schools. Salita also mentions his father purchasing a gun, because of the violence against Jews. At the age of nine Salita his family came to the U.S to settle in New York, where they expect not to be covert about their religious beliefs. It was in New York where he found an interest in boxing.  At the age of twenty-one Salita become a professional boxer. 

In New York Salita trained with Zabdiel Judah, he is a well known in the boxing world and interestingly enough an avowed Black Hebrew Israelite. As a teenager Salita became involved in Chabad movement. Salita has a Chabad emissary who travels with him to prepare his food.  In the article he is quoted as saying that he will never fight on Shabbat. Salita remains unbeaten in his boxing matches. He holds a very large American fan base. The media has been excited about the fight he will engage with Amir Khan simply because Khan Muslim. The tension between Muslim and Jews is nothing new and this fight literally puts them in the ring. The fact that you have these to opposing cultures and two individuals who are strong believers of their faith literally fighting in a ring has given the media a field day. This also helps in advertising for the fight.

Amir Khan was born in Manchester, and his parents are from Pakistan. He is also an extremely good fighter and has won the WBA title.

Since this article is mostly about two individuals and a boxing match the reliability seems to be pretty accurate. The article gives a backstory to both individuals, although that of Amir Khan is not very rich. The reality is that it is a Jewish newspaper and writing about someone who shares the same beliefs and his accomplishments should be expected. This article as a whole seems reliable and informative. It also gives insight to just how present religion is in peculiar fields such as boxing.  

Let's Talk

On HAARETZ.COM in an article by Avi Issacharof titled Hamas: Netanyahu emerged triumphant from summit with Obama, Abbas, Issacharof writes about the meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The meeting between the three leaders took place in New York City. This article takes the position that the only person that is benefiting from this meeting is Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu.

The article says that President Netanyahu is the one benefiting the most from the meeting between these leaders. In the article, it is mentioned that President Obama had promised the Palestinians that Israeli construction would stop completely, in order for peace negotiations to begin. One of the preconditions was that the Israeli government would stop the construction of Israeli buildings. According to the article President Obama had “toned down the language” during the meeting with the leaders. The article gives the impression he was no longer speaking strongly for the case of a Palestinian state.

 The Palestinians are making a distinction between completely “freezing” and “restraining.” The Palestinians were under the impression that President Obama was in favor of completely “freezing” construction, not just cutting some of the construction. Another Political Party in Israel called the Hamaas, was urging President Abbas to reject any talks with President Obama. They thought talking to President Obama would be fruitless. The interesting thing is that Hamaas and President Abbas are not in good terms. According to the article they have not been in good terms since the coup in the Gaza Strip back in 2007. The Palestinians are upset because President Obama does not want to accept their precondition and that is the complete freezing of Israeli construction. President Abbas did say that the Israeli government was a “real problem” he doesn’t think any construction should go on. In fact, he is quoted saying that even if 95% of construction were halted it would not be enough. 

The reason they are so upset is because President Obama said he did agree that there should be a Palestinian state. The problem is that President Obama wanted to start negotiations without preconditions. President Abbas said that there would be more talk on the most basic things with Israel but that in order to truly start negotiations they wanted the Israeli buildings to stop and also start looking at the 1967 borders as a start to negotiations.

The reliability of this article is questionable. It’s obviously an opinion on President Obama’s actions with the Middle East. There are times where is it very critical of the President and I think that’s good. There is a section of the article where the quote that the Israeli government is  “a real problem” is used twice, but in different ways and that made me question the articles. Another thing that got me questioning the article is that it used other newspapers as a reference. I don’t think a newspaper should use another one as a source, they should really make sure to back up their statements. At the end of the article there were some statistics given about how some people feel about certain things in the Middle East. The only reason that made me skeptical was because statistics are sometimes used incorrectly. Lastly, the language of the article made me skeptical. When the reporter talks about President Obama’s attitudes he uses vague language like “appeared” to be doing something. To whom did President Obama “appear” to be reluctant in his talks? Who does he “appear” to be acting in that way? It seemed like the wrong word to describe something in an article that should be factual.

 

President Chavez Travels to the Middle East

In an article by Barak Ravid for Haaretz.com, Ravid writes of the cancelled meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos. In the article it is said that the reason for the cancellation was because of the unexpected early arrival of the controversial Venezuelan President Chavez. Moratinos, was to meet with the Israeli Foreign Minister but didn’t because he was called back to Spain to meet with President Chavez. The visit of President Chavez is the Middle East is creating controversy among his outspoken remarks on the Israeli treatment of the Palestinians.

In another article on jpost.com, President Chavez calls the Israeli government “genocidal.” President Chavez has been quite outspoken with the press on his feelings over the Israeli Government. In another article in the Ministry of Information: Palestinian National Authority, President Chavez said of the upheaval in Gaza “What was it if not genocide?...The Israelis were looking for an excuse to exterminate the Palestinians…” President Chavez said he understood that the Israelis have a right to their own state but should be considerate of the Palestinians. Chavez openly speaks of his feeling of the way the Israeli government dealt with the violence in the Gaza Strip. The conflict that arose in Gaza has started because a rocket was fired. The war in Gaza started. Israeli army fired many bombs and the Hamas (a Palestinian political organization) responded with more fire. This broke out a war that continued for months. Many people were killed. Many explosives were dropped on the Gaza Strip. This is the incident that Chavez is referring to. It is said that the Hamas was throwing rockets at Israeli land and the Israeli Government responded with more fire. Chavez obviously believes it was uncalled for and disagrees with the actions taken.

Chavez also believes that the U.S. Government often backs the Israelis actions of violence toward the Palestinians. President Chavez has been on a tour of the Middle East in hopes of creating ties with nations, and hopes to displace U.S. influence. On jpost.com, it is said that the Chavez is in the Middle East hoping to create bonds with these nations in order to keep out the “Imperialism” of the U.S. Chavez has an opposition to Israeli influence on Latin America as well. He is quoted on Jpost.com as saying, “take its hands off Latin America…because there the US Empire is trying to turn Colombia…into the Israel of Latin America.” Chavez, thinks of Israel as greatly controlled by the U.S. Apparently Colombia and the US have been negotiating over the fact that the US military wants to station in Colombia.

These articles, all come from several sources, and quote Chavez in the same context. It appears when quoting President Chavez these articles were in accordance. The President is outspoken about his thoughts and beliefs on the conflict in the Middle East. The information in these articles is quite reliable due to the quotes it uses. It appears that the reliability of the articles is not what should be questioned. President Chavez has always been quite outspoken about his view of the American Government. It is also mentioned in jpost.com that his speech had been televised, therefore we can suppose that if Chavez didn’t say these things one could refer back to the recording.

It is really interesting how President Chavez is outspoken about his views. It is mentioned in the articles that he believes the Zionist from both left and right are wrong in their doing. He is extremely adamant in siding with the Palestinians. I thought that was pretty interesting, because he never really mentions why.