The Michelangelo Code
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech

Is the Sistine Chapel the site for the greatest subversive act in the history of art?

In the heart of the Vatican, the Sistine Chapel is the site of the conclave where every new pope is elected. It is without doubt the holiest chapel in the Christian world, and draws more than 4 million visitors per year. Most of the world knows it best for its magnificent frescoes painted by the great Renaissance artist Michelangelo Buonarroti. What has remained a little-known secret, however, is that within this citadel of Christianity lies perhaps the greatest subversive act in the history of art.

Almost none of the visitors who enter the Sistine realize that they are gazing upon secret messages embedded by Michelangelo in his artistic masterpiece. They would certainly be surprised to learn that, in the pope's own chapel, Michelangelo employed these secret messages to advocate for a revolutionary change in Christianity's relationship to Judaism, and that the code itself was rooted in the Jewish tradition.

Michelangelo became fascinated with Midrash and Kabbalah as a teenager, studying with private tutors provided by his patron, Lorenzo de' Medici. Using his knowledge of Judaism and its mystical symbols, he later incorporated messages, via painted images, on the chapel's walls dangerously contrary to the teachings of the Church. In this way, he criticized the corrupt spiritual leadership of the time, and condemned the Church's failure to acknowledge its debt to Jewish origins.

Expressed 500 years before the more liberal contemporary theology of Pope John Paul II and "The Good Pope," John XXIII, discovery of his secret code and heretical views might have cost Michelangelo his life.

When I first heard these claims from Roy Doliner, a Jewish docent and scholar of the humanities who has been leading tours of the Sistine Chapel for close to a decade, I assumed they were too incredible to be true. Only after he shared with me his diligent research (after which I performed a great deal of scholarly sleuthing on my own) did I became thoroughly convinced of their legitimacy.

I eventually co-authored a book with Roy, "The Sistine Secrets: Michelangelo's Forbidden Messages in the Heart of the Vatican," which was released earlier this year. To our great delight, the book is already beginning to alter the way scholars interpret the work of Michelangelo, sparking vigorous, and sometimes heated, debate.

"Just as the work of Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel changed forever the world of art, so will this book change forever the way to view and, above all, to understand the work of Michelangelo," said Enrico Bruschini, official art historian for the U.S. Embassy in Rome and a leading expert on the art of Rome and the Vatican.

A true Renaissance man, Michelangelo was at home in philosophy as well as art; in Christian theology as well as Jewish mysticism. However, those who have studied his work in the past generally have not been conversant with the wide corpus of knowledge that forged him as an artist. Most Sistine Chapel scholars were not well-versed in Judaism and Kabbalah; it was impossible for them to fully grasp the artist's allusions. By combining the scholarship of our respective fields, Roy and I, the docent and the Orthodox rabbi, were able to uncover secrets long buried in Michelangelo's frescos.

From the start, Michelangelo had a personal agenda different from that of his patron. In 1508, we know that Pope Julius II ordered Michelangelo to re-plaster and paint the crumbling ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, a demeaning job at that time for any great artist, and especially for Michelangelo, who detested painting and lived only to sculpt. The pope gave him a simple design, a very standard and banal layout of Jesus and Mary at the two ends of the ceiling, surrounded by the Apostles and a common design of geometric shapes in the center. The artist refused, and fought with the pope who, sick and distracted, finally let him develop his own plan.

Imagine the surprise of the pope and the viewers when the completed project was unveiled four and a half years later: Ninety-five percent of the Chapel was adorned with heroes and heroines of the Jewish Bible. The rest was filled with pagan sibyls and naked boys.

In the 12,000 square feet of the world's largest fresco, there was not a single Christian figure to be found. The only nod to the Gospels - and one of the ways Michelangelo managed to save both his life and the painting - was a barely-noticeable series of names of the Jewish ancestors of Jesus that do not even appear in chronological order. Why did Michelangelo disobey the pope in this way?

Michelangelo had a hidden agenda: to remind the Church that its roots were grounded in the Torah given to the Jewish people. This insight, which he inserted throughout his work, is only now beginning to receive attention in contemporary scholarship. It is also showing up in the popular media. Time magazine's March 24 cover story, "10 Ideas That Are Changing the World," singled out what scholars are now calling "Re-Judaizing Jesus" as the most powerful idea in the field of religion.

Michelangelo's frescos emphasize the universality of God and the kinship of all mankind by beginning the pictorial narrative with the Creation story of Genesis, not with the birth of Jesus. To a Church that preached exclusionism and stressed Divine love for only a limited number of His children, Michelangelo emphasized tolerance of all faiths, even the despised Jews of his time.

One fresco exemplifying this idea is the portrait of Aminadab, father of Nachshon, which appears above the elevated area where the pope sat on his throne. Hebrew scholars know that Aminadab's Hebrew name means, "from my people, a prince." But the Church interprets a "prince of the Jews" to refer directly to Jesus. Michelangelo positioned Aminadab, "Prince of the Jews," as surrogate for Jesus himself.

This is one of the extremely rare figures painted by Michelangelo sitting perfectly upright, looking forward, a signal by the artist that the figure is, indeed, noteworthy. Moreover, a bright yellow circle, a ring of cloth sewn onto a garment appears on Aminadab's upper left arm. (This detail was not revealed for modern audiences until the frescoes were restored in 2001.) This patch displays the badge of shame forced on the Jews of Europe by the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and the Inquisition during the 15th Century. Here, directly over the head of the pope, the Vicar of Christ, Michelangelo was reminding the Church that Jesus was a Jew. He was condemning the Church for its shameful treatment of the Jews, from whom Jesus was born.

This was a courageous statement. His veiled messages were painted at a time when the Talmud and other Jewish sacred texts were being burned all over Europe, the Inquisition was operating at full strength and the Jewish people had just been expelled from Spain in 1492. Michelangelo had the courage to challenge the papal court, asking via the symbols of his painting, "Is this how you treat the very family of Our Lord?"

Michelangelo's contempt for the Church's treatment of Jews went further to insult the pope himself via an almost imperceptible gesture of Aminadab. Almost hidden in shadow, this surrogate for Jesus is subtly making "devil's horns" with his fingers, which point downward toward the very spot where Pope Julius' richly embroidered ceremonial canopy would have been, over the papal throne.

In somewhat similar manner, in another fresco placed over the original chapel portal through which Pope Julius entered, Michelangelo depicts the prophet Zechariah with the pope's own face. Over his shoulder one can see a little angel with his fingers curled in a way to make an obscene gesture known in Italy as "giving the fig."

In the symbolism of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, instead of shame and persecution, inclusiveness and acknowledgement of Divine Favor are the qualities Michelangelo advocates for the Church's treatment of the Jews. We have an even more powerful indication of Michelangelo's philo-Semitism in his later work, "The Last Judgment."

In it, a golden-haired angel robed in red poses directly over Jesus' head and points at two men within a group known as the "Righteous Souls," a collection of figures who represent those privileged to spend eternity in a state of bliss with Jesus as reward for their deeds on earth. Michelangelo portrays both of these men as Jews, a potentially blasphemous act. One wears the two-pointed cap that the Church forced Jewish males to wear to reinforce the medieval prejudice that Jews, being spawned of the Devil, had horns. This figure is shown speaking to the other older Jew as he points one finger upward, indicating the One-ness of God. The other figure wears a yellow cap of shame; during the 13th century, the Church ordered Jewish men in Italy to wear such caps in public. In front of the two figures, a woman, her hair modestly covered, whispers in the ear of a nude youth before her. The youth resembles Michelangelo's young tutor, Pico della Mirandola, who owned the largest Kabbalah library in the world at the time, and who taught the young artist secrets of Jewish mysticism as he infused within him a life-long respect for the Jewish people.

In granting Jews a place in heaven with Jesus, the 16th century Michelangelo took a then-blasphemous stand on an issue which still provokes heated debate among Christians in the 21st century. His depiction of those granted Divine Favor clearly contravened official Church doctrine, which maintained that Jews could never hope to have a Heavenly reward.

Michelangelo defined genius as "eternal patience." This year, the 500th anniversary of Michelangelo starting his work on the Sistine ceiling, we have finally "cracked" his "code," and his insights, ingeniously concealed in his work, can at last be heard.

This article originally appeared in the World Jewish Digest.

Author Biography:

Rabbi Benjamin Blech is the author of 12 highly acclaimed books, including Understanding Judaism: The basics of Deed and Creed. He is a professor of Talmud at Yeshiva University and the Rabbi Emeritus of Young Israel of Oceanside which he served for 37 years and from which he retired to pursue his interests in writing and lecturing around the globe. He is also the author of "If God is Good, Why is the World So Bad?"

by Marnie Winston-Macauley

Outrageous, odd, fascinating Jewish facts and figures.

AND IS THE MOON CREAM CHEESE?

The King of Jewish food, the bagel, has become universal. But who knew how universal? While many scientists believe that the universe is expanding spherically, some are starting to wonder if the universe is bagel-shaped, according to Tony Rothman, professor at Illinois Wesleyan University, which he discusses in detail in his book, Doubt and Certainty. Oy. If it becomes a "certainty," the Talmudic debate over whether the universe is poppy seed or onion alone, will take another 3,000 years!

TEFILLIN WINS WORLD SERIES?
Can a brilliant Jewish athlete and a pair of tefillin affect the World Series? Just ask Rabbi Moshe Feller, director of the Upper Midwest Merkos-Lubavitch House. What Jew didn't kvell when, Sandy Koufax, the Dodger's ace pitcher, refused to play on Yom Kippur during the 1965 World Series. (The Dodgers lost that opening game to the Minnesota Twins.) Ah ... but there's more. Rabbi Feller, an avid baseball fan, met Koufax at his hotel, saying: "... Because of you, more Jews knew about when Yom Kippur was going to be this year than they do with a calendar. ..." And, he presented Koufax with a set of tefillin. The Dodgers won the series, and Koufax became the Most Valuable Player. Since then, Rabbi Feller started the first "tefillin mission," putting them on baseballers like Mike Epstein and Ken Holtzman. So for you future athletes: you better eat your Wheaties...and put on your tefillin.

For you future athletes: you better eat your Wheaties...and put on your tefillin.

HITLER'S JEWISH PSYCHIC
During the 1930s, Germans -including Hitler -- were into the occult. Erik Jan Hanussen, the European Houdini, was a Jew, a fact Hitler didn't know when he made Hanussen his psychic advisor. In 1933, in despair over his political future, Hitler recalled Hanussen's prophecy that he would become Fuhrer within a year and the two had over a dozen meetings. More disturbingly, Hanussen loaned large sums to Nazi leaders. After the burning of the Reichstag in February, 1933, German communists were blamed, but speculation "leaked" of Hanussen's involvement. Top Nazis hated the Jew who held their IOU's, and knew ugly secrets about them - and Hitler. On March 1933, Hanussen was executed. His heinous role in Hitler's ascent has been largely unknown to this day.

HOLOCAUST AND HIP HOP
Can it be? It can, and is. Grammy award-winning Israeli violinist Miri Ben-Ari and Israeli rapper Kobi "Subliminal" Shimoni, co-produced a hip-hop music video that expresses their feelings about the Holocaust, titled "God Almighty When Will It End?" in English, and "Adon Olam Ad Matai?" in Hebrew. Oy? True, some rebbes and cantors feel "hipping" and "hopping" is a long way from the hora. But many others feel this "unorthodox" music by young Israelis, part of the Gedenk (Remember) Movement, are inspiring and informing youth about anti-Semitism and the Holocaust. Who knows? Maybe Madness is one method to teach ... madness.

LOIN OF GIRAFFE, KOSHER?
You bet. The long-necked animal chews its cud and has cloven hooves. So why aren't we buying happy meals from Giraffe King? Well for some reason, Giraffe burgers just never really caught on in Ancient Israel, which means we don't have a continuous tradition for eating giraffe, and you know how we Jews feel about tradition (see: Tevye). But even if Bubbies around the world somehow banded together to bring giraffe back, to produce a deli sandwich would cost over $100 a pound! Now that can't be kosher!

YIDDISHE "STRIPS"
As kids, American Joomers (Jewish Boomers) chuckled over the adventures of goyishe comic characters such as Little Lulu and Dagwood. Even if many of comic strip writers were Jewish, actual Jewish comics were underground or not specifically Jewish. Things have changed. In 1986, Art Spiegelman's adult comic-book history of the Holocaust, "Maus" was not only a best-seller but won a Pulitzer Prize. And, our kinder can now identify and root for comic Jewish superheroes, such as Sabra, Seraph, Rambam, and Ragman.

But for those of us who missed the boat on those new Jewish comics, we can take solace in the fact that many of the superheroes of yesteryear had Jewish roots. For example, if Superman were created today, his creators, tribesmen Joe Schuster and Jerry Siegel, might have given a Hebrew name on his home planet of Krypton - Kal-El ben Jor-El!

Interestingly, some goyim have been swept up by the Jewish-inspired toon craze. Witness: Kal-El Coppola Cage, born in 2005 to Nicolas Cage (Coppola) and wife, Kim who saddled their son with Superman's Kryptonian name. True, Cage had been up for the lead in a Superman flick. But to paraphrase another comic character, "Holy Chutzpah, Batman!"

TWO IS BETTER THAN ONE?
Everyone knows that Chanukah occurs but once a year, right? Wrong. Over a thousand years from now, in the year 3031 of the Gregorian calendar, there will be no Chanukah! Ah, but the following year, 3032, there will be two -- one in January, and the other in December. That's, count 'em 16 gifts per! (And don't forget the latkes.) Tip: Leave a time capsule to be opened in 3000, with instructions to your loved ones to start saving their shekels - and potatoes.

Author Biography:

Marnie is author of the advice column, "Ask Sadie." She has written over 20 books and calendars, including, "Yiddishe Mamas: The Truth About the Jewish Mother" and "A Little Joy, A Little Oy." She wrote for "As the World Turns," (Emmy and Writers Guild nomination). She starred in her own radio show and a Discovery pilot. Marnie is in "Who's Who in America," 2007.

Oct. 7, 2008

Stock Plunge Could Raise Aliyah

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Knesset member Eliyahu Gabbai wants to convene a committee to prepare for a possible wave of olim (immigrants to Israel) from the U.S. because of the global financial crisis.

Gabbai warned that the global crisis strengthens the need to stress Aliyah as a central issue, and to prepare accordingly. He cited disturbing reports from the ADL about increasing anti-Semitism that has mainly taken place online, blaming Jews for the world's financial woes. He suggested that this should cause not just real concern, but concrete and practical thinking.

Arab World Celebrates Anniversary of 1973 ‘Victory’

By IsraelNationalNews.com

With Arab countries throughout the Middle East marking the 35th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on his countrymen to embrace the “spirit of October,” while a Syrian newspaper called for unity among Arab nations.

Mubarak called on the people of Egypt to strengthen their nation by demonstrating the victorious spirit that supposedly prevailed in Cairo during their last war with Israel. An Egyptian media outlet also called on the government to release documents about the war that have been classified up to now, in order to underscore the “great Arab victory” in 1973.

Meanwhile, the Syrian newspaper Tishrin called on the Arab nations to unite “just as they did 35 years ago.” The newspaper also pointed to the ongoing negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights, and reminded readers that “even the prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, said that there would not be peace with Damascus unless all of the land was returned.”

Syria has been in an official state of war with Israel since 1973, as it continues to refuse to sign any kind of armistice deal with its neighbor.

Arab nations are known to regard the Yom Kippur War as a victory against the Zionist aggressor. According to some historians, Egypt, which started the war by attacking Israeli fortifications along the Suez Canal, knew that it would not be able to completely destroy the Jewish state. Rather, Egyptian and Syrian leaders hoped to use the war to awaken Israel to the reality of a much stronger Arab military and to force Israel to negotiate away some of the land it won in the previous 1967 war. 

Within a decade of the 1973 war, Israel indeed gave away the entire Sinai Peninsula, and is currently considering the return of the Golan Heights to Syria. Therefore, according to certain analysts, the Arab nations can indeed claim victory.

According to Army Radio, another Egyptian media source used the opportunity to urge the Egyptian government to release classified documents about the war. Declassifying the documents, the news agency said, would help maintain the "heritage of the great Arab victory."

Student Intimidation

By Ed Ziegler (Commentary)

The quality of education a student receives is difficult to assess. What one learns depends on many factors; the individual’s inherent intelligence; the effort they apply; the overall educational environment and their teachers.

My last article “Muslims Student Associations” (MSA) demonstrated the MSA’s patterns of demands, incidents of disruptions and leanings toward Islamic extremism. With these groups in over 1000 universities in Canada and the United States it is reasonable to assume that there are universities that either condone or ignore their behavior thereby conceding to their demands. The quality of education non-Muslim students receive at these universities may well be impacted by the MSA actions. This article is concerned with the instructors, and therefore, their influence on students.

In October 2006, the Anti-Defamation League reported that Kevin Barrett, a University of Wisconsin instructor, claimed that the U.S. Government is responsible for the 9/11 disasters and that America is equivalent to Nazi Germany. ADL states that Barrett also uses a textbook that equates President George W. Bush with Adolph Hitler and also bashes Israel. This appears to be the professor’s personal bias beyond the scoop of the course.

Hatem Bazian, a professor of Near Eastern Studies and Religious Studies at the University of California Berkeley, is a Palestinian native, which in itself does not cause concern. However his actions clearly lean to the extreme.

As a result of Bazian’s biased and inflammatory remarks at a “cultural assembly” at San Francisco's George Washington High School the administration sent a letter of apology to the public. Bazian’s presentation included a song comparing Zionists to Nazis and had students run around with Palestinian flags. Do you think it possible that Bazian fosters such extreme behavior in his classroom?

Prof. John Esposito of Georgetown University displays his leaning when defending individuals such as Azzam Tamimi, who told a crowd in the UK that dying as a martyr is right. Esposito also defends Esam Omeish M.D., who in a Washington D.C. rally stated, “You have known the Jihad says the way to liberate your land.” Omeidh has also been taped on videos defending radical Islam.

Then you have Prof. Joel Beinin, of Stanford University, an historian who was a keynote speaker at a MSA annual conference. Beinin blames America for 9/11 and bashes Zionism.

Other than sitting in a classroom to get a feeling of potential improper bias by an instructor, you need to talk to the students. This is exactly what the David Project has done. The project has prepared a 40-minute documentary “Columbia Unbecoming.”

“Columbia Unbecoming” shows interviews with 14 Columbia University students and graduates describing their feelings of being subjected to instructor bias on the Arab-–Israeli issue. All of the professors named by students are in Columbia’s Department of Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures (MEALAC.)

One student, a former Israeli soldier, claims Prof. Joseph Massad asked how many Palestinians he killed. In another situation a woman stated that Massad stated, “The Jews are not a nation.  The Jewish state is a racist state and does not have the right to exist.”  To read a transcript of Columbia Unbecoming,” go to http://www.columbiaunbecoming.com/script.htm.

Another student reported that George Saliba, a professor of Arabic and Islamic Science at Columbia University, told her she had no claim to the land of Israel, because—unlike him—she had green eyes, and therefore was “not a Semite.”

We may disagree with someone’s opinion but we should defend his or her right to be heard. However, there needs to be limitations as to what extent instructors may force their personal bias. My opinion is that intimidation and insults should not be allowed.

There are many instances across the country where students have claimed they were subjected to biased intimidation by instructors. You may ask what we can do to correct such injustices.  Well, when you identify an institution, notify them that you will not donate to any environment that allows intimidation by instructors.

Do you want to subject your children to intimidation? Remember. “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good people do nothing.”

Ed Ziegler is a columnist for the Florida Heritage Jewish News and calls for your input at ez14@embarqmail.com

Report: Dutch Thought Anne Frank House 'Not Worth Saving' 

By DPA 

The Dutch government in the 1950s had no objections to tearing down the house where Anne Frank wrote her wartime diary, a newspaper report said on Sunday. The place where the young Jewish girl described life hiding from persecution by the Nazis was not considered worthy of preservation, De Telegraaf said, quoting from a letter written by Joseph Luns, the foreign minister at the time.

Luns said the house where Anne and her family hid from 1942 until her betrayal in 1944 was "not a historical monument of the Netherlands" and unremarkable from an architectural point of view.

The letter, dated May 3, was sent to the Dutch ambassador to the United States, informing him of the official position of the Ministry of Education, Art and Science toward the Anne Frank House. The newspaper said the letter was discovered recently when the part of the ministry's archives was being moved to a new home.

According to the Anne Frank Foundation, it was apparently written in response to questions by Americans as to why the house was not declared a historic building.

Located on Amsterdam's Prinsengracht, the house began attracting its first visitors shortly after the book "Anne Frank ­ The Diary of a Young Girl" was published in 1947. In the mid-1950s, a real estate firm proposed knocking it down to make way for a modern building, but dropped the idea after a series of protests.

The firm signed over the rights to the house in 1957 to the Anne Frank Foundation, which collected donations and turned it into a museum three years later. Since then, it has attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors every year.

Anne Frank was deported to the German concentration camp Bergen-Belsen, where she died in March 1945 at the age of 16 

Jewish Soldier Charges US Army with Discrimination

By IsraelNationalNews.com

An observant Jewish soldier in the U.S. Army was hospitalized for a concussion suffered in a fight with another trainee several days after two drill sergeants forced him to take off his kippah [skullcap] and prohibited him from praying. One of the sergeants also called the soldier "Juden" but the Army denied the incidents were related to anti-Semitism.

The case of the soldier, Private Michael Handman, 20, reached a congressman after he complained of religious discrimination. The army said that an altercation with another trainee several days later that sent Handman to the hospital was unrelated to the treatment by the sergeants at the training base at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Base officers have launched a criminal investigation against the trainee who beat up Handman, and the drill sergeants were reprimanded. The Army ruled the sergeants, including one who had served in Germany, were not guilty of anti-Semitism and simply did not know "what is allowed for religious accommodation within basic training." The sergeants will receive instruction on religious accommodation. 

Monica Manganaro, spokeswoman for the base, said that the fight with the other trainee had no religious basis. She explained that the drill sergeants "would have put a stop to it immediately" if the dispute between the trainees had been based on religious prejudice.

Army policy allows Jewish soldiers to wear a kippah in the dining hall but does not allow them to pray while on guard duty.  Concerning the term Juden, Manganaro explained that the "drill sergeant has lived in Germany and did not know that it is derogatory."

Retired Navy Captain Neil Block told reporters, "These drill sergeants had not set out to be anti-Semitic or discriminatory. They just screwed up, and the Army has dealt with it appropriately."

Lebanese Union to Sue Israel for 'Claiming Ownership' of Falafel 

By DPA 

A new war between Israel and Lebanon has erupted, but this time the war is not geopolitical, but rather an issue of cuisine-who has sovereignty over traditional Arab dishes and sandwiches.

The president of the Lebanese Industrialists Association Fadi Abboud, said he is preparing to file an international lawsuit against Israel for allegedly "taking the identity of some Lebanese foods" and thus violating a food copyright. "In a way the Jewish state is trying to claim ownership of traditional Lebanese delicacies like falafel, tabouleh and hummus" Abboud said.

According to Abboud, the Lebanese are losing "tens of millions of dollars annually" because Israel is selling and marketing traditional Lebanese dishes. "The Israelis are marketing our main food dishes as if they were Israeli dishes," he charged.

"We are working on registering all the foods and ingredients which will be submitted to the Lebanese government so it can appeal to the international courts against Israel," Abboud said. "The Israelis are marketing such Lebanese delicacies under the same names and ingredients around the world," he added. "This is harming and causing great losses to Lebanon."

Abboud said he prepared his memo on the subject, based on the case of the Greek "feta cheese precedent" that occurred six years ago. At the time, Greece managed to prove in international institutions that it was the "originator" of feta cheese and won the case.

According to Abboud, while Lebanon never registered the names and ingredients of its own delicacies, "it can refer to the Greece precedent since these foods are historically known as traditional Lebanese foods. "By doing so, we are preventing Israel from stealing our main food trademarks and selling them around the world," Abboud added 

Israeli Sex Survey

By YnetNews.com

It’s worthwhile being rich, and not just because of the money. The more men earn and the more they are satisfied with their economic situation, the higher their satisfaction with sex, according to a mega survey on men's sexuality published in Israel's leading women's magazine Laisha.

A man's economic situation was also shown to influence women's pleasure: A man in a better financial situation can hold on to sexual intercourse for longer.

But even if you don’t have money, there are additional factors which contribute to an Israeli man's satisfaction with sex: The frequency of sexual intercourse, his sexual openness, the ability to please his partner and the way he feels about his body – in that order.

The survey, conducted by Ynet and the Georcartography Knowledge Group institute, included 10,877 men, making it the most comprehensive survey on sex conducted in Israel thus far.

Most respondents said they were pretty satisfied with their sex life: 60 percent said they were content or very content. Their satisfaction with the size of their sexual organ was even higher, with 80 percent of respondents expressing their content.

Oct. 6, 2008

First for Modern Israel: Imported Etrogs

By IsraelNationalNews.com 

A shipment of 500 etrogs (citrons) arrived in Israel from Italy over the weekend. It marks the first time that Israel has imported citrus fruit of any kind.  

The etrog is one of the four species of fruits used in rituals for the holiday of Succot, which starts the evening of Monday, October 13th. A thousand dunams of land generally provides the million etrogs demanded by the local market, with 300,000 more available for export to Jewish communities around the world, including the United States, Europe and Australia.   

Livni: Seek Peace with Palestinians, Confront Iran

By Robert Berger (VOA-Jerusalem) 

The new leader of Israel's ruling party is vowing to move forward with peace talks with the Palestinians, while confronting Iran. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been nominated to form Israel's next government, has vowed to push for peace with the Palestinians.  

In her first policy speech, Livni said she is committed to negotiations on the creation of a Palestinian state, though she cast doubt on Washington's goal of a peace agreement by the end of the year.  She said dates should not stand in the way of making progress.

 Livni took a much tougher line on Iran, saying Israel and the international community need to confront Tehran and not appease it. She said "all options are on the table," hinting at a possible Israeli pre-emptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. 

With Iran's president threatening to wipe the Jewish state "off the map," Israeli officials have warned time and again that they will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons. 

Iran will top the agenda when Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert visits Moscow this week.  Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Olmert said he would urge Russia not to sell sophisticated weapons to Iran and Syria. "We will remind Russia of matters that trouble us greatly," he said, including "the supply of arms to irresponsible elements." 

Israel is especially concerned that Russia could sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran that could provide a formidable defense against an Israeli attack.   

Report: Palestinians on Alert for Hamas West Bank Takeover

By WorldNetDaily.com  

Security forces associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization are on alert for a possible Hamas takeover of the West Bank, a pan-Arab newspaper reported Sunday. WND two weeks ago quoted security officials stating there was specific information Hamas was planning an eventual West Bank takeover.

Now the London-based daily al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted Fatah security sources stating Hamas may assassinate Fatah officials as part of a larger plan to takeover the West Bank just as it seized control of the Gaza Strip in a violent coup last summer. It also quoted unnamed Hamas members in the West Bank as saying a West Bank takeover is in the works.

Israel is currently negotiating a retreat from the West Bank as part of talks initiated at last November's U.S.-backed Annapolis Summit, which sought to create a Fatah-led Palestinian state before January.

While Al-Sharq al-Awsat quoted unidentified Hamas sources, WND recently conducted an exclusive interview with Mahmoud Al-Zahar, the Hamas chief in Gaza, who said Hamas are the rightful representatives of the Palestinian people and should control the entire West Bank just as they rule the Gaza Strip.

"According to our rights, we are the elected majority, and a majority in a democracy should control all the Palestinian areas, whether in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip. This is not an extraordinary issue," said Al-Zahar, who is considered the second most powerful Hamas leader following the group's overall chief, Khaled Meshaal, who resides in exile in Damascus.

"Do you respect democracy? If you respect democracy, the elections in January '06 indicated Hamas is the majority and it should run the administration in Gaza and the West Bank," said al-Zahar, speaking from Gaza.

Al-Zahar was referring to Palestinian legislative elections in 2006 in which Hamas was victorious by a large margin. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas unilaterally disbanded the Hamas-led Palestinian government after Hamas seized control of Gaza last summer.

The Hamas chief's comments to WND came amid fears in the Israeli intelligence community Hamas eventually may attempt to take over the strategic West Bank just as it seized Gaza, particularly if Israel withdraws from the territory.

In a dramatic statement last month, Olmert declared at a Knesset meeting that "Greater Israel" is over. "Greater Israel is over. There is no such thing. Anyone who talks that way is deluding themselves.”

Greater Israel is a reference to territories captured by Israel during the 1967 Six Day War, including the Gaza Strip, West Bank and eastern sections of Jerusalem.

Security officials in Jerusalem are warning if Israel withdraws, Abbas' forces may not be strong enough to contend with controlling the West Bank without the aid of the Israel Defense Forces.

Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's Shin Bet Security Services, estimated during a Knesset meeting last November that if control of the West Bank were handed over to Abbas, Israel would suffer a "significant threat to its security."

Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, admitted to WND they would have trouble controlling the West Bank without Israeli intervention. According to the officials, Fatah's intelligence apparatus routinely hands the IDF lists of Hamas terrorists that threaten Fatah rule, requesting that Israel make arrests, although Fatah has been stepping up direct arrests of Hamas gunmen in recent weeks.

Perhaps foreshadowing coming tensions, Hamas' so-called military wing Saturday urged its gunmen in the West Bank to use force if security men loyal to Fatah try to arrest them.

Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian security officials told WND they have specific information Hamas is quietly setting the stages for a possible West Bank takeover attempt. The officials said that among other things, Hamas has been acquiring weaponry in the West Bank and has set up a sophisticated system of communication between cells for a seizure attempt.

In what is considered the most threatening Hamas move, according to the officials, the terror group is thought to have heavily infiltrated major Fatah forces in the West Bank and has been attempting to buy off Fatah militia members, many times successfully.

The issue of Hamas infiltration of Fatah was thought to have been the Achilles heel that led to the terror group's takeover last summer of the entire Gaza Strip, including dozens of major, U.S.-backed Fatah security compounds there. Hamas' seizure is thought to be a partial consequence of Israel evacuating Gaza in 2005.

Hamas' infiltration of Fatah was so extensive, according to top Palestinian intelligence sources speaking to WND; it included the chiefs of several prominent Fatah security forces, including Yussef Issa, director of the Preventative Security Services, the main Fatah police force. Issa regularly coordinated security with the U.S. and Israel.

In a bid to strengthen Fatah, the U.S. has been providing the group's militias with weapons, financial aid and advanced training conducted an American-run bases in the West Bank and Jordan. But WND previously reported the U.S.-trained security forces have been failing at basic anti-terror missions.

Israeli Jews Would Rather Live in the Jewish State

By IsraelNationalNews.com

A new poll shows that the benefits of living in Israel far outweigh the threat of Palestinian Authority terrorism, economic hardship and political uncertainty for the vast majority of Israelis.

The results were published Sunday in the 2008 Survey of Patriotism conducted among Israeli Jews by the Institute for Policy and Strategy at the Interdisciplinary Center of Herzliya (IDC).

According to the survey, 92 percent of the respondents answered affirmatively to the question as to whether they would actively engage in a military battle for Israel. The same number expressed pride in their Jewishness.

Ninety percent characterized themselves as "patriotic," and 85 percent said they were opposed to dividing Jerusalem in order to gain peace with the Palestinian Authority.

Eighty-three percent of those who answered the survey supported raising the Israeli flag on Independence Day – and a higher number, 90 percent, expressed outrage when people act "contemptuously" during the sounding of the siren on Memorial Day.

An overwhelming majority of Israel's Jews also prefer to live in the Jewish State than anywhere else: 87 percent said they would rather be Israeli citizens than citizens of any other country.

Even the threat of a nuclear attack by Iran did not dissuade Israeli Jews from living in the Jewish State; 86 percent said they would rather live in Israel, even in the event that Iran succeeds in attaining a nuclear weapon of mass destruction. Israeli and U.S. officials fear precisely such a scenario: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to wipe the State of Israel "off the map."

Dueling Jewish Comedians on US Vote

By IsraelNationalNews.com

Classic respected Jewish comedian Jackie Mason has joined the video vote-canvassing fracas. "Hip" Jewish comedienne Sarah Silverman started it. In a four minute video she entreats young Democratic Jews to "Shlep yourselves over to Florida to [get your grandparents to] vote [for U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama]."

Mason bristles that Silverman accuses people of bigotry if they don't vote for Obama. "You're not a bigot, and don't let her convince you that you are. She's a sick yenta for mentioning it."

But Mason's not wholeheartedly endorsing McCain. "Don't vote for McCain because I told you to… vote for the man who you think is best for this country."

Watch Mason's response video on the Republican Jewish Coalition (R.J.C.) website by clicking http://tinyurl.com/4ms6ja. Watch Silverman's original video http://tinyurl.com/4f9msr

DNC Silencing Lawsuit Over Obama’s Birth Certificate

By WorldNetDaily.com

The man suing Sen. Barack Obama and the Democratic National Committee for proof of Obama's American citizenship is outraged that his own party – rather than just providing the birth certificate he seeks – would step in to silence him by filing a motion to dismiss his lawsuit.

As WND reported, prominent Pennsylvania Democrat and attorney Philip J. Berg filed suit in U.S. District Court two months ago claiming Obama is not a natural-born U.S. citizen and therefore not eligible to be elected president. Berg has since challenged Obama publicly that if the candidate will simply produce authorized proof of citizenship, he'll drop the suit.

Berg told WND the longer the DNC tries to ignore his lawsuit or make it go away – instead of just providing the documents – the more convinced he is that his accusations are correct.

Despite assertions by the Washington Post, FactChecker.org and other organizations that Obama has produced a certified Hawaiian birth certificate, Berg told WND he remains "99.99 percent sure" that the certificate is a fake and he wants a court, not a website, to determine its validity.

Earlier last week, lawyers for Obama and the DNC filed a joint motion to dismiss Berg's lawsuit. The fact that the DNC joined in the dismissal request has Berg fuming, believing his party's leaders have ignored his pleas for proof in order to favor their chosen candidate over a rank-and-file constituent.

"I think it's outrageous," Berg said. "The Democratic National Committee should be ensuring the Democratic Party and the public that they have a qualified candidate up there. To file a joint motion is like they're in cahoots.

Obama's web site counters Berg's claims with links to articles that affirm the validity of his citizenship and an image of a Hawaiian birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, born in Honolulu, Aug. 4, 1961. The webpage is part of the Obama campaign website's "Fight the Smears" section, an effort to prevent reports that Obama claims are false from disseminating as damaging rumors.

When asked what he would do if the DNC succeeded in getting his case dismissed, Berg said he would "immediately file an appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and if we don't get a fair ruling there, immediately to the U.S. Supreme Court."

"We're dealing with the U.S. Constitution and it must be followed," Berg explained. "I want the Constitution enforced; that's my main reason for doing this. The real outrage is that there's nothing in our system that provides that a candidate must provide that his qualifications are true and correct before he or she runs, and that safeguard should be put into our system by law," Berg said.

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