Waiting for the Paper

This morning, as I wait for my McNews, I checked a few Israeli paper websites. Israel, with a total population less than New York City, has 22 daily papers. With a literacy rate of almost 100%, and three opinions for each two people, the thirst for news never ends. The average Israeli reads at least two papers a day. In addition to Hebrew, papers are produced in Arabic, English and Russian. The oldest existing daily dates from 1918, the largest from 1939. My favorite is the Jerusalem Post, which was founded in 1932. It's a smaller hard copy paper, with a domestic circulation of 30,000.

Tipping the Whipper

When you're being beaten up or whipped, are you suppose to give your abuser a tip? Taxpayers in Northampton County opposed to the sale of Gracedale just tipped the whipper. Morning Call reporter Jenna Portnoy today outlines how the law firm hired by Northampton Executive Stoffa was paid over ten thousand dollars for research used by Bernie O'Hare in his unsuccessful suit against the petitions. Stoffa claims was the research was done by the firm Eckert Seamans in case he decided to challenge the petitions. O'Hare claims that he did all his own research. Records indicate at least one phone conversation between O'Hare and the law firm, and language used by O'Hare mirrors that included in the firm's invoice. It appears to me that Stoffa's credibility has been stretched very thin by this whole Gracedale issue. First he has reneged on statements made to the Save Gracedale group about accepting their petition, and at the very least material used in the O'Hare/Angle appeal was supported by a law firm at taxpayer expense.

UPDATE: One thing about Bernie O'Hare, he's predictable. Ask too good of a question, and he usually responds that you're attacking his integrity. Such is the case currently. Responding to today's Morning Call article, he accuses John Cusick of such an attack. Bernie ignores the fact that the Eckert Seamans bill for over 80 hours, or close to $11,000, scrutinizing the petition signatures, was only used by him and Angle, and not the county. Also ignored is a question in the comment section of this post. May the taxpayers expect to be billed for any more hours involving your most recent appeal brief? My questions are asked here, because they are barred from O'Hare's blog, and this blog has been removed from his sidebar blogroll.

No Jews of Libya

Despite having settled there hundreds of years before Christ, there are no Jews in Libya.

I left Libya more than 42 years ago when the mobs were roaming the streets. They were not chanting for democracy or yearning for freedom — they were looking for  Jews.           

                                      Gina Waldman.

This community, that goes back 2,500 years, has obliterated their oldest minority...They drink anti-semitism with their mother's milk.

                                                    Gina Zanzur
After the creation of Israel in 1948, anti-Jewish riots and killings forced 30,000 Jews to flee. After the 1967 Israeli war, the remaining 6,000 were expelled, each allowed one suitcase and $20.
historic photo of the Jewish Quarter in Tripoli

Israeli Victim

Yesterday there was a service at a local mosque in protest to the hearing in Washington on the radicalization of Muslims. A local rabbi attended and symbolically declared himself a Muslim in solidarity. Also yesterday, Rabbi Udi Fogel, his wife, two children and their new infant were stabbed to death by terrorists, as they slept in the West Bank settlement of Itamar. Candy and sweets were handed out in Gaza in celebration of the massacre. Tomorrow the family will be buried. Will a Muslim cleric symbolically declare himself a Jew?

Open Letter to Charlie Dent

Mr. Congressman, I was surprised to learn today that Mohamed Bugaighis was Libyan. In all the letters, in all the years, to The Morning Call criticizing Israel, I assumed that he was Palestinian. Today he is quoted as saying People have reached the end of their patience. LIfe isn't worth living under dictatorship. Gadhafi has been a dictator all these years that Bugaighis has been bashing Israel, the area's only democracy. Why hasn't his indignation been directed at his own country of origin, instead of Israel? I am disappointed that you have chosen to give Bugaighis a showcase for his double standard. Your constituent (and supporter) Michael Molovinsky
UPDATE: Mohamed Bugaighis does in fact have a long record of being an opponent of Gadhafi. My familiarity with him was dominated by his relentless attacks on Israel in The Morning Call.

The Lemon Trees of Oxnard

In the summer of 1964, I got on a bus in Allentown headed for Oxnard, California, where I planned to work in the lemon orchards. I had with me a Give the kid a job letter from the boss of the Trexler Orchard in Orefield. The boss in Oxnard also owned a car wash, and I ended up working there. During WW2, homeowners in Oxnard were encouraged to build cottages for extra GI housing. I rented a small one room cottage at the far end of a back yard. The bathroom was added on to the backporch of the house. Every day I would walk to the square in Oxnard, and catch the bus to the carwash. In early August I was rescued by Sonny Huthmaker, whose family had moved from Lehigh Parkway to Hawthorne, California years earlier. Sonny was five years older. He and his friends were into body building, custom cars and gate crashing. They would attend events all over the Los Angeles area, and their sport was to sneak in without paying. Sonny would end up being a celebrity photographer and journalist in LA, and wrote a book on gate crashing*. I stayed at his house for two weeks, and the Beatles was one of the concerts we crashed. Upon returning to Allentown, the Beatles, on the same tour, were playing Atlantic City. Employing my newly learned crashing skills, I attended my second Beatle concert within a week. I don't know if they really sang or not, that's how loud the girls screamed, on both coasts.

* The Gate Crashers by Ken Huthmaker, which reveals the secrets of the society of the uninvited