Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 12, 2022

Thirty years after the establishment of formal diplomatic relations, ten years after the Arab Spring that marginalised the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, five years after Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to Israel, and two years after The Abraham Accords, the fact that relations between Israel and India have been fundamentally transformed is no longer open to debate. Or is it? Apparently, there is still someone, not just anyone, but a former Indian ambassador to several West Asian countries who thinks that India wants an affair, and not a serious relationship with Israel.

In his new book West Asia at War: Repression, Resistance and Great Power Games, former IFS officer Talmiz Ahmad quotes from a half-decade-old article by Israeli researcher Dr Oshrit Birvadker to tell his readers that, in fact, nothing substantial has changed in Israel-India relations. Everything is just a fleeting affair.

Until the disintegration of the Soviet bloc, India had a pro-Arab policy and a strong commitment to the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ethos. In 1992, India and Israel established full diplomatic relations, but India preferred not to disclose the full cooperation between the countries till 2014. India had historically supported virtually all United Nations resolutions favouring Palestinians.

Merely two years before Modi came to power, India co-sponsored and voted in favour of the UNGA Resolution that enabled Palestine to become a Non-Member Observer State at the UN. Symbolically, the vote was on 29 November, the same date the UN General Assembly voted 65 years earlier in favour of the partition plan of Mandatory Palestine. A total of 13 states voted against the partition plan, ten of which were Muslim states. India was one of the few non-Muslim countries that voted against Resolution 181.

Also Read: Virtual summit of I2U2 set to take place on Thursday

On the day that Talmiz Ahmads article was published in ThePrint, we were at a special event at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Jerusalem. The Foreign Ministry hosted a delegation of 90 entrepreneurs and investors from Indias JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation. A number of diplomats, academics and business figures presented a broad picture of Israel-India relations.

The wide spectrum of issues in which India and Israel are cooperating surprised us, even as Israeli writers with a unique interest in India. But not only presentations, deals, and statistics were presented at the event. One of the speakers narrated the experiences of Israeli diplomats when they come to serve at our embassy in New Delhi. The Indian love for Israel cannot be compared to any European country. Indias deep appreciation for the State does not depend on one government or another, it is alive and kicking among the bureaucracy, various influencers and the general public.

Although this was a private delegation of entrepreneurs, which Israel is accustomed to, the Foreign Ministry did everything to embrace it, including having the house chef prepare an elaborate vegetarian buffet that included dishes from the Jain kitchen.

Naor Gilon, Ambassador of Israel to India, Sri Lanka and Bhutan, spoke with the delegation about the tremendous achievements of India and Israel in agricultural cooperation, citing examples of fields that have tripled or quadrupled their yield since adopting Israeli technologies. He told them about how there are more Indian students in Israel than from any other foreign country, most doing advanced degrees in STEM. He also devoted time to the intellectual property challenge in the Make in India programme, which is well known to Israeli Indian entrepreneurs who want to collaborate in business ventures.

Kobi Shoshani, Consul General of Israel in Mumbai, was praised time and again for his proactive role in promoting the JITO delegations visit. Along with the formal discourse on the decision to sign a free Indo-Israeli trade agreement, there was also an informal discussion on the chemistry between Indians and Israelis in the fields of diplomacy, science, tourism, agriculture, and of course security.

Siddharth Jain, chairperson of the JITO, told Israeli Foreign Ministry officials about their falling in love with Israel. One can be cynical towards businesspeople, wherever they are, but the members of the Indian delegation spoke wholeheartedly. It was crystal clear, and it remained that way as we toured the Old City of Jerusalem after the event was over.

But our goal is not to convince an Indian diplomat that he is wrong about the sentiment, that his chapter on Israel is shoddy, lazy, and at times exotically of touch with present-day reality, that Narendra Modis historic visit to Israel cannot really be compared to the minor visit to the Palestinian Authorityone that has been described as A Strategy of Tokenism.

Also Read:Israeli PM, Turkish president speak on phone, hope for better ties

Our goal is to examine how it came about that a man without a diplomatic background like Prime Minister Modi, understood West Asia better than a veteran Indian diplomat for whom WANA (Western Asia-North Africa) was a second home.

It is paradoxical that a politician who has been shunned by the West for more than a decade understood better than his diplomats that he could come to visit Israel, show open affection for its right-wing prime minister, violate a long tradition of anti-Israel votes in international institutionsand still not be published by Gulf states and Saudi Arabia for it. Not one Indian worker was going to be deported from Dubai or Bahrain because the Indian prime minister had decided to show his love for the Jewish state, no sudden UN resolution was to be suggested vis-a-vis Kashmir.

Today, we are in the era of alliances such as the I2U2 West Asian Quad in the Middle East and it is clear that Israels relations with the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, whose relations with Israel remain intentionally unofficial as of yet, are better than the Sunni blocs relations with the Palestinians, which are at an all-time low. Relations between Israel and Egypt are also perhaps the best since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979. Even a delegation from Pakistan was seen here, with PTV newscaster Ahmad Qureishi giving an interview to Kan 11 national television, praising David Ben-Gurion as a state builder. It seems to have gotten him suspended back home, but he retaliated by giving Kan 11 another Zoom interview, declaring that he has no remorse.

But Narendra Modi dramatically changed Indias policy toward Israel when the tip of the iceberg of the Sunni-Israeli alliance was much smaller than what we are witnessing now.

Also Read:Israel sees 12-month budget surplus for 1st time since 2007

On a broader level, Talmiz Ahmad is not only an individual, but a manifestation of a mindset: Inherent suspicion of the Western world, unconditional forgiveness of the failures and crimes of secular dictatorships in the Middle East, demonisation of Israel and the Jews as those who magically control American policy and power projection, and a willful blindness to the established admiration in the Arab world for Israels achievements, even at the price of aligning with some of the most destructive and retrograde forces in the entire Muslim world.

Ahmad cannot point to a single prominent cooperation India has with the Palestinian authority, its businessmen or universities, for the good of Indian citizens. What will Indian diplomacy have to show from decades more of alliance with the Palestinians that can compare to what was accomplished with Israel in 2022 alone? Perhaps Mr Ahmad should also do a comparative analysis of any texts about India across the border in Pakistan Studies classes to any text taught about Jews and Israel in Palestinian schools, and tell the readers which is more shockingly violent. Is that the future he envisions?

When outdated ideologies of the most impractical kind combine with nasty prejudices to shape a diplomats worldview, he has no real chance of doing his professional job and dispense wise and actionable advice to the political echelon.

After reading the strange analysis of Israeli-Indian relations, we were curious and turned to Dr Oshrit Birvadker to check if she still thinks Israel-India relations are just an affair. No, she said immediately. Her article was published before The Abraham Accords, which at last removed any lingering Indian dilemma of having to choose sides between Israel and the Arab world. Sardonically, she drew our attention to the fact that even her name was misspelt by Talmiz Ahmad.

Maybe in this book, this is actually a blessing.

Lev Aran is a former coordinator of the Israel-India Parliamentary Friendship League and an Israel-based freelance columnist and journalist. Yeshaya Rosenman is a freelance journalist and student of Indian Studies and Islamic Studies at Hebrew University. Views are personal.

(Edited by Srinjoy Dey)

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Ex-IFS officer Talmiz Ahmad is living in the past. India-Israel ties are at an all-time high - ThePrint

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Posted By admin on July 12, 2022

The judiciary in Israel, for a third time in four years, has considered whether value had been taken overseas in the changed business functioning of a local company after an international group acquired it, and whether tax was due. A sigh of relief came from the finance teams of many a multinational group, active in Israel, when the Tel-Aviv District Court published its decision in the Medingo case on May 8.

Since the early 1960s, Israel has encouraged the growth of industry to increase national product, offering support ranging from monetary grants to tax benefits for innovative enterprises.

Israels tax authority started to ramp up their efforts to patrol the fiscal borders in 2010 to catch the flight of technology from Israel-based tech companies acquired by multinational groups. The ITA would, during the next 12 years, insist on hefty assessments and claimsometimes even frivolouslythat assets had been extracted covertly from Israel right after a foreign takeover. Tax bills were issued on the basis that the value of the intangibles the ITA claimed had been smuggled out must be equal, or at least close, to the amount paid for the shares in the takeover. A substantial 2017 court win by the ITA caused serious unrest within the tax management of international groups that had substantially bought into Israel.

Shortly after the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Developments 2010 publication on cross-border value transfers in changes in business models, the ITA issued an internal decree relating to post-merger escape of value, explaining for its tax assessors the tell-tale signs of this phenomenon.

These matters were at the heart of some high-profile disputes, among which was the Giteck case in June 2017. After Microsoft Corp. purchased Giteck in 2006 for $90 million, Giteck in 2007 reported the sale of its IP to a foreign group company for $26 million, after the companys staff had been transferred. The tax authorities argued that the value of the IP transferred was equal to the $90 million paid for Gitecks shares. The court rejected Gitecks explanations that Microsoft had paid a premium for the integration advantage and synergy benefits, ensuring full control. The district court ruled in favor of the ITA and agreed that compensation for the IP could not have been less than the amount that had been paid for the shares (with some room for downward adjustment) in 2006.

On a winning streak, the ITA hastened to publish Circular 2018/15 laying out the tell-tale signs of intangible exports to related parties by post-acquisition changes in intergroup functioning. In that circular, the ITA based its views on Chapter IX of the OECDs Transfer Pricing Guidelines regarding cross-border reorganizations. Tax assessors were sent checklists of what to look out for, and recently acquired companies knew to expect a change of business model tax audit within one to two years.

Many multinational enterprises invested in Israels high-tech sector were left wondering how they could manageif at allthe particular tax risk resulting from these developments in relation to their Israeli acquisitions. Since 2010, foreign conglomerates would wrestle to prevent the expression in their consolidated financials of substantial, unpredictable, tax risk in their Israel acquisitions. Public companies subject to securities law and financial reporting rules would have to disclose tax risks that the ITAs position could create and the disclosure of which could impact investor relationships or, on the other hand, even alert the Israel tax authorities. They were damned if they did and damned if they didnt.

Finally, initial relief arrived with the 2019 decision in Broadcom (Case 2454/19). In this case, the Dune company had produced and marketed components for broadband communications since its inception. After the Broadcom Group bought Dune for $185 million, Broadcom obtained the required permissions from Israels innovation authority to take the government funded IP overseas, and paid the regulatory penalties to allow the export of Dunes IP. Later on, however, Broadcom decided not to take the IP abroad. Instead, Dune would provide research and development services and would give Broadcom the right to use its IP for a royalty of around 14%. This had all been set out in detailed agreements and reported accordingly.

The ITA believed the nature of Dunes business had changed from an independent enterprise to a mere service provider and, therefore, it must have waived the rights to its original business and allowed its IP out. The tax assessment was set on close to 150 million Israeli shekels ($44 million).

In its decision, the court asserted that the use of the term changes in business models is not a magic wand. There would not necessarily be a tax relevant change of business model just because the tax assessor argued that there was oneespecially when a company remained active, continued to hold assets, and ran risk. Also, the fact that risk on the company had been reduced, to a certain extent, did not support a claim that assets had been transferred. The court also rejected the ITAs claim of artificiality, and prevented a shift of the burden of proof to Broadcom.

It should be noted that the court that put the taxpayer in the right this time around was the same court that had dealt with the Giteck case.

However, great concern continued to guide multinational enterprises in relation to their Israeli acquisitions, as the ITA persisted in keeping many similar cases pending for objection or appeal.

So now, the outcome of the Medingo case in May 2022 has boosted foreign investors confidence in Israels tax transparency, and proved that the positive Broadcom decision had not been an isolated incident.

In 2010, the Roche pharmaceutical group paid $160 million for Medingo, which owned the technology to a wireless insulin pump. Medingos activities were integrated into the Roche group by it providing R&D and support, such as marketing, administration, and technological services, as well as manufacturing and packaging for Roche. Roche also received a license to Medingos IP allowing development, production, and commercialization for a 2% royalty. All of this was set out in signed agreements.

The number of Medingos employees initially increased after 2010, as did its turnover. However, Medingo then experienced economic hardship and was heavily over-financed by Roche. Early in 2012, it announced it would cease operations by the end of 2013 and, in November 2013, Roche bought the IP out of Israel for $46 million.

The ITA was convinced that all post-acquisition transactions were part of a long-term intentional process conceived right after the takeoverto move Medingos IP out of Israel at a discount. The tax assessments the ITA issued were again based on the $160 million acquisition price, as in the case of Giteck. Medingo had no choice but to appeal; a company losing money is unable, in most cases, to pay tax on income never earned, and definitely not 145 million Israeli shekels in tax.

The court decided that the constellation of facts and agreements did not actually imply a transfer of value right after the acquisition, as Medingo had remained active after its takeover. The fact that important management decisions came from the Roche group did not change that. Also, the rights of Roche to the outcome of Medingos continued R&D work did not change the views of the judge Yardena Sarousy, a former senior tax policymaker with Israels Ministry of Finance.

The court disagreed with the ITA that the new IP resulting from Medingos R&D work could not be distinguished from the original IP, because new patents had been registered in Roches name after 2010. Medingos original IP had not left, the court said, because the license given had been for a limited period and reminded the tax assessor that a license agreement is not by definition suspicious. As opposed to Giteck, Medingo had not been relieved from economic risk: when the sale of products based on its IP failedwhich is indeed what happenedMedingos existence was at risk. The court then referred, in its turn, to the same OECD Transfer Pricing Guidelines the ITA quotes, that characterization of transactions can only differ from written agreements between the parties in rare cases: only when agreements are fundamentally unfounded or lack an arms length price.

The post-acquisition intercompany model had actually increased the companys chances for economic survival. Substantial (over-)financing by Roche of the local company, by way of loans, merely testifies to the obvious uncertainty of most large high-tech acquisitions. Until the IP will have, maybe, one day proven itself commercially, there is no certainty. Had the company rejected a clearly more attractive (intercompany) model, as the OECD Guidelines say, then recharacterization of relationships may be appropriate. At the most in the case at hand, explained the court, the ITA could have challenged the pricing of the actual transactions. And even if assets, functions or risks had been transferred, opined the court, that had not happened right after the 2010 acquisition, as claimed by the ITA, but only on the date of a real (contractual) transfer.

The Medingo case confirms that precise and careful post-acquisition integration of the activities and capabilities of an Israeli tech company should not automatically result in claims by the tax authorities pertaining to an extraction of value. When prudently guided and secured, including inter-group contracts and transfer pricing guidance, foreign investors can secure the time needed to work on the integration and discover whether the technological product in the acquisition can succeed.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., the publisher of Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Tax, or its owners.

Henriette Fuchs is international tax partner at Yaron-Eldar, Paller, Schwartz & Co in Tel Aviv.

The author may be contacted at: fuchsh@yetax.co.il

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Increased Tax Certainty for Multinational Investors in Israel - Bloomberg Tax

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Posted By admin on July 12, 2022

The State of Israel might only be 74 years old, but the Land of Israel contains thousands of years worth of history inside it. Every year, archaeologists working at digs around the country discover ancient sites and artifacts that help us better understand the rich history of both the land and its inhabitants.

The following is a list of the top 10 archaeological discoveries from June 2021 until today:

1. Mosaic Depicting Deborah and Yael Defeating Canaanite King Sisera

Discovered at the site of a 5th-century synagogue in the Galilean town of Huqoq, this mosaic portrays the Biblical account of the defeat of the Canaanite king Sisera at the hands of the prophetess Deborah, the military leader Barak, and the ancient heroine Yael.

Unearthed by a team led by UNC Chapel Hill professor Jodi Magness, this is the latest mosaic to be discovered at the ancient synagogue site. Previously discovered mosaics include depictions of Jonah and the whale, the Israelite spies in Canaan, Noahs Arc, and the parting of the Red Sea. According to Magness, these mosaics attest to a rich visual culture as well as to the dynamism and diversity of Judaism in the late Roman and Byzantine periods.

2. Remains of a Medieval Mosque Found in the Northern Negev Desert

While excavating in the northern Negev Bedouin city of Rahat, Israeli archaeologists uncovered a Byzantine-era farmhouse near a group of estate buildings that included a mosque. The 1,200-year-old rural mosque, which featured a wall facing Mecca, was large enough to hold up to dozens of Muslim worshipers.

Archaeologists point to this site as proof of the shifting demographics of the Negev region that accompanied the Arab conquest of the region, with the largely Christian population being slowly replaced by Muslims arriving from the Arabian Peninsula.

3. 2,000-Year-Old Hasmonean Aqueduct in Southern Jerusalem

In Jerusalems Armon Hanetziv neighborhood, Israeli archaeologists excavated a 40-meter-long segment of a 21-kilometer Hasmonean aqueduct that was used to bring water from the Solomons Pools area near Bethlehem to the Temple Mount. Built around 100 BCE, this aqueduct was in use for almost 2,000 years, until the advent of the electrical water pump at the beginning of the British Mandate.

Operated throughout the history of Jerusalem, this aqueduct was defined by one Israeli archaeologist as a real historical monument of the city.

4. Intact 5,000-Year-Old Jug From the Qumran Region

An American-Israeli hiking with a friend in the Qumran region, near the Dead Sea,discovered a fully intact clay jug in March 2022. The 5,000-year-old jug was uncovered in a cave in the area known to contain a wide variety of ancient Jewish artifacts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls.

According to Israeli archaeologists, the discovery of a complete vessel from the Early Bronze Age is extremely rare, and this may be the first find of its kind in the area.

5. Remains of a First Temple-Era Wall in the City of David

Israeli archaeologists unearthed the remains of a defensive wall along the eastern slope of the City of David. Connecting two previously-discovered wall remnants, this wall is believed to have successfully withstood various assaults on Jerusalem during the First Temple era, before the Babylonians were finally able to breach it and sack the holy city.

This discovery helped confirm for archaeologists that previous findings in the same area do indeed date back to the First Temple period.

6. Evidence of Beer Production in the Land of Israel 7,000 Years Ago

A recent discovery by a team of Israeli and American archaeologists has found that the inhabitants of the Land of Israel have been producing beer for thousands of years. Two clay strainers one from the upper Galilee and one from the Jordan Valley were analyzed by experts and determined to have been used to produce beer 7,000 years ago.

According to archaeologists working on the project, the consumption of beer during this time period is evidence of humanitys development of complex social relations.

7. Rebel Coin Unearthed by 11-Year-Old May Have Been Minted on the Temple Mount

During a trip to the City of David national park just outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, an 11-year-old Israeli girl discovered a silver coin dating back 2,000 years. The coin is engraved on one side with the image of a cup along with the words second year, and features on the other side an engraving of the headquarters of the High Priest along with the words Holy Jerusalem written in an ancient Hebrew script.

The coin, which dates back to the Great Rebellion against the Roman Empire between the years of 66 and 70 CE, is thought to have been minted on the Temple Mount by priests who were sympathetic to the rebels cause.

8. Dig at Yavne Unveils What Life Was Like in Rabbinic Center 2,000 Years Ago

An excavation project by Israeli archaeologists at the historic site of Yavne uncovered the home of a religious family, as evidenced by the discovery of vessels used to maintain ritual purity. An even more important discovery was located mere meters from this house: a cemetery. Experts believe the cemetery is a Jewish one and may hold the remains of important rabbinic figures from the end of the Second Temple period.

After the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE, Yavne became the center of Jewish life until the Bar Kochba revolt 60 years later.

9. Clay Fragment May Be Connected to the Biblical Judge Gideon

A fragment of a jug unearthed in the Judean foothills in 2019 was recently discovered to have been inscribed with the Hebrew name Yerubaal. According to experts, the name Yerubaal is used in the Bible as a nickname for the judge Gideon, who led 300 Israelite warriors to victory against the Midianites, as detailed in the Book of Judges.

While Israeli archaeologists have dated the potsherd to the same time period that the Biblical Gideon would have lived, they are unsure if this fragment is related to him or another Yerubaal, since it was found some distance away from where he is believed to have lived.

Either way, this pottery fragment is also useful in tracking the development of writing systems in the Land of Israel 3,000 years ago.

10. Archaeologists Discover Evidence of Biblical Earthquake in Jerusalem

Archaeologists working at the City of David in Jerusalem exposed the remnants of an 8th century BCE structure that seems to have been destroyed through a natural occurrence, most likely an earthquake.

According to experts, this is the first time incontrovertible evidence has been found for earthquakes that are referenced in the Biblical books of Amos, Isaiah, and Zechariah. Aside from confirming the Biblical narrative, this discovery is also useful for archaeologists in dating finds located around the same area.

While there are continuous efforts to undermine the connection of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel, the consistent discovery of ancient Jewish artifacts and sites in Israel not only helps to strengthen the historic ties of the Jewish people to their land, but also helps to enlighten both scholars and laypeople as to the development of the Jewish community within the region over the past 3,000 years.

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New Archaeological Discoveries Confirm Ancient Connection of Israel to the Jewish People - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 12, 2022

Israel is the primary source of instability in West Asia, says Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, warning that the regime in Tel Aviv, while enjoying full support from the United States, is behind the growth of organized terrorism in the region.

Nasser Kanani made the remarks on Monday night, reacting to an opinion piece pennedby US President Joe Biden and published on the Washington Post daily newspaper on Saturday.

The Zionist regime is the main source of instability and a majordriver of the spread of organized terrorism in the region. The full support of America for the regime is the compelling reason that invalidates the US governments claims of pacifism, the Iranian diplomat stated.

Kanani dismissed Bidens claim to create a stable and secure Middle East, saying it was consistent with his insistence on maintaining his predecessors maximum pressure campaign against the Islamic Republic.

A safer and more stable region, he went on, can only materialize if the US ends its policy of sowing divisions among regional countries, stops the flow of weapons to the region, respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of other states, abandons the policy of unconditional support for Israel, and puts an end to its policy of Iranophobia.

He underlined that the US remains responsible for the instability in West Asia as long as such wrong and crisis-making policies are not rectified.

The spokesman also scoffed at Bidens empty boast of annihilating Daeshterrorist group and combating terrorism in the region.

The statements of former US president Donald Trump and his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo regarding the origin of Daesh contradict Bidens claims, he retorted.

Kanani argued that the cowardly assassination of Irans topanti-terrorcommander Lieutenant GeneralQassem Soleimani was the greatest contribution the United States has made to Daesh and other Takfiri terror groups.

The Iranian diplomat also called Bidens opinion piece a one-sided and unrealistic narrative of the US governments policies in West Asia.

He urged American statesmen to better understand the new realities of the world, discard their unilateralist approach, and allow regional countries to act on the basis of their collective values, interests, and realities to ensure regional security.

Bidenwill be touring the Middle East from July 13 to 16, stopping off in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories before heading to Saudi Arabia.

In his article published in the opinion section of the Washington Post, the Democratic US president claimed that his foreign policy had made the Middle East more stable and secure in comparison with the era of his Republican predecessor.

He also put out a defense of his much-criticized visit to Saudi Arabia, saying he planned to reorient relations with the oil-rich kingdom.

Biden is expected to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the countrys de facto leader, who is believed to have been behind the 2018 murder of theWashington PostjournalistJamal Khashoggi in Istanbul.

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Israel to blame for regional instability, growth of 'organized terrorism': Iran - Press TV

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Posted By admin on July 12, 2022

Colorado native Zoe Martin, 16, is taking the lacrosse world by storm. In May, Martin led Colorado Academy to their seventh straight state title and was named the Colorado 5A Player of the Year.

"I love carrying on the tradition and keeping that streak alive is awesome," said Martin of her state title victory.

This summer, Martin played for Team Israel in the Women's Lacrosse World Championship and made history by becoming the youngest player to make the senior team.

"She's the only high school player that we have, but her speed stood out. Her aggressiveness was something that we were looking for," said Team Israel head coach Shelly Brezicki.

Martin didn't set out to make history. In fact, she didn't even set out to make the team.

"I reached out to one of the captains of the team, not knowing she was a captain," Martin recalled. "I was hoping their was a U-18 team or a U-21 team that I could try out for."

Martin showed up for a try out not knowing it was for the senior team. "I didn't know until I walked up and was with all of these 28 year-olds who were out of college, in college, playing D-1. I was like, 'Wow, this is not where I should be.' They were all super welcoming, but I was like, 'they're so good, and I'm 15.'"

But Martin impressed the coaches earning her a spot on the team, and she quickly proved that she belonged. During the World Championships, Martin scored 14 goals in eight games, third most for Team Israel.

Martin is hoping that her experience at the World Championship will improve her game.

"I haven't been to Israel yet, and this is my first connection. Representing my family, and my grandparents, and all my ancestors that have come from Israel is exciting."

"What we try to bring to Israel lacrosse is a connection to culture, to religion, and to the country of Israel," added Brezicki. "I hope this builds a desire to grow deeper into her culture This is more than just lacrosse for us."

Michael Spencer began working at CBS4 in June of 2016. His first assignment was going to the White House to cover the Super Bowl 50 Champion Denver Broncos when they met with President Obama.

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Colorado's Zoe Martin builds on lacrosse success with Team Israel - CBS Colardo

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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

A dark night. A moving trains headlights bounce off the thick veil of fog hanging over the tracks, seemingly impenetrable. Its a lumbering monstrosity of a freight train, chugging along, spitting grey smoke, its wagon doors barred and bolted from the outside. A luridly-lit high gateway looms, topped by barbed-wire mesh, with two rows of barbed-wire fences backing away at right angles to the gate. The train pulls up near the gate, car doors are thrown open, the prisoners tumble out, dazed, squinting from the light after three lightless days packed like sardines inside wagons that stank of the sweat of unwashed bodies, urine, human faeces. Leashed guard-dogs snarl at them, sentries, their rifles at the ready, bark orders to keep moving, and the prisoners eyes open wide in terror as they light on the hell-gates of Auschwitz.

Is this where the world ends?

I had reached Alain Resnaiss Nuit et Brouillard (Night and Fog,1956) quite by accident, after having recently emerged from a viewing of Claude Lanzmanns monumental Shoah (1985), bruised and drained. It had taken me no fewer than four sittings to plod through Shoahs nine-and-a-half hours nine-and-a-half gruelling hours of relentless burrowing through the scalded minds and memories of many Holocaust survivors, as also through the deadened sensibilities of a number of Nazi apparatchiks who had manned some of Hitlers death camps.

I wanted to review some more visual and oral history of the Holocaust, but needed to go over stuff which would hopefully be lighter on the stomach. As I ran my eyes through a list of Holocaust documentaries, I chanced upon Nuit et Brouillard. Resnaiss was rather a forbidding name, of course: I had seen his Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and LAnnee derniere a Marienbad (1961) already and felt a little intimidated by his very cerebral cinematic idiom.

I had also found his fragmented narrative style somewhat disorientating. But then I realised Resnais had first made his name precisely with documentaries/shorts some of them created around the lives and work of painters, his Oscar-winning Van Gogh (1948) being among the earliest film essays in Van Goghs life winning Frances prestigious Jean Virgo prize twice for two non-feature shorts before he had even entered the world of feature films.

Besides, Night and Fog was an intriguing enough title for a film about one of the bleakest periods in mans history. Above all, it was all of 31 minutes long, a likely salve for my nerves battered by Shoahs nine-hour-long pounding. I would quickly be done with watching this really short film and then move on to weightier stuff.

First view of camp: Its another planet! A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

So I thought until I sat down to watch that really short film, which hit me between the eyes right away. It was a half-hour I will remember for a long time, a half-hour of historical inquiry coalesced with a quest for memory, while a part of ones mind kept telling one why we must never forget such a thing as this. Chillingly in this film from 66 years ago, I heard echoes from the here and now, from our present, echoes that began to sound faintly at first, but continued to grow in intensity, until they rose to a crescendo with these imperishable words that come near the films end:

We survey these ruins with a heartfelt gaze, certain the old monster lies crushed beneath the rubble. We pretend to regain hope as the image recedes, as though we have been cured of the plague of the camps. We pretend it was all confined to one country, one point in time. We turn a blind eye to what surrounds us, and a deaf ear to the never-ending cries

That the voice-over delivers these lines largely in bland, flat tones does not make them any less poignant or unsettling. Suddenly, just-seen visuals of razor-wire fencings setting off scrawny, wasted, barely-human faces lift off from the screen and fix us in a hard, cold stare. Look at us, they seem to say, and ask yourself if you are sure you havent turned a blind eye to things that foreshadow such scenes.

To miles and miles of concertina wire penning in men and women and children in the Kashmir valley?

To stinking ghettoes into which impoverished and increasingly disenfranchised Muslims pull back in ever-larger numbers in Assam, Gujarat, Delhis outer reaches and elsewhere?

Or to the sight of heavy-duty excavators cheerfully tearing down poor mens hovels in Delhi, Bhopal, Saharanpur, Lucknow?

Why pretend the plague had happened somewhere far away in what is now the distant past, when it has caught up with your own neighbourhood already, today? If Night and Fog still packs a punch nearly 70 years after it was made, it manages to do so not least because it holds a mirror to us today.

Hell-gate, Auschwitz. A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

But let me not get ahead of myself here, lest it be assumed I am suggesting that, in the main, Night and Fog derives its extraordinary visual and emotive power from the uncanny prescience of its tone. The fact is, it is a triumph of the cinema.

Writing for the New Yorker, Richard Brody thought Resnaiss film had changed modern consciousness. Francois Truffaut, Resnaiss younger contemporary, simply said it was the greatest film ever made. In the same vein, he added: Night and Fog is a sublime film about which it is difficult to speak. Any adjective, any aesthetic judgement would be out of place in speaking of this work

Remarkably, Nuit et Brouillard was made in 1955, a mere 10 years after the end of World War II and the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps, when the Holocaust was still a recently unveiled abomination and its hideousness largely unexamined. In fact, Resnaiss film remains one of the first cinematic reflections on the death camps, indeed, on the Holocaust itself. Leaving aside Aleksander Fords 1945 Polish film Majdanek: Cemetery of Europe shot directly after the Majdanek camp was liberated by the Allies Night and Fog may well be the first documentary film on the Nazi camps, though a few feature films made earlier had dealt with camp inmates, and Orson Welless The Stranger (1946) had incorporated some camp footage.

Also read: Why a 1963 Holocaust Play Raked up a Storm for the Vatican

Perhaps the word documentary itself is inadequate here. For Resnais was not concerned only, or even primarily, with the physical realty of a Nazi camp, with what it looked like or how it transacted its lethal everyday business. He foregrounds the weltanschauung that formed the conceptual axes of the camps. He uncovers the very heart of the Nazi way of life and traces the veins and arteries that led from that heart to the many limbs of the monster that was the death camp.

And he also does what few films documentary or feature have ever attempted to do: he examines and exposes the venal links that tied German industry to the Nazi killing machine. Night and Fog clearly suggests that quite a few German industrial giants (Krupp, Heinkel, I.G.Farben, Siemens, and others) took great interest in and indeed funded some of the grisly stuff that went on in the shadowy camp laboratories under the name of medical research, hoping to industrially produce fertilisers, soap, combs and textiles from out of human bones, hair and other bodily remains. (There is even a hint that these industry conglomerates were busy cutting deals with camp leaderships to buy up prisoner groups as indentured labour.)

For a 32-year-old filmmaker with precious little by way of an established reputation yet, Night and Fog was a truly astonishing effort.

Human apparitions? A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

And to think that Resnais very nearly passed up the opportunity to make the film, when Frances Committee of the History of the Second World War commissioned him to cinematically memorialise the Nazi concentration camps! He hesitated because he felt that such a film needed to be made by someone who had experienced the camps first-hand. But the producer, the legendary Anatole Dauman, insisted, suggesting that they use the poet Jean Cayrol who had spent two years at the Mauthausen-Gusen camp for his association with the Resistance to write the script. Resnais agreed, but he also wanted an original musical score to be written by Hans Eisler, one of Brechts great collaborators. This would, of course, add considerably to the cost of producing the film, for the films sponsors, the Committee of History.., had envisaged using a soundtrack based on a popular camp song instead.

Also read: Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here: The Hell-Gates of Dachau

But Dauman, keen to get Resnais on board, gave the go-ahead, and a memorable collaboration between three virtuoso artistes then came into play. The voice-over was entrusted to the French actor Michel Bouquet, who, at Resnaiss instance, kept his distance from the affected and authoritative tone typical of the standard documentary, and delivered his lines in a dry, matter-of-fact tone throughout. Only in the films last half-minute, in its coda, does Bouquets voice shed its tonelessness when he asks the viewer: Are you sure this will not happen again?

Survivors: Will life know them again? A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

In his film, in a major departure from convention, Resnais altogether dispensed with interviews and talking heads, usually considered integral to documentary representation, relying instead on archival footage, other visuals and the commentary. (Shoah, by contrast, is taken up entirely with interviews and encounters with reluctant former camp officials, and some visits to the camp sites, eschewing use of all archival footage.)

In a brilliant stylistic innovation, he brought together contemporary (1955) colour footage of the abandoned Auschwitz and Majdanek camp sites and their surroundings, and archival black-and-white footage of the camps when they were functional. He also added a short clip from Leni Riefenstahls propaganda documentary Triumph of the Will (1935) on the 1934 Nuremburg convention of the Nazi Party.

Also Read:Reading the History of Nazi Germany as a Cautionary Tale for Today

The repeated, adroit intercutting of the two streams of footage achieves several fascinating results.

A quiet, serene countryside on a sunny autumn day seen in the contemporary colour footage rapidly makes way for ghastly archival scenes: prisoners freshly arrived at the camps being segregated, stripped of all their belongings; their clothes, before they are put through the gas chambers, their lifeless bodies to be later incinerated at the camp ovens or plain shovelled into open pits. The contrast in mood between the two sets of visuals could not have been starker: one peaceful and contemplative, the other, petrifying, benumbed. In the colour segments, the camera moves unhurriedly via steady, tracking shots, while the momentum picks up once we drift into the archival portions, with the picture frames now coming thick and fast, one piling on top of the next, often at several times the speed of the colour frames.

A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

The tempo slackens again as Night and Fog retraces its steps to the contemporary visuals, as it does several times over the length of the film, moving back and forth between 1955 and the pre-1945 years. In all, this cross-over happens six times, with the prelude and the coda having been shot entirely in colour while five roughly chronological segments that populate the films middle comprise predominantly archival, black-and-white, footage. This contrapuntal editing adds enormously to the tautness of the films structure. Resnais, lets recall, had begun his career in film editing.

Both the soundover and Eislers music score also work in counterpoint to the films visuals. As the voiceover commentates on stomach-turning footage, such as that of mounds of womens hair (shorn off their heads before they are gassed), or of horribly disfigured, rotting corpses, many with their eyes gouged out, Bouquets voice takes on a measured, almost nonchalant, tone. A building housing an incinerator looks, Bouquet tells us, picture-postcard-like, and tourists love to have their photos taken in front of it. The background score remains enigmatic and counterintuitive throughout. Rather than pairing off a revolting visual with swelling violins or sombre cellos so as to provide an emotional release, Eisler creates a Brechtian remove from the images with a haunting, meditative, and often dissonant flute or clarinet. At times, the soundtrack dies on the visuals, like when the camera probes the walls and ceiling of the gas-chamber lacerated by the finger-nails of the dying as they thrashed about violently.

A still from Alain Resnaiss Night and Fog.

Some critics have faulted Resnais for neglecting to stress the Jewish focus of the death camps by taking a more universalist approach to the tragedy. The truth, though, is this: Resnaiss endeavour was to encapsulate the essential barbarity, utter inhumanity of the world-view that spawned the Nazi camps. Night and Fog repeatedly shows prisoners clothes emblazoned with the Star of David; it mentions Stern, a Jewish student from Amsterdam as having lived his life for years, little knowing a place (in a death camp) awaits him a thousand miles away. This, even as Resnais shows other prisoner groups, too, notably political (Resistance) prisoners, living through and dying in the living hell that the camps were. Lets remember that Resnais was a Frenchman commissioned by the History Committee of France to make a film on the camps, and not one on the Holocaust specifically. And as a Paris Left Bank intellectual-activist, he knew well some Resistance fighters who had disappeared into the black hole of Nazi camps.

This is where the films title Night and Fog Nacht und Nebel in German comes in.

Indeed, Nacht und Nebel was the name of the deadly decree that Hitler got Wilhelm Keitel to sign off on in December, 1941 pointedly sanctioning the forced disappearance and liquidation of political resisters to Nazism. Wagner, in his 1869 drama Das Rheingold, is believed to have popularised the expression nacht und nebel, and, as a great Wagner aficionado, Hitler may have picked up the name from that work.

Lets recall, at the end, the words of ineffable beauty with which Jean Cayrol opened his script for the film:

A peaceful landscape

An ordinary field with flights of crows, harvests, grass fires.

An ordinary road where cars and peasants and lovers pass.

An ordinary village for vacationers with a marketplace and a steeple

Can lead all too easily to a concentration camp.

Lets not make the mistake of forgetting this: that even the most ordinary of roads can lead to a concentration camp, so we had better watch where we are headed.

Anjan Basu can be reached at basuanjan52@gmail.com.

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Even an Ordinary Road Can Lead All Too Easily to a Concentration Camp - The Wire

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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

This years film lineup for the Eisner/Lauder New Views Documentaries and Dialogue Series features screenings of three acclaimed documentaries plus conversations with special guests at the Isis Theatre in Aspen, according to a July 7 announcement from Aspen Film and the Aspen Institute Arts Program.

The first screening, Gabby Giffords Wont Back Down, will show on July 18. Journalist Andrew Travers will moderate a post-screening panel and audience Q&A.

The film directed by dynamic duo Julie Cohen and Betsy West, of RBG and Julia fame follows former Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords through her recovery from a 2011 assasination attempt and her life as an activist for gun violence prevention. She also works to promote understanding of aphasia, a language condition.

The second installment, a screening of Subject, is slated for July 25. Travers will again moderate a post-screening panel and audience Q&A.

Subject, directed by Jennifer Tiexiera and Camilla Hall, considers the documentary experience from within it.

The film explores the life-altering experience of sharing ones life on screen through the participants of five acclaimed documentaries and urges audiences to consider the impact on documentary participantsthe good, the bad, and the complicated, according to a news release.

The New Views lineup concludes with an Aug. 1 screening of Still Working 9 to 5, directed by Camille Hardman and Gary Lane. The filmmakers will participate in a post-screening panel and Q&A; Aspen Public Radio Executive Director Breeze Richardson will moderate, according to marketing and communications consultant Katherine Roberts, who sent out the July 7 news release.

The documentary explores the evolution of gender inequality and discrimination in the workplace in the four decades since the 1980 release of the film version of the workplace comedy musical 9 to 5.

All three films in the series will screen at 7:30 p.m. at the Isis Theatre. Single tickets are available online for $20 for general admission and $16 for Aspen Film members and select Aspen Institute Members at aspenfilm.org/newviews22. Doors open 30 minutes before the start of the event and any available tickets remaining will also be for sale at the door.

The New Views series is part of the Aspen Institute Arts Program and is sponsored by Leonard Lauder and Jane and Michael Eisner. Its one of many programs thats on Aspen Films 2022 Summer of Cinema lineup, which features screenings throughout the upper Roaring Fork Valley in partnership with a number of community organizations.

Some events are already in the books, including a Movie Night at The Ranch at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village (The Art of Making It screened on July 29) and the latest installment of Aspen Films longrunning Indie Showcase of independent films at the Isis Theatre (Fiddlers Journey to the Big Screen played June 8 and Crimes of the Future screened July 6).

The Indie Showcase continues on Aug. 10 with a screening of Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song at the Isis Theatre. For more information, visit aspenfilm.org/summer-indie-showcase.

The Movies Under the Stars series presented with The Collective in Snowmass Base Village was initially slated to kick off July 2 with an outdoor screening of Up, but inclement weather put a damper on the debut and it was canceled.

The next showing is on the calendar for July 9 with a screening of Back to the Future. Movies begin at 8 p.m., and seating is first come, first served on the rink outside The Collective in Snowmass Village.

Other screenings include Trolls on July 16, Sing 2 on July 23, Moana on July 30, an adventure entertainment film on Aug. 1 and The Goonies on Aug. 20.

Aspen Film will present a summer filmmaking camp for teens at the Red Brick Center for the Arts with sessions Aug. 1-5 and Aug. 8-12.

Also in August, the Summer of Cinema lineup includes a drive-in screening of Amir Bar-Levs Long Strange Trip in Snowmass Town Park on Aug. 7 and a family film event with the USC Shoah Foundation on Aug. 9 at the Isis Theatre. For more details on Summer of Cinema programming, visit aspenfilm.org/summer-of-cinema.

This story has been updated with the August film for the Indie Film Showcase.

kwilliams@aspentimes.com

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Documentary lineup announced for New Views series of films, conversations - The Aspen Times

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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

i24 News Israels center Blue and White party and the center-right New Hope party are preparing to run together in the next round of elections, according to Channel 12.

Neither party has confirmed the report, and both parties refused to respond to The Jerusalem Posts query.

According to the report, Defense Minister Benny Gantz current leader of Blue and White would sit at the head of the list and Justice Minister Gideon Saar, leading New Hope, would be in second place.

Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Bitton would be fifth on the list and Construction and Housing Minister Zeev Elkin would be seventh. Communications Minister Yaoz Hendel would not be a part of the slate.

If former military chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot, who was considering running with either Yesh Atid or Blue and White, joins the list, he would be placed second or third.

In the current makeup of Israels Knesset, Blue and White has eight seats, and New Hope has six.

According to a Channel 12 poll conducted ten days ago, the joint party would receive 15 seats, the third-largest after the right-wing Likud and the centrist Yesh Atid. However, recent polls show that Saars party by itself either gets the minimum amount of seats possible or does not make the threshold to enter the Knesset.

New Hope will reportedly receive about one-third of the joint partys seats if the merger passes, versus two-thirds for Blue and White.

Elections are scheduled to take place November 1 and the deadline for parties to submit their slate of candidates to the Central Elections Committee is August 15.

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Israel's New Hope and Blue and White Preparing to Merge: Report - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

A spokesperson for Somalias president said on Saturday that the government is set to consult parliament on the possibility of establishing diplomatic relations with Israel, Hebrew media reported.

Reports by Channel 12 news and Kan news could not be immediately verified.

Somalia media reports last month claimed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud recently held contacts with Israeli officials while on a trip to the United Arab Emirates, even flying to Israel, according to one report. These reports were denied.

Mohamud secretly met with former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel in 2016 while serving his first stint in office, which ended in 2017.

Upon his reelection to the job in May, a Somali diplomat close to Mohamud told The Times of Israel that his return to power was a positive development for a potential normalization process between Mogadishu and Jerusalem.

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Israel does not have diplomatic relations with the East African nation, which has a population of some 11 million. Somalia, a mostly Sunni Muslim country and a member of the Arab League, has never recognized the State of Israel.

There have been sporadic reports in recent years of growing ties between Israel and Somalia.

A lower-level meeting was held in Jerusalem in December 2015, involving representatives from the Economy Ministry and officials from Somalia, according to a senior official close to Mohamud.

The report on possible normalization with Somalia comes against a backdrop of flourishing official ties between Israel and some Arab countries, as well as a push by Israel to strengthen its ties in Africa.

In addition to developments with Somalia, Channel 12 reported that Muse Bihi Abdi, President of Somaliland, an autonomous, relatively stable region of the country, recently told US officials he was making overtures to Israel but without any response.

Simon Seroussi, spokesman for Israels embassy in France (L), Magatte Seye, Senegals envoy to France, Ben Bourgel, Israels envoy to Senegal, and Anne-Sophie Sebban-Bcache, director of AJC Paris, speak at the Israel Back to Africa summit in Paris, May 31, 2022. (MFA)

In May, Israels embassy in France organized a conference, inviting French and African journalists, diplomats, entrepreneurs, and artists to examine the future of Israeli cooperation with African countries and businesses.

Somaliland was represented at the conference by its defense minister.

The Abraham Accords, a joint peace declaration initially signed on September 15, 2020, officially normalized diplomatic relations between Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Israel. In December 2020, Morocco and Israel inked a normalization agreement, establishing full diplomatic relations. Then, in January 2021, Sudan signed on to the accords, symbolically declaring its intention to advance normalization with Israel.

Lazar Berman contributed to this report.

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Report: Somali president plans talks with parliament on possible ties with Israel - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on July 10, 2022

(July 10, 2022 / JNS) Dani Naveh worked for peace during his political career, and now, as the president and chief executive officer of Israel Bonds, he has the opportunity to enjoy its fruits.

In May, Naveh, a former Likud party minister and peace negotiator, led an 80-member Israel Bonds delegation on a 10-day journey to the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Israel to show support for the Abraham Accords. Israel Bonds, the better-known name for the Development Corporation for Israel, is the United States-based underwriter of debt securities issued by the State of Israel.

We demonstrated the importance of Israel Bonds as one of Israels greatest opportunities to express support for the State of Israel, and going to those countries that made reconciliation and signed agreements with Israel gave Israel Bonds leadership and people from all over the United States a great opportunity to express their support for peace, Naveh told JNS.

The mission consisted of meetings with high-level officials, including Israeli President Isaac Herzog, Bahraini Finance Minister Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al-Khalifa and others who were involved in the Abraham Accords negotiations.

For the first time, Israel Bonds held a board meeting in Jerusalem, next to the King David Hotel, where in 1950, Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion convened a meeting of American Jewish leaders to propose issuing bonds to raise funding for the nascent Jewish state.

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Naveh, who served as Benjamin Netanyahus first cabinet secretary, chaired the Israeli Steering Committee for negotiations with the Palestinians from 1996-1999, playing a central role in the Wye River Memorandum and the Hebron Protocol, back when peace with the Palestinians seemed possible. An eight-year stint in the Knesset was followed by a decade and a half in the private sector in leadership roles in health care and technology. Last year, he was approached by Israeli Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman about taking the reins at Israel Bonds. After taking office in December, Naveh is focusing in on key areas of growth and opportunity. He is in place for five years as a non-political appointee.

My main strategic plan for the next five years is promoting new leadership. We have such great supporters that are my age, but I think its so important for Jewish communities and for the State of Israel to take more and more efforts to reach out to the younger population, to have more and more people connected to Israel, to the different kinds of activities of Israel Bonds, Naveh said, pointing to a tech and professional division he is forming.

Additionally, Naveh is pushing for collaboration between various Jewish organizations, entities and groups that have different agendas, but share the common bond of strengthening Jewish identity and the Jewish connection to Israel. This year, he presented new Shalom Bonds, which are one or two-year bonds that can be purchased exclusively to donate to religious, charitable, literary, scientific or educational organizations.

We call it a double mitzvah. You can make an investment in Israel Bonds and donate to different kinds of organizations for many other good causes. And this is part of my agendato really make these kinds of collaborations better and larger, said Naveh.

Since its inception, Israel Bonds has raised $47 billion. It was allocated a goal of $1 billion for this year, and hit the $700 million mark halfway through. While there may be sexier ways to invest in Israel, through its high-tech sector and elsewhere, Naveh says his message is that Israel Bonds represents an investment in Israels success story itself.

Many, many years ago when Israel was established, it was a very risky investment. And today, Israels economy, prosperity and GDP are growing. Especially during these days of volatility in the markets, investment in Israel Bonds really guarantees stability, with a selection of maturities and products, said Naveh. Beyond that, he points to current global events as a major reason why Israel Bonds are so necessary.

When I was a kid in Jerusalem, we faced the Six-Day War and we literally had an IDF artillery base in our backyard. You could smell not only the gunpowder, but you could smell a fear for Israels future. Israel is still facing threats to its future. And the lessons, especially as you watch these terrified children in the bombardment on the streets of Ukraine, is that Israel must be strong enough to defend itself by its own capabilities, without the need to beg others. And in this respect, I totally believe that one of the best ways to do that is by those investments in Israel Bonds, by expressing your support by strengthening the Israeli economy and Israels future, he said.

While Israel now has wider diplomatic avenues throughout the Middle East and Africa, Naveh said that during his tenure, at the direction of the Finance Ministry and its Account General, he will continue to focus on markets in the U.S., Europe, Brazil and Mexico, along with select Latin American countries. Still, the Israel Bonds mission to the Gulf looms large in Navehs eyes.

The sight of those guest speakers standing behind an Israel Bonds podium and taking selfies with delegates were highlights we will always cherish, he said.

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New president and CEO of Israel Bonds looks to the future - JNS.org

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