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Baseball in the Holy Land
by Israel HighWay Staff

We were greeted by the yells of "Get your programs! Programs Here!" There were smells of hotdogs and hamburgers on an open grill and kids of all ages (and the not so young) with their baseball gloves. There were Yankees and Mets hats and the excited faces that can always be found just before the first pitch is thrown. Hey, there was even Big League Chew bubble gum in an array of sweet flavors. This wasn't Yankee Stadium in the Bronx or Camden Yards in Baltimore. We were among the 3,112 fans in Petach Tikva, northeast of Tel Aviv, for the first professional baseball game in the history of Israel.

The lingua franca of the game was definitely English, but with an Israeli flair. The traditional singing of the Star Spangled Banner was replaced by Hatikva. Mincha minyans (afternoon prayers) abounded during the game and at least one Maariv minyan (evening prayers) took place beyond the left field fence immediately after the game. Even the jerseys had their own unique touch-in addition to being in Hebrew, the official league jerseys have the logo of the Jewish National Fund adorning the sleeves.

Issue of the Week is continued below

In Message Released by Captors, Israel Soldier Gilad Shalit Says Health Is Failing by Joel Greenberg

A year after seizing an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid from Gaza, Hamas militants released an audio message from him Monday, a first public sign of life from the captured serviceman. The message, posted on the Internet, calls on the Israeli government to meet the demands of the militants for a large-scale release of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit. "I have spent a full year in prison, and my health is still deteriorating, and I need lengthy hospitalization," Shalit, 20, said in Hebrew with flawed syntax, apparently reading from a prepared text translated from Arabic. Israeli commentators called the release of the audio message an effort by Hamas to ratchet up pressure on the Israeli government to agree to a prisoner swap. Shalit's father, Noam, said it appeared that the statement was coerced, and was similar to a handwritten letter from the soldier that was delivered to his parents in September, containing a similar demand. (Santa Barbara News-Press)

In NYC on July 16? Join a rally for the release of kidnapped Israeli soldiers. See box at left.

Israeli Cabinet Unfreezes Palestinian Funds as Gesture of Goodwill toward Abbas

The Israeli Cabinet on Sunday approved the release of frozen tax funds to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, officials said, in a step to bolster the moderate Palestinian leader in his standoff against the Islamic terrorist group Hamas. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asked the Cabinet to release the funds as part of a package of moves in support of Abbas. The vote came a day ahead of Olmert's meeting in Egypt Monday with Abbas, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and King Abdullah II of Jordan. (AP/Fox News)

See Also: Israel to Free 250 Palestinian Prisoners by Amy Teibel (AP/Detroit News)

Mizos [Bnei Menashe] in Israel Learning Hebrew, Local Customs

The last batch of immigrants to Israel from the Bnei Menashe tribe in Mizoram, who claim to be descendants of one of the lost tribes of Israel, is now learning the Hebrew language and local customs. The Mizo immigrants from India are staying in the Upper Nazareth and Karmiel areas of Israel. "They are learning Hebrew and Israeli customs," said Laltlanliana, administrator of the Shavei Hebrew Center in the Mizo capital of Aizawl, an organization working for the community in India.

Bnei Menashe are a group of more than 8,000 people from the northeastern states of Mizoram and Manipur who claim to be descendants of one of the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Four batches of these immigrants have settled in Israel since 1994. The living standards of the community in Israel are much higher than it was in Mizoram, Laltlanliana claimed, adding: "They are so content that they have already forgotten Mizoram." (News Post - India)

A Song for Gilad by Or Barnea

Matan Zarihan, 17, is a neighbor of the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. Young Matan approached the rapper Shai Hadad (Shai 360, pictured, right) and asked him to write a song to mark the first anniversary of Gilad's kidnapping. Hadad agreed and the song "How Long" is performed by several rappers. The song was played at the demonstration held in Jerusalem marking a year since the kidnapping. "I was really touched when Matan approached me," said Hadad. "I realized that this topic has been neglected, we want to raise awareness. Every time I hear this song I get the shivers and I've heard it a million times by now. I hope this song will reach enough people and remind them of Gilad and the other two other soldiers who were kidnapped." (YNetNews)

Listen to the song here.

MTV Wants to Teach the World by Natasha Metzler

At Georgetown University, Aaron Shneyer (pictured) put together a Jewish-Arab band and falafel dinners to help students from both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian divide find common ground. Now he is heading to Jerusalem where he will use pop and hip-hop music to promote peace. The 23-year-old guitar and bass player with one album under his belt is one of the first four recipients of a new Fulbright fellowship designed to recognize the potential for music to advance cross-cultural understanding. The fellowship was created by the State Department's bureau of educational and cultural affairs and mtvU, MTV's college network.

Shneyer, who grew up in Rockville, Maryland, has been working for years with Seeds of Peace, a group that fosters communication between youth from cultures that are in conflict. Most recently, he spent five months after his 2005 graduation working with Seeds of Peace in Jerusalem and will head to the organization's camp in Maine this summer. For his fellowship project, Shneyer plans to select five Israeli and five Palestinian students in Jerusalem to compose and study music together and possibly perform. (AP/Jerusalem Post)

Sderot Children's Theater to Perform in America
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz

A delegation of Russian-speaking children from a Sderot community theater left Tuesday morning for the United States. The goal of their trip is to convey to American Jews what residents of the bombarded western Negev are going through. In a series of performances, the young Sderot players will dramatize life under the threat of enemy rocket attacks. The children will be spending their first month in the United States attending two Boston-area summer camps, one run by the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and the other a regional math camp.

The amateur theater troupe includes in its repertoire vignettes of actual events that took place during the ongoing rocket assaults on Israel's southern towns. One such event they will dramatize is the January 2005 death of Ella Abukasis (pictured), 17, in Sderot, who was killed by a Kassam rocket as she was walking home. She jumped on her brother in order to protect him when the incoming rocket alert sounded. (Israel National News)

Israel: The Hip Side of Jerusalem by Aliza Applebaum

Jerusalem is more than just a city of pilgrimage. For travelers, there's a fun, hip side to the place. One of the best places to eat in Jerusalem is not a restaurant at all, but rather one of the country's biggest covered markets, Mahane Yehudah, 120 Jaffa St. - no matter what you need to put together a meal, you can find it in the market. Looking for something to wash down all those ruggelach? Look no further than Tmol Shilshom, 5 Solomon St., a caf? and used bookstore near Zion Square. Tucked away in a small corner of the city with a pretty outdoor patio, Tmol Shilshom is just the type of place weary travelers dream of stumbling across. If you're looking for a special gift, Hadaya, 91 Ha-Yehudim St., might be what you're looking for. Located in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, next to the Cardo, the tiny jewelry store and showroom is easy to miss. But the jewelry isn't. Of course, Jerusalem is best known as a religious center, and it hardly makes sense to come here without making that part of your experience. For young Jews, there is nothing like Shabbat in the Old City, complete with some old-fashioned hospitality, a home-cooked meal, and a healthy dose of tradition. (Miami Herald)

Take a video tour of Jerusalem's Old City here. (IsraelUpClose)

A Star Rises Over Israel

Shahar Peer is the best female player that Israel has produced, her precocious talents having reaped three Sony Ericsson WTA Tour titles and taken her to 15 in the world rankings, all by the tender age of 19.

Israel has only 154 tennis clubs and its tennis association's annual budget is a mere £750,000 ($1.5 million). Despite such limitations, Israel has produced world-class players. Shlomo Glickstein was in the top 30 in the early 1980s, while Amos Mansdorf reached the top 20 a few years later. Both scaled such heights despite missing three years of tennis because of military service. In recent years, Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram have been among the world's best doubles pairs, and Anna Smashnova, who as well as having the perfect name for a tennis player, lived up to it by reaching number 15 in the world in 2003.

One man who has played a big part in developing Israeli tennis is Ian Froman, president of the Israel's tennis association. A former South African Davis Cup player, he emigrated to Israel in the 1960s, and from 1974 has helped to establish 14 tennis centers for children, whether Arab or Jew. "There were very few sports facilities in Israel, so [because of the centers] tennis had a head start," he says. As a result, the game has become a leading sport in the country. He says the influx of Jews from the former Soviet Union, Smashnova for example, provided a further boost. While Peer is a star pupil, the centers have also produced more than 70 youngsters who have won tennis scholarships to U.S. colleges. (Financial Times - UK)

Madonna Turns to Israeli Creams for Young Skin

Pop superstar Madonna has become addicted to using Israeli creams made from Dead Sea minerals, to combat signs of ageing. A source tells British newspaper the Daily Express, "Madonna is hooked. She has started using Laline products on her face every morning and night, and all over her body. She could clearly afford to buy far more top of the range creams but it's the Israeli ingredients that have her hooked." (Evening Echo)

Getting Up Close and Personal with Hamas
by Joel Brinkley

Hamas is now in undisputed control of Gaza, but calling that a pyrrhic victory may be too generous. While President Bush and other Western leaders stumble over each other as they scramble to embrace Mahmoud Abbas, the Fatah leader, the leaders of Hamas are locked away in their new Gaza kingdom. I know the leaders of Hamas. And I am certain they will be the last people on earth to realize that their coup has backfired. During three decades in daily journalism, working in more than 50 nations around the world, I have never met as determined a group of dogmatic ideologues.

For me, the most memorable of this group was Mahmoud al-Zahar (pictured), a surgeon. He served as the Hamas foreign minister until Abbas dismissed the government last week. "From our ideological point of view," he said, "it is not allowed to recognize that Israel controls one square meter of historic Palestine." That, of course, includes Israel. Zahar offered this with a polite smile. His manner was cheerful, even serene.

The Hamas legislators ruled in the August Palestinian parliament chamber for 16 months. During that time, they passed no new laws, made no significant proposals - did nothing but object, obstruct and complain. But is anyone surprised? Hamas is an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. For Hamas' nihilist leaders, resistance is not a strategy toward an end. Carnage is the goal. More than a year in power has changed them not at all. They have proved themselves incapable of looking beyond their dogma.

Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Nationalist Suicide by Fouad Ajami

The Palestinians have lived for decades now on a sense of historical entitlement. The world owed them a state come what may; it would be delivered to them even when their leaders faltered, even as they fell afoul of international norms and expectations. Now they know better. The American war on terrorism that would come in the aftermath of 9/11 had put before the Palestinians one of those great, defining moral and political questions: They could opt for the forces of order, tie their fate and their cause to sobriety and realism, or ride with the outlaws. The disorder now on full display in Gaza and the West Bank is the harvest of Palestinian history. What we see is the inevitable fate of a national movement given over to the cult of the gun. (US News & World Report)

Who Killed Palestine? by Bret Stephens

No matter how much diplomatic, military and financial oxygen is pumped into Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority, it's oxygen flowing to a corpse. Israelis have held on to their state because they were able to develop the political, military and economic institutions that a state requires to survive, beginning with its monopoly on the use of legitimate force. In its nearly 14 years as an autonomous entity, the PA has succeeded in none of that, despite being on the receiving end of unprecedented international goodwill and largesse. What the experience of an unoccupied Gaza Strip has shown is the Palestinians' unfitness for political sovereignty. Nothing has so completely soured the world on the idea of a Palestinian state as the experience of it. (Wall Street Journal)