Behold the subtle message of Hamas’ Al Aqsa TV: A cartoon about a Palestinian Authority policeman called Buffoon who kisses an Israeli soldier’s feet and watches while another Israeli machine guns children to death so that he can drink their blood.

(Via Tablet Magazine)

I’m not normally one for statistics, but the numbers in David Brooks’ latest op-ed, on Israel’s phenomenal technological and economic achievements, are striking:

Jews are a famously accomplished group. They make up 0.2 percent of the world population, but 54 percent of the world chess champions, 27 percent of the Nobel physics laureates and 31 percent of the medicine laureates.

Jews make up 2 percent of the U.S. population, but 21 percent of the Ivy League student bodies, 26 percent of the Kennedy Center honorees, 37 percent of the Academy Award-winning directors, 38 percent of those on a recent Business Week list of leading philanthropists, 51 percent of the Pulitzer Prize winners for nonfiction.

[...] No single explanation can account for the record of Jewish achievement. The odd thing is that Israel has not traditionally been strongest where the Jews in the Diaspora were strongest. Instead of research and commerce, Israelis were forced to devote their energies to fighting and politics.

Milton Friedman used to joke that Israel disproved every Jewish stereotype. People used to think Jews were good cooks, good economic managers and bad soldiers; Israel proved them wrong.

But that has changed. Benjamin Netanyahu’s economic reforms, the arrival of a million Russian immigrants and the stagnation of the peace process have produced a historic shift. The most resourceful Israelis are going into technology and commerce, not politics. This has had a desultory effect on the nation’s public life, but an invigorating one on its economy.

Tel Aviv has become one of the world’s foremost entrepreneurial hot spots. Israel has more high-tech start-ups per capita than any other nation on earth, by far. It leads the world in civilian research-and-development spending per capita. It ranks second behind the U.S. in the number of companies listed on the Nasdaq. Israel, with seven million people, attracts as much venture capital as France and Germany combined.

The Tel Aviv Cluster (NYT)

George Galloway with members of Neturei Karta

I am sure George Galloway, who has just been deported from Egypt, is delighted to have some Orthodox support for his Viva Palestina campaign. Still, I was a little surprised that he would accept it from Neturei Karta. You see, Neturei Karta don’t oppose Israel per se. They just think the current State of Israel must be abolished so that the Messiah can come and establish a real Jewish state in the Holy Land. Then again, Neturei Karta are already pals with Hamas and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (they even attended his Holocaust conference), so I suppose they make perfect bedfellows.

A beautifully shot video about Birobidzhan.

When I think of Jewish New York, I think of media and finance, of bankers, lawyers, philanthropists, doctors, writers, and the mayor. I think of Katz’s deli, the diamond district, and B&H.

In my six years of living here, I have never considered Jewish poverty. But, as I learned while reporting my latest story for the JC, it is a huge issue for New York’s Jewish population.

The Metropolitan Council on Jewish Poverty estimates that 250,000 Jewish New Yorkers live in poverty. For the neediest few, there is literally nowhere left for them to turn when they are in need of a hot meal than friends, family, synagogues, and now, a small but growing number of kosher soup kitchens run by a relatively new non-profit called Masbia.

Charedi Poverty, New York-style (the JC)