Little Luxuries and a Phenomenal Article

Image via Wikipedia Maybe this post would be more appropriate on my other blog, because it talks about one of my luxuries, something I cannot live without and that is a newspaper subscription.
As a former journalist, I have to know what happens in Israel and the world and because I don't exactly read in Hebrew, I have a subscription to the English edition of "Ha'aretz" (it comes together with "International Herald Tribune", so two newspapers at the price of one, it's a deal, isn't it?). I like "Ha'aretz" very much (and no, they didn't pay me to say this), they are always spot on and also more left than right and not that religious.
Usually reading an Israeli newspaper it is not something to make you smile, but this morning Bradley Burston's "When the Messiah comes, Israel will deport him" made me laugh, actually...
Please read the article HERE. The article sums up with lots of humor the atmosphere of the Israeli society at the beginning of this new year (era?).

Indeed, Why Do I Read Newspapers?

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As a former journalist, I cannot imagine my existence without newspapers...Here, in Israel I've been reading "Haaretz"'s English edition for some time now and I like the newspaper and I generally tend to agree with their policy. But, usually Israeli newspaper articles give me nightmares or better, insomnias. When, at midnight I wake up my sleeping husband with the phrase :"I am really concerned about...", he sighs and asks :"Have you been reading your newspapers again?"
But THIS TIME I am trully and deeply concerned. It is about the declaration made recenlty by justice minister Yaakov Neeman that says - "Step by step , we shall confer the laws of the Torah on the citizens of israel and make halakha the binding law of the state". I am not going to comment this lunacy because the editorial in today's "Haaretz" is better that anything I could write on the subject.
Please read the article here:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1134049.html

At least, as a minority here in Israel I think I can sleep a bit better knowing that there are normal people who think like me (irrespective of our beliefs).

Meet the Press

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Each morning I open the newspaper and I ruin my mood for the day. I like to read newspapers, I was a journalist myself and the addiction to the smell of the printing ink is hard to shake. I have a subscription to the English-version of the israeli "Haaretz" newspaper that comes together with the "International Herald Tribune".
I always scan the titles, and they usualy give me headaches. From today's paper:"Israeli doctors held in Bucharest over alleged illegal egg donor clinic"; "IDF planning to evacuate all ilegal West Bank outposts in one day"; "Settlers torch olive trees after evacuation" and so on.
Oh, it just hit me that the titles of the articles are too long. They tell me almost everything that I want to know, and I don't really need to read the article itself. I wonder if this is because the articles and everything is translated from Hebrew? It can't be right, even in Hebrew. Too long titles make the reader lose interest in the article. That was they taught us in journalism school. By comparison, the Herald Tribune titles are shorter. But as unsettling as the national ones. By reading them I learn that in Spain, a new industry is rising, that of bank robberies; that police and militia kill worldwide and that somewhere exist some tapes that show Berlusconi (you know, the former Italian prim-minister) with prostitutes.

Whay a world are we living in, for God sakes! We have rules and regulations and laws only to break them! Everything in this world works against something else. it so reminds me so of Lukyanenko's novels, where the daily battle between Good and Evil is ruled by so many regulations and a Treaty, that it makes almost imposible to act against Evil's deeds...

Well, the only good news that I found in my Haaretz where those from the Sports section and the one saying the state intends to increase the area of chicken cops (yay for the poor chicks!) Ah, and also the fact that ministers have gotten their salaries slashed by 5%. Wow!

What can I say? I'll continue reading the newspapers because I need to be informed and I have to be faithful to my profession and I'll continue my hunt for positive things. And maybe we'll find there the answers for our problems, the ones in the other titles.