Hope you missed me?
This week I spent a lot of time off the streets and behind closed doors inside the Ramada Hotel Jerusalem.
Much of the Jewish Media Summit opening night, Varda shared already.
One of my favorite scenes was “seasoned” journalists, cell phones in hand taking selfies as President Shimon Peres entered the room.
Maybe everyone was a bit excited by having to wait so long to get through strict security. The four day program was titled, “The Challenges of Reporting on Israel and the Jewish World: A Conference for Members of Leading Jewish Media.”
The AP reporter assigned for the evening was not Jewish, I did not find out if she was Israeli.
The UK might have separate Facebook pages for Israel and Jerusalem, but I keep finding Apartheid fails here.
More selfies waiting for the Prime Minister to arrive.
The speech ended with the same quips Dave found so good on TV interview, so you can check it out for yourself.
Wednesday was a packed schedule with way too many speakers to mention, anyone cares can check the website.
Not in the printed program was David Roet, Deputy Permanent Representative from Israel to UN.
Did you know that the UN celebrates two official holidays for Christians and two for Muslims?
So trying to find anything UN countries might vote “yes” with Israel, there is a campaign to get the UN to acknowledge Yom Kippur as a holiday. That should be a whole lot more successful in NY, than say Iran or Iraq. Wonder if UN declares Yom Kippur a holiday, UNWRA workers will take off or work in protest?
President-elect Reuven Rivlin made a surprise visit too. He spoke well in English about his family’s long history, with ancestors arriving in 1809, making his grandchildren 9th generation here.
This conference discussed challenges and differences, but made no mention that to those in the Diaspora, Rivlin looks like Ariel Sharon.
And as for Israel’s image problem, you can talk all you want. But the Arab world has one marketing message and sticks to their narrative no matter what, “We are victims.”
As long as Jewish media editors are free to talk and continue to write about the “occupation’ we will continue to have an image problem.
Also not on the printed schedule was IDF spokesperson @LTCPeterLerner who spoke of the threats surrounding us.
We have no choice, the IDF does not get second chance, he said.
So maybe with that and Yom Kippur is a Jewish holiday, we have found two things we can agree on?
I asked, and Lerner said our Judge Dan is a good guy.
