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Jewish Journal

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April 4, 2019

Israeli Spacecraft Beresheet Enters Moon’s Orbit in Last Major Step Before Landing

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Israeli spacecraft Beresheet successfully entered the moon’s orbit in its last major step before landing on the moon.

With this latest development, Israel became the seventh country ever to enter the moon’s orbit.

Cheers and applause greeted the news at the Beresheet control room in Yehud, Israel on Thursday after the spacecraft swung free of the earth’s gravitational pull and entered the moon’s. The unmanned craft’s engine was burned for six minutes, and the spacecraft reduced its speed from 8,500 km/hour to 7,500 km/hour to match the lunar velocity.

The maneuver, the spacecraft’s seventh, was conducted with full communication between the control room and Beresheet, and broadcast live on social media.

The lunar lander is expected to touch down on the moon’s surface on the evening of April 11, in the northeastern part of Mare Serenitatis, or the Sea of Serenity, a flat area on the moon’s surface. Several smaller maneuvers are expected to take place before that landing.

Beresheet was launched on Feb. 22 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on a SpaceX Launchpad by a Falcon 9 rocket as secondary payload alongside two satellites. It has so far traveled over 3.4 million miles in its orbits around the earth and will travel 1 million more around the moon.

After it lands on the moon it will take photographs of the landing site and a selfie to prove Israel landed on the moon. It also will measure the moon’s magnetic field as part of an experiment carried out in collaboration with the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

It will leave on the surface of the moon a time capsule containing a database of hundreds of digital files ranging from details about the SpaceIL, the spacecraft and the crew of the project, to national symbols, cultural items and materials collected from the general public over the years. The spacecraft is not expected to return to earth.

Israeli Spacecraft Beresheet Enters Moon’s Orbit in Last Major Step Before Landing Read More »

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Makes a Big Israel Geography Mistake

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

JERUSALEM (JTA) — CNN’s Christiane Amanpour identified Haifa, a city in northern Israel, as being located in the contested West Bank.

The network’s chief international anchor made the gaffe on Wednesday during her global affairs interview program on CNN while introducing Palestinian human rights lawyer Diana Buttu. Buttu was to respond to an interview with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon, who discussed the Trump administration’s as yet unveiled Middle East peace plan.

“Diana Buttu is a human rights lawyer and she joins me from Haifa, on the West Bank,” Amanpour said.

In a segment of the interview posted on the CNN website, the introduction is left off.

The clip of the introduction was tweeted by Hillel Neuer, executive director of the NGO UN Watch. He said in his tweet that “Haifa is not ‘on the West Bank.’ It’s in Israel. Where Jews & Arabs live together in harmony.”

Haifa, located in northern Israel, is the third largest city in Israel and has a mixed Jewish and Arab population.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Makes a Big Israel Geography Mistake Read More »

The Very Short Rosner Guide to Voting in Israel’s Elections

Leave a Comment / Israel, Israel Election 2019, Online, Rosner's Domain /

The following article is a translation of a guide for the Israeli voter that was published today in Maariv (Hebrew). If you are American, who cannot vote in Israel’s election, it could still help you understand how and why Israelis vote.

 

Is it hard for you to decide? It shouldn’t be. The very short Rosner Guide for voting is going to solve your problems.

1. If you are an Arab who wants to annoy the Jews: Vote Ra’am-Balad.

2. If you are an Arab or a Jew who wants to do something really radical (or a communist, but there are no real Communists): Vote Hadash-Ta’al.

3. If you are a Jew who wants to do something radical but not as radical as voting for an Arab party: Vote for libertarian Zehut.

4. If you are an Israeli who thinks that Israel is to blame for the fact that there is no peace (but also do not want to vote for an Arab party): Vote Meretz.

5. If you are an Israeli with a strong historical sentiment for the Founding’s generation: Vote Labor.

6. If you are an Israeli who thinks that Netanyahu is doing everything right, but incites the public and creates a polarized political atmosphere: Vote Blue and White.

7. If you are an Israeli who thinks that Netanyahu is doing everything right: Vote Likud.

8. If you are an Israeli who thinks that Netanyahu is doing everything right, except for economics: Vote Kulanu.

9. If you are an Israeli who thinks that Netanyahu is doing everything right, except for security, and also that voting for Likud is not cool: Vote for the New Right.

10. If Naftali Bennett’s Kippah looks too small to you, and Yaakov Litzman’s Kippah looks too black for you, and you find it difficult to forget that Netanyahu does not have a Kippah: Vote for the United right.

11.  If you are an Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox who thinks that someone sees you even behind the curtain: Vote United Torah Judaism.

12. If you tear up at the mention of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef: Vote Shas.

13. If you trust only a leader with a Russian accent like yours: Vote Yisrael Beiteinu.

14. If you go with the heart, regardless of the electoral threshold: Vote Gesher.

 

Appendix for difficult cases:

If what really matters to you is the bloc, not the party, vote Likud or Blue and White.

If it is difficult for you to decide which bloc, see points 6 and 7. Then you’ll know.

If you answered yes to two questions. Say, you have sentiments for the founders, but you also go with the heart: vote for a party that has a chance to pass the electoral threshold. If both has a chance, vote for the smaller of the two parties — it probably needs you more (and we already said you have a heart).

If you do not feel like voting for any party, try something radical (options 2 and 3). If that does not help either, exercise your right (yes, in a free country this is also a right) not to vote.

In such case, do not complain about the results.

The Very Short Rosner Guide to Voting in Israel’s Elections Read More »