A roundup of the most talked about political and global stories in the Jewish world this week:
Kerry stop
Secretary of State John Kerry, it was announced on Wednesday, will make a third stop in two weeks in the Middle East this weekend to try to jumpstart peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. “His diplomacy will be based on what he hears from the parties,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland ” target=”_blank”>said James Jay Carafano at National Interest. “A Kerry stop in advance could have paved the way for a more substantive presidential visit. The secretary’s deliberate dodge of the Israelis was a strong signal that President Obama would be pursuing nothing serious in his subsequent visit with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. And that certainly proved to be the case.”
Gas promise
Israel announced that it's closer to energy independence as natural gas from a large offshore field began flowing into the country over the weekend, ” target=”_blank”>said a Jerusalem Post editorial. Yet some warn not to get ahead of themselves. “Despite the celebrations marking Tamar's hook-up to the coast, it brings no good news to ordinary people. Electricity rates will not fall, and the cost of living remains unchanged,” ” target=”_blank”>loss of its cultural heritage. Fortunately, thousands of priceless manuscripts and Torahs had been had reportedly been moved elsewhere ahead of time to protect them. For Syria’s Jewish community, this is just a ” target=”_blank”>reports say. “Jew in the Box” is part of “The Whole Truth, everything you wanted to know about Jews” and will run through August at the museum. Officials defend the value of having such an opportunity for Germans to educate themselves. “The problem is that they haven’t created the right conditions. A visitor won’t get the message of diversity unless she visits the exhibition many times, meeting different volunteers and talking to all of them,” ” target=”_blank”>added Jezebel's Anna Breslaw.
A new count
Every year some kooky way to keep track of the Omer shows up to the amazement of Internet lovers. This year's version? “Counting the Omar, which posts a different picture of Omar Little from the TV show The Wire every day. I mean, who doesn’t appreciate a little extra Michael K. Williams in life?” ” target=”_blank”>wrote Stephanie Butnick at Jewcy. Do you agree?
