Ben Sales
By Ben Sales
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The Schmooze I Got Text From Hamas — in Broken Hebrew
Facebook (JTA) — I just got a text from someone who’s trying to blow me up. “The stupidity of your leaders put all of Israel under fire, and forced all the Israelis to go into shelters,” it said, sent by a user named SMSQASSAM. “We will continue bombing every place in Israel until they answer all…
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Fast Forward How Gaza Fight Is Different This Time — No Israeli Victims
(JTA) — In the past week, Israel has endured a thousand rockets. Yet not a single Israeli has died so far from a rocket strike during the week-long conflict. In many ways, Israel’s Operation Protective Edge – its third Gaza operation in six years – is much like previous Israeli campaigns in the territory. Israel…
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Fast Forward American Trips Caught in Israel War Zone
(JTA) — When the siren rang out in Jerusalem last week, the 41 teenage participants in a five-week summer Israel trip were already asleep, exhausted from a day that had begun with a flight from New York. Within minutes, they were awake, out of their rooms and in a fortified room. From their shelter, they…
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Fast Forward Tel Aviv ‘Bubble’ Bursts But Israelis Won’t Let Rockets Run Lives
(JTA) — Had the shrapnel fallen a foot to the right, gas station attendant Michael Savlov would have been destroyed along with the rest of the Dor Alon gas station in southern Tel Aviv. Savlov was with a customer in the station’s office Thursday morning when a rocket from Gaza was intercepted overhead by Israel’s…
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Opinion In Tel Aviv, Keep Calm and Mind the Rockets
Israeli family seeks shelter in parking garage as rocket sirens blare. / Getty Images (JTA) — “In Tel Aviv, we expect the skies clear with a temperature of 32 degrees,” our pilot said upon taking off from Milan’s airport Wednesday, with no discernible hint of irony. The thermometer in Tel Aviv did fill up — 32…
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News Kidnapping of Teens Jangles Nerves in Usually Calm West Bank Settlement
(JTA) — At a shopping center in the middle of Efrat, families eat pizza, a deliveryman unloads a cart and a barista serves coffee. On a passing bus, a banner reads “Gush Etzion – an Israeli home.” In many respects it’s a normal, quiet Monday in this settlement that has grown into a large commuter…
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Fast Forward Pluralism Advocates Seek State Funding for Non-Orthodox in Israel
(JTA) — At 3:30 Shavuot morning, more than 100 people are seated on folding chairs singing in Yiddish as men walk around with shots of vodka and cups of coffee. Up front, a man in a black frock coat and black hat is belting out the notes, his eyes closed. Except for the live instruments…
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The Schmooze Raunchy Comic ‘Stole’ Gig From Dad
(JTA) — Those taken aback by the sexually charged comedy routine of kippah-wearing 12-year-old Josh Orlian on “America’s Got Talent” now have one more reason to be surprised: He took some of the material from his dad. Josh appeared on “America’s Got Talent” Tuesday night, wowing the judges with racy jokes. In one bit, Orlian said…
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