Offbeat Israel: Sex Gum, Sports and the Separation Wall
Hamas has come up with some pretty bizarre conspiracy theories about Israel, but this one surpasses them all. Israel is bringing aphrodisiac chewing gum in to the Gaza Strip in order to corrupt its residents. Of course, encouraging Gazans to hook up and make more little Gazans is clearly an integral part of Israel’s strategy for the demographics of the Middle East. See a report on this story below:
Of course, the flip side of Hamas’ claim is that it is crediting Israel, and not its own smugglers who run Gaza’s famous tunnels, with fresh breath in the Strip.
Admittedly, it’s hardly the biggest hurdle to Orthodox Israelis who want to see female rabbis ordained. But they have selected a title. This means that if they manage to sway an Israeli Orthodox community, which is currently for the large part dead against female ordination, everybody will know what to call the new religious authorities.
America already has an Orthodox female rabbi, known by the title “maharat” — an acronym for the Hebrew words spiritual, Halacha, and Torah teacher. If Israel follows suit, here they will be called “rabba,” if a vote just held by the Orthodox feminist organization Kolech holds sway. The organization wants to get the word registered with the Academy of the Hebrew Language, the body that determines what words enter modern Hebrew. Read about the decision here.
Have you seen the new advertisement for Israeli cell phone company Cellcom?
It shows IDF soldiers on patrol along the West Bank separation barrier stopping their vehicle after it is hit by a football from the Palestinian side of the fence. They end up holding a game with Palestinians, to the delight of female soldiers. “All in all what do we want? To have some fun,” is the slogan at the end. The ad is below:
Ahmed Tibi, leader of Israel’s Ta’al political party and adviser to former Palestinian Authority chief Yasser Arafat is leading a campaign for Cellcom to shelve the advertisement, on the grounds it is racist and “presents the barrier as though it were just a garden fence in Tel Aviv.” Meanwhile, there is another controversy surrounding the advertisement. Two filmmakers Itamar Rose and Yossi Atia claim that Cellcom copied a short film they made three years ago — a claim the company denies. Make up your own mind: Here’s the Rose and Atia clip, added to YouTube in September 2007:
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.