Today Israel as a country bows it’s head as one of it’s greatest sports icons left this world. Avi Cohen, one of our top football (Soccer) players died after a week in hospital due to a motocycle accident which led to a head injury.

Avi fought for his life for a week with severe head trauma and eventually, his death was announced today in the media. Avi Cohen was a football star not only in Israel, he played in the legendary football team – Liverpool in it’s greatest days where his first game was in the crowning game of 1979/1980 against Aston Villa, Cohen scored a goal in that game which led to the winning of his team – Liverpool.

Avi cohen kept playing a substantial role in the Israeli football world as a coach and consultant in many teams and organizations. On December 20th he was severely injured in a motorcycle accident and on December 29th he died at the age of 54.

“Yehi Zichro Baruch….”

It’s been two days now that the Carmel mountain and forest is burning out of control, the fire consumed many acres by now and the Israeli fire squads are standing helpless in front of the biggest fire ever to take place on Israeli soil.

The main issue in the news being the fire itself and how unprepared Israeli rescue forces were when it started and the fact that Israel had, for the first time in many years, ask for aid from the international community is shading something really interesting here, where did the fire start? And how did it start?

As for now the estimates are that the fire was not an accident and was actually a case of arson and probably on a national background – I.e. someone wanted to cause damage to the state of Israel and started a fire.

What many people don’t know is that several other fires were started across the country and were put out before they could become dangerous like the Carmel forest fire is now.

In the international community’s favor, we can really say that even countries which were recently in conflict with Israel sent aid such as Turkey, but then again, when a major earthquake hit Turkey, Israel was the first to send aid, in fact, this actually applies to most disasters occurring in the past year over the globe, starting with the Thailand tsunami and until the latest Tahiti earthquake.

It makes you think though, nature has it’s own way of thinning the population and reduce the number of living things in a certain area, so what the hell is everybody fighting for?

The Israeli people act a bit differently in cases of catastrophe then other nations in the world I guess the Jewish history made us a bit more sensitive to other members of our community so the western wall in Jerusalem was filled with Jewish worshipers praying for the safe ending of this catastrophe and the health of those dealing with it.

In short, burn baby burn is what our enemies will say and I say, the first thing to do after the fire is out, is to find out who started it …and why.

pictures from the fire

Part of the Goldstone report about operation “cast led”. Former UK troops commander in Afganistan talks about the IDF operations in Gaza during operation “Cast Led”.
“The IDF did More to safeguard the right of civilians in a combat zone then any other army in the history of warfare!”

A new comic book series named the 99, created by Naif Al Mutawa the series tells the story of 99 heroes, wielding 99 stones each empowering it’s wielder special powers, telepathy, ultra strength, fireballs and more.
The story is not too far from any other story in the comics world, but what is different is the reason the creator claims for creating this comic series, the target audience is naturally children, but the main message is that each stone wielder has a choice to join the forces of good or the forces of evil, much like in real life, Naif claims that the 99 represent Muslims all over the world, which can take the road and path of “good” Islam with it’s gifts and wisdom, or “Bad” Islam who spreads death and war wherever it exists.

I think such a comics series is a very good idea if it would be introduced properly to Muslim children all over the world and if the message keeps staying as it is now, but unfortunately, such endeavors in our days usually come with a lot of money, and as such, the also tend to change their path as they develop. In addition, it is important to have people in Afganistan, Iraq, Iran and similar places get the message, and I’m afraid it will not be a simple task, maybe if goverments join hand and take such a project seriously, it may actually have a chance to make a real change, but until then – I wish the Best of luck to Naif Al Mutawa in his road – may it succeed in stopping violence and advancing peace in the world.

Here is what the author has to say:

The 99 Official site

Kudos to Hapoel Tel Aviv
Wednesday night, Hapoel Tel Aviv, a soccer team from Israel played and won a very important game in Zaltsburg, Austria towards the group stage of the European champions league.
Excited from the win people here in Israel did not notice the yellow card drawn to Hapoel’s forward Ofer Shechter when he scored a goal and put on a yamuka and prayed.
In my eyes, this was a shaming moment to UEFA, FIFA and international Soccer. The Fifa slogan “Say No To Racism” is probably directed towards certain nations and certain nations but towards Israelis or Jewish people.
My question is why do Christians soccer players doing the crucifix sign when they enter the field, get out of the field and score goals do not get a yellow card from the referee? Why don’t Muslim players raising their hands and praying to Allah don’t get a yellow card drawn?

I guess it is an anti-Jew issue, we are used to being treated like that – especially in Europe, but this time it was during a sports event, Is it forbidden to play soccer with a yamuka? Is it wrong to thank the Jewish god after you score? I guess there is no Fifa rule against it, but for some reason, nobody is talking when Jew’s are wronged.

Finally, some news regarding Israel which are not terror or war related.

A 2200 years old coin was found in Israel and this coin is unique for a number of reasons:it weighs 27.1 grams as opposed to other coins dating as far back which weigh about 4.5 grams, and it is yet another proof of the existence of Jewish people here in Israel 2200 years ago – long before any Muslim even thought about this region.

It is funny though, Arabs claiming continuously that Jewish people are conquerors and that “they were here first” this is their main claim, while all the time, archaeological finds support the existence of Jewish people in the state of Israel all the time.

Every excavation every archaeological dig in the region adds it’s support to Jewish presence in the state of Israel of Jewish people and I guess the world knows this fact to be true, but for some reason, nothing is mentioned in CNN or any other news agency when they write articles such as this one.

To the article on CNN