Canada: Has the new Liberal shift in Israeli policy begun? Canadian Foreign Minister Stéphane Dion has a “tough message” for Israel, asking that both sides make efforts to reduce violence and incitement. The Conservatives have condemned the statement, saying that it “equates terrorist attacks with Israeli settlement construction,” which “is unacceptable.”
Israel: Twenty-three-year-old Shlomit Krigman, who was stabbed by Palestinian terrorists yesterday, succumbed to her injuries today. Meanwhile, former Israeli president Shimon Peres is out of the hospital, Lebanon says it’s captured an “Israeli spy” vulture (residents later reversed such claims), and the Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson says he’ll be bringing the Pet Sounds tour to the Holy Land soon enough. Red Bull has unleashed a skate trilogy dubbed “Shekel Me Not,” featuring renowned skateboarders from around the world ripping around various Israeli cities. Watch it here.
Health/Technology: A new study claims that toddlers exposed to Holocaust suffering are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia. Reports confirm that Israeli high-tech funding hit an all-time high in 2015, with companies raising a record $4.4 billion (US). The Israel National Trail (spanning some 1,100 kilometres) is now on Google Street View. Planning your next hiking trip has never been easier.
World: A Swiss socialist group has apologized for publishing an anti-Semitic cartoon reminiscent of Nazi propaganda on its Facebook page.
Youth branch of the Swiss Socialist Democrat party publishes antisemitic cartoon https://t.co/s2lpH0vnbp pic.twitter.com/mWjIY9zldt
— ISCA (@ISCAorg) January 25, 2016
Speaking of cartoons, Israellycool points out a caricature that’s far more blatantly anti-Semitic, shared recently by the Palestinian Shehab News Agency:
#كاريكاتير| غامر علي Posted by Shehab News Agency on Monday, January 25, 2016
If inoffensive, but powerful, art is more your style, Yad Vashem has set up an art exhibition in Berlin in honour of International Holocaust Remembrance Day (tomorrow), which will remain until April.
Culture: Chiune Sugihara, the Japanese diplomat who saved over 3,500 Jews from the Nazis, is getting his own movie. It premieres next week in Atlanta. Acclaimed director Woody Allen has cast Miley Cyrus in his upcoming Amazon series. After hearing about a photo of him that went viral in Israel, Ryan Reynolds shared this message to his Israeli fans on Facebook:
Israel is in my top 1 list of places I’d like to travel to. I’m touched someone wants me to visit so much, that they… Posted by Ryan Reynolds on Monday, January 25, 2016
Is American rapper B.O.B. promoting Holocaust denial? In his new song, Flatline, he says, “Stalin was way worse than Hitler, that’s why the POTUS (President of the United States) gotta wear a Kipper,” before stating: “They nervous, but before you try to curve it, do your research on David Irving.” Irving is a notorious Holocaust denier and discredited British historian.
A Seinfeld fan trolled Ask Amy in the most brilliant way. It’s surprising that no one picked up on it right away before going to press.
Yada. Yada. Yada. pic.twitter.com/puEm21tEmf — Sam Farmer (@LATimesfarmer) January 25, 2016
Ideas for news items to include in the spiel? Please send them to [email protected].
Click here for yesterday’s edition of Your Daily Spiel
