One of these struck me as the perfect “only in Israel” moment – this time on the road. It seems that someone is organizing spontaneous mincha minyanim (the afternoon prayer which needs a quorum of men) on Route 6. At every rest stop there will be a minyan 15 minutes before sundown, for those who have not prayed yet. They want to spread the word far and wide so that these minyanim take hold.

So the next time you are traveling late afternoon on Israel’s only toll road, stop for gas and a cup of coffee, and add a daily prayer too.

Last night an Israeli (private) group of hackers took down the Saudi stock exchange - and their leader explains why.

Intelligence agents have used the latest technology (especially computers)in warfare for quite some time – but it isn’t something you usually read about in the news. It is somewhat strange to see this kind of battle going on in public.

I hope these guys will be recruited by the IDF, if they haven’t been already!! (Do they make pocket protectors in olive green???)

Now I enjoy them.

Today’s confrontation was between MK Anastasia Michaeli and MK Ghaleb Magadele, who called her a fascist. She then poured a glass of water on him and vowed to complain to the ethics committee, saying that he should learn how to speak to a woman. Michaeli, part of the Israel Beiteinu party, is well known for her feistiness, as well as being the first MK to give birth while in office – to her eighth child, no less. Recently she has received death threats for her proposed bill to ban the use of the PA system by mosques when calling their members to prayer. (After twenty years in my yishuv I can tune them out, but during Ramadan they can get pretty loud).

A note to the Americans that sometimes complain about military aid to Israel: where would you rather the defense systems that America is developing be tested? In Israel, or in your back yard? And, G-d forbid, if these are tested “for real” – where would you prefer the bombs be blasted out of the sky? Over Tel-Aviv or over New York City?

I thought so.

Unfortunately the rocket fire has continued off and on this past month, although thankfully the rockets landed in open areas and did not cause damages. Next month I will post a roundup of rocket fire for the year 2011.

He has served in the Israeli government five times, as part of the Yisrael BeAliyah party (founded jointly with Natan Sharansky) and as part of the Likud. He is now the Minister of Information and Diaspora. You can hear him speak in English here, addressing the Taglit/Birthright trip last night. His blog (sadly, only in Hebrew) is here.

All of the kids had good voices, of course. Some were precocious to the extreme (one nine year old actually turned my stomach). Then I heard Michel Cohen, and I knew I had to put up the videos of him singing, at both his audition and his subsequent performance onstage.

Part of the charm of the show is showing the child with his family at home. Michel is from a traditional home and lives in Dimona, and he learned to sing while in the synagogue. The following video is a combination of his audition and the home visit. At the end of the audition he has two stars fighting with each other to be his teacher, and eventually Yehoram Gaon wins. (Sorry, all of this is in Hebrew, but the charm comes through even without translation).

He performs “Barcelona” on television, and I get goosebumps listening to him. Michel’s father is shown backstage, and at the end of the performance, when he greets his son after his big triumph. The real kicker, for me at least, is that they interview Michel’s father  for a few seconds after the performance, and he says that “thanks to G-d Michel is a good kid, and he learns Torah and prays nicely.” I got nachas from this father, who is proud of his kid for all of the right reasons.