Turks Coming to Israel in Record Numbers

Article: In the past decades, Israelis have traveled to Turkey, a Muslim country north of Israel, but few Turks have visited Israel. (Kids: find Turkey and Israel on a map). 2008 was the record year for Israeli travel to Turkey, with over half a million Israelis travelling there. That same year, only 17,253 Turks visited Israel. However, numbers are up. In 2013, 24,385 Turks visited Israel, including day visitors and cruise tourists. Israel's Ministry of Tourism has not invested in promoting tourism to Israel, so many don't know why the sudden upsurge. One reason may be because StandWithUs, an Israel education organization (which I work for) sought to improve Israel's image in the world. They sent prominent figures from around the world on an Instragram social networking tour of Israel. A famous Turkish couple went on the tour and returned to Turkey to post beautiful photos of Israel. Since then, tourism has spiked (though not necessarily this summer)! Lesson learned: you never know who will respond to your positive marketing of Israel! Kids: what are some ways you can positively market Israel? 

How Did the Dinosaurs Die and Was it Just Bad Timing?

Article: Taking a break from Israel's war for a moment, let's look at this interesting article about why the dinos went extinct. The latest working theory is that an asteroid (Kids: what's an asteroid?) smashed into earth, creating so much dust and environmental turmoil all at the same time that all the dinosaurs went extinct. They simply couldn't breathe. The only animals to survive with tiny mammals, who buried underground and waited for the storm to subside. Without this asteroid crash in Mexico 66 million years ago, dinosaurs would still be around and dominant. Their only dinosaur-type to survive were birds, which could fly above the disaster. A new study also says that if the asteroid hit a few million years later or earlier, the dinosaurs would have survived the crash. Their extinction was the product of timing: the asteroid crash and a very vulnerable food web. At the time, dinosaurs were going through evolution of plant eating species. Plant eaters were particularly vulnerable. They didn't have enough time to evolve to confront the asteroid. As a result = extinction and rise of the mammals.

IDF Sets up Hospital to Treat Gaza's Wounded

Article: The IDF announced today that it will set up a field hospital to help Gaza's wounded, mainly for women and children. (Kids: why not mainly men?) The hospital will include a delivery room. (Kids: why?) Watch this short video about the hospital's construction. Then ask yourselves: why is this remarkable? By building this hospital, what message is Israel conveying? (That we are at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza). Who is helped by this hospital?

Supporting Israel in Creative Ways

Article: StandWithUs, an Israel education organization, began a Facebook campaign to raise support for Israel. It asked people from around the world who support Israel to take a picture of their passports and post it to a dedicated Facebook page. People began doing that, along with messages in their open palm, handwritten for Israel. Now the Facebook page has passport pictures from over 900 people representing 100 countries, including the US, France, Australia, Germany, Canada, Ukraine, South African, Brazil, Georgia, Turkey, India, China, Pakistan, Indonesia and Iran. Kids: look at the Facebook page and see how many different countries you can find with people supporting Israel; Kids Activity: take a picture of your passport with a message for Israel and post it on the page; or just post a picture with a message on your hand!

More On Water

Video: Yesterday we learned about how California is panicking over its severe drought. Watch this video for how Israel has dealt with similar conditions. Then discuss with kids what practices can be brought to California to help.

CA's Drought -- Little Known Crisis Situation

Article: California is in the worst drought in history. The Governor of CA is calling for everyone to reduce water use by 20%; but so far people have only reduced by 5%. The Governor has already consulted with Israel on what to do. CA will be in an emergency situation over the drought by November. Pay attention to prices in grocery stores: as the supplier of over 90% the nation's broccoli, tomatoes and almonds, prices for certain vegies are going to soar. Watch this important video on the drought situation.

Kids: what are things we can do to help the drought? Ideas:

• Use less water in the bathtub when you bathe.
• Stop using the dishwasher. Wash dishes by hand; take the leftover dish water and pour onto plants. 
• Do less laundry. Only wash what is really dirty and smelly. 
• Water your lawn less, or not at all.
• Plant drought resistant plants. 
• When washing fruits and vegetables, catch the water (don't let it go down the drain) and use it to water plants. Ditto when you boil water for cooking or leftover water in water bottles. 

War in Israel Continues, with Irony

Article: As we all know by now, each day and night, Hamas in Gaza has been showering rockets into Israel. Ironically, they hit themselves by mistake on Sunday and again yesterday. As they were shooting rockets into Israel, some of the rocket fire hit two power lines that feed electricity to Gaza. As a result, Gazans have now lost about 20% of their power supply, which means over 100,000 Gazans do not have electricity anymore. (Kids: what are examples of things they can now no longer do?) Israel refuses to have its workers repair the lines until Gaza stops shooting rockets, otherwise the employees could be hurt. Sadly, those Gazans without power probably think it's Israel's fault. The Hamas government in Gaza has stopped all news from reaching Gazans except the news that the government creates. So Gazans have no way of knowing the truth...

Kids: go outside and find a power line. Find Gaza on a map. Then watch this Video of what it's like to live with rockets, as Israelis are right now.

Egyptians Show Support for Israel

Article: As Israel fights a war against Hamas, Egyptian newscasters and leaders are hoping Israel will win the fight and destroy Hamas in Gaza. This is because an Islamist group affiliated with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, tried to take over Egypt last year. Kids: why does support for Israel within Egypt surprise many people? (Answer: because Egypt would seem to be a natural ally with Palestinians.) Yet instead, a famous Egyptian newscaster called on Egypt to help Israel, saying "The Egyptian people know exactly who [Israel is] facing, and understand that there is no alternative to employing the Egyptian army to strike terror cells in Gaza and destroy Hamas in a military operation;" Another newscaster said, “Thank you (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and may God give us more [people] like you to destroy Hamas.”
Kids: find Egypt on a map. Why do you think some in Egypt are supporting Israel?

Week 2 of the War: 2 Stories

Article: As of today, over 1,000 rockets have been launched into Israel in the last week. Since rockets are being launched from Gaza, Lebanon and Egypt, 100% of Israel is now under attack. (See map). We should all continue praying for the safety of Israel and Israeli soldiers.

Here are two stories from the war to share with kids: David Khashdi, 7 years old, saved his great-grandmother's life yesterday afternoon. He lives in Ashdod with his family; they are originally from the Caucasus region (Kids: find on map) and his great-grandmother only speaks Russian, no Hebrew. Yesterday, while the great-grandmother was in the kitchen and David was watching TV in the protected room, an air raid siren went off alerting them to an oncoming rocket. The great-grandmother didn't hear the siren (Kids: why not?) so David called out to her and then helped her into the protected room. Seconds later, a rocket hit the road outside, shattering all the house's windows on the bottom floor and blasting a hole through the living room wall. David wasn't able to close the protected room's door in time, so some of the glass flew into the protected room and cut his leg. David was fine after being treated at the hospital. Their car outside was thrown into the air and destroyed by the blast. Because of David's quick thinking, his grandmother's life was saved. (Kids: what lesson to learn here? That even kids can save lives; that we should protect ourselves; that we should look out for others, etc.)

David's next door neighbor also had a close call. Usually when the siren goes off, the wife always runs to the safe room but the husband doesn't, preferring to sit at his computer and ignore the risk. (Kids: is this a smart thing to do?) For some reason he can't explain, when the siren went off this time, the husband ran into the protected room. It saved his life. If he hadn't left his computer, he would have died from the window glass shattering. He says his "sixth sense" to get up was a miracle from God.

  

War in Israel Continues

Israel is now into its second week of war against Gaza, in Operation Protective Shield. As rockets pour into all different areas of Israel, people have 15 seconds from the time a siren sounds to get into a bomb shelter. A new Facebook page has been created for people to post pictures of themselves in bomb shelters. See those pictures here and "like" the page to show your support for brave Israelis.

Article: Remember in past current events we spoke about "cyber warfare"? How you can fight wars not only with weapons but online? Over the weekend, Hamas hackers tried to wage cyber warfare by hacking into Israel's Domino Pizza website. They posted a picture of a Hamas terrorist with a gun and a sign that said, Beware, We are Sending Thousands of Rockets Into Israel!" This was meant to make Israelis fearful. But instead Israel responding with humor. One person responded, "Please reserve a missile for me with jalapenos, green olives, extra cheese, and mushrooms. You have my address. Tell the delivery boy to activate the alarm when it is arriving, so I know to put my pants on." Another person put up a picture of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles eating pizza! When Domino's got their page back, they put up the message "You cannot defeat...the Israeli hunger for pizza!" Kids: what do you think of this way of responding? Was it successful?

Israel at War; Flash Mob in Ariel, Israel

Right now is a hard time in Israel. Rockets are raining down on Israel in Tel Aviv, in the North, in the South. Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two different groups in Gaza, are both competing to who can throw rockets faster into Israel, often from the same site. Israel is trying to figure out how to fire back at them, when the leaders are hiding in tunnels below the ground. Kids: if you were Israel, how would you fight back or deal with the situation? What must it be like to a kid in Israel right now? If you are/were in Israel, what are things you could do to help pass the time while sitting in a "safe room?"

To cheer things up, here is a nice video of a Flash mob singing in Ariel, Israel.

Recent Supreme Court Decision: cell phones

Article: The Supreme Court recently had to decide a case regarding cell phone. A man as stopped by police for a minor traffic infraction. When the police pulled him over and searched his car, they found guns. They then searched his cell phone and found pictures that were incriminating (showing guilt of a crime). They arrested him and he went to jail. He appealed, claiming that the search of his cell phone was illegal. (Kids: why? Argue both sides of the case.) The Supreme Court found that the search was illegal and not incident to the arrest, unless it was exigent circumstances (emergency situation), such as terrorism.

Immigration Crisis in U.S. Regarding Children

Article: President Obama is seeking almost $4 billion in emergency money from Congress due to an immigration crisis along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. (Kids: locate border on map). The crisis is from a recent wave of unaccompanied children coming across the border. (Kids: what does it mean that the children are "unaccompanied?" Why would parents send their children this way? Do the parents even know?) Obama wants to use the money for increasing patrols along the border, immigration judges once the kids are caught, aerial surveillance, and new facilities to hold for and care for the children. He wants to return the kids back to Mexico and other countries in Central America as quickly as possible. Kids: what do you think about this? What are the pros/cons of what Obama is doing?  How would you feel if you were one of these kids.

Video: Watch a trailer from an excellent, heartbreaking documentary about this phenomenon of unaccompanied minors trying to come into the U.S.

To the Moon...

Article: Google is putting together a competition among private companies to send Earth's most precious relics to the moon, in case a cataclysmic event ever happens on Earth, destroying everything. The relics would be sent in a capsule that could survive for the next 10,000 years. Kids: what would you send? Already a capsule has gone into space with pictures of humans; sounds of nature; pictures of what humans have done on earth -- to memorialize humanity. An Israeli team wants to send the Torah.
Kids: what are some challenges they have to think about? The moon has extreme temperature changes. In the day, it can get up to 253 degrees; at night down to 279 degrees. Any capsule would have to withstand this. So far nothing has been created that can. But the Israeli team is currently working on something so the Torah can go to the moon and be preserved, just in case...

Saturday-Sunday Weekend?

Article: Israel currently has a Friday-Saturday weekend. This means that school is Sunday-Friday and most people work half-days on Friday, to get ready for the Sabbath (Jews) or to celebrate their holy day (Muslims). However, there has been a movement since 2011 to get Israel to have the same weekend as the rest of the Western world -- Saturday and Sunday. A minister is about to propose it to the Israeli Knesset. Kids: make arguments for/against this idea. What do you think should happen and why?

(Some arguments: Israel would then be on the same schedule as the rest of the world, which would help Israel's economy; right now, Israel only works 4 work days the same as the rest of the world instead of 5; it would be harmful to religious Jews/Arabs who will take off part of Friday anyway; to make it happen, the workweek on Monday-Thursday would have to be lengthened and studies show people are less efficient the later they work).

From Janitor to Principal, through hard work

Article: Gabe Sonnier used to be the janitor at an elementary school. Now he is the principal! Here's the story: Sonnier came from a poor family with 5 children. His mother was working as a housekeeper and struggling to pay for his education at Southern University. But he dropped out to help her and began working as a janitor. He was still working as a janitor in 1985 when the school's principal at the time pulled Sonnier aside and told him, "I"d rather see you grading papers than picking them up." Sonnier was 39 years old but decided to go back to school. He would work from 5 AM - 7 AM, go to school all day, then come back and work another 6 hours as a janitor, then go home and do homework. He eventually earned a college degree and a masters degree in education. He became principal a few months ago. Sonnier credits his hard work for making it possible and for never giving up.

Kids: if you could ask him one question, what would it be?

See a video with Gabe Sonnier here.