Another candle...

Another candle and the world becomes brighter...

Thank you

I’m grateful to my Lubavitch friend who is full of ideas and resources, and who watches out that I’m not being cut out of the rest of the world.

Thanks to him and to the Chabad mouvement that organised the event, I had the chance to watch, live via internet, a public lighting for Channuka, on Sunday and Yesterday.

And for that, I would really like to thank all the Chabad movement, and all it has done and is still doing all over the world, for Jews worldwide, reaching out to them even in the darkest corners of the world…

Keep on lighting the world.

Chag Sameach

I love Hannuka.

This is the Hannukia I found in the attic of my grandmother.

It was about time it came out of the darkness...

Have a brilliant Hannuka

Incitement to Violence

On any ordered merchandise coming from outside Lebanon, the following must be mentionned -on the packaging and invoices- in order to let the goods enter the country:

"We declare that goods are not from Israeli origin, have not been imported from Israel and do not contain any Israeli material."

I can only shake my head in disbelief.

We are a long long way from peace...

Comparison

So why are the Muslims so powerless... Here are some figures and Facts that speak for themselves:

Extracts of speech by Hafez A.B Mohamed: Director-General, Al Baraka Bank, South Africa

Demographics:

World Jewish Population. 14 million

Distribution:
7m in America
5m in Asia
2m in Europe
100 thousand in Africa

World Muslim Population: 1.5 billion

Distribution:

I billion in Asia/Mid-East
400 m in Africa
44 m in Europe
6 m in the Americas

Every fifth human being is a Muslim.
For every single Hindu there are two Muslims.
For every Buddhist there are two Muslims.
For every Jew there are 107 Muslims.

Yet the 14 million Jews are more powerful than the entire 1.5 billion Muslims, Why?
Here are some of the reasons.

Movers of Current History

Albert Einstein Jewish
Sigmund Freud Jewish
Karl Marx Jewish
Paul Samuelson Jewish
Milton Friedman Jewish

Medical Milestones

Vaccinating Needle: Benjamin Ruben Jewish
Polio Vaccine: Jonas Salk Jewish
Leukemia Drug: Gertrude Elion Jewish
Hepatitis B: Baruch Blumberg Jewish
Syphilis Drug: Paul Ehrlich Jewish
Neuro muscular: Elie Metchnikoff Jewish
Endocrinology: Andrew Schally Jewish
Cognitive therapy: Aaron Beck Jewish
Contraceptive Pill: Gregory Pincus Jewish
Understanding of Human Eye: G. Wald Jewish
Embryology: Stanley Cohen Jewish
Kidney Dialysis: Willem Kloffcame Jewish

Nobel Prize Winners

In the past 105 years, 14 million Jews have won 180 Nobel prizes whilst 1.5 billion Muslims have contributed only 3 Nobel winners

Inventions that changed History

Micro- Processing Chip: Stanley Mezor Jewish
Nuclear Chain Reactor: Leo Sziland Jewish
Optical Fibre Cable: Peter Schultz Jewish
Traffic Lights: Charles Adler Jewish
Stainless Steel: Benno Strauss Jewish
Sound Movies: Isador Kisee Jewish T
elephone Microphone: Emile Berliner Jewish
Video Tape Recorder: Charles Ginsburg Jewish

Influential Global Business

Polo Ralph Lauren Jewish
Coca Cola Jewish
Levi’s Jeans Levi Strauss Jewish
Starbuck’s Howard Schultz Jewish
Google Sergey Brin Jewish
Dell Computors Michael Dell Jewish
Oracle Larry Ellison Jewish
DKNY Donna Karan Jewish
Baskin & Robbins Irv Robbins Jewish
Dunkin Donuts Bill Rosenberg Jewish

Influential Intellectuals/ Politicians

Henry Kissinger , US Sec of State Jewish
Richard Levin, President Yale University Jewish
Alan Greenspan , US Federal Reserve Jewish
Joseph Lieberman Jewish
Madeleine Albright , US Sec of State Jewish
Casper Weinberger , US Sec of Defense Jewish
Maxim Litvinov , USSR Foreign Minister Jewish
David Marshal , Singapore Chief Minister Jewish
Isaacs Isaacs, Gov-Gen Australia Jewish
Benjamin Disraeli, British Statesman Jewish
Yevgeny Primakov, Russian PM Jewish
Barry Goldwater , US Politician Jewish
Jorge Sampaio, President Portugal Jewish
Herb Gray, Canadian Dep-PM Jewish
Pierre Mendes, French PM Jewish
Michael Howard, British Home Sec. Jewish
Bruno Kriesky, Austrian Chancellor Jewish
Robert Rubin , US Sec of Treasury Jewish
Global Media Influentials Wolf Blitzer, CNN Jewish
Barbara Walters ABC News Jewish
Eugene Meyer , Washington Post Jewish
Henry Grunwald, Time Magazine Jewish
Katherine Graham , Washington Post Jewish
Joseph Lelyyeld, New York Times Jewish
Max Frankel, New York Times Jewish

Global Philanthropists

George Soros Jewish
Waltewr Annenberg Jewish

Olympic Gold Medalists

Mark Spitz 7 Gold Medals Jewish
Krayzelburg Jewish
Boris Becker Jewish

Conclusion

The Muslim World lacks the capacity to produce knowledge. Muslim World is failing to diffuse knowledge. Muslim World is failing to apply knowledge.

"My Advice:Please educate yourself and your children. always promote education, don't compromise on it, don't ignore your children's slightest misguidance from education"

Prejudice

I had a prejudice about how Ali would be like: a popular ahmadinejad, a narrow minded, macho guy…. I was wrong.
But then again, doesn’t everyone have prejudices?
When I was in Paris and talked Arabic on the phone, people looked at me in surprise: how come this not-arab-looking woman speak Arabic?
I went to a shop, and directly identified the owner as a Jewish guy by the mezuzah at the door. He immediately identified me as Lebanese.
He said it was my accent (which is funny because Lebanese tell me I don’t sound Lebanese because of my accent!)
And he said something like “ There are nice Christian Lebanese who come here” then he realized he might have slip out: I could’ve been a Muslim Lebanese….
I deliberately said, in a detached way: “it’s ok, no harm done. I’m not a Muslim anyway. I’m Jewish” and I entered the dressing room to try on the dress that I was holding.
The man was astonished. He literally followed me inside, and almost opened the curtain of the dressing room:
“which family?”
I said: “….., originally from Baghdad”
He asked a million questions.
Before I left (I took the dress as a gift to my mom) he gave me a leaflet of the Parasha of the week and the candle lighting times in Paris for Shabbat (the same day)
“Shabbat shalom” and I answered “Shabbat shalom”.
Waw. This is what I call Freedom.

Dinner with Ali

Last week I was in Paris.
I love the month of tishrei in Paris.
I came back on Sunday night, after missing my flight and having a hard time getting finally on a plane to come back home on time for work on Monday…
Monday, I was just off work, at 8 pm, when a friend called.
I was feeling like a zombie and I was dreaming of sleeping.
But what this friend proposed was tempting:
Having dinner (sushi, mmmm) with him and a friend of his, in visit to Lebanon.
The friend is Iranian. Ali.
I liked the combination. Why not: A Lebanese Jew and an Iranian Muslim at a Japanese dinner.

The guy turned out to be the grand son of someone very important who was very close to the shah of Iran. His family has been in exile since he was 3 years.
We talked about exile and about feeling “rootless”.
We had a lot in common: The frustration, the injustice, the feeling of wanting to do something and to feel hopeless and useless.
He despises the extremist regime in Iran, Hezbollah and all that happened to his country, a country he has never been to, a country that they stole from him, a country that he doesn’t even bear the passport, despite being the descent of one of the most know family there (there are mountains there called after them…)
The guy is educated, very charismatic, speaks fluently many languages and is very open minded.
With people like that, I thought, (just a thought that vanished just as the person faded out of sight) that there might, there could be a glimpse of hope. Hope of peace.
Ok, time to wake up.
Anyway, I always appreciate meeting interesting people like that.
Ali looked human.
Before separating, we hugged like long time friends.
The next day he went back to his exile in Europe.