Navigate to News section

Sundown: Israeli Blogger Interrogated

Plus king of the condoms, Van Halen on MacDougal Street, and more

by
Marc Tracy
January 06, 2012

Sorry for the lack of photos today—technical difficulties. Here is something pretty to look at as compensation.

• A post by an Israeli left-wing blogger led to a state investigation after a right-wing group complained it was an incitement to violence. The group alleged the blogger had argued that Israeli settlers were a legitimate target of violent Palestinian resistance. [Haaretz]

• The U.S. Navy rescued 13 Iranian fishermen who had been kidnapped by pirates in the North Arabian Sea. I guess they’re glad we keep our ships around there after all, eh? [NYT The Lede]

• The story of America’s first condom magnum magnate [The Daily]

• In New York this weekend? Come to Park Slope’s Congregation Beth Elohim Sunday afternoon for a discussion of the Arab Spring’s impact on Israel with Elliott Abrams and Robert Malley. [CBE]

• Why did Van Halen reunite at the legendary Greenwich Village club Café Wha? Because founding partner Manny Roth is the uncle of frontman David Lee Roth, who famously lights the menorah. [New Yorker Culture Desk]

The Hobbit, in Hebrew. [InTheMoment]

Two-hundred fifty women danced in a spontaneous “flash mob” in Beit Shemesh, the hotbed of anti-woman Haredi activism (and pro-woman counter-activism). They danced to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now.” As if anyone could stop them.

Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.