The Flyers Yarmulke ("Yah-mah-kah" for the Hebrew illiterate)

Philadelphia Inquirer columnist Michael Klein blogged about my photograph hanging in Zahav Restaurant. It's developed a cult following due to the kid wearing the Flyers yarmulke who wandered into the bottom left corner of my frame. Check it out HERE.

The photograph was taken hours before Shabbat in Jerusalem's Mahaneh Yehuda market. I showed Zahav executive chef Michael Solomonov my discovery when I was editing the days work in my hotel room. A 5' x 10' mural print is hanging above the kitchen area.

Birds of Peace

Things are getting worse in Gaza. As I was looking back through my work from Israel, I re-discovered this photograph I made while wandering the streets of Tel Aviv.

- Israel has barred foreign reporters from entering Gaza. Here's a video from inside Gaza hosted by the BBC.

- Today's BBC Reports:

Casualties have been pouring into over-stretched hospitals in the Gaza Strip as Israel presses on with its offensive against Palestinian militant groups.

The Palestinian health ministry said 90 people, mostly civilians and including 26 children, had been killed since Israeli forces went in on Saturday.

Israel says it is targeting militants continuing to fire rockets into Israel.

Intense diplomatic efforts are under way to resolve the crisis but Israel rejected calls for an immediate truce.

US President George W Bush gave his support to Israel's right to self-defence and blamed the current situation on Hamas militants.

"Instead of caring about the people of Gaza, Hamas decided to use Gaza to launch rockets to kill innocent Israelis," he said. MORE

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak photographed during a visit to a North Philadelphia public school, 2003. He happened to be standing immediately next to the word "conformity" while he spoke to the kids.


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The Holy Land: Masada

The cover story of this months National Geographic (Dec 08), written by Tom Mueller, is focused on King Herod, the holy land's visionary builder. On the cover is an aerial image of Masada, the ancient fortress he constructed in approximately 37-31 BC.

Seven months ago, on a cold March morning, I watched the sun rise at Masada. I was documenting a culinary tour through Israel, led by chef Michael Solomonov. We awoke in the Negev desert at 4.15 am, inside a bedouin tent, and drove the winding road to Masada. As the light appeared above the hills, I loaded rolls of tri-x 400 into my cameras and began to shoot the structures and views of the fort.

In 66, at the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War against the Roman Empire, a group of Jewish extremists called the Sicarii overcame the Roman garrison of Masada. After the destruction of the Temple, the Jewish rebels and their families fled Jerusalem and settled on the mountain top, using it as a base for raiding Roman settlements.

The Romans eventually took back Masada in the spring of 73. When they entered the fortress, however, the Romans discovered that its 936 inhabitants had committed mass suicide rather than face certain capture, defeat, slavery or execution by their enemies.

Today, there is declaration in Israel set in place by the Israeli Defense Forces: "Masada shall not fall again"