South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs to visit Los Angeles

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

Since 1950, the U.S. has viewed the Republic of Korea as central to its strategic and diplomatic goals in the Asian Pacific area. At the 2009 G-20 economic summit in London, newly elected President Barack Obama described the ROK as one of America's closest allies and greatest friends.

He wasn't exaggerating. From the moment the United States helped establish democracy and capitalism in the ROK  the diplomatic, economic and military ties have only grown and continue under the leadership of ROK President Lee Myung-bak.

The Republic of Korea and the U.S. agreed to a formal military alliance in 1953. They called it the relationship forged in blood and it remains in effect to this day. Roughly 29,000 US military personnel are currently stationed in Korea, helping to control the often contentious North.

So what does the future hold? His Excellency Kim Sung-Hwan, Republic of Korea's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade will soon visit Los Angeles to discuss how what he has call the alliance of shared values can meet the challenge of uncertainty and insecurity in the Asia-Pacific area, including the often contentious relationship with the North Koreans.

Minister Kim is well qualified to address these issues. His previous positions include Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (from March 2008) and Senior Secretary to the President for Foreign Affairs and National Security (from June 2008.) He has spent the last two years fine-tuning his country's foreign affairs strategy and North Korea policy. Don't miss this important event.

Friday, June 15th 7p.m. VIP Reception 7:30p.m. dinner
The InterContinental Hotel 2151 Avenue of the Stars
(213) 628-2333

Iran, Hezbollah targeted Israeli, Saudi, U.S. diplomats

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

Officials from the U.S. and unnamed Middle Eastern countries believe a recent plot to kill Americans in Azerbajian was part of a larger effort by Iranian-linked operatives to kill foreign diplomats in at least seven countries over the past year, The Washington Post reported on Monday.

Among the targeted foreigners were two Saudi diplomats, about a half-dozen Israelis, and in Azerbajian, a group of Americans, the officials said according to The Washington Post.

The officials said new evidence uncovered in recent weeks by investigators working in four countries shows a connection between the different assassination attempts that ties all of them to Iranian supported Hezbollah terrorists or agents based in Iran.

The officials, and experts in the U.S. and Middle East, see the plots as part of an ongoing covert war in which Iran is trying to retaliate for a series of assassinations of its nuclear scientists. Iran has blamed the U.S. and Israel for the assassinations, but it has consistently denied any involvement in attempts to assassinate foreign envoys in other countries.

In October, the thwarted assassination of the Saudi ambassador in Washington involved a similar plot to hire criminal gangs to kill a senior envoy in public, U.S. intelligence officials noted.

"They were going after individuals," said a former U.S. State Department official who worked closely with the embassy in Baku. "They had names of employees. And they were interested in family members, too."

Qaeda-held Saudi diplomat in Yemen appeals for his release

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

A Saudi diplomat kidnapped nearly a month ago in Yemen's south appealed to King Abdullah to fulfill the demands of al-Qaeda to secure his release, according to a video posted on jihadist forums.

"I appeal to King Abdullah...and the Saudi government to save me and release me from Qaeda's organization in return for releasing the sisters detained in (Saudi) general investigation prisons and fulfilling the remaining demands of the organization," Abdullah al-Khalidi said in the video posted late on Friday and published by SITE intelligence Group.

Qaeda abducted Khalidi, Saudi Arabia's deputy consul in Yemen's main southern city of Aden, on March 28 in a bid to secure the release of prisoners and collect a ransom.

Khalidi talked about what he said was the work of the Saudi consulate in Aden saying it "recruits collaborators and spies who work directly with the consulate by gathering information, monitoring posts held by Qaeda, as well as its leaders and jihadists."

"This information is sent to U.S. forces which raid these targets using drones," Khalidi says.

Statue of Raoul Wallenberg vandalized in Budapest

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

A statue of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who rescued thousands of Jews from the Nazis in Hungary during World War II, was vandalized in Budapest on Tuesday, Army Radio reported.

A group of Conservative rabbis from New York reportedly visited the site and saw five bloody pig legs tied around the statue.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Education Minister Gideon Saar said "the vandalizing of the statue of Raoul Wallenberg is an abominable attempt to defame the name of a person who saved tens of thousands of Jews from the Nazi extermination machine. This ugly anti-Semitic act is another painful reminder that anti-Semitism has not disappeared from the world."

"We must not allow anti-Semitism to raise its ugly head," the statement continued. "We must act determinedly against all incidents of anti-Semitism. We must not make the mistake of taking this lightly. These acts are directly aimed against the Jewish people's existence."

Army Radio reported that last year Hungarian protesters burned an Israeli flag during a demonstration against Hungarian government policies. Those who burned the flag were said to have belonged to a radical right-wing movement. Two months prior to that demonstration, thousands of Fascist party supporters demonstrated outside the Jewish Agency building in Budapest. According to Army Radio, a protestor at that demonstration called the Hungarian prime minister "a slave of the Jewish liberals."

The desecration of Jewish sites has become more widespread in Europe in recent months. In December 2011, vandals sprayed swastikas on dozens of tombstones in a Jewish cemetery recently restored by American and Kosovar students.

On March 18, vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in Warsaw, spraying swastikas and anti-Semitic slogans on tombstones and memorial plagues. The vandals also wrote, "This is Poland, not Israel," on one sign at the Jewish cemetery in Wysoki Mazoweckie, a town in eastern Poland, according to the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland.

Eurovision song party at Austrian Embassy

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

The Eurovision Song Contest is an annual competition held among the 44 active member countries of the European Broadcasting Union. Eurovision has been broadcast every year since its inauguration in 1956 and is one of the longest-running and most-watched television program in the world: audience figures have been estimated at nearly 600 million people internationally.

For over half a century, the Eurovision Song Contest has reached far beyond culture, ethnicity, or nationality to bring people together through popular music. Eurovision asks its audience to forget politics and borders for a few hours and invites people from all over the globe to participate and share a wonderful evening together in peace.

Austrian Embassy Washington D.C.
Saturday May 26 2:00pm to 7pm.
3524 International Court
Northwest, Washington D.C.
20008

"Strangers no More" (Israeli documentary)

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

New York--Academy Award winning documentary "Strangers no More" will be shown tonight May 23rd at 5p.m. at NYU Cantor Film Center 36 East 8th street.

The film which won the 2011 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, follows several students' struggle to acclimate to life in a new land while slowly opening up to share their stories of hardship and tragedy.

The students all attend the Bialik Rogozin School, located in the heart of Tel Aviv, Israel. This school's pupils come from 48 different countries, all with diverse backgrounds and yet they learn and study together. Many of these students came to Israel after fleeing poverty, political adversity and even genocide. At the Bialik Rogozin School no child is a stranger.

With tremendous effort and dedication, the school provides the support these children need to recover from their past. Together, the bond between teacher and student, and amongst the students themselves, enables them to create new lives in their new community.

This special evening is presented by the Consulate General of Israel in New York and the Kibbutzim College.

The special evening will include remarks by Ambassador Ido Aharoni, Consul General of Israel to New York and many other important notables from Israel.

Coffee shop for cat lovers in Vienna

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

A cat-themed coffee shop has opened in Vienna, where visitors can eat a piece of cake and have a cup of coffee while surrounded by the popular pets.

The coffee shop, "Cafe Neko," was opened by Takako Ishimitsu, 47, who is from Japan but moved to Vienna 20 years ago. It took her three years of negotiations with the authorities to open the establishment since the city officials had voiced concerns regarding hygiene with so many cats on the premises.

Cat coffee shops are common in Japan and Ishimitsu said that she wanted to introduce this phenomenon to Vienna. She also said that she wanted to bring happiness to those who do not themselves have cats.

There are now five cats in the 50-seat cafe and they were all brought from a nearby animal shelter supported by Ishimitu.

"Neko" means "cat" in Japanese and the cafe has since its opening--been a hit with both locals and tourists.

Turks Suspect Bird is Israeli Spy

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

A tiny bird triggered a peck of trouble in a Turkish village when residents became convinced the creature was an Israeli spy. The dead European bee-eater was discovered wearing a metal band stamped with the word "Israel."

Investigating villagers determined that the cheeper's nostrils were larger than average, possibly large enough to carry a microchip to aid in espionage. A careful examination by agricultural ministry experts concluded the bird was safe and that the band was a common tracking measure for migratory birds--though it was tough to convince local police, officials told the BBC.

"Girl Walks into a Bar" Comedy Calamities, Dating Disasters and a Midlife Miracle

By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Book Review

In "Girl Walks into a Bar"...Rachel Dratch, the brains behind everyone's favorite party-pooper, Debbie Downer, tells us just where she's been. After sharing her auspicious beginnings as a child performer (for her parents in their suburban Boston living room), Rachel takes us from her college improv days to the Second City Mainstage. And then, finally, her dream job on Saturday Night Live: the sublime joy of creating a hit character, the torturous late nights in the writing room and plenty of boozy after-parties.

But Rachel learns that showbiz ain't all glitz and glamour, shrimp cocktails and pino grigio. After a short-lived part on "30 Rock" her career hits a low point and suddenly she has time for yoga, dog sitting, learning Spanish--and the biggie: dating. Rachel reveals the joys and terrors of putting herself out there in a quest to find love and then becoming a mother when she least expected it--at the age of 44.

She recounts the adventures of pregnancy and new motherhood once, you've hurled "What to Expect When You're Expecting" out the window: breaking the news to her bewildered parents, the aw of her single lady friends, romance and coparenting with her baby-daddy, John, and the awkwardness of an infant-care class where the instructor kept tossing out the f-word.

"Girl Walks into a Bar"...reveals the highs and lows of struggling to make it as a comedian. But it is truly a story of second chances, managing to laugh at adversity and realizing adversity is actually the best thing that ever happened to you. It's a refreshing alternative to the "happily ever after" story, full of sensitivity, candor and plenty of comic relief as only Rachel Dratch can tell it.

"Prague Winter": A Personal Story of Remembrance and War 1937-1948

Book Review
By: Vickie J. Rubinson
Diplomatic Circles Report

Before Madeline Albright turned twelve, her life was shaken by the Nazi invasion of Czechoslovakia--the country where she was born--the Battle of Britain, the near-total destruction of European Jewry, the Allied victory in World War II, the rise of communism and the onset of the Cold War.

Albright's experiences, and those of her family provide a lens through which to view the most tumultuous dozen years in modern history. Drawing on her memory, her parents' written reflections, interviews with contemporaries and newly available documents, Albright recounts a tale that is by turn harrowing and inspiring. "Prague Winter" is an exploration of the past with timeless dilemmas in mind and simultaneously, a journey with universal lessons that is intensely personal.

The book takes readers from the Bohemian capital's thousand-year-old castle to the bomb shelters of London, from the desolate prison ghetto of Terezin to the highest councils of European and American government. Albright reflects on her discovery of her family's Jewish heritage many decades after the war, on her Czeh homeland's tangled history and on the stark moral choices faced by her parents and their generation.

Often relying on eyewitness descriptions, she tells the story of how millions of ordinary citizens were ripped from familiar surroundings and forced into new roles as exiled leaders and freedom fighters, resistance organizers and collaborators, victims and killers. These events of enormous complexity are nevertheless  shaped by concepts familiar to any growing child: fear, trust, adaptation, the search for identity, the pressure to conform, the quest for independence and the differences between right and wrong.

"No one who lived through the years of 1937 to 1948," Albright writes, "was a stranger to profound sadness. Millions of innocents did not survive and their deaths must never be forgotten. Today we lack the power to reclaim lost lives, but we have a duty to learn all that we can about what happened and why."

At once a deeply personal memoir and an incisive work of history, Prague Winter serves as a guide to the future through the lessons of the past--as seen through the eyes of one of the international community's most respected and fascinating figures.

"The Moon of Israel" (Austria 1924)

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

"The Moon if Israel" is a 1924 silent, black-and -white Austrian epic film. It was directed by Michael Curtiz and was based on the biblical story of the Exodus.

It was this film that brought Curtiz to the attention of the studio head Jack Warner, who invited him to Hollywood in 1926 where he rapidly made a career with Warner studios.

Shooting took place in Vienna with about 5,000 extras in the studios of Sasch-Film. The premiere was on October 24,1924. In about the year 1230 BC the Israelis are in slavery in Egypt. At this difficult time the Jewish slave-girl Merapi falls in love with Prince Seti, son of the Pharoah Menapta. This socially inappropriate love leads to numerous problems which can nevertheless be resolved. At the end of the film Moses leads his people through the Red Sea and into freedom.

Like other films of this period "The Moon of Israel" was inspired by Egyptomania that was sweeping the world after the discovery of the intact tomb and treasures of the Pharoah Tuanklhamun.

"The New York Times" in 1927 noted: "There is naturally much that is mindful of Cecil B. DeMille's film "The Ten Commandments" in "The Moon of Israel," but Mr. Curtiz fortunately has no modern story to tack on to his Egyptian passages. This is an excellent production."

"Follow Me: The Yoni Netanyahu Story"

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

July 4, 1976 Entebbe, Uganda--Led by Lt. Colonel Yonatan Netanyahu, crack Israeli commando burst inside a non-descript airline terminal, killing stunned terrorists and evacuating 103 hostages. A lone shot sounds in the night and Yoni, brother of current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, lay dead.

"Follow Me" is an intimate story that penetrates the tough exterior of the only soldier killed in Entebbe. Using Yoni's own poetry, letters and prose, the film delves into the mind of this reluctant young hero, where duty fo family and country, love, turmoil an doubt over the core value of war raged. Yoni's words are made deeply moving by his honest introspection and heartfelt passion.

Features interviews with three Israeli Prime Ministers, Yoni's ex-wife (for the first time), and recently released audio from the Entebbe operation itself. Follow Me is a rare portrait of Israel's elite soldiers and their greatest hero.

Oy Vey! Major Gelson's trauma in the San Fernando Valley

My mom's all upset and is trembling because her indispensable upscale "Jewish" supermarket,  Gelson's has closed -- It might as well have been another 9.0 Northridge earthquake.  Gelson's is the only place in this porno capital of the world part of the valley where you can get Schmaltz. You may be familiar with the word Schmaltz as an adjective for slimy poor fiction and drama, dripping with cheap sentiment.  Schmaltz is also chicken fat.

Jews love Schmaltz, at least my dad does.  He puts it on nearly everything...matzo balls, Gentile bread...with salt...you name it. It is an essential condiment to my dad.

Where else do you find Schmaltz? Sure on Jersey Shore and the Real Housewives of New Jersey. But what about here? Simi Valley adjacent?  Please help us with any suggestions before my dad's cholesterol level drops to dangerously low levels. Kvetchingly yours, Vickie.

I want it about this high!

By: Vickie J. Rubinson

I hope everyone's having a great day. I have nothing else to say right now just trying out my new blog since they changed the format.