If You Haven't Yet Heard It...

Being interviewed early in the morning. I got dressed,
but slippers still on. Photo by Yisrael Medad

Yesterday morning I was interviewed by Tamar Yonah about the terror attack in which I was injured over twenty years ago. It's strange how when I begin talking about it, it seems like it just happened to me. Does that come through in the interview?

Click here for the show.  And then I'd love to hear your reactions and comments, thanks.

Yes, it was a phone interview.

Grammar Question: Media, Singular or Plural

I'm usually a rather conservative and fanatic stickler when it comes to grammar. That's in my native English and the Hebrew I've been struggling to learn for close to half a century.  When slang is based on incorrect usage I boycott it.

It takes all of my self-control to keep from visibly cringing when someone replies "I'm (feeling) good"  to the question "how are you?"  Good is an adjective.  To describe yourself as "good," means that you're stating that you're a "good" person, honest etc. The proper grammatical answer is "I'm (feeling) well."  Well is an adverb and describes how you're feeling.

Recently someone who reads my articles asked me to correct the verb in a sentence with the word "media."  I used the word, and use  it frequently, as a collective noun, so the verb (present tense) was singular.  He suggested that it be plural. I'm usually very grateful when people catch my typos, but I see/used the word media to represent a group.  In Israel, it's very common to write about the media as one power.

The Israeli media has an agenda and isn't embarrassed to push it.

By writing in this way about the media, the implication is that the various Israeli media are in cahoots. It's the use of the word "various" to describe media makes it necessary to use the plural verb afterwards.

Just to be safe, I checked with Professor Google.

media¹

ˈmiːdɪə/

noun

noun: media; plural noun: media; noun: the media

1. 1.

   the main means of mass communication (television, radio, and newspapers) regarded collectively.

   "their demands were publicized by the media"
2. 2.

   plural form of medium.

Here's another definition, Business dictionary:

1. Communication channels through which news, entertainment, education, data, or promotional messages are disseminated. Media includes every broadcasting and narrowcasting medium such as newspapers, magazines, TV, radio, billboards, direct mail, telephone, fax, and internet. Media is the plural of medium and can take a plural or singular verb, depending on the sense intended.
Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/media.html#ixzz2iOUB50ah

What do you think?  I'm curious.

-- hitting the fans?

I'm having trouble decided whether this post belongs on this blog or Shiloh Musings. Is it a women's issue, sexual abuse, or Israeli politics?

One of the top female Labour Party politicians, Colette Avital, has not only denied a rumour that she was/is a having an affair with Teflon-coated-Shimon Peres, but she has now publicly accused "someone powerful--no name" of having made unwanted and uninvited sexual advances.

This is at the same time that Israeli President Katzav's Impeachment hearings are beginning for the same sort of crime, and to make matters even more complicated, both Peres and Avital are opposing candidates, in a large field, to replace him as President.

What I find very disturbing is that The Jerusalem Post article about it was hard to find, hat tip to "protexia," and I didn't see any reference to it on the other Israeli news sites. Maybe if I had been online last night I would have found more. I presume that Peres's Teflon is protecting him, since the accusations against Katzav and Ramon got much more play, even though the accusers were anonymous and unknown to the Israeli public.

Ladies, the lesson is that the media will believe the guys they like and, your accusation will be ignored, but if the media is searching for dirt, they'll help you with revenge.

Chaim Ramon, No Angel, but...

You probably expect me to be overjoyed that Chaim Ramon's career has been destroyed after he was judged guilty of forcibly kissing the young soldier.

I'm certainly against anyone using their power and authority for anything sexual. For religious reasons and more, I'm against people touching others without "invitation," regardless of sex.

...as I watched the drama of "H vs Chaim Ramon" on TV and read about in the papers and on the internet, one thing kept going through my mind:

If an ordinary woman was raped by an ordinary man, would she find it as easy to get him judged guilty by the the courts and media?

Before this whole scandal was exposed, I didn't like Chaim Ramon for his policies relating to my right to live in our Biblical Homeland. He even advocated giving up parts of Jerusalem. The same media which once promoted and endorsed him so enthusiastically turned on him with the professed aim of destroying his career. There had to be another agenda.

I feel sorry for Mr. Ramon. What he did wasn't right, but his punishment didn't fit the crime.

This whole business will only make me feel better if there is an increase in convictions against rapists and those forcing sexual acts, who aren't politicians poised to reach the pinnacle of political power.