Holy Writ

SACRED SCRIBBLES IN BETHLEHEM

by MATTHEW KALMAN

CCTV December 31, 2013

Karen Stern of Brooklyn College, CUNY, helps unlock the secrets of the divine graffiti left by pilgrims over the centuries at the birthplace of Jesus.

Twitter for twits

Danny Seaman: The Israeli official whose career died from foot-in-mouth disease

The former director of the Government Press Office never let Israeli policies get in the way of provocative propaganda.

By Matthew Kalman | HAARETZ Jan. 2, 2014

I shall miss Danny Seaman, the former director of the Israel Government Press Office.

Seaman was suspended from his position as social media guru and deputy director-general for information at the Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Ministry last August after a series of flaming Facebook posts that insulted Muslims, Palestinians and Japanese in equal measure.

Seaman is no longer in government. I mistakenly placed him there this morning when I shared his latest wisdom – a measured response to the untimely death Wednesday in Prague of Palestinian Ambassador Jamal al-Jamal, killed when an old safe exploded in his home.

“Guess you can say that the Palestinian ‘Ambassador’ to the Czech Republic died of natural causes,” Seaman commented. Minutes after I shared it with my own Facebook followers, he removed it and, sadly, demoted me from his list of “friends.”

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