Daniel Lubetzky

The picture below is an excerpt from a newspaper visualizing hope in the background, as the foreground features Palestinian training forces in Jenin, working to build a state with disciplined security.  All US and Israeli intelligence accounts view this as an inspiring success in transforming the area from disarray and chaos into a vibrant and economic society.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Ahmadinejad believes he has a line of communication with the Hidden Imam, a Messiah for the Muslim Shiia. Read more below.

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This weekend OneVoice Israel is launched one of its strongest viral campaigns through social media sites like Facebook and online newspapers like Ma’ariv and YNET.  100’s of Israelis contributed their visions for 2018 by writing headlines for the future.  Headlines included visions such as “War!: The World Cup 2018 Final Tonight: Israel Against Palestine” and “Another border opens: The public is invited to tour in Palestine.”

OneVoice Palestine took their campaign to the streets partnering with the municipalities of Jenin, Nablus, Hebron and Bethlehem to create mass murals of 2018 visions.   The purpose of the project, OVP Executive Director Samer Makhlouf reminds us, “Was to inspire the youth of Jenin to play a role in the building of their state. Contributions made by youths inspire not only themselves but the rest of the community. They put something on the mural that was honest, true and personal. It was their vision, for their future, for their city. The first mural in Jenin has just been completed.  It depicts images of urban development and economic prosperity.

OneVoice’s Imagine 2018 campaign is changing the conversation on the ground.  Instead of focusing on the past, OneVoice is creating a more constructive, future-oriented discourse.  Politicians and influencers in the Middle East and around the world are joining in.  Tony Blair, Her Majesty Queen Noor and Jason Alexander are just a few international personalities lending their support and visions to this campaign.

Spotted by Daniel Lubetzky, redacted by Adeena Schlussel.

A friend forwarded me an article that Malcolm Gladwell had written in New Yorker Magazine about entrepreneurs.  Like many of his pieces, it had provocative insights that were quite interesting as headlines (Entrepreneurs are "predators", not "risk-takers") till you realized that they were not very well thought out and that his own article contradicts itself numerous times along the way.

Here is what I wrote back to my friend:

I finally got a chance to red this Gladwell article. As I suspected, while I enjoy Gladwell’s writing, he is prone to simplify everything into a caricature and overlook the true essence of the issue in the process. Entrepreneurs are neither predators nor brave dummies. They of course have the capacity to see an opportunity in the marketplace that may have eluded others (that is part of the DEFINITION of what is an entrepreneur – not sure how Gladwell turns this simple truism into an epiphany). But they also possess the guts and determination to stay with it, and there are NEVER any guarantees that their analysis will prove right, certainly not without excellent execution – and often additional outside factors that the entrepreneur hopefully has taken into account but which can change course.

Gladwell’s piece works because he analyzes some of the most successful entrepreneurs, who in retrospect seem almost wily. He gratuitously says that failed entrepreneurs are the risk-takers but successful entrepreneurs are just predators who take no "risk." What a dumb simplification – one that you can only make in hindsight. Had Gladwell been by their side when they started on their journey, when they were sweating along the way, it is not as clear as he makes it out to be that they were guaranteed greatness from the outset. There are too many entrepreneurs who are not dumber or smarter than me or you whose circumstances get the best of them, and vice versa. Sheer analytical firepower may be a valuable ingredient in the composition of an entrepreneur. Guts, work ethic and determination are certainly another. Vision and a good sense of where things are going in society is probably another. But LUCK, just hard cold luck, is part of the mix too.

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Derek Sivers shares fantastic insights at TED based on a seemingly trivial video.

A very interesting video, that is probably the beginning of a very smart marketing campaign:

Although technology has countless benefits in our lives, there are more and more reports that suggest there is an accompanying negative effect on our brains and on our children’s development, as I have written in the past. A recent article in the New York Times paints a scary picture:  some teens prefer the instant gratification of a YouTube video or a Facebook status update, to the enriching (albeit, delayed) gratification that one can glean from reading a book.  Although children have always enjoyed distractions when it comes to work, technology has carried a whole new slew of tools with which to procrastinate with that prove to be increasingly dangerous.

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It is something everyone in the corridors of Arab power tends to acknowledge: that the current Iranian regime is a destabilizing apocalyptic messianic cult whose acquisition of nuclear weapons would be an overwhelming threat to the region.  But it is never publicly discussed or shared with the masses. Till now.  The leaks of diplomatic memos between the US and its foreign allies is a stark affirmation of the danger that Arab – and Israeli – leaders perceive from Iran. 

Here is just one summary:

Graphic: Fears of a Nuclear Iran

Middle East leaders speak about their powerful neighbor with a directness seldom, if ever, heard in public.

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This quote was shared at the Trinity University by Brian Balak and is very inspiring:

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

                                                             – Martin Luther King

Setting up a home phone with Verizon has been a series of frustrations and disappointments, but the most recent ridiculousness is that we need to pay to keep our home phone number private from solicitors.  Why do we have to pay for Verizon to NOT do something? Does Google give out your email address to solicitors if you don’t opt out? Nope. Verizon’s behavior is not unlike the mafia.  I wish I could tell them this but I am stuck on hold.