The sex industry....a lucrative economy, but for who?

In an article by Ravit Hecht entitled, When The Customer Is Always Wrong, Hecht talks about the hundreds of thousands of young women forced into prostitution every year in Israel. Hecht starts the article with a premiere screening in Israel of the film "TheWhistleblower" , about an American policewoman who served with the United Nations peace force in Bosnia after the war in Yugoslavia. She exposed an international network that smuggled teenage girls for sexual exploitation. They would smuggle these young girls from "backwards countries" in Eastern Europe to the demilitarized zones in Bosnia for UN soldiers. These young girls were between the ages of 15-16. Hecht goes on to mention the audiences reaction to the film. Many could not look at the screen, some walked out, others buried their head in their hands. The fragments of testimonies from spoke of rape, starvation, incarceration, and plunder.

Israel law forbids pimping, soliciting prostitution, and maintaining a property that houses prostitution. In 2000 the law was amended to include a ban on human trafficking, yet the law continues to focus on entrepreneurs, agents, kidnappers, traders, and those who solicit. The customers, who Hecht feels are the "whole reason this problem exists", are rarely ever the ones jailed. Hecht goes on to mention a study conducted by the Hotline for Migrant Workers and the Clinic for Combating Trafficking in Women at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005, called "The Missing Factor." The Missing Factor describes how clients of prostitutes in Israel are ignored by the authorities and "reflects a sort of forgiveness extended to those whose money fuels the industry, and thus perpetuates the victims' tragic fate."

Hecht also silences false myths of female students who pay for their tuition the "easy way" and that anyone who reads testimonies from women in the Israel sex industry will find that not one chose it. Many girls in prostitution in Israel are coerced and tricked by the promise of economic opportunity. Most are from poor countries, or poor areas in countries, that lack social services or jobs.  Some are escaping from families of physical abuse or sexual abuse.

Hecht talks about Sweden becoming the first country to pass a law incriminating clients in 1999. Since then, prostitution has declined 80%. Israel tried to push a similar law but a preliminary survey showed that the adult public preferred to continue with the existing situation. More than 80% of the poll said that clients should not be tried, and prostitutes should not be placed on trial.

In the Rosenthal book, an estimated 700 massage brothels are in operation, with 250 in Tel Aviv alone. "The sex-for-trade is blatant and lucrative" (Rosenthal pg. 371). There are ads for massage parlors, escort services, etc, in prestigious Hebrew newspapers and billboards in cemeteries and synagogues. According to police, about twenty-five thousand paid sexual transactions take place daily. Prostitutes claim that a fifth or more of their clientele are very religious Jews. For most haredim, prostitution is impure. In 2000, a wave of arson with a number of brothels and sex shops being burned down. Four prostitutes died from being trapped in their rooms. Transmission of Aids and venereal disease has skyrocketed. The Ministry of Health checks known prostitutes and some carry their latest results in their purse for clients, but others who are mainly addicted to drugs do not get tested (Rosenthal pg. 371). The chapter mentions a sixteen year old runaway who escaped from a drug rehab center. She is now a prostitute and says "If they don't want to wear condoms, I don't care. They're the ones who have to explain things to their wives." There is a huge increase of Russian mafia taking over the prostitution business and trafficking young women from other countries by luring them with false ads of economic promise (Rosenthal pg. 372). Natalia was an unemployed single mother from Moldova, tricked by an ad promising $1,000 a month as a masseur. She accepted a seven month job and was sent to holiday in Egypt were she was raped and kidnapped by a Bedouin who made $1,000 off of every woman he smuggled. She was sold to a man who brought her to midtown Tel Aviv.  She was immediately put to work with two other Moldova women. After a raid on the brothel, she testified as a witness against the pimps and then deported. Many women who testify receive death threats and are even found and killed. That is why few prostitutes file charges or testify against their pimps (Rosenthal pg. 376).

At the end of Hecht's article, she goes on to use the example of the film "Pretty Woman" that starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. The two end up falling in and the prostitute abandons the lifestyle for some happy ending story, although the reality is more like "The Whistleblower", which send viewers scurrying out of the movie theater. The author is clearly giving her opinion at the very end. It is clear that she is against prostitution, and even more so, faulting the client as a major responsibility in why these young women are trafficked. She does a good job in showing the attitudes about prostitution in the "Missing Factor" survey, but has absolutely no link to see the information, only her own overview. She humanizes the prostitutes by making it clear that they are tricked, lied to, and kidnapped; not lazy students trying to find a quick way to pay their tuition. She does a good job in using Sweden as an example of a country successfully making a law that goes after the client, reduces prostitution. What she lacked were more first-hand testimonies from prostitutes. Their voices would have spoke volumes and been a first-hand source. The article was clearly an opinionated one. Her side of what she believes may be the problem with the rising increase and demand for prostitution. She does give some concise examples but it is still too focused on opinion.

Rosenthal did a great job in having first-hand testimonies from prostitutes. There are many different stories of how each girl ended up where she was at. All of them different, painting a clearer picture to truth than a piece that is one's own opinion. In one example a girl was a drug addict who ran away from a rehab center. Another was a single mother tricked into prostitution by being kidnapped. Rosenthal does a great job showing that everyone is guilty, not only Russian mafia. From religious Jews to advertisers and marketing ads, it seems that places like Tel Aviv have built a very popular and lucrative business in prostitution. Rosenthal shows the facts.

"The Modesty Patrol"...God's thugs or passionate believers?

In an article in the Huffington Post, by Amy Teibel, some of Israel's ultra-Orthodox community are using intimidation and violence against non-Orthodox Jews. These zealot vigilantes are attacking in their own neighborhoods. They come out of the ultra Orthodox or haredi communities and have been called 'modesty patrol.' They have been known to throw stones at women who bare too much, set fire to secular business' selling secular goods, beat people up who engage in what they consider lewd acts.

In recent weeks, these modesty patrols have been accused of burning down a store for selling MP4's, and breaking into an apartment of a Jerusalem woman to beat her up for 'consorting with men.' In August, a Jerusalem man was arrested on suspicion of setting fire to a store in the haredi district that sold MP4 players. Aaron Gold, a 31 yr old haredi worker at the store, recalls a group of men coming into the store, threatening costumers, throwing merchandise on the floor, and screaming "this store burns souls." He said that there would be as many as 15 at a time. He mentions that on a particular Friday night, just before Sabbath, they smashed the window, doused the store with gasoline, and threw a match. Now no MP4s are sold there under orders of the Rabbis. According to Rosenthal, Haredim in Jerusalem have a lot of political power. Religious Jews make up the majority on the city council, and in 2003 had its first haredi mayor (Rosenthal pg. 230). Yitzah Polack, a 50 yr old Jerusalem teacher calls these modesty patrols "stupid troublemakers who bring shame and disgrace to this holy community." Another community member, Yehuda Meshi-Zahav says that the rabbis are afraid to condemn them. He feels that "the militants set the tone."

There are many stories of the modesty patrol's abuse in Beit Shemesh, an area outside of Jerusalem. This area is known for its heavy ultra-Orthodox/haredi extremists. Walls of the neighborhood have signs telling women to dress modestly. Zealots in the area have attacked women for impiety. A 17 yr old woman who had moved from New York to Israel was hospitalized after a crowd of men attacked her for walking down the street with boys. A girl by the name of Esther said that zealots threw rocks at her for wearing a red blouse which attracts too much attention. The state subsidizes gender-segregated bus routes that service religious neighborhoods. After an Orthodox Canadian woman in her 50's was beaten by men for refusing to move to the back of the bus, Nami Ragen and several women challenged the practice in Israel's Supreme Court. Ragen , an Israeli-American novelist, has been chronicling the troubles of women living in an Orthodox community. Three years ago, an Israeli Sephardi chief rabbi's son was jailed for kidnapping a 17 yr old boy who had been seeking the attention of his unchaperoned sister.

In Rosenthal's chapter on The Non Orthodox, a non-Orthodox girl named Sivan recalls her teenage experience growing up in a haredi neighborhood. She says that haredi children would shout words in Yiddish that meant 'slut.' When she was a teenager a haredi neighbor asked her to come to her apartment and turn on the lights, since Jews were forbidden to do so on the Sabbath. She mentions how upset she was by that. That somehow her being a secular didn't make her a legitimate Jew in the eyes of religious Jews. That they thought of themselves as 'holier' or 'having better values.' She mentions that if not for nonreligious Zionists who brought Jews to Israel, many haredi's would have lived in Europe and been slaughtered (Rosenthal pgs. 225-226). Another woman named Mira, who runs an ecological educational center that tries to create 'green' Arabs and Jews, says that most Israeli high school students read the science magazine she edits but it wasn't allowed in ultra-Orthodox schools. She says that "they think science is for the seculars and the Bible is for them. I try to show my readers that the Bible belongs to all of us" (Rosenthal pg. 226). Rabbi Azari, a Reform and Conservative rabbi, mentions that "Israel is the only democracy in the Western world where Jews do not have freedom of religion, the only place where Jews deny religious freedom to Jews" (Rosenthal pg. 232). Even though most Jewish Israelis are non-Orthodox (about 80 percent), 98 percent of more than ten thousand synagogues in Israel are either Orthodox or ultra-Orthodox (Rosenthal pg. 232). It seems that question for secular Jews is why should these ultra-Orthodox Jews who refuse to join the army and refuse to work receive tax exemptions and live off the backs of the very people that they are attacking.

In the Huffington Post article, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says that these modesty police are not organized, they are rogue enforcers doing isolated attacks, but in an indictment filed by the Jerusalem district attorney's office in a case involving a 31 yr old woman who's assailant tried to get her to leave the apartment by gagging, beating, and threatening to kill her, the assailant was paid $2,000 for the attack.

Within all this turmoil there are slow steps being made for change. The article mentions that in recent years the haredim have 'eased up' on imposing their rules in secular areas. Many restaurants and shopping centers now stay open on the Sabbath. According to Rabbi Azari, in 2003, the anti haredi Shinui became the largest party in the government. This marked the first time in two decades there were no ultra-Orthodox parties in the coalition. He claims that "This is not Iran anymore" (Rosenthal pg. 236).

I feel that the author of the Huffington Post article painted a clear picture of the terror that these modesty patrols are doing. She gave good examples of their intimidation and violence. She did a good job with quotes from both secular and religious Jews. She even had quotes from a haredi store worker who was a victim of the attack on the store selling the MP4's. I felt this was a good move in showing that the modesty patrol are members within the haredi, not the haredi as a whole. She also did a great job in showing the Israeli police spokesman's opinion of the modesty police in comparison to the Jerusalem district attorney's office. The police spokesman viewing it as unorganized random acts, and the D.A.'s office viewing it as paid hitmen with a specific target. Rosenthal's chapter did a good job in showing the resentment in secular Jews regarding the ultra-Orthodox's refusal to join the army and work, but still getting tax exemptions. This puts another layer of understanding that both of these groups problems are also beyond just religion, it has to do with contribution. I felt both the article and Rosenthal did a good job in sharing stories from victims of abuse. Rosenthal goes further into showing progression and hope for the future. She uses very optimistic examples like the 2003 anti-haredi Shinui, and mentioning Rabbi Azari's quote, "a younger generation with tremendous thirst for an authentic form of liberal Judaism" (Rosenthal pg. 231).

Gay for God? ...or...God for Gays?

On Friday June 10, 2011, Tel Aviv had its annual gay pride parade. According to an article in the Huffington Post, by Michele Chabin, "this year's annual gay pride festival was even more colorful with a parade float, sponsored by Google, representing the country's religious gay and lesbian communities."

Although many Orthodox still believe that homosexuality is wrong, and that the Torah considers it an "abomination", there are Modern Orthodox communities that are beginning to be more open-minded to the idea of same-sex relationships. Religious Jews still suffer from fear of 'coming out', and often times keep their homosexuality hidden. Many of these Religious gays and lesbians often marry opposite sex partners to keep their homosexuality hidden. They either remain in the closet, or as Chabin's article puts it, "simply stop living a religious life altogether." 

            Tel Aviv's gay pride festival showed many 20 and 30 something year olds wearing shirts that said "Religious Pride Community", and there were even spectators yelling out "Good for you!", according to Chabin's story. The first gay pride festival was held in 1998. It occurred a month after Dana International, a twenty-seven year old transsexual singer, won the Eurovision Song Contest. Dana was a former soldier and son of working-class Yemenite parents according to Rosenthal's chapter, Oy! Gay. Rosenthal mentions that Dana's triumph had thousands of Israelis "spilling in to the streets of Tel Aviv" cheering in celebration for one of its own winning the contest viewed by a worldwide audience of a billion. A month later, 15,000 turned out for Tel Aviv's first annual gay pride festival with signs reading "Gay, religious, and proud" along with "Orthadykes", a group of Orthodox lesbians. Since then it seems like Religious Jews have been broadening their thoughts on this matter. Although there is still a long way to go before it is totally accepted. 

             In Rosenthal's chapter, a young woman by the name of Nurit tells of her experience living in a West Bank settlement, near Jerusalem, being Orthodox and lesbian. Her brother, a soldier in the Israeli military, came out to their parents and had the support of his unit. She states that "being gay doesn't clash with being a good soldier", so gays are accepted. It seems as though being a lesbian is not as tolerated. She mentions that growing up religious means that women are raised to be wives and have children. You are not a real woman if you do not want children. In the Orthodox community, the rate of marriage for gays and lesbians who continue being "in the closet", is much higher than in the secular world. In the Rosenthal chapter, Nurit mentions that "In Israel, kids are everything, the center of life. On a deep psychological level, I think it's about continuing the Jewish people." This may be why there is a growing number of gay and lesbian couples wanting to have children, or "gaybies." According to a Haifa University's social work professor Dr. Ben-Ari, in many western countries lesbian teens are often opposed to traditional family structure, but in Israel the idea of family is something that is welcomed amongst them. This may have to do with Nurit's point of children being the epicenter of Israeli life and the continuing line for the Jewish people.

Both articles point to a 2001 American documentary called Trembling Before God. This documentary explores homosexual Orthodox and ultra-Orthadox Jewish men and women. In Rosenthal's book, Nurit tells of her gay brother first taking her to see the film at Jerusalem's Cinematique. She recalls her experience watching it as "her life on that screen." This sentiment is also expressed in the Huffington Post article by Chabin, were Daniel Jonas, a spokesman of Havruta (an Orthodox gay men's association) says the film "had a strong impact on religious society." He mentions that the film put the exile of gays and lesbians from religious communities on full display. Some were kicked out of their homes, their communities, and committed suicide. He also credits Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip for the changing attitudes in Orthodox life. Many Orthodox began to question their faith and the trust of rabbis after they assured them that God would not let the Israeli military forcibly uproot religious settlers from Gaza. Orthodox Jews had to start thinking for themselves. In Chabin's article, Lev (a lesbian activist) makes the point that familiarity will breed acceptance, even if it will come at a slow pace. 

            It appears as if Chabin's article is very pro-gay. She does a good job of getting quotes from many gay and lesbian activists, community representatives, and Orthodox coordinators. She also does a good job in letting the reader know that even though Israel is very progressive when it comes to this matter, within the Religious Jewish community, there is still a slow climb to full open-mindedness. What I feel the author was missing were more accounts of people's struggle being gay within the Orthodox community, especially of lesbian women. Rosenthal does a good job of having Nurit's story. Her viewpoint of Israel's center of life being children, and woman are thought of as breeders was invaluable in understanding the root of this countries ideology. I feel that Chabin's story misses that point, even though she does mention the example of Gidi Grunberg's (a coordinator of three groups of Orthodox gay and lesbian teens) father telling the family therapist that Gidi was "ill". Chabin's article does a good job in explaining the significance of the documentary Trembling Before God. Daniel Jonas' explanation, I felt really nailed the impact of that movie among religious groups. Rosenthal's take on the documentary really explained the impact it had on actual gays and lesbians, but Chabin's article told a little about the documentary and painted a clearer picture of why it was so significant.

Here is the trailer for the documentary Trembling Before God:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGHfXMJSrBc

Israel: Fire UN official over false Gaza photo

                In an article by Herb Keinon entitled Israel: Fire UN official over false Gaza photo, Israel Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, demanded the dismissal of UN official Kuhlood Badawi. Kuhlood Badawi is an information and media coordinator for OCHA. OCHA is the UN's office for the Coordination of Humanitarian affairs. Badawi had posted a picture on twitter of a young girl covered in blood being carried by her father. Along with the picture she tweeted, "Palestine is bleeding. Another child killed by #Israel...Another father carrying his child to the grave in #Gaza." It falsely claimed that the little girl was killed by an IDF strike. The photo was taken in 2006 and was unrelated to Israel.

                        Prosor sent a letter to the undersecretary general of humanity affairs. In Prosor's letter, he angrily claimed her tweet was false and was the top tweet of the day regarding news linking to Gaza. Prosor goes on to mention that OCHA deviates from the original intent of the organization, which is to remain impartial. The spreading of misinformation erodes the credibility and integrity of the organization, especially in the Israeli public. The twitter comment demonizes Israel and contributes to the incitement and conflict. He called for Kuhlood Badawi to be fired and for OCHA to disassociate itself from her twitter.    

            The Foreign Ministry has also had its complaints against the OCHA organization. They view OCHA as a very one-sided. Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor felt that OCHA betrayed its original humanitarian mission for pro-Palestinian propaganda. He felt this "fabrication" hit a new low for OCHA. He states that "It is intolerable that UN money pays for this." When OCHA was approached to respond about the incident, a spokeswoman in Jerusalem said that she was not allowed to comment on the matter, and to try the New York department. The spokeswoman there was unaware of Prosor's letter and said she would look into it. No further response had occurred by the time it went to press. 

            I feel that the author remained fairly neutral given the lack of cooperation or knowledge from OCHA. The article has the possibility of being perceived as taking the side of Prosor and Palmor, but I do believe the author was doing a good job of only stating what they commented and not giving his own opinion. The author also mentions in the article the attempt to try to contact OCHA before press time was up. If anything, the author was a bit lazy in giving the reader a more detailed background. With that being said, I feel that the author poorly informed the reader of what happened in the picture. According to a post on the Israel Defense Forces site, the little girl had fallen off of a swing and was badly injured, not killed. This background is crucial in informing the reader that it had absolutely nothing to do with Israeli/Palestinian politics. The author does mention that the injury is unrelated but leaves a grey area that allows for the reader to assume it might have had something to do with civilian casualty from a previous attack. 

             The author also didn't use many sources in his article. Though the author did get quotes from Prosor and Palmer, and attempted to get them from OCHA, he failed to mention how pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians both have tweeted faulty claims, pictures, and videos. In an article by Ruth Eglash, she perfectly lays out the ongoing online battles from both sides. Both trying to discredit and uncover fake, or doctored images from one another. She mentions Diana Alzeer, a Palestinian blogger/twitter user, who responded to criticism against her for reposting the image, after apologizing, said that a twitter post by IDF spokeswoman Avita Leibovich, who falsely put a video up of "a barrage of Grad rockets ranging 40km, fired by Jihad into Israel" from last October proved to be an inaccurate posting on the side of the Israelis. The author of this main article could have done a better job in pointing out these online battles from both sides, to show that it is an ongoing information sharing dilemma, not just a one-off fluke. Although there is a possibility that the author may have left out that kind of information for a more subversive attempt to sway the reader into his own one-sided view.

Israeli decision to release Khader Adnan in April "Insufficient"

In the article, Israeli Decision to Release Palestinian Detainee in April"Insufficient", a thirty three year old Palestinian baker and father of two named Khader Adnan has agreed to end his hunger strike after sixty six days. Khader Adnan has been on a sixty six day hunger strike in protest to his arrest on December 17 of last year at his home in the village of Arrabe, in occupied West Bank. His hunger strike was initially started against what he felt was a wrongful treatment regarding his detainment. Israeli military allow Israeli authorities to detain Palestinian's without a trial if they feel that they are a security threat in his alleged affiliation with the Islamic Jihad movement. They are allowed to detain them from the occupied West Bank. On January 10, Khader Adnan was given a four month detention order. He has been held there since on the verge of death due to his hunger strike. Along with Adnan, there are around 309 Palestinians being detained with more than 20 of them from the Palestinian Legislative Council. One has been detained for over five years.

            Israeli authorities have made a deal to release Khader Adnan on April. Since Adnan is very weak and unhealthy from his hunger strike, which he has agreed to end, he may not live to be released on that date. Amnesty International is urging Israeli authorities to release Khader Adnan before April in hopes to get him the urgent medical attention he needs to stay alive. Amnesty International is arguing that he does not cause a security threat in the condition that he is in and to let him be released. They are also urging Israeli authorities to release other detainees. They have asked Israel to end these administrative detentions in what it feels to be a violation of internationally recognized right to a fair trial. Human rights physicians have reported that as of February 19, Khader Adnan had still been shackled to a hospital bed despite Israeli authorities saying that they had been removed. A hearing set for Tuesday in the Israeli Supreme Court was cancelled due to an agreement made by Adnan's lawyer and the Israeli authorities.

            According to Joseph Dana in an article written for the National, he asks the question of why Israel has not released any evidence against Khader Adnan. Adnan is a spokesmen for a radical Islamic movement who has been arrested several times yet Israel keeps quiet despite "harsh international criticism". According to another article by Richard Falk, Adnan is being called a "terrorist" without charges or proof. His role as a spokesman for Islamic Jihad have been more neutral and no links to his past of violence or advocating violence. The author goes on to point out that even though Jihad had used violence in its past, it has abandoned that practice some years ago.

            The author of the original article, Israeli Decision to Release Palestinian Detainee in April "Insufficient", seems to be showing the reader the urgency of Khader Adnan's medical need. They are showing you a humanitarian picture and are showing Khader Adnan as a victim of being in a detention, regardless of it being his own self inflicting protest that has him on the brink of death. The author is showing us the Amnesty International side of this argument. Mainly referencing or sighting only quotes from Amnesty International and no other side. Then again, it is difficult to give the viewpoint of the Israeli authorities when they are tight lipped about the situation. The failure of this article is that it gave no in depth back story on Khader Adnan. It gave the reader a line or two mentioning his 'alleged' affiliation with Jihad and that authorities came to his home to detain him. I needed to go to outside sources to find more in depth detail about his background and the character of this man. I felt the article was specifically giving you a "shock" read telling the reader how he is on the brink of death, which may be true, but not much else about how he got there in the first place.

Turning things around at Bikur Cholim

In an article by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Dr. Raphael Pollack, medical director and chief of        obstetrics/gynecology in Jerusalem's Bikur Cholim General Hospital, has been conducting what is known as external cephalic version (ECV). External cephalic version is a process used during pregnancy that attempts to avoid cesarean sections from 'breech babies'  by turning the baby's body around so that it comes out head first instead of feet first. The mother can have a 'virtually painless' delivery under anesthesia. This also can avoid complications during the recovery process and lessen expense which tend to be much higher with breech babies because more medical care, recovery time, and money is required. Dr. Pollack estimated that hundreds of millions of dollars go to cesareans per year in the United States. Turning babies over is a way of reducing the economic expense.

                The external cephalic version is usually used while women are in their ninth month of pregnancy. Dr. Pollack asks women to drink two liters of water to fill the bladder, which makes the fetus float upward, making it easier to move. He monitors the fetus with ultrasound to find the location and injects a ritadrine into the mother to relax the muscles of the uterus. When the fetus is located he flips it over to be positioned to come out head first. The monitoring can take three to four hours but the EVC takes only a few minutes. His success rate has been about 74 percent, which he finds to be a very good number, explaining that it is impossible to achieve 100% success rates because of uterine malformations.

              Dr. Raphael Pollack's career starts in Montreal, where he was born. He attended Medicine at McGill University and worked at Yeshiva University's Einstein College of Medicine in New York. He joined Bikur Cholim General Hospital right after he moved to Israel in 1993. Pollack has performed a total of 1,372 ECV's. He originally went into trying to perform vaginal birth after c-sections (VBAC) but Western hospitals did not have the facilities or manpower to do emergency c-sections in case something went wrong during a VBAC, so he began researching ECV's. Still considered a 'fringe' technique, Bikur Cholim has the highest rate of breech deliveries in the country.

              Bikur Cholim have been going through tough times trying to not to close its doors. It was saved five years ago from closing by Arkady Gaydamak, a Russian oligarch. He was campaigning for Jerusalem's mayor during that time and decided to buy the hospital. He was unsuccessful in winning his campaign and left Israel due to lawsuits. From time to time he visits the hospital but it is left on its own to stay afloat. Pollack took over the leadership as medical and administrative director. Now Shaare Zedek Medical Center and Hadassah University Medical Center have come into the picture. Shaare Zedek is Israel's number one medical center for deliveries. Pollack views this as a good thing. He feels that major metropolitan areas need more medical centers. He also feels that there is limited space in these places and people will still need Bikur Cholim and smaller community hospitals.

                The author obviously has a bias towards Dr. Pollack. With a 75% success rate, Siegel-Itzkovich fails to mention any dangers or harmful effects of an external cephalic version, only mentioning Pollack's quote of being very 'disappointed when it doesn't work'. It gives no true account of what happens to women if or when it doesn't work out except that a breech delivery ends up being the alternative, but she fails to mention anything about those breech deliveries rate of success. The author's mention of the hospital's history and it's threat of shutting down had absolutely no point to the original story. The first half of the article is about EVC delivery techniques and the benefits of it working over a VBAC, and then the author shoots over to Arkady Gaydamak buying the hospital for his mayoral campaign agenda. The thread gets cut at this point. It seems as though the author used two different 'hooks' to reel in the reader. The first one being 'fringe' medical techniques, and the second being the possibility of the hospitals demise and competition from other hospitals growing. It seems as though the author ran out of material to meet her quota, or really liked throwing as much as she could and molding it into one story.