Israel Active

Humour is the theme of the Hamshushalayim 2012 festival in Jerusalem. Every weekend in December is filled with stand-up shows, satire, storytelling, cabaret, literature, poetry, laugh yoga, humour in art, pantomime and special theatrical tours for the whole family. All events are free. http://hamshush.itraveljerusalem.com/

I could be watching Israel playing England at my local brand new Netanya stadium. In June’s European U21 Soccer Championship, hosts Israel were placed in Group A with England, Italy and Norway. There are four venues: Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Netanya and Petah Tikva.

‘I’m the American Middle Eastern dream,’ says Sameh Zakout, aka SAZ, a Ramle boy who dreams about making it big in Los Angeles after his stint on an Israeli reality show. Zakout has an American professional coach, an Israeli manager, an Arab booking agent, and high hopes.

For those tourists who realise that Israel is as safe as ever, here are 10 top recommended events. Highights include two jazz concerts; an Ethiopian photo exhibition in Netanya; Israel Museum’s “Modern Judaica” exhibition; and a Negev tour “In the footsteps of Ben Gurion”.

(Thanks to Uri) Try out this exciting interactive video tour of the Jewish State.

Short video featuring increasingly up-market Jaffa. A special project including Designers of the Castro Fashion chain with 11 international leading street artists, who came together to bring street art into fashion.

Israeli non-profit organisation Kinetis has brought five of the world’s top followers of fashion to explore Israel's fashionable side, and share it with world. Kinetis’ founder, Joanna Landau, organized the tour to demonstrate Tel Aviv’s wealth of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

The Keshet Media Group, the production house behind most of the TV exports to the US, is hosting the INTV Conference where it’s showcasing some of the Israeli startups innovating Web-TV.

Our local soccer team has moved into its brand new NIS 240 million state-of-the-art stadium. The first game ended in a 2-1 victory for the home team over Hapoel Tel Aviv and was Netanya’s first victory in the new season.

The top American tennis player and World number three decided to vacation in the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat. Having just beaten Maria Sharapova in the Masters Tournament finals in Istanbul, she had some free time on her hands before training for the next season.