Google Maps politricks or just an error?

This post is not about reggae, but I need to say this somewhere.

Here's the story, on September 22 I'm talking to a friend and he is trying to tell me where a city in Israel is located. I take out my iPod Touch and do a Google Maps search for Israel. The entire country is blank except for areas marked Gaza and West Bank. I try zooming in to see if thats the problem but no, all the surrounding areas have city names clearly marked, but nothing in Israel. When I got home I tried the same thing and got the same results but this time I took pictures with my camera. See for yourself:

I dont know if someone somewhere is playing politricks or if this was a system error, but this is wrong. I dont get the same result from maps.google.com or maps.google.co.jp, only when using the google maps app on my iPod Touch.

Update 1: This same thing happened to an iPhone user in Texas, USA and is also confirmed by another Japanese iPhone user.

5770 starts this friday night

A new year is almost upon us! By the Hebrew calendar, the year 5770 starts this friday night. If you read up your Bible you will see that the new year starts on the month of Tishrei and since months are calculated by the moon, Tishrei starts Friday night. Why friday night and not Saturday? Again, its in your Bible, check the start of Genesis "and there was evening and there was morning, a new day".

Here's wishing you a year full of livity and blessings!