April 20, 2022

To be perfectly blunt, the 4/20 jokes are getting old. But the origin of the term "420" is quite interesting. Back in the early 1970s, a group of 5 California high school buddies would meet up at 4:20 pm after school to find an abandoned cannabis crop. With the help of a stoner publication and Grateful Dead groupies, their story and the "420" term went mainstream. Happy 4/20!

Back to planet earth, we cover a more sobering subject in today's Wrap: The disputed history of Jerusalem and how it threatens conflict today.

― Key Stories

Walmart Heirs Launch Festival
Overview

• Several of the Waltons — heirs to the Walmart fortune — are launching a Woodstock- and Austin City Limits-inspired music festival
• Called FORMAT (For Music + Art + Technology), it will be held this September on a field owned by the Waltons near Walmart’s HQ in Bentonville, Arkansas
• Acts will feature a range of visual artists, drag performers, sexologists, and bands, including Rüfüs Du Sol, Phoenix, and The Flaming Lips
• The Waltons are one of the world's richest families. According to Forbes, the 7 richest Waltons are worth a combined $268B

Netflix Stock Plunges
Overview

• Netflix lost 200,000 subscribers in the first 3 months of 2022, its first quarterly decline in 10 years
• The company projects that it will lose 2M customers this quarter (April – June), which would mark its worst-ever stretch as a public company
• It continues a bad year for Netflix, whose stock — already down 40% in 2022 — fell another 24% on the news
• Netflix blamed increased competition, the end of the pandemic, and password sharing. It said it is testing ways to limit users’ ability to share passwords with friends and family

Airstrike Hits Gaza
Overview

• An Israeli airstrike hit Gaza, a Palestinian territory, early Tuesday
• Israel said it struck a weapons factory in retaliation after a rocket was shot from Gaza toward Israel. Israeli missile defenses intercepted the rocket
• No one claimed responsibility, although it follows threats by 2 groups to attack Israel over tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank, both of which Israel occupies despite Palestinian claims
• Hamas, which the US and EU consider a terrorist group, governs Gaza. Last May, airstrikes and rocket attacks led Hamas and Israel to an 11-day war

Electric Chopsticks Bring the Saltiness
Overview

• Scientists in Japan have created a set of electric chopsticks that can mimic the taste of salt
• The chopsticks are connected to a computerized device on the wrist by a wire. They use metal tips to move sodium ions into the mouth via an undetectable electric current when food is eaten
• The chopsticks reportedly boost a food’s saltiness by 50%. The inventor said they help “you experience the saltiness with stronger impact”
• The average sodium intake in Japan is more than double the recommended amount, largely because of salty staples like soy sauce and miso

See yesterday's results below the Wrap!

 Popcorn

Culture & Sports

• My plot will go on: A film starring and featuring the music of Celine Dion, It's All Coming Back to Me Now, will release in theaters in 2023
• The Daily Flop: Jon Stewart's Apple TV+ show drew just 48,000 viewers for its latest episode, marking a 78% drop from its debut
• Matt Damon and Ben Affleck are teaming up again to make a movie about the Nike executive who chased down MJ for a deal in the 1980s 

• Water Drops of Jupiter: Jupiter's moon Europa may have subterranean pools of salty water, hinting at the possibility of life
• Oh how the tables turn: Footage of waters off the Canadian coast show a humpback whale turning on and attacking a group of orcas
• Sweet Home Ireland: Irish cousins got married in a ceremony their entire town was invited to. The groom reportedly had 73 best men
• Google is developing a new line of in-home products that give notifications by emitting small "puffs of air"

― Roca Wrap

A Newsletter Exclusive

Jews know it as the Temple Mount; Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque: However it’s referred to, the site in East Jerusalem is one of the most controversial places on Earth. 

For the Abrahamic faiths – Islam, Christianity, Judaism – it’s the place where God is said to have created the world and the first man. At the center of the structure is a rock – the “Foundation Stone” to Jews; the “Noble Rock” to Muslims – that is said to be exactly where all this happened. 

It was here that the first Jewish temple was built, before it was destroyed in 586 BC. A second temple existed around it from 515 BC until 70 AD. A third temple was never built, but the site remains the holiest place in Judaism. It’s where Jews around the world pray to; the Western Wall – the remaining part of the temple complex wall closest to the Foundation Stone – is a major Jewish pilgrimage site. 

For Muslims, this same place is where the prophet Mohammed traveled to from Mecca; to where Mohammed prayed; and from where Mohammad ascended to heaven. An Islamic shrine was erected on the site in 692 AD, and a mosque in 705 AD. Muslims consider it their third holiest site.  

As if that didn’t make the site disputed enough, it’s situated in East Jerusalem, which both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their own. 

Beginning in the late 1800s, the Zionist movement, which sought to create a Jewish state, gained popularity among European Jews. They began moving to the Middle East, particularly as anti-Semitic attacks increased in the 1900s. 

In 1947, after the Holocaust, the UN called for the division of British-occupied Palestine into 2 states, 1 Arab, 1 Jewish. Jerusalem was envisioned as an international city, held by no one country. 

Upon Israel’s declaration of independence in 1948, though, the neighboring Arab states invaded, sparking the first Arab-Israeli war. Both sides accused the other of ethnic cleansing. When the dust settled, Israel occupied western Jerusalem and Jordan occupied eastern Jerusalem, which contained most of the city’s holy sites, including the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa.

Another Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1967. It ended in an overwhelming Israeli victory, with Israel occupying the entirety of Jerusalem, as well as the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, and Gaza. Israel later returned the Sinai to Egypt, occupied the West Bank and Gaza, and officially incorporated East Jerusalem into itself. 

Today, Israel considers a unified Jerusalem its capital, while the Palestinian Territories – the West Bank and Gaza – want East Jerusalem to be the capital of their future state. 

Neither of the Palestinian Territories is fully independent, although Gaza has governed itself since Israeli troops withdrew in 2005. The West Bank also has its own government, but Israeli troops occupy it, Israelis have set up towns within it, and many in Israel want to formally take it over. 

Palestinians and many others say the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem and the West Bank is humiliating and illegal, an attack on their culture, and a violation of their human rights. Israel and its supporters say the occupations are necessary to preserve Israeli security. Some Israelis claim a religious justification.

A perennial fear among Palestinians is that Israel will cut off their access to Al-Aqsa/the Temple Mount. Israel strongly denies it intends to do so. Currently, Jews are only allowed to visit during limited time slots and they cannot pray at the compound, although some religious and nationalist Israelis want that to change.

***

With all this complexity and the politics surrounding the situation, there are frequent tensions around Jerusalem and the West Bank. Right now, those tensions are particularly high.

For one thing, Ramadan, an Islamic holy month, and Passover, a Jewish holy week, are overlapping, meaning more Muslims and Jews are visiting Jerusalem’s holy sites at the same time. Israel has said it will block all non-Muslims from visiting the Temple Mount until the end of Ramadan.

And since the beginning of March, a wave of shootings, stabbings, and car attacks by Palestinians have left 14 Israelis dead. In response, Israel has deployed more soldiers into East Jerusalem and the West Bank, conducting raids, arrests, and interrogations in areas where they believe militants are active. The raids left 6 Palestinians dead, and there have been riots in the West Bank. 

Last Friday, Israeli authorities said that Palestinians were marching near the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa, launching fireworks, throwing stones, and gathering objects for a larger riot. After, Israel says, the marchers barricaded themselves inside the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa, from where they launched fireworks and threw stones. Israeli forces used tear gas to clear out the compound. At least 158 Palestinians and 2 Israelis were injured; at least 300 Palestinians were arrested.

Since then, Hamas – which governs Gaza and is considered a terrorist group by the US, Israel, EU, and others – has said it will attack Israel if Al-Aqsa is not protected. On Tuesday, Israel said it intercepted a missile fired from Gaza, and responded with an airstrike on a Gazan weapons facility. 

Last May, similar tensions led to Hamas rocket attacks on Israel, to which Israel responded with airstrikes. The situation devolved into a war, which lasted 11 days, devastated Gaza, and killed at least 300 people.

Now, there are concerns that a similar situation could repeat itself. Whatever happens, the dispute over Jerusalem is unlikely to be resolved. 

 Roca Clubhouse

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― Final Thoughts