A word of warning to our more delicate-stomach readers: This story is kinda yucky.

But it reads to good!

It turns out that a solider over in Israel was recently put in jail because he made a meal during the Sabbath — AKA the day of rest.

All of us Israel-vets know that things over in the Holy Land kinda comes to a complete halt from Friday night to Saturday night — especially anything associated with the government, the army or most of Jerusalem.

Anyway, the soldier was up on his base about to eat a dish of that old Yiddish staple, cholent, when he realized a cat had beaten him too it.

Kinda grossed out, he quickly made himself a “light” meal — and that’s where the problems began.

You see, cholent is this stew of sorts that’s made the day before the sabbath and then eaten during the sabbath without requiring warming-up. This way, you get a proper meal but don’t break the Jewish ban on labor to make it.

But since the solider’s cholent had been turned into a cat snack, he decided to make something new. Midway through, one of the formal kitchen staff arrived and busted the soldier for cooking on the sabbath, tattled on his ass and got him sent to his commander.

The soldier then had a military trial and spent 20 days — 20 DAYS! — in jail.

HARSH!

Word has now gotten out about this whole sham — and Israel’s army mouth-pieces are trying to play it all down.

“This is a case of a soldier which was sentenced to detention due to disorderly conduct and violation of IDF rules,” an army spokesperson said.  ”The soldier has been known to have disciplinary problems in the past.”

Next time we go to Israel, we’re totally BYO-ing.

As we reflect on today, World AIDS Day, we wanted to take a moment to highlight an important new book we discovered during our recent trip to North Africa:

ISLAM and AIDS: Between Scorn, Pity and Justice

The new book is the first of its kind to address AIDS/HIV through the lens of the Islamic world and chart the effects the disease has had throughout this vast culture.

The book is more a compendium of essays, reportage and observations from leading activists and scholars specializing in both Islam and HIV/AIDS.  The book is a critical — yet sensitive — look at issues surrounding HIV and Islam, ranging from poverty and gender to law, ethics, addiction and sexuality. 

And there is a smart introduction from Peter Piot, the director of the Joing United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Many of these topics remain taboo in the Islamic world and the book does a nice job of bringing them to the forefront with insight and compassion.

Anyone who’s ever spent time in Tel Aviv knows that basically all of the dudes there kind of look like the two above.  Which if you’re into hirsute beef — is a good thing indeed.

So considering the critical mass, it was only a matter of time before the city debuted its first-ever club night devoted to Bears — and their followers.

The party is appropriately named BEEF and takes place each Thursday at the 2012 Club deep in Tel Aviv’s downtown.

BEEF is billed as a “bear fetish party” with sling, cruising and “menly” men — nice going with the alliteration.

The folks over at Time Out Tel Aviv (our former employer) say the party is pretty cool.

As do the dudes who own Pink House Tel Aviv — the city’s first all-Gay guest house, which (like Beef) is freshly arrived on the scene.

The three-room urban retreat is located a quick stroll from the beach in the heart of Tel Aviv’s UNESCO-lauded Bauhaus core and rates begin at a very reasonable 40 Euros per night.

Have fun!

Yes folks, Transracial is once again making his away across the Atlantic for another exotic excursion to lands far away.

This time we’re off to Morocco…where we’ll indulge in the Maghrebian splendor of Fes and Marrakesh before returning home next week.

There will be couscous and Berbers, mosques and other Middle Eastern delights — but sadly, no turkey or stuffing for us.

Back soon — we promise!

The folks over in France are so naughty!

First they invent kissing, then they perfect the affair and now they’ve taken a simple hotel stay and revved it up to new — and absurdly kinky — levels with the debut of the world’s first hamster hotel.

Yes, a hamster hotel.

Le Villa Hamster!

Before we go any further, let’s agree there will be no Richard Gere jokes!

Now that we’ve got that out of the way, the new hotel is in the western French city of Nantes, a beautiful town smack in the Loire valley.

The premise of the hotel is that you can spend a weekend leaving your human self behind — and living like a rodent.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

The hotel is actually a former private home dating back to the 1700s which has been transformed by owner — and rodent lifestyle-lover — Yan Falquerho into a rental property.

During its transformation, Falquero did the whole thing up like some over-sized hamster cage, including containers of organic grain, a water tube which guests can sip, and a double bed accessible only by a step ladder and a quick scramble on all fours. The pièce de résistance is a 2m-wide metal wheel in which both residents, if they wish, can take a turn side-by-side.

Hot!

There’s also an in-house kitchen, shower and very soon, WiFi — perfect for an unusual Internet hook-up.

But why a hamster-house?

Project interior designer Frédéric Tabary says he wanted to create a space for “people to chill out and smile in a society which is nowadays completely paralysed and formatted”.

Whatever their intention, the hotel has been booked almost solid since opening two weeks ago — so much so that Falquero intends to raise rates from €99 this year to €150 for 2010. Moreover, he’s already considering expanding with additional hamster properties in Paris and London.

He’s even speaking of his next unusual hotel concept — which he cryptically says will take guests “back to their origins….we mean their mother’s womb,” he explains. “There will be lots of light and sound to make you feel as though you are in a uterus.”

We can hardly wait.

For a real-time look at the La Villa Hamster, we present:

It’s been a bit of a rough ride for Alitalia, the Italian national airline which teeters from insolvency to insolvency as it somehow tries to keep afloat.

As part of its ongoing financial restructuring, the embattled flag-carrier will sell much of its private art collection in a move that regulators hope will raise millions.

Indeed, on Dec. 8th, Italian auction house Finarte will sell of some 200 lots of works owned by Alitalia.

There is certain to be a lot on offer, though the highlight of the auction is a vast canvas, “Zeus gave birth to the sun”, by the Futurist Gino Severini, commissioned for Alitalia’s Paris office in 1954 and now estimated at €300,000- €500,000. Other works are in the low thousands, among them Osvaldo Peruzzi’s “Flight above the clouds” (1997) estimated at €2,000-€3,000.

Although the event won’t rescue Alitalia over the long-term, it’s a wise buzz-building maneuver and could certainly be lots of fun.

New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind needs to be stopped!

The long-time representative of Brooklyn’s heavily-Jewish 48th District is right now in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with a delegation of 50 fellow Yanks in order to — get this — encourage the crew to buy property in the West Bank as a direct protest against Pres. Obama’s anti-Settlement policies.

WTF!

Yes, Hikind — an elected official from the UNITED STATES — has gone to Israel in order to dis HIS president and support the expansionist and internationally recognized illegal activities of a foreign government.

Hmmmm — something is rotten me thinks.

Hikind — a long-time anti-Obamaist — blames the Pres. for the current Middle East stalemate and insists any efforts to limit West Bank settlement growth are both anti-Israel and (read between the lines) anti-Jewish.

He calls efforts to stop Jews from living in the West Bank “segregation” and says such efforts must be stopped.

“For now, if a Jews wants to buy something in the Land of Israel there shouldn’t be anything that says you can’t buy in a particular area because Jews should not live there because that area has to be segregated.”

Hikind’s counter-productive and unnecessary provocations are a bad sign indeed — and demonstrate yet again the unfortunate ramifications of PM Netanyahu’s pro-Settlement policies.

We can only hope Hikind’s actions remain one-off — and actually hope he buys in the West Banks — and stays there!

Last year around this time we’d just returned from the $20 million opening of the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai. Which meant that when it came to the mere $5 million debut of the $1 Billion renovated Fountainebleau Hotel, we decided to pass — despite a private concert by Mariah Carey and Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Well, apparently the massive resort may have invested millions in their launch party — but a year later they’re short on cash to pay hungry creditors.

Indeed, as talks of bankruptcy swirl around the hotel — folks demanding cash are emerging from all side, and they’re quickly spilling the beans.

Looks as if Fountainbebleau owner Jeffrey Soffer is saddled with a $650 million construction loan that is quickly coming due.  Above that, there are some $60 million in unpaid contractor bills that creditors want paid NOW!

Also hot on Soffer’s heels is, well, Dubai! Because last year, the investment arm of the Dubai government paid Soffer’s ownership group $375 million for a 50 percent stake in the Fontainebleau. That deal gave the Dubai entity, part of Nakheel Leisure, the option to take over restructuring negotiations if there were problems with the resort’s loans.

Now those problems have appeared and the Dubai dudes are springing into action. Nakheel folks are conceding Chapter 11 may be inevitable — which is exactly what happened to Soffer’s $3 billion Fountainebleau in Las Vegas after it failed to make payments on $800 million in loans even before it was complete.

Worrisome news, for sure. We’re certain, however, that Mariah got her money!

He is the incredibly creative mind behind THIS must-read site and the blogger we hope to become when we grow up!

Follow that man!

Madonna and manager/side-kick/Al-Jazeera hater Guy Oseary in Brazil this week.

Whatever it she’s doing — keep it up!