Discover Dugristyle: Handcrafted Elegance in Designer Jewelry

By James Glanz, NY Times, July 4, 2016

JERUSALEM--Donald J. Trump has been called a lot of things by a lot of people around the world. In Israel, where his comments about remaining “neutral” in peace negotiations raised hackles but his condemnation of “radical Islam” wins plaudits, the word that keeps coming up is “dugri.”

A slang Hebrew term derived from the Arabic for “straight ahead,” dugri describes someone who is frank and blunt no matter the consequences. This is how many outsiders view Israelis, often with considerable discomfort. But here in Israel, a society that views pretension with suspicion and disdain, it is almost universally a compliment.

“Israelis tend to talk more frankly and openly about subjects that, in America, could be somewhat taboo,” said Zev Chafets, a co-host of a weekly radio program in Tel Aviv that focuses on the United States’ election. “Trump does that. People find that refreshing.”

American presidential elections are not, of course, won or lost in Israel, but candidates nevertheless treat it almost as a state with electoral votes, wooing the public with promises and calculated charm. This year, Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, and his Democratic counterpart, Hillary Clinton, have promised to outdo each other in protecting Israel’s security.

Mr. Trump has also repeatedly pointed out that his daughter Ivanka converted to Judaism before marrying Jared Kushner; Mrs. Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, is also married to a Jew, Marc Mezvinsky.

Mrs. Clinton offers deep experience in the region from her years as secretary of state, and benefits from the fact that her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is a beloved figure among Israeli Jews. Mr. Trump’s hard line on terrorism has earned applause from Israeli Jews, although the Israeli military’s dependence on billions of dollars from Washington has led many to worry about his promise to revisit all foreign-aid arrangements.

There are about 200,000 eligible American voters in Israel; in 2012, about 75,000 requested absentee ballots. In past elections, having the Israeli public and political class in one’s camp was seen as an asset for candidates from both parties, if only because of how it translated with influential pro-Israel activists and other Jewish leaders back home.

Mr. Trump has had less interaction with Israel than Mrs. Clinton--he canceled a planned trip here last fall amid the controversy over his proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States--and to American Jewish groups.

Mitchell Barak, an American-Israeli political consultant in Jerusalem, conducted a poll in February and found that Israelis overwhelmingly supported the Muslim ban, but that they would also prefer to see Mrs. Clinton as president.

Mrs. Clinton’s decades of public service, Mr. Barak said, are admired in a nation that deeply values experience in its politicians. “Gray hair is an advantage here,” he said.

Though much of that service was in the cabinet of President Obama, who is deeply distrusted across Israel, she managed to steer clear of the controversy surrounding her boss. Some analysts say that relationship is largely overshadowed by her marriage to Mr. Clinton, who was always seen as a genuine friend of Israel, despite the failure of repeated rounds of peace talks he oversaw.

Mr. Clinton’s parting words at the memorial for Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister assassinated in 1995 by a Jewish extremist, still raise goose bumps: “Shalom, chaver.” Goodbye, friend.

“Just like Clinton was the first black president,” Mr. Chafets quipped, “he was the first Jewish president.”

Still, Mrs. Clinton has so far stirred little real enthusiasm in Israel, possibly opening the door for Mr. Trump and his dugri style.

“It does concern me because that sort of bluff, gruff, tough-guy approach is admired here,” said Sheldon Schorer, an official with the Israel branch of Democrats Abroad.

Dugri may derive from driving directions in Arabic, but it has become much more. In the late 1990s, the Palestinian leader, Yasir Arafat, was said to have described Ehud Barak, the Israeli prime minister with whom he was trying to make peace, as “dugri, dugri.”

“Daber iti dugri” is the rough equivalent in Hebrew of “Give it to me straight.” Being dugri, long prized for its own sake, has taken on even more value at a time when many Israelis criticize the unwillingness of Mr. Obama and other Democrats to use the term “radical Islam.”

“There’s a natural affinity for his rebellion against political correctness,” Dahlia Scheindlin, a public-opinion expert in Tel Aviv, said of Mr. Trump, “because Israelis have embraced that rebellion for years.”

Mr. Schorer, the Democratic activist, said that beneath the growl, Mr. Trump’s inexperience and impetuousness could be troublesome to Israelis. Over the weekend, Mr. Trump came under fire in the United States for his use on Twitter of an image that many observers said included anti-Semitic stereotypes in an attack on Mrs. Clinton for being “corrupt.”

In Israel, Mr. Trump first raised alarms when he said during a Republican presidential primary debate in February that he would remain “neutral” in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He later modified that by saying he would portray himself as neutral to the Palestinians while really taking Israel’s side.

More recently, Mr. Trump has generated headlines in Israel by declaring that the United States should emulate some of Israel’s security practices. He has said a version of the security barrier Israel built along and through the occupied West Bank should be erected along the border with Mexico, and he asserted that the United States should follow what he called Israel’s “profiling” of Muslims at security checkpoints.

His compliments were not universally welcomed. A columnist for the left-leaning newspaper Haaretz, Chemi Shalev, worried that Mr. Trump’s admiration of Israel could weaken Democratic support in the United States for Israel’s security policies. “His compliments damn Israel with loud praise,” Mr. Shalev wrote.

Mr. Trump’s praise of Israeli policies alone is not likely to lift his appeal to Israelis, said Shmuel Sandler of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University. “We always enjoy the fact that the West is coming to learn from us,” Mr. Sandler said. “More than this, I don’t think it will make a difference.”

HDFC BANK LTD

IFSC Code of HDFC BANK LTD Dugri branch – Ludhiana. Contact phone number and address

IFSC Code Details and Dugri Branch Information HDFC BANK LTD – DUGRIis located at PUNJAB state, LUDHIANA district, LUDHIANA city and the bank branch’s address is [SCO 26-27, URBAN ESTATE, PHASE-1, DUGRI]. Contact phone number / numbers – SUJIT KURUP ANANT SHINDE SANDEEP PUTHRAN 022-30751912 2041…