HAPPY CHANUKAH!
NUMBER OF DAYS UNTIL THE ISRAELI ELECTION: 37
ISRAELSTREET ENDORSES NAFTALI BENNETT
NUMBER OF TERRORIST MISSILES AND MORTARS SHOT AT SOUTHERN ISRAEL SINCE THE CEASEFIRE AGREED TO BY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ON NOVEMBER 21, 2012:
34
UPDATES 5 pm Israel time Saturday:
*The polls opened this morning in Egypt in the first round of voting on the referendum to adopt a new hardline Islamic Egyptian constitution based on Shariah law. The polls will be open for another two hours–until 7 pm tonight–and turnout has been “heavy”. The second round of voting will take place next week.
*Speaking of polls, the latest Israeli poll, a Geocartography survey performed for the Jerusalem Post, seems to show the Israeli public becoming more conservative with Likud Beiteinu losing seats (down to 35) at the expense of the Jewish Home Party (up to 16). While your humble servant is happy to see this polling result, he does not necessarily place too much value in its accuracy.
Other polls earlier this week had Likud Beiteinu with as many as 39 seats and Jewish Home with as few as 10. The resignation yesterday of FM Avigdor Lieberman is projected to send even more voters to Bennett’s Jewish Home, but there is also some thought that a Russian “immigrant party” may also benefit. What all of the polls seem to show is that the left, center-left, and right “blocks” are more or less holding steady in terms of the percentage of Israeli voters that will vote for each, though the percentage for individual parties within each block is varying widely.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Unlike Palestinians in other Middle Eastern countries, those in Syria under the Assad family have long been permitted to own homes and property. More than this, they have had the same civil rights as Syrians–with full opportunities to avail themselves of social services and obtain jobs in most professions. Yet as the Syrian civil war rages on, the Palestinians have been abandoning Assad in ever greater numbers and casting their lot with their fellow Sunni Muslims.
This afternoon there are fresh reports of a Syrian Army assault on the so-called “Palestinian refugee camp” of Yarmouk, a suburban community of apartment buildings and shops just south of Damascus that is home to more than 150,000 Palestinians and Syrians.
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The fighting in Yarmouk is raging today among Palestinian factions allied to pro- and anti-Assad forces.
Well, not exactly a wholly “Syrian Army” assault. Apparently the Syrians, along with the pro-Assad Palestinians, are fighting the pro-rebel Palestinians.
The pro-Assad Palestinians are led by Ahmed Jibril, the leader of the militia that ostensibly controls security in Yarmouk. Jibril’s militia is the spearhead of the Assad-backed Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The pro-rebel Palestinians seem to be a more disorganized group with various complaints against Assad focusing on religious differences.
Even within Palestinian Hamas, the Syrian division can be seen with Khaled Meshaal, the head of Hamas, pronouncing his support for the rebels and moving Hamas headquarters to Qatar–while the Hamas military wing in Gaza continues to support Assad because of their benefactors in Iran.
But regardless of which side the Palestinians are on, they and their apologists, as always, have recently been playing the “poor Palestinian victim” card.
Two weeks ago the completely fraudulent United Nations Relief Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA, announced that it needed $53 million dollars (41 million Euros) in new donations to help the estimated 510,000 Palestinians “suffering” in war-torn Syria.
But even worse, according to UNRWA, are the Palestinians who have become “second-time refugees” by fleeing to Jordan and Lebanon. According to Roger Davies, the acting director of UNRWA in Lebanon, the Palestinian “refugees” in Lebanon are treated worse than the Syrian “refugees” in Lebanon because they have to pay an extra $16 for a visa and are “generally denied the right to work.”
Hamas and the PLO jumbled together on the same wall of street in Lebanon where Syrian Palestinians have fled (picture source: Getty images).
It seems that the “poor Palestinians” will always be the victims no matter the conflict–until they finally reach that point when they begin to take some responsibility for themselves.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.