UPDATES 9 am Israel time, Friday, September 27 2013:
**Not surprisingly, in light of yesterday’s IDF statement of support for Hamas, Hamas terrorists fired yet another rocket last night into the Chof Ashkelon region of southern Israel. This follows another rocket that exploded near our house here in south Ashdod on Wednesday afternoon–a huge explosion that sent everyone here running for cover.
Note that “the explosion” sent everyone running for cover; there was no warning siren whatsoever. In fact, no mention of the Ashdod attack was made by the IDF, and no coverage appeared in the mainstream Israel media. As for yesterday’s attack, the IDF spokesman’s office, as is done with every rocket attack these days, rushed out to initially declare that the rocket fell in Gaza–then quickly followed up that statement hours later with the assertion that it was a “false alarm”. Today or tomorrow, someone will find the rocket in the Chof Ashkelon area.
**There was a particularly intense series of attacks on Jewish community members driving between Giv’at Asaf and Beit El last night. “Rocks” and Molotov cocktails thrown by Palestinian terrorists smashed windows and badly damaged cars. Physical injuries were “limited to” cuts caused by shattered glass–but traumatic stress was suffered by many.
**UNRWA, the hideous “United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East”, was at it again yesterday–pleading with the Arab world to pony up more money to keep its Palestinian refugee business in business.
Complaining that the vast increases in the need for money to take care of Syrian refugees is cutting into the money for “displaced Palestinian refugees”, UNRWA is seeking $54 million dollars to cover a shortfall in its budget of $600 million for the Palestinians.
Filippo Grandi with the latest group of Palestinian “refugees”.
According to UNRWA’s Commissioner General Filippo Grandi, the problem is that Arab countries are not coming through with 7.8% of what they promised for UNRWA’s operating budget. Grandi grandstanded: “Syria has drained a lot of humanitarian resources. When you have two million refugees, a catastrophic situation inside, neighboring countries burdened by this huge crisis, of course this will drain a lot of resources and the Palestinian crisis will seem less urgent because it’s been there for so long.”
Ironically and inadvertently, Grandi seems to have hit on what the real problem is. The Syrian refugees are real refugees. The so-called Palestinian refugees are not. They are the second, third, fourth, and fifth generation descendants of people who were refugees by choice. It is their ever-increasing numbers that keep UNRWA in business.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Another day another speech at the United Nations.
Yesterday it was PLO head Mahmoud Abbas’ turn. And already this morning, the leftists in Israel and around the world are applauding Abbas’s supposed conciliatory peace-seeking from the U.N. podium. For example, here’s what Shelly Yachimovich, the head of the leftist Israeli Labor party, ludicrously said today: “The speech gives cautious hope that we are facing a new era of dialogue which may lead to an agreement.”
Really? Let’s look at a small sample of what Abbas actually said:
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*“Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen, I assured you last year that our quest to raise Palestine’s status does not aim to delegitimize an existing State – Israel, but to consecrate the legitimacy of a State that must exist, which is Palestine . . . As for the goal of peace, it is embodied in redressing the historic, unprecedented injustice that has befallen the Palestinian people in Al-Nakba of 1948 . . . “
*The objective of the negotiations is to secure a lasting peace accord that leads immediately to the establishment of the independence of a fully sovereign State of Palestine, with East Jerusalem as its capital, on all of the Palestinian lands occupied in 1967 . . . according to United Nations resolution 194, as called for by the Arab Peace Initiative.”
*Twenty years ago, precisely on 13 September 1993, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, signed with the Government of Israel a Declaration of Principles Agreement (Oslo Accords) . . . At the same time that the PLO affirmed its choice of peace as a strategic option and of a solution resulting from negotiations, it firmly repudiated violence . . .
*The position of the European Union with regard to settlement products is a positive model of what is possible to be done in order to ensure an environment supportive of the negotiations and the peace process . . .
*At the same time, it is imperative that the near-daily attacks on the religious sites in Occupied Jerusalem, at the forefront of which is Al-Aqsa Mosque, where the continuation of such attacks will have dire consequences.
*This is why we keep reaching out to the Israeli side saying: let us work to make the culture of peace reign, to tear down walls, to build bridges instead of walls, to open wide roads for connection and communication . . .
There is absolutely nothing new in what Abbas said.
To summarize, the creation of Israel was a historic injustice; all “Palestinian” lands “occupied” in 1967 must be returned; Resolution 194 and the Arab League Initiative–both of which are interpreted by the Palestinians as calling for the return of some 5,000,000 “refugees” to Israel–are the bases for an agreement; the PLO repudiated violence after Oslo (never mind that the first PLO suicide bomber struck Israel less than 6 months after the signing of that hideous agreement, and some 160 suicide bombers later more 1200 Israelis had been blown to pieces); boycotts such as that of the European Union which are based on the Nazi boycotts of Jewish products in the 1930s are a positive model; Israel commits daily attacks on religious sites in “occupied Jerusalem” primary of which are supposed ones on the Al-Aqsa Mosque (never mind that Israel encouraged 1,000,000 Muslims to come to the Temple Mount during Ramadan, and that Muslims stone Jewish worshipers everyday); and the Palestinians are working to create a culture of peace (except for the daily incitement in the Palestinian leadership, media, and educational system against all things Israeli).
There is no Israel on the PLO map of “Palestine.” This is what Palestinian children are taught.
A speech of peace? What a pathetic joke.
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.