UPDATES 7 pm Israel time, Monday, October 20 2014:
–>Another day, another missile attack, and another claim by the IDF of a “false alarm”. The alarm sirens sounded in the Eshkol region at 12:20 this afternoon. Shortly thereafter, explosions were heard by local residents.
The sheer depth of IDF duplicity in these ongoing attacks is mind-numbing. During the 51 day war with Hamas in July and August, there were some 25,000 missile alarms in Israel. Not one of them was a false alarm. Now, amazingly, we are supposed to believe that every alarm is a false alarm.
–>Bizarre and more bizarre. Tomorrow, two busloads of Palestinians from Jenin and Shechem (Nablus) are being taken on “a tour” of the kibbutzim and moshavin on the Gaza border that were hardest hit by the terrorists in Gaza during the recent war.
Apparently some idiot has the idea that these Palestinians will go back to their communities and become ambassadors for Israel once they see how bad those communities had it. What is more likely is that they will take pictures and write reports that they can send to their terrorist friends in Gaza.
Coming from the other direction, Israel facilitated the visits of 60 Palestinians in Gaza to their imprisoned relatives in Israel today.
Think about the absurdity of this for a moment. Hamas has resumed rocket fire on southern Israel, and Israel rewards the terrorists by increasing “humanitarian gestures”.
–>As has been reported in this blog on many occasions, Qatar has become one of the leading sponsors of Islamic terrorism. More specifically, Qatar helped initiate the recent war with Hamas by transporting weapons to Gaza, setting up the Hamas tunnel network in Gaza, and using Al-Jazeera to sustain Hamas.
Also during the war, it was Qatar that ferried United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon around the Middle East so he could lambast Israel at every opportunity.
In this context, it should come as no surprise that Qatar is now pushing the former Prime Minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassem as the next U.N. Secretary General when Moon’s term expires. It will also come as no surprise when Ban Ki-Moon, John Kerry, and the Obama Administration quickly jump on board Jassem’s candidacy.
–>Highly suspicious Hezbollah troop movements have been taking place during the last week. Numerous media outlets have reported that Hezbollah forces are moving south towards the border with Israel.
This is especially strange given the fact that Hezbollah is in a battle for its life with Islamic State which is now making inroads in northern Lebanon. However, whenever Hezbollah is in trouble, it usually turns its attention to Israel to distract its constituency from its failures.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Now that we are back in the United States for a while, your humble servant and his wife had the pleasure of going to a local pre-season NBA basketball game between our Sacramento Kings and Maccabi Haifa on Saturday night.
We knew in advance that the local anti-Israel crowd would be protesting the appearance of a team from Israel so we went to the arena armed with our Israeli flags. We had our first chance to wave them as we entered the parking lot and encountered a small group of placard-holding “protesters” on both sides of the entry way. One of the placards actually blathered “Free Gaza”.
The massage therapy also promotes immune viagra buying online system, creates flexibility, increases circulation and keeps the body relaxed. The goal of man is to focus on – levitra sale One or at the maximum level of excitement then ejaculation is triggered with release of semen at climax. Henceforth, wise advice would be pfizer viagra australia availing proper urology treatments to cure the disorders on time. Smoking affects sales viagra the function of the immune system form antibodies, which are necessary to fight disease.
Anyway, we smiled and waved our flags in the protesters’ faces as we passed and proceeded to enter the arena.
Once inside, we took our seats and discovered that on one side we had a young woman who had attended the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (she saw your humble servant’s sweatshirt with Hebrew Univ logo and commented on it), and on the other a man who had lived in Israel for nine months back around 1990.
The game began following the singing of Hatikvah and the Star Spangled Banner, and almost immediately my wife noticed that there were two Palestinian ringleaders from the Sacramento area sitting about 10 rows behind us, one section over–ringleaders whom we have fought against at numerous times in the past. She immediately commented that they were up to something when she saw them pull out their keffiyehs.
Shortly thereafter, we saw them stand up and turn to the upper deck–which apparently was a signal for their cohorts to drape a large Palestinian flag over the railing and two more signs, one of which accused Israel of having committed war crimes.
Look above the Pizza in the Pizza Guys sign–you can just make out the “Lift the Blockade, Free Gaza” sign. Along the same railing to the left is the Palestinian flag.
My wife immediately got up, found the nearest security personnel, and reported what was going on. With no hesitation, those personnel went upstairs, removed the signs, and escorted the holders of the signs out of the building.
Whereupon the two ringleaders downstairs went upstairs and unfurled their own banner. This time it was my turn, and in short order, these two were hustled out of the building to the approving cheers of people in the lobby.
All of this did not go unnoticed by other people sitting around us–particularly a group of African Americans who applauded our efforts. One of the men told us that he particularly liked the Israeli flag; so I asked him if he wanted a small one I had had in my pocket, and he excitedly said yes.
A happy Kings’ fan and Israel supporter!
All the while, the game continued, and unfortunately it was not particularly well played. Maccabi Haifa did their best, but they were clearly outmanned. For their part, the Kings showed that they have some work to do before the regular season starts.
But we left the arena feeling great– because the NBA had invited an Israeli team to play in a preseason game, because the Sacramento Kings had specifically invited Maccabi Haifa, because our local Jewish Federation had done an excellent job promoting the game, because the Kings’ staff in the arena had been so supportive of us during the game, and because we made new friends all around us.
It was a wonderful evening.
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.