7:00 pm Israel time, Saturday, January 10 2015
64 Days Until The Election
UPDATES
What’s going on? A young child looks befuddled by it all in Mitzpe Ramon today (photo: Walla: Nurit Shaked).
***The weather continues to be the story in Israel as snow continues falling in the Golan in the north, and even in the Negev Desert in the south with Mitzpe Ramon being covered with a rare blanket. Water pipes and solar panels have burst across the country as temperatures dropped as low as -9 degrees Celsius (15 degrees Fahrenheit).
***On the security front, the weather has had a dampening effect on Palestinian terrorism with isolated skirmishes taking place between terrorists and Israeli security forces in Shechem (Nablus) and Hebron. The Arab terrorist who stabbed the young Jewish student at the Damascus Gate two days ago has been captured.
***There is a troubling report from Der Spiegel magazine today that Bashir Assad is constructing a nuclear facility deep underground very close to Syria’s northwestern border with Lebanon. According to the report, the goal of the facility is to produce nuclear weapons.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Like many of you dear readers, your humble servant was glued to the television yesterday as the hostage dramas played out in France.
This morning the names of the four Jews murdered at the Kosher grocery store Hyper Cacher have been released:
Yoav Hattab, 21, Yohan Cohen, 22, Philippe Braham, in his 40s, and Francois-Michel Saada, in his 60s.
As we know, these four men were brutally killed as they shopped for Shabbat simply because they they were Jews. In the same vein as the “Je Suis Charlie” identification sweeping the world in solidarity with those slaughtered at Charlie Hebdo, so is there a “Je Suis Juif” (I am Jewish) movement throughout social media today to remember the Jewish victims at the kosher grocery store.
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Yoav Hattab (left) and Yohan Cohen (right). Picture Ynet News.
But you would have never known that Jews were killed and held hostage yesterday by listening to the mainline news as most outlets refused to use the word “Jews”. Despite the fact that the attack occurred in a Jewish kosher store on the eve of Shabbat when Jews were shopping in the store, the hostages were not Jews.
But more than this was the egregious attempt of some networks to establish a narrative that the store was randomly targeted, that the hostages inside likely included Muslims, and that jihadist Muslims are in fact great friends of Jews.
The worst of these networks was CNN.
In one particular piece of atrocious “reportage”, CNN “reporter” Chris Cuomo interviewed the head of Jewish students in France. Cuomo began by casting doubt on the fact that the attack was anti-Semitic.
He then asked the student leader if he really thought that the terrorists had chosen the grocery store because it was Jewish: “Isn’t it true that many Muslims shop at the store because the food there is Halal?” and “Why do you think Muslim terrorists would attack a Jewish store?” The student leader stood his ground though clearly shocked by the Cuomo’s absurd questions. He pointed out that France had seen numerous Muslim attacks on Jews in recent months.
When he couldn’t get the answer that he wanted, Cuomo quickly concluded his interview by informing the student leader that “The prophet Mohammed greatly respected the Jews and called them ‘our older brothers’.” The student leader was not given a chance to respond.
One last note: what happened at Hyper Cacher when the terrorist first arrived at the store was briefly described by a Jewish hostage who survived yesterday: “He came in wearing a bullet-proof vest. He had two Kalashnikov rifles, a gun and a knife. He shot two people at the entrance. One of the customers tried to take one of his weapons, but was unable to fire. The terrorist shot him in the head immediately.”
May the memories of the four Jews who died in Hyper Cacher be forever blessed and may the Jew who tried to fight against the terrorist be doubly blessed.
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.