UPDATES
7:00 pm Israel time, Thursday, January 29 2015
46 Days Until The Election
Soldiers carry the coffin of Major Yohai Kalangel this afternoon to its final resting place on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem (picture: Ynet).
***Four hours ago, St. Sgt. Dor Haim Nini, 20 years old, was buried in the cemetery of Shtulim near Ashdod. A few hours earlier Maj. Yohai Kalangel, 25 years old of Har Gilo, was buried on Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem. Their funerals were attended by thousands.
May their memories be honored and blessed.
These two soldiers were murdered yesterday by Hezbollah terrorists who ambushed their military convoy along the Israel-Lebanon border.
Yesterday, your humble servant lambasted the IDF for sending these soldiers out into a hot zone in unarmored vehicles. Whoever authorized this lack of protection should be relieved of command and court-martialed.
Additionally appalling yesterday were the facts that less than an hour after the attack occurred, Hezbollah signaled to Israel that its “revenge had been satisfied” and that it did not wish to escalate the situation further–and that Israel indicated in return that it too was not interested in escalating the situation.
The IDF readiness to stand down cannot help but make one think that the IDF views its own soldiers as little more than pawns in an ongoing chess match with Hezbollah. What exactly did St. Sgt. Nini and Major Kalangel die for?
***Midnight tonight is the deadline for all political parties that plan to run in the upcoming election to announce their intention and to submit their list of candidates. The last few hours have seen an astonishing number of surprising deletions, additions, and changes to lists–too many to mention here.
Tomorrow, israelstreet will comprehensively review who is running in the coming election.
***Tzipi Livni, who is of course running with Isaac Herzog, gave an amazing interview to the Jerusalem Post two days ago. It not amazing because of what she said; it was amazing that she made her statements openly without her usual attempt at obfuscation and dissembling.
When asked whether she thought that PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is a terrorist, Livni responded: “Abbas was once a terrorist, but he is not now.”
But even more telling were her comments about Jerusalem. When asked if she would divide Israel’s eternal capital of Jerusalem, Livni answered: “I hope not. My goal is to keep Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty, but that issue will be decided in negotiations.”
Say what?
Your humble servant has continually stated over the years that Livni is willing to divide Jerusalem, but now we have it in her own words. We only have to look at this statement to instantly see what will happen if a Herzog-Livni government takes over.
They will give away the store.
Each table can be reorganized according to the parameters included in the first row allowing the reader generic cialis 5mg to specific methods for healing these wounds. Young man and teenagers tend viagra sildenafil mastercard to experience ED mainly due to anxiety and nervousness. This will lead them to be better able to avoid amerikabulteni.com cialis 40 mg the negative results that are connected with these tendencies and characteristics. In this instant download below, you’ll get to attend virtual classes where you’ll be rendered to learn driving directions along viagra sales in canada with the prescription medication.
And by the way, Livni’s statement gives further lie to the incredible absurdity of Herzog and Livni calling their party “The Zionist Camp.”
What a pathetic joke.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Jeremy Bird: who is this man, and what is he doing in Israel? (picture: Bloomberg).
The involvement of the One Voice Movement in Israeli politics continues to creep into the Israeli news.
To recap, the One Voice Movement (OVM) is an NGO that describes itself as a “grass roots organization” that lobbies for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.
However, OVM has declared that its purpose in the coming election is to see a change in the government. Specifically it wants Netanyahu out, and Herzog and Livni in.
To accomplish this, OVM has hired Jeremy Bird, the head of President Obama’s supremely successful “get out the vote campaign” in the last U.S. election. Bird and his team have announced their intention to visit 1.5 million residences in Israel to encourage people to vote for a change in government (so much, by the way, for President Obama’s supposed non-involvement in the Israeli election).
Where is the money coming from to pay Bird and his team?
It turns out there is very little “grass roots” about OVM at all–on its own webpage, OVM lists the following entities as donors to the organization:
The Alliance for Middle East Peace, 3 Faiths Forum, Alliance for Peacebuilding, Association of British Muslims, The Council of Christians and Jews, Christian Muslim Forum, City Circle Group, UK Conservative Party, Crown Family Philanthropies, Dotsub, Elays Network, Generations for Peace, Google, Harvard Negotiation Litigation Clinical Program, Generations for Peace, High Atlas Foundation, UK Labour Party, Labour Friends of Israel, Labour Friends of Palestine and the Middle East, British Muslims for a Secular Democracy, New Israel Fund, The Rayne Foundation, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, The Sainsbury Family Charitable Trusts, Skoll Foundation, Nathan Cummings Foundation, Eranda, United Jewish Appeal, Union of Jewish Students, Waltham Forest Council, Wandsworth Council, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, Woolf Institute, Yachad, and the European Commission.
Oh yes, and we almost forgot to mention: The U.S. State Department.
Yes, you read that correctly, American taxpayer money is being used to fund the effort against Netanyahu.
Of course, none of this is really surprising for an OVM organization that lists on its Trustees Advisory Council such people as Yasser Mahmoud Abbas (the son of PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas), Dr. Ziad Asali (President of the American Task Force on Palestine), as well as numerous other anti-Israel activists.
Certainly, we can expect that there will be little to no coverage in the Israeli or international mainstream media of OVM’s involvement in the election; let’s just hope that President Obama’s and the U.S. State Department’s attempt to alter the Israel election backfires.
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.