UPDATES
8:00 am Israel time, Monday, March 2 2015
15 Days Until The Election
By the numbers:
**$11,900,000,000 billion dollars: the amount of money that the Obama Administration is paying Iran to “negotiate” over their nuclear weapons program. Seven billion dollars of this money has already been paid; 4.9 billion more will be paid on June 22 if the Iranians continue to “negotiate” until then.
Unbelievable.
**3000: the number of Israeli reservists who were ordered to report to duty for a surprise 2-day drill in Judea and Samaria yesterday involving regular ground and naval forces. Another 10,000 reservists were notified of the drill and ordered to be on stand-by.
The drills are meant to simulate what will happen if security coordination with the PLO completely collapses and wide-scale rioting occurs.
**117 km.: the length of the security fence in northern Samaria that is regularly patrolled by the Menashe Brigade. The territory of this IDF group includes 27 Israeli communities and 90 Palestinian settlements. Yesterday, the Menashe Brigade completed a drill different from the one described above.
**744,000,000 shekels: the amount of royalties generated for Israel in 2014 from the sale of natural gas and oil from Israel’s offshore wells. This year, the Israel National Infrastructures Ministry projects that proceeds will total 820 million dollars rising to 3.4 billion by 2019.
**24: the latest poll numbers for Likud published yesterday by Geocartography, a polling company that leans to the “right”. The full numbers were 24 Likud, 22 Herzog/Livni, 14 Jewish Home, 12 United Arab, 11 Yesh Atid, 9 Koolanu, 8 United Torah, 6 Meretz, 5 Yisrael Beiteinu, 5 Yachad, 4 Shas.
If this poll is accurate, it bodes well for Likud and Jewish Home, and poorly for Herzog/Livni and Shas. But as you know, your humble servant doesn’t place much faith in polls from either side of the political spectrum.
TODAY’S BLOG:
PM Netanyahu has arrived in Washington, and will be speaking at the AIPAC convention today. The torrent of abuse leveled at Netanayahu by the Israeli media, and most of those running against him in the election has reached unprecedented levels.
For example, last night Israel’s Channel 10 spent an entire hour lambasting Netanyahu for every conceivable action. One 5 minute segment was devoted to accusing Netanyahu for desecrating Shabbat by going to the Kotel (Western Wall) to pray on Saturday before leaving for the U.S. on Saturday evening after Shabbat ended.
How did Netanyahu desecrate Shabbat according to Channel 10? Not because of his own personal actions–tens of thousands go to the Wall to pray on Shabbat–but because he forced news crews to work on Shabbat to cover his praying at the Wall.
Say what? Every Israeli channel has reporters that work on Shabbat to give reportage for the evening news every Saturday.
On the political front, Isaac Herzog, Tzipi Livni, Yair Lapid, Zava Gal-On, and Avigdor Lieberman all took endless potshots at the Prime Minister at precisely the moment when they all should be rallying to his support. For instance, Yair Lapid actually accused Netanyahu of trying to create a threshold nuclear state in Iran.
Say what?
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But the most ludicrous comments of all had to come from Isaac Herzog.
First, a little context . . .
Several days ago, a video shot by a passenger on an Israir plane flying to Varna, Bulgaria went viral. The video showed several flight stewards going up the center aisle of the plane with a cart full of duty free products. Included on the cart were chocolates.
Two Israeli women on the plane, sisters, who were apparently drunk, stood up and began cursing the flight stewards; they then demanded that they be sold chocolates from the cart. When the flight stewards refused because of the women’s atrocious behavior, a brouhaha ensued (to read a full account and see the video click here).
By yesterday, the women were apologizing to anyone who would listen for their rude and abominable behavior.
All of which brings us back to Herzog, who blathered this nonsense during a “Culture Shabbat” event in Ramat Gan:
“What happened on the Israir flight is a result of the division and rifts Bibi has led us to. I will work to unite the people. I have the ability to unite the Right and the Left, the secular word and the traditional-religious world.”
So now we have chocolategate to add to recycledbottlegate and gardenfurnituregate. The U.S. Administration is about to sign a deal which will enable Iran to produce a nuclear weapon at will, and all Herzog can talk about is chocolate.
One final thought about Herzog bringing secular and religious people together. The traditional religious world had a lot to say about Herzog desecrating Shabbat by holding a meeting on Saturday. . . but that’s a different story.
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.