UPDATES
8:00 am Israel time, Monday, July 6 2015
**Your humble servant was awakened again by explosions at 4:15 am which continued off and on for the next 45 minutes. Residents throughout southern Israel, especially along the Gaza border, reported the same.
Apparently, the explosions were coming from Egyptian Rafah and Sheikh Zuweid–which were both being bombed by the Egyptian Air Force. There is no further information at this time.
**In Gaza itself, Hamas continues to brazenly post pictures that show that it is preparing for the next war with Israel.
The world doesn’t want to hear it, but Hamas continues to build new tunnels and renovate older ones. This picture is from the Hamas website.
It remains the fiercest of ironies that at the moment that Hamas prepares for war against us, the Israeli government continues to coddle Hamas.
**What was new on Day 18 of Palestinian Ramadan in Israel yesterday?
Nothing much.
Just another attempted stabbing murder thwarted by an alert Israeli Border Guard in Hebron, another attempted shooting murder at the Kedumim intersection, another “rock” attack on the Jerusalem light rail system, another series of Molotov cocktails hurled at Jewish homes in Silwan, more rock attacks on the roads in Judea and Samaria especially around Turmusayya, another forest fire set in a Jerusalem neighborhood–this time near the Biblical Zoo . . . the list goes on and on.
One of the most egregious incidents occurred on the Temple Mount where once again the Jerusalem Police demonstrated that they have absolutely no control over an area that is supposed to be under Israeli sovereignty. Unable to stop a “rock” attack against themselves, the Police shut down the Temple Mount to all non-Muslims.
Absolutely pathetic.
**Hezbollah continues to have a rough go of it in Syria. Yesterday saw its fighters along side Assad forces attempting to retake the bombed-out border city of Zebdani held by the Sunni rebels. At the same time, a new list of Hezbollah dead was published on its website:
Apparently there is no end to the willingness of Hezbollah’s Lebanese base to supply cannon fodder for Iran.
**The joke of the day has to come from our peripatetic comedian, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry who remarked from Vienna last night:
“If hard choices are made quickly in the next couple of days, we could get an agreement this week. But if they are not made – we will not. An agreement has never been closer, but at this point this negotiation could go either way.
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If we don’t have a deal, if there is absolute intransigence and unwillingness to move on the things that are important… President Obama has always said we’ll be prepared to walk away. It‘s not what anybody wants.”
Hahahahahahahaha!
Good one John. At this point the negotiation could go either way? President Obama has always said we’ll be prepared to walk away?
Hahahahahahahaha!
If anyone believes that the U.S. will not cave in to Iranian demands by July 9th, I’ll sell you a swimsuit for your next trip to Antarctica.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Much ado is being made in Israel this morning about CNN’s new list of “Last Chance to see: 25 magnificent structures on the verge of extinction.”
Because of CNN’s use of a picture of the Kipat HaSela (Dome of the Rock), it has been misreported by all of Israel’s mainline newspaper media–the Jerusalem Post, Haaretz, and Yedioth Ahoronot that the Kipat HaSela was number 1 on the list nearly extinct structures.
Actually it is not the Kipat HaSela that CNN fraudulently listed, it is the “Old city of Jerusalem.”
And what was the idiotic reason that CNN listed the Old City as being on the verge of extinction?
“No other site has spent more time on UNESCO’s ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’–the Old City has held a spot since 1982. A holy city for three different religions, it attracts millions of tourists with over 200 million monuments, including the majestic Dome of the Rock. But political tension has hardened relations between Israel and UNESCO, preventing any preservation plans from moving forward.”
Anyone who reads this blog knows what a viciously biased, anti-Semitic organization UNESCO is (see for example), and anyone who has been to the Old City of Jerusalem knows what a canard the CNN story is.
Few places on Earth are as alive and as vibrant as the Old City. Walk through the winding streets of any of the quarters of the city and you will be thrilled by the exotic mix of people from all over the world. Sights, sounds, smells, tastes . . . the Old City has something that will excite the senses of everyone. More than this, there is renovation and construction taking place all over the Jewish Quarter.
But it wasn’t always so.
Between 1948-1967, the Jordanians and Palestinians occupied the Old City and ethnically cleansed it of every Jew.
Let’s repeat that.
The Old City was ethnically cleansed of every Jew by the Jordanians and Palestinians between 1948 and 1967.
Jewish synagogues were dynamited; Jewish holy places were used as animal enclosures; visitors to the Old City were discouraged and even prohibited. The stench of Jordanian and Palestinian occupation was everywhere.
Then Israel took the Old City in 1967. But by 1982, the Jordanians and the Palestinians had discovered a new institution that loved them and would vote for any resolution against Israel. That institution was the United Nations.
Even more, the Jordanians and the Palestinians discovered that they could easily bring anti-Israel resolutions in U.N. commissions and committees such as the laughingly called United Nations Human Rights Council and in UNESCO.
And so they did. Endless resolutions. One thing about the CNN description is correct: “No other site has spent more time on UNESCO’s ‘List of World Heritage in Danger’–the Old City has held a spot since 1982.”
Of course it has–the Jordanians and the Palestinians have made sure of it.
And why should we expect CNN to do anything except parrot the UNESCO-Jordanian-Palestinian line? After all, CNN is one of the least objective, least critically-thinking, and most virulently anti-Israel news networks in the world. One only has to look back at last year’s war with Hamas (which started a year ago today) to confirm this statement.
Your humble servant hopes to see you soon in Jerusalem–but don’t feel that you have to rush. Jerusalem has been Israel’s eternal capital for more than 3000 years. The Old City isn’t going anywhere and just becomes more alive by the minute.
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.