Special Notice:
Are you on the list?
At the end or beginning of each month, your humble likes to share with you the extent of our israelstreet family. With thousands of people visiting this site, it is impossible to list the place where each reader comes from. But here is a partial list of places where people have read israelstreet in the last 36 hours:
Jerusalem Israel, Vienna Austria, San Francisco California, Bol Croatia, Kansas City Missouri, Velikiy Novrogod Russia, San Diego California, Beijing China, South Bound Brook, New Jersey, Woodbridge New Jersey, Lyon France, New Milford Connecticut, Columbus Ohio, Huntsville Alabama, Paris France, Bucharest Romania, Carlow Ireland, Bangkok Thailand, Granthan Great Britain, Berlin Germany, Rome Italy, Little Rock Arkansas, London Canada, Kiev Ukraine, Krefeld Germany, Durban South Africa, Lisbon Portugal, Bonn Germany, Howell New Jersey, New York New York, Sydney Australia, Cherry Hill New Jersey, Bath United Kingdom, Yavne Israel, Hayward California, Kharkov Ukraine, Netanya Israel, Grass Valley California, Prien Germany, Moscow Russia, Kobe Japan, Schaumburg Illinois, Milpitas California, Udanin Poland, Birkirkara Malta, Montpelier France, Falkirk Great Britain, Brunoy France, Malmo Sweden, Golestan Iran, Wakefield Massachusetts, Mumbei India, Putian China, Breda Netherlands, Klang Malaysia, San Antonio Texas, Beveren Belgium, Colfax California, Sacramento California, Oceanside California, Seoul Korea, Hamedan Iran, Lusaka Zambia, Jakarta Indonesia, Zurich Switzerland, Cupertino California, Davis California, London Great Britain, Bronx New York, Rouen France, Kasio Canada, Munster Germany, Xiamen China, Saint Paul Minnesota, Haifa Israel, Gilbert Arizona, Chisinau Moldava, Monterrey Mexico, Brockton Massachusetts, Owatonna Minnesota, Sao Paulo Brazil, Myton Utah, Lehi Utah, Williamsburg Virginia, Tel Aviv Israel, Vanda Finland, Maintal Germany, Hamburg Germany, El Segundo California, El Macero California, St Petersburg Russia, Flushing New York, Vechta India, Altadena California, Beirut Lebanon, Kiez Germany, Enskede Sweden, Balsildon Great Britain, Howard Ohio, Johannesburg South Africa, Kfar Vitkin Israel, Surat Thani Thailand, Santa Barbara California, Dallas Texas, Ottawa Canada, Rishon LeZion Israel, Tallinn Estonia, Athens Greece, Perth Australia . . .
Your humble servant would like to thank all of you whether on this list or not for being part of the israelstreet family–and helping to get the word out about Israel.
UPDATES
9:00 am Israel time, Sunday, August 2 2015
**Thanks for the non-information, IDF:
A launch of missiles out of Gaza toward southern Israel.
At 12:01 am last night, at least two missiles were fired out of Gaza toward southern Israel. There were no missile alarms, but Israeli residents living along the Gaza border fence reported the explosions.
Afterwards, the IDF spokesman issued this astonishing statement: “We are not sure where the missiles were fired from, and it is not clear whether they fell into our territory or Palestinian territory.”
Say what? We supposedly have some of the most sophisticated missile detection equipment in the world sitting on the Gaza border, and the IDF cannot tell where the missiles were fired from or where they hit?
Unbelievable.
By the way, through non-IDF sources this morning, we have discovered that the missiles were fired from Al-Bureij in central Gaza: one missile hit the Gaza fence causing “significant damage” and the other(s) landed in Israel.
**More murderous Palestinian Molotov cocktail attacks in the last 36 hours:
Continuing the terrorism of the last 3 years, Palestinian terrorists continued their efforts to set Jewish homes on fire over the weekend. The two most egregious attacks occurred on Friday night at Jabal Mukaber where two masked men threw two Molotov cocktails which set an apartment on fire. Fortunately, it was extinguished before anyone was physically wounded.
At 11:33 pm last night, numerous Molotov cocktails thrown at “Beit Hadassah” in Hebron. Again, fires were extinguished by local residents before anyone could be physically wounded.
What has our government, or the Israeli media, or the international media had to say about these attacks? Absolutely nothing.
**What is the difference between Israelis and Palestinians?
Your humble servant was extremely proud of the tens of thousands of demonstrators who showed up in Tel Aviv last night to voice their condemnation of the recent violence here. The crowd was evenly divided between those ruing the attack at the Jerusalem Gay Pride march, and those who were expressing solidarity with the Palestinian family that lost its child in the Molotov cocktail attack.
And therein lies the tale. What happened the last time that a Jewish child was killed in a terror attack? Palestinians turned out in the streets to celebrate and pass out candy at the death of another “Jew”.
**And you wonder why Jewish community members don’t trust PM Netanyahu?
Remember Netanyahu’s promise last year to build 300 new apartments in Beit El? That promise was never fulfilled. Remember three days ago how Netanyahu promised again to build 300 apartments–and immediately had the head of COGAT issue bids for building them?
Well guess what? After seeing the cornerstone laid last Thursday for those new apartments, Netanyahu has frozen the process again–this time “until after the holidays”. According to people in his office, there is just too much going on with the Iranian issue now for Netanyahu to worry about Beit El.
What hokum. Why does Netanyahu have to worry about Beit El? The buildings already have permits and a contractor.
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**The searing heat wave continues to scorch Israel:
The projected temperature in Eilat today.
Temperatures continue to climb here sending hundreds of thousands flocking to the beach yesterday up and down the coast of Israel.
This Shabbat set an all-time record for electricity use at 9927 Megawatts as everyone who was not at the beach had his or her air conditioner running full blast.
The all time record for electrical use, however, was on January 12th of this year when an intense cold wave caused 11,930 Megawatts to be used.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The scene at every Cofix shop in the country all day everyday.
Anybody who lives in or has visited Israel knows that the prices of commodities in this country are absurdly high. Whether it is because of monopolistic control of certain industries or government levying of taxes, the cost of living here is almost prohibitive.
We live in a place where the price of gasoline this morning is about $7.10 per gallon, and the cost of a car is much higher what it would be in the United States. For example, your humble servant’s Honda Jazz Hybrid which would cost about $24,000 in the U.S. costs about 135,000 shekels ($34,500) in Israel.
More than this, buying clothes, food, household goods, and electrical appliances can send one to the poorhouse. And this is not even to mention the cost of renting or buying an apartment.
Several years ago, the newspaper Israel Hayom appeared on the scene here and almost immediately became the widest read newspaper in the country. Why you may ask? Because the owner of the newspaper decided to rely on a different business model. Instead of charging for the paper, he decided to make money from advertisements in the paper. These days, you can see hundreds of Israel Hayom workers on every other street corner giving out the newspapers for free.
However, last year an even more astonishing event took place with the arrival of Cofix. Targeting an industry used by virtually every Israeli (is there an Israeli who does not drink coffee or tea?), “Father Katz’s” Cofix shop exploded onto the scene by charging 5 shekels ($1.50) for everything in the store.
And what is everything?
And this is not even the whole of it. Cofix, believe it or not, also has a full service bar complete with beer, wine, liquors, etc. all of which cost 5 shekels a glass.
To say that this has sparked a revolution in Israel is an understatement. Every Cofix shop is packed all the time. The only problem is finding a seat. What is more, every coffee shop within a one mile radius of any Cofix shop has reduced its coffee prices to 5 shekels a cup.
And the Cofix revolution is now spreading to restaurants. Just two weeks ago, the first Kinobo restaurant opened in Israel opened here in Ashdod. Everything item on the menu including chicken skewers, steamed bun hamburgers, vegan burgers, fries, rice, sushi rolls, beer and wine is only 10 shekels per item.
The 10 shekel sushi plate at Kinobo.
What can your humble servant say?
He can say that it is time to bring this blog to a close today, and head down to his local Cofix for his morning iced coffee.
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.