Saturday, October 31 2015
10:00 am UPDATES
9:27 am: Palestinian stabbing attack at the Jalama Checkpoint near Jenin. The terrorist attempted to stab a Israeli security person. No word on wounds. The terrorist was shot and killed.
9:21 am: Russian plane with 224 Russians on board crashes in the Sinai. People on the scene say the plane was “almost completely destroyed”. The news comes after initial reports that the plane which disappeared off Egyptian radar had reappeared over Turkey.
9:00 am UPDATES
***It was another day of more than 40 Palestinian attacks on Israeli men, women, children, and security forces throughout Judea, Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and in central Israel.
There were three more stabbing attacks:
–at the Tapuach Junction where two terrorists attempted to stab Israeli Border Guards. Fortunately, the knife of one terrorist broke off when it hit the armored vest of a Guard, but not before he stabbed the Guard’s hand. Both terrorists were shot–one was killed and the other critically wounded.
–at the Ammunition Hill Light Rail train stop in Jerusalem where a Palestinian with a Jerusalem ID card stabbed an American yeshiva student in the torso “moderately” wounding him. In the ensuing chaos, several civilians, Border Guards, and a nearby security guard opened fire. Another person at the train stop was wounded in the leg, but the terrorist was killed.
–at Beit El where a knife wielding terrorist was run over by a Border Guard jeep. No Israelis were wounded and the terrorist was not killed.
***In what can only be described as absurd (1) . . .
Israel has returned the bodies of 5 terrorists who have been killed in Hebron and environs in the last two weeks to the PLO. Today, the Palestinians are celebrating the return of those “heroic martyrs” with a day long gala event featuring a parade of the bodies, speeches, and the awarding of posthumous awards to the terrorists and their families.
It is enough to make your humble servant sick.
The truly sickening part is the release of the bodies in the first place. Just a month ago, the Netanyahu cabinet decided it would not release terrorist bodies back to their families.
***In what can only be described as absurd (2) . . .
Former U.S. President Bill Clinton is in Israel again, this time to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the death of the messiah, Yitzhak Rabin. Of course, the real reason that Clinton is here is to shore up his own legacy. It was on his front lawn that the Oslo atrocity was signed with the famous picture of an arm-spread Clinton pulling together Rabin and PLO terrorist Yasser Arafat.
In this sense, Clinton is as responsible for the bloody years of suicide bombings that followed Oslo as are Rabin and Shimon Peres.
Also, it’s hard to believe that Clinton would go anywhere unless there was money in it. Remember how Clinton was paid $500,000 to come to Israel back in 2013 to extol his “good friend” Peres? One wonders if he is on “the take” again this time.
TODAY’S BLOG:
In what can only be described as absurd (3) . . .
Former IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz had the unmitigated gall to come to southern Israel yesterday to deliver a speech.
No one here will ever forget his infamous “anemones” speech near the end of last year’s war in which he encouraged Israelis to return to their kibbutzes along the border because all was safe.
It turned out not be safe at all, and some of those who returned were killed by mortars and missiles.
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But that fiasco, didn’t stop Gantz from visiting us again yesterday because now Gantz is making noises that he will soon be running for political office.
He began by patting himself on the back for the way the war with Hamas was carried out last summer and its achievements–one of which he said was “long-term quiet”. As you may note from the column on the right hand side of this page, the border has been anything but quiet. Aside from now more than 100 missiles and mortars fired at southern Israel since the war’s end (including one fired at 2 am this morning), terrorist infiltrations continue to take place on a daily basis.
Just last week, the IDF began building anti-sniper berms to stop rifle fire from Gaza from hitting Israelis along the border; earlier this month, it announced that new “smart fences” are being put around Israeli communities like the one that Gantz was speaking in to stop cross-border terrorist attacks.
Gantz then, in an instant, revealed why he should never have been IDF Chief of Staff–and why all of his choices for command positions are severely tainted with “Gantzian passivity”:
“You cannot achieve anything with force . . . In order, the priorities of any government should be education, welfare, law, and infrastructure. Only after these four priorities comes defense and security.”
Is your humble servant living on another planet? Of course, in a utopian world of peace and harmony, “defense and security” may rank down on the scale of priorities, but here in Israel where we have threats on every border and on every street corner every day can anyone afford to devalue “defense and security”–particularly the head of our armed forces?
Education, welfare, law, and infrastructure are all critically important, but what good do they do you if you are dead.
Can’t you hear the echoes of the infamous anemones speech now:
“We have a hot summer. Fall will soon come. The rain will wash away the dust left by the tanks. The fields will turn green, and the south will be awash in red – in the positive sense of the word – in anemones, flowers, and stability, which will be here for many years to come.”
Welcome to the theater of the absurd.
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.