24 Sivan 5776
Thursday, June 30 2016
SPECIAL UPDATE 11:30 am Israel Time
Hallel Yaffa Ariel. May she rest in peace.
This is the picture of the room where a Palestinian terrorist gruesomely stabbed 13-year-old Hallel Yaffa Ariel dozens of times as she lay sleeping in her bed this morning:
And we are supposed to have peace with savages who slaughter our children?
UPDATES 6:00 am Israel Time
–>The news you won’t read elsewhere: Palestinian terrorism yesterday.
*During the day, there were numerous terror attacks ranging from motorists being hit by Molotov firebombs at Betar Illit, Husan, and Ma’ale Amos to “rock” attacks at Oram and in Gush Etzion.
*At 2:45 pm yesterday, incoming missile sirens went off in the area along the Gaza border near Ein Hashlosha and Nirim. As usual the IDF was quick to say it was a false alarm; as usual, local residents were quick to say that it was not.
Three mortars were fired into southern Israel; explosions were heard; the mortar impact locations were in “open spaces.” No one was physically wounded but who knows how many were traumatized?
*Coinciding with the above mortar strikes, the Israel Prison Service announced yesterday that it was easing the conditions of Hamas prisoners.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Effective immediately, the sports channels on their televisions have been activated so they can watch the European soccer (football) championships, each prisoner is being given an extra 200 shekels per month to spend in the prison canteen, and the menu for Hamas prisoners is being enhanced.
Can you believe this?
Of course you can. All of this represents an attempt by our lame government to get the body parts of our two soldiers killed in the 2014 war with Hamas Gaza returned to Israel–body parts which should have been part of the negotiations with Turkey but were not.
–>The Israel-Turkey Agreement update.
As predicted yesterday, the Agreement was approved in the Netanyahu security cabinet* by a vote of 7-3 (Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Avigdor Lieberman voted no).
Some of the comments of the security cabinet were downright flabbergasting if not borderline insane.
Security Minister Gilad Erdan blathered:
“My heart goes out to the families [but] after a lot of thought, I decided to vote in favor of reconciliation with Turkey. I don’t think there is a scenario in which Turkey would be able to influence Hamas to return the bodies.”
Say what? Perhaps one such scenario would have been not to give the Turks everything they demanded unless Hamas returned the bodies.
Erdan incoherently continued: “Nothing justifies paying terrorists that attack our soldiers, but the agreement will give Israel economic benefits.”
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Say what? Does this even make any sense? Apparently nothing justifies the payment; however, Israel gaining economic benefits justifies the payment.
Not borderline insanity. Absolute insanity.
Almost as insane, was another Security Cabinet member, Yoav Galant who waxed metaphorical:
“There are compromises in every agreement. But our responsibility in the security cabinet is to identify what is strategically important for the long term. It is important to keep Turkey as close to us as is possible. The true enemies of Israel are Iran and the terrorist organizations, and we should concentrate our struggle against them while at the same time forming alliances and developing ties with all the other elements.”
Here’s a news flash for Galant: Turkey is one of the two main supporters of Hamas (along with Qatar) which happens to be a “true enemy of Israel” and is holding the body parts of our soldiers.
In the same vein as Galant, Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold (not a member of the Security Cabinet) blathered that the deal “is built on certain norms such as being firmly against international terrorism.” When asked by a Jerusalem Post reporter how this jives with Turkish President Erdogan being an ardent supporter of Hamas, Gold replied: “We come from different world views.”
Different world views indeed. Erdogan will pull out all the stops to fight terrorism directed against Turkey, but when it comes to Hamas terrorism directed against Israel, he is a fervent supporter.
*For your information, the 10 members of the security cabinet are: PM and Foreign Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Lieberman, Internal Security Minister Gilad Erdan, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, Minister of Finance Moshe Kahlon, Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, Minister of Transport Yisrael Katz, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, Minister of Immigrant Absorption Sofa Landver, and Minister of Construction Yoav Galant.
*As your humble servant heads in to have the required annual test on my car this morning, he is struck by the following graph that appeared today. It shows that the huge “green taxes” that Israel puts on every “polluting” vehicle here have had the desired effect of drastically increasing the number of low-polluting cars sold in the country:
Note that the darkest reds (1-2, 3, 4) indicate non-polluting cars. The lightest reds (10-11, 12-13, and 14-15 indicate highest polluting cars. You can see that the dark reds increased dramatically between 2009 and 2014.
By the way, your humble servant drives a small Honda Jazz, a gasoline/electric hybrid which puts my car in the 1-2 status.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Speaking of borderline insanity today . . .
Just before 11 pm last night, 9 Israeli Jews drove their two vans through the Qalandiya Checkpoint into Ramallah. The Jews were leftist “humanitarian activists” in town to share an Iftar meal with their local Palestinian friends.
They received a wonderful welcome. Palestinian “activists” in the Palestinian capital surrounded their vehicles, pelted them with “rocks”, and set them on fire. Fortunately, the Israeli activists escaped.
But all of this had no effect on the activists who praised the Palestinians vociferously. In fact, they issued this statement:
“At no stage did we feel threatened, and our friends the Palestinians were shocked by the incident. We will continue working together, and we all emphasize that we will be undeterred from continuing to work full force for two countries for two peoples.”
By the way, the above statement was issued by only 8 of the 9 activists–the 8 who made it back into Israel. Activist number 9 remains in a Palestinian jail.
Would you call this incident illustrative of the “borderline insanity” of Israeli leftists or “absolute insanity”?
You make the call.
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.