5 Tammuz 5776
Monday, July 11 2016
UPDATES 9 am Israel time
…Palestinian terror unreported by the mainstream media yesterday…
There were more than 30 Palestinian terror attacks yesterday.
“Rock” attacks were carried out by terrorists in such places as beside Tekoa, near Aro’er, near Beit Ummar, Silwan, Tur, in various locations in Gush Etzion, Baissoiya, Beir Ur al-Tahta, Beita, all along Road 443, Beit Horon, and Gilad Shomron.
Meanwhile, Molotov firebombs were thrown as Israeli security personnel in Shaba-Ram, and an IED directed at IDF troops exploded at an undisclosed location in Samaria.
…Speaking of terrorists…
The Israel Prison Service in conjunction with the Israel Supreme Court denied a petition yesterday of the family of one of our dead soldiers (whose body parts are being held by Hamas). That petition sought to stop Hamas prisoners from being able to watch the finals of the European soccer championship last night.
According to our ever-absurd Prison Service: “Petition is denied. Until now, inmates watched the Euro games as part of a package specially purchased from [cable TV provider] Yes. The game tonight is broadcast on Channel 2, and so there is no difference between the game and any other program broadcast on Channel 2, which is a public channel.”
Has the world gone crazy? What gives the Hamas prisoners the right to watch any television–much less the European soccer tournament?
…Speaking of the European soccer tournament…
Itzhak Herzog (aka Bougie), the leader of the opposition in Israel, tweeted this out after Portugal won the championship last night (excuse the slight blurriness):
Look closely. Do you see any problem?
That’s the Afghani flag instead of the Portuguese flag.
…A fund for Elor Azariya…
The Association for the Protection of Soldiers started a fund yesterday to raise 400,000 shekels for the defense of the Hevron soldier.
Amazingly, more than 361,000 shekels have been donated as of this moment.
If you would like to participate in this worthy cause, click here.
By the way, the funds are needed because the trial drags ever downward with the prosecution pulling out all the stops to convict Elor of manslaughter. Witness after witness is being paraded out–most of whom are military commanders who were not even in Hevron on the day of the incident.
It has become surreally nauseating to watch.
…For the moment, some good news…
It appears that the U.S. House of Representatives has, for the time being at least, stymied the recent deal between Boeing and the Iranian government.
How long this blocking will last is anyone’s guess, but in the context of an Iran that has gone wild in military spending since the signing of the Nuclear Weapons Appeasement deal last year, any impediment is a good impediment.
If you would like to read a good assessment of what has happened with that deal, your humble servant suggests this article by Elliott Abrams.
…U.S.-Israel Military News…
The State Department announced last night that 8 surplus SH-60 F helicopters ideal for use on new Israeli aircraft carriers have been sold to Israel for $300 million dollars. The purpose of the helicopters is to protect Israel’s offshore gas and oil fields.
The State Department’s announcement:
“The transaction will contribute to the foreign policy and the security of the United States by strengthening the defense of its ally, which was and continues to be a force for political and economic stability in the Middle East. . . The transaction will improve Israel’s ability to cope with current and future threats [and] not change the balance of military forces in the region.”
This statement is almost too funny to bear. After an entire Obama presidency of hearing about how Israel’s actions are destabilizing Middle East peace efforts, now we find out we’re a force for political and economic stability.
And thank goodness the 8 helicopters will not change the balance of military forces. One wonders how massive U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and whomever else the U.S. can find change the balance? And what about the release of hundreds of millions of dollars to the terrorists in Tehran who have gone on a massive military spending spree as noted above?
Unbelievable.
…Assassinations around the neighborhood…
From the Syrian field headquarters of Hezbollah comes news that yet another of Hezbollah’s senior military commanders is dead. Haj Sameer Ali Awada was apparently killed in northern Aleppo, near the Al-Mallah farms. He was a member of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah’s inner circle.
From Damascus itself comes word that Brigadier General Hassan Raisson was killed by a rebel assassination team on Baghdad Street in the downtown area of the city. Raisson was widely known as being the torturer of many captured rebel soldiers.
From the Egyptian Sinai, two assassinations of note:
First, the Egyptian army claims to have killed the central Sinai commander of Islamic State. No verification has yet been forthcoming.
Second, it turns out that one of the two people killed in an attack on an Egyptian military convoy earlier this week was Brig. Gen. Kamal Ahmed Mahmoud, the Egyptian military governor of the central Sinai region.
TODAY’S BLOG:
We need a geographical lesson this morning.
Map 1: A somewhat truncated map of Israel:
Note Hevron (Hebron) in Judea (Yehuda) south of Jerusalem, and Beersheva (Beer Sheba).
Map 2: A map of Route 60 from Hevron south to Beersheva:
Note Kiryat Arba just south of Hevron in the upper right, the arrow pointing to Otniel, and Beersheva in the lower left.
Map 3: A more specific map from Kiryat Arba to Otniel:
Note
So what is the point of all of these maps?
Route 60 between Kiryat Arba and Otniel is a death road, particularly the 16 km stretch that goes from the Road 356 turnoff south of Kiryat Arba to the community of Otniel.
25 Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian terrorists on the road since 1994.
The community of Otniel alone has had 7 community members killed on the road.
And still the Israeli government does not even take the most basic steps to protect our citizens traveling on the road–basic steps such as putting “street lights” all along the road, building a cellphone tower along the road so people can call for help (remarkably, there is no reception on this 16 km stretch), and putting checkpoints at the 356 turnoff and at Otniel.
Yesterday, hundreds of community members marched to protest the fact that they are sitting ducks.
Walking on the road of shame.
Your humble servant can only say kolekevod for people doing something and shame on the government for doing nothing.
SPECIAL NOTICE:
There will be no israelstreet blog tomorrow. Your humble servant will be meeting at the Kotel (Western Wall) in Jerusalem early in the morning with the family and friends of Hallal Yaffa Ariel, the 13 year old who was gruesomely stabbed to death two weeks ago. We are hoping that PM Netanyahu will give permission for a large group of us to ascend the Temple Mount.
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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.