Tishrei 16, 5777
October 18, 2016
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Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours
It was a relatively quiet Monday with “only” about 20 terror incidents.
“Rocks” and Molotov firebombs were used to assault Israeli children, women, and men on the Husan Bypass Road, and at Ganiton, Beitar Illit, Gush Etzion, Efrat, Psagot, Hatzor, Rachel’s Tomb, Jalazun, Abu Dis, Mt. Hevron, Qalandiya, and other places.
The number of Jews in the world is declining
According to Jewish demographers quoted in YNET, before World War II and the Holocaust, there were approximately 17 million Jews in the world; by the time war ended there were only 11 million left.
It took 13 years (1945-1958) for 11 million to become 12 million. However, it took another 40 years for 12 million to become 13 million. Today, there appears to be about 14,410,700 Jews in the world. That number has increased because of the increasing number of Jews in Israel.
Throughout the rest of the world, Jews are experiencing negative demographic growth–only about 0.21% per year.
Most of the world’s Jews are in Israel (6.3 million) and the U.S. (5.7 million). However, the Jewish population of the U.S. is rapidly decreasing among people who identify themselves as “Conservative” or “Reform” (the two largest Jewish groups). Assimilation is highest in your humble servant’s area of the country, northern California, where is stands at 80%+.
In short, the day will come in the not too far distant future when the last bastion of Judaism is here in Israel.
TODAY’S BLOG
What will the Obama Administration Criticize Israel for Tomorrow?
Really, is there a single day that someone in the Obama Administration does not criticize Israel? It has become such a standard practice at the White House and at the State Department that there should be a permanent agenda item titled “Criticism of Israel.”
Yesterday, it was infamous State Department spokesman John Kirby who insultingly criticized Israel and demeaned PM Netanyahu for criticizing B’Tselem and Peace Now.
You will remember that representatives from both B’Tselem and American Friends of Peace Now [a “sister” organization of Israel’s “Peace Now” NGO] spoke in the Security Council last Friday and lambasted Israel for its “brutal occupation” of the “West Bank.” Both organizations urged the Security Council to take immediate action against Israel.
What was the reaction here in Israel?
The words on everyone’s mouth were “treason” and “traitors.”
Yes, traitors. No one here can understand how these two organizations, B’Tselem in particular, could go to the United Nations, give presentations that were patently false, and urge the United Nations to sanction this country.
Here’s part of what Netanyahu said on Facebook:
The Executive Director of B’Tselem urged the Security Council to act against Israel. What these organizations [B’Tselem and Peace Now] fail to achieve through democratic elections in Israel, they are trying to achieve by international coercion.
Here’s what Kirby said yesterday:
“The US administration appreciates the information published by the two organizations on the situation in the West Bank and stresses that the United States believes that governments must protect freedom of expression and to create an environment where all voices can be heard.”
Israel may have the loudest, most discordant, democracy in the world. It is insulting in the extreme to suggest that Israel does not protect “freedom of expression.” And Netanyahu is correct: B’Tselem and Peace Now have every opportunity to achieve change in this country through the electoral process–yet virtually no one believes anything they have to say.
It is also insulting in the extreme that here we have a spokesman for an American Administration that covertly attempted to manipulate the results of the last Israeli election lecturing Israel about freedom of speech.
And it is “telling” in the extreme that the Obama Administration “appreciates the information published by B’Tselem and Peace Now.” President Obama bought the Palestinian “settlement” canard hook, line, and sinker even before he became President back in 2008. It is a canard that has been pushed by him and his two Secretaries of State (Hillary Clinton and John Kerry) ever since.
Back to Friday and its ramifications.
If you can believe this, B’Tselem is an organization in which Israeli women can perform their national service instead of going into the IDF.
After Friday’s performance, action is being taken to change this.
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked and PM Netanyahu are drafting a law to exclude B’Tslem as a national service option. This was attempted once before, but at that time the Deputy Attorney General Dina Zilber ruled that B’Tselem could not be excluded.
The good news is that Zilber and her ilk are no longer able to issue dictates to the Justice Ministry. Hopefully, B’Tselem and Peace Now will finally receive the sanctions they so richly deserve.
What will the Obama Administration criticize Israel for tomorrow?
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.