23 Av 5777
15 August 2017
The News on the Israel Street
Palestinian terrorism overnight . . .
As usual, there were numerous “rock” and Molotov attacks by Palestinian terrorists from Hizma to Road 443 west of the Maccabim Checkpoint. Just as usual, Palestinian terrorists attacked Police in the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem, and IDF soldiers in and around Bethlehem.
In one of the more egregious attacks of the day, an Israeli family in a car was cut off and surrounded by Palestinian terrorists on the Jordan Valley Road while heading north. A car sped up from behind, crossed the lane in front of them, and slammed on its brakes to try to stop them. Fortunately, the driver of the Israeli car was able to elude the terrorists by ramming his car into theirs and speeding off.
A negative migration balance for the first time in a decade . . .
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics released data yesterday that shows that in 2015 (such statistics always lag), more Israelis left Israel than returned. To be specific, 16,700 Israelis picked up stakes and moved overseas, and 8,500 Israelis who had been living overseas returned home to Israel.
To put it a different way, for every 1000 Israelis, 2 left Israel, and 1 returned.
About the emigrants: 95% of them were Jewish, and 54% were Jews who had made aliyah to Israel. Of this 54%, the majority (64%) had been immigrants to Israel from France. As we have reported previously on israelstreet, French immigrants to Israel seem to have a particularly difficult time adjusting to life here.
The CBS also noted that since the 1948 refounding of Israel, 720,000 Israelis have left the country and never returned. Many of these emigrants have since died, leaving approximately 570,000 Israelis now living permanently abroad.
Speaking of demographic shifts . . .
The National Economic Council released its long awaited 25 year forecast yesterday. Among its predictions:
*Israel’s population will increase by 56.2%–reaching 20.2 million in 2040.
*The percentage of ultra-orthodox Jews will increase from 11% today to 20% in 2040.
*The number of Jews living in Judea and Samaria will increase from 415,000 today to 630,000 in 2040. Most of this increase will be ultra-orthodox Israelis who will account for about half of the population of these areas.
*The three cities that will experience the sharpest population increases will be Ashkelon, Hadera, and Beersheva.
Speaking of “demographic” shifts . . .
A family that was traveling off-road in the Negev Desert near Mitzpe Ramon the other day noticed a cloud of dust approaching them.
It turned out that a pack of wolves was chasing a herd of wild donkeys.
Yes, you read that correctly.
Wild donkeys that were declared extinct in the 1920s now number more than 300 thanks to a “reseeding program” in 1968 which brought 12 such donkeys to Israel.
A wild donkey in the Negev; note the distinctive leg markings (picture source on picture).
Wolves have also seen their population increase to between 150 and 200 as people have increasingly moved into the Negev. The wolves tend to feed from garbage dumps and throwaways from military camps.
Two wolves on the Israeli Golan Heights (picture: Go2Films).
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By the way, it is not known whether the wolves caught the donkeys near Mitzpe Ramon–or whether the donkeys, noted for their fierce kicking, escaped.
TODAY’S BLOG:
A Sweeping Iranian Victory On All Fronts
Iranian “militiamen” strutting their stuff in Syria:
What Barack Obama hoped for has come to pass. From Iraq to Yemen to Syria, Iran has won out and is busy establishing exactly what it declared it wanted–a Shi’ite Empire from Iran to the Mediterranean and to the Red Sea. Along the way, Iran has formed almost breathtaking alliances with Russia, Turkey, and Qatar.
In a process begun in Iraq even before Obama took office, but rapidly accelerated during his tenure in office, the Iran quest for regional hegemony has succeeded. It was a quest that was largely funded in recent years by the Obama payout as part of the Nuclear Weapons Appeasement Deal. And it is a quest that seems to be at least partially aided by recent actions of the Trump Administration.
Nowhere can you see the Iranian success in as stark relief as in Syria. Iranian boots on the ground with Russian air support has saved the Assad regime and planted the Iranian flag.
Who controls the Shi’ite militias (read mercernaries) that now rule the Syrian border with Jordan? Iran.
Who controls the border between Syria and Lebanon? Hezbollah . . . in other words, Iran.
Who controls the border between Syria and Israel on the Golan Heights? Iranian militias, Hezbollah, and regular Iranian soldiers . . . in other words, Iran.
Who controls the country of Syria? Iran.
Lock, stock, and barrel.
And which country is beginning to stage a hasty retreat on all fronts–realizing the futility of spending billions of dollars going nowhere against Iran?
Saudi Arabia.
Saudi support for the Syrian “rebels” has crashed and burned–a crashing and burning underscored a few weeks ago by the Trump Administration’s removal of support for the “rebels.” The Saudi struggle against the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen is sapping Saudi resources at an alarming rate; even worse is that the war is being brought into Saudi Arabia itself.
Just how far things have collapsed from the Saudi point of view was illustrated by the news last week that Saudi Arabia has asked the Iranian-supported Iraqi Prime Minister to mediate “a truce” between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Obviously, one can expect a Saudi detente with Qatar any day, now that the Trump Administration has publicly weighed in on the side of terrorist Qatar.
All of this is an unmitigated disaster for the region, the world, and for Israel.
We now confront an Arab world dominated by radical Shi’ites, face a world of terror funded by Iran, and live in an Israel surrounded on all sides (except Egypt) by an Iranian regime that constantly threatens our annihilation.
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.