21 Kislev 5778
9 December 2017
The News On the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Missiles fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza (photo AFP stock).
**Multiple missile attacks were carried out against southern Israel last night. Incoming missile sirens blared from 6:11 pm-6:35 pm (continuously); at 7:07 pm; and again at 9:57 pm.
At least three missiles were fired at the first time (one was shot down by the Iron Dome); one missile the second time; and two missiles the third time—one of which hit downtown Sderot. The Sderot missile hit a parked car on a city street in the middle of downtown Sderot.
The missile that hit Sderot should frighten any Israeli who lives on any border that is threatened by missiles. Surrounded by Iron Dome batteries, Sderot would seemingly be impenetrable by missiles. But last night for reasons unknown, the Iron Dome did not even fire at 9:57 pm.
In short, Sderot was lucky that terrorists did not shoot a barrage of missiles, and that the one that hit the city did not hit someone’s home.
The bottom line is that Israel’s vaunted missile defense system is dangerously porous.
Another oddity about last night is that while the IAF bombed a Hamas observation post after the first two attacks, there was no IDF response whatsoever to the Sderot attack–a fact that left many residents of Sderot wondering “Where’s the army?”
**Elsewhere across Judea and Samaria there were more than 100 terror incidents at locations mentioned in yesterday’s blog. The Palestinian Red Crescent Ambulance service, a reliable source of unreliable information claimed that 2 Palestinian rioters were killed, and another 300+ were wounded.
Interestingly, and your humble servant knocks on wood when he says this, the supposed day of rage against Israel did not really materialize. Sure, Israeli and American flags were burned in the street and pictures of Trump and Netanyahu were similarly torched, but all in all, it seemed perfunctory and was not the kind of day that Israeli security forces had worried would take place.
Why didn’t it materialize (or is it slow to materialize)? Your humble servant proposes three reasons:
1. There is no real reason for the Palestinians to “rage”. Virtually the entire western world (not to mention the Arab world) has rushed to their defense. There have been astonishing expressions of support for “the poor Palestinians.”
2. In the last few years, the Palestinian situation in Judea and Samaria has dramatically changed for the better, so much so that many Palestinian leaders are bewailing what they call the “Tel Avivization” of Palestinian life. This phrase is used derogatorily in Israel to refer to people who are largely indifferent to what is going on, and would prefer to sit in their cafes and drink coffee and walk their dogs in dog parks.
3. In the aftermath of Trump’s declaration, the rift between the U.S. State Department as embodied by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the White House has widened. As reported in yesterday’s blog, the State Department was quick to declare that Israelis born in Jerusalem who have American passports still may NOT list their birthplace as “Jerusalem, Israel.” Yesterday, Tillerson gave an interview in which he stated that the American Embassy will not move this year, next year, or even the year after that. As if we did not know it already, Rex Tillerson is no friend of Israel.
So, given all of these factors, what do the Palestinians have to rage about?
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TODAY’S BLOG
The Denunciations of the Jerusalem Declaration:
Anti-Semitic To The Core
Regular readers of this blog know that your humble servant dislikes using the phrase “anti-Semitic.” I generally reserve it to refer to only the most egregious anti-Semites such as Turkish PM Erdogan, British Labor Leader Jeremy Corbyn, and American political “activist” Linda Sarsour.
But there is something deeply troubling about the recent wave of denunciations of Trump’s Jerusalem declaration. As much as we may try to dismiss these denunciations as just the usual anti-Israel blatherings that always come from the anti-Israel crowd, the fact is that these denunciations should be recognized for what they are.
When the Pope stands in the Vatican and says that the “status quo” in Jerusalem should not change, what is he really saying?
When European FM Federica Mogherini sits in her office and says that recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel may take us back to “darker days”, what is she really saying?
When Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday that the American recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel “runs counter to common sense”, what is he really saying?
When French President Emmanuel Macron lamented last Wednesday that the decision to recognize Jerusalem is “regrettable”, what is he really saying?
We could go on and on, but at the heart of all of these statements is the idea that we Jews do not have the same human rights as everyone else.
If we put it in the Pope’s terms, we Jews should just be happy with the “status quo”–a status quo that denies us the right to choose our own capital city in our own sovereign country.
If we put it in Mogherini’s terms, recognizing Jerusalem as capital of Israel exposes we Jews as troublemakers who would risk destabilizing the entire region for the sake of recognizing our capital.
If we put it in Lavrov’s terms, it is just “common sense” that we Jews shouldn’t be able to name our own capital.
If we put it in Macron’s terms, it is simply “regrettable” that we Jews have our rights recognized.
No matter how we look at all of these statements, they are at their core deeply anti-Semitic.
One final thought: this anti-Semitism is not confined to non-Jews. Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration has highlighted the phenomenon of “self-hating Jews” as perhaps never before. The same anti-Semitism that blows through the United Nations, European Union, and Arab League also blows through the offices of Jewish Voice for Peace, J Street, and a host of other so-called “Jewish” organizations.
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.