22 Iyar 5778
7 May 2018
The Steadfast and the Absurd:
Two Interesting Quotes of the Day
Quote 1:
“I have not begged for two years. I have no intention of begging now.”
Elor Azariya, our Hevron soldier, referring to a request for his early release
On Thursday, May 10, Elor Azariya will finally be released from Israeli prison after absurdly serving a sentence for killing a terrorist who had already carried out a terrorist attack and whom he believed was about to carry out another one.
Elor’s brother is getting married on Wednesday, and there is hope that prison authorities will release him a few days early. As you can tell from the above quote, Elor has remained steadfast throughout his incarceration–and has rightly never asked forgiveness for what he did.
Quote 2:
“Elor is our soldier even if he is imprisoned, and he is entitled to all the rights when he is released.”
Maj. Gen. Motti Almoz, the head of the IDF Personnel Directorate
Your humble servant wants to throw up.
Elor was arrested, prosecuted, and convicted by a kangaroo military justice system. At every step along the way, that system along with everyone in the IDF hierarchy, conspired to take away every one of Elor’s rights.
And now Maj. Gen. Almoz wants to talk about Elor being entitled to “all the rights” once he is released?
What a perverted joke.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In Judea and Samaria:
The Karmei Tzur Junction, Beit Ummar, the Gush Etzion to Hevron Road, the El Aruv checkpoint, Beit El, the Halhul North Junction, Beit El, Qalqilya, Ofra, the Ma’aleh Adumim-Jerusalem Road, just outside of Ramallah, Kiryat Arba, Beit Anun, Tekoa, and Al-Fawwar: these 15 locations were among 30 yesterday where Palestinian terrorists attempted to kill Israeli men, women, and children.
On the Gaza Border:
Another day of attempted breaches of the border fence, and another day of fires caused by Molotov kites and helium balloons. The worst fire is the one burning now at Kibbutz Nir Am:
The fire currently burning out of control at Kibbutz Nir Am; this one started by a helium balloon loaded with explosives (photo: screenshot from twitter feed).
What goes around comes around . . .
The 7-man Syrian missile battery crew that fired the missile that downed the Israeli F16 two months ago met their timely end yesterday. While they were on their way to the T-4 base, their vehicle was hit by bomb dropped by an unidentified plane.
All seven were killed.
Is the Iranian attack imminent? . . .
It seems increasingly likely that an Iranian missile attack on an IDF base or outpost is likely to come between yesterday’s Lebanese elections and May 12 when President Trump is set to announce whether the U.S. is getting out of the Iranian Appeasement Agreement or not.
All sorts of signals have been flying in all directions overnight.
*There are reports of Iranian convoys hurriedly carrying weapons from Syria to southern Lebanon.
*Yuval Steinetz, a member of Israel’s Security Cabinet, declared that if Iran attacks Israel from Syria, it will be the end of Bashar Assad.
*Another report suggests that Ayatollah Khamenei (whom Barack Obama always addressed as “Supreme Leader”) has ordered the Revolutionary Guards not to attack until Trump announces his decision.
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A followup to yesterday’s blog . . .
Yesterday we pointed out on israelstreet how John Kerry is fighting tooth and nail to hang on to the possibility of his receiving a Nobel Peace Prize. This effort on his part involves his “talking” to the Iranian FM and others about ways they can undermine President Trump’s avowed intention to scrap the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Appeasement Agreement.
In recent hours, it has been suggested that Kerry is actually acting in violation of the Logan Act which prohibits private U.S. citizens from entering into “governmental” negotiations with foreign governments.
President Trump picked up on this in an early morning tweet today:
A surprising development in Tel Aviv . . .
Whereas Jerusalem is our eternal capital and Israel’s spiritual center, Tel Aviv has always been the “secular capital” where anything goes.
Nightclubs operate day and night seven days a week, and all kinds of food can be found on the menus of restaurants.
But maybe things are changing.
In what can only be described as an astonishing development, kosher restaurants are going up all over the city.
Does this mean that Tel Aviv is forsaking its secular ways? Of course not, but it is nevertheless intriguing.
TODAY’S BLOG:
“Israeli Democracy Is Alive And Kicking!”
Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked speaking yesterday.
Your humble servant is simply amazed at the never ending fraudulent allegations from the “left” that Israel is somehow becoming anti-democratic.
Organizations such as the New Israel Fund and Breaking the Silence scour the world for audiences eager to hear the ridiculous message that dissent is being stifled in Israel and that democracy is hanging on by a thread.
Your humble servant is amazed because everywhere he looks in Israel, someone or some group is protesting about something. There may be no country in the world that has more special interest groups, NGOs, and non-profit organizations per capita than Israel. All of them loudly express their opinions everyday.
And this does not even include Israel’s numerous political parties which are all over the political spectrum. Not a day goes by that each one of them doesn’t hold a press conference or issue a statement or press release about something.
In short, one would be hard pressed to find a more vibrant or thriving democracy than that found in Israel. I have often described it as “organized chaos.”
But you would never believe it listening to the leftists.
In recent months, they have cried that Israeli democracy is disappearing because:
*The government is acting to stop BDS sympathizers from entering the country where they hope to delegitimize Israel from within.
*PM Netanyahu will not resign in the face of all of the investigations of him and his family.
*The Knesset wants to pass a “national” law enshrining our national anthem Hatikvah, flag, and other symbols of our country.
*The government wants to reduce the amount of money that can be funneled to so-called “humanitarian” organizations which fight against Israel, and foreign political organizations that try to influence our elections.
But none of the above approaches the recent outcry over the proposed “cessation” law which would enable the Knesset to override decisions of the Israel Supreme Court. Every politician on the left has jumped on the bandwagon to scream and yell that the sky is falling. To listen to them, the Supreme Court must have unfettered power to neuter any law passed by the Knesset.
Yesterday, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked addressed the cessation law debate in a speech at a ceremony at President Rivlin’s residence. She specifically referred to the fact that the proposed cessation law was submitted to the Knesset yesterday after being unanimously passed out of committee, and the public’s declining trust in the Court (emphasis mine):
“As far as the reciprocal relations between the Knesset and the Court are concerned, the state has come to a crossroads. . . Yesterday, after more than 20 years, the State of Israel has made a significant step toward realizing its vision, and I believe that at the end of a long and profound process, the Knesset will complete the process of drawing up the reciprocal relations between the institutions. Public trust must be restored in the judicial system . . .
Once a week, a voice comes out and declares that the State of Israel is moving towards the end of democracy, sometimes because of a government move and sometimes because of legislation of one kind or another. The “death of democracy” has become an absurdity, and especially a tool for political battering.
I am sorry to disappoint the eulogizers, but go outside and look. Israeli democracy is alive and kicking and stronger than all its critics and all its eulogizers . . .“
Your humble servant could not agree more!
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.