2 Sivan 5778
16 May 2018
Important Quote of the Day
“Ordinary citizens were not killed on the Gaza Border on Nakba Day. 50 of those killed were Hamas members.”
Salah Bardawil, a member of the Hamas Political Bureau, speaking in an interview on the Baladna al-Alamiya television channel today.
Hamas spokesman Salah Bardawil.
Bardawil’s comment underscores the utter idiocy of tributes, vigils, and memorials around the world for the “civilians” and “children” who have allegedly been killed on the Gaza Border.
From the Cannes Film Festival to the United Nations Security Council, moronic “leaders” who have bought into the Hamas propaganda of a “massacre” on the Gaza border are leading events that trash Israel.
By the way, who knows if 50 Hamas members were killed or not? The point is that virtually all of those killed were members of one terror group or another.
The latest claim from the Gaza Health Ministry is that 62 were killed and 3,188 were wounded on Nakba Day. As we reported on these fake numbers yesterday, they just continue climbing minute by minute.
The News on the Israeli Street Today
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In recent hours, there has been Palestinian sniper fire into Sderot and a report of a stabbing at Safra Square in Jerusalem.
More than 75 Palestinian Molotov and “rock” terror attacks targeting Israeli men, women, and children took place throughout Judea and Samaria as reported to Rescue Judea and Samaria, Rescue 443, hakolhayehudi, and rotter. Some of the worst attacks occurred at:
Road 446, Peduel, Beit Aryeh, Shavei Shomron, Beit Ummar, Psagot, Mount Hevron, Al-Fawwar, Beit Hanina, the Ben Zion Junction, Road 443 near Sheikh Sa’ad, the Husan Bypass, Negohot, Ma’ale Shomron, Azzun, the Karmala Crossing in Gush Etzion, Route 55, Karmei Tzur, Gilad, Beit El, the Beit Dajan Junction, Elon Moreh, Itamar, Givat Ronen, the Halhul Bypass, Abud, Rahelim, Ariel, the Iskha Bridge, Eli, Luban A-Shariya, the Horseshoe Junction near Talmonim, the Focus Junction in Binyamin, Havat Gilad, Al Bireh, Bab al-Zawiya, and Tekoa among other places.
Israel-Turkish relations hit rock bottom . . .
To no one’s surprise, the viciously anti-Semitic Turkish PM Taycip Erdogan is attempting to portray himself as the greatest friend of the Palestinians.
To that end, he has thrown the Israeli Ambassador out of Turkey as well as the consular head in Ankara. Israel has now retaliated in kind.
Yair Netanyahu, Bibi’s son, posted the following this morning on social media. It vulgarly captures the feeling of your humble servant and other Israelis about Erdogan and Turkey:
Note the creative use of the Turkish flag.
The European moral abyss revealed again . . .
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Speaking yesterday following a meeting of the foreign ministers of Iran, Britain, France, and Germany, EU Foreign Minister Federica Mogherini said that the EU is desperately looking for a way to appease Iran and keep the Iranian Nuclear Weapons Appeasement Agreement alive.
Specifically, Mogherini indicated that it is all about money:
“We are working on finding a practical solution. We are talking about solutions to keep the deal alive . . . to allow Iran to keep exporting oil and for European banks continuing to operate [in Iran].”
She closed her comments by pleading with the Iranians to give the EU a few more weeks to come up with ways “to keep investment flowing.”
Can you believe this? Of course you can.
There are few people on the planet as morally bankrupt as Federini and her cohorts and minions in the EU.
By the way, following Federini’s comments, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif said: “We are on the right track … a lot will depend on what we can do in next few weeks.”
What we can do in the next few weeks? Zarif means “what concessions the Europeans can offer”.
It is absolutely pathetic. No talk about Iranian terrorism from Syria to Yemen to Lebanon; no talk about Iranian ballistic missiles; no talk about uranium centrifuges–just talk about handing over more money to the Iranians.
The Women of the Wall provoke again . . .
A warning went out to the WOW women again yesterday after they ignored police officers and a ruling of the High Court of Justice, and prayed outside a cordoned off area in the Women’s Section during their monthly prayer service on Tuesday.
WOW leader Anat Hoffman ranted this bit of nonsense:
“We have been pushed to the side of the area, where it’s hard to see the wall, let alone touch it, and we don’t want to be there. We are hundreds of women and we want to be where we can see the wall. This group has hope, it is a sisterhood with a cause that surpasses the rabbi [of the Western Wall]. They are now banning us from the Western Wall, they’re saying every part of the wall is a haredi synagogue, so everyone who cares about equality must stand with Women of the Wall because this will end with banning everyone who doesn’t look and act how the rabbi wants.”
What nonsense.
The entire southern section of the Wall from the Mughrabi Ramp to the end of the Wall is completely available to anyone who wants to pray there—as your humble servant showed in multiple videos that he took there earlier this year and last. No one, except the Women of the Wall, is saying that “every part of the Wall is a haredi [orthodox] synagogue.”
Some great economic news . . .
Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics reported today that Israel’s economy grew at a rate of 4.2% in the first quarter of 2018.
In fact, over the past three quarters, the economy grew at an annual rate of over 4%.
Of course, this is one of the highest rates in the industrialized world.
TODAY’S BLOG:
All Is Quiet on the Gaza Border: What Happened?
Before we answer that question, here are two Gaza updates:
Incredibly, the decision was made overnight to withdraw IDF forces from Gaza communities and dilute the number of soldiers on the border.
Doubly incredibly, the IDF COGAT unit decided to resume supplies of diesel oil to “humanitarian” organizations in Gaza–despite the fact that the Kerem Shalom Crossing has now been burned three times and the gas pipeline into Gaza destroyed. The oil will be trucked in.
So what happened?
How did we go from terrorist attempts to breach the border fence and kill and kidnap Israeli soldiers to absolute quiet in a matter of hours?
In one word, the answer is “Egypt.”
According to multiple reports, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was ordered to Cairo last night. Once there, he was unceremoniously taken to the outer office of Egyptian intelligence chief General Mohammed Ahmed Fareed al-Tohami.
Where he was insultingly forced to wait until Al-Tohami allowed him to come in.
Once he did, Al-Tohami launched into a tirade telling him that the Egyptians had video of how Hamas was paying its minions to go to the border to foment violence, adding that the blood of dead Palestinians was on his and Yahya Sinwar’s head.
Al-Tohami continued berating Haniyeh and told him that Israel would begin carrying out targeted assassinations, and that if Haniyeh and Sinwar were killed, Egypt would not utter a word in protest.
Al-Tohami then walked out, and Haniyeh helicoptered back to Gaza.
And the violence immediately stopped.
The above account was passed to Israel via senior Egyptian officials. There is no reason to disbelieve it.
And there is no reason to believe that the violence might not start up again at any moment.
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.