13 Tammuz 5778
26 June 2018
Absurd Tweet of the Day:
Great honor to welcome HRH Prince William @KensingtonRoyal@RoyalFamily on his historic official visit to #Israel – a celebration of the deep & profound relations between our countries!
@Yuval_Rotem #Ambassador, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of #Israel.
Deep and profound relations between our two countries? Give your humble servant a break.
Quote of the Day
“I was at a crossroads and had an extraordinary opportunity to deal with a national challenge, and I realized that I was in a position where I did not know if I could contribute any more and decided to go for this role in order to continue contributing to the public sector and to do things important. “
Yitzhak (Bougie) Herzog, upon being elected Chairman of the Jewish Agency–which necessitates his resignation from the Knesset and politics
The above paragraph alone should inform you, dear reader, why Herzog was such an unpopular politician in Israel. I, I, I, I, I: Herzog has always been completely self-consumed.
Herzog continued:
“This institution has undergone a very significant change in recent years, and it is the only institution that is a global partnership between the Jewish people and Israel. The Jewish people are at a terrible juncture and may split into several religions if we do not deal with the problem as soon as possible.”
Say what? The Jewish people may split into several religions? The fact is that Reform Judaism has largely decided in word and deed that it is no longer Jewish. By trying to be “inclusive” to everyone, it has lost its foundations and is rapidly disappearing through rampant assimilation.
Perhaps Herzog should work on that.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
*Remember the picture from yesterday’s blog of the Hamas “wagon” that was bombed–and how the IDF felt that its elimination would begin to deter Molotov kite and balloon attacks?
There were 17 more fires in communities around Gaza yesterday.
17.
One incendiary device actually landed and started a fire 20 kilometers from Gaza in the Lachish region.
As we have previously reported, Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria are also launching Molotov kites and set fire to the area around Karmei Tzur yesterday.
*Numerous “rock” and Molotov attacks were carried out by Palestinian terrorists throughout Judea and Samaria. The worst of the attacks occurred on the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem Road and near Adam.
The new Cyprus gambit . . .
Apparently, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt spent most of their time with PM Netanyahu yesterday talking about “humanitarian” steps that can be taken to improve the lives of Palestinians in Gaza. At least part of the talks centered on lifting the naval blockade.
The newest idea is that Israel will permit a “floating dock” to be built off the coast of Cyprus. Boats bound for Gaza would offload their “supplies” to Gaza there where they would be inspected by Israeli officials and then ferried across the Mediterranean to Gaza.
The creation of the dock, however, is conditioned upon Hamas release of the several Israelis who voluntarily wandered into Gaza and are held there, and the release of the body parts of two of our soldiers who were blown to pieces in the 2014 war with the Palestinians.
In your humble servant’s opinion, this entire gambit is absurd. After months of having Hamas terrorists attack the border fence and months of watching southern Israel burn, we are now going to reward Hamas? For returning two mentally ill Israelis and the body parts of two others?
Unbelievable. But apparently this is part of the plan being put forward by the Trump Administration (see Today’s Blog).
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TODAY’S BLOG:
Jared Kushner’s Remarkable Interview in Al-Quds
In case you missed it on Sunday, Jared Kushner gave a remarkable interview to the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds.
In the interview, Kushner said things that your humble servant has never heard a diplomatic envoy say.
To start with, Kushner put the onus directly on PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas by saying that the U.S. is not making any special effort to meet him. Kushner blithely commented that “Abbas knows that we are open to meeting him and continuing the discussion when he is ready. He has said publicly he will not meet us and we have opted not to chase him.”
We have opted not to chase him?
If there is one thing that Mahmoud Abbas is used to, it is being begged and pleaded with to come to the negotiating table. That begging and pleading has been the source of the concessions that Abbas has been able to wring out of the weak-kneed West. For Kushner to make such a statement is simply astonishing.
Kushner proceeded to lambaste Abbas: “He has his talking points which have not changed in the last 25 years. There has been no peace deal achieved in that time. To make a deal, both sides will have to take a leap and meet somewhere between their stated positions. I am not sure President Abbas has the ability to do that.”
Wow. And wow.
How many times have we heard Abbas over the years claim that Israelis will have to evacuate every square millimeter of Judea and Samaria? Or that Jerusalem will be the capital of a Palestinian state? Or that every so-called Palestinian “refugee’ must be given a home in Israel? Finally, in Kushner, we have someone willing to call these declarations what they are: empty talking points.
More than this, the American side knows that Abbas lacks the will to make the leap necessary to make peace. To put it a different way, it’s time for the Palestinians to find new leadership.
To reinforce the point, Kushner added that the Palestinian people must come to realize that there lives are not improving because of Abbas and his cronies: ” . . . there is only so long you can blame that on everyone other than Palestinian leadership.”
You can read other excerpts of the interview here in the Jerusalem Post.
In sum, your humble servant is under no illusion that the Trump Peace Plan will be “all good” for Israel. In fact, just the opposite may be the case. We will undoubtedly find elements of the plan highly unacceptable, but one fact is sure: we have never heard an American Administration talk to the Palestinians the way they are talking now.
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.