4 Tammuz 5779
7 July 2019
Revealing Quote of the Day
“Iran wants to wipe Israel off the map, it’s nothing new, you have to learn to live with it.”
Josep Borrell, former Spanish Foreign Minister and member of the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party–now the newly chosen Foreign Minister of the European Union. Like his predecessor Federica Mogherini, Borrell is well known for his extreme animus against Israel.
“We have to learn to live with Iran trying to exterminate us?”
History has taught us time and again that we should believe it when people say that they want to kill you; you had better believe them–and do something about it.
This is particularly true when it comes to the history of Israel and the history of the Jews.
A footnote: Ironically, Borrell met his first wife, Carolina Mayeur (a French Jew), while working on an Israeli kibbutz in 1969. They had two children prior to their divorce some years later.
The News On The Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In Judea and Samaria:
There have been two bulldozer attacks.
In the first, a Palestinian terrorist tried to run over an Israeli policeman at Shikmim Square in Samaria. Fortunately, the policeman was uninjured and managed to fire several shots at the terrorist who escaped.
In the second, a Palestinian terrorist ran over 5 soldiers near the Hizma Checkpoint early this morning.
The scene at the Hizma Checkpoint after the attack.
One soldier was wounded critically (requiring the amputation of a limb), another moderately, and three lightly. The terrorist initially escaped but was later captured (see more comments about this in Today’s Blog below).
In addition to these attacks, Palestinian terrorists threw IEDs at Jewish worshipers at Rachel’s Tomb outside of Bethlehem; “rocks” and Molotovs were thrown at various locations in Gush Etzion; and a number of cases of Palestinian arson were reported.
A traffic check of a suspicious vehicle in Hevron carrying women and children turned up these weapons:
The car was loaded with weapons and ammunition (photo courtesy of hakolhayehudi).
On the Gaza border:
There continue to be numerous attempts to infiltrate the Israeli border from north to south Gaza.
In one attempt early yesterday evening, IDF soldiers captured this terrorist:
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Two soldiers “escorting” a blindfolded terrorist to a security outpost.
Recently, there has been an attempt by Israeli leftists to label terrorist infiltrators such as the one above as “humanitarian refugees”. Later in the evening, three more terrorists were tracked down and captured after another infiltration attempt. These “humanitarian refugees” were armed with grenades and IEDs.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood . . .
Apparently, U.S. mediated talks between Israel and Lebanon about establishing a maritime border have failed.
According to American sources, the failure is due to Lebanese intransigence.
What a surprise.
Two fascinating (and not good) statistics today . . .
*In the six months of this year, 66 hi-tech companies left Israel after mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts. All told, the companies were valued at 14.48 billion dollars. Who knows how many jobs were lost?
*Between 1950 and 2016, the average daily temperature in Israel has increased 1.3 degrees C (2.3 degrees F). However, if we only look at the last 30 years, the average daily temperature has increased by 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees F).
It is definitely getting hotter.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Absorb And Contain
“The terrorist attack this evening is a direct result of the weak policy of the Israeli government in the overall war against terror and Gaza in particular. Those who are prepared to absorb and contain the burning of the southern fields, to contain the firing of hundreds of missiles with zero response, receive the direct result of the lack of deterrence in Judea and Samaria as well. A terrorist who attacks soldiers and civilians should be equal to the kite-throwers in Gaza: a bullet in the head.”
Attorney Itamar Ben-Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power Party referring to the bulldozer attack at Hizma.
In case you have missed it, our Israeli non-government has coined a new phrase to describe its nonaction against terrorists: “absorb and contain”.
Roughly described, this policy is based on the idea that our citizens in vulnerable areas such as along the Gaza border and out in Judea and Samaria are now supposed to be able to absorb whatever terrorism comes their way whether it be missiles, fires, Molotovs, or “rocks”.
To put it another way, daily and even hourly trauma–not to mention physical wounds and even death–can be ignored as long as politicians continue to blabber about such citizens being “resilient.” The thinking goes that as long as these people are resilient and absorb the terror, it will not spread to central Israel which is more densely populated.
In other words, the terrorism will be “contained”.
Who cares if a few hundred missiles are fired at our Gaza border communities every couple of months blowing up “a few’ houses, killing “a few” citizens, and causing widespread post traumatic shock syndrome as long as they are not fired at Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?
Who cares if daily fires cause respiratory and economic distress among the children, women, and men of the South as long as there are no fires and smoke in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?
Who cares if Jews living in Judea and Samaria are targeted day in and day out by terrorists trying to kill them with Molotovs, “rocks”, IEDs, shootings, bulldozer attacks, and whatever else as long as these kinds of attacks are not happening in the streets of Tel Aviv or Jerusalem?
Absorb and contain.
In sum, “absorb and contain” is a policy born out of political and military impotence. It has already had catastrophic results along the Gaza border and in Judea and Samaria. The day will come when those results will also be felt in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.
Itamar Ben-Gvir is exactly right.
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.