14 Tammuz 5779
17 July 2019
The News on the Israeli Street
From Judea and Samaria:
*Another attempted bulldozer attack last night: IDF soldiers opened fire on a terrorist when he attempted to run them over at an undisclosed location in Samaria. There is no further information at this time.
*Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli men, women, and children with “rocks” and Molotovs at Marda, the Haggai Junction in the Hevron Hills, on the Tunnel Road leading into southern Jerusalem, and at various locations in Gush Etzion.
*Overnight, Israeli soldiers captured 19 wanted terrorists along with multiple caches of M4 guns, military uniforms, IEDs, and other weapons.
This morning, hundreds of policemen and members of the Civil Administration suddenly showed up at Maoz Esther near Kochav Hashahar in order to destroy the tiny Jewish community there. Once again, the contrast is stark: Palestinian settlements such as Khan Al-Ahmar are still standing; Jewish communities like Maoz Esther are razed.
On the Gaza border:
*Palestinian terrorists launching explosive balloons into southern Israel started large fires in the Shokda Forest and at Moshav Gilat.
Not only will the IDF General Command do nothing to stop balloon, missile, and mortar fire emanating from Gaza, it also will not attack the new threat of anti-tank fire at the source, anti-tank fire which has already claimed the life of one Israeli.
So what to do? A brilliant new idea was announced yesterday (pardon the cynicism).
Trees.
Yes, the IDF is going to plant trees around the most vulnerable communities. Of course, an anti-tank missile can go through tree limbs, but hopefully the terrorists in Gaza will not be able to see their targets clearly.
Hilarious.
Meanwhile, the underground barrier has now reached 40 km in length with about 30 more to go as has the above ground 3 meter high fence. Obviously, the underground barrier will not stop Hamas from tunneling into Israel and a 3 meter fence will not stop terrorists from infiltrating into Israel, but they are a start.
And you think it is hot where you are . . .
A number of flights out of Ben Gurion Airport are being delayed today because of the extreme heat. The problem is that the heated air becomes thinner and makes it difficult for large planes to gain the right amount of pressure under their wings to create lift.
A follow-up to yesterday’s Barak blog . . .
As we wrote yesterday, information linking former PM Ehud Barak to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein continues to be published by The Daily Mirror newspaper in London.
Today the Mirror ran this collage of photos which purport to show Barak entering Epstein’s New York apartment shortly before the four women pictured:
In the Daily Mirror today.
In response to these photos and accompanying article, Barak says that he is initiating a suit against the newspaper. He further states that his face was covered because it was cold in New York that January, and he vehemently denies any connection with the women. Indeed, there is no way to verify that the photos of the women were taken in any time proximity to Barak entering the building.
Nevertheless, this is just one foot deeper into the Epstein quagmire for Barak.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
The De-Israelization of Israel
Last week, we wrote about how 66 Israeli high-tech companies have left Israel after mergers, acquisitions, and buyouts. It is fair to say that they took their Israeli technology with them, and left a large number of Israeli workers behind. The few Israeli workers they took with them just add to the ever-increasing brain drain out of the country.
We might term this increasingly worrisome phenomenon “the de-Israelization of Israel.”
However, there is more to de-Israelization than just worrying about companies and employees leaving. That worry is China.
PM Netanyahu constantly wants to harp on how he has improved the Israeli economy by increasing foreign investment, but stop for a moment and think about what has happened here in the last few years:
*The Chinese have won the contract to expand and revitalize the port here at Ashdod–Israel’s largest port.
*The Chinese have won the contract to expand and revitalize the port at Haifa–a situation that the U.S. government looks upon very unfavorably because of all the U.S. naval vessels that dock there.
*The Chinese were the ones that dug the tunnels under the Carmel in Haifa.
*The Chinese are the ones that are constructing the new light rail system in Tel Aviv which also has set off alarm bells because of the route’s proximity to the country’s security headquarters at the Kirya.
*The Chinese are currently being wooed by the government to construct a passenger railroad from Ashdod to Eilat (more warning bells).
*The Chinese purchased Ahava, the signature Israeli skin-care products company based on Dead Sea minerals.
*The Chinese purchased Makhteshim, Israel’s signature crop protection company.
*The Chinese purchased Tnuva, Israel’s signature dairy company (and quickly moved to replace Israelis on the Board).
*The Chinese have set up numerous partner academic institutions such as the Guangdong-Haifa Technion Institute of Technology.
*The Chinese have gobbled so many Israeli start-ups and medical care companies that it is impossible to mention them all here, not to mention companies heavily engaged in cybersecurity.
Your humble servant is not xenophobic, but somewhere along the line there will be a price to pay for the de-Israelization of Israel–and that price may well be political as well as economic. For example, how beholden will Israel be to China when its major ports and rail lines are all run by the Chinese? To what degree will China be able to manipulate Israel?
We should be thinking about questions like these because it already appears that we are past the tipping point of no return.
*Israelstreet acknowledges the Jerusalem Post for some elements of Today’s Blog.
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.