Going Nowhere Fast

11 Tishrei 5780

10 October 2019

 

 

 

The News on the Israeli Street

Tragic news on Yom Kippur . . .

As you may or may not know, Yom Kippur in Israel is a day of fun for children–especially those children not yet expected to attend religious services.

Because by tradition there are no cars, trucks, or motorcycles on the roads, children literally play in the streets–riding their bicycles, skateboards, and whatever else they happen to have.

Yesterday, two children were killed doing just that.

And they were killed because it is only “by tradition” that there are no vehicles; there is no law forbidding them.

In Tel Aviv, 8-year-old Itai Margie was riding down a street on his bicycle when suddenly a car driven by 20-year-old Amir Abu Laban from Ramle came careening around a corner. Young Itai died instantly from brain trauma.

What was Laban doing driving on Yom Kippur? As an Israeli-Arab Muslim, Yom Kippur held no proscriptions for him. But more than this, he was alledgedly on his way to selling cocaine.

Meanwhile, a short distance away and shortly thereafter at 3 pm., 10-year-old Riad Bassam Abu Shakiri was riding his bicycle along Road 443 near the Ben Shemen Youth Village. Young Riad was on his way there to ride horses at a Yom Kippur kid’s activity.

As he crossed the road, he was run over by a speeding motorcyclist and killed on the spot. The police have yet to release any information about the identity of the motorcyclist.

Tragically, two Israeli children are dead today and two families are in mourning.

Other fallout from Yom Kippur . . .

Elsewhere around Israel, MADA was called on to treat 2,491 people–most of whom became dehydrated because of the Yom Kippur fast. 268 people fainted and had to be revived.

One positive effect of Yom Kippur . . .

The always terrible pollution in Israel’s major cities dropped sharply if even for only one day.

In Haifa, the amount of pollutant particles in the air fell from its usual average of 117.7 particles per billion to only 24.3.

In Tel Aviv, the decrease was from 74.2 to 11.
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Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria this morning . . .

In the last few hours, there have been numerous terror incidents.

For example, the 381 bus has been attacked with Molotovs and “rocks at the spring near Gush Etzion; Palestinian terrorists threw an IED toward another bus south of the Karmi Tzur Junction; and terrorists tried to kill motorists near Azzun with “rocks.”

The next holiday is but a few days away . . .

Sukkot begins on Sunday night and with it comes the four species carried by all religious Jews: the Etrog (fruit of a citron tree), Lulav (frond of date palm), Hadass (myrtle bough), and Aravah (willow branch).

The lulav, hadass, and aravah are all bound together and waved. One question is where to get the binding material–a special holder which is woven from palm fronds. As it turns out much of that is supposedly coming from Gaza this year:

Now that it has become known that Gaza is the source of this material this year, a boycott of the material has been started. Some feel that if the Gazans support boycotts against Israel, then . . .

 

 

TODAY’S BLOG:

Going Nowhere Fast

Now that Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur are behind us, you might have expected that all of that time for reflection might have resulted in some flexibility on the part of the main protagonists in Israel’s election saga.

But no.

Avigdor Lieberman was out yesterday with his new “4-point plan” which is precisely the same as his old “4-point plan”, namely that Netanyahu has to throw the ultra-orthodox under the bus, Gantz has to accept Rivlin’s plan with Netanyahu as first prime minister in a rotation agreement, and that both Netanyahu and Gantz have to beseech Lieberman to join them.

All of that is going nowhere.

Also going nowhere is Netanyahu handing back the mandate to form a government to Rivlin. Apparently, unless Bibi receives iron-clad guarantees from his 55 block of parties on the “right” that they will not jump ship when Rivlin then hands over the mandate to Gantz, he is reluctant to hand the chance to Gantz. 

Netanyahu seems to be having trouble getting that iron-clad guarantee, but he seems to be closing in on it.

All of which led Aryeh Deri, the head of the Shas party, to proclaim this morning that “it looks like we are on the way to another election.”

However, as we always say about Israeli politics–you never know what the next minute will bring.