11 Iyar 5780
5 May 2020
Photo of the Day
Here we are in May, and it’s sleeting and hailing throughout the Negev in southern Israel. This photo is from Arad today. Hail and downpours also hit Beersheva and Dimona.
The amazing weather continues. This is the first time in 30 years that rainfall has exceeded 120% of “normal” for two consecutive years.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
*10 pm Tuesday: there are now 16,289 confirmed cases of Corona in Israel. 70 people are on ventilators. 238 Israelis have died. 10,465 have recovered.
*Unfortunately, new outbreaks of the virus have occurred in unincorporated Bedouin areas of the Negev. In response, two Bedouin “neighborhoods”, Kwai’in and Hura, have been closed off with no entry and exit.
*It’s a drop in the bucket, but some good news today is that 7,498 people reported returning to work yesterday.
*The Education Ministry announced today that all kindergartens with children between the ages of 3-6 will open on Sunday.
*A sign that Corona is decelerating? The Tel Aviv parking enforcement division issued a statement today warning everyone that parking tickets will begin being issued again tomorrow.
The impact of Corona . . . increased immigration? . . .
While Corona has raged, interest in immigrating to Israel has increased by almost 50%. The main countries whose Jews appear to be interested in coming are Russia, Ukraine, Argentina, the U.S., and Canada.
Why you may ask?
The answer is that it is probably because of the stellar job that our government has done (so far) in holding the virus at bay.
The attack in Syria two nights ago . . .
The totally obliterated weapons warehouse. (Photo credit isi on photos).
It has now been reported that more than a dozen Iranian and Iranian proxy soldiers were killed in the attack on the weapons repository on May 1.
This comes as various Israeli “senior officials” have blabbed to the media that they see evidence of Iran “reducing its footprint” in Syria because of the constant Israeli air attacks on its facilities. In your humble servant’s opinion, this blabbing is not only counterproductive but also false.
Speaking of Iran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said today that if the arms embargo on Iran is not lifted in October, they will begin pursuing their nuclear program full-bore.
Can you believe this?
Here we have the Iranians threatening to ramp up their nuclear weapons program if the West does not permit them to build even more advanced ballistic missiles to put nuclear warheads on.
It is Orwellian.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
Kick Them Out! Shelanu and GOD TV
As you undoubtedly know, Christian organizations are very active in Israel. They can essentially be divided into three categories:
1. Mainstream Christian organizations which exist in Israel for the sole purpose of undermining Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria. These organizations produce a steady stream of false information about the situation on the ground and travel the world trashing Israel on behalf of “the poor Palestinians.”
2. Evangelical Christian organizations (including so-called “Messianic Jews”) whose sole purpose is to try to convert Jews to Christianity or to try to entice atheistic residents of the former Soviet Union to become Christians. These organizations hold festivals, distribute food, and make monetary enticements available to those they are targeting.
3. Evangelical Christian organizations, notably Christians United For Israel, whose sole purpose in Israel is to support the government and people of Israel. These wonderful organizations do not engage in missionary activity in Israel.
All of which brings us to the events of the last few days.
Israel’s Cable and Satellite Council has given the avowedly Christian missionary media network “GOD TV” permission to broadcast the “Shelanu” channel in Israel on the HOT cable system for 7 years.
Unbelievably, the head of the Council, Asher Bitton, remarked yesterday that he had been “unaware” that the purpose of the Shelanu was to proselytize, and the idiotic head of the HOT system remarked that Shelanu was no different than any other religious programming on its cable system.
Bitton and the chairman of HOT don’t have to work to hard to find out what Shelanu and GOD TV are up to. Yesterday GOD’s head, Ward Simpson bragged this:
“GOD TV has received government approval to broadcast the gospel of Jesus Christ in Hebrew in Israel. It has never happened before in history.”
In Hebrew. The obvious point is to target Israeli Jews.
So where does this leave us? Bitton has backtracked now and said that should Shelanu proselytize it’s permission will be terminated. HOT is holding firm undoubtedly happy to get whatever fee Shelanu is paying it.
In your humble servant’s opinion, the entire Christian effort to send “missionize” Israel is disgusting. Why do they focus on the only Jewish country in the world? If they want to proselytize, why not go to countries such as China or Iran–which have infinitely more people ready to receive the “Gospel”? (Of course we know why–because they would be deported if not arrested or worse.)
An addendum: Christian missionary shows are already seen in Israel. They are broadcast from Lebanon.
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.