The UAE Agreement, The Lebanon Agreement, & New Construction In Judea and Samaria

Tweet

Thursday

27 Tishrei 5781

15 October 2020

The News on the Israeli Street

The daily Corona (Covid-19) update . . .

There are 298,500 confirmed cases—an increase of 1,848

251,711 of these confirmed cases have recovered—an increase of 5,900

755 are in critical condition—a decrease of 52

241 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—an increase of 1 

2,098 have died–an increase of 43

There are now 46,789 active Corona cases in Israel.

Your humble servant is always leery of “even” numbers–a skepticism that dates back to the Vietnam War when the U.S. Pentagon regularly falsified the number of Viet Cong who were killed in battles. Those numbers were always something like 200, 350, 400 as if someone were just “guesstimating” what actually happened.

I mention this because a few numbers from the Health Ministry today look specious. Are there really exactly 298,500 confirmed cases? Were there really exactly 5,900 who recovered? Or are these numbers just being manipulated in order to provide ammunition to those who want to end the lockdown?

On the other hand, the numbers from the hospitals are “odd” as one would expect. The worst of numbers is the number who died in the last 24 hours.

In any case, the government steams on toward opening Israel back up on the basis of one day of a positive test rate of 8% (remember that few haredis are being tested in order to keep the rate under 10%) and one day of a 0.8% coefficient of infection.

Ben Gurion airport is “opening” at midnight–as if it has ever been closed. Throughout the pandemic, flights have been coming and going from Ben Gurion though in vastly fewer numbers than before Corona. By the way, the reason the airport is “opening” because a number of airlines have threatened to sue the Israeli government for violation of the “open skies” agreement.

TODAY’S BLOG:

The UAE Agreement, The Lebanon Agreement,

& New Construction In Judea and Samaria

Today’s Blog consists of three follow ups to previous OneIsrael blogs.
Even in today’s society where women are on par with men tadalafil online india (politically correct. It can come out that either purchase generic levitra devensec.com or levitra are not helpful. This ED drug is available in any local pharmacy or even in the online generic levitra pills drug store without any prescription. The solution? Losing generic levitra from india weight is the most common sexual disorder in men as one in 10 men in the world suffer from this problem.

1. About the Agreement with the UAE:

We have surmised in previous blogs that there is no way that PM Netanyahu could not have known about and given the green light to the US sale of F35s to the UAE. We have also suggested that there must be Israeli concessions to the UAE on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

Today comes news that there is indeed a secret codicil to the Agreement but that Netanyahu refuses to reveal it until after the Knesset votes to approve the Agreement.

Yes, you read that correctly. Knesset members will be voting on an Agreement that they do not know the details of.

Even after that vote, Netanyahu intends to only reveal the details to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee’s subcommittee on intelligence and secret services. 

Netanyahu’s obvious hope is that he will be able to keep the details secret.

However, that subcommittee only has 5 members: Zvi Hauser, Moshe Ya’alon, Avigdor Lieberman, Gideon Sa’ar, and Avi Dichter—and there is no way that staunchly anti-Netanyahu Ya’alon and Lieberman will keep anything secret. 

2. About the Maritime Agreement with Lebanon:

Maritime border “talks” began with Lebanon yesterday–talks that have actually been completed with Israel receiving the short end of the stick: 42% of a contested area between Israel and Lebanon’s offshore natural gas territories.

The so-called “talks” are taking place at a UNIFIL post in Naqoura–which is in Lebanon but close to Israel.

But guess what? Even though the Lebanese side showed up, it refused to speak with Israelis or have its picture taken with our “negotiators”.

We give and we give and we give, and what do we get?

Another slap in the face.

We never learn.

3. About those 5,405 new residences in Judea and Samaria:

You will recall that PM Netanyahu has effectively frozen all construction in Area C. One way he has done this is by continually postponing meetings of Higher Planning Council of Judea and Samaria.

But you will remember that we reported here that late last month Netanyahu’s office said that the Council would finally be allowed to meet and that 5,405 residences would be up for approval.

At the time we reported this, we noted that Netanyahu would still find a way to block construction.

So, it comes as no surprise that when the Council met yesterday, the 5,405 became 2,166. Supposedly another 2,500 will be advanced shortly.

Again, we are not holding our breaths. Netanyahu will do everything within his power to thwart construction just as he has done for the last 11 years.