Yom Chamishee, Thursday
15 Shevat 5781
January 28, 2020
Happy Tu B’Shvat!
Happy holiday to all!
Be sure to eat some fruits and nuts–and go plant a tree!
Three children planting a pine tree (picture Yossi Alo).
The Photo of the Morning
A beautiful rainbow directly over the Har HaBeit (Temple Mount) this morning (Photo source: Yonadev Horowitz and Arutz Sheva).
Look very closely at the photo above. In the middle, on the horizon, you can just barely see the golden dome of the Kipat HaSela. This photo was taken at Kidmat Zion, an amazing, tiny community of some ten families living right on the edge of the Jerusalem municipal boundary–a wonderful community that I had the pleasure of visiting two years ago with Ateret Cohanim.
Click here to read more about Kidmat Zion.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
Please note that these numbers encompass from 8 pm yesterday until 8 pm today (Thursday):
624,814 Israelis have been confirmed with the virus since the pandemic began last March.
There are 5,664 newly confirmed cases.
1,178 are in critical condition—a decrease of 29
320 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a decrease of 4
4,612 have died–an increase of 73
There are currently 74,821 active Corona cases in Israel.
Another jump in the number of dead in the last day. It oddly seems that the more people get vaccinated, the more people die. January has been a horrific month for deaths; if you remember, the death toll on January 1 was 3,325.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Palestinian terrorists armed with “rocks” and Molotovs have attacked Israelis at the Ma’ale Levonah Junction and a myriad of other places.
Due to an apparent terrorist infiltration, the Samarian community of Kedumim is currently on lockdown.
2 Palestinian terrorists were captured by IDF troops as they breached the Gaza border fence.
Abu Yair . . .
It is comical these days to see PM Netanyahu traipsing around the country courting the Arab vote–something he has never done in all the times that he has run for office.
Yesterday, he was in Dimona and proudly crowing to a crowd that on a recent trip through an Arab village, all of the residents were exultantly shouting “Abu Yair”.
As you may not know, it is the custom in Arab culture for a man to take on a new name when his first son is born–and Netanyahu’s oldest son is Yair. Hence, Benjamin Netanyahu becomes Abu Yair (father of Yair).
Your humble servant is laughing out loud.
And the winner is . . .
As we reported previously on OneIsrael, the KKL-JNF has been conducting a vote to determine the national tree of Israel.
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The contestants included the Palm. the Tabor Oak, the Olive, the Eucalyptus, the Fig, and the Cypress.
And the winner . . . announced today on Tu B’Shevat (the holiday for the trees) is . . . the . . . (drum roll) . . . Olive.
A massive olive tree in Jerusalem:
A massive old olive tree.
Actually it was a very close vote with the Olive’s 32.94% of the vote edging out the Tabor Oak which came in second.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Excellent New Population Statistics From Judea and Samaria!
The new Judea and Samaria Jewish Population Statistics Report has just been released. The product of intense research led by Yaakov Katz and Baruch Gordon, the Report is now in its 11th year of publication.
If you want to receive this report for free from Bet El Institutions, you may subscribe here.
It is an immensely important publication. In the first place, most people do have any idea what the Jewish population is in Area C of Judea and Samaria. In the second place, once those people find out how many Jews live in this area, then the utter ludicrousness of the idea that these residents will be thrown out of their homes becomes apparent.
It is not our intention to provide an entire copy of the report here today, but here are some salient facts as of January 2:
The Jewish population of Area C has now reached 475,481–an increase of almost 50,000 in the last 5 years.
This number does not include another 325,000 Jews who live in 21 neighborhoods in eastern Jerusalem, those living in the Old City, and those living in Ir David.
The report divides the Area C Jewish communities into 11 “blocks” consisting of the cities of Ariel, Modi’in Illit, Beitar Illit, Ma’aleh Adumim and 127 communities:
Northern Samaria: 6 communities
Ariel Elkana (Highway 5): the city of Ariel, and 1o communities
Binyamin: 27 communities
Samaria: 19 communities
Eastern Etziyon: 4 communities
Gush Etziyon: 9 communities
Jordan Valley: 28 communities
Maale Adumim: the city of Maale Adumim, and 3 communities
Kiryat Sefer: the city of Modi’in Illit, and 3 communities
Beitar Illit: the city of Beitar Illit
South Hevron Hills: 17 communities (including the one living in the city of Hevron)
Just as an example, here is a screen shot from the Report concerning Samaria:
Graph: Yaakov Katz and Baruch Gordon
The bottom line is that despite all efforts by our government to tamp down population growth in the communities of Area C, the population continues to grow.
Kolakevod to Katz and Gordon for the hard work they put in to produce this highly valuable report.
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.