“Like A Tree Falling In A Forest”

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Yom Shleeshee

Tuesday

22 Tishrei 5782

September 28 2021

The News on the Israeli Street

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .

Palestinian terrorists using Molotovs and “rocks” attacked Israelis on the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem Road between the Tunnel Checkpoint and the Al Khader Junction, in the vicinity of Beit Fajjar, near the Barkan Bridge on Road 5, and north of the British Police Junction among other places.

Palestinian terrorists using Molotovs attacked buses south of Shechem near Hawara and at Sinjil.

Palestinian terrorists opened fire and used Molotovs and “rocks” to attack a Border Police vehicle wounding two fighters. The terrorists escaped.

The daily Corona update . . .

3,819 more Israelis were confirmed “yesterday” as having Covid-19. There are now 56,889 active cases in the country.

1,270,230 Israelis have contracted Corona since the pandemic began.

The positive test rate yesterday was 4.19%.

641 Israelis are in serious condition with another 207 in critical condition on ventilators.

7,684 Israelis have died–no new reporting since yesterday.

Vaccinations:

6,094,564 Israelis have received 1 dose.

5,619,802 Israelis have received 2 doses.

3,243,641 Israelis have received 3 doses.

In the neighborhood . . .

Iran has banned IAEA nuclear inspectors from entering the Karaj nuclear facility.

“Unidentified aircraft” attacked 3 targets belonging to Iranian Revolutionary Guards and Iranian militias near the border with Iraq in Deir A-Zor province in Syria last night.

Abdullah II, heir to the throne of Jordan, has been diagnosed with Corona sending the royal family into quarantine.

 TODAY’S BLOG

“Like A Tree Falling In A Forest”

PM Bennett took to the podium at the U.N. yesterday and delivered a less-than-scintillating address that struck your humble servant as a mixture of Benny Gantz’s infamous, hopeful anemones speech back in 2014 and (content-wise) numerous speeches given by former PM Netanyahu in the same venue.

Bennett’s two themes were Corona and Iran.

Regarding the way that Israel has tackled Corona, Bennett said this:

We formed a national task force that meets everyday, to bypass slow governmental bureaucracy, make quick decisions and act on them right away. Trial and error is key. Every day is a new day, with new data and new decisions. When something works, we keep it. When it doesn’t, we ditch it and move on.

Running a country during a pandemic is not only about health. It’s about carefully balancing all aspects of life that are affected by corona, especially jobs and education.

While doctors are an important input, they cannot be the ones running the national initiative. The only person that has a good vantage point of all considerations is the national leader of any given country. Above all, we’re doing everything in our power to provide people with the tools needed to protect their lives.

Those of us watching the address had to wince when we heard the above words. In the first place, Israel may have a national task force that meets everyday, but it can rarely make up its mind about anything. More than this the Corona Cabinet has not met for weeks as Bennett, Lapid, and others have been out gallivanting.

In addition, how many times did we hear Bennett castigate Netanyahu for arrogating decisions about Corona to himself. Only to hear Bennett now extoling “the national leader of any given country” as being the “only person” who has the perspective to make decisions. 

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Turning to Iran, Bennett began by concisely analyzing the situation:

While Israel strives to do good, we cannot lose sight for one moment of what’s happening in our neighborhood. Israel is, quite literally, surrounded by Hezbollah, Shia militias, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. On our borders. These terror groups seek to dominate the Middle East and spread radical Islam across the world.

What do they all have in common?

They all want to destroy my country. And they’re all backed by Iran. They get their funding from Iran, they get their training from Iran, and they get their weapons from Iran.

Iran’s great goal is crystal clear to anybody who cares to open their eyes: Iran seeks to dominate the region — and seeks to do so under a nuclear umbrella.

For the past three decades Iran has spread its carnage and destruction around the Middle East, country after country: Lebanon. Iraq. Syria. Yemen. And Gaza.

Absolutely correct, and very Netanyahu-esque.

But then he began to veer off course in an attempt to portray himself as a humanitarian (and to produce a Netanyahu moment):

What do all these places have in common?

They are all falling apart. Their citizens — hungry and suffering. Their economies — collapsing. Like the Midas touch, Iran’s regime has the “Mullah-touch.” Every place Iran touches, fails.

It may be true that these places are all falling apart, but “hungry and suffering“?

Gaza has no economy to speak of because Hamas has pocketed most of millions of dollars of “humanitarian aid” and used the rest to build up its arsenal–and the people of Gaza seem perfectly content to live on handouts from Qatar and elsewhere.

While a good turn of phrase, the again Netanyahu-esque “Mullah-touch” just didn’t resonate because Bennett does not have the heft to deliver such lines with conviction.

Focusing on Iran’s nuclear program, Bennett intoned:

Iran’s nuclear program has hit a watershed moment. And so has our tolerance.

Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning. There are those in the world who seem to view Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons as an inevitable reality, or they’ve just become tired of hearing about it.

Israel doesn’t have that privilege. We will not tire. We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon. I want to tell you something: Iran is much weaker, much more vulnerable than it seems. Its economy is sinking, its regime is rotten and divorced from the younger generation, its corrupt government fails to even bring water to large parts of the country.

The weaker they are, the more extreme they go. If we put our heads to it, if we’re serious about stopping it, if we use all our resourcefulness, we can prevail.

And that’s what we’re going to do.

How many times in the last 40 years have we heard that the Iranian regime is “rotten and divorced from the younger generation”? How many times have we heard “We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapons”?

So what is Bennett’s lame “watershed moment” solution? “If we put our heads to it, if we’re serious about stopping it, if we use all our resourcefulness, we can prevail.”

Who is kidding whom?

On the one hand, we do not want to be too critical of PM Bennett, he did end strongly:

Over the past 73 years, the State of Israel — the people of Israel — have achieved so much in the face of so much. And yet, I can say with full confidence: Our best days are ahead of us.

Israel is a nation of great hope, a nation that has brought the heritage of the Torah to life in modern-day Israel, a nation of an unbreakable spirit. A bit of light dispels much darkness. The lighthouse among the stormy seas — stands tall, stands strong. And her light shines brighter than ever. Thank you.

But on the other hand, it was Netanyahu and Likud who had perhaps the most telling response:

“[Bennett today was] like a tree falling in a forest that no one has seen, no one has heard, and no one cares about.”