Yom Chamishee
Thursday
29 Cheshvan 5782
November 4 2021
Quote of the Day
“A black day for the Jewish state, a day of victory for the Muslim Brotherhood.”
Knesset legislator Itamar Ben Gvir on the passage of the 2021 budget proposed by our Coalition (Concession) government late last night by a vote of 61-59. Debate continues this morning on the 2022 budget.
The News on the Israeli Street
About that “harvest event” . . .
As you well know dear reader, the PLO has been holding “harvest events” in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria for many years now.
The ostensible purpose of these events is to have foreign “humanitarians” come to “Palestine” and help the poor Palestinians harvest their olives.
The actual purpose is to bring international “activists” to Israel to provoke IDF soldiers for pr purposes.
Yesterday, none other than the South African ambassador showed up outside the Nokdim community in Area C to participate in a PLO “harvest event.”
Whereupon he demanded that IDF soldiers recognize his diplomatic immunity to waltz right up to the Nokdim security fence. He further demanded that the soldiers recognize that his diplomatic immunity also covered the PLO supporters with him.
Fortunately and correctly, the soldiers refused to be bullied and ended up having to arrest the PLO “Minister for Fences and Settlements” Munter Amira who tried to push his way into Nokdim.
As you can imagine, this event has spawned a faux diplomatic incident with South Africa today.
The new U.S. Ambassador to Israel . . .
. . . was approved by the U.S. Senate yesterday. He is Thomas Nides. His biography reads:
“Nides, was born into a Jewish family from Medul, Minnesota, and has had a long career on Capitol Hill in various roles. He spent a decade as chief of staff of several members of Congress before turning to the banking sector in 1996. He previously served as Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources under Hillary Clinton from 2011 to 2013. He was also awarded the Outstanding Service Award by the Secretary of State in January 2013.”
The Maariv newspaper reports further:
“At his approval hearing in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Nides said the renewal of the Iron Dome missile defense system is in favor of U.S. national security. ‘This is a defense mechanism. It is to prevent rocket rain on Israel. We support renewal and it is in our national security interest,’ said Nides, at a hearing in September. He said the president supports funding the Iron Dome, which supports a “very important ally in the region.’
During the committee hearing, Nides swore to support Avraham’s agreements and oppose the BDS boycott movement. Nides also said that the United States is committed to ‘promoting ties between our people,’ adding that ‘President Biden has announced that we will work with Israel in the hope that they will join the visa waiver program.’
Referring to the Iranian threat, Nides said that Biden ‘clarified his commitment to ensuring that Iran never develops nuclear weapons’ and that ‘maintaining Israel’s security serves America’s national security interests and ensures that we always have a strong, credible and secure ally.’
All of this is fine and good but omits the facts that as Biden’s choice, Nides supports a two state solution brought about by concessions to the Palestinians, and a re-divided Jerusalem replete with a Palestinian consulate in the eastern part of our capital.
TODAY’S BLOG:
What Do 4 Votes In The Knesset Cost?
As you undoubtedly know, the only reason that the Coalition Government can obtain 61 seats and thereby have a government is because former politicians on the right such as Naftali Bennett, Gideon Sa’ar, and Avigdor Liberman decided to embrace Mansour Abbas’s Islamist Ra’am Party noted for its pro-Hamas and anti-Israel statements.
In doing so, Bennett, Sa’ar, Liberman and others betrayed the trust of their voters and broke every promise they ever made never to form a government with an Islamist political party.
Ra’am won only 3.79% of the vote in the last election, but brought 4 seats to the Coalition increasing their number from 57 to 61.
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Today we have found out just how much those 4 seats are going to cost the Israeli taxpayer.
What follows are the outrageous allocations made to Ra’am in the 2022 budget.
(All numbers are in Israeli shekels: $1 = 3.11 shekels this morning)
65,000,000 million shekels to encourage Israeli-Arabs to use government services online and erase digital illiteracy
85,000,000 million shekels to build 8 new fire stations and recruit 140 new Israeli-Arab firefighters
140,000,000 million shekels to be transferred immediately to local Arab authorities
200,000,000 million shekels to increase the budget of local Arab authorities
200,000,000 million shekels to strengthen programs for Israeli-Arab youth aged 18-24
300,000,000 million shekels designated for Israeli-Arabs living on the coastal plain
530,000,000 million shekels for establishment of research centers for science and technology in Israeli-Arab communities
550,000,000 million shekels for waste treatment and environmental concerns in Israeli-Arab areas
615,000,000 million shekels for Israeli-Arab welfare services
650,000,000 million shekels for new Israeli-Arab health clinics and to support existing ones
700,000,000 million shekels for supporting Israeli-Arab sports and athletes including building new sports facilities
1,200,000,000 billion shekels for construction and residential planning in Israeli-Arab communities
1,400,000,000 billion shekels for Bedouin towns in the north
2,000,000,000 billion shekels for improving infrastructure in Israeli-Arab towns including streets and roads
3,000,000,000 billion shekels for Israeli-Arab, Druze, and Circassian towns
5,200,000,000 billion shekels for regularizing unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev
9,600,000,000 billion shekels to improve the curriculum in Israeli-Arab schools and build 4,000 new classrooms
Roughly, the Bennett-Lapid government bought Ra’am at a cost of 7.5 billion shekels per seat–or $2.41 billion dollars per seat.
Such is the cost of government here in Israel where virtually everything can be had for the right price.
Addendum:
Interestingly the opposition led by Netanyahu has said today that it would support the new budget if a monitoring mechanism were put in place to make sure that Ra’am does not send money to Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
Bennett and Lapid have just rejected that offer.
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.