Yom Shishee
Friday
22 Kislev 5782
November 26 2021
The News On The Israeli Street
The coming changes at the Kotel . . .
This week we have gotten our first glimpse at the changes that will take place during the next year. These changes are being brought about primarily by the hue and cry from Reform Jews in the Diaspora and the desperate way our current government wants to appease them .
Basically, nothing will change in the Orthodox sections of the Wall which are north of the Mughrabi Ramp. What will be created is a transformed egalitarian plaza for mixed gender worship south of the Mughrabi Ramp in the area of Robinson’s Arch.
Here are two of the graphics recently released:
The view of the new section looking west towards the Wall with the Temple Mount (with the Al-Aksa Mosque) in the background.
In the above graphic, note the C-shaped Mughrabi Ramp to the left, and Robinson’s Arch protruding from just before the south end of the wall.
Another perspective:
Looking to the north down the Wall.
As you undoubtedly know, the grandiose transformation (costing about 50 million shekels) of the egalitarian plaza and worship area has been a source of heated controversy between the orthodox on one hand and the Reform, Conservative, and secular populace on the other.
Not only are the Orthodox upset about the physical transformation of the area but also they are upset that the Reform and Conservative Movements will now have a say on the council that controls what goes on at the Wall.
Your humble servant has two strong opinions about the coming changes:
First, the orthodox have every right to be upset about losing control over Kotel especially to diaspora Reform and Conservative Jews. Neither movement has many adherents in the country, but more than this, it has been the Orthodox who have kept religious worship alive at the Kotel during the last 2000 years–through some very dark times.
Second, notice my earlier use of the word “transformation”. An egalitarian area already exists in the area pictured in the graphics. I have personally visited that area on numerous occasions to find out how many people are worshiping there and even posted videos that I took on OneIsrael. In every case, I have never seen more than 2 or 3 people at one time (contrasted with the usual hundreds and even thousands on the orthodox side). Spending Israeli taxpayer money as a sop to Reform and Conservative Jews seems taxpayer money poorly spent.
In sum, it is good that Reform and Conservative Jews bent on mixed gender worship already have a place to worship, but why they need a larger area is beyond me. That they should have a say in controlling the Kotel is reprehensible.
TODAY’S BLOG
Poor Fragile Gaza
Major General Eliezer Toledano, the IDF commander-in-chief of the Southern Command, gave a wide-ranging interview yesterday which many of us in southern Israel find short-sighted and repulsive.
From the outset, it was apparent that Toledano looks at Gaza through rose-colored humanitarian glasses having been thoroughly indoctrinated by countless humanitarian conferences, seminars, and courses over the years.
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Here are a few snippets from his interview:
“We have a patient, named Gaza. He suffers from two problems.
The first problem is chronic pollution of population . . . In 1948, 150,000 people lived in Gaza. In 1967, 300,000 lived there. Today, 2.1 million live there, and in another decade, the population will reach 3 million–all on 365 square kilometers, in which the economic situation is not improving but only deteriorating.”
The second problem is a cancerous growth, which is Hamas. The terrorist movement is actually the regime. A government that is illegitimate in the eyes of the world. This illegitimacy creates a problem for us, because it is impossible to have a dialogue with this regime. It is impossible to transfer money through banks.”
In humanitarian terms, Gaza is the “patient”, with all the sympathy that should go to a patient, and Israel is the “doctor” whose responsibility is to heal the patient. There is no doubt that Gaza is sick, but why is it Israel’s responsibility to cure it?
Toledano unbelievably seems to regret that we cannot dialogue with Hamas and send it money through banks. And once again, we have the humanitarian narrative that the basic problem is economic not vicious unabated terrorism.
“This patient, Gaza, is being held together by the ECCO ventilator of the money that the Palestinian Authority transfers to him every month . . . And if we want to treat pollution, and bring into Gaza vitamins of the economy, we are inevitably also strengthening the growth.”
Again, poor Gaza is the patient on a ventilator, and we have to supply the vitamins to make it better. By the way, what about the $30 million dollar monthly blackmail payment from Qatar?
“And this obsessive terrorist movement is building its power all the time. It has a terrorist army, whose whole essence is to scare the residents of the State of Israel. You can scare with a balloon, and you can scare with Twitter, and they are busy with it all the time.”
You can “scare” with a balloon? What about the thousands of acres burned by explosive balloons? What about the respiratory problems of thousands of children in the South from smelling the smoke?
“I hope that Hamas also loves their children. Many times I think they do not. Because if you love your child, you first build him a school, not hundreds of miles of tunnels. Take all that concrete, and build a new neighborhood there.”
He hopes that Hamas loves their children? The same Hamas that puts their missile launching batteries and stores weapons in and around schools and kindergartens.
“[In the May 2021 War, Hamas was] stopped thanks to the very good work of the Gaza Division. What is left for them? The rockets, whose effectiveness is also limited. Not that I think it makes sense to fire 4,300 rockets at a country, but that’s the only tool left for them . . . The extent of the casualties and the damage from the rocket fire was limited.”
“Limited”? Tell that to the families of the 12 civilians in Israel who were murdered by rockets in that war. Or the family of the IDF soldier who was killed by an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza. “Limited” is a term used to propagate a humanitarian narrative.
“The expansion in Sderot is a victory image. The third expansion in Nahal Oz is a victory image. A new kindergarten in Kerem Shalom is a victory image.”
An estimated 70% of the people living in Sderot, Nahal Oz, and Kerem Shalom suffer from PTSD.
“Right now the security situation is good, even very good. We need to continue this trend, but equally be prepared because of the fragility of Gaza.”
Again, poor fragile Gaza . . . so in need of humanitarian help.
What utter nonsense.
Shabbat Shalom From Israel!
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.