Yom Shishee
Friday
8 Adar II 5782
March 11 2022
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The News on the Israeli Street
The Citizenship Law passes! . . .
Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked speaking at a press conference. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90).
Following a remarkable effort by Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, the Citizenship Law passed its third and final reading in the Knesset yesterday after being held up for more than a year.
The bill strictly limits the ability of Palestinians to obtain citizenship through so-called “family reunification.” It essentially prohibits Palestinians who marry Israeli-Arabs from obtaining permanent residency.
As Shaked pointed out following support from both the Coalition and the opposition: “This is a Zionist law, a nationalist and security-oriented law of the first degree, which could not be abandoned over petty politics.”
The Iranian Nuclear Appeasement Talks in Vienna break off . . .
Indefinitely.
What seemed like a done deal ready to be signed ran into major turbulence yesterday when P5+1 member Russia said it would not participate while under U.S. economic sanctions because of its invasion of Ukraine.
More specifically, the Russians are demanding that U.S. sanctions not apply to any future dealings between Iran and Russia.
How close was the deal to being signed?
A podium had already been put in place and festooned at the Palais Coburg Hotel where the talks have been taking place.
Israeli natural gas to Europe? . . .
The European Union has asked Israel to explore the possibility to transferring natural gas to Europe by way of Egypt.
Obviously, this would be done to replace lost supplies from Russia.
The government is expected to come to a decision in the coming weeks, though your humble servant suspects that the government will not go forward with the plan out of fear of Putin.
The daily Corona update . . .
5,565 new cases of Corona were confirmed yesterday bringing to 45,846 the total number of Israelis with an active case of Covid-19. One of the people who tested positive yesterday is former PM Netanyahu.
The positive test rate was 9.6%.
388 Israelis are in serious condition in hospitals with another 201 in critical condition on ventilators.
10,359 Israelis have died of Corona–37 since yesterday.
In sum, Covid-19 continues plowing through the Israeli populace. With 37 dead yesterday and virtually the same number of seriously and critically ill, it is amazing how no one in the government peeps one word about the virus anymore.
TODAY’S BLOG
Bennett’s Message To Zelenskyy: “Surrender!”
Back on February 25, your humble servant wrote about the absurdity of PM Bennett mediating between Russia and Ukraine:
As we all know, such a move would be absurd. PM Bennett is no more equipped to mediate between the two countries than your average elementary school student. However, considering the egomaniac that Bennett is, your humble servant would not be surprised if Bennett jumped into the fray–much to the detriment of Israel.
Apparently, Israeli’ Prime Minister Bennett’s mediation effort between Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy has come or is coming to an end.
Yesterday, an indignant senior official to Zelenskyy revealed why.
According to that official, Bennett’s mediation message to Zelenskyy was to take Putin’s “offer” to end the fighting–an ultimatum that would have recognized Russian sovereignty over the Crimea, the “independence” of the two separatist entities in the Ukrainian east, an amendment to the Ukrainian constitution which would make it impossible for Ukraine to join NATO or the EU, and the demilitarization of the country.
In the source’s words, Bennett said this to Zelenskyy: “If I were you, I would think about the lives of my people and take the offer.”
Zelenskyy’s response to Bennett was: “We do not need another mailbox.”
To repeat, Bennett told Zelenskyy to surrender to Putin, and Zelenskyy told Bennett that he was not mediating–merely delivering Putin’s mail.
To top it off, Bennett apparently told Zelenskyy to “no longer seek military or defense assistance from Israel as this could undermine the mediation efforts required to maintain neutrality.”
The senior official underscored all of this by saying: “Bennett has offered us surrender, and we have no intention of doing that. We know that Putin’s proposal is just the beginning. . . Bennett’s initiative seems to us like a cover and an excuse why not to speak more sharply against Russia.”
The stark message to all Israelis in Bennett’s mediation debacle is that we have a prime minister who will throw in the towel when the going gets tough.
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.