Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
12 Nisan 5782
April 13 2022
The News on the Israeli Street
Quote of the Day
“We expect the Israeli side to respect international law in the Palestinian matter so that relations will be stable.”
Turkish FM Balut Chebushulu speaking yesterday
So here we go again. All the talk about a natural gas pipeline through Turkey carrying Israeli energy to Europe will–as we have previously written–be conditional on PM Erdogan’s whims about the Palestinians.
Israel abide by fraudulent international law? That would mean evacuating the Old City of Jerusalem along with Judea and Samaria.
The “What Does This Tell You About Our Government?” Fact of the Day
It now turns out that PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been in contact with Mansour Abbas of the Ra’am Islamist Party urging him to keep his Party in the Coalition Government. This is not surprising given the fact that Bennett, Lapid, and Gantz are making concession after concession to the PLO.
Palestinian Terror in the Last 24 Hours
It has been very interesting to see how the current government has suddenly gone into action via the IDF to go after terrorists in Judea and Samaria. One can only assume that in the wake of the terrorism in Beersheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak, and Tel Aviv with the resulting public sentiment that the government is doing nothing to thwart terror attacks, it has decided to go into action to save itself.
Just today:
IDF forces have just announced the capture of a 6-man terror squad in Silwan (near Ramallah) that had planned to carry out a major terror attack in Jerusalem on the eve of Passover.
IDF forces have also been active in and around the Palestinian settlement of Kobar: 2 terrorists have been captured and another shot.
IDF forces also entered Jenin and engaged in firefights with terrorists.
IDF forces repairing Joseph’s Tomb in Shechem encountered fierce resistance from Palestinian rioters. One rioter, a well-known terrorist, was shot and killed.
An IDF fighter was wounded in an encounter with terrorists in Qalqilya.
The city of Jerusalem has gone on high alert with police appearing in force on the capital’s streets.
The daily Corona report . . .
“The public has decided that Corona is gone, but there are dead and seriously ill.”
Prof. Galia Rahav, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer
Rahav was warning about Passover in particular–and even suggested that before participating in a Passover seder on Friday night, a participant should have an antigen test.
The update today:
5,409 Israelis tested positive for Corona yesterday bringing to 43,598 the number of active cases in the country.
The positive test rate dropped below 10 for the first time in months–down to 9.9%.
229 Israelis are in very serious condition, with another 104 in critical condition on ventilators.
10,601 Israelis have died since the outset of the pandemic.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Oded Goldreich Fiasco
Earlier this week, Prof. Oded Goldreich was awarded the prestigious Israel Prize for his work on computational complexity. Goldreich is a professor of Computer Science at the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.
Weizmann Institute math and computer science professor Oded Goldreich (left) receives the Israel Prize at a ceremony at the Ministry of Education in Jerusalem, April 11, 2022. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
As you may not know, Goldreich’s receiving of the award has been a subject of intense controversy.
After, a nominating panel chose him, Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton sought to take it away from him because of his continued support of boycotts against Israel—even to the point of Goldreich pleading with the German government not to call the BDS movement anti-Semitic.
Shasha-Biton’s efforts were thwarted by Israel’s High Court of Justice following a year long battle.
So what did Goldreich do today?
He held a press conference to announce that he was donating the money he received for Prize to Breaking the Silence, Standing Together, Kav LaOved, B’Tselem and Adalah–five loathsome organizations which carry out nonstop efforts to demean and delegitimize Israel.
And so it goes in Israel today, one fiasco after another.
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.