Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
17 Iyar 5782
May 18 2022
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
A Palestinian terrorist who broke into the yard of resident of Havat Maon near Mt. Hevron was neutralized by the resident.
At this moment, there is another gunfight between IDF forces and Palestinian terrorists in the Jenin area–in the settlement of Zububa in northwest Samaria.
“Rock” and Molotov attacks were carried out by Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria in numerous places as Luban a-Sharqiya, Al-Abud, and Tekoa.
Three more signs that Israel is falling apart . . .
For the past few days, your humble servant has been chronicling events and incidents that show that the situation in Israel is out of control and that the country is coming apart at the seams. Here are three signs today:
*The heads of of all the Israeli-Arab municipal councils are currently holding their annual meeting. Where is the meeting taking place? In the Palestinian city of Jericho–once again showing the ethnic identification drift of Israeli-Arabs.
*Arch terrorist Zakaria Zabeidi who is currently ensconced in prison again after his recent escape was outrageously given telephone time to talk to his family following the death of his terrorist brother Daoud Zabeidi in the Jenin firefight last week. What did Zabeidi have to say on the phone? He exhorted his family to more terrorism and “martyrdom”. The prison service justified turning over the phone to him by saying that the conversations were in the presence of an Arabic-speaking guard.
*It turns out that the security fence between Samaria and Israel has turned into a cash cow for one resident of the Israeli town of Umm al-Fahm. If you can believe this, that resident–whose property abuts the fence–cut his own large hole in the fence, constructed a large gate, and then charged Palestinians to drive their cars and smuggle goods and weapons into Israel. All of this was done for months right under the noses of the IDF.
TODAY’S BLOG
Be Careful With Your Bonfire!
Tonight is Lag B’Omer in Israel, a Jewish religious holiday which occurs on the 18th of Iyar. It is the 33rd day in the counting of the Omer–the days between Passover and Shavuot.
The holiday marks the celebration of the famed Kabbalistic rabbi and Mishna sage Shimon bar Yochai. It is the day on which he revealed the deepest secrets of Jewish mysticism in his book Zohar (which according to tradition, he wrote while living in a cave for 13 years). Tonight and this week, hundreds of thousands of orthodox Jews will make their way to Meron in northern Israel where Yochai is buried.
The holiday is also believed to mark the day on which the devastating plague that killed 24,000 of Rabbi Akiva’s students came to an end. Throughout Israel tonight, young and old alike will like bonfires in commemoration of the holiday.
One of thousands of bonfires across Israel tonight (photo Reuven Castro).
And another photo from Ashkelon:
Israeli fire departments are on high alert.
If you light a bonfire tonight, please be careful!
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.