Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
6 Tammuz 5782
July 5 2022
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The Unfortunate Photograph of the Day
The scorched scene at Tel Gezer this morning. Tel Gezer is located on the western slopes of the Judean hills approximately half way between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Despite the best efforts of teams of firefighters, the Tel Gezer Archaeological Site and National Park were completely destroyed by fire yesterday. Identified with the Canaanite city of Gezer, Tel Gezer is considered as one of the three most significant biblical mounds in Israel along with those at Beersheva and Megiddo.
Firefighters are sifting through the area to try to discover the cause of the fire.
The Funny Video of the Day
The News on the Israeli Street
Economic hard times . . .
July has just begun but already it has been an economic nightmare for Israelis with the prices of gasoline and electricity increasing dramatically.
That nightmare just got much worse this morning as the Bank of Israel announced that it is going to raise the basic interest rate to 1.25% beginning Thursday—making the prime interest rate 2.75%.
This may not seem like much, but tens of thousands of young Israeli couples have taken out mortgages in the last year tied to the basic interest rate. Since May that rate has jumped from 0.1% to the above mentioned 1.25%. An Israeli speaking on television today said that his mortgage payment which was 3,850 shekels a month two months ago is about to be 4,450 per month.
What’s worse is that the Bank has already indicated that more rate increases may be in the works as prices continue to rise here.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed an Israeli on the pedestrian bridge between Givat Shmuel and Bnei Brak this morning. MADA evacuated the victim to a nearby hospital where he is listed in “serious” condition; there is a manhunt underway for the terrorist.
Palestinian terrorists hurling “rocks”, Molotovs, and IEDs attacked Israelis at Huwara, Tekoa, Al Abud, Luban a-Sharqiya, and on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road. All told there were some 30 attacks yesterday.
The daily Corona update . . .
12,229 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 29,943 tested) bringing to 67,693 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 40.84%; the coefficient of infection was 1.06%.
369 Israelis are seriously ill; 66 are critically ill—53 of these are on ventilators.
10,984 have died–an increase of 6 since yesterday.
The positive test rate remains over 4o%, and the number hospitalized in serious and critical condition continues to rise. Israeli Health officials are worried about a new variant from India which may have made its way into Israel in the last few days.
About normalization with Saudi Arabia . . .
In advance of President Biden’s visit to this area in about a week, his emissaries have begun to play down expectations of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia while at the same time leaking that Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Israeli commercial aircraft fly over the country on their way to tourist destinations in the Far East.
That anyone would have expected normalization is absurd given King Salman’s well known animus against Israel–and the continuous declarations from the kingdom in recent years that there will be no normalization without a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.
TODAY’S BLOG
What Are The Results Of The Ballistic Tests?
In yesterday’s blog “The Bullet” we speculated that there is no way to know if “the bullet” that was turned over to an American Security Coordinator who in turn gave it to a third-party team of ballistic scientists is the actual bullet that killed Al-Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh because who knows what the PLO did with the real one over the last two months?
We further posited that the PLO would never have turned over the bullet if it had not been sure that the ballistic scientists would positively identify the bullet as coming from an IDF rifle.
Quite amazingly, the forensic investigation was completed quickly with the results published this morning.
According to U.S. State Department Spokesman Ned Price, those results were concise and clear: “Ballistic experts determined the bullet was badly damaged which prevented a clear conclusion [as to who fired the bullet].”
Wow.
It is hard to imagine who was more infuriated at this result: the Palestinians (who obviously botched the faux bullet) or the Biden Administration (which wanted to find the IDF responsible)?
The PLO immediately issued a statement that read in part: “This determination is not true and we are surprised by the U.S. statement.” The PLO continued that it will now take the case to the International Criminal Court.
Insofar as the Biden Administration is concerned, it’s chief worry was that the finding would destroy any chance of a cordial meeting between Biden and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on July 14. That would not sit well with Biden’s “progressive” base back in the United States.
So what to do?
Immediately, the Biden Administration ordered “additional investigations” which showed that “it is likely that Shireen Abu Akleh was accidentally killed by gunfire originating from an IDF position.”
This was the best that Biden and his minions could come up with: that it was likely that the gunfire came from the IDF. But despite placing “likely blame” on the IDF with no ballistics confirmation, even these additional investigations were forced to conclude that the shooting was not targeted, it was probably accidental.
Here is the bottom line. Despite the best efforts of the PLO and the Biden Administration, the IDF has been completely exonerated in the shooting of Shireen Abu Akleh. The ballistics report is inconclusive and the suggestions that it “likely” came from an IDF position would never stand up in court.
Except of course in the International Criminal Court which only relies on bias, not evidence.
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.