Yom Shnee
Monday
2 Elul 5782
August 29 2022
The Amazing and Inspiring Video of the Day
As you can see from the date above, the penitential month of Elul has begun. It is a month in which Jews pray for repentance in spiritual preparation for the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot. Click here to see and hear the thousands who came to the Kotel (Western Wall) to say their Silihot prayers last night.
Photo of the Day
Members of the Caracal and Cheetah units with an instructor at a base in the south where they now come once a month for a refresher course that involves tracking, shooting, and other operational skills used by their units along the Egyptian border.
The Caracal and Cheetah Battalions are two of the three fully combat units in the IDF composed of both female and male soldiers. In fact, the gender percentage in each is about 70% female and 30% male.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Palestinian terrorists using IEDs, Molotovs, and “rocks” attacked an Israeli bus between the small Yakir Junction and Emmanuel.
Palestinian terrorists using IEDs, Molotovs, and “rocks” tried to murder Israeli men, women, and children between Hizma and Anat, near Beit Aryeh, on Road 60 beside Luban a-Sharqiya, on Road 446 at Deir Kadis, on Road 55 between Ponduk and Kedomim, on the Gush Etzion-Jerusalem Road near Al-Khader, and between the Tfumat Junction and Hvara south of Shechem among dozens of other places.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the IDF pillboxes north of Ofra and on Road 465 near Nabi Selah (a soldier was wounded), and at IDF soldiers at the roadblock near the HaSela outpost.
Thank you to Rescue without Borders SSF for the above reportage.
The fiasco at the Shark natural gas rig . . .
Citing “technical difficulties”, the government announced yesterday that the beginning of Israeli drilling at the Shark (Karish) rig site near the maritime border has been been postponed until October.
In the same breath, the government said that we will try to reach an agreement with Lebanon on that border during the time of the postponement.
The translation of all of this?
The Lapid government and the IDF are both terrified of a confrontation with Hezbollah and are responding to the constant threats that Hezbollah head Nassan Nasrallah has made over the past month.
That terror can be seen in the agreement that is being formed via American mediation. It turns out that the maritime boundary agreement calls for two gas rigs to built: the Israeli rig in Israeli territory more or less where it is now; the Lebanese rig partly in Lebanese territory and partly in Israeli territory.
Yes, you read that correctly.
The Lebanese gas rig will be partly in our territory.
The two rigs will be placed within 5 km of each other so that Hezbollah will be less likely to attack it. This 5 km arrangement is being called the “balance of terror.”
Just unbelievable.
Speaking of unbelievable . . . but in a positive way . . .
For the first time since the 1967 Six Day War, Jews actually entered the Temple Mount through the Gate of the Tribes yesterday.
As you may or may not know, prior to this, the only gate through which non-Muslims have been allowed to enter has been through the Mughrabi Gate whose entrance is above Kotel Plaza.
It is still unclear this morning how this entrance was allowed yesterday, but however it took place, we here at OneIsrael hope it is a sign of things to come.
Maccabi Haifa has electrified Israel . . .
On Shabbat, we posted a photo of members of the Maccabi Haifa team celebrating their 5-4 victory over Red Star of Belgrade in the UEFA Champions League playoffs–a win that propelled Maccabi into the next round of games.
It was a win that has everyone here talking–even those who are not normally interested in soccer (aka football).
As we noted, Maccabi Haifa is now placed into a four team grouping along with 3 powerhouses: Paris Saint Germain, Juventus of Italy, and Benfica from Portugal. This is the schedule of games that was published yesterday:
Each team has to play every other team twice.
The truly exciting part for Israeli fans is that all of the games in the right hand column will be played on Macabbi Haifa’s home field in Haifa. For example, on September 14, Leo Messi, Neymar, and the other stars of Paris Saint Germain will play here.
Of course, all of the games are sold out.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Vassal Lapid: Endangering Israel With Every Step
PM Yair Lapid giving a speech to reporters yesterday concerning the impending Iran Nuclear Weapons Agreement (photo Ben Gershom).
“Our political directive from day one is to fight the Agreement with all our might, but without harming the strategic relations with the United States, and without harming their attention to our arguments. We must not get to the situation we were in in 2015. We are still paying for the damage caused by the speech of Netanyahu in Congress, following which the American administration stopped the dialogue and did not allow Israel to introduce amendments to the Agreement.”
Talk about perceiving yourself as a vassal to the United States and your country as a vassal state. Listening to this yesterday, your humble servant could not help but get the impression that what is most important to PM Lapid and his government is not rocking the boat with the United States.
One would have thought that in the face of the looming Agreement with Iran, Lapid would have said “Our directive from day one has been to use all of our might to stop the Agreement.” Period.
With no blather about hurting the feelings of the United States.
Of course strategic considerations and the ability to communicate positions are important–but not as important as Israel’s survival–which, by the way, is what Netanyahu had in mind when he made that spectacular speech to the U.S. Congress in 2015.
And as for the U.S. listening to Israel’s proposal for amendments to the Agreement, Netanyahu’s speech did nothing to affect that. Obama and Biden were and are hell-bent on reaching the Agreement, and nothing Israel could say would dissuade them.
By the way, the Coalition government that does nothing but appease Biden has now been in power in Israel for over a year, and where has it gotten us? Biden won’t even answer Lapid’s repeated phone calls.
Finally, remember Mossad head David Barnea’s speech a few days ago in which he blasted the U.S. for entering into an agreement “which is a lie” and then was called into Lapid’s office and given a dressing down?
Yesterday came the unbelievable news that Lapid has actually contacted the White House (one wonders who in the White House) to let it know that Barnea will not criticize the Biden Administration when he speaks before congressional committees in Washington this week. Lapid said that Barnea will not be engaged in a “Netanyahu-style exercise.”
The inexperienced Lapid and his cohorts are completely out of their depth. Not only do they have no self-respect, their actions are endangering Israel and demonstrate the depths to which this country has fallen.
We can only hope for a change in government in November.
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.