Yom Shishee
Friday
16 Cheshvan 5783
November 11 2022
Breaking News
President Herzog has just announced that he has concluded consultations with the various political parties, and on Sunday, will task former PM Netanyahu with forming the next Israeli government.
In total, 64 Knesset members recommended Netanyahu, 28 members recommended Yair Lapid, and 28 members recommended no one.
From Sunday, Netanyahu will have 28 days to form a government with the possibility of a 14 day extension. You can expect that Netanyahu will need far fewer than 28 days and will take over the government quickly.
Photo of the Day
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards parading its newest hypersonic ballistic missile yesterday in Tehran.
Also came news yesterday from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that as of October 22, Iran had added another 6.7 kg of 60% enriched uranium to its stockpile bringing the total amount to 63.3 kg–enough to make a nuclear warhead to put on top of the ballistic missile you see above.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Palestinian shooting attacks:
Two Palestinian terrorists broke through a police checkpoint near Qalqilya. After the ensuing gunfight, both of the terrorists were captured and one of them was wounded.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the Jalama (Gilboa) Crossing near Jenin.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops in Jenin as they were capturing the terrorist who killed IDF soldier Noam Raz.
In Jerusalem.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis in the A-Tor neighborhood and in Issawiya. The terrorists were captured by the police.
In Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists attacked the Nabi Salah pillbox again with IEDs.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli motorists with “rocks”, Molotovs, and IEDs near Migdalot, Hawara, at the Ma’ale Shomron Junction on Road 55, at the Azzun kikar, on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Beit Habarka, Alfi Menashe (69-year-old Israeli woman wounded, Al-Aruv, Al-Nazm, in the vicinity of Beit Haji Behar, among some 30 locations.
Update on yesterday’s blog . . .
Yesterday we noted reported how Judge Yael Raz-Levy berated the prosecution in the case of the 10-year-old girl who was raped in her bed during a robbery because the prosecution wanted the criminal to serve 10 years in prison.
More research shows that Judge Raz-Levy in conjunction with Judges Aharon Mashniot and Gilat Shaliu have a history of doling out such egregiously lenient sentences in similar cases.
In one of them, the same panel of judges sentenced a father who had sexually abused his daughter repeatedly to only 2 years and 4 months in prison. In that case, the father expressed no remorse and even blamed his daughter for the abuse.
In yet another case, a man who sexually abused two sisters (aged 4 and 11) was sentenced to only 5 years imprison.
How has the Israeli judicial system gone so insane?
Threats, threats, and more threats . . .
Now that we have a new government, the threats against Israel are coming so rapidly that it is hard to keep up with them.
Yesterday alone:
Qatar threatened that should Israel “escalate” the situation in “Jerusalem, Gaza, or Israel” during the playing of the World Cup in Qatar, it will no longer abide by any agreements it has with Israel–specifically paying the blackmail money to Hamas to not fire missiles.
In short, this is a signal to the terror organizations that it is open season to attack Israel.
The United States also threatened Israel yesterday that if any attempt is made to annex any part Judea, Samaria, or the Jordan Valley, the Biden Administration will do everything within its power to stop it.
With friends like Biden . . .
The Friday Corona Update
990 Israelis tested positive yesterday. There are 8,242 active cases in the country.
The positive test rate was 10.7%; the coefficient of infection was 1.11%.
95 Israelis are seriously ill; 31 critically ill, and 33 ventilated.
11,788 have died–29 since two weeks ago.
The summary: most numbers are heading in the wrong direction. The number of active cases has jumped by almost 1,500 since we last reported two weeks ago, and the number of seriously ill has almost doubled. Fortunately, we are still averaging “only” 2 persons dead per day from Corona.
TODAY’S BLOG
They did nothing wrong. What can we charge them with?
You may remember the case of Omar Assad, the 79 year old Palestinian man who died in Jaljulia back at the beginning of February. Detained by soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda batallion for driving suspiciously in the middle of the night, then released after sitting on the ground in detention, he later died.
An autopsy performed several days afterward by a Palestinian doctor found that he had died of a heart attack.
Back on February 1st, I wrote this:
“Reaction has been swift–on the basis of no more than supposition. The commanders of the IDF force have been reprimanded and lost all chance of promotion. As usual, they have been thrown under the bus by IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi who lamented the “lack of values” shown by the soldiers.”
And this:
“. . . because Ass’ad held American citizenship, the U.S. State Department has weighed in demanding that the soldiers be criminally charged.”
Finally, I concluded:
“There is no doubt that the soldiers will be court-martialed, found guilty, and chucked into a military prison–if for no other reason than the Biden Administration will demand it and our IDF General Command and our government will do nothing to support our soldiers.”
Which brings us to yesterday when what I predicted came to pass.
It was announced that the ever abominable IDF military prosecutor’s office has indeed decided to prosecute a lieutenant and platoon sergeant who were at the scene.
However, they cannot decide on what to charge the soldiers.
As the military prosecutor noted: “The man’s family refused to hand over documents, so it is impossible to establish a connection between the soldiers’ behavior and his death.”
Can you believe this? It is impossible to establish a connection between the soldiers’ behavior and the man’s death, yet they are going to court-martialed.
The Prosecutors’ Office continued: “At the end of the hearing which will establish the need for an indictment it will be decided what crimes to accuse them of, in light of the evidentiary difficulties in the case. Either way, the IDF is convinced that there are real flaws and a serious violation of orders in the functioning of the force, in a way that justifies criminal prosecution.”
Talk about outrageous. After nearly 9 months of intense investigations, the Military Prosecutors’ Office cannot come up with a connection between what the soldiers did and what happened to the man. And yet their behavior somehow justifies criminal prosecution.
This is a simple case of two soldiers being sacrificed on the altar of the IDF General Command providing the Biden Administration with “scapegoats” for what happened.
Your humble servant doesn’t have the words to adequately convey his disgust.
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.