Yom Rishon
Sunday
29 Tevet 5783
January 22 2023
A Disgusting Photo and Video From Last Night
PLO flags in the anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv last night.
There is no doubt that judicial reform has little to do with what have become weekly Saturday night demonstrations in Tel Aviv.
What we are witnessing is Orwellian. Demonstrators who claim to be supporting democracy are doing all within their power to overthrow a democratically elected government.
The Quotes of the Night
Last night we had the spectacle of former PM Yair Lapid standing in front of a giant “Netanyahu Crime Minister banner” declaring “We won’t give up until we win.” And the head of the Labor Party, Merav Michaeli proclaiming to the crowd: “Don’t accept this coup d’etat” when a coup d’etat is precisely what she and the demonstrators want.
One of the leaders of the demonstrations, Eldad Yaniv, summed it up in an interview yesterday: “. . . we are now in a civil war, we are overthrowing Bibi . . . we have been overthrowing Bibi for the last three or four years. We are actually turning from a political camp into a resistance movement . . .”
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists fired into a home in the Jerusalem suburb of Pisgat Zeev. A 7-year-old girl was wounded in the head.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire near the Sha’ar Shechem in the Old City. No one was wounded, and the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire near the entrance of Shomron. No one was wounded. and the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the IDF post near Herodion. No one was wounded, and the terrorists were captured.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis on the Hevron-Gush Etzion Road near Al Khader, near Karmi Tzur, at Al Aruv, at the Burka Junction beside Shavi, Hizma, Tekoa, and near Luban a-Sharqiya among some two dozen locations.
Stabbing attacks:
A Palestinian terrorist who tried to stab Jews at the Sde Ephraim farm was shot and killed by IDF soldiers.
A Palestinian terrorist who tried to stab IDF soldiers was killed at the Post Office Junction.
A dramatic Cabinet meeting this morning . . .
By all reports, the regular Sunday Cabinet meeting promises plenty of fireworks. Apparently, Netanyahu will hand Aryeh Deri his letter of dismissal following the ruling of the Supreme Court.
On top of this, Cabinet members from the Religious Zionism Party will boycott the meeting in protest of the destruction at Or Haim on Friday (see Today’s Blog below). Also related to that destruction, Ministers Ben Gvir and Smotrich will demand that the Palestinian settlement of Khan Al-Ahmar be destroyed as it was ordered years ago by the Supreme Court.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Same Old Netanyahu Song
The past 72 hours have been a stark reminder of why your humble servant has never voted for Benjamin Netanyahu.
Whatever shift to the right and standing up to the Biden Administration voters hoped for with this new Coalition have been quickly dashed.
Consider these “leftist” decisions of emanating straight from Benjamin Netanyahu and his office:
—Netanyahu personally intervened to halt the planning process of construction plans for a Jewish neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem because the Biden Administration objects to the expansion of the neighborhood.
—It was revealed that the plantings which were supposed to take place in the Negev were canceled.
—The fledgling Jewish community at Or Haim in Samaria was destroyed on Friday.
That destruction is the subject of this blog.
This was the sequence of events on Friday:
National Security Minister Ben Gvir called Defense Minister Galant and asked him to postpone the destruction.
Galant told Ben Gvir that “government policy” overrides the Coalition Agreement that Ben Gvir formed with Netanyahu.
What is more, Galant claimed that the establishment of the tiny community (only 4 houses) “could set the entire area on fire”– thus endangering peace and American help on the Iranian issue.” The quid pro quo was clear: if Israel wants American help on Iran, Israel must obey American dictates concerning Judea and Samaria.
In short, we are once more back to kowtowing to the U.S.
Galant summarized that government policy is that “illegal construction in private Palestinian territories is immediately evacuated.”
Galant’s remarks were backed up almost immediately by PM Netanyahu whose office issued this disingenuous statement:
“The government supports settlement only when it is done legally and in advance coordination with the prime minister and the security forces, which was not done in this case. The Prime Minister will hold a discussion on the issue at the beginning of the week.”
What a joke. What the government supports is a highly discriminatory policy that does not support any Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria and permits almost all Palestinian construction. It would appear that Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich are not going to be able to change this sad reality.
Finally, Or Haim was destroyed by employees of the Civil Administration. Knesset legislator Limor Har Melech posted the following video of that destruction with these comments: “With horrendous insensitivity, Arab workers were brought to the scene and destroyed the houses and property with great pleasure while making shouts of laughter and joy for Eid.”
Click here for the 21 second video. You can hear the Arabs in the background.
What is the bottom line? We are back to the same old “Netanyahuan” status quo with all domestic issues subjugated to concerns about Iran.
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.