Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
30 Shvat 5783
February 21 2023
The Outstanding Post of the Day
“Calling for violence, systematic silencing in academic institutions of those who disagree with them, invading privacy, damaging the freedom of movement: all from people supposedly fighting for “democracy.” The left has never been and never will be liberal.”
Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs and Minister for Social Equality
How correct Chikli is! Isn’t it amazing how “the left” has co-opted terms such as “democratic” and “liberal”? Of course, this could have never happened without the help of the media which now also automatically labels anyone who is conservative or traditional as “far-right” and “extremist.”
We live in an Orwellian world of upside-down terminology.
The Photos of the Day
Your humble servant took these photo yesterday on our way to Jerusalem. We were going there to visit our son and his family not to participate in the demonstration:
We took this photo while stuck in a massive traffic jam on Highway 1 on the way to Jerusalem. As you can see, the car of the protesters is festooned with Israeli flags and the word “Democracy.”
And:
Why were we stuck in traffic jams? Because protesters were on bridges and out in the road where police had to clear them. The irony was that the anti-government protest managers urged people to come to Jerusalem and then blocked the road getting there.
The Tali Gottlieb Incident (a followup)
Yesterday we reported how a group called “Block the Coup” planted themselves in the hallway outside of Knesset legislator Tali Gottlieb’s apartment and refused to let her leave.
What we did not report was that Tali’s daughter is autistic, and she told the anarchists that she had to take her daughter out for medical reasons.
The leader of the group responded that she would have to find someone else to take her out: “She will get out but you won’t.”
At this point Tali called the police who arrived and cleared out the group arresting two of them.
Tali then took her daughter out and went to the Knesset where she delivered this scathing attack on the “protesters”:
Later in the day, Roy Neuman who co-leads the “protests” against the reform issued a statement supporting what his followers did at Tali’s apartment: “Any democratic action that is not violent has our back.”
Neuman as well as the rest of the anti-government movement need an educational lesson on what is democratic and what is violent.
Is it “democratic” to stop a mother from taking her daughter for treatment?
Is it “democratic” to stop a democratically elected representative from going to vote in the Knesset?
As for “violent”, the Oxford Dictionary definition is: “using or involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.”
The group in the hallway used physical force intended to emotionally hurt Tali and perhaps physically hurt her daughter by making it difficult for her to receive attention; they were “violent”.
Not to mention indecent. Your humble servant believes that the incident may be a turning point of sorts as some people in the anti-government movement (not the ones being paid by the New Israel Fund and other organizations) begin to realize just how far off the deep end they have fallen.
The News on the Israeli Street
The War in Judea and Samaria.
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops operating in Jenin. No Israelis were wounded.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops in Al-Fawwar.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops near Shechem.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists attacked between Hizma and Anatot, Al Aruv, on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, between Itamar and Elon Moreh, on Road 55 near the Ma’ale Shomron Junction, at Beit Habarka, between Al Khader and the Tunnel Checkpoint, between Yitzhar and Hawara, on Road 55 near Azzun (bus driver wounded by shrapnel), Karni Shomron, north of Herodian Square, south of the Ma’ale Lavona Junction, and at numerous other locations.
The media shows how leftist it has become . . .
An interesting short interview took place on Channel 13 yesterday. A reporter for the Channel interviewed a young girl who was at the demonstration, and asked her why she had come instead of being at school.
The girl replied:“I don’t know why”.
Whereupon the reporter–toeing the anti-government line– told her what to say:
Click here to see the brief interview (in Hebrew): The reporter tells a girl what to say.
Gantz is laughable once again . . .
Former “Defense” Minister Gantz was at it again yesterday with this comment directed toward Netanyahu: “Instead of harming Israeli democracy – go to Washington and make sure there is an unprecedented attack on Iran that will make it [the Iranian regime] stop,” We must continue to build Israel’s readiness for the possibility of an attack on Iran in the next year or two.”
Your humble servant doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. During the 18 months when Gantz was “Defense” Minister, the government was asleep at the wheel doing little to nothing to try to stop Iran–and in fact treated Iran as if it were a non-issue. And now the Iranians are refining uranium to 84%.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Security Council Statement (and) The Legal Reform Vote
What happened in the Security Council yesterday?
Israel’s supposed new friend, the United Arab Emirates, was on the verge of submitting this resolution on behalf of the Palestinians to the Council for a vote: “The Security Council demands that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory.”
It appeared that the U.S. would veto the resolution.
But instead, the Bidenites came to Israel demanding concessions to the Palestinians, and PM Netanyahu “partially kowtowed” to Washington.
Biden wanted Israel to cancel the decisions made last week to legalize 10 Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and to construct some 9,500 new apartments there.
Instead PM Netanyahu agreed to not legalize any more Jewish communities “in the coming months” and (apparently) to freeze those construction plans for those 9,500 new apartments). This was agreed on with Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir.
He apparently thought this would please the Biden Administration enough that it would exercise its veto. However, the Biden Administration proceeded to help formulate a new statement which it proceeded to vote for. The new Council statement reads:
“The Security Council reiterates that continuing Israeli settlement activities are dangerously imperiling the viability of the two-State solution based on the 1967 lines.The Security Council expresses deep concern and dismay with Israel’s announcement on February 12 (about the legalization and construction).”
In short, the Bidenites took Netanyahu’s concessions and voted to criticize Israel anyway.
All of which led Netanyahu’s office to angrily issue this statement after the Security Council vote:
“The statement should not have been made and the United States should not have joined it.”
The only good news out of all this was that the 10 communities that were legalized last week are not affected.
Also unaffected are plans to legalize 5 more communities which will be added to existing to communities under the pre-existing community’s name. However, Netanyahu’s coalition agreement with Smotrich calls for 70 communities to be legalized.
As far is construction is concerned, the fate of the 9,600 apartments remains unclear, but the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria will convene on Wednesday and advance plans for 8,000 more apartments.
One last word: under the previous Israeli government, the legalization and construction would have never happened, but if it had, that government would have completely kneeled to Biden.
Moving on, what happened in the Knesset late last night?
The legal reforms (two amendments to existing laws) began the path to eventual passage by passing their first readings. Now those amendments return to the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee for preparation for their 2nd and 3rd meetings which will probably happen in about a month, near the end of March.
It might be worthwhile to repeat what these proposed amendments are.
The first amends the “Basic Law: Judiciary.”
It changes the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee.
Currently, that Committee includes 9 members: the Justice Minister as chairman, another Cabinet minister, two members of the Israel Bar Association, the President of the Supreme Court, two other Justices from the Supreme Court (replaced by other Justices every three years), two more members of the Knesset–one from the governing Coalition and one from the Opposition.
The proposed law would replace the two members of the Israel Bar Association with the Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, and another Cabinet Minister. In addition “the two other Justices from the Supreme Court” would have to be retired Justices (not ones currently serving) and would be chosen by agreement between the Justice Minister and the Supreme Court President.
In short, the Knesset and not the legal profession will have a majority on the Selection Commission.
Also, the proposed law also states that at least one of the Justices, and one of the Knesset members, and one of the Cabinet members must be a woman.
The proposed law also calls for the legal quorum for the Judicial Selection Committee meetings to be reduced from 7 to 5. In other words it will only take 5 votes to appoint a Justice instead of 7–and abstentions in the voting will not be counted against the majority.
The second proposed law amends the “Courts Law.”
This law would prohibit the High Court of Justice from directly or indirectly invalidating Basic Laws—in essence, blocking High Court oversight of Israel’s quasi-constitutinoal Basic Laws (which Israel has instead of a written constitution).
It would also restrict the High Court’s ability to accept petitions.
The demonstrations against these reforms yesterday in Jerusalem were large–but not as large as in previous weeks, and the Knesset debate was fiery. The good news is that we can now see the light at the end of the tunnel.
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.