Huge Changes As Smotrich Takes Control Of Civilian Affairs In Area C of Judea and Samaria

Yom Shishee

Friday

3 Adar 5783

February 24 2023

 

The Bizarre Quote of the Day

“This is the most important war in my life. We are in the midst of a legislative process that that overruns the judiciary; it is clear by any definition that this is a coup d’état.”

Former Defense Minister Moshe “Bogie” Ya’alon

The most important war in my life? More important than, say, your service in the Yom Kippur War “Bogie”?

By any definition this is a coup d’etat? No, “Bogie”, the dictionary definition of coup d’etat is “a sudden attempt by a small group of people to take over a government by violence.” What happened here is that was a democratic election in which 2,361,739 Israelis voted your friends out of office and Netanyahu’s coalition in. There was no “take over” of the government and no “violence”.

By the way, the anti-government leaders continue to do everything they can to undermine Israel. Now they have declared this coming Wednesday a “National Day of Disruption” on which they will set up “hundreds of centers across the country” to “disrupt traffic and the economy.”

The Orwellian irony of Ya’alon and his friends is that as they take steps to destroy the economy they accuse the government of destroying the economy.

 The News on the Israeli Street

The amazing celebration at the Kotel yesterday . . .

230 Bar and Bat Mitzvahs were performed at the Western Wall for young women and men from Spain, Azerbaijan, France, Russia, Hungary, Finland, Germany.

Brought to Israel by the Western Wall Heritage Foundation and the “Morsha” organization they were welcomed by the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Places Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz.

According to the organizers: “The day began with the arrival of the children of Europe to the Western Wall plaza, accompanied by a musical procession and a large crowd that enveloped them with love and joy and continued with the awarding and placing of tefillin to each bar mitzvah boy, an aliyah to the Torah, and an exciting bat mitzvah ceremony that includes a personal prayer and the awarding of candlesticks to each bat mitzvah girl.”

What an exciting event!

The war in Judea and Samaria.

Shooting attacks:

Palestinian terrorists opened fire on an Israeli driving north of the Karmi Tzur Junction. The driver was uninjured.

Palestinian terrorists opened fire on our troops in Al Aruv. One terrorist was shot and killed. There were no casualties among our forces.

“Rock”, Molotov, and IED attacks.

The most egregious “rock” attack of the day occurred in Samaria where a mother driving her children to a Purim vacation was suddenly attacked by Palestinian terrorists. All the windows in her car were shattered, and all three of her children (2, 6, 5) were wounded. Somehow she managed to keep driving and reached Magen Adom paramedics.

Other Palestinian terror attacks occurred at the Bnei Naim Junction, the Beit Anon Junction north of Kiryat Arba, Hawara, the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road between Al Khader and the Tunnel Checkpoint, near the Givaot Junction, the Beit Khalil Bridge, between the T-Junction and Efrat near Umm Salmona, between Homesh and Shabash near Burka, on Axis 60, south of Givat Assaf, Turmusayya, between Kiryat Arba and Beit Anon, the Gitti Avishar Junction, and at other locations.

Why judicial reform is so desperately needed . . .

Yet another glaring example of the need for judicial overhaul came to light yesterday when Chief Justice Yitzhah Amit ruled that a petition against the appointment of Itamar Ben Gvir will be heard before a panel of High Court of Justice Justices in 10 days.

The petition reads that Ben Gvir’s appointment as National Security Minister was “extremely unreasonable” and should be revoked.

Who are the petitioners?

Orny Patruska and Yossi Shusman, the “Movement to Strengthen Tolerance in Religious Education, and Gadi Gvaryahu a member of Tag Meir which is part of the aforementioned “Movement to Strengthen Tolerance in Religious Education.”

Are you following this?

Two random citizens, a group that has nothing to do with national security, and a member of that group, were able to go to the High Court of Justice and petition to throw out our National Minister of Security.

How can a government function under the threat that anyone at any time can petition the High Court of Justice for anything. It is an intolerable situation.  

The surprising Omani decision . . .

As you know, your humble servant was in Oman two months ago, and at that time I was unable to enter the country on my Israeli passport but instead had to use my American one. “Israelis” are still persona non grata.

Shortly thereafter, on January 6, the country’s parliament voted to criminalize any relations or interactions with “the Zionist entity.”

So, imagine our surprise yesterday when it was announced that Oman will now allow Israeli commercial airlines to fly through Omani airspace, leading PM Netanyahu to happily declare: “The Far East is not so far away and the skies are no longer the limit. This is a day of great news for Israeli aviation. Israel has, in effect, become the main transit point between Asia and Europe.

The net effect is that flights to India and countries like Thailand, China, and Japan will be about 2 hours shorter than before.

The faux polls . . .

The news media in Israel is obsessed with “pre-election” polls. 

From the moment that the last election concluded and it was seen that Netanyahu and his Coalition partners had swept to a dramatic victory, we have seen poll after poll commissioned by the leftist media purporting to show that “if the election were held tomorrow” Netanyahu’s coalition would be voted out of office.

Everyone knows that these polls are fake–they use the same metrics as they used last November when they utterly failed to anticipate the election result. They only tell those leftists commissioning them what they want to hear.

But they do serve a useful purpose.

They further bind together Likud, Shas, UTJ, National Zionism, and Otzma Yehudi.

What the polls should be asking is “when the election is held in 2026, who are you likely to vote for?”

TODAY’S BLOG

Huge Changes As Smotrich Takes Control Of Civilian Affairs

In Area C of Judea and Samaria

So now it is official. 

Bezalel Smotrich has gained control over all aspects of civilian life in Area C of Judea and Samaria.

In a yesterday’s meeting between Smotrich, PM Netanyahu, and Defense Minister Galant the following was decided:

**Smotrich will have control over the authorization of housing plans for Jewish communities and Palestinian settlements in Area C–except for the creation of new Jewish communities which must be decided by the Cabinet.

**Smotrich will have the ability to authorize existing small communities (aka outposts) as “neighborhoods” of new communities.

**Smotrich will have control over the demolition of illegal houses and buildings in Area C. However if he and Galant disagree about a particular demolition, the issue will be decided by PM Netanyahu.

**Smotrich will have the power to declare that lands are nature reserves, determine the status of other land, and authorize transportation and infrastructure projects.

**Smotrich will ensure that for every law in “Israel” there is a matching “law” in Area C.

**Smotrich must be informed before the IDF carries out any “enforcement activities” in Area C.

All your humble servant can say is “Wow!” What a dramatic change to have the government finally recognize 500,000 Judeans and Samarians as full-fledged citizens of Israel.

We look forward to sweeping changes in land use, infrastructure development (roads, electricity, water), and a general slow down in destruction of small Jewish communities. 

As Smotrich said after the agreement was announced, yesterday was a celebratory day for the citizens of Area C of Judea and Samaria.