Yom Chamishee
Thursday
23 Adar 5783
March 16 2023
The Tweet of the Day
“I know the president of the country. He is far from stupid. When he presents an outline that preserves the status quo and perhaps even worsens it, he obviously knew that it was not a realistic compromise outline, certainly not “the people’s outline”. So what did he want to achieve? I leave it to you to answer . . .”
Yitzhak Wasserlauf, Minister of the Negev, Galilee and National Resilience
Of course Herzog knew what he was doing in presenting a full-blown outline that agreed with every point of those against the government. What he wanted to achieve was to urge more anarchy in the streets in hopes of bringing down the government. See Today’s Blog below for more discussion of Herzog’s “outline”.
The Photo of the Day
Mazel Tov to Devora and Avraham Paley on the birth of their son. This sign was put up by the doctors, nurses, and staff in the obstetrics ward at the hospital.
It was barely a month ago on February 10 that two of the couple’s children, 6-year-old Yaakov and 8-year-old Asher, were murdered in a ramming attack by a Palestinian terrorist in the Ramot neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The News on the Israeli Street
A follow up to yesterday’s blog . . .
Yesterday we posed the question “Why isn’t the IDF talking about the security incident in the north?”
We pointed out that the roadside bomb detonation at Megiddo was probably connected to a Hezbollah infiltration in northern Israel.
Last night, security officials released an official statement, the main points of which are:
1. A terrorist infiltrated from Lebanon into northern Israel.
2. The terrorist was taken from there to Megiddo where he detonated the bomb.
3. The purpose of the bomb was to create a traffic jam into which another bomb would be detonated.
4. After the traffic jam part of the plan failed, the heavily armed terrorist got into a car (driven by someone else) and headed back to Lebanon.
5. Near Moshav Ya’ara on the Lebanon border, the car was intercepted by security forces. The terrorist, who was armed with rifles and wearing an explosive belt, was shot and killed. The driver was arrested.
The statement went to great lengths not to blame Hezbollah, though Hezbollah’s involvement was obvious from the start. After all, it would take the planning and material of Hezbollah to carry out a commando raid with 15 kg of explosives to a depth of 70 km in Israeli territory.
In fact, the military urged a responsive strike against Hezbollah, but Netanyahu and Defense Minister Galant objected.
The statement obviously raises more questions than it answers:
How did the terrorist enter Israel? According to one report, a resident in a border community saw him entering from a tunnel.
Where did all of his weapons come from? Did he bring them from Lebanon or did he get them from accomplices in Israel?
Who was it that helped him get to Megiddo and then back to the Lebanon border?
If he wanted to make a large attack, why did he go all the way to Megiddo–why not strike a community closer to the border such as Metulla?
And on and on. The bottom line is that there are huge questions about Israel’s security (or lack of it).
One final note: if you remember, the main selling point of the idiotic agreement concerning the Israel-Lebanon border was that the Israeli left and Biden Administration said that the agreement would stifle Hezbollah.
What a joke. That agreement was immediately seen as a sign of Israeli weakness and has done nothing but embolden Hezbollah.
A positive step . . .
It was announced yesterday that Israel will not permit EU Foreign Minister Joseph Borrell to visit Israel (in an official capacity).
This comes after Borrell, a noted anti-Israel personage, made numerous statements in recent weeks comparing the Israeli government to Hamas.
The show goes on . . .
More anarchist protests in every direction this morning with a freeway blocked, an Israeli flag lowered to half mast in Beersheva, and clashes with the orthodox in Bnei Brak.
And everywhere, street performers are putting on a show for themselves:
The red-dressed street performers, the “Handmaids”, leading the blocking on Highway 4.
Yesterday’s funny (unless you were trying to make a flight) street performance was at Ben Gurion Airport where a group of former soldiers who participated in the Entebbe rescue mission, rented a black Mercedes similar to the one they used at the Entebbe airport to make the forces at that airport think that Idi Amin was arriving, and tried to delay PM Netanyahu’s arrival at the airport for a flight to Germany–and all those trying to make other flights. Their hilarious point: “We are saving Netanyahu from the kidnappers on the Right.”
“Idi Amin” (lol) arriving at Ben Gurion Airport yesterday.
TODAY’S BLOG
Herzog Disappoints Again: His Ludicrous “People’s Outline”
President Herzog appeared on television yet again last night in a nationwide address to present his new so-called “People’s Outline” to bring compromise to the issue of legal reforms.
And once again, Herzog has bitterly disappointed. His “People’s Outline” would better be called “The Left’s Ideal Outline”. It is an outline that once again puts the ultimate power in the hands of the Court.
Just take one element of the outline, the method of selecting Justices for the Court.
According to this new outline: 4 Knesset Coalition members, 3 current Justices, 2 members of the Opposition, and two members nominated by the Justice Minister but subject to approval by the President of the Court, would be on the committee.
In other words: 3 Justices + 2 Opposition members + 2 subject to approval by the President of the Court–against 4 members of the Coalition.
7 against 4. The Knesset once again would be completely neutered.
Numerous other parts of the plan are also absurd on their face, but too many to mention here today.
According to reports this morning, Herzog’s “People’s Outline” has nothing to do with “the people” and is actually the product of the Israeli Democracy Institute and was approved by none other than Aharon Barak—the former head of the Supreme Court who began the process of arrogating all power to the Court back in the 1980s.
Another outline produced by the deans of Israeli law schools more closely balanced the demands of the left and the right. It was rejected by Herzog.
In essence, Herzog’s plan is nothing but a trap. By falsely presenting it as from “the people”, he has sought once again to make the Coalition “look bad” by rejecting it.
As we wrote when Bougie Herzog was chosen President, we expected very little from him. Unfortunately, he is much, much less than we imagined.
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.