UPDATES 9 am Israel time, Thursday, December 12:
**The weather continues to take center stage with snow now falling from Metulla and Mt. Hermon in the north, down through the Golan and Galilee, and even into Jerusalem and Hebron.
Snow in Tzfat –Safed. (Photo: Tamir Engel, Walla).
The scene in Jerusalem in the last hour:
Snow in Jerusalem in the last hour (photo: walla).
If you want to watch a live camera at the Kotel (Western Wall), click here.
By the way, it is hailing and sleeting here in Ashdod as your humble servant writes this blog this morning.
**In attempting to discover how 1.3 billion Euros that the European Union sent to the PLO and Hamas disappeared, EU auditors have discovered that 61,000 “civil servants” and “security personnel” in Gaza simply stopped reporting for work back in 2007. Nevertheless, these “employees” have continued to receive their full salaries and have even gotten increases.
Yesterday, the EU auditors recommended that EU payment to these “employees” be halted. You think?
**The Jordanian Parliament continues to launch rabid initiatives against Israel. After attempting to expel the Israeli ambassador earlier this year, the Parliament passed a new law yesterday which declares that future “security offenses” against Israel will not be considered as “terrorist acts.”
As you may remember, King Abdullah greatly relaxed restrictions on the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood after the so-called “Arab Spring”. One result was that Jordan now has a stridently Islamist Parliament. However, each measure it passes still must be ratified by Abdullah, and so far, he is resisting particularly egregious laws (such as the one ordering the Ambassador’s expulsion).
The day is coming when Abdullah will no longer be able to walk the fine line, and will fall in line behind the Islamists–or be overthrown.
TODAY’S BLOG:
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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani having yet another laugh at the West’s expense (picture: freebeacon.com).
The continuing silence of the West in general and the United States in particular concerning the already botched Geneva agreement with Iran is nauseatingly deafening.
As reported on israelstreet the day after the agreement was signed, the Iranians have published their own version of what was agreed to–and it differs markedly from what President Obama and John Kerry would have us believe.
For example, President Obama and the rest of the P5+1 would have had us believe that all construction on the Arak heavy water plant has come to a halt. Just last week, Iranian FM Mohammad Zarif said that work was continuing apace on the plant.
And remember how Iran supposedly agreed to not add any more centrifuges to its refinement production capacity–especially “new generation” centrifuges that can refine uranium in greater amounts with greater rapidity? Three days ago, the Iranians announced that it they are now beginning to test their “new generation” centrifuges.
Where is the world outcry?
Nowhere to be heard. As your humble servant remarked on the day after Geneva, it was as if the P5+1 awoke that day with the relief that their Iranian troubles were behind them.
The world could care less if the Iranians continue their nuclear program or not. All the world cares about is getting its dirty hands into the Iranian honeypot. There’s money to be made in Tehran, and everyone is beating a path to Ali Khamenei’s door.
Insofar as the United States is concerned, all that President Obama is consumed with these days is stopping the U.S. Congress from increasing sanctions against Tehran and taking selfie pictures with Danish PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
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.