UPDATE 9 am Israel time, Monday, June 9 2014:
**It is not at all clear what happened last night at 11:16 pm.
Your humble servant was sitting here in my home in far south Ashdod when I heard what sounded like an Iron Dome interceptor rocket being fired. There was no incoming rocket siren–just the distinctive sound of a missile launch.
But immediately thereafter, my “incoming rocket alert” app on my cellphone went off telling me that there were incoming rockets for the Chof Ashkelon and Ashkelon regions 5-20 km south of here.
Almost immediately after that, the rotter communication system used by people on the ground throughout southern Israel went into hyper-drive with a plethora of people reporting a launch of the Iron Dome from somewhere in this area, multiple explosions in and around Ashkelon including an eyewitness report of an Iron Dome intercept over the city. Another eyewitness saw firetrucks from Ashkelon racing in the direction of an explosive impact.
By this morning, the only mainline news report is that “one” Palestinian terrorist missile hit “an open area” in the Chof Ashkelon region.
Almost certainly however, there were at least three incoming rockets fired by the new PLO-Hamas terrorist government–and at least one of them was intercepted. Where the others struck remains a mystery.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition government is not much of a Coalition these days. About the only thing holding it together is the desire of each member to remain in power for fear of what another election might produce.
One party or another threatening to quit the government has become an almost daily event. The newest theme is the Yesh Atid party (Yair Lapid) and Hatnua party (Tzipi Livni) nexus attacking Bayit Yehudi (Naftali Bennett) declaring that they will leave the Coalition if only one Jewish community in Judea and Samaria is annexed.
Yair Lapid in particular was on his high horse yesterday ranting in Livni-like terminology about “no annexation”, a total freeze of construction in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, and drawing a map of the borders of a future Palestinian state:
“Extreme right-wing forces (a reference to Naftali Bennett, remember Item 15 on the vocabulary list below) are pushing us toward the delusional idea of annexation, which will lead us to the disaster called a binational state . . . sooner or later four million Palestinians will ask us for health insurance and national security, education, . . . and voting rights . . . we will not allow this to happen. If there is an attempt to annex even one settlement unilaterally, Yesh Atid will not only bolt the government, it will bring it down . . .”
To begin with, Yair Lapid is delusional about annexation.
It will not lead to a binational state. No one is advocating annexation of Areas A and B where 98% of all Palestinians in Judea and Samaria live and govern themselves. What people are seriously beginning to talk about is annexing Area C where 100% of the 370,000 Jewish community members in Judea and Samaria live.
The thought that 4 million Palestinians (now Lapid is lumping in Gazans too?) would ask for health insurance, etc–and that Israel would need to pay is equally delusional. Why should Israel have the responsibility to pay one shekel to any Palestinian living in Palestinian autonomous areas?
Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni are also delusional about toppling the government.
The current Netanyahu Coalition has 68 members (Likud Yisrael Beitenu 31, Yesh Atid 19, Bayit Yehudi 12, Hatnua 6). If Lapid pulls out and takes his 19 Knesset seats with him, Tzipi Livni will also leave and take her 6 seats with her. The Coalition would be left with 43 members.
But almost certainly, the religious parties (Shas 11 seats, United Torah Judaism 7 seats) would immediately join Netanyahu–they are eager to do so now–, and Netanyahu would still find himself able to govern with a narrow Coalition of 61 seats.
But wait . . . the deluded Lapid wasn’t finished yesterday:
“There is no reason to keep avoiding the necessity of drawing out the State of Israel’s future borders . . . Israel needs to come to the next round of peace talks with detailed maps, prepared by us, that express a wide national consensus [and allow us to] reach a wide-reaching accord with the moderate Arab states.”
Talk about delusional. Why should Israel dangerously offer detailed maps declaring what land it is willing to give away, in return for absolutely nothing? And where are all of those “moderate Arab states” that Lapid and Livni always talk about? Are these the Jordans, Saudi Arabias, and Qatars of the world that are all for “peace” so long as Israel permits 5,000,000+ so-called Palestinian “refugees” to come to Israel and gives the Shebaa Farms to Lebanon and the Golan Heights to Syria, and turns over the eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem to the Palestinians and others?
Moderate indeed.
The time is coming soon when Netanyahu will have to make a decision. Will he continue living in the past and keep Israel on the defensive with Yair Lapid and Tzipi Livni and their dangerous delusions, or will he finally put Israel on the offensive and embrace the reality that already exists in Judea and Samaria?
Addendum:
For the next few weeks, your humble servant will append Israel Vocabulary 101 to the bottom of this blog everyday.
Basic Israel Vocabulary 101
1. Use the Jewish and Israeli names for things; here are five to start with:
Har HaBayit instead of Temple Mount
Kipat HaSela instead of Dome of the Rock
The Kotel instead of the Western Wall
Shechem instead of Nablus
The Kineret instead of the Sea of Galilee
2. Use ‘Judea and Samaria’ instead of ‘the West Bank‘. ‘West Bank’ is a term of occupation and exploitation created by the Jordanians to refer to the area west of the Jordan River illegally seized and annexed to Jordan in 1948. Prior to 1948, the land was referred to as Judea and Samaria for almost 3000 years. In the 1947 U.N. Resolution that partitioned “Palestine”, “Judea” and “Samaria” were the terms used.
3. Use ‘Palestinian Autonomous Territories’ to refer to Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria–never under any circumstances use the term ‘occupied territories’ because it is simply not true; Israel is not occupying anything. Areas A and B have been under Palestinian civil administration since the signing of the Oslo Accords two decades ago. By the way, when PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas wants to compare these areas to Gaza, he uses the term “Palestinian Autonomous Territories.”
4. Use ‘Jewish communities’ or ‘Israeli cities instead of ‘settlements.’ How in the world can anyone call the communities and cities of Maaleh Adumin (40,210) and Modin Illit (51,773), Gush Etzion (54,939), and Ariel (41,720) ‘settlements’?
online viagra canada I’m sure there is some change that is going to happen at the end; and once you’re through with that stage, move on to the second where you’ll be caressing, touching, and communication with clothes off. The patient will face discomforts such http://icks.org/n/data/ijks/1482456353_add_file_4.pdf buy viagra italy as tiredness while doing simple activities such as walking or bending over, which are noted as the common symptoms. Avocado: High in cialis generic tabs vitamin B6 which helps to build up stamina and strength in an individual. If buy cialis from india there was no love then the life wouldn’t hold any meaning.
5. Use ‘construction of Jewish homes, schools, and hospitals’ instead of ‘settlement activity’. By obscuring what the activities are, the activities are delegitimized.
6. Use ‘new Jewish communities’ or ‘fledgling Jewish communties’ instead of ‘outposts‘. An outpost is a small military encampment, not a place where people permanently live.
7. Use ‘Jewish community member’ instead of ‘settler’. Are we living in the wild west? Most Jewish community members are suburbanites commuting to jobs in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and elsewhere. If you want to use the term ‘settler’, refer to Palestinians living in Judea and Samaria as settlers–after all, they are the late arrivers to the land (see No. 13 below).
8. Use ‘eastern Jerusalem’ or the ‘eastern neighborhoods of Jerusalem’ instead of East Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem must never be divided again. Again, areas such as Ramat Shlomo and Gilo are ‘neighborhoods’ of Jerusalem, not ‘settlements.’
You are looking at Har Gilo–a huge 40,000+ person Jewish neighborhood in Jerusalem.
9. Use ‘Palestinian cities’ instead of ‘Palestinian refugee camps‘. Who is kidding whom? Cities such as Kalandiya are huge places with massive construction going on all the time–the Palestinian residents of these cities are not nomads living in tents.
10. Use Palestinian ‘settlements’ instead of Palestinian ‘villages’ or ‘hamlets’.
Accorcing to the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz, this is a picture of the Palestinian “village” of Halat Makhoul. Would you call this a “village” or even a “hamlet”? This is a settlement.
Who is kidding whom? “Village” is a word blatantly used to make the West think that the Palestinians are (and have been) living peacefully and sleepily in hamlets for thousands of years. Nothing could be further from the truth.
11. Use Palestinian ‘settlers’ instead of Palestinian ‘farmers’ and ‘villagers’. Let’s call people what they are, not what the delegitimizers would have us believe that they are.
12. Use ‘PLO’ or ‘Palestine Liberation Organization’ instead of ‘Palestinian Authority‘. Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear that the PLO runs the show in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, and the United Nations recognizes the PLO–not the Palestinian Authority. Your humble servant was the first to use the abbreviation “PLO/PA” when writing about the governance of Areas A and B–an abbreviation now used by various newspaper columnists here in Israel.
13. When possible, use ‘Palestinian Terrorist Organization–HAMAS’ instead of merely ‘Hamas‘. HAMAS is an acronym for “Harakat al Muqawamah al Islamiyya” which means ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’–which is a euphemism for Palestinian Terrorist Movement. It is easier to say or write HAMAS, but the acronym does not tell what the organization is about.
14. In regard to the new PLO-Hamas “government”, use the phrase ‘terrorist government‘ instead of ‘reconciliation‘ or ‘unity‘ government. They only thing the PLO and Hamas are unified about is their desire to destroy Israel.
15. Use ‘conservative politicians’ instead of ‘right-wing politicians‘. Smearing someone as ‘right-wing’ is a convenient way of dismissing what they have to say. Note how quickly international politicians and media (and the leftist Israeli media) call conservative politicians such as Naftali Bennett, Moshe Feiglin, and Orit Struck “right-wing extremists” and “right-wing fanatics” when in fact all they advocate is Israeli nationalism. We should all be so extremist and fanatic.
16. When possible, use ‘Israeli men, women, and children’ instead of ‘Israeli citizens‘ when referring to those of us assaulted by terrorists. After all, Palestinian terrorists delight in trying to kill all Israelis–regardless of age or gender.
17. When referring to the human results of Palestinian terrorism, use the term‘wounded’ instead of ‘injured’. ’Wounded’ connotes an intentional act committed by someone trying to hurt you; ‘injured’ usually does not.
18. When referring to the human results of Palestinian terrorism, never let someone get away with saying that “no one was wounded.” In fact, an Israeli is wounded in every terrorist attack whether those wounds be physical or emotional–just look at the incidence of PTSD among children and adults living along the Gaza border. In fact, using the phrase “no one was wounded” is part of the underpinning of the absurd ‘disproportionality’ canard.
Note that in this blog, your humble servant often says that “no one was physically wounded but the emotional toll is incalculable.”
19. Use “so-called human rights organizations” or “self-proclaimed human rights organizations” instead of “human rights organizations” to denote the so-called human rights organizations operating in Israel. None of these organizations are in the least interested in protecting Israeli or Jewish human rights.
20. Use international ‘lawbreakers’ instead of international ‘activists’ when referring to those members of the international community who come to Israel for the express purpose of breaking Israeli law and attacking Israeli police and soldiers.
21. Use ‘the suicide bomber prevention fence instead of the ‘separation fence’ or ‘wall’. Have we all forgotten why the suicide bomber prevention fence was built? To stop suicide bombers.
22. The current round of so-called “peace talks” has apparently come to an end, but it will be back in a new form before we know it. Use “Israel concession process” instead of “peace process”. There never has been a peace process between Israelis and Palestinians–only a process of trying to wrench ever more concessions out of Israel in return for nothing.
23. Use “Muslims” instead of Muslim fundamentalists, Muslim extremists, Muslim fanatics, Islamists, militant Islamists, hostile Islamists, radical Islamists, and Salafists. If you must use two words to describe terrorists, use “Muslim terrorists.”
What are Muslim fanatics, Muslim extremists, Muslim fundamentalists, Islamists, and Salafists? They are simply Muslims, and the attempt to cast them otherwise is an obvious attempt to portray just plain old “Muslims” as not fanatic, not extremist, not fundamentalist, not Islamist, and not Salafist. In Gaza, we now have the ludicrous situation in which Palestinian terrorist Hamas–which is one of the most fanatic, extremist, fundamentalist, and Islamist terror organizations on the planet–being portrayed as the “good guys” by the media. The time has come once again to call a Muslim a Muslim.