UPDATES
10:00 am Israel time, Thursday, September 3 2015
**The daily Palestinian terror report . . .
Palestinian terrorists threw “rocks” at the Shuafat Light Rail train station in Jerusalem (10:57 pm), at Israeli motorists at the Hizma checkpoint (9:22 pm), and at Israelis going through the Gush Etzion tunnel to Jerusalem (1:21 pm).
Palestinian terrorists threw Molotov cocktails at Israeli security personnel in Jerusalem’s A-Tur neighborhood (11:05 pm) and at Israeli forces in Issawiya (7:41 pm).
Palestinian terrorists threw an IED at IDF soldiers at Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem (9:16 pm).
In a typical yet still bizarre incident, Israeli firefighters were called to extinguish a fire in an apartment building in Issawiya. After they saved a family of four Palestinians, they were assaulted with “rocks”.
At 9:16 pm, a border policeman was wounded during Arab riots in Ras al-Amud.
Meanwhile, over in Gaza, there was another “job-related death.” Hamas news reported this morning that a Hamas naval “commando” drowned off the coast of Gaza yesterday.
**Palestinian terrorism on the roads of Judea and Samaria is somewhat addressed . . .
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Road 443 essentially stretches from Jerusalem to Modi’in.
The Netanyahu security cabinet finally decided last night to assign 400 police officers to Route 443 in an effort to stop the “rock” and Molotov cocktail throwing that goes on there all the time. In addition, extra lighting and more security cameras will be installed.
Road 443 is not so affectionately called “the road from hell” by the thousands of people who commute from Modi’in to Jerusalem everyday.
**The left wing Israeli media is rejoicing this morning . . .
Following the news that Barack Obama has now secured enough Democratic votes in the Senate to override the veto that he will cast against the opponents of the Iran Appeasement Agreement (was there ever really a doubt that he could not get 34 senators out of 100 to kowtow to him?), Yedioth Aharonot, one of the two leading newspapers in this country joyously bannered this headline today:
OBAMA WINS!
NETANYAHU LOSES!
Yedioth Aharonot, you may remember, was the newspaper that most vehemently supported Isaac Herzog and Tzipi Livni in the Israeli election back in March. What it would have loved to print then was:
HERZOG AND LIVNI WIN!
NETANYAHU LOSES!
**Palliwood is back on stage again . . .
How pathetic is this? The newest Palestinian hero is a 13 year old boy who dupes the international media by continually playing the role of “Palestinian victim.”
The Tamini family was back in Ramallah yesterday featuring “castboy” (who moves his cast from arm to arm), his sister Shirley Temper (so-named because she is sent out to provoke Israeli soldiers by taunting and biting them), their stage mother Jezebel (the epitome of evil), and the rest of the motley family.
Note the beaming stage mother holding the flowers at the far end of the sofa, and a sullen Shirley Temple in the middle of the sofa (sullen because castboy has stolen the show).
Of course, they were at PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ office because of the way they were able to dupe the international media the other day in the episode with the Golani soldier (heavily reported on this blog).
**In natural gas news . . .
The Zohr gas field off the coast of Egypt. What this map does not clearly show is that a number of gas finds are adjacent to the maritime border with Gaza, and Hamas is concerned that Egypt will “steal” its natural gas.
The discovery by the ENO energy company of Italy of the largest natural gas field (Zohr) in the Mediterranean–30 trillion cu ft of gas– off the coast of Egypt has left the Israeli natural gas industry searching for new buyers.
Lithuanian PM Algirdas Butkevicius is scheduled to arrive in Israel next week–and part of the discussions are to be about the Lithuanian purchase of Israeli natural gas.
The Lithuanians are looking for a way to lessen their dependence on Russia, and it appears they have settled on a contract with Israel.
**The Chinese takeover of Israeli businesses continues . . .
Despite the slumping Chinese economy, the headlong rush of Chinese firms into the Israeli business sector continues. Following the Chinese takeover of Israel’s largest cheese and milk producer Tnuva, it was announced yesterday that the Ahava Dead Sea Cosmetic Company is being bought for 300 million shekels (about $76 million) by the Chinese investment firm, Fosun.
Fosun also bought controlling interest in one of the leading Israeli insurance companies, Phoenix, two months ago.
**Dramatic changes are afoot for American Judaism . . .
According to a PEW survey released this past week, all signs point to a rapidly growing orthodox Jewish population in the United States contrasted with a rapidly decreasing non-orthodox one.
While the orthodox currently constitute approximately 10% of an estimated six million American Jews, that number will increase quickly because . . .
—69% of all orthodox adults are married compared to 49% of non-orthodox
–68% of the orthodox were married by age 25, only 27% of non-orthodox
–The orthodox birthrate is 4.1 per couple, the non-orthodox is 1.7 (amazingly, 78% of reform households have NO children in their household and 75% of conservative households have NO children).
–The median age of orthodox American Jews is now 40; of the non-orthodox 52 (and the orthodox are getting younger while the reform/conservative Jews are getting older).
How does all of this affect Israel?
61% of the Orthodox express a “special affiliation to Israel”; only 27% of the non-orthodox do.
**The tipping point has come in Europe . . .
The vast numbers of Muslim immigrants to Europe has changed the face of the continent and will soon dominate it. Look at Germany: from January to August 413,535 immigrants arrived–104,460 in August alone. They join some 4,000,000 Muslim Germans (primarily of Turkish origin) in the country already.
Pictures on Israeli television last night of hundreds of thousands of Muslims crowding boats off the Italian coast, crossing the Bulgarian border into Macedonia, and stranded in the central train station in Budapest–all of whom are trying to make it to northern Europe where welfare benefits are much higher–are a testament to just how rapidly Europe is changing.
How will this affect Israel? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to answer that question.
TODAY’S BLOG:
It’s just after 7 pm.
Your family has just finished eating dinner, and the kids have asked you if they can watch a little television because they don’t have any homework. You think why not? The first day of school was yesterday; the teachers haven’t assigned anything yet; and besides, it won’t hurt if they watch a children’s program for about 30 minutes before bedtime.
You decide to sit down and enjoy the animated show yourself.
The characters in the tv program are having a picnic in the park, and a balloon floats across the television screen.
The next thing you know, something crashes through your sliding glass door and a crater suddenly appears on the wall beside the television set.
All of you hit the floor.
Just as suddenly as this all happened, it is suddenly quiet again. You look around and what do you find?
Two high-powered bullets–one on the floor beside the glass door, and the other lodged in the wall.
You think to yourself that you are living in a surreal movie, but then you remember that you are living in Netiv HaAsara, a moshav in the Chof Ashkelon region on the Gaza border.
If all of this sounds like a figment of your humble servant’s literary imagination, it is not.
This is precisely what happened last night at Netiv HaAsara. A sniper or snipers in Gaza hit homes in Netiv HaAsara. Miraculously, no one was killed, but many people were traumatized.
As soon as the residents whose houses were hit reported this to the IDF, what do you think that the military reaction was?
Nothing, zero, zilch. The IDF spokesman quickly came out and blathered that it was just “random fire”, and there was nothing to worry about.
Nothing to worry about? Your home has just been shot up and there is nothing to worry about? There are two bullets in your living room, and there is nothing to worry about?
Try telling that to your children or to yourself.
Note the hole in the wall beside the television set. Two children in the house were about two meters away on the floor.
One final note: The IDF bombed an empty Hamas building early this morning in retaliation. Better late than never?
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.