25 Cheshvan 5776
Saturday, November 7 2015
UPDATES 10:30 am
10:15 am: A 20-year-old IDF soldier has been shot and seriously wounded in Kiryat Arba at the Peace House, beside Hebron. He has been evacuated to Sha’are Zedek Medical Center. No further info at this time.
UPDATES 9:00 am
***Palestinian terror yesterday:
To say that it was a bad Friday is an understatement.
What began in the early morning with an entire Israeli family nearly being incinerated in a Palestinian firebomb attack on Route 60 ended in the evening with a 19-year-old IDF soldier being badly wounded by a Palestinian sniper at Anun beside Hebron.
In between these two attacks, two Israeli teenagers were shot by snipers in Hebron; a Palestinian female terrorist tried to run over IDF soldiers in Halhoul; and an Israeli was badly stabbed in the back at the Benjamin Gate north of Jerusalem.
This is not to mention that another stabbing attack was thwarted at the Allenby Bridge, a pipe bomb was discovered at Mevo Dotan, rioters on the Gaza border attempted to infiltrate into Israel, and an Israeli woman was badly wounded by “rocks” and bottles thrown at her at Hizma.
All day long, numerous other “rock” and Molotov attacks occurred throughout Judea and Samaria.
***”An Israeli was badly stabbed in the back at the Benjamin Gate north of Jerusalem”. . .
Within an hour after gruesomely and bloodily stabbing the Israeli man in the back yesterday, the terrorist posted a video of himself online crowing about his “heroic” action.
Six hours later, he turned himself to Palestinian “security” forces knowing that he was safer in “custody” than on the loose with Israeli security forces looking for him.
***What was even more dangerous about yesterday . . .
Last night, pundits on Israel television all chimed in that the sniper attack on the two teenagers in Hebron represented a dangerous escalation in the violence; instead of “rock” attacks, there are now “bullet” attacks.
Your humble servant wonders where these pundits have been during the last few years during which numerous shooting attacks have targeted the people of Judea, Samaria, and even eastern Jerusalem. And, in case anyone has forgotten, numerous Israelis have been shot.
What was dangerous about yesterday is that the sniper attack on the two teenagers in Hebron and the later sniper attack on the soldier at Anun may well have been carried out by the same person–or at least the same cell of terrorists.
We have long heard reports that Iran has trained teams of Palestinian snipers for use in Gaza. It may well be that some of those snipers teams are now operating in Judea and Samaria.
***O, no, Canada . . .
It didn’t take long for the new government of Justin Trudeau to declare that Canada will have a new relationship with Israel–and not one like the special one that the Stephen Harper government had.
Speaking yesterday, the new Canadian Foreign Minister Stephane Dion dropped these bombshells:
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*“Israel understands that in order for Canada to be able to be beneficial for Canada, Canada must strengthen its ties with countries around Israel.”
*In strengthening these ties, Canada will now become “an honest broker” in the Middle East and will seek ties with “legitimate partners” in the region.
*One of these “legitimate partners” is Lebanon whose government has “meaningful, legitimate Hezbollah representation” within it.
*Canada is a friend of Israel, but Canada now wants to be an “ally of influence.”
In sum, to quote a line from an old John Wayne movie, “it ain’t like old times.”
TODAY’S BLOG:
Something has gone terribly wrong here in Israel.
We seem to have a “new” generation of political and military leaders who have forgotten the truisms of dealing with Arabs in general and Palestinians in particular.
“The only thing that the Arabs respect is power” and “If you turn a blind eye to Palestinian behavior, you will end up blind” and “If you offer a Palestinian your finger in peace, he will want to take your whole hand”–all of these were sayings that your humble servant encountered when he first arrived in Israel 32 years ago.
And they all were true.
Back on June 20th–four and a half months ago–your humble servant wrote these lines:
“Your humble servant has been somewhat obsessed in recent days writing about the dangerous “gestures” for peace that our idiotic Israeli government is making to the Palestinians in order to “improve their quality of life.”
On June 15, an israelstreet blog entitled “And you wonder why the situation is out of control in Judea and Samaria?” chronicled how the IDF punished soldiers for defending themselves in the Judea and Samaria war zone.
On June 16, israelstreet noted the absurd opening of roads and shops in Hebron, and wondered “Let’s see how long it takes for Jews to be attacked and murdered again in Hebron.”
On June 17, israelstreet noted in “More and More Gestures for Peace” how IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot was initiating a series of “Ramadan” steps which would make Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and all of Israel infinitely more dangerous.”
And so, it has come to pass.
Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and all of Israel are now all infinitely more dangerous.
The more we give them, the more they want to kill us. Is there any truer truism when dealing with the Palestinians?
Note: Today’s Blog also appears in today’s Times of Israel.
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.