29 Shevat 5776
Monday, February 8 2016
UPDATES 7:00 pm Israel time
–>Palestinian terror today.
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*Today has been no different than any other day in Israel. There have been numerous Palestinian terror attacks. Here is a small snippet–just those attacks or thwarted attacks that occurred during a 45 minute window this afternoon, from 4:00 to 4:45 pm:
4:00 pm: Palestinian terrorists throwing “rocks” badly damaged a bus near Kfar Etzion.
4:o3 pm: An 11 Jewish boy was stabbed in the back in Ramle, and is in “moderate” condition. The terrorist initially escaped–but was captured an hour and a half later.
4:15 pm: Palestinian terrorists threw Molotovs at the security fence around Kiryat Arba setting it on fire. Two hours earlier, terrorists brazenly attempted to infiltrate Kiryat Arba by climbing over a ladder they placed on the fence.
4:21 pm: Palestinians assaulted the Jerusalem Light Rail with “rocks” at the Shuafat station. Passengers were traumatized; thousands of shekels of damage was done to the train.
4:33 pm: A Palestinian stabbing attack was thwarted at the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem when a 42-year-old female terrorist armed with a large knife was spotted and captured.
4:43 pm: A suspicious object was reported at the entrance to Sha’are Zedek in Jerusalem. Traffic was stopped in both directions.
*Another day, another tunnel collapse, another Hamas terrorist dead.
For the 4th time in the last two weeks, a Hamas tunnel has collapsed killing at least one terrorist inside. This time, the tunnel was on the Gaza-Egypt border near Rafah.
It is believed that some of the tunnels are collapsing because of recent heavy rains.
–>The amazing turn of the Israeli center-left and left toward the right.
Well, maybe not so “amazing.”
As the Israel populace continues its drift further “right”, politicians have been scrambling to get on board.
As we have noted in recent israelstreet blogs, Isaac Herzog of the ill-fated Herzog/Livni party (aka the Zionist Camp), has been spending his time in recent weeks sounding as if he were a member of the Likud party.
This morning, we have Yair Lapid, head of the center-left “We Have a Future” party, declaring that if he were Prime Minister, he would order accelerated construction in all of the Jewish community-blocs in Area C of Judea and Samaria. In his exact words, Lapid said that he would order “building like crazy” in these areas.
Your humble servant has to happily shake his head in surprise. Accelerated construction is precisely what many of us have been advocating for a long time.
By the way, there may be one more reason that people like Herzog, Lapid, and Lieberman are suddenly “waking up.” All of the predictions about a rapid demise of the Netanyahu coalition are proving false. The current government may be around for a long time, and all of these career politicians would hate to spend the next 3 years on the outside looking in.
–>Good economic news.
Standard and Poor’s, the world’s leading credit rating company, has issued its newest rating for Israel–and it remains unchanged at A+.
In making the evaluation, S & P’s issued this statement: “The stable outlook reflects our expectation that the government will maintain stable public finances and that the impact of security risks on the Israeli economy will be contained over the next two years.”
TODAY’S BLOG:
There was more good economic news today, from a governmental standpoint.
Due to vastly increased tax revenues in January, Israel unexpectedly finds itself with a 3.9 billion shekel budget surplus.
What are the specific causes of this surplus?
*a 133% increase in taxes paid on new vehicles
*a 36% increase in taxes paid on cigarettes
*a 30% increase in taxes paid on property purchases
*a 7% increase in VAT taxes
Is it a wonderful fact that cars are so expensive? Or that more people are smoking cigarettes? Or that apartment and housing prices continue to go through the roof?
Of course not.
But when you compare January’s actual governmental income compared to the predicted income, the result is almost shocking. As you may not know, the projected budget deficit for 2016 was 35 billion shekels. The best-case scenario prediction for a surplus in the coming year was 1.9%.
And can you imagine what the surplus might be if Israel could finally get its largest offshore natural gas fields into production?
It is no surprise that PM Netanyahu’s representatives are at the Israel Supreme Court today arguing their case that the recently created deal to get those fields into operation be allowed to go forward.
If the deal does go forward, it is projected that revenue from Israel’s huge Leviathan field will begin pouring into Israel’s coffers in 2019.
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.