12 Nissan 5780
6 April 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
As of this hour (10 pm Israel time) there are 8904 confirmed cases of Corona in Israel. 109 people are critically ill and on respirators. 57 Israelis have died.
*This evening, Netanyahu announced that Israel will be on lockdown from 4 pm Tuesday until 7 am Friday. No citizen will be allowed to leave his or her house for the Passover seder on Wednesday evening.
*After a week in which we have seen the ultra-orthodox dragged through the mud concerning non-adherence to Corona social distancing restrictions, the city of Tel Aviv showed its support tonight for the ultra-orthodox by putting these messages on the side of city hall:
What you are looking at is a red heart on the left, and the words “Bnei Brak” on the right; in other words “We love Bnei Brak.”
*Avigan (favipiravir), a drug widely used successfully in Japan to fight the virus, has just been made available to Israelis after being flown in from Tokyo. Israel is one of the first countries in the world to receive the drug.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Another day, another attempted murder in Judea and Samaria–this time on Road 446. The driver of this car somehow managed to drive herself and her children to safety after her windshield was shattered by a “rock”. The IDF was unable to capture any suspects.
The fight from the “Right” continues . . .
Just when it seemed that an agreement was in hand a few hours ago between Netanyahu and Gantz, Likud backtracked on the subject of choosing judges. Ayelet Shaked announced this afternoon that her Yamina party would not go along with a Netanyahu coalition if Netanyahu turns all power for choosing judges over to a committee led by Benny Gantz.
In economic news . . .
In an attempt to buttress a faltering economy, the Bank of Israel lowered its interest rate to o.1% today.
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The exchange rate continues to fluctuate fairly widely; today the rate is $1 = 3.58 shekels. The rate has varied between 3.84 and 3.54 in recent weeks.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Can Netanyahu Be Trusted?
“I pledge to you that I will not transfer the government to Gantz before applying sovereignty. I pledge, trust me. There will be no transfer of government to Kahol Lavan before there is annexation. It will not happen immediately, but in about five months.”
So spoke PM Netanyahu last Wednesday in a telephone conference call which was released today with leaders of Judea and Samaria and evangelical leaders from the United States.
The question is whether Netanyahu can be trusted or not?
If the past is any indication, the answer is a resounding “no.”
As we have noted many times over the years, Netanyahu’s way of dealing with the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria is crystal clear. Whether we are talking about pre-election campaigning or post-terrorist attack, Netanyahu loves to promise that he will build up Jewish communities or create new ones.
He then proceeds to start the planning process for such actions only to freeze them shortly thereafter. The end result is that virtually no construction in Judea and Samaria has been approved by the Netanyahu government over the past decade.
It doesn’t stop there.
How many times have we heard Netanyahu promise that he would raze illegal Palestinian settlements only to never do so? We have only to look at Khan Al Ahmar in the E1 section near Ma’ale Adumim and Susiya near Hevron to see how every promise that Netanyahu has ever made to get rid of these communities has been broken.
However, hope springs eternal in your humble servant because this time the situation may be different.
Not because Netanyahu would ever (heaven forbid!) want to change the status quo, but because he has effectively boxed himself into a corner with President Trump. By obtaining Trump’s declaration that the Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria are not illegal, and by then starting a mapping process of those communities, Netanyahu is on the hotspot as far as establishing Israeli sovereignty over those communities is concerned.
Put a different way, Netanyahu may not be willing to saw off the limb onto which Trump has climbed for Israel.
The ever-changing word today is that part of the proposed agreement with Gantz for an emergency government is that Gantz will not have veto over establishing sovereignty. However, Netanyahu has apparently pledged to Gantz not to move forward until after the Corona situation has passed. Hence the five month time frame discussed in the phone call.
One final note: five months from now is mid-September–about 45 days before the American presidential election. We all know that if Trump were to lose in November, American agreement on sovereignty would never take place.
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.