Sunday
7 Cheshvan
25 October 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona (Covid-19) update . . .
There are 309,413 confirmed cases—an increase of 573
291,206 of these confirmed cases have recovered—an increase of 1,076
548 are in critical condition—a decrease of 25
220 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a decrease of 7
2,372 have died–an increase of 43
There are now 18,207 active Corona cases in Israel.
So much for the daily dead number stabilizing at between 10 and 20 as reported yesterday; as you can see, we are back up in the 40s today. Once again, as the numbers of those who are critically ill or on ventilators decrease, the number of people who have died increases.
The next Arab country to normalize? . . .
As long as President Trump remains president, there seems to be an ever-increasing number of Muslim countries ready to normalize relations with Israel.
It would appear that the next country following the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan will be Oman–a country that PM Netanyahu has visited.
Your humble servant wonders what will happen if Trump loses the election against Biden and the U.S. rushes to embrace Iran again?
TODAY’S BLOG
The Case of “Poor” Palestinian Maher al-Akhras
A bio taken from the Islamic Jihad website.
In case you have missed him, the latest cause celebre in the Palestinian circles is Maher al-Akhras.
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Akhras, as we will call him, has now been on a hunger strike for more than 80 days dating back to his arrest and placement in administrative detention back on July 28. Of course, if he really had eaten and drunk nothing in that time, he would be dead, but he is still alive and has been taken care of in Kaplan Hospital in Rehovot since September 6.
Taken care of at Israeli taxpayer expense.
Yesterday, we had the laughingly titled “UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories”, Michael Link, calling on Israel to release the “starving” prisoner and stop using administrative detentions, which Link said are against international law.
To hear other international self-proclaimed “human rights” advocates tell the tale, the poor Akhras has led an exemplary life deserving of nothing but praise and sympathy in the bucolic Palestinian village of Silat al-Dahr and has worked hard to provide for his six children and his wife Taghreed (who joined his hunger strike two weeks ago).
These same “human rights” activists have been publishing endless articles describing the charges against Akhras as fraudulent–that in fact he has nothing whatsoever to do with terrorism and specifically nothing to do with Islamic Jihad.
Allow your humble servant to set the record straight.
In the first place, certain Palestinian family clans in Judea and Samaria are well-known for their terrorism, and Akhras belongs to a family with a long history of terror.
Perhaps his most well known relative was Ayat al-Akhras. During the second intifada on March 29, 2002, the “glorious” teenaged Akhras (variously described as being 16 or 18-years of age), blew herself up at the entrance to the Kiryat HaYovel supermarket in Jerusalem.
In doing so, she murdered security guard Haim Smadar who had stopped her at the entrance and 17-year-old Rachel Levy who happened to be at the entrance when Akras detonated her explosive belt.
In the second place, Maher al-Akhras is a terrorist operative for Islamic Jihad–a fact that you can see for yourself in the Islamic Jihad website bio above. He has been arrested, convicted, and served time for his terror activities on numerous occasions. He has spent more than 5 years in Israeli prisons for terrorist crimes.
He is so intimately associated with Islamic Jihad that the terror group has been threatening daily to launch missiles into Israel should Akhras die.
Despite all of his terrorism, Israel has been extraordinarily lenient in dealing with Akhras. Not only was he transferred from the prison hospital to Kaplan when his health deteriorated, but also the Israeli military has told him that he will be released on November 26–on condition that he stop his strike.
Interestingly, repeated petitions to Israel’s ultra-left wing Supreme Court by Akhras’ lawyer to have him released have been rejected.
In doing so, the Court has continuously declared that the detention order against Akhras is “justified.”
So there you have it. Another faux Palestinian hero who deserves to rot in Israeli prison or “hunger strike” himself to death in an Israeli hospital.
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.