Syrian Chemical Weapons, Egyptian Riots, Legal and Bureaucratic Machinations

NUMBER OF DAYS UNTIL THE ISRAELI ELECTION: 48

ISRAELSTREET ENDORSES NAFTALI BENNETT

NUMBER OF TERRORIST MISSILES AND MORTARS SHOT AT SOUTHERN ISRAEL SINCE THE CEASEFIRE AGREED TO BY BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ON NOVEMBER 21, 2012:

UPDATES 10 am Israel time Thursday:

Syrian soldiers stand beside a sarin-nerve gas loaded bomb.

**The situation in Syria has become critical as what the West has said it would not let happen has apparently happened–the Syrian Army has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin nerve gas into bombs. All the Syrian Army now awaits is the order to drop the bombs against the rebel forces besieging Assad’s forces throughout the country.

As was pointed out in this blog several days ago, some of the rebel forces’ main staging areas are the towns and cities along the Syrian-Israeli border.

It doesn’t take much imagination to see that a nerve gas strike on Syrian border towns will end up being a nerve gas strike on Israel border communities as well. Your humble servant wonders why in the world action is being delayed on taking out Assad’s chemical and biological stockpile–the largest chemical and biological stockpile of weapons in the world. Is someone waiting for a bomb to be dropped?

**The crisis in Egypt continues to spread with 5 protesters reported killed overnight and 120 wounded.

Egypt police tear gassing demonstrators against President Morsi.

Three of President Morsi’s closest advisors have resigned. The Muslim Brotherhood offices in Ismailia were set on fire. Again, the crisis has come because Morsi, the darling of the West, has assumed dictatorial powers and his fellow Islamists have produced a new Egyptian constitution based entirely on Sharia Law.

**By 10 pm tonight, all parties that plan to run candidates in the January 22 Israeli elections must submit their “list of candidates” to the Central Elections Commission. Tomorrow’s blog –unless events intervene–will be a review of who will be on the January 22nd ballot.

TODAY’S BLOG:

There were a number of disappointing legal and governmental twists and turns in Israel and the United States yesterday. Here are three examples:

1. The “Anti-Boycott Law” came up for review in the Israel Supreme Court yesterday. This Law, which passed the Knesset in July of last year, places sanctions on any person or organization that calls for an economic boycott of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria as well as in Israel itself. It is a Law in which Israel is trying to act in self-defense against those individuals and groups seeking to undermine and destroy this country.

The petitioners against the Law include some of the most egregiously anti-Israel NGOs including Gush Shalom, Adalah, and the so called “Association for Civil Rights in Israel”–all of whom claim that the Law is a violation of their “freedom of speech.”

Adalah members demonstrating against Israel in New York. Note their sign: this was a demonstration against the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra.

As your humble servant wrote in a blog last year (click here ) when the Law was debated: “Freedom of speech and expression is not absolute; those who by their words and actions seek to destroy Israel should not have an Israeli government subsidized platform to operate from.”

Amazingly yesterday, the Netanyahu government sent in the very Knesset legal advisor, Eyal Yinon, who had argued most vociferously against the Law in the Knesset last year to defend the Law before the Supreme Court justices. Even the Justices expressed shock that Yinon would be the one speaking in its defense.

But, even more amazingly, Yinon offered no defense of the Law whatsoever--merely saying that the Justices should defer a decision because it is premature to nullify a Law that has yet to be used.

The Justices proceeded to do just that, but the handwriting is on the wall. Three Justices from the Court are hearing the case–two of whom, Esther Hayut and Salim Joubran, are the most left-wing Justices in Israel. The Anti-Boycott Law will certainly, and unfortunately, be nullified–as your humble servant predicted last year.

2. The bureaucratic and legal process continued on the E1 project yesterday as the Higher Planning Council of Judea and Samaria approved the”submission’ of plans for 3500 new residential units. Does this mean the units will be built tomorrow?

Of course not.

Next comes a 60 day period during which anyone, including Palestinians and leftist Israeli NGOs can file objections. The government, in an absurd demonstration of how little it actually wants to build in E1, sent notice yesterday to the main lawyer who represents Palestinians in cases like this virtually encouraging him to file an objection.

When objections are filed as they certainly will be, the objections must then be answered by the municipality. If the opponents of the project disagree with the answers, they can then appeal to the Israel Supreme Court. Even if the Supreme Court rules in favor of the construction, then Israel’s Defense Minister and Prime Minister must sign off with their approval of the plans. Whereas the mayor of Maale Adumim said yesterday that he was hoping to begin construction in “1 or 2 years”, the likelihood is that any construction in E1 is, unfortunately, at least 5 years away.

3. In the United States, all three amendments (to a Defense Authorization Bill) seeking to penalize the Palestinians for their unilateral actions in the United Nations failed to pass the Senate on Monday night. One amendment sought to reduce American contributions to the U.N., another sought to close the PLO’s office in Washington, and the third sought to cut U.S. aid to the Palestinians.

And what was one of the main groups opposing these amendments? J Street–the group that laughably likes to call themselves “pro-Israel”. Dylan Williams, J Street’s “Director of Government Affairs”, proudly proclaimed that J Street had generated 15,000 emails and 1,000 phone calls opposing the amendments and went on to say: “We’re delighted that the Senate chose not to include the Amendments . . .[but] we have no doubt that this fight is not over. We will be fighting aggressively should it come up again.”

It’s like the old saying goes: “With friends like these who needs enemies?”

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A daily feature of this blog is the recognition of those of you who support Israel by donating to this website. Each month, your humble servant places each name on this wall of support into the Western Wall in Jerusalem. Today we are highlighting Margalit of Geneva, Switzerland; Benny O. of Acapulco, Mexico; and Koila T. of Fiji:

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