UPDATES 6 pm Israel time Monday:
*Senior Fatah and PLO (aka Palestinian Authority) member Jibril Rajoub did not mince words in an interview that he gave yesterday. Rajoub, the same terrorist who is now chairman of the Palestinian Football Association and Palestinian Olympic Committee, condemned FC Barcelona for coming to “Palestine” to play soccer.
You might be asking yourself why Rajoub would condemn FC Barcelona for coming to “Palestine.” The answer is simple. As Rajoub explained in the interview, “Palestine is the land from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea”. And Rajoub was quick to point out that all of the land “is occupied.” If Barcelona plays in Tel Aviv, Rajoub would have us believe it is playing in “Palestine”.
By the way, this is the same Rajoub who successfully lobbied against the London Olympic Organizers from having a moment of silence for the murdered Israeli Olympic athletes at Munich by declaring that such a memorial moment would be “racist.” And it is the same Rajoub who was denied entry into Israel this week by Israel Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon.
*John Kerry has postponed his trip to Israel at least temporarily. The reason given this morning was that he needed to be in Washington for an Obama Administration discussion about the possible arming of “moderate” Syrian rebels with American weapons. However, there may be more to it than that. There has been reportage in the last 24 hours that Abbas’ steadfast refusal to return to the “negotiating” table is wearing thin for Kerry and for Netanyahu. Just this morning, Abbas turned down yet another offer from Netanyahu to release 50 Palestinian terrorists from Israeli prisons.
Netanyahu was at some lengths last night at a Likud Party meeting to say that he had not been asked by the U.S. administration to freeze construction in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria. If you believe that, I’ll sell you a coffee plantation in Antarctica.
But perhaps reflecting his increasing impatience with Abbas, Netanyahu has very belatedly given the green light to the construction of 1100 new units in the Jerusalem neighborhoods of Ramot and Gilo (units that were approved long before John Kerry started his current diplomatic push).
TODAY’S BLOG:
The main news story in Israel today is so unbelievable that even your humble servant is flabbergasted. But perhaps he shouldn’t be dumbfounded because it apparently involves, yet again, the COGAT unit of the IDF.
Here are the facts:
1. In 2005, Hamas fired Qassam rockets at the southern Gaza Jewish community of Ganei Tal (this was before Israel withdrew from every millimeter of Gaza).
2. One of the Qassams hit a greenhouse in the community.
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3. That Hamas Qassam rocket killed one Thai worker and two Palestinian workers. Five more Palestinians were moderately wounded.
4. An IDF helicopter was dispatched to the scene and evacuated two of the wounded Palestinians to the Soroka University Medical Center in Beersheba, with the rest being taken via ambulance.
6. Yesterday, it was announced that an IDF committee (undoubtedly affiliated with COGAT) which oversees “the compensation of victims who fail to meet the standard criteria for government compensation” has decided it will pay the two Palestinian families in Gaza whose relatives were killed by Hamas in the greenhouse one million shekels each ($280,000).
This is impossible to comprehend.
Israeli taxpayers are going to pay Gazan families 1,000,000 shekels each for family members who were killed by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Can you believe this?
Absolutely, positively bizarre. And sickening.
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.