UPDATES 2 pm Israel time, Thursday, July 25 2013:
On Sunday, the referendum bill being sought by Naftali Bennett will be brought to the Knesset for a preliminary vote–followed by a first reading of the bill in the Knesset on Wednesday. PM Netanyahu has indicated that he will support the bill which will tighten up the existing Referendum Law by making it a Basic Law.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Very often your humble servant doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Life here in Israel is sometimes simply preposterous.
Permit me a few examples from the last 24 hours:
*Two sets of sirens for incoming rockets from Gaza sounded in the Chof Ashkelon region south of the city of Ashkelon a little more than 4 hours ago. An hour and a half later, the IDF spokesman, as usual, claimed they were “false alarms.” In another few hours or perhaps tomorrow, the missile impact points will be found.
How long will it be until the missile strikes from this morning are found? (picture source: flickr)
The absurdity of this entire process of Palestinians firing rockets into southern Israel and then the IDF quickly claiming that it never happened–only to have to retract the statement shortly thereafter when the missile craters are found–-is simply preposterous.
*Equally preposterous is the fact that the Palestinian terrorist prisoners who are to be released in phases so that “peace talks” can begin next week in Washington, D.C. are now setting conditions on how they will be released. They say that they will agree to be released if and only if those who have been incarcerated the longest are released first.
The absurdity of terrorist murderers who should rot in prison for the rest of their lives now placing a new condition on the Israeli government for their release–is simply preposterous.
*No more preposterous than the new demands coming out of Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident. You will remember, dear readers, how President Obama placed the phone call to Turkish PM Erdogan on the tarmac of Ben Gurion airport prior to his departure back to the U.S. on March 22 of this year–and how Benjamin Netanyahu pusillanimously apologized for Israeli soldiers legally stopping the IHH boat and defending themselves from IHH terrorists on board–IHH terrorists recruited by Erdogan himself.
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IHH Turkish terrorist beating an IDF soldier witha metal pipe on board the Mavi Marmara (photo: IDF spokesman’s office).
Now comes the demand that Israel has not apologized enough. It seems that the money Israel has offered to compensate the families of the terrorists who were killed is acceptable, but Turkey is now demanding an even greater apology and the lifting of the Gaza blockade before it will accept the money. This entire process of rewarding terrorists is simply preposterous.
*We could go on and on today.
What about the comments of the recently retired head of the U.S. military’s central command (CENTCOM) and commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, General James Matthis, proclaiming that Israel is bordering on “apartheid” and that the U.S. support of Israel is detrimental: “I paid a military security price every day as a commander of CENTCOM because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel.”
What about the ruling by the U.S. Federal Appeals Court yesterday that President Obama, and President Obama alone, has the right to determine if Jerusalem is in Israel or not?
I rest my case. The last 24 hours have been simply preposterous.
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.