7 Kislev 5778
25 November 2017
Quote of the Day:
“I have no qualms about playing the Israeli National Team, but only as long as it’s under the Palestinian anthem and flag. We have no intention of following your judokas’ example, who forsook their flag in Abu Dhabi. We’d never compete without our flag and anthem. [Israel] may be willing to abandon their symbols, but I won’t abandon mine.”
Jibril Rajoub, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Federation, when asked by an Israeli journalist if his national team would be willing to meet Israel’s squad on the soccer field.
Rajoub was referring to the disgraceful episode (which is one of many in recent years) in which Israeli athletes agreed to compete without any identification of being Israeli. Long time readers of israelstreet may recall that Rajoub is nothing more than a garden variety terrorist who in his current position has argued against an Olympic moment of silence for the Israeli athletes killed in Munich, but at least he is a garden variety terrorist with nationalistic pride.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror funding . . .
You may remember, dear reader, that back on July 20 we blogged about how the PLO budget for 2017 allots $349 million dollars to Palestinian terrorists in prison ($154 million) and the families of dead terrorists ($195 million). We noted that this is a 13% increase in payments to terrorists over that paid in 2016.
We also noted that in the context of the Taylor Force Law proposed in the U.S. Congress that would cut off funds to the PLO if they continue to make such payments, that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has declared repeatedly that such payments will not stop, yet he was looking for a way around the Taylor Force provisions.
He has apparently found it.
A Saudi newspaper reported yesterday that Qatar is now funneling millions of dollars to Ramallah for the express purpose of paying the terrorists and their families.
Who else is Qatar funding? . . .
A better question might be who is Qatar not funding. Just yesterday The New York Times reported that Qatar funded the Brookings Institute to the tune of almost $15 million dollars last year.
And, according to the magazine Tablet, how did Brookings receive the money?
Through Martin Indyk, personally.
A major problem in the Netanyahu Coalition? . . .
Yaakov Litzman. Is the fate of the government in his hands?
For some weeks now, Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of the United Torah Judaism (Askenazi ultra-orthodox) has been threatening to resign if work on the Israeli railroad continues to take place on Shabbat.
Netanyahu has done everything under the sun to accommodate Litzman and the situation seemed to be remedied as of last week. However, Litzman who is under orders from those higher up in the UTJ Party, announced yesterday that his resignation will be submitted tomorrow.
Does this mean that UTJ is out of the coalition?
Apparently Litzman, who loves his job as Health Minister, is fighting his higher-ups to keep UTJ in–but whether he will be successful is anyone’s guess.
And if UTJ leaves, will Shas (the Sephardic ultra-orthodox) also be forced to leave by its ruling council?
If UTJ and Shas exit the Coalition, a new election would have to be called unless Netanyahu were able to persuade another party to join–which is extremely unlikely.
Many questions and no answers; it will be interesting tomorrow to see if Netanyahu can once again dissuade Litzman from resigning.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Trump Administration In Disarray:
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Pathetic. Pathetic. And Even More Pathetic.
Let’s review the most recent sequence of events.
September 20:
PLO Chairman and unelected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the International Criminal Court to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes. Specifically, the Palestinians submitted a brief to the ICC demanding it “open an investigation and to prosecute Israeli officials for their involvement in settlement activities and aggressions against our people.”
November 17:
The U.S. State Department issued a statement that the Palestinian Mission in Washington would be closed because U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had determined that the Palestinians had violated a provision of U.S. law that calls for the the closure of the Mission if the Palestinians act against Israel in the International Criminal Court. The statement alluded to the fact that the closure could be waived in 90 days if the U.S. government determines that the Palestinians are engaged in serious peace negotiations.
November 18:
PM Netanyahu issued this statement: “We respect the decision and look forward to continuing to work with the US to advance peace and security in the region.”
November 18:
On the same day, the Palestinians via their chief negotiator and new lung transplant recipient Saeb Erekat, responded by telling the Trump Administration to go to hell, and that it would end all contact with the Administration if the mission is closed.
November 20:
It was reported that Jared Kushner–supposedly the man in charge of Middle East peace–called Abbas on the phone to discuss the matter. Abbas refused to take the call and had an underling tell Kushner to call the Palestinian mission instead.
November 24, yesterday:
The State Department retracted its closure declaration, and said that it would impose some undefined “limitations” on the mission which it went on to blather would be lifted in 90 days.
Pathetic. Pathetic. And even more pathetic.
The Palestinian brief before the ICC remains. The Palestinians remain in total violation of U.S. law. The Palestinians have demonstrated that they have the Trump Administration wrapped around their little finger. And the Trump Administration shows yet again that it doesn’t have the slightest idea of what it is doing.
Pathetic. Pathetic. And even more pathetic.
And this comes during a week in which it was revealed that President Trump had unbelievably turned over secret Israeli information to the Russians about Mossad and Sayeret Matkal operations deep inside Syria.
And on a day yesterday when President Trump had a telephone call with egregiously anti-Semitic Turkish PM Erdogan about bringing peace to the Middle East–and in the same conversation further betrayed the Kurds by promising Erdogan that the U.S. would no longer provide material support to the Kurdish YPG (Peoples’ Defense Army). This move of course follows the Trump decision to pull all support for the Syrian rebels last month.
Pathetic. Pathetic. And even more pathetic.
What we see before us is a Trump Administration in complete disarray. With nobody caring anything about what it says except our own PM Netanyahu.
Pathetic. Pathetic. And even more pathetic.
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.