17 Shevat 5778
2 February 2018
The News on the Israel Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
The missile fire which has hit southern Israel in the last few hours and yesterday is the subject of Today’s Blog below.
What do these locations have in common:
Yitzhar, Zubaidat, Hizma, Qalqilya, the Dor Alon gas station on Road 443, A-Ram, Asira al Qibliya, Nabi Saleh, Pisgat, Tira, Al Muayyir, Bidu, Givat Komi, Turmusiya, Talmon, Binyamin, Beit El, Urif, the old Ma’ale Adumim Road, Hevron, Kiryat Arba, Bil’in, Hawara, Tekoa, and Kedumim.
Each one of these locations had one or more terrorist attacks yesterday. Many other attacks which took place at different locations are not on the list.
All reports of the terrorism above are taken from citizens’ reports to rotter, hakolhayehudi, and Rescue Judea and Samaria.
A new wind blows in Jerusalem . . .
For the first time ever, the municipality of Jerusalem is going to collect taxes on assets owned by international churches in the city–not on the churches themselves, but on the many commercial buildings that operate on property owned by churches.
Astonishingly, there are 887 such properties in the capital. Some of the primary owners are the Anglican Church, Armenian Church, and the Greek Orthodox Church. According to the Municipality:
“The financial damage caused to Jerusalem over the years by the nonpayment of taxes position is close to one billion shekels, and it is impossible for Jerusalem residents to finance municipal services for garbage collection, lighting, gardening and road construction. The sums can significantly help the development of the city and the improvement of services to the residents.”
Trump lays down the law . . .
In the form of Trump negotiator Jason Greenblatt who is quoted as answering a question from European consuls in Jerusalem a few days ago about what would happen if the Palestinians refused to participate in the Trump Peace Plan:
“The Palestinians are not the deciding party; the current plan is a regional program in which the Palestinians are only one party, and there are other sides. The Palestinians will have to accept what we give to them.”
Greenblatt went on to say that the Trump Peace Plan is finished and will be published soon.
Naftali Bennett lays down the law to Lebanon . . .
The last few months have seen increasing worries about the huge missile build-up by Hezbollah in Lebanon. The specific worry is that Hezbollah will be able to use its tens of thousands (perhaps hundreds of thousands) of missiles to hit strategic sites throughout Israel.
In response to this threat, Bennett said this today: “The effect of a massive missile strike of tens of thousands of precision missiles from Lebanon to Israel is not significantly different than the potential damage of one atom bomb.”
Fired in the other direction.
There is a growing realization in Israel that when the next war with Hezbollah comes–a war in which Hezbollah will undoubtedly be supported by Iran, Syria, and others–the sheer quantity of incoming missiles will leave Israel with only one choice.
TODAY’S BLOG:
How Is It Possible?
As you note from the breaking news ticker above, Israelis living along the Gaza border were sent running to their bomb shelters twice in recent hours. One attack was around 9:30 pm; the other was after midnight.
Can you imagine the emotional toll on children and adults of being blasted from their beds by a screaming siren warning them that they had about 5 seconds to get to a shelter to avoid possibly being killed?
Unless you have lived or live in such a situation, your humble servant doubts that you can.
But on to the subject of today’s blog.
The two attacks today came after another missile attack on Thursday night at 11:30 pm.
As your humble servant has written ad nauseum, the one thing that we in southern Israel can depend on after every attack is the complete disingenuousness of the IDF spokesman.
Regarding the Thursday night attack, the IDF spokesman would have us believe that the IDF doesn’t know if the missile landed in Gaza or in Israel. The IDF knows that the missile was launched, that it was launched toward Israel, but it can’t figure out where it exploded.
Let’s put this in context: the IDF constantly is flying drones over the Gaza border; the IDF has permanent stationary high altitude balloons monitoring what is taking place on the Gaza border; the IDF has the Iron Dome interceptor which is constantly monitoring the area for launches from Gaza; the IDF has has troops stationed all along the border; and there are tens of thousands of Israeli citizens living all along the border.
And the IDF can’t figure out where the missile exploded?
How is it possible? How is it possible that the IDF takes us all for fools? How is it possible that the IDF doesn’t know that every time it declares a false alarm, a false explosion, a fall in Gaza, or the unknown location of a missile fall, that we all know that a missile fell somewhere in southern Israel?
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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.