8 Av 5778
20 July 2018
The Quote of the Day
“Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the state of Palestine . . .”
Mahmoud Abbas (aka Abu Mazen), Chairman of the PLO, speaking in Arabic last night.
Notice how the pretense of claiming that “all” the Palestinians want is “eastern Jerusalem” has been dropped–as it always is when Abbas speaks in Arabic.
And take note of the fact that as of this hour, there has not been one single condemnation of Abbas’ comment from anyone anywhere; instead there is just an international plea that Abbas lead the PLO to reconcile with Hamas so there can be a “peace process” with Israel.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
—Remember how PM Netanyahu claimed at Sunday’s security cabinet meeting that Israel had demanded that incendiary kites and balloons must stop being launched into Israel?
There have been 22 more fires in the communities bordering Gaza. The worst have been centered in the Be’eri area and near Karmiya.
Today, we are on the alert for incendiary devices over our home here in Ashdod. The head of the “balloon unit’ in Gaza has promised that there will be dozens of short and long range kites and balloons launched in the coming hours.
—Remember how PM Netanyahu claimed on Sunday that Hamas had not been hit so hard since 2014 and how we would now have “quiet” again in the south?
There were two mortar attacks yesterday and one missile attack. The latter attack occurred at 4:22 pm and targeted Zones 236 and 238 which include the communities of Avshalom, Bnei Netzarim, Dekel, Yavul, Yated, Perry Gan, Shaddai Avraham, Shlomit, Talmei Yosef, Dune, Nir Yitzhak, and Sufa.
In response to the mortar and missile attacks, the IDF fired one tank shell at a “Hamas observation post”. If you remember our vocabulary primer from yesterday’s blog, this means that one tank shell was fired at a sand dune.
One tank shell at an empty sand dune.
Can you understand why southern Israelis feel like they have no protection from the IDF?
Speaking of the IDF again . . .
IDF Chief of Staff Eizenkot let it be known yesterday that he does not appreciate the IDF being called “hesitant” and “cowardly” in relation to its non-action in Gaza.
Yet in the same breath Eizenkot said that he now wants “a month or two” to solve the problem of the missiles, mortars, kites, and balloons being launched out of Gaza.
Never mind that the missiles and mortars have been launched out of Gaza for years (note the mortar and missile count in the right hand column of this page), and the kites and balloons have been burning destroying forests, nature preserves, and agricultural fields for almost 4 months.
Now Eizenkot wants another month or two to solve the problem.
Incredible.
Apparently, one way Eizenkot and the IDF General Command want to solve the problem is through outright deception.
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As we noted yesterday, fires are no longer supposed to be called “fires”; they are now to be termed “flares.” Also the number of dunams destroyed is to be grossly understated–yesterday the IDF reported that only about “4100” dunams of agricultural land have been burned.
But we all know by now, that while it may be true that 4100 dunams of agricultural land have been torched, the actual amount of land torched is now approaching is 40,000 dunams. You won’t hear the IDF using this latter number.
As for missiles and mortars, yesterday tells the tale. There were no alarms whatsoever for the mortar attacks nor was there any IDF spokesman’s account of the missile attack. The IDF has simply gone into “quiet mode” to disguise what is really happening.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Mordechai Kedar:
“The IDF Has Lost Its Will”
Dr. Mordechai Kedar.
Your humble servant has always admired Mordehai Kedar. In case you are unfamiliar with him, here are a few biographical paragraphs from Wikipedia:
“Dr. Mordechai Kedar is an Israeli scholar of Arabic culture, and a lecturer at Bar Ilan University. He is fluent in Hebrew, Arabic, and English.
Kedar is a religious Zionist, and an academic expert on the Israeli Arab population. He served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence, where he specialized in Islamic groups, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic press and mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena.”
If you would like to know more about Dr. Kedar, here is a link to his website.
Yesterday, Kedar wrote a lengthy piece describing what he laments on this eve of Tisha B’Av. Your humble servant will not quote it in its entirety here, but would like to include three “items” Dr. Kedar regrets which are connected to the IDF (emphasis mine) [interpolations mine]:
—
On the influence of the Israel Supreme Court/High Court of Justice:
“I regret the insularity of the elected representatives of the Knesset, who have allowed an elitist group sitting in the legal ivory tower [read the Israel Supreme Court/High Court of Justice] to take control of the state, to annul Knesset laws as it wishes, and to direct government polity according to the new winds blowing in foreign corridors. This group determines the borders of the state, the conduct of the army, the moral standards of the Jewish people, what is proper and what is not worthy . . .“
On the impact of the New Israel Fund:
“I am deeply concerned by the takeover by a large group of organizations and individuals who are working with the funding and inspiration of the New Israel Fund for the legal, administrative and public systems of the State of Israel. This dangerous fund was founded in California and has been active in Israel for nearly forty years in order to make the State of Israel something that will appeal to everyone who is far from Judaism. The graduates of the courses, training courses and training of the foundation are integrated into the breadth and breadth of the public service of the state, and cannot be fired. Their most damaging effect is in the legal advice of government ministries, particularly the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense and the IDF.”
On the impact of the New Israel Fund on the IDF:
As a result of the fund’s activities and its satellites in the country’s education, law, academia, media and art systems, the IDF has lost its will to defeat the enemies of the state. . . The fire that has been burning in every area of the Gaza Strip for four months is the most prominent example of the legal impotence that has overtaken the IDF, its commander [Gadi Eizenkot] and the minister responsible for them [Avigdor Lieberman].
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The above three issues are ones that your humble servant has written about endlessly. I am happy to see such a commentator as Mordechai Kedar in full agreement–though like him, I only hope that we can bring about change.
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.