Much Ado About Mitzpe Kramim

Tweet

18 Elul 5778

29 August 2018

The News on the Israeli Street

Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .

It has been a typical day of Palestinian terror.

*There were 5 more fires in Israeli communities along the Gaza border started by incendiary balloons launched from Gaza. The worst of the fires were at Nahal Gerer, Be’eri, and the Shokda Forest.

*The IDF intercepted another group of terrorists headed toward Israel in the Deir al-Balah area of central Gaza.

The Minister of Defense and IDF COGAT Unit responded to all of these attacks by further opening the Kerem Shalom Crossing so that 2 million liters of fuel and 300 tons of gas could be sent to Hamas terrorists. The IDF spokesman said that the shipments were necessary in order “to stabilize Gaza and calm Hamas.”

Yes, you read that pathetic statement correctly.

*Meanwhile out in the wild west of Judea and Samaria, Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis with “rocks” and Molotovs at Hizma, throughout Gush Etzion, in Shechem, Luban a-Sharqiya, Karmei Tzur, El Aruv, on Road 443, Beit Ummar, near Kiryat Arba, Beit El, Deir Abu Mash’al, Ofra, Beit Haggai, al-Bireh, and Pisgat among other places.

Reports of these attacks were made to hakolhayehudi, rotter, Rescue Judea and Samaria, and Rescue 443.

Interesting financial statistics  . . .

*According to UNESCO, Israel now ranks second in the world in Research and Development Spending as a percentage of  Gross Domestic Product.  And you wonder how so much innovation pours out of Israel?

*Israel’s defense spending increased by over two billion dollars in 2017 reaching a total of $19.6 billion dollars. How significant is this? On the one hand, it is a drop in the bucket compared to the two countries which spend the most: the U.S. ($606 billion) and China ($226 billion). But when you stop and think about country number 3, Russia, Israel’s expenditure does not seem so small after all.

Russia’s defense spending in 2017 was $70 billion dollars. To put it a different way, we are spending about 29% of what Russia does even though we are minute compared to Russia’s population and territory. 

By the way, the fourth country on the list is Saudi Arabia which spent $62 billion last year.

TODAY’S BLOG:

Much Ado About Mitzpe Kramim

The tiny Jewish community at the center of so much controversy today: Mitzpe Kramim near Kochav Hashahar and Ramallah.

In what is being labeled as “historic” and “precedent shattering”, a judge in the Jerusalem District Court stopped the Civil Administration and IDF from forcibly evacuating the fledgling Jewish community of Mitzpe Kramim near Ramallah.

The judge’s ruling was based on the Settlement Regulation Law that was passed by the Knesset earlier this year.  That law permits the retroactive legalization of Jewish community homes that were built on “private” Palestinian property if the residences were built without knowledge of the land ownership. In such cases, the law calls for the legal landowners to be financially compensated for the land.

In reaction to the judge’s decision, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said:  “The District Court today clearly stated that whoever settled with the state’s approval and in good faith, would not be evacuated. The injustice done in the evacuations of the Amona and Netiv Ha’avot should not be repeated.”

Peace Now predictably blasted the decision: “Granting of land rights to criminals who settled in an illegal outpost, on the grounds that they did so in ‘good faith’ is outrageous.”

Criminals? Settled? Illegal outpost? This is the view that the left has of each of the some 900,000 Jews living in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem: they are all criminals.

But let’s go back for a moment and examine what happened at Mitzpe Kramim.

The original residences (trailers) at Mitzpe Kramim were put into place in 1999 after the owners had bought the land from the Settlement Division of the World Zionist Organization (WZO). The owners of the trailers were told by the WZO and government’s Civil Administration that the land on which the trailers were placed belonged to the Jewish community of Kochav Hashahar located nearby.

Fourteen years later in 2013, after pouring through the old Ottoman Land Registry, Peace Now discovered that the land had been titled to the Palestinian settlement of Deir Jarir. Regular readers of this blog know that the Ottomans went through what was then “Palestine” and divvied up every parcel of land to Palestinian settlements, villages, and towns within proximity.

Once the Palestinians in Deir Jarir discovered that they supposedly had title to the land, they–with the help of Peace Now–petitioned the High Court of Justice to raze the Jewish community. 

That case has yet to be decided.

However, the Settlement Regulation Law is scheduled for review and decision in the coming months.

Given the High Court’s bias in favor of the Palestinians, the law will almost certainly be rendered invalid as will the District Court’s decision yesterday.

After all, it is the High Court of Injustice.

*Israelstreet thanks the Jerusalem Post for elements of today’s blog.

This cialis canada generico offers significance to feeble men for making his testosterone. Now, it is also very important that how to rectify the problems if you are not able to do anything about it this particular medicine is amazing and though not as organ specific as buy cheap levitra browse around address “it’s a great way to relax blood vessels by blocking angiotensin II production. What the commercial visually valsonindia.com ordering levitra shows is romance, and advertising firms have male behavior down to a science. Please note that this story is even before the http://valsonindia.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/Quarterly-Financial-Results-June-2017.pdf pfizer online viagra.