9 Kislev 5779
17 November 2018
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
On the Gaza border:
Our IDF General Command and security forces predicted that yesterday would be quiet on the border because Hamas would stop its attacks on the fence.
As usual, how wrong they were.
Hamas ordered its legions to the border fence again and more than 10,000 of its foot-soldiers arrived and immediately began burning tires to mask their attacks on our soldiers with grenades, Molotovs, and IEDs.
Four terrorists were killed as they attempted to infiltrate Israel and another 37 were wounded.
Interestingly, Hamas ordered its own Health Ministry not to report any casualties for fear of Qatar pulling the plug on its $15 million dollar weekly blackmail payment facilitated by Israel.
In addition, incendiary balloons continued to be launched into Israel’s Eshkol region. Police sappers were called to defuse explosive balloons that landed near one of the kibbutzim.
In Judea and Samaria:
Gunfire erupted across the region as Palestinian terrorists attacked IDF forces in the Abu Sneineh neighborhood of Hevron and at a military outpost near Psagot among other places. All of the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists tried to kill Israelis with Molotovs and “rocks” at Telmon, Ni’lin, Sinjil, Tel, Yakir, Tekoa, Road 446, Al-Khader, Hizma, Al Arum, and numerous other places. More than 30 attacks were called in by citizens to Rescue Judea and Samaria, hakolhayehudi, and rotter.
What’s going on with the government–elections or not?
The short answer is nobody knows.
The big meeting yesterday between PM Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett concluded with each side saying different things. You may recall that Bennett wants to be named Defense Minister as the price for keeping his political party in the Coalition.
Bennett and his cohort Ayelet Shaked said afterwards that there will early elections in March. PM Netanyahu indicated that all the media hype about early elections is fake news and that he is working to save his Coalition. Moshe Kahlon, leader of the Kulanu Party, who had been reported as adamantly opposing Bennett becoming Defense Minister, said that was fake news.
Tomorrow, Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with the heads of the various parties in his Coalition. To hear the news tell it, the purpose of the meeting is to set an election date. Whether that is also fake news remains to be seen.
If you can believe this, just-resigned Defense Minister Lieberman said yesterday that he wants to be Defense Minister in the next government provided that Netanyahu will sign a document guaranteeing him independence to make decisions.
It should be remembered that as of this moment, Benjamin Netanyahu is the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Defense Minister, and Health Minister of Israel.
Talk about a theater of the absurd.
Another all-time record . . .
Everywhere you look in Israel: tourists, tourists, and more tourists. Here are a group of Korean tourists in Jerusalem.
BDS campaign or not, mini-wars with Hamas or not, bad weather or not, tourists continue flooding into Israel.
Yesterday, the number of tourists who have come to Israel this year passed 3.6 million (almost 500,000 in October alone)–the previous all time record for a year.
And we still have a month and a half to go.
Our Tourism Ministry says that more than 4 million tourists will come here this year and will pour more than 5 billion dollars into the economy while doing so.
In fact, Israel is one of the fastest growing tourism destinations in the world.
Another wonderful milestone of a different sort . . .
George Deek, an eloquent ambassador for, and now Ambassador of Israel.
For the first time, an Israeli Christian-Arab has been named as an Israeli Ambassador.
George Deek, an amazing man whom your humble servant has had the pleasure to meet, was named Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan.
Congratulations are also in order for . . .
Dr. Miriam Adelson accepts a congratulatory kiss on the cheek from President Trump. Your humble servant particularly likes the ring she wears on her right hand.
. . . Miriam Adelson. Dr. Adelson received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in Washington last night. Dr. Adelson is famed for her medical research, philanthropic endeavors, and for being Editor of the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom–owned by her and her husband Sheldon.
The award is extremely well-deserved.
The hilarious story of the day . . .
Downtown Amman? Note the cars with Israeli license plates and the Hebrew language street sign.
Netflix has bought the television series Fauda which primarily portrays Israeli undercover security in Judea and Samaria.
However, because Tel Aviv is so expensive, all of the show’s location shots are being filmed in Amman Jordan this year.
Yesterday, Jordanians raised a hue and cry about Israeli signs going up around the Jordanian capital such as the one you see in the picture above.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
25 Hours Of Missiles:
The Incredible Extent Of The Damage
A house that was hit by a Palestinian missile in Ashkelon on Monday night (photo EPA).
Let’s recall that between late Monday afternoon and early Tuesday evening–around 25 hours–Hamas and Islamic Jihad fired more than 500 missiles and mortars into Israel. During those 25 hours, the residents of the South huddled in their bomb shelters as endless incoming missile sirens sounded and missiles exploded all around them.
Yesterday the full extent of the damage suffered by Israel began to be known.
According to the Property Tax Fund which gives financial compensation to cover damages caused in terror attacks, this is what has been so far reported as happening in those 25 hours:
317 houses and apartments were hit (286 in Ashkelon, 19 in Sderot, 12 in other border communities)
81 vehicles were destroyed or damaged
4 farms were burned
4 major “infrastructure” facilities incurred damage
Stop and think about this for a moment: 317 houses and apartments in 25 hours.
All of the above numbers are expected to rise as more claims come in. In total, tens of millions of dollars are expected to be paid out by the Fund.
More importantly, none of the above takes into account the human toll exacted in terms of wounds, immediate emotional trauma, and long-lasting PTSD. Let us not forget that 1 person was killed and two women are still hospitalized in critical condition.
Perhaps, you now better understand, dear reader, just how incensed residents of the South have become as they have listened to government ministers downplaying the attack, calling it “minor”, “not as important as what happens in the North”, and not as significant as an attack on Tel Aviv would be.
And how annoyed they are while hearing PM Netanyahu going on ad nauseum and patronizingly about how they have to be patient because they can just not be privy to why our government agreed to a ceasefire.
25 hours under fierce attack and our government cannot tell them why they let their attackers off the hook?
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.