24 December 2018
Special Notice:
On this Christmas eve, israelstreet wishes all of our readers who celebrate the holiday a very Merry Christmas tomorrow!
According to statistics released yesterday by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, 175,000 Christians now live in Israel, about 2% of the total population. 77.7% of the Christians are Arabs. Last year, the Christian population grew by 2.2% (Israel is the only place in the Middle East where the number of Christians is increasing). The four cities with the largest Christian population are Nazareth (22,100), Haifa (15,800), Jerusalem (12,600), and Shfaram (10,200).
Anti-Semitism of the Day:
“My father was a commando,
My mother was in the SS,
Together they burned Jews
Because Jews burned the best!”
The above is the chant sung in Flemish by the football (soccer) fans of the city of Bruges, Belgium. It should be noted that this chant has now become pervasive throughout Europe with “fans” in the Netherlands, Poland, and elsewhere singing it loudly at football matches.
The News on the Israeli Street
New election . . .
Of course, all of the news at the moment in Israel is about the new election. Suddenly, Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, Russia, Turkey, Trump, and everything else has been put on the back burner. See Today’s Blog below for our comments.
Palestinian terrorists run amok in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem . . .
Palestinian terrorists carried out “rock” and Molotov attacks on Israeli drivers on Road 443 near the Dor Alon gas station, the T-Junction in Gush Etzion, Shilo, Turmus’aya, Havat Yehuda, Giv’on HaNadasha, Yakir, Revava, Tekoa, the Hatti Junction, Ras Karkar, Talmonim, between Eli Zahav and Bruchin, Al Aruv, and Deir Nizam among other places.
Palestinian terrorists carried out “rock” and Molotov attacks on Israeli buses at Hizma, just below the Flower Gate in eastern Jerusalem, and at Adam.
Try to imagine this . . .
What do you think the outcry would be at the United Nations, European Union, and at every single “humanitarian” NGO on the planet would be if they saw this press release:
“The Israeli Government in Jerusalem reported that its security personnel had succeeded in stopping the sale of 3000 dunams of land owned by Jews to Palestinians in western Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Ashdod. 44 Jews were arrested for attempting to sell their land to Palestinians.”
There would be riots in Cairo, Amman, Jakarta, and Ankara. Irish “human rights” activists would stage violent demonstrations in Dublin. The French government in conjunction the British government and Arab League would introduce a resolution in the UN Security Council condemning Israel. The European Union would announce sanctions against Israel and more Euros for the PLO and Hamas.
And on and on.
So as you have probably inferred by now, exactly the opposite press release was issued by the PLO yesterday.
It proudly announced that it had stopped the Palestinian sale of 3000 dunams of land to “Jews”, and that it had chucked 44 Palestinians in prison for attempting to sell their property to “Jews.”
What has been the response of the world today?
Not one syllable.
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Further rumination on yesterday’s blog . . .
Yesterday, we wrote how the IDF under former IDF Head Benny Gantz and current IDF Head Gadi Eizenkot has adopted a strategic policy of “cumulative balance of losses” against Hamas in Gaza.
As we wrote yesterday, what this strategy means is that the IDF will not attempt a devastating knock-out punch–and instead will wage what is, in essence, a drawn out war of attrition in which it slowly degrades Hamas assets.
Just think about the disastrous effects of this strategy in 2014. The war with Hamas went on for 51 days. 51 days in which our soldiers at the stalled front and our citizens in the border communities became nothing but sitting ducks for Hamas missile and mortar fire. How many soldiers and civilians were killed because the IDF was afraid to attack full force?
Also think about how disastrous such a strategy would be in a future war with Hezbollah. In 51 days, 100000 Hezbollah missiles would lay waste to virtually all of Israel’s assets and kill untold numbers of soldiers and civilians.
“Cumulative balance of losses” has to be a product of the politically correct humanitarian thinking that has totally infected the IDF General Command. It is a strategy that will ultimately lead to disaster.
TODAY’S BLOG:
A New Election Is On The Way
All the news in Israel at this hour is about the new election which will apparently take place on April 9. We say apparently because it could still take place on April 2, and aside from that, the Knesset has yet to be dissolved–a necessary first step.
The decision for a new election was made by Coalition leaders after it was determined that 61 votes could not be obtained to pass the proposed new draft law for the haredim. Actually, 61 votes could have been obtained except for the fact that three members of the Coalition from the Agudat Israel (Askenazi Ultra-Orthodox) party were demanding further government concessions.
Another reason that 61 votes cannot be obtained is that both Avigdor Lieberman and his Yisrael Beiteinu party and Yair Lapid and his Yesh Atid party–neither of which are in the Coalition–both broke their pledges yesterday to support the law in yet another example of the utter hypocrisy rampant in Israeli politics. Widely perceived as anti-haredi, Yesh Atid and Yisrael Beiteinu completely betrayed their own principles in order to try to overthrow Netanyahu.
Equally hypocritical are the newspaper and online headlines this afternoon. From the Jerusalem Post alone, we have these two:
“Netanyahu’s Coalition Collapses: Israel Heading To Elections In April”
The fact is that the Coalition did not collapse. The Coalition partners even voted to stay together after they voted for a new election.
and . . .
“Lieberman, Israel’s Left Celebrate Early Elections”
“Early” elections? If the election takes place on April 9, it will be 1 month short of four years that the Coalition has been in place. Of course, on every day of those four years, the Israeli media has been desperately promoting the idea of a new election. Also, it should be noted that without an “early election”, and election would have taken place in early November anyway.
In any case, there is already major fallout from the election decision. The Tel Aviv stock market immediately dropped by 2.4%, but more importantly, Attorney General Mandleblit indicated late today that no decision on whether to indict PM Netanyahu on Cases 1000, 2000, 3000, and 4000 will be forthcoming until after the election takes place.
A few last observations.
First, the three members of Agudat Israel who brought down the government have done nothing but shoot themselves in the foot. Whatever the next government will be, the haredi will not have the power that they currently have.
Second, your humble servant hopes that we see Avigdor Lieberman and Yair Lapid sink in the polls. They are classic examples of hypocritical politicians.
Third, there will now be an all-out campaign on the part of many political parties to recruit former IDF Head Benny Gantz to their ranks. Whether he will join an existing party or form his own is anyone’s guess. Given his complete incompetence in the IDF, your humble servant simply cannot understand the popularity he seems to enjoy among the Israeli public.
Fourth, your humble servant is extremely sorry to see the current government dissolve. Major progress was made over the last four years in many areas–especially in the Justice Ministry where Ayelet Shaked has made major strides to change the ideological direction of Israeli jurisprudence. I would have wished that she would have had another half year to continue making changes.
But such is political life in Israel where we will now see a new fake poll everyday showing what the results of the new election will be.
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.