28 December 2018
Picture of the Day:
The scene at Israel’s Mt. Hermon ski resort this morning. Note right to left: the layout of the ski runs and lift, the snow plow, the lift seats overhead, and the snow in the far left background.
The snow keeps falling, and the more the better! One day when the snow melts, most of the runoff will eventually end up in the Kineret (Sea of Galilee).
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 on the Gaza border . . .
Fortunately, bad weather has suppressed some of the violent attacks on the Gaza border this afternoon. Unfortunately, the bad weather has given cover to the launching of dozens of incendiary balloons into Israel.
An colorful incendiary balloon with an explosive device attached that crashed into Sdot Negev today. Note how the balloons are colorful to attract children.
Sdot Negev, Netivot, Kfar Maimon, Moshav Zora, and Ofakim were just a few of the places where balloons crashed and exploded today. One balloon fell in a kindergarten in the Eshkol Regional Council.
In addition, an explosive balloon exploded above the head of our soldiers east of Khan Younis near Al Bureij.
Devastating recordings . . .
Here on israelstreet we have long described the torture endured by the members of the Hilltop Youth following the Molotov attack at Duma. That torture, carried out by our own Shin Bet Service, targeted minors who were taken from the homes in the dead of night without a warrant and secreted away to detention facilities. Once there they were denied the right to call a lawyer or to see their families.
Placed in solitary confinement for periods up to 30 days, they were were terrorized by beatings, starvation, and numerous other incredible actions.
Yesterday, the extent of this torture was partially revealed by audio recordings released on the Israeli television program Uvda.
If the two Duma suspects who supposedly “confessed” after this torture are not released forthwith, it will be a further indictment of a Israeli security system which has run amok imprisoning Jewish minors in Judea and Samaria.
A new Israeli-Arab party . . .
A new Israeli-Arab party has been formed with the intent of competing with the “Israel Joint Arab List” whose members travel the world trashing Israel. Interestingly, the leaders of the new Party indicated yesterday that if they receive enough votes to be in the Knesset, they would happily align with PM Netanyahu’s Likud party.
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The party’s founder issued this statement: “We will ask to sit in the coalition . . . Of course we would like to be part of the decision-makers, not the recipients of the correspondence . . . We believe in the right of the Jewish people to live in the Land of Israel, the flag of Israel is our flag, the anthem is ours.”
Criticism of President Trump was premature . . .
The crowded situation on the Syrian-Iraqi border. Note the new and prexisting US bases.
It has become obvious in recent days that the U.S. will not be withdrawing its troops from Syria as rapidly as thought. Not only that, but information has surfaced showing that the U.S. is proactively taking steps along the Iraqi border to stop the Iranian land bridge from Tehran to Beirut.
Specifically, the U.S. military has just set up two new military camps with dozens of American soldiers, one near Rumana the other near Al-Rutba. The outposts are already fully equipped with drones and other hardware.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Amos Oz: In Memoriam (1939-2018)
Amos Oz
Amos Oz died today at age 79 after a long bout with cancer.
Israel’s greatest living writer, Oz was the recipient of numerous literary awards such as the Goethe Prize, the Prince of Asturias Award in Literature, and the Heinrich Heine Prize. He was also awarded the French Legion of Honour and the Israel Prize.
His literary output was prodigious and included 40 books: 14 novels, 5 collections of short stories and novellas, 2 children’s books, and 19 books of articles and essays, and some 450 articles and essays.
Oz’s political perspective was complex. One of the founders of Peace Now (Shalom Achshav), he was an ardent supporter of Oslo and a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians. Oz regularly castigated Israel for building Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
On the other hand as a veteran of the Nahal Brigade, he fought with the army on the Syrian border in the 1960s, served in a tank unit in the Sinai in the Six-Day War in 1967, and also fought with his tank unit on the Golan Heights in 1973. He aroused the anger of his fellow leftists by initially supporting Israel in the Lebanese War of 2006, and more recently for condemning Hamas for its actions in the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict.
In regard to Hamas, he famously wrote: “What would you do if your neighbor across the street sits down on the balcony, puts his little boy on his lap, and starts shooting machine-gun fire into your nursery? What would you do if your neighbor across the street digs a tunnel from his nursery to your nursery in order to blow up your home or in order to kidnap your family?”
Your humble servant certainly did not always agree with Amos Oz, and in fact disagreed with him most of the time. However, I could not help but respect him. A literary giant is gone.
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.