19 Iyar 5779
24 May 2019
Photo of the Day:
An Egyptian helicopter hovering over Beit Ezra this morning. This is one of two Egyptian helicopters fighting fires in Israel.
What is unusual about this photo is that Beit Ezra is just beside Ad Halom–which is on the outskirts of Ashdod. As you may know, Ad Halom means “Until here” and was named for the northernmost point that the Egyptian Army reached in 1948 on its march toward Tel Aviv.
The Egyptians were essentially stopped at Ad Halom by four aircraft and a small number of fighters from Israel’s Givati Brigade. Eventually, they turned around and retreated to Gaza. And to think that today, the Egyptians are back.
By the way, do you have any idea how many times Israel has asked Egypt if we could help them in times of emergency? And every time we ask, what is the Egyptian response?
No.
The News On The Israeli Street
Israel ravaged by fires . . .
Take a good look at this aerial photo of the Mevo Modi’im community located northwest of Modi’in on Road 443.
From the road at the top of the photo to the bottom of the photo, you can see how fires have almost completely devastated the community–and what a community it was consisting of specialists in many areas such as organic farmers, musicians, wine makers, artists, and perfumers–many of whom came from Jerusalem and San Francisco back in the 1970s as followers of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach.
What has happened at Mevo Modi’im is a microcosm of what is taking place throughout Israel. A strange convergence of extraordinarily high temperatures, Lag B’Omer bonfires, Arab arsonists, electrical sparking, and who knows what else has resulted in Israel having to seek help from firefighters in other countries.
At this moment, some of the fires are under control, but most are not.
While the fires are raging . . .
. . . PM Netanyahu’s total focus seems to be on trying to get Avigdor Lieberman to join his coalition. Without Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu Party, Netanyahu only has 60 seats in the Knesset–not a majority.
Lieberman, who would seem to be a natural ally of Netanyahu, is anything but. The two men despise each other, and this is compounded by the fact that Lieberman also despises the ultra-orthodox. The sticking point at the moment is the proposed draft law that caused the previous coalition to fall apart. Lieberman is insisting on clauses in that law that Shas and United Torah Judaism find intolerable.
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Even if an agreement with Lieberman and Netanyahu is reached in the next 4 days, it is highly doubtful that the new Coalition will last for long. Lieberman is simply too much of a wild card and will quickly find other sticking points.
Guess who’s receiving an honorary doctorate from Bar-Ilan University? . . .
None other than former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot.
For what you might ask?
For his “contribution to Israel’s security.”
Have you stopped laughing yet?
This is a person who demonstrably weakened the IDF vis a vis Hamas, and undermined the morale of IDF soldiers by continually throwing them under the bus in various court martials.
Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised at Eizenkot receiving the award. After all the last person to receive it was another former IDF Chief, Benny Gantz–and we all know what a miserable failure Gantz was as head of the IDF.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Where In The World Is The IDF?
If the fires throughout the rest of Israel are not enough, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza continue launching dozens of explosive balloons at southern Israel. At the moment, fires are burning at such locations as Moshav Yachini, Sha’ar Hanegev, Beit Ezra, and Moshav Shachar near Kiryat Gat.
As we noted yesterday, the balloons are now carrying ever more powerful combustible “devices”:
A terrorist in Gaza launching a “balloon” yesterday. Note the device hanging from the balloons. It is substantially larger than previous combustible detonators.
But the situation is becoming even worse than that. Yesterday a balloon cluster drifted over Sderot carrying 25 kg of explosives. Fortunately, it was brought down and defused by IDF sappers.
What is amazing about this balloon/fire situation is that our government continues to be completely indifferent to southern Israel going up in smoke. The groups within Hamas and Islamic Jihad are so brazen that they even announce hours in advance where and when they will launch the explosives, and we do absolutely nothing.
Where in the world is the IDF?
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.