25 Shevat 5780
20 February 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In Judea and Samaria:
Road 465 west of Ateret, Beit Ummar, Deir Abu Mash’al, the Avraham Hasnu Junction southwest of Hevron, Tekoa, Luban A-Sharqiya, just outside of Qalqilya, Al-Aruv, along Road 443, and at other locations in Gush Etzion: these were ten of two dozen locations where Israelis were attacked with “rocks” and Molotovs by Palestinian terrorists.
In Jerusalem:
There was a Molotov attack on Beit Yehonatan in Silwan.
Along the Gaza border:
More attempted infiltrations, more explosive balloons, and, if you can believe it, an apparent increase in the number of Gazans given work permits from 7500 to 10000. In other words, it has been just another surreal day in the South.
A precursor of things to come on March 2? . . .
Voting in the March 2 election is now over for Israeli diplomats abroad. Out of 5,235 eligible voters, only 3,442 diplomats voted–a percentage of about 66%.
This percentage compares to 76% of diplomats who voted in the April 2019 election, and 69.5% last September.
In short, your humble servant wonders if Israelis in general are beginning to suffer from “election fatigue”. It will be interesting to see if the number of Israelis who go to the polls in two weeks mirrors the decreased numbers in the diplomatic corps who voted.
If so, this election–even more than usual–could completely turn on who is best able to get out the vote.
Speaking of the election . . .
Following closely on the heels of the revelation of incriminating tapes in the Harpaz affair from nearly a decade ago which seem to implicate Kahol Lavan leader Gabi Ashkenazi and Attorney General Mandelblit comes news that the Israeli police will now be opening an investigation into Benny Gantz’s behavior as president of the company Fifth Dimension–a job he took when he left the IDF.
At issue is how Gantz’s company was awarded a very lucrative contract involving millions of shekels by the Israeli police without the announcement of any bidding process.
So what we are going to have now will be the police investigating the police in addition to the police investigating Gantz.
As a police official noted yesterday: “Obviously there was something wrong here. It has to be a really special team of investigators, who are cut off from everything that happens in the police in order to get to the truth. How could investigators question their friends, or those who could become their commanders?”
By the way, it is not expected that this investigation will begin until after the election. Wouldn’t it be interesting if Benny Gantz becomes prime minister only to be indicted in the Fifth Dimension affair?
Cow wars come to an end . . . for now . . .
As you may or may not know dear reader, the PLO decided several months ago to boycott all beef from Israel. This decision was part of the PLO process of “declaring independence.” At the same time, the PLO published a blacklist of Israeli growers and merchants that Palestinians could no longer have contact with.
This was followed last month by Defense Minister Bennett ordering the cessation of all imports from Palestinian Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria. This included a prohibition against Palestinian goods and products from being sold to any other country (Israel refused to permit the transport of such materials through various crossings into Jordan).
So what happened today?
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After hearing from angry Palestinians, the PLO decided to immediately allow Israeli beef into Areas A and B, and to discard the blacklist. In response, Israel is removing all restrictions on Palestinian exports beginning tomorrow morning.
The bottom line is that demonstrating independence was not as important to the PLO as was the damage being done to the Palestinian economy or the anger emanating from the Palestinian street.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Netanyahu’s Announcement In Har Homa Today
PM Netanyahu with the Har Homa neighborhood in the background today. To the left is Moshe Leon, mayor of Jerusalem, on the right is Yariv Levin.
On the face of things, today’s announcement was dramatic.
PM Netanyahu announced that:
*he has approved the construction of 2200 new residential units in Har Homa, an amount that will probably increase the population of Har Homa from 40,000 to 50,000.
*he has approved another 4000 units on the other side of the hill you see in the background of the photo: 1000 for Arabs living in Beit Zipa, and 3000 more for Jews.
To appreciate the importance of this announcement, take a look at the following map:
What Har Homa does is block Bethlehem from joining with southeastern Jerusalem, thereby denying territorial congruity between the two areas. To put it another way, expanding Har Homa ensures that Bethlehem remains cut off from eastern Jerusalem.
And that is a very good thing because it thwarts any idea of a PLO takeover of the area.
The question is whether Netanyahu is serious about this or not? As we have reported numerous times on OneIsrael, Netanyahu precedes every election by going out somewhere in Jerusalem, Judea, or Samaria and promising new construction–only to freeze it later.
However, given the fact that Netanyahu was the person who essentially founded Har Homa back in 1997 when he was prime minister, the odds are that this new construction will take place.
How Har Homa developed over the years. Not much has changed since 2009.
We here at OneIsrael hope that construction begins tomorrow morning.
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.