26 Iyar 5780
20 May 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
*4 am Wednesday: There are now 16,659 confirmed cases of Corona in Israel. 39 people are on ventilators. 278 Israelis have died. 13,435 have recovered.
*Synagogues will reopen tomorrow. They are required to restrict the number of worshipers to 50 at a time, each of which must maintain a 2 meter distance from each other. If you think the number will be restricted or that each worshiper will maintain a 2 meter distance, I’ll sell you some beachfront property in the middle of the Sahara.
*My beautiful home city of Ashdod announced that its 7 beaches are opening tomorrow:
The longest stretch of beach in any city in Israel–your humble servant’s house is way down at the far end in the direction of Ashkelon.
*Scientists at Ben Gurion have developed the world’s first Corona breathalyzer test. Breathe into the device and you will know within a minute (yes! 60 seconds) if you have the virus.
*With everyone staying at home with their air conditioners going full speed all day and night in the blistering heat, Israel set an all-time electrical usage record yesterday with 13,809 megawatts used. The previous high was 13,568 in July of last year.
A historic, yet nauseating, first . . .
A historic, yet nauseating, first occurred yesterday when an Etihad Airlines cargo plane from the United Arab Emirates landed after flying nonstop from Abu Dhabi to Ben Gurion Airport.
Normally, we would laud this first between Israel and a Gulf country, but you can see from the photo below why we do not:
The banner unfurled on the tarmac of Ben Gurion by the group from the UAE.
The folks from UAE, as usual, were only interested in rubbing Israel’s nose in the dirt yet again by displaying multiple Palestinian flags. In your humble servant’s opinion, Israeli cargo handlers should have refused to offload the 14 tons of PPE.
Even more we had the UN envoy to the Middle East Nikolai Maldenov blathering: “The UAE is an important partner, whose support for peace and the Palestinian people at this critical time is greatly appreciated.”
Support for peace? Who is kidding whom?
The UAE is important all right–important in helping Palestinians carry out terror activities against Israelis whether by smuggling weapons from Libya to Gaza, or funding underground tunnel infrastructure in Gaza, or paying Hamas hundreds of millions of dollars in blackmail money, or, or, or . . .
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
*Palestinian terrorists attacked an Israeli bus with numerous Molotovs near Al-Fawwar, south of Hevron.
*Palestinian terrorists attacked the Karmei Tzur security fence with Molotovs and set it on fire.
*Palestinian terrorists in Gaza affiliated with Hamas opened fire on Israeli drones.
*Some good news: the Izzin Al-Qassam Battalion terrorist who died yesterday of unknown causes in Gaza and whose body was carried through the streets of Gaza is the same terrorist who perpetrated the horrific attack on the Gaza border on July 19, 2014 in which Major Amotz Greenberg and Sergeant Adar Bresno were murdered:
The vehicle in which Major Greenberg and Sgt. Bresno were traveling.
One more dead terrorist is always a good thing.
Fires continue burning throughout Israel . . .
Israeli firefighting forces flew over 100 sorties yesterday in an attempt to put out or at least slow down more than 1300 active fires yesterday:
A plane in action yesterday (photo: Omer Shapira).
The three worst fires were/are at Elad, Ein Rafa, and Yafia.
No Jews on the Temple Mount . . .
Looking down at the Kipat HaSela (aka Dome of the Rock) from the Mount of Olives (photo: Ammar Awad).
The Israel Supreme Court dismissed a petition yesterday to open the Temple Mount to Jews. The Mount has been closed to Jews since the Corona outbreak. On the other hand, the Jordanian based Islamic Wakf announced yesterday that Al Aksa will reopen this Friday so that our Temple Mount will be flooded with Muslims.
As we all know by now, our left-wing Israel Supreme Court/High Court of Justice continuously works hand in hand with the Jordanians to decrease Israeli sovereignty over our holiest spot.
Meanwhile on the northern border . . .
In two days for a period of three weeks, the Good Fence Crossing between Israel and Lebanon at Metulla will open for civilian traffic for the first time in 20 years.
Why?
According to the IDF spokesman: “Our goal is that those who served in Lebanon during the decades that the Fence was open can come with their family members and tell them about the place.”
Say what?
The idea that IDF veterans will bring their families to a smoldering war zone in order to tell their children about their service in Lebanon seems crackpot at best.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Yawn . . . The PLO Terminates All Agreements With Israel and the U.S.
Abu Mazen speaking yesterday in Ramallah.
What do U.S. Democrat Party nominee Joe Biden, European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, the French and German Foreign Ministries, little King Abdullah of Jordan, and PLO Chairman Abu Mazen (aka Mahmoud Abbas) all have in common?
In a well-coordinated effort yesterday, all of them took time to ludicrously blast Israel for thinking about declaring sovereignty over parts of Area C of Judea and Samaria.
Ignoring the reality on the ground which is that two Palestinian states already exist (one in Gaza and another in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria), all of the above lamented that such a move by Israel would effectively end the West’s grand vision of a “two-state solution.”
Abu Mazen was at his ranting best as he declared that the PLO has now renounced all agreements with the state of Israel and the government of the United States. Specifically, Abu Mazen was referring to the Oslo Accords–which are already consigned to the waste dump of history.
Yawn.
Even more, in a repetition of what he has ranted dozens of times before, Abu Mazen declared that the PLO “has ended all security cooperation” with Israel.
Really? Of course not. If the PLO ended security cooperation with Israel, Hamas would serve up Abu Mazen’s head on a platter in short order.
And . . . oh yes . . . what about that 1.3 billion dollar “loan package” (see yesterday’s blog) that Israel is giving the PLO? As an Israeli taxpayer, I want Abu Mazen to terminate that agreement too.
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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.