5 Sivan 5780
28 May 2020
Special Notice
Shavuot (the Feast of Weeks) begins tonight at sundown.
This holiday commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments of Law to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and also remembers the wheat harvest in Israel (see Exodus 24:22). The yahrzeits of King David and the Baal Shem Tov are also celebrated on Shavuot.
Shavuot is also one of the three pilgrimage days in the Torah–a day on which individuals could bring the “first fruits” to the Temple in Jerusalem. Farmers from outside Jerusalem would load their carts, place garlands on their oxen, and sing and dance their way to Jerusalem accompanied by those in the towns and communities they passed through.
Shavuot is marked today in Israel with special prayers, merriment, and food.
Lots of food–especially of the dairy variety:
A yummy cheese blintz (photo: Israelforever).
Have you had your blintz today?
OneIsrael wishes a very happy Shavuot to all who celebrate the holiday!
The Absolutely Correct Quote of the Day
“Benny Gantz is half-baked. He is not fit to be prime minister. He needs to be investigated to find out if he is being blackmailed by the Iranians.”
Brig. Gen. Miri Regev, Minister of Transportation, in an interview given to the Yedioth Aharonot newspaper
Transportation Minister Miri Regev at the Kotel (Western Wall).
Regev could not have been more correct. Gantz is, to be generous, half-baked, and he is certainly unfit to hold any office in the government much less that of prime minister. As for the Iranians, we all know by now that Gantz’s phone was hacked by Iranian cyber hackers months ago and that the Iranians have possession of “sensitive material.” Gantz has an obligation to reveal what was on his phone.
Regev’s comments caused a firestorm of protest from Gantz and his cohorts yesterday with Gantz himself angrily leaving a meeting with Netanyahu.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
*6 am Thursday: There are now 16,793 confirmed cases of Corona in Israel of whom 14,570 have recovered. 38 people are on ventilators. 281 Israelis have died.
*South Korea released a list of “green countries” yesterday to which the government believes that it might be safe to travel to in the near future. They include the Seychelles, Cyprus, Greece, Montenegro, Slovenia, Georgia, Austria, Croatia, Lithuania and Israel.
It would appear that Israel is on just about everyone’s “green list”; however, the government here continues to push back the date on which tourists will be allowed to return. We are now looking at mid-July.
On the Iranian front . . .
American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced new sanctions against Iran, and stated that exemptions that were granted to previous sanctions are now going to be terminated in 60 days.
In Pompeo’s words: “Iran’s continued nuclear escalation makes it clear that this cooperation must end. Additional nuclear blackmail attempts will only exert greater pressure on the regime.”
Well said Secretary Pompeo.
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TODAY’S BLOG:
The Trump Map . . . Continued
Yesterday you saw a leaked version of the Trump “mapping” map–one that presumably shows how land would be divvied up in Area C.
Today it appears that the map is not final and attempts continue to massage it to the favor of the PLO.
Israeli government coalition officials speaking yesterday said that the Trump Administration is beginning to “harden” its positions concerning an Israeli sovereignty declaration about parts of Area C.
In particular, one member of the American “mapping team”, National Security Council member C. Scott Leith, has been attempting to foist changes into the map that benefit the Palestinians.
Whom, you may ask is C. Scott Leith?
A cursory look at his impressive resume shows that he was a U.S. Army Ranger who served as Brigade Commander of the 191st Infantry Brigade from 2007-2009. Following that, he moved to serve under the Joint Chiefs of Staff for three years, eventually assuming the position of “Assistant to the Roadmap Monitor for Middle East Peace.”
Part of that three year service included becoming Chief of Staff for the Office of the United States Security Coordinator in Jerusalem.
Beginning in 2013, at a time when he was presumably appointed by President Obama, Leith became “Senior Advisor, Special Envoy for Israeli/Palestinian Negotiations”, a position that was partly in the Department of Defense and partly in the Department of State–and a member of the National Security Council.
It is in this context that a few months ago Leith became a member of the 3-person Trump mapping team: Ambassador David Friedman, Friedman’s advisor Aryeh Lightstone, and Leith.
By the way, the Israeli team consists of Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, Ron Dermer, and Ronen Peretz who is the acting director of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Now that we know all the players, let’s return to the map for a moment today with a different look than yesterday:
The green area would be “Palestine”; the brown is Israel. The small circles are Jewish communities.
As we observed yesterday:
1. “Palestine” is to be compensated with land both north and south of the conventional “borders” of Judea and Samaria.
2. Israeli sovereignty will extend the entire length of the Jordanian border.
3. Eastern Jerusalem including the Old City becomes sovereign Israel (in fact, it already is).
4. Most Jewish communities in Area C will become sovereign Israel, but a significant number will not (particularly those in the heart of Judea and Samaria). As you can imagine, the Israeli “right” is up in arms about the map.
Expanding on these points:
1. The map creates “Palestine.” Interestingly, when members of the U.S. Democrat Party, leaders in the European Union, figures within the United Nations–not to mention the PLO and Hamas–object to the Trump map, they are all objecting to a “state of Palestine.”
2. Israeli sovereignty extending the entire length of the Jordan Valley–Jordanian border–is a major point. It creates a buffer zone which will serve to stop terrorists from coming into Israel from the east and stop the PLO from receiving weapons from Jordan.
3. Recognition of Israeli sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem is recognition of an established fact (though no formal annexation has ever occurred). One can never underestimate the importance of the Old City and the Temple Mount to the state of Israel.
4. It is on this point that the Israeli “right” is incensed–and rightly so. Fifteen established Israeli communities become “isolated”. Looking at the map, you will see that there are 7 such communities in Samaria (north of Jerusalem), and 8 in Judea (south of Jerusalem).
Tomorrow, we will continue our discussion of the Trump map.
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.