10 Sivan 5780
2 June 2020
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
*The Corona figures as of 8:00 am this morning:
17,219 Israelis have tested positive for Corona, and 14,878 of those have recovered. 30 Israelis are on ventilators, and 287 have died.
*Corona hysteria?
—Several members of one family in Be’ersheva have been confirmed with Corona. As a result, two kindergartens and two elementary schools have been closed; more than 500 students must stay home.
—4 students at a school in Sderot were diagnosed with Corona today. 870 of their fellow students were sent home and are now on a 14 day quarantine.
*Corona serology…
The first serological analysis of Israelis has been done with the resulting estimate that 2.5% of the population, about 200,000 Israelis, are infected with Corona. However, it is also estimated that most of these people have no symptoms. The findings were based on a sample of 1700 Israelis chosen by age, gender, and geographical distribution.
Why the Saudis are lying low on annexation . . .
It is interesting to see that not all Arab countries are up in arms over Israel’s planned declaration of sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and Jewish communities of Judea and Samaria.
One of those countries is Saudi Arabia which has been relatively muted.
Which begs the question of why?
Apparently, secret negotiations have been underway for the last six months between Israel and Saudi Arabia to get Saudi representatives onto the Jordanian-based Islamic Wakf which is composed of Jordanians and Palestinians.
As you can imagine, the Jordanians have been very much opposed to the Saudis making inroads into “their” administrative control over the Mount, but now are more accepting of the idea because of Saudi money.
Particularly Saudi money to counter the growing influence of Turkish money in eastern Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount (which we have blogged about on previous occasions).
All of this is deeply intertwined with history. As you may not know, one of the original reasons that the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Kipat HaSela (Dome of the Rock) were built was to try to attack Islamic pilgrims to Jerusalem instead of Mecca. For the Saudis to finally have an inroad into the Temple Mount would be a huge feather in their hat.
More immigrants coming to Israel? . . .
During May, there was a 100% increase in interest in Canada and the U.S. in people who are interested in making aliya to Israel.
TODAY’S BLOG
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A Short Day Trip To Ramot, Part 1
Now that our 14 day quarantine is over, your humble servant and his wife decided to take a short day trip on Sunday to visit our son and his family in Ramot, a neighborhood in northwestern Jerusalem. The trip was especially exciting because it was our first chance to hold our newest grandchild, Elijah.
Courtesy googlemaps.
As you can see from the above driving map, the trip from our house in Ashdod to our son’s apartment in Ramot is a relatively short one–only 67.2 km which on a good traffic day can be driven in less than an hour.
Fortunately, Sunday morning was a good traffic day.
We headed out of Ashdod on Highway 4 (the coastal highway) for a short distance before turning onto Highway 7.
A typical sight along Highway 7.
Past beautiful fields of bright yellow sunflowers on the left and vivid green vineyards on the right, we made our way toward the junction of 7 and Highway 1 at Latrun.
Each time we approach Latrun, the old fort that still dominates the surrounding landscape and serves as the home of the IDF tank corps (note the green flag below), I cannot help but think of the thousands of Jews that died in the surrounding fields as they tried to take the fort from the Jordanians between May 25-July 18 1948.
I have often heard my father-in-law talk about how Jews arriving from Europe were taken straight to the battle front with little to no experience in handling a weapon and not being able to understand each other because of the multitude of languages being spoken. They were slaughtered and the fort was not taken.
Memories of those heroes abound as we turn onto Highway 1–the main road between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The small armored cars and trucks (they used to be rusted but were painted several years ago) that Jews used to successfully break the Jordanian siege of Jerusalem still line the road, but again as you begin the climb up to Jerusalem, it’s difficult not to remember how Arabs up in the hills above the road killed dozens of Israeli soldiers in those vehicles.
The convoys were under constant fire from the hills on both sides of the road.
It is amazing that out of 230 convoys that set out to break the Jordanian stranglehold on the city only 8 did not make it.
In an almost bizarre contrast, we drive on past the huge ELVIS sign above the Elvis Presley-themed restaurant at Neve Ilan (a favorite of ours):
This is the entrance to Elvis–crammed full of Elvis memorabilia. By the way, the Elvis sign above the entrance is tiny compared to the huge one facing Highway 1.
And then on past Abu Ghosh which has some of the best hummus in Israel. You may recall a previous blog I wrote several years ago describing a wonderful lunch as Abu Shukri’s.
The famous Abu Shukri with your humble servant. Unfortunately Abu Shukri died last year but his restaurant is still serving the best hummus around.
After Abu Ghosh, it is up, up, up, past Mevasseret Zion on the hill and on to our exit, the one for Mt. Scopus and Ma’aleh Adumim.
That is where we’ll stop for today to be resumed tomorrow.
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.