Yom Rishon
Sunday
16 Av 5781
July 25 2021
Great News!
Avishag Semberg, a religious woman, has won Israel’s first medal at the Tokyo Olympics:
Israel’s Avishag Semberg walks off the ring after defeating Turkey’s Rukiye Yıldırım to win a bronze medal during the women’s 49kg taekwondo match (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe).
Congratulations to Avishag!
Her story is not without a little of “I told you so.” For years, she tried to obtain government funding for her taekwondo training, but was always turned down. Instead, her career has been fully funded by her parents who also deserve a huge congratulations.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
6,549 Israelis have died from the disease.
966 new cases were confirmed yesterday bringing to 11,390 the number of active cases. 97 Israelis remain in serious condition with 17 in critical condition on ventilators.
The daily Palestinian terror update . . .
Numerous explosive balloons were launched out of Gaza which started numerous fires in the Eshkol Region. There has been no Israeli response.
Israeli travel abroad . . .
19,000 Israelis arrived back in the country yesterday on flights–including several flights from Turkey whose passengers said that they were not required to produce negative Corona tests in Turkey before taking off.
At the same time, 23,500 Israelis left the country for vacations yesterday. The top two destinations: Greece (7,200) and Turkey (7,100).
By the way, Turkey is now classified as a “red country” meaning that Corona is widely prevalent.
TODAY’S BLOG:
A Strange Conversation Last Night
Last night, your humble servant and his wife had three couples (good friends) over for dinner here at our home in Ashdod. It was a pleasant evening under a starry sky and full moon with all in good spirits enjoying excellent food and libations.
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After dinner, the conversation turned to politics with the couples equally divided among those who support our new Coalition government (2 “left” couples), and those who think the new government is a disaster (2 “right” couples).
After my blog of several day ago (“End this government now!”), I don’t have to tell you where my wife and I stood.
The conversation went back and forth with the other couple with similar ideas to ours pointing out that the recent statements by PM Bennett and FM Lapid concerning the Temple Mount started us down the road to giving away the country.
The husband in this couple then remarked that he doesn’t feel safe anymore anywhere in Israel and always carries a gun–which evoked disbelief from the “lefties.”
At that point, I asked the couple beside me (self-described “progressive liberals” who protested in the streets against Netanyahu): “What is it that you like so much about the new government? Do you support its policies, or are you just happy that Netanyahu is no longer PM?
The man replied, “Both.”
My follow up was: “So tell me some of the policies that you like so much.”
He was hard-pressed to come up with even one, and finally noted that what he really likes is that “the right and the left are finally talking to each other.”
When I replied “Don’t you think that this right-left rapprochement is unlikely to continue–and is only being held together by hatred of Netanyahu? he said “No, I think it is real.”
When I said “I think it is delusional to believe that it will last since at the moment, the only factor holding the Coalition together is giving endless concessions to the Islamist Ra’am Party”, his response was “Well, I expect in several months, we’ll see Shas (the orthodox Sephardic party) joining the Coalition.”
Really?
A few minutes later, after politics was off the table and the subject had turned to “Arabs”, the same man’s wife wanted it to be known that she and her husband “never eat at an Arab restaurant for the simple reason that they “hate Arabs.”
They “hate Arabs”?
My jaw dropped about 5 feet.
I’ve heard plenty of talk around the table over the years about hating Palestinian terrorists, hating Arab incitement against Israel, and hating those that seek to delegitimize Israel, but I’d never heard “hatred of Arabs” expressed that bluntly.
Here we have a self-professed “progressive liberal” couple completely in bed with an Israeli government that would not exist without the support of a violently anti-Zionist Islamic Party, who nevertheless will not eat at an Arab restaurant because they hate Arabs.
It was a strange conversation.
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.