Yom Shnee
Monday
24 Av 5781
August 2 2021
The Photographs of the Day
These are first photographs from the Mercer Street, a tanker carrying oil products that was struck by two Iranian missiles on Friday. The tanker is Liberian flagged, Japanese-owned, and Israeli managed by Zodiac Maritime based in London.
Two crew members were killed in the attack.
Where one of the Iranian missiles hit the Mercer Street.
Where the second one hit:
Look closely and you can see the residue from the second missile which apparently scored a direct hit on ship’s bridge–killing the Romanian captain and a British security officer.
According to a Kuwaiti source this morning, the U.S. and U.K. have both given Israel the green light to retaliate in one of three ways: hit installations at an Iranian port, hit an Iranian military ship, hit the Iranian ship from which the drone was launched on Friday.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
2,114 newly verified Corona cases, bringing to 877,316 the number of cases since the pandemic began.
3% positive test rate yesterday.
212 in serious condition including 42 on ventilators.
6,477 Israelis have died.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
On the Gaza border:
IDF soldiers intercepted two 2-man, heavily armed Hamas terrorist units overnight as they tried to infiltrate Israel from southern Gaza.
In the Jordan Valley:
How ridiculous is this? Total lawlessness in the Jordan Valley. Click on this link to a Palestinian site which shows Palestinians in the back of a pick-up truck throwing “blocks” and other items at an IDF jeep–with complete impunity.
In Judea and Samaria:
Total lawlessness elsewhere in Judea and Samaria. Click on this link to see what happened at an IDF jeep that stopped in a Palestinian settlement.
Elsewhere, an IDF patrol was assaulted near Beit Omer.
The Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, Road 443 beside the Dor Alon gas station, Nabi Elias, Hizma, between Marda and Ariel, Lupin’aya, Al-Aruv: these are 6 of some 25 locations yesterday where Israelis were attacked with Molotovs and “rocks”.
The most egregious attack on a motorist occurred between Yakir and Revava in Samaria. A passenger in the back seat of this car was wounded by a “rock”:
It;s not difficult to see how a passenger in the back seat was wounded.
A major fire erupted at Karmi Tzur after Palestinian terrorists threw 4 Molotovs at the security fence.
Why do these endless attacks on civilians and soldiers continue? . . .
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Simple. Very few terrorists are caught–and those who are caught easily have their punishments reduced to almost nothing through plea-bargaining.
Here are the results of a study (released this morning) conducted by the “If You Will Movement” and “Lavi” concerning “rock’ and Molotov terrorism in Judea and Samaria in 2019 and 2020:
“*99 percent of the indictments against terrorists regarding stone-throwing and throwing Molotovs ended in plea bargains and lenient punishment.
*Only 285 of the 865 cases of throwing Molotov cocktails in Judea and Samaria in 2019 and 2020 ended in imprisonment. The rest of the cases ended without actual imprisonment.
*Less than a third – only 408 out of 1283 cases, of stone-throwing in Judea and Samaria in 2019 and 2020 ended in imprisonment. The rest of the cases ended in probation or a fine without actual imprisonment.”
To put all of this a different way, the military judicial system in Judea and Samaria is rotten to the core.
Israel is not the only country with Palestinian terror problems . . .
This morning the Egyptian army announced that it has killed 89 terrorists thus far in an operation in the northern Sinai.
In addition, it has seized 404 IEDs and 4 suicide vests—and destroyed 13 tunnels leading from Gaza into the Sinai.
Successive cowardly Israeli governments wracked by indecision . . .
Just stop and think about what should have happened.
The Netanyahu government should have declared Israeli sovereignty over Area C of Judea and Samaria, but it couldn’t find the courage to do so.
Both the Netanyahu government and the current Coalition could have evicted and razed the illegal Palestinian settlement at Khan Al-Ahmar in the E1 area as ordered by the Supreme Court, but it is still there.
Both the Netanyahu government and the current Coalition could have pledged to evict the squatters in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in eastern Jerusalem, but the illegal Palestinians are still there–and PM Bennett has even promised to disobey any eviction ordered by the Israel Supreme Court.
Both the Netanyahu government and the current Coalition could have acted on the site engineer’s advice to replace the poorly built Mughrabi Bridge leading up to the Temple Mount, but it is still there. Just this morning the government asked the High Court for a two-week postponement to merely respond to a petition calling for its removal. We can all guess what that pusillanimous response will be.
Today’s Blog:
Billions Here, Billions There, Billions Everywhere!
For the first time in 3 years . . .
Israel has a budget.
Well not exactly.
It would be more accurate to say that for the first time in three years the government cabinet has approved a budget.
It still must go to the Knesset where it has to go through numerous committee approvals not to mention three separate approvals by the Knesset. The government has until November 4 to get the budget approved or it will be forced to dissolve.
The 2021 budget totals $187 billion; 2022 $173 billion.
You can surmise that with a left-wing government in power this is a budget replete with massive spending for welfare programs, and massive deficit spending which will compound the already huge deficit that has come about due to the Corona closures and ensuing huge payouts to citizens and businesses.
And you can also guess where money is going to come from to pay for everything.
Taxes.
There will likely be new taxes on: soft drinks, plastics such as disposable dishes and utensils, consumer items purchased online from internet retailors abroad such as Amazon and Alibaba, electricity (the government intends to levy a carbon tax via electricity cost hikes), and on and on.
In fact, there will likely be an increased tax on everything which means that the exorbitant cost of living here will become even more exorbitant.
That is definitely not something to look forward to.
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.