Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
11 Nisan 5782
April 12 2022
Photos of the Day
Preparing for the Largest Seder in the World
The dough is made.
And the matzot are cooked:
Passover is almost here! Only 100,000 to go.
In case you are wondering, the largest seder in the world will take place on Friday night in Ethiopia where several thousand will gather in Addis Ababa. 3000 kg of wheat flower are being used to make more than 100,000 matzot. In addition, there will be 400 liters of raisin wine, and a special Ethiopian charoset made from dates, bananas, ginger, sugar, and wine. The seders will be led by Rabbi Menachem Walden and Tiko Yalu who was head of the Ethiopian community before immigrating to Israel in 2001.
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Another day, more stabbing attacks; the first of the day was one thwarted in Bnei Brak–the scene of the horrific terror attack last week.
The second was in Ashkelon where a Palestinian terrorist from Hevron pulled out a knife during a security check and started stabbing a police officer. The terrorist was shot dead. The policeman is in Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon with “moderate wounds”:
A fellow officer visits his wounded colleague.
By the way, the terrorist was in Israel on a work permit–one of tens of thousands permitted in by “Defense Minister” Benny Gantz.
Speaking of the loathsome Benny Gantz . . .
Our abominable “Defense Minister” was out touring the seam zone in Samaria today near Qalqilya.
Supposedly working to repair the holes in the fence and thereby provide security to Israelis, Gantz cannot utter a sentence without talking about all he is doing for the Palestinians. His comment of the day while visiting the troops: “Along with operations in intelligence, attack and defense – we are promoting solutions that will allow tens of thousands of additional workers to enter Israel in an orderly manner.”
Tens of thousands of additional potential Palestinian terrorists like the one in Ashkelon today.
By the way . . . about those holes in the fence . . .
PM Bennett announced today: “I will close the gaps in the separation fence.”
You don’t know whether to laugh or cry. This is the same Bennett (like Gantz) who arduously opposed repairing the fence a mere two months ago.
From the economic front . . .
The Israel Postal Service: The complete privatization of the mail service has now been approved, and will supposedly take place by March of next year. As every Israeli citizen knows, mail service in the country is a disaster with a hodgepodge of mail carriers including teenagers and others delivering mail whenever they feel like it.
Mortgages: The all time record for new mortgages was set last month with a volume of 13.4 billion shekels. This of course is not surprising given the outrageous cost of apartments and houses in the country. No one can afford to buy anything without an increasingly large mortgage.
Credit cards: March has also seen another dubious all-time record–the most that Israelis have ever spent on credit cards: 37.28 billion shekels, an increase of 5.5% over last year. With prices for everything soaring, Israelis are just burying themselves in ever deeper debt.
Imports: According to the Shipping and Ports Authority, more than 5.5 million tons of grain entered Israel last year, primarily wheat for food and animal feed. The price of wheat is expected to rise exponentially because of the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
TODAY’S BLOG
Benny Gantz’s Territories for Electricity Deal:
“An Unparalleled Dangerous Step”
After decades of refusing to do so, the Ministry of Justice, in the form of an opinion issued today by Deputy Attorney General Adv. Carmit Yules, gave “the green light, in principle,” to connecting fledgling Jewish communities in Area C to the Israel electrical grid.
This was an opinion that should have been handed down decades ago before our brave Jewish community members had to suffer through years of freezing and scorching temperatures with portable generators.
But hold on a minute.
Note that the statement from the Justice Ministry says that the green light has been given in principle. What does that mean? In essence, it means that final approval has not been given.
Why not?
Because the final decision does not rest with the Justice Ministry; it rests with the Defense Ministry which administers Area C of Judea and Samaria. To put it a different way, the decision rests with our odious “Defense Minister” Benny Gantz.
And Gantz has made his position crystal clear. He will not approve the electricity unless the illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C receive electricity also.
Recall that the Oslo Accords specifically stated that Area C is the area of Judea and Samaria that is under complete Israeli control–both administratively and militarily. In taking this position, Gantz is equating the legal Jewish communities with illegal Palestinian ones.
If Israel provides electricity to the illegal Palestinian settlements, it is establishing an extremely dangerous precedent which will immediately lead to the PLO and its European friends pouring billions of dollars into the area to create facts on the ground—to Palestinianize Area C”.
Which is of course exactly what Gantz and his liberal friends want.
Knesset Legislators Yoav Kisch and Orit Struck who head the Knesset Land of Israel Lobby, had this to say today: “Under no circumstances should you lend a hand to the defense minister’s ‘territories for electricity’ deal. Connecting the PLO outposts to electricity in exchange for connecting the young settlements is an active aid to the Palestinian Authority’s plan to take over the territories of Judea and Samaria, an unparalleled dangerous step.”
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.