Yom Rishon
Monday
20 Sivan 5782
June 19 2022
The News on the Israeli Street
The “imminent” attack in Turkey . . .
Israeli news has literally gone wild over weekend reporting that Iranian terrorists are planning to murder Israeli tourists in Istanbul. The reports say that a number of attacks have been thwarted in the last 72 hours, and all of the reports warn Israelis not to fly to Turkey.
So what are Israelis doing?
Flying to Turkey in greater numbers than ever.
On the Palestinian front . . .
A Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife was captured near Beit Hadassah in Hevron.
Not surprisingly (given the slackness of the IDF these days), a terrorist infiltrated the headquarters of the Judea and Samaria Division in Beit El yesterday.
An Israeli young man was attacked by a group of more than 20 Palestinians yesterday armed with axes, knives, and batons. Fortunately, he was rescued by IDF forces who captured 7 of the terrorists.
On the political scene . . .
This is the week in which the future of the Coalition government will be decided. All hinges on Coalition member and Yamina Legislator Nir Orbach. Will he support a Likud bill on Wednesday to dissolve the Knesset or not?
And what about Bezalel Smotrich’s proposed law coming up for a vote in the Knesset today or tomorrow to apply Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria?
The daily Corona update . . .
7,079 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 19,005 tested) bringing to 47,301 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 37.25%; the coefficient of infection was 1.31%.
147 Israelis are seriously ill; 42 are critically ill—37 of these are on ventilators.
10,896 have died, 14 since the last reported deaths 72 hours ago.
Double digit deaths, nearly 50,000 active cases in the country, a positive test rate approaching 4o%, and the number of seriously and critically ill going up by the day: all of this would seem to indicate that Corona is back with a vengeance. On a personal note, we had three friends call this morning to tell us they have tested positive for Covid.
TODAY’S BLOG
Two Photos Tell The Story Of Israel’s Lack Of Deterrence
The photo on the right is the Hamas observation tower beside the security wall at Netiv Ha’Asara before it was hit by an Israeli missile. The photo on the left is afterwards.
To say that Israelis along the border with Gaza were infuriated when they saw the above photos yesterday would be an understatement.
But I am getting a little ahead of myself.
Following the missile attack on Ashkelon early Saturday morning, the IDF spokesman issued this statement:
“In response to the firing of a rocket fired in the Ashkelon area, workshops for the production of weapons were attacked at a military post of the Hamas terrorist organization. In addition, three Hamas military positions in the Gaza Strip were attacked.”
Presumably, the tower was one of the three military positions attacked.
But here was the sequence of events, as documented in videos shown on Israeli television last night.
1. Video 1 showed Hamas terrorists scurrying down the ladder out of the observation tower. As we all know by now, Israel never attacks Hamas targets in Gaza without telling Hamas in advance. Heaven forbid that we should actually kill or wound a terrorist.
2. Video 2 showed the missile hitting the observation tower.
Click here to see the moment the missile hit the observation post.
3. Video 3 showed the tower yesterday morning after the dust had cleared (from which the above photo on the left was taken).
Now, back to why residents of the area were infuriated.
In the first place, that tower peers straight into the Netiv Ha’Asara community and has been used by Hamas snipers to target Israelis. Why would we give the terrorists advance warning about the impending “strike”? And why hasn’t the tower been destroyed before now?
In the second place, southern Israelis wonder how an Israeli missile could have hit the unfortified tower and not destroyed it? What does it say about IDF capabilities that the tower is still standing?
If all this is not enough, Hamas repaired the tower yesterday, and the Hamas flag is flying over it:
Israel possesses no deterrence whatsoever.
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.