Yom Chamishee
Thursday
1 Tammuz 5782
June 30 2022
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The Photo of the Day
Ayelet Shaked praying at the Kotel (Western Wall) early this morning.
Ayelet Shaked became the leader of the Yamina Party last night when PM Naftali Bennett announced that he was retiring from politics at the end of this year. Shaked will need all of her skills to hold the party together. Two of its Knesset legislators announced yesterday that they were defecting to Likud.
The News on the Israeli Street
Down to the wire . . .
As we have previously noted, the Knesset must dissolve by midnight tonight if the 450,000 Israelis living in Area C of Judea and Samaria are going to keep their citizenship benefits.
Yet the political machinations continue with the fight over the Metro Law vs the new election date taking center stage. The ball seems to rest in Yair Lapid’s court as to whether he will agree to the new date or be willing to let the Metro Law wither on the vine.
And then there is still Finance Minister Liberman causing as much disruption as he can over a proposed bill to allocate funding to political parties.
In the meantime, as noted above, PM Bennett announced his retirement from politics last night. With Bennett gone, and Idit Silman and Nir Orbach moving to Likud, the Yamina Party now to be led by Ayelet Shaked is left with only about 3 legislators, yet a poll out last night shows that if Shaked leads Yamina it will win 5 seats in the coming election–enough to push the Netanyahu Coalition to 63 seats.
But that is a big if.
The daily Corona update . . .
12,092 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 37,275 tested) bringing to 67,865 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 32.44%; the coefficient of infection was 1.13%.
311 Israelis are seriously ill; 64 are critically ill—47 of these are on ventilators.
10,958 have died–12 since yesterday.
What is there to say? The positive test rate remains above 30% while the coefficient of infection inches downward (from 1.16 to 1.13). The worst news is that deaths are in double digits, and the number of seriously and critically ill in hospitals has topped 350.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on hundreds of Jewish worshipers at Joseph’s Tomb Compound in Shechem (Nablus) overnight. The IDF responded, and in the resulting firefight, the IDF Commanding Officer of the Shomron Regional Brigade, Col. Roy Zweig was wounded in the abdomen along with two more civilians. Click here to see a short 33 second video of the prayers taking place and the gunfire in the background.
TODAY’S BLOG
He’s Not Smiling Or Eating Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream This Morning
This photo taken last year is of the Chairman of the Arab Joint List in the Knesset, Ayman Odeh, celebrating the decision by Ben and Jerry’s to support the BDS boycott and not sell its ice cream in Judea and Samaria.
Following nearly a year of controversy over its boycott of Judea and Samaria, Ben & Jerry’s in the form of its parent company Unilever announced yesterday that the ice cream will once again be available everywhere in Israel–including Judea and Samaria.
Unilever has sold all of its business interests in Israel to the Ben & Jerry’s licensee here, Avi Zinger–who had brought suit against Unilever in the U.S. earlier this year over its boycott of Judea and Samaria. According to the new agreement, the Ben & Jerry’s Board can continue to espouse the BDS narrative–but it cannot stop Zinger from selling Ben & Jerry’s in Judea and Samaria.
In a lengthy statement accompanying the announcement, Unilever said:
“Unilever rejects completely and repudiates unequivocally any form of discrimination or intolerance. Antisemitism has no place in any society. We have never expressed any support for the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement and have no intention of changing that position.
Unilever is very proud of our business in Israel which supplies everyday household products to people across the country. Today, Unilever Israel employs around 2,000 people of diverse backgrounds, has four local manufacturing plants, and works with a network of around 2,000 local suppliers and service providers – helping to support the livelihoods of tens of thousands of Israelis across its value chain.”
Even though Unilever’s decision took too long and only came about because of intense pressure, we here at OneIsrael applaud the company for its decision but still condemn Ben & Jerry’s Board for its garden variety anti-Semitism.
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.