Yom Rishon
Sunday
11 Tammuz 5782
July 10 2022
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The News on the Israeli Street
Today’s Corona update . . .
9,099 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 24,294 tested) bringing to 68,714 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 37.45%; the coefficient of infection was 1.01%.
378 Israelis are seriously ill; 78 are critically ill—64 of these are on ventilators.
11,067 have died–11 since Friday.
Relatively few Israelis were tested on Shabbat; hence, the low number of positive tests. Still, the positive test rate remains extraordinarily high, and the number of people who are seriously and critically ill continues to climb.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Palestinian terrorists using Molotovs, IEDs, and “rocks” attacked Israelis on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, Al-Abud, between Ariel and Rachelim, on Road 465 near Deir Nizam, and at a myriad of other places in Judea and Samaria.
The new stats from Gaza . . .
According to the government, 2000 more Palestinian-Gazans received work permits in Israel today bringing to 14,000 the total number of Palestinian-Gazans who can legally enter the country.
If you remember from our reportage last week, “Defense” Minister Gantz wants to raise that number to 20,000.
There is no shortage of Palestinian-Gazans who want to come in–there are currently 300,000 applications that have already been filed.
Yes.
300,000.
One can only wonder how many more terrorists will get into Israel via this “employment” process–and murder Israelis as has happened in recent years.
Price hikes of the day . . .
On top of dramatic increases in the price of gasoline, electricity, water, soft drinks, and all sorts of food products comes news this morning that:
*the price for an adult or child to go to a swimming pool has risen to 125 shekel for a one-time entry.
*the bakery that supplies most supermarkets with breads and pastries announced today that prices are going up an average of 8-12% on such items as whole bread, rye bread, whole wheat bread, sourdough bread, sliced black bread and different types of challah.
*the cost of renting a 3-4 bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv has gone up by nearly 8% in the last month. Most apartments now rent for between 8,460 shekels ($2,452) a month and 13,750 ($3,985) shekels a month.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Joe Biden’s Op-ed in the Washington Post Yesterday
[with my bolded interpolations]
[A new and more promising chapter? A region that’s coming together through diplomacy and cooperation? Here is a president who from the outset took credit for President Trump’s accomplishments in the Middle East–even to the point of changing the name Abraham Accords to “normalization agreements.” Whatever, Biden does in regard to Saudi Arabia, Israel, Bahrain, and the U.A.E., he should thank Donald Trump for laying the basis.]
“The Middle East I’ll be visiting is more stable and secure than the one my administration inherited 18 months ago.
One month before my inauguration, our embassy in Baghdad faced the largest rocket attack in a decade. Attacks against our troops and diplomats had increased fourfold over the preceding year. My predecessor repeatedly ordered B-52 bombers to fly from the United States to the region and back again to deter these attacks. But it didn’t work, and the attacks continued.
The war in Yemen was escalating, creating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with no political process in sight to end the fighting.”
[In case anyone has forgotten, that rocket attack was the result of the U.S. under President Trump taking out arch-Iranian terrorist Qassem Soleimani–an elimination that made the Middle East infinitely safer. What would Biden have preferred the B-52s do? Bomb the Middle East countryside? Oh and by the way, what about Biden’s disaster in Afghanistan in which he turned over the country and billions of dollars of weapons to the Taliban who have now made mincemeat of any human rights in the country. Did that make the Middle East a safer place?]
“After my predecessor reneged on a nuclear deal that was working, Iran had passed a law mandating the rapid acceleration of its nuclear program. Then, when the last administration sought to condemn Iran for this action in the U.N. Security Council, the United States found itself isolated and alone.”
[The point is that the nuclear deal was not working. It was a cover for the continued refinement of uranium, and there was no mention in the deal about ballistic missiles.]
“In my first weeks as president, our intelligence and military experts warned that the region was dangerously pressurized. It needed urgent and intensive diplomacy. To restore deterrence, I ordered airstrikes in response to the attacks against our troops and began serious diplomatic outreach to bring about a more stable region.”
[First he condemned Trump for not bombing, and now brags that he bombed.]
“In Iraq, we ended the U.S. combat mission and transitioned our military presence to focus on training Iraqis, while sustaining the global coalition against the Islamic State we forged when I was vice president, now dedicated to preventing ISIS from resurging. We’ve also responded to threats against Americans. The frequency of Iranian-sponsored attacks compared with two years ago has dropped precipitously. And this past February, in Syria, we took out ISIS leader Haji Abdullah, demonstrating America’s capability to eliminate terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide.”
[Lest we forget, it was under President Obama and Vice President Biden that ISIS surged.]
“In Yemen, I named an envoy and engaged with leaders across the region, including with the king of Saudi Arabia, to lay the foundation for a truce. After a year of our persistent diplomacy, that truce is now in place, and lifesaving humanitarian assistance is reaching cities and towns that had been under siege. As a result, the past few months in Yemen have been the most peaceful in seven years.’
[The Houthis continue to fire missiles at Saudi Arabia and are now home to a terror network that spreads all around them. They continually threaten to fire at Eilat.]
“With respect to Iran, we reunited with allies and partners in Europe and around the world to reverse our isolation; now it is Iran that is isolated until it returns to the nuclear deal my predecessor abandoned with no plan for what might replace it. Last month, more than 30 countries joined us to condemn Iran’s lack of cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency on its past nuclear activities. My administration will continue to increase diplomatic and economic pressure until Iran is ready to return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, as I remain prepared to do.”
[And in the meantime, Iran pushes refinement to higher percentages than ever and installs advanced centrifuges in Parchin. Were it not for Israel’s intervention, the Iranians would already have an arsenal of nuclear weapons.]
“In Israel, we helped end a war in Gaza — which could easily have lasted months — in just 11 days. We’ve worked with Israel, Egypt, Qatar and Jordan to maintain the peace without permitting terrorists to rearm. We also rebuilt U.S. ties with the Palestinians.”
[In other words, the U.S. bailed out Gaza, encouraged blackmail payments to Hamas via Qatar, and have once again thrust the Palestinian issue–which had been effectively sidelined–back onto the front burner.]
“Working with Congress, my administration restored approximately $500 million in support for Palestinians, while also passing the largest support package for Israel — over $4 billion — in history. And this week, an Israeli prime minister spoke with the president of the Palestinian Authority for the first time in five years.”
[To put it a different way, the U.S. Congress voted to continue the package for Israel that Biden inherited, Biden restored funding to the PLO to pay for terrorists’ salaries in prison, and Biden has pushed for endless Israeli concessions to the Palestinians.]
“. . . I know that there are many who disagree with my decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. My views on human rights are clear and long-standing, and fundamental freedoms are always on the agenda when I travel abroad, as they will be during this trip, just as they will be in Israel and the West Bank.”
[Biden’s views are as clear now as they have been for the last 40 years he has been in office. For the right price (think China), he is perfectly willing to throw any ethics under the bus.]
“. . . On Friday, I will also be the first president to fly from Israel to Jiddah, Saudi Arabia. That travel will also be a small symbol of the budding relations and steps toward normalization between Israel and the Arab world, which my administration is working to deepen and expand. In Jiddah, leaders from across the region will gather, pointing to the possibility of a more stable and integrated Middle East, with the United States playing a vital leadership role.”
[Who laid the groundwork for this flight? Again, Biden should call former President Trump and thank him.]
“Still, compared to 18 months ago, the region is less pressurized and more integrated. Former rivals have reestablished relations. Joint infrastructure projects are forging new partnerships. Iraq, which had long been a source of proxy conflicts and regional rivalries, now serves as a platform for diplomacy, including between Saudi Arabia and Iran. My friend King Abdullah of Jordan recently referred to the ‘new vibe’ in the region, with countries asking, ‘How can we connect with each other and work with each other.’”
[Any new vibe is most assuredly not because of Biden but because of Trump.]
” . . . Next week, I will be the first president to visit the Middle East since 9/11 without U.S. troops engaged in a combat mission there. It’s my aim to keep it that way.”
[Not exactly true (think of the American base at Al-Tanf in Syria), but then again, nothing that Biden ever says is.]
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.