Yom Shishee
Friday
16 Tammuz 5782
July 15 2022
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The News on the Israeli Street
Waiting for the hammer to fall . . .
After all the niceties of the Biden visit so far, today is the day when the hammer will fall.
Biden’s day first takes him to the Augusta Victoria Hospital on the Mount of Olives–a hospital set up to serve the 19 UNRWA camps in Gaza, Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria that specialize in anti-Israel indoctrination. That he chose to become the first U.S. President to ever visit east Jerusalem and this hospital in particular sends a clear signal to the world that he supports PLO sovereignty over this part of the city–which he wants divided as it was before 1967.
Next it is on to Bethlehem to meet with PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Just as Biden signed a “Jerusalem Declaration” with PM Lapid yesterday which talks about defending Israel from Iran, your humble servant can only suppose what the joint statement with Abbas from Bethlehem will say.
We are waiting for the hammer to fall.
Addendum: It didn’t take long for it to fall; remember what we said yesterday about actions speaking louder than words:
Biden’s car on the right as it left the hotel this morning. On the left as it looked when it went into eastern Jerusalem. Notice any difference?
The difference of course is that the Biden team removed the Israeli flag: no Israeli flag in the eastern part of our capital for Joe because he wants to divide the city again.
Later after he had announced 201 million more dollars more for the hideous UNRWA, Biden let fire with these words in his joint speech with PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas: “The Palestinian people are in pain now; the frustration and helplessness we feel in Washington. The Palestinian people deserve a state.”
The fact is that they already have two (see Today’s Blog below).
Today’s Corona update . . .
8,284 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 28,109 tested) bringing to 72,738 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 29.47%; the coefficient of infection was 0.91%.
404 Israelis are seriously ill; 97 are critically ill—87 of these are on ventilators.
11,101 have died (the Health Ministry has not updated this number in the last three days).
A lack of transparency at the Health Ministry continues to hide the number of people who are dying of Corona each day. Interestingly, as the coefficient of infection continues to drop, the number of Israelis who are seriously and critically ill continues to rise.
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
Palestinian terrorists in Shechem opened fire on a car carrying 4 Jewish worshipers to Joseph’s Tomb.
Palestinian terrorists throwing “rocks”, Molotovs, and IEDs attacked Israelis on a bus in Huwara and in cars throughout Judea and Samaria.
Saudi Arabia opens its sky to Israeli airlines . . .
It was announced today that Saudi Arabia has agreed to let Israeli commercial aircraft overfly the country.
What are the effects aside from the obvious significance of partial normalization?
Flight times:
Tel Aviv-Mumbai was 8 hours; now will be 5 hours.
Tel Aviv-Melbourne was 17 hours; now will be 15 hours.
Tel Aviv-Bangkok-China was 11 hours; now will be 8 hours.
The Saudi Arabian announcement (that did not mention Israel) emphasized that Saudi Arabia wants to become an international hub (much like Dubai).
The White House issued this disingenuous statement: “The decision is a result of President Biden’s diplomacy in recent months, culminating in a visit these days. The move will bring a more stable and secure Middle East and is critical to US and American security and prosperity.”
Talk about taking credit for something you didn’t do and then almost using the exact words of the person who really did it. As we all know, the Saudi move is actually the result of what President Trump began with the Abraham Accords. At the time, President Trump said words to the effect that the Accords would bring a more stable and secure Middle East and was critical to US and American security and prosperity.
TODAY’S BLOG
Biden, Lapid, And The Two State Solution
“I have not changed my position: the two state solution
is the solution that will bring about a state with a Jewish majority.”
PM Yair Lapid yesterday in remarks made in joint press conference with President Joe Biden.
“President Biden reaffirms his longstanding and consistent support of a two-state solution and for advancing toward a reality in which Israelis and Palestinians alike can enjoy equal measures of security, freedom and prosperity.”
A sentence taken from the Jerusalem Declaration signed by PM Lapid and President Biden yesterday.
It is time to get a few things straight.
In the first place PM Lapid, we do not need a two-state solution to “bring about” a state with a Jewish majority. We already have such a state and its name is Israel.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the demography of Israel is changing. Arab mothers are having fewer children, and Jewish mothers are having more. The percentage of the population in the country that is Jewish is incrementally increasing–and has remained steady for a decade.
In the second place, it is time for everyone to recognize that more than 10% of the Jewish population of this country now live in Judea, Samaria, and eastern Jerusalem.
Israel extended the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem by applying Israeli law to eastern Jerusalem (de fact annexing it) on June 28, 1967–more than half a century ago. Why are Lapid and his cohorts now going along with a Biden-demanded freeze construction in Jewish neighborhoods and encouraging international recognition of Palestinian dominion over this part of our capital?
Judea and Samaria was divided 27 years ago in the Oslo Accords. A Palestinian state was created in Areas A and B. The Jewish communities there which began to be built in the 1970s are all in Area C. Why have Lapid and his cohorts suddenly decided to legalize illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C–and create six new Palestinian housing areas there?
In sum, two Palestinian states already exist: one in Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, and one in Gaza. What Lapid, Gantz, and Biden seek is not a Palestinian state–but an expansion of the Palestinian state that already exists in Areas A and B.
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.