Yom Rishon
Sunday
18 Tammuz 5782
July 17 2022
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The Quote of the Day
“The next time they fire missiles, Hamas leaders will get a guided missile into their house.”
PM Lapid, speaking at a campaign rally near Sderot in 2019.
Israeli television has played a video clip of Lapid’s empty bluster repeatedly in the last 24 hours. At the same time, Hamas television has been showing video of what the IAF destroyed in its retaliatory bombing for the missile strikes early yesterday morning.
As usual, Israel did a fine job of blowing up sand dunes and empty buildings—and made sure that no terrorists were killed.
The IDF spokesman issued this statement: “Fighter jets attacked a military site . . . [which] is one of the largest and most important sites in the Gaza Strip for the production of rocket raw materials for terrorist organizations. The attack on the site will significantly complicate the rocket production process in the Gaza Strip, with the aim of undermining the intensifying capabilities of the Hamas terrorist organization.”
Does anyone believe the IDF spokesman anymore? And by the way, if this supposed site was “one of the largest and most important sites in Gaza for the production of raw materials for terrorist organizations”, and the attack “will significantly complicate rocket production” in Gaza, why in the world wasn’t it destroyed before now?
This morning, the Erez Crossing is operating as usual per the orders of “Defense” Minister Gantz as if no missile fire ever took place. Gantz announced that the issuing of 1500 new work permits from Gazans would be temporarily frozen (probably until tomorrow).
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
A Palestinian terrorist ran over and killed a policeman in Ra’anana. Palestinian terrorists ran over an Israeli at the Giti Avishar Junction near Ariel; the victim was seriously wounded; the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists attacked buses at Singil and Hizma.
Palestinian terrorists throwing “rocks”, Molotovs, and IEDs attacked Israelis near Shilo (one wounded), on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Al-Aruv, and at dozens of other locations in Judea and Samaria.
Today’s Corona update . . .
8,000 Israelis tested positive yesterday (out of 31,581 tested) bringing to 71,597 the number of active patients in the country.
The positive test rate was 25.33%; the coefficient of infection was 0.90%.
390 Israelis are seriously ill; 100 are critically ill—87 of these are on ventilators.
11,101 have died (the Health Ministry has not updated this number in the last four days).
The positive test rate and coefficient of infection both dropped, but again, there is no word from the Health Ministry on the number of deaths.
TODAY’S BLOG
11 Reasons That Biden’s Visit To Israel Was An Unmitigated Disaster
For all the hoopla and fanfare surrounding President Biden, his trip to Israel was an unmitigated disaster.
1. We now have the return of “the two-state solution” mantra.
2. We now have a U.S. president who wants a return to the 1949 Armistice Lines as the basis of a Palestinian state.
3. We now have a U.S. president who wants to see Jerusalem divided–and went to extraordinary lengths to show it.
4. The Palestinians have now been given observer status at the Allenby Crossing—thereby establishing a foothold in the Jordan Valley. There is even talk of allowing Palestinians to use the Ramon Airport near Eilat as a transit location.
5. The Palestinians have now been given observer status at all future forums of the Abraham Accords—thereby ensuring that the Palestinian issue will take center stage in all discussions.
6. The Palestinians have now been given six new building zones in Area C of Judea and Samaria–thereby encouraging a population transfer from Areas A and B and driving a dagger into the heart of ancestral Israel.
7. To please Biden, Israel acted to “Palestinize” Israel by granting residency status to 5,000 Palestinians who moved to Judea and Samaria from Gaza or abroad–and by legalizing dozens of illegal Palestinian settlements in Area C. At the same time, the Israeli government has frozen construction in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria and even in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem.
8. The Palestinians have been given hundreds of millions of dollars “to improve the daily life and dignity of the Palestinians”. We all know that most of it will end up in the pockets of senior PLO terrorists.
9. UNRWA has been given $201,000,000 dollars to continue and even upgrade its incitement against Israel in its abominable school system.
10. Israelis have been made more vulnerable to Palestinian terror attacks. To appease Biden: a new vehicular crossing will enable Israeli-Arabs to go to the terror capital of Jenin more easily; terrorists’ homes that were supposed to have been destroyed were not; open fire orders for IDF soldiers in Judea and Samaria were changed; search and capture missions targeting Palestinian terrorists have been suspended.
11. Whatever anti-Iran coalition Biden thought he was going to pull together was dashed yesterday by the U.A.E. whose foreign minister declared that his country is neutral, and that it “especially” will not act against Iran with whom it is now “building new bridges.”
So what exactly did Israel get from Biden’s visit? An empty promise that the U.S. will not permit Iran to obtain nuclear weapons? An air corridor over Saudi Arabia that will allow Israeli tourists to get to India more quickly? More funding for advanced weapons systems (this is at the discretion of Congress, not Biden).
Here at OneIsrael, we believe the Biden trip was an unmitigated disaster whose effects will only expand in the coming months with the Lapid-Gantz government now feeling free to pursue leftist policies that will change Israel into a country that we do not recognize.
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.