Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
2 Tishrei 5783
September 27 2022
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The Photo of the Day
A beautiful day at Palmahim Beach yesterday.
What do Israelis do on the Rosh Hashana holiday in addition to eating with family and friends?
Head out to nature.
According to the Nature and Parks Authority, 100,000 Israelis visited nature reserves and parks yesterday. The most heavily visited were Ashkelon National Park, Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, and Yarkon National Park.
The Truly Disgusting Shana Tovah Phone Call Yesterday
To no one’s surprise, arch-terrorist and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called his dear friend, Israel “Defense” Minister Benny Gantz yesterday to wish him a Shana Tovah.
The phone call came less than 5 days after Abbas stood at the U.N. podium and ranted about fictitious Israeli war crimes and massacres. And fewer than 2 days after Abbas incited more violence against Israeli men, women, and children by calling on Palestinians to “defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque” on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (see more about this below).
The question is simply: how could any Israeli in good conscience–much less our “Defense” Minister have anything to do with Abbas?
The News on the Israeli Street
Speaking of the Temple Mount . . .
Palestinians answered Mahmoud Abbas’s call yesterday to go to defend the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hundreds barricaded themselves inside the Mosque.
The Palestinian tactic is to send hundreds of provocateurs to the Mosque on any day–especially holidays–on which more than the usual handful of Jews will ascend.
Once inside the mosque, they throw pre-positioned “rocks”, Molotovs, smoke bombs, and fireworks at police outside in hopes of sparking a conflagration which will result in no Jews being allowed on the Mount.
Fortunately, this tactic has not worked so well as of late.
The Temple Mount Foundation released these number yesterday concerning this past year:
51,254 Jews ascended the Mount including 279 who were allowed to go up on Sunday (thousands more were not permitted on the Mount by order of the Islamic Wakf and Israeli government). The one-day record this year occurred on Jerusalem Day when 2,656 Jews ascended.
Even though these numbers are pathetically small, they represent a slight increase over visits during previous years.
TODAY’S BLOG
What The Word “Negotiations” Means In Israel
Since the establishment of modern Israel in 1948, the word “negotiations” in Israel has only meant one thing: “Israeli concessions in return for nothing.”
Whether we are talking about the peace treaty with Egypt which called for Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai, or the Taba Agreement which called for the withdrawal from Taba, or the Jordanian treaty which called for giving away islands in the Jordan River, or negotiations with the Palestinians which called for Israeli withdrawal from Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria, “negotiations” have always meant “Israeli concessions.”
This is not even to mention hundreds of other concessions handed to the Palestinians and Jordanians which always involve us giving them something for nothing.
Now we come to the current Israel-Lebanon “negotiations” concerning “disputed” maritime territory. Take a close look at the graphic below, and then read the description from lawships.com below:
The contested maritime area off the coast of Israel and Lebanon (partial graphic: France 24).
From lawships.com:
“Israel claims that the northern point of its economic zone extends from Point 1 in the west (in the sea) to a specific point on the shore at Rosh Hanikra (known as Point 31) whilst Lebanon contends that the southern border of its economic zone extends from Point 23 in the west (at sea) to a specific point ashore known as “Ras Nakorah” being Point B1.
In fact, the shoreline distance between the Israeli Point 31 and the Lebanese Point B1 is only 25.55 meters (north – south). The Israeli-Cyprian (Lebanese) Point 1 and Lebanese Point 23, as alleged, is at distance of 12.60422 kilometers from the shore, towards the west (at sea). In this manner the disputed sea area is 850 square kilometers.”
The 1430 km2 area between Points 23 and 29 was never in dispute until the Lebanese suddenly laid claim a southernmost boundary at Point 29. They laid claim because they saw that Israel was about to begin pumping gas out of the Karish field.
The other apparent gas field (Qana)–“apparent” because it has yet to be fully explored–also lies partially within the same previously undisputed area–and within the area between Points 23 and 1 which Israel had claimed before these “negotiations” began.
So what is the apparent result of the negotiations?
Israel will get the proceeds from the Karish field, and Israel will concede that the Lebanese will get the proceeds from the Qana field even though it is within Israeli maritime territory and Israeli-claimed territory. It is a de facto giveaway of Israeli territorial rights.
In addition to conceding nothing at sea, the Lebanese have refused to make any concessions about Point B1 (Israel had sought to make Point 31 the internationally defined starting point).
Obviously the Lebanese are pleased about how the “negotiations” have gone because they are getting everything they want from our concessions.
Just like the Palestinians, Egyptians, and Jordanians before them.
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.