Yom Shnee
Monday
5 Cheshvan 5783
October 31 2022
Election Day Is Tomorrow (Finally)
The News on the Israeli Street
The War in Judea and Samaria . . .
Ronan Hananiah, the father who was murdered at the grocery store in Kiryat Arba on Saturday night. May his memory always be for a blessing.
His death notice including details of his funeral in Jerusalem yesterday:
By all accounts, Ronan Hananiah was one of the leading citizens of the Jewish community, a man renowned for helping others. The condition of the other Israeli critically wounded in the attack has stabilized.
No government official came to his funeral.
Shooting attacks yesterday:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers at the pillbox between Itamar and Elon Moreh.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers in Jenin. Click here to see and hear a 29 second video of part of the attack.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers in Kfar Burin, south of Shechem.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at IDF soldiers at the HaShem Junction near Hatmar Yehuda.
Palestinian terrorists are currently firing on our soldiers inside Shechem.
Ramming attack yesterday:
A Palestinian terrorist rammed into soldiers at a bus stop at the Nabi Musa Junction and continued to the Almog Junction where he hit another female IDF soldier. In total, 5 soldiers were wounded, two critically with multisystem injuries. The terrorist was shot and killed.
Molotov, IED, and “rock” attacks yesterday:
Palestinian terrorists struck at the Adorim Junction on Mt. Hevron, on Road 55 near Azzun, Beit Haji, between Rabba and the small Yakir Junction, in the Eikal Ma’ayan area south of the Karmi Tzur Junction, Shiloh (child wounded), Luban a-Sharqiya near Ramallah, Tekoa, at numerous places on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, and at another two dozen locations.
The false accusation against an IDF soldier . . .
We have often reported here that at the slightest, unsupported allegation against an IDF soldier, “Defense” Minister Gantz, IDF Chief of Staff Kochavi, and Minister of Security Bar-Lev quickly jump to throw the soldier under the bus.
They try and convict him in the media while announcing that a court martial is pending.
Such a case occurred last weekend when a soldier who was on vacation was accused of throwing rocks at fellow IDF soldiers who were on patrol south of Mt. Hevron. The accusation was widely reported in Israeli newspapers and social media.
Gantz, Kochavi, and Bar-Lev harshly pounced on the soldier as usual.
This morning it turns out that the soldier was not throwing rocks at IDF soldiers at all. He was throwing rocks at a nearby herd of sheep to get them to move. When the off-duty soldier refused to obey an order from an IDF officer to stop throwing the rocks, he was arrested.
A herd of sheep.
Gantz offered this tepid apology: “An investigation into the matter found that there was indeed a refusal to obey orders but that the stone throwing that was not aimed at soldiers. I will continue to support the IDF soldiers and give them my back to fulfill their mission, but I regret the firm determination on the subject in the face of the facts on the ground. I welcome the fact that the facts have been clarified.”
“I regret the firm determination on the subject?”
TODAY’S BLOG:
4 Conversations Before The Election Tomorrow
There are so many accusations, threats, cajolings, and whatnot circulating in the Israeli media today many of which are false, misleading, and otherwise repetitive, your humble servant thought that I would write about 4 conversations I have had since Friday about the election.
Conversation 1:
Your humble servant does not take many taxis, but during every taxi ride I have taken in the last month, I have asked the taxi driver how he is going to vote. Last night, we took a taxi from my daughter’s apartment in Tel Aviv to the Habima Square area to a wonderful production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Our taxi driver was named Erez, and he was extremely laconic until I asked him: “Who are you voting for?”
His answer was a loud and emphatic: “Nobody!”
He then proceeded to talk animatedly for the rest of the taxi drive about how successive governments have made it impossible to live here because they have done nothing about high prices. So, he has decided to leave for Thailand in December to join a colony of 100,000 (according to him) already living there.
I fear that Erez the taxi driver speaks for many when he says he is not going to vote.
Conversation 2:
Another taxi conversation, this time with “Abu”, the white-bearded, Arab-Israeli who took us back home last night after the musical.
He was a relatively talkative sort in Hebrew, and so I asked him where he was from–to which he replied “Lod”. He proceeded to say that he works the nights in Tel Aviv because the money is good, and it is only a 20 minute drive from his home.
When I asked him who is he voting for, he surprised me by answering: “Bibi.”
And why? Because he thinks crime is out of control in Lod, and he thinks Netanyahu is the “strongest” candidate.
Conversation 3:
Shabbat dinners at my in-laws are always lively affairs, and this past Friday night was no different. The conversation quickly turned to politics, and quickly reached shouting level.
There was no need to ask anyone who they were voting for. My elderly in-laws are both voting for Netanyahu, my brother-in-law and his wife are voting for Lapid while their son is voting for Ben Gvir, and their daughter is not voting. As I may not have mentioned in a previous blog, my wife is a staunch Likud supporter, while I am voting for Ben Gvir.
Anyway, the conversation became quite acrimonious with my brother and sister in law loudly and repeatedly claiming that Netanyahu and his family are corrupt and undemocratic. When I reminded them that Netanyahu has not been found guilty of anything, there only response was “don’t you watch television? Haven’t you seen all the programs showing how corrupt Netanyahu is?”
Whereupon my 92-year-old father-in-law, told his son to shut up and stop being so simple-minded. And so the conversation ended, and we went back to talking about the delicious dinner that the Sri Lankan caregiver and my wife had made.
Conversation 4:
My wife’s best friend was over yesterday morning, and I asked her how she was going to vote. Having a grown up on a kibbutz, she invariable votes to the left, so I wondered would it be Meretz, Labor, Lapid, or Gantz?
Her answer was that she was thinking about voting for Gantz.
When I asked why, she replied that she thought he had done a good job in the army, and he behaved in a “statesmanlike” way. When I tried to engage her by pointing out his many failings as a military commander and defense minister, she had no answer, but kept repeating that she thought he was the best candidate.
Finally some other random comments from folks:
Jacky our taxi man in Ashdod: “Bibi” (as I have previously written, Ashdod is Netanyahu country).
The waitress in a coffee shop this morning: “Michaeli”. She is for Israeli workers.”
The servers in our favorite Russian restaurant on Saturday night: “Liberman, he understands the Russian situation here.”
I could go on and on, but you get the point. The voters here are extremely divided, and the election may come down to which party can do the best job of getting their voters to vote.
Tomorrow, we will have election coverage beginning with our predictions in the morning and concluding with the results at night.
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.