Yom Chamishee
Thursday
8 Cheshvan 5783
November 3 2022
Special Notice
We have been waiting patiently all day to publish this blog, waiting for the Election Commission to post the final results of the election. This was supposed to have happened at noon today, but here we are at 6 pm and there are still no official results.
The unofficial results with 99% of the votes counted are that the Netanyahu bloc has 64 seats, and thus, Benjamin Netanyahu will be the next prime minister. Please see today’s blog below for more details about his wonderful result!
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 48 hours . . .
Because of our coverage of the election, we have not updated this blog in the last two days on the constant terror gripping Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, and Israel.
There has been another stabbing attack this morning at the Iron Gate to the Temple Mount. Two policemen was wounded; the terrorist was shot and killed.
Here are a few egregious terror attacks in the last two days:
On Tuesday morning, a Palestinian terrorist attempted to kidnap an orthodox woman who was walking down a street in Tiberius. When he grabbed her and tried to throw her into the back seat of his car, she screamed, fought back, and escaped. The terrorist was later arrested and claimed “It was all a mistake.”
Yesterday, a Palestinian terrorist rammed into an IDF officer at a barrier on Road 443 near Modi’in. The officer was severely wounded, but while he was on the ground, he managed to shoot and kill the terrorist:
The scene of the ramming attack. The van used in the attack is in the right background. The dead terrorist is on the ground.
Elsewhere:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israelis on the Languhot Highway near Horsa.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israelis on the Adorim Nagohut Junction.
Palestinian terrorists threw an IED from a passing car at Nabi Salah.
Palestinian terrorists armed with IEDs, Molotovs, and “rocks” attacked Israelis near Dimona (bus driver wounded), between Yakir and Rabba, between Shevi Shomron and Homesh, at Al-Aruv, the Zif Junction, on Road 55 near Jinspot (Israeli bus driver wounded with glass in the face), and at dozens of other locations:
It is easy to see how the bus driver was wounded with glass in his face.
A Palestinian stabbing attack was thwarted at the Ta’anim Crossing.
Palestinian terrorists detonated an IED on Road 458 at Al-Muayyir as an Israeli motorist passed. No Israelis were wounded.
Some good news . . .
David Morel, the security guard critically wounded in the Shuafat shooting that killed Noa Lazar, has regained consciousness and is gradually improving in the Hadassah Hospital neurosurgical intensive care unit.
The 5 soldiers who were run over several days ago have also improved and have been released from the hospital.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Astonishing Final Election Results
Your humble servant is still shaking his head in disbelief this evening wondering if this isn’t a dream.
What has just happened in Israel is nothing short of miraculous. Not only has a strong government on the “right” been swept into power, but also the leftist coalition that badly weakened Israel over the last 17 months has been unceremoniously dumped in the garbage bin of history.
Gone are Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, Omer Bar-Lev, and a host of other abominable leaders who engaged in some of the most atrocious policies in Israeli history. The two political parties which were the furthest to the left, Meretz and Balad, are also gone, unable to make the 3.25% voter threshold.
Who and what caused this earthquake in Israeli politics?
1. Benjamin Netanyahu. Through good times and bad, through years of media defamation of him and his family, through Cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, Netanyahu has remained beloved by his loyal Likudniks. Even when he didn’t “win” the last 4 elections, Netanyahu’s Likud party always remained steady as the largest party in the Knesset.
2. Itamar Ben Gvir. There can be no doubt that Ben Gvir is heavily responsible for the reinvigoration of the right in Israel. Whereas the old Yamina party on the right could only garner 6 or 7 seats in recent elections, the National Zionist Party has just won 14 or 15 seats. A charismatic figure, Ben Gvir is an unabashed Zionist who believes it is mission to protect a Jewish Israel. It is precisely because of his unapologetic Zionism that he is reviled by the “progressive leftists” of the world label him as an extremist and the post-Zionists in Israel.
3. Shas and United Torah Judaism. You may remember in a pre-election blog that your humble servant wrote that if Shas could get 9 mandates and UTJ 7, Netanyahu would become prime minister. Shas got 11, and UTJ 8–both demonstrating a remarkable ability to get their voters to the polls.
4. The campaign of hatred waged by the leftist Israeli media, and the Meretz, Yesh Atid, and National Unity parties. The last 4 months have seen these parties attempt to label Netanyahu and his allies as racists, fascists, and extremists. The majority of Israelis did not respond to this message of hate.
5. The egregiously anti-democratic policies of the Coalition government rammed down the country’s throat from the refusal of the government to submit the Maritime Agreement to the Knesset for approval last week to the weekly razings of Jewish communities carried out by the unilateral decisions of “Defense” Minister Gantz and his cronies.
6. The overwhelming sense that our public safety has been sacrificed on the altar of misguided “humanitarianism” whether it is manifested in courts that hand out lenient sentences to terrorists, or “no fire” orders issued to our soldiers by the Defense Ministry and IDF General Command, or the illegal takeover of parts of Israel in Area C, the Negev, and in the Galilee. The policies of the Bennett-Lapid-Gantz coalition enacted a “progressive” agenda that led many to believe that we are no longer living in a Jewish country.
We will continue this discussion tomorrow. Let the celebrations begin!
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.