Yom Shishee
Friday
9 Cheshvan 5783
November 4 2022
Shabbat Shalom from members of the Taoz Battalion who have just completed intensive training prior to becoming full-fledged members of the “crossing” units:
New fighters for Israel’s border crossings.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and on the Gaza border:
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours
The current Coalition government will be handing over to the new government a disastrous situation in which shootings, stabbings, and other attacks are taking place on a massive scale everyday. It was reported several days ago that more than 8,000 terror attacks have taken place in the last year during the watch of Naftali Bennett, Yair Lapid, and Benny Gantz.
In Jerusalem yesterday.
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed three policemen at the Sha’ar Shechem (Nablus Gate) to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City. Two of them are in serious condition at Sha’are Zedek Hospital; the third was lightly wounded. The terrorist was shot and killed.
In Judea and Samaria yesterday.
Palestinian terrorists shot a 14-year-old girl in the head in Kiryat Arba. After all night surgery, she is now on a ventilator and listed in critical condition. Her name is Tamar Bat Nira and she needs your prayers.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis with IEDs, Molotovs, and “rocks” at the Hosan Bypass between the Beitar Junction and Al-Khader, on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Beit Omer, at Marada between Tapuach and Ariel, the Rahlim Junction, on Road 55 at Al-Funduk (bus driver wounded), between Emanuel and Jinspot, at the Yakir HaGudah Junction, at the Selah IDF post on the Gilad Highway, and at many other locations.
Palestinian terrorists affiliated with Islamic Jihad engaged IDF forces in a firefight in Jenin. A senior commander of the terror organization was killed. Another terrorist member of Hamas was also killed.
On the Gaza border yesterday.
In apparent response to what happened in Jenin yesterday, Islamic Jihad fired 4 missiles at southern Israel last night:
The missile targets last night.
According to the IDF spokesman’s initial report, no missiles crossed the border into Israel. However, after residents on the ground saw the Iron Dome in action, that statement was amended to say that 1 incoming missile was intercepted by the Iron Dome, and 3 more did not make it across the border. As always, one never knows what to believe about IDF reports on missiles strikes from Gaza:
The number of interceptor missiles would suggest that more than 1 missile targeted southern Israel last night (photo: Reuters).
TODAY’S BLOG:
Final Observations on the Election
Bibi and Sara celebrating.
Dear readers, permit your humble servant to make some final observations today about the remarkably wonderful Israeli election.
The media.
As we noted in yesterday’s blog, the media played an important role in the election–but not what you might expect. The mainstream television channels presented one hit piece after another against Netanyahu and Ben Gvir throughout the campaign–even to the point of Channel 13 paying Netanyahu’s chief accuser nearly 400,000 shekels for “secret recordings” which ludicrously revealed little more than Sara Netanyahu influences her husband, and Yair Netanyahu actually talks to his father.
In the end, all of the negative press helped Netanyahu by creating a backlash that drove his voters to the polls.
But the media still doesn’t get it.
As we were watching the official returns being broadcast last night at 8:00 pm, we speculated that it wouldn’t be long before the media returns to its nonstop, breathless coverage of Netanyahu’s trial and does everything within its power to besmirch his allies in the coalition.
We didn’t have long to wait. Barely five minutes after the official results were announced, Channel 13 went on the attack again–this time targeting Aryeh Deri of Shas with another 20 minutes alleging corruption and whatever else the reporter could think of. This is what we will see for the next 4 years. If the left cannot defeat Netanyahu in an election, it will use its resources in the media to try to bring him down.
One final word about the media: all day long Tuesday, we heard endless reports about how voting was “heavier” than at any time since 1999. As it turns out, it was not. Out of 6,788,804 eligible voters, 4,793,641 voted– a percentage of 70.6%. It must always be remembered that in Israeli elections, there is no absentee voting–thus the million or so Israelis living outside Israel who are eligible to vote cannot.
The blame game.
It was very interesting yesterday to see leaders of various leftist parties blame everyone else for their party’s failure.
Leading the blame game was Merav Michaeli of Labor who blasted Yair Lapid for his utterly incompetent campaign–a campaign which saw Lapid try to cannibalize his smaller coalition parters on the left–especially Labor and Meretz. Never mind that Michaeli made one disastrous decision after another as Transportation Minister during the past year, Labor’s ability to barely pass the 3.25% threshold was not her fault at all.
Coming home.
One factor that has been totally overlooked by all pundits is that to some small degree, the increase in votes for the right may be attributable to voters coming home. By this I mean that members of what used to be considered parties on the right such as Yisrael Beiteinu, New Hope, National Unity saw their parties march to the left during the last year. Some of those members may have cast their votes for Likud or National Zionism.
The Rose Garden government.
Throughout the last 17 months, we have constantly pointed out here how Bennett, Lapid, and Gantz spent all of their time (and unprecedented amounts of Israeli taxpayer money) gallivanting around the world with their entourages.
Nothing happening in Israel was more important than “photo opping” in the Rose Garden at the White House, vacationing in Paris and the Maldives, and flying back and forth to Jordan, Turkey, Morocco, and a host of other places. Benny Gantz was particularly egregious at photo “opping” in recent weeks as he clownishly tried to fashion himself as the President or Prime Minister that he is most assuredly not.
The defining moment of this Rose Garden mentality came this past July when Joe Biden visited Israel, and Bennett and Lapid openly fought for “who would stand where” during the photo op at Biden’s visit to Palmachim. It was an unseemly reminder that we had two narcissistic egomaniacs at the helm of our government.
Finally, let’s take a look at how we did in predicting the result. As you recall, I posted my “Wish List” result along with my “Probable Result”. Fortunately, my Wish List came closest to reality:
Wish List Actual
32 32 Likud (Netanyahu)
25 24 Yesh Atid (Lapid)
16 14 National Zionism and Otzma (Smotrich and Ben Gvir)
10 12 National Unity Camp (Gantz/Saar/Eizenkot)
9 11 Shas (Sephardic Orthodox)
7 7 United Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi Orthodox)
5 6 Yisrael Beiteinu (Liberman)
4 0 Meretz (Gal-On)
4 4 Labor (Michaeli)
4 4 Hadash Tal (the former Joint Arab List)
4 5 Ra’am Islamic Party (Abbas)
0 0 Beit Yehudi (Shaked)
I wrote that “if the above actually happens, the result would be: Netanyahu bloc: 64; Lapid bloc: 52; Hadash Tal: 4.”
And that my dear readers was exactly the overall result.
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.