Yom Revaee
Wednesday
6 Kislev 5783
November 30 2022
Special Notice
Your humble servant will be traveling in the Middle East, west Indian Ocean, and in southern Africa over the next 30 days. Yesterday we landed in the U.A.E. and surprisingly been met with limited internet availability. Thank you for your understanding. OneIsrael will appear as possible during the next month.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea and Samaria:
A runover attack.
A Palestinian terrorist ran over a female soldier near Kochav Yair. Her condition remains critical. The terrorist was chased down by soldiers, shot, and killed.
IED, “rock”, and Molotov attacks.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Omer (a 14-year-old girl was wounded), between Gitti Avishar and the large Yakir Junction, at the Ma’ale Amos Junction, Hizma, at Al Muayyir (soldier wounded), on the Jerusalem-Gush Etzion Road near the Al Khader Junction, on the Hosan Bypass towards Beitar, at Kiryat Arba (Israeli wounded in the head), between Ariel and Tapuach, at the entrance to Migdalot, Ma’ale Havar, between Singil and Turmus’ayya, south of Ma’ale Lavona, Al-Aruv, Luban a-Sharqiya, at the Ma’ale Shomron Junction, Mevo Dotan, Kibbutz Migdal Oz, on Road 465 between Ma’ayan Aterat and Ravavi Square, and at numerous other locations.
The government formation saga creeps on . . .
What once seemed as if it would take a few days, now shows signs of taking much longer. As you may recall, Netanyahu has until December 11 to form a government; however, he can ask for a two week extension.
It now looks like he may need the extension. In the first place Bezalel Smotrich of National Zionism has not gotten fully on board. Even more time consuming may be the insistence of Shas that the “Deri Law” be passed before it agrees to a Coalition.
The proposed Deri Law would state that those that have been convicted of a crime yet only sentenced to probation would still be able to hold the position of Minister. This applies to Shas head Aryeh Deri because he was convicted of income tax evasion but only given probation.
TODAY’S BLOG
A Few Observations Here in Dubai
To be frank, my family did not know what to expect here in the U.A.E. After numerous reports coming out of Qatar during the World Soccer Championship of intense anti-Israel sentiment on the part of Qatar and its residents, we wondered if that behavior would exist here too.
We were so concerned that we determined that we would mostly speak English during our stay here.
Fortunately, however, we have thus far seen no evidence of such anti-Israel sentiment.
In fact, just the opposite. As an example, tonight at dinner, our waiter heard us speaking Hebrew with another couple. Shockingly, he began speaking Hebrew to us. It turns out that he is an Egyptian working here; his brother, on the other hand, lives in Tel Aviv, is married to an Israeli woman, and they have children.
To make the story even stranger, he told us that his grandmother was Jewish.
I don’t relate this story as something common here, but we have encountered no Palestinians in Dubai despite the fact that there are an estimated 100,000 living here. Everyone working in hotels and in construction, driving taxis, and preparing food that we have met has been from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.
One possible reason that there is no evident anti-Israeli behavior is that the government is extraordinarily security conscious and restrictions are tight. Just on the subject of taxis, a taxi driver can be fined if his taxi is dirty, and there are security cameras inside every taxi recording everything that transpires within.
And so it goes in Dubai this Wednesday evening.
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.