Yom Shishee
Friday
22 Kislev 5783
December 16 2022
Special Notice
Your humble servant is still traveling in the west Indian Ocean, now positioned between Reunion Island and Richards Bay South Africa. Internet access has markedly improved today and hopefully will remain steady for the remaining 14 days of this journey. OneIsrael will appear as possible. Thank you for your understanding.
The News on the Israeli Street
The War In Judea and Samaria.
A run-over attack.
A Palestinian terrorist ran over a motorcyclist on Road 60 near Beit Omer. The motorcyclist is in serious condition; the terrorist was later captured.
“Rock”, Molotov, and IED attacks.
Palestinian terrorists attempted to murder Israelis between Efrat and the T-Junction near Umm Salmona, near the Yakir Junction, between Hawara and Shechem, at the Nabi Salah pillbox, in Hevron, at Luban a-Sharqiya, and at numerous other locations.
Netanyahu moves quickly to clamp down the status quo . . .
In the past week, Prime Minister-to-be Netanyahu has declared that:
*there will no changes to the status of the LGBT community in Israel and that the Gay Pride parade will proceed as usual.
*any changes that Bezalel Smotrich wants to make to the activities of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria must first be approved him and incoming Defense Minister Galant.
The U.S. Senate passes an Israeli aid package . . .
The Senate approved an 858 million dollar defense package for Israel yesterday that includes 500 million for Iron Dome interceptor missiles, and 40 million for a joint development program to intercept drones.
The law now goes to President Biden for his signature.
TODAY’S BLOG:
What In The World Is Going On In the Knesset?
Since our last blog, Yariv Levin of Likud has been voted in as Speaker of the Knesset, a position which is thought to be temporary until the new government is sworn in–at which time Levin will become the Minister of Justice.
Because Levin now “controls” the Knesset, the new government-to-be is rushing to pass 4 laws:
The “Deri” Law which will specify that a person can serve as minister as long as he did not serve time in prison after a criminal conviction. Passage of this law will permit Shas head Aryeh Deri to become a Minister in the government–and is a prerequisite to Shas finally signing on to the new Coalition.
The “Smotrich” Law which will expand National Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich’s powers by giving him a Deputy Ministerial post in the Ministry of Defense. That post would enable to Smotrich responsible for the Civil Administration and thereby able to coordinate the government’s actions in Judea and Samaria.
The “Ben Gvir” Law which is an amendment to existing law. The amendment will give Ben Gvir additional policy powers as Minister of National Security.
The so-called “Splitting Law” that would prevent 4 members of the Knesset from splitting from a Party to form their own faction.
Last night, despite intensive filibustering from Gideon Sa’ar and others in the opposition, the Knesset approved the first readings of the Deri Law and the Smotrich Law. As regular readers of OneIsrael know, each proposed Law must pass three readings in order to become law.
All of this is happening against the December 21 deadline that Netanyahu has to form a government.
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.