Yom Shleeshee
Tuesday
24 Tevet 5783
January 17 2023
The Photos of the Day:
The Givat Givton Nature Reserve opened to the public yesterday.
The newly opened Givat Givton Nature Reserve at Mazkeret Batya.
The Givat Givton Nature Reserve has been created by the Nature and Parks Authority and contains the floating trail over a pond that you see above, and an observation tower that you see below. The area used to be a swamp. Drained and ecologically restored with the pond, the Reserve had its invasive plant species removed and animals and birds reintroduced to the site.
The observation tower.
The Revelatory Quote of the Day
An ironic photo: Yair Golan at the “Democracy” Institute.
“Shutting down high tech in Israel is an excellent example of a very effective civil war.”
Former Knesset member Yair Golan yesterday (his Meretz Party did not obtain enough votes to make it into the new Knesset)..
Just how far are the leftists willing to go to undemocratically bring down the current government which was democratically elected two months ago? Funded primarily by the New Israel Fund and organized by Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party members, they are willing to destroy the Israel economy in their quest for power.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea and Samaria.
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on the Jewish community of Shaked–homes were hit but no one was wounded:
Bullet hole in a house in Shaked (photo: Rescue without Borders SSF).
Palestinian terrorists fired at IDF soldiers at Tamon. No casualties were reported.
Palestinian terrorists fired at IDF soldiers at Al-Fawwar. No casualties were reported.
Palestinian terrorists fired at soldiers and civilians at the Rihan Crossing. No casualties were reported.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists attacked at Singil northeast of Ramallah, near Gilead and the HaSela IDF outpost, at the Malachi HaShalom Junction, on Road 458 near Al Muayyir, Hawara between Einbus Squqre and Yitzhar, and many other locations.
Outright hypocrisy . . .
Former PM Naftali Bennett issued a statement yesterday in which he stated that the legal reform proposed by Yariv Levin is “dangerous.”
Your humble guesses that he forgot that 3 years ago, he and Ayelet Shaked published a document in which they called for legal reform–and their legal reform was even more severe than the current proposals.
They called for an overriding clause with 61 votes in the Knesset necessary to overcome a Supreme Court decision, the Supreme Court Judicial Appointments Committee to be completely abolished, and specific reductions in the power of the Supreme Court and High Court of Justice.
It is nothing but egregious hypocrisy for Bennett now to label the current legal reforms as “dangerous.”
More foreign workers coming to Israel . . .
The government has approved the bringing of 10,000 new construction workers from China to assist in the massive building projects taking place all over the country.
They will join 15,000 other foreign workers already here (does not include the 100,000+ Palestinian workers already working).
Construction managers have called for thousands of more workers to be permitted into Israel–specifically from India and Turkey. Indian workers are a good idea; Turkish workers are a terrible one as they come from a country rank with anti-Israel sentiment in which Hamas has set up shop.
The Jerusalem Light Rail . . .
Miri Regev (left) and the Mayor of Jerusalem inaugurating the new line.
As you may not know unless you have been in Jerusalem, the Light Rail system is an amazing success. 14 km long, in includes 23 stations, and transports 170,000 passengers per day.
Yesterday a new section was added to the system. Transportation Miri Regev had this to say: “I was happy to inaugurate together with my friend the Mayor of Jerusalem Moshe Leon the test ride for the additional section of the light rail from Mount Herzl to Rabinovitz Park in Kiryat Yuval Jerusalem. And in two months’ time we will inaugurate the line up to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. This is great news for the residents of Jerusalem and the whole country.”
Ostrich eggs . . .
Eight opened ostrich eggs dated to sometime between 4,ooo and 7,500 years ago have been discovered near an ancient firepit in Nitzana sand dunes in the Negev.
There was a time when wild ostriches roamed this area and were a primary food source for residents.
TODAY’S BLOG
The More Immigrants To Israel, The More The Jewish Majority Declines
The Center for Immigration Policy published an extraordinarily important report yesterday.
The basic findings:
77,000 people immigrated to Israel in 2022. 60% of these were not Jewish. The percentage of non-Jews among Russian immigrants was even higher. Even a large number of Ethiopians recently brought to Israel have registered as “Christian” at the Interior Ministry.
How is this possible you ask?
Because a person needs to have only 1 grandparent who was Jewish in order to make aliyah here. Moreover, the non-Jewish spouses and children of Israeli men are also permitted to immigrate.
The net result is that the Jewish majority in the country continues to decline. It fell from 73.9% in 2021 to 73.6% in 2022–and is declining at that rate each year. In the past 30 years, the Jewish majority has declined by nearly 10%.
This turn of events comes even as the Jewish birthrate has risen–and among orthodox women has risen sharply.
Perhaps in considering these statistics, you may understand dear reader why there is a call among members of the new government to amend the Law of Return so that the only people making aliyah to Israel are people with a Jewish parent. The Center for Immigration Policy estimates that such a change will reduce non-Jewish immigration by 85%.
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.