Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
10 Shvat 5783
February 1 2023
The Repulsive Photo of the Day
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken meeting with PLO Chairman Abu Mazen in Ramallah yesterday (Photo source MTI in upper right corner).
Could Blinken possibly be more hypocritical?
Hours after giving Israel a tongue-lashing about democracy, the U.S. Secretary of State drove over to Ramallah to give a friendly handshake (and millions of dollars) to Abu Mazen, the epitome of non-democracy. The Chairman of the PLO is now into the 19th year of the 4-year-term of office to which he was elected in 2005 having forbidden any elections since.
Not only that, but after speaking against terrorist violence in Jerusalem, Blinken sat down with the ultimate inciter of terror. After all, the PLO has just finished three days of mourning for the terrorists who tried to murder our soldiers in Jenin only to be killed themselves and has refused to condemn the perpetrator of the Friday night massacre–who apparently had ties to Abu Mazen’s Fatah Movement.
But never mind all of this, Abu Mazen is now Blinken’s best friend.
The News on the Israeli Street
An update on last Friday’s terror victims . . .
Two victims of the Neve Ya’akov terror attack are still hospitalized at Hadassah: the 15 year old boy has improved to “mild” condition; the 20-year-old young man has improved to “moderate” condition.
The condition of IDF paratrooper “Nadav Haim ben Irit Chaya” who wounded the terrorist at Ir David after being shot twice himself has worsened despite being ventilated and sedated. A mass prayer was held for him at the Kotel last night. The family has asked for your prayers.
The war in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Run-over attack:
A Palestinian terrorist ran over two IDF soldiers at the Tapuach Junction and sped away. When he was later captured, he claimed that he didn’t see them because of the fog. One of the soldiers is in serious condition, the other in “moderate”–both have extensive wounds in their lower torsos.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists attacked at Beit Omer on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, Al-Aruv, Hawara, near the large Yitzhar Junction, between Shupa and Einav, in the vicinity of Zubidat, at Singil, on the Hosan Bypass, on Road 465 between Aterot and Bir Zeit, and at several dozen more locations.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The Left’s All-Out Assault On The State of Israel
Primarily funded by leftist organizations around the world, the Israeli left has launched an unprecedented attack designed to undermine the state of Israel.
Unwilling to accept their defeat in the recent election, these leftists are attacking on multiple fronts: economic, cultural, and even demographic.
Led by former PM Lapid, the leftists claim that if PM Netanyahu and his coalition remain in power, Israeli democracy will disappear–and that because of this, Israeli companies and foreign companies with offices here should leave. Every announcement over the last week from such companies has been met with applause from Lapid and his cohorts.
Thus far, the number of such companies has been few and disingenuous. Take yesterday’s announcement from Tom Livna of Warbit that he is pulling up stakes. This morning, an Israeli journalist has come forward to say that Livna gave an interview back in 2020 that he was planning to leave Israel. In short, Warbit’s departure has nothing to do with the current government.
And fortunately, there are numerous investors suddenly flocking here to fill whatever vacuum is created when companies leave. PM Netanyahu announced today that Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is vastly increasing his holdings here.
The second front is cultural. An example of the attack on the government came last night at the start of a Shlomi Shaban concert in Tel Aviv. The performance opened with a coffin draped in an Israeli flag. On a backdrop were projected images of Minister of Justice Levin and PM Netanyahu. After they had flashed onscreen, a voice intoned that “PM Rabin has been assassinated.” The crowd applauded the supposed connection between the images and the announcement.
Click here to see it for yourself.
The third front of undermining Israeli society is demographic. As Ithamar Gordel pointed out in his post that we reprinted two days ago, the liberal leftist crowd was completely indifferent to the murders of orthodox Jews in Jerusalem on Friday night.
To these leftists, the orthodox are “the miserable others.”
This was underscored by a glaring omission on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Tel Aviv City Hall which normally is lit in the colors of the Israeli flag after a major terror attack in order to show solidarity with the grieving and unity within the country remained unlit.
This omission was brought up yesterday by a 12th grade high school student at a school where Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai was visiting. During a question and answer session, the student asked Huldai why City Hall was not illuminated after the massacre?
Huldai’s response: “I don’t have a good answer.”
Student follow up: “Who decides whether to illuminate with the flag?”
Huldai: “We exercise discretion, there are no clear answers.”
Of course Huldai knows exactly why City Hall was not illuminated with an Israeli flag.
Simply because uber-liberal Tel Aviv City Hall did not think it was important to do so. After all, most of those killed were “the miserable others” who helped elect the current government.
Whether on the economic, cultural, or demographic front, the “left” is rending Israeli society apart.
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.