Yom Shishee
Friday
12 Shvat 5783
February 3 2023
Photo of the Day
The November class of recruits to Israel’s elite Golani Brigade were sworn in yesterday.
The Quote of the Day
Does the following quote remind you of anything, dear reader?
“We reaffirm the close, enduring nature of the friendship between the U.S. and Jordan.”
President Joe Biden in his meeting with King Abdullah (and his son) in the White House yesterday.
It is the same phraseology that is used repeatedly in Washington and Jerusalem to describe the relationship between the U.S. and Israel. We heard it repeatedly when Blinken was in Jerusalem last week.
Touchy touchy time in the Oval Office yesterday–or maybe Biden was holding on to Abdullah and his son to keep from falling over.
So now, Israel is lumped into the same boat as Jordan.
Not only did Biden say this, he also recognized Jordan’s “crucial role as the custodian of Muslim holy places in Jerusalem.” It should be pointed out that Israel has never recognized Jordan as the custodian of any holy place in Jerusalem–merely saying that Jordan has a special role to play in Muslim holy places in the Old City.
Finally, Biden also thanked King Abdullah “for his close partnership and the role he and Jordan play as a force for stability in the Middle East.”
What a joke. The Jordanian government is teetering on the verge of collapse and can only garner support from Jordanians (or should we say Palestinians since most Jordanians are Palestinian) by lambasting Israel at every turn.
The News on the Israeli Street
Netanyahu goes gallivanting . . .
For the last 18 months, we roundly criticized former PM Yair Lapid, former PM Naftali Bennett, and former Defense Minister Benny Gantz for their endless junkets to Europe, the United States and Asia.
Unfortunately, PM Netanyahu is following in their footsteps with trips to Amman and now Paris in the last week. Why it was necessary to fly to either place on the public dole is difficult to understand–when a simple zoom call would suffice. Not only that, but everywhere Netanyahu goes, his “hosts” are given an opportunity to criticize Israel–as Macron did today.
The photos of Netanyahu and Macron yesterday were straight out of Lapid’s photo album. Click here to see the Netanyahu-Lapid bromance moment.
The U.S. quid pro quo, and . . .
What we have speculated turns out to be precisely correct. Secretary of State Blinken made it clear during his visit that U.S. help about Iran is completely conditioned on Israel throwing the Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria under the bus and strengthening the PLO.
To put it a different way: if Israel allows construction in Area C of Judea and Samaria, the U.S. will throw Israel under the bus concerning Iran.
This dictate is no problem for Netanyahu. Always obsessed with Iran, he threw our communities under the bus between 2009-2021 when he was prime minister.
By the way, Blinken also told Netanyahu that he would not meet with our Minister of Finance or Minister of National Security. And Netanyahu went along with this demand.
TODAY’S BLOG
The January Report Card For The New Government: C-
It has now been roughly one month since PM Netanyahu formed a new coalition. Based on what has happened, your humble servant presents the government’s first report card:
+In January, Finance Minister Smotrich deducted 50 million shekels from the monthly payment that Israel hands over to the PLO from taxes collected at Israel’s borders. He turned that money over to people who were victims of Palestinian terror. Yesterday, Smotrich announced that he was deducting 100 million shekels this month–again to go the victims of terror. This morning, National Security Minister Ben Gvir say he will propose also deducting the money that Israel pays to imprison terrorists (prison facilities, prison guards, food, clothes, and more).
+National Security Minister Ben Gvir is carrying out his plan to destroy illegally built structures in eastern Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria.
+Israel continues to make connections in Africa with Chad opening a new embassy in Israel yesterday, and Sudan apparently ready to “normalize” relations.
+On the domestic front, prices are still sky high, but some taxes are being rolled back.
On the other hand:
–Defense Minister Galant continues to resist turning over control of the Civil Administration to Finance Minister Smotrich as specified in the Coalition Agreements. It is important to remember that it is the Civil Administration that carries out the razing of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria.
–The government just asked the High Court to postpone a decision on razing the Palestinian settlement of Khan Al-Ahmar for another 4 months (it would be the 9th postponement so far). This request breaks a Coalition Agreement that Netanyahu made with Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.
–The excellent proposed legal reform is becoming increasingly mired down amid leftist demonstrations, pronouncements by so-called “economic authorities”, and most recently the Israel Attorney General who declared yesterday that PM Netanyahu cannot be involved in any discussion concerning the reform. Just this morning, PM Netanyahu told Macron that he is willing to compromise on judicial reform. It is time for the government to break out, do some open field running, and get the reform done.
–The continual kowtowing to the Biden Administration continues. As we noted above, Biden knows that Netanyahu is obsessed with Iran and will make numerous concessions to Biden and the PLO in order to get American help with Tehran.
–The way that Netanyahu has relegated Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich to the status of persona non-grata insofar as visitors to Israel are concerned is demeaning to them and to Israel. All a visiting “dignitary” has to do is say that he or she doesn’t want to attend a meeting in which they are present, and voila, Ben Gvir and Smotrich are nowhere to be found.
–The government’s response to the missile fire from Gaza a few days ago was nothing more than the same old Netanyahu which is to say no significant response.
So what is the government’s grade for January?
A solid C-.
Better than the continual F’s of the previous government, but so much less than it could be.
Shabbat Shalom!
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.