Yom Chamishee
Thursday
18 Shvat 5783
February 9 2023
The Photos Of The Day
Winter storm Barbara is beginning to peter out and as it leaves it is leaving behind many beautiful rainbows. Here was one this morning beside Highway 6:
Rainbows in every direction.
No rainbows in Iran. This is a photo of the latest Iranian ballistic missile–emblazoned with the words “Death to Israel”:
One missile in the Iranian ballistic missile arsenal.
The News on the Israeli Street
Earthquake, earthquake, and another earthquake . . .
For the third time in the last day, a minor earthquake has shaken Israel. The last one measured 3.9 and was not in Israel but on the Syria-Lebanon border, 130 km from Majdal Shams.
Israeli rescue teams saving lives in Turkey . . .
Thus far IDF rescue teams have pulled 8 Turkish civilians from the snowy rubble–most recently a 2-year-old child and a 65-year-old man.
Click here to see the rescue of the 65 year old man.
The Israeli field hospital near Kermanmarsh is now up and beginning operation with the arrival of 120 more medical and administrative staff. This brings to more than 600 Israelis now on the ground.
It is the only field hospital in the world which has the highest rating possible for field hospitals.
Reading between the lines . . .
A new study in the U.S. claims that the number of American Jews is now growing–reversing a decades long trend.
The study comes from Brandeis University in Boston. Its findings were presented at the World Zionist Meeting in Jerusalem this week by Prof. Leonard Sachs, head of the Institute for Contemporary Judaism at Brandeis and the chief scientist of the “Discovery” project.
If we are to believe Sachs, there are now nearly 8 million Jews in the U.S. instead of the usually accepted number of just under 6 million.
Where did these extra 2 million Jews suddenly come from?
Sachs reports that around 70% of children of mixed marriages receive a Jewish education and identify themselves as Jews. In his rollout of the finding, there is no discussion of what kind of Jewish education (obviously we are mainly talking about once a week or once a month Sunday school at a reform Jewish congregation).
Nor is there any discussion of whether those who identify define themselves as Jews also identify themselves as belonging to another religion such as Bu-Jews (Buddhist), Hin-Jews (Hindu), Jews for Jesus (Christian), and many other “hyphenated Jews.”
The study also included people as Jews who have only 1 parent (father or mother) who identifies as Jewish. It also counts children of mixed couples who say that they are “culturally Jewish.”
This latter group of people who consider themselves as culturally Jewish without practicing Judaism is undoubtedly the largest category in those extra 2 million.
Of course, none of the above has anything to do with Israel.
American Jews of whatever stripe have long been moving away from Israel which they place far down on the list of their priorities.
TODAY’S BLOG
The Fake Veneer of the Anti-Legal Reform Movement
The managers of the “Anti-Legal Reform Movement” announced today that some 30 hi-tech companies will allow their employees to participate in the nationwide strike they have called for next Monday.
This followed a call for them to participate which read in part (my bolding):
“Dear CEOs, the time has come for action. I call on all of you, CEOs and entrepreneurs of Israeli high-tech companies, to actively join the strike in the economy on Crimson. The government continues to gallop through lightning legislation to undermine Israeli democracy.
We, as members of the high-tech industry, who share values of inclusion, transparency, excellence, freedom, must take a clear position. This is not a political position, it is a value position, and this is also a war about the future of our industry here in Israel.”
This is the veneer the movement leaders want to present to the world.
It is total nonsense.
If you want to know what the so-called “legal reform” demonstrations are really about, check out this abominable quote from former Knesset member Yair Golan (his Meretz party was voted out of the Knesset in the November election):
“We must paralyze movement in the State of Israel, we must paralyze the workplaces, that way this horrible government will understand . . No more polite demonstrations on Saturday evenings, no more runaway posts in the evening, and no more lamentation. Only actions. Only results. Businesses will be shut down, services will be shut down, roads will be blocked, and the one who pretends to rule through corrupt, hedonistic, extremist and dark people will discover that the people are the sovereign.”
Paralyze movement in the State of Israel?
Paralyze the workplaces?
Shut down businesses?
Block roads?
Shut down services?
No care whatsoever for the country. No civility. No care for respecting the democratic will of the people expressed in the November election.
Nothing about inclusion, transparency, excellence, and freedom.
Nothing but egregious vitriol in depicting the election winners as “corrupt, hedonistic, extremist and dark”—and willing to throw the country to the dogs in order to get rid of them.
This is what the majority of people in the country–the people who voted for the current government–now face.
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.