9,409 And Counting!

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Yom Shleeshee

Tuesday

23 Shvat 5783

February 14 2023

May His Memory Be For A Blessing

Sgt. Asil Suaed from a Bedouin village in northern Israel.

Sgt. Asil Suaed, a 22-year-old Bedouin Border Guard was killed last night during a stabbing attack at the Shuafat Checkpoint in Jerusalem. While he and a private security guard were checking passengers on a bus for weapons, a terrorist pulled out a knife and began stabbing Asil. The security guard then opened fire on the terrorist hitting not only the terrorist but also Asil.

In another stabbing attack, a Jewish man was stabbed in the back near the Chain Gate on the Temple Mount. He managed to make it to the Kotel where he was evacuated to a nearby hospital. The terrorist fled into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and was eventually captured.

The terrorists who carried out the stabbings were both from Shuafat.

The Quotes of the Day: More Chutzpah From the Bidenites

The decision of the Cabinet to legalize/regulate 10 different outposts in Judea and Samaria as well as authorize the building of 10,000 new apartments there, brought these demeaning comments from the U.S. yesterday:

” . . . it is entirely inconsistent with what Israel is, it is entirely inconsistent with Israel’s identity as a democratic Jewish state.”

Ned Price, U.S. State Department Spokesman.

What utter gall to tell us who we are and what it means to be democratic and Jewish.

Meanwhile U.S. Secretary Tony Blinken was incredulous at the decision— given, as he said, “I was just there two weeks ago.” Blinken wailed “I am deeply troubled by Israel’s decision.”

All we can say is kolakevod to this government for having some spine.

See Today’s Blog below for more about the Cabinet decision.

The News on the Israeli Street

The demonstration in Jerusalem yesterday . . .

Thousands of Israelis came to Jerusalem yesterday to protest against the government at the Knesset. Well, not just to stand outside and protest, but also to try to break down police fences, listen to musical groups, block Knesset members from entering the building, listen to harangues from Lapid, Gantz, and others, and to repeatedly chant “Netanyahu Boged!” (“Netanyahu is a traitor!)

Just how many thousands were at the rock concert-like event was the subject of some funny numbers in the pro-protest Jerusalem Post this morning which headlined “Tens of thousands”, followed in the article’s first sentence by “some 90,000 people”, followed by what the Post claimed were the more accurate numbers provided by the protest movement itself–300,000.

Despite their efforts of the tens of thousands, ninety thousand, or three hundred thousand, the Constitution Committee voted to send the first two pieces of the legal reform to the Knesset where their first reading may take place as early as next Monday.

Late yesterday afternoon, PM Netanyahu asked the Attorney General for permission to make a televised reply to President Herzog’s pathetic speech the night before. She turned him down.

Netanyahu then suggested that he, former PM Lapid, former Defense Minister Gantz, and Yariv Levin have a meeting to discuss the situation. 5 minutes later Lapid rejected the idea saying that “there will be no negotiations until the legislation is stopped.”

After that Levin and Constitution Committee Chairman Simcha Rotman proposed a meeting to discuss the proposals. The proposal was promptly rejected as well.

All of which underscores what we have been writing here for weeks: the protest movement has nothing to do with “legal reform” and everything to do with ousting the government.

TODAY’S BLOG

9,409 And Counting!

Yesterday, your humble servant wrote this:

“In an astonishing move that last night due to the presence of Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir in the government, the security cabinet approved the regularization (aka legalization) of 10 Jewish communities (two of them were combined into one, making 9) in Judea and Samaria that had been considered “illegal outposts”: Avigail, Beit Hogla, Givat Harel, Givat Haroeh, Givat Arnon, Mitzpe Yehuda, Malachei Hashalom, Asael, Boaz, and Shaharit. For years, Smotrich and Ben Gvir have argued that the only real response to Palestinian terrorism should be the establishment of new communities or legalization of older ones in Judea and Samaria.”

Three items your humble servant did not point out:

*10 communities were legalized in response to the 10 people murdered in Jerusalem in the last two weeks.

*All of these communities are small, even tiny, and half of them have been around for at least 20 years.

*The communities were strategically chosen covering the length and breadth of Area C from the very southern part of Judea to the northern part of Samaria.

This morning came the wonderful news that 9,409 new apartments have been approved for Jewish communities–an unheard of number in recent years.

In making that announcement, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called it “a good start.”

Indeed it is, but there is a long way to go, and we are not celebrating yet. After all, PM Netanyahu’s modus operandi in the past has been to give approval for new construction only to freeze it later on.