Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
8 Adar 5783
March 1 2023
The Quotes of the Day
“Most Israelis do not want America not to interfere in Israel’s affairs.”
Tom Nides, U.S. Ambassador to Israel speaking to an Israeli reporter yesterday.
In other words, Nides would outrageously have us believe that Israelis want American to interfere in our affairs.
One can only conclude from this statement that Nides is surrounded by no one but anti-government leftists.
—
“Iran can produce enough fissile material for one nuclear bomb in about 12 days.”
U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Affairs, Colin Kahl, testifying in a hearing in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The News on the Israeli Street
Ben Gvir targeted . . .
Israel Police arrested a resident of eastern Jerusalem yesterday after they uncovered a plot to assassinate Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir and then hold his body for ransom.
According to the police, the terrorist planned to carry this out during Ramadan and was in collusion with terrorists outside of Israel–and in fact had already received money to proceed.
National Disturbance Day . . .
As you must know by now, the anarchists here in Israel are being extensively funded by organizations such as the New Israel Fund outside of Israel and by individuals such as former PM Ehud Barak here in Israel.
How much money do they have?
One example comes from this morning. The anti-government leaders sent out a letter yesterday to truck drivers informing that they would pay 2600 shekels ($725) to any truck driver who would block roads today.
Orthodox women . . .
A fascinating statistic. The Central Bureau of Statistics released information yesterday that shows that the percentage of orthodox women in the work force in Israel exceeds the percentage of non-orthodox women.
Also fascinating is the fact that 85% of employed orthodox women work in high-tech.
TODAY’S BLOG
This Morning In Tel Aviv Among The Anarchists
Your humble servant awoke this morning full of anticipation. Business regarding a passport was taking us to Tel Aviv, and we were eager to see what the National Day of Disruption looked like at ground zero of the anti-government movement (aka “anti-legal reform” movement).
Because we had heard so much in the media about what was going to happen today, we decided to park our car at the Ashdod train station and take the train to Tel Aviv. The 45 minute journey was going smoothly until there was a slight disturbance at the Hagana Train Station where the train was delayed for about two minutes because a group of 5 anarchists blocked one of the doors of the train and wouldn’t let passengers off.
This, we thought, was the beginning of a long morning wading through anarchists.
The next stop, HaShalom, was ours; we exited easily and went outside—expecting tens of thousands of anarchists.
At 9:30 am, this is what we saw:
Out of the front door of the Train Station (inside Azrieli shopping mall) looking down Kaplan St.
Yes, the street was empty except for a policeman and another person.
Looking the other way:
Looking down Derech Menachem Begin.
Again, no people.
Why were there no people? Because they were elsewhere in Tel Aviv? Because the police were doing a good job of keeping the roads open?
We continued to our appointment, and one hour later we walked back to the station. Along the way, we encountered a small number of demonstrators such as this group:
These kids were just high school students–happy they they had been let out for the day to “protest.” They were not the paid anarchists leading the anti-government demonstrations.
All of the above is not to say that the situation did not eventually deteriorate. By the time we arrived back in Ashdod, a few hundred anarchists had gathered on Derech Menachem Begin and pushed back police barricades; some had broken through another barricade to block the Ayalon Freeway.
What are your humble servant’s takeaways from the morning’s experience?
—The expected hundreds of thousands did not materialize (maybe they will later).
—The media is breathlessly exaggerating what is happening.
—The police have obviously been given orders to only interact passively with the demonstrators.
—There is little to no disruption taking place in Tel Aviv. Stores and shopping malls are full. Similarly, there is no disruption whatsoever here in Ashdod.
UPDATE: 1:30 pm: the situation in Tel Aviv has turned violent with anarchists attacking the police.
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.