Yom Rishon
Sunday
9 Iyar 5783
April 30 2023
Special Note
Cyber attacks on Israel-related websites intensified over the weekend. Rotter, Hamal, and others were targeted and unable to be reached for more than 24 hours. Here at OneIsrael, we were also targeted and while your ability to access the site was not affected, our ability to access the site was. Hence, we did not post our usual Shabbat photos for your perusal.
The Photos of the Day
A blurry screen shot from a video made at the usual Saturday night anti-government demonstration in Tel Aviv on Kaplan Street. Where there was once “a few” PLO flags, the anarchists now wave dozens along with flags of Antifa.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem:
The Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, Kevin McCarthy, at the Kotel this morning.
In the foreground is Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Israel’s Rabbi of Holy Places.
McCarthy made these comments:
“We are standing at the feet of the same stones that supported the building of the Temple almost two thousand years ago. The Temple was destroyed, but its spirit remained in the world – a spirit of freedom and mission, a spirit of faith in the Creator and in man. A spirit that the Jewish people carried wherever they wandered.
For many years we have been watching in amazement how the American nation expresses the deepest and most important values of the Jewish spirit. One covenant connects us, the Jews and the Americans. A covenant of vocation – to be faithful messengers to the Creator of the world, and to correct the world in the kingdom of God. We are here to pray for the peace of America and the peace of Israel and the world.”
McCarthy also said that if President Biden will not invite PM Netanyahu to the White House, he will invite Netanyahu to speak to the House of Representatives.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem.
Shooting attack:
A Palestinian terrorist tried run over an Israeli security guard in the Sawakhra al-Sharqiya neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. The guard was not hit and opened fire on the terrorist who escaped.
IED, “rock”, and Molotov attacks:
There were dozens of attacks in Judea and Samaria overnight–especially along Road 60 and along the Gush Etzion-Hevron Highway.
Snippets of the day . . .
**According to diaries of pedophile Jeffrey Epstein which were released in pieces over the last few days by the Wall Street Journal, former PM Ehud Barak had multiple meetings with Epstein in his home and in fact was a “regular guest.”
**The outrage continues over the revelation this past week that Supreme Court Justice Khaled Kabub sent a convicted rapist’s case to the probation board for review because Kabub wrote “there is no physical violence in this case.” Kabub, by the way, is the first Muslim Israeli-Arab to ever sit on the Court.
**There are reports that Israeli aircraft attacked another Iranian proxy near Homs Syria last night. There are no further details.
**Israeli pop singer Noa Kirel who will represent Israel in the coming Eurovision singing contest arrived in Liverpool today on El Al:
Eurovision has always produced intense interest among Israelis. Good luck to Noa!
**From Israel’s Nature and Parks Authority, an environmental disaster on the Golan Heights: from a population of 333 twenty years ago, the number of eagles present now has dropped to zero. They have all been killed by farmers who put out poisoned carcasses of animals to try to kill predators such as coyotes and wolves.
**The value of the Lebanese pound has now dropped to 100,000 pounds for 1 dollar. The pound has lost 98% of its value in the last 3 years.
**PM Netanyahu announced tonight that the first phase of a free education program for children 0-3 has begun. As soon as he made the announcement, he was roundly criticized by the Opposition for not saying that his plan included salaries for nannies.
TODAY’S BLOG
In Pursuit Of The Nobel Peace Prize Again?
All readers of OneIsrael remember the egregious awkwardness with which former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry pursued the Nobel Peace Prize via his efforts to produce an Iranian nuclear arms appeasement deal.
That didn’t pan out.
On the other hand, former U.S. President Obama did receive a Nobel Peace Prize (2009) for . . . absolutely nothing–at the beginning of his first term of office.
In receiving the Nobel, Obama was following in the footsteps of Theodore Roosevelt who won the 1906 Peace Prize for negotiating an end to the Russian-Sino War, Woodrow Wilson (1919) for helping create the League of Nations at the end of WWI, and Jimmy Carter (2007) for efforts to “find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, advancing democracy and human rights, and promoting economic and social development. Carter had hoped to win one long before for mediating talks between Egypt and Israel.
Even former U.S. Vice President Al Gore won the Peace prize in 2007 for his efforts to “spread the word about climate change.”
The point is that American political leaders always seem to have the Nobel Peace Prize in the back (or sometimes in the front of) their minds. In the last few decades, they have often looked to the Middle East as away to receive the Prize.
All of which brings us to President Biden. Even before the formation of the current Coalition government, Netanyahu advisor and current Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer said that “a policy change by the Biden administration towards Saudi Arabia could lead to peace between it and Israel, and for Biden to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.”
According to reports a few months ago, the policy change that Saudi Arabia supposedly seeks in return for recognizing Israel is four-part:
—a defense alliance between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
—U.S. assistance in building Saudi nuclear plants for civilian purposes
—improving trade between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
—halting all criticism of Saudi Arabia concerning the Khashoggi “affar” (aka murder)
Apparently Biden is considering implementing these steps despite the rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran-and the news this morning of a rapprochement between Hezbollah and Saudi Arabia.
Having said all of this, that your humble servant cannot help but believe that all of the “cautious optimism” that Netanyahu and his government have about forging relations with Saudi Arabia is utterly misplaced.
Saudi Arabia has been dramatically and consistently clear for decades about what it would take for it to recognize Israel–and those steps have nothing to do with the above four.
Specifically, Saudi Arabia has repeatedly declared that there will never be diplomatic relations with Israel until there is the establishment of a Palestinian state with eastern Jerusalem as its capital.
Period.
Unless Netanyahu has a grand plan to end this term of office (undoubtedly his last) with the bringing about of these two Saudi demands, he can kiss diplomatic relations with Riyadh goodbye.
As can Joe Biden with his Nobel Prize.
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.