The Countdown Begins: 7 Days To Go

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Yom Shnee

Monday

2 Sivan 5783

May 22 2023

Photo of the Day

A new patient in the CT-Scan room of Sha’are Zedek Hospital in Jerusalem (photo Sha’are Zedek).

Two coffins dated 950 BCE and around 600 BCE which are in the Israel Museum were deeply analyzed yesterday. The older coffin belonged to a woman named Jed-Mot (her name is on the coffin); the other to an Egyptian nobleman Ptah-Hotep. The results of the scan have yet to be revealed (there was no mummy inside either coffin).

The Egregiously Arrogant Quote of the Day

“The visit of Itamar Ben Gvir to the Temple Mount yesterday was alarmingly provocative. We are also troubled by the decision of the government to let Jews settle in Chomesh. The decision is not compatible with Israel’s commitment to the United States and to President Biden.”

The spokesman of the U.S. State Department speaking in Washington

Let’s get this straight.

Itamar Ben Gvir is Israel’s Minister of National Security. The Temple Mount in Jerusalem is under complete Israeli sovereignty. And now, the Biden Administration has the unmitigated gall to try to tell us where our Minister of National Security can go.

As for Chomesh, the democratically elected Knesset of the sovereign state of Israel voted to rescind Israel’s unilateral decision in 2005 to evacuate 4 Jewish communities in Samaria of which Chomesh is one. And now, the Biden Administration has the unmitigated gall to try to tell Jews where we can live in our country.  

The News on the Israeli Street

The war in Judea and Samaria.

Shooting attacks:

Palestinian terrorists fired–from a passing car–at the IDF outpost near the Ertah. The soldiers returned fire hitting the car, but the terrorists managed to escape.

Palestinian terrorists fired on IDF soldiers in the Palestinian settlement of Balaa. No Israelis were wounded; the terrorists were captured.

Palestinian terrorists fired on IDF soldiers operating in Balata east of Shechem. No Israelis were wounded; three terrorists were shot and killed.

Palestinian terrorists opened fire again–for the 3rd time this week–on dozens of homes in Migdalim. Miraculously no Israelis have been wounded; the snipers remain at large.

Run over attack:

A Palestinian terrorist ran over an IDF soldier in Hawara yesterday. The soldier was moderately wounded and taken to Beilinson Hospital. The terrorist escaped.

“Rock”, Molotov, and IED attacks:

Palestinian terrorists attacked a bus near Turmus’aya northeast of Ramallah, and motorists as Hawara, Hizma, Tekoa, Luban a-Sharqiya and at numerous other places in Gush Etzion.

TODAY’S BLOG:

The Countdown Begins: 7 Days To Go

We are now one week away from May 29, the date by which the national budget must be passed. If it is not passed by midnight on the 29th, the Knesset automatically disperses and a new election is called.

As things stand now, the Coalition does not have 61 votes to pass the proposed budget because 6 members of Otzma Yehudit, 4 members from United Torah Judaism, and the 1 member of Noam are fighting for shekels.

Otzma is unhappy because its member who is the Minister of the Galilee and Negev is not receiving nearly as much money to fund his ministry as earmarked for the ministry of Religious Zionist Minister Orit Struck. Almost certainly Otzma will eventually agree to the current proposed budget.

On the other hand, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) presents a larger problem because it is demanding 600,000,000 million more shekels to fund its religious school system—a system that does not teach basic educational subjects and offers no vocational training.

In short, surrendering to UTJ would make Netanyahu look bad to secular Israelis who already claim that the orthodox do not do their fair share of work. Not only that, adding the funding would mean amending the budget which would mean dramatically slowing down the whole process–not a pleasing process since time is short.

So the countdown is on to reach an agreement.