Yom Rishon
Sunday
3 Elul 5783
August 20 2023
The Indecent Quote of the Night
“Our hearts go out to the families of the murdered; may they rest in piece. The demonstration tonight in Democracy Square will open with a minute’s silence for those murdered.”
Spokesman for the ‘Kaplan anti-government Force’
That the “Kaplan force” has no heart as has been demonstrated time and again over the last 30 weeks. How many times have we seen Israelis murdered on Shabbat only to have “the Kaplan force” show its sorrow by “a minute’s silence”?
A minute’s silence with drums beating and “protesters” chanting anti-government slogans–in short, no silence at all.
It would never occur to the leaders of the anarchists to call off a “protest” to remember the murdered victims and their families. They could care less about murdered Israelis.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea and Samaria.
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the A-Zaim Checkpoint on the Jerusalem-Ma’ale Adumim Road. No casualties were reported; the terrorists escaped.
Palestinian terrorists fired on Israelis at Bat Ein.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis in Tulkarm.
Palestinian terrorists fired on IDF troops in Jenin this morning.
TODAY’S BLOG:
The 4 km Corridor of Death
Aviad Nir (29) and his father Shai (60). May their memories be for a blessing.
Yesterday morning at this time, they were an always happy, always together father-son team who enjoyed their families here in Ashdod immensely.
This morning, they are dead . . .
. . . gruesomely shot to death in their heads and bodies at point-blank range by a Palestinian terrorist at a car wash in Huwwara as they waited for their car (note that Huwwara is alternately spelled Huwara or Hawara).
The bloody scene of the carnage.
The apparent sequence of events:
1. Aviad and Shai went to Huwwara (where Shai thought he had “Palestinian friends”) to have the air conditioner on their car fixed. Afterwards, they took their car to a nearby carwash and got out of their car.
2. Either a worker at the air conditioning repair shop or a worker at the car wash heard them speaking Hebrew and immediately called the terrorist.
3. Within minutes the terrorist arrived on foot and identified them via a car wash worker.
4. He immediately shot them–at least 3 times each–then began to leave, only to return and shoot them again.
5. The terrorist then fled into Huwwara–and then elsewhere. The terrorist is still being hunted at this hour.
The first rescue forces on the scene were Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics who determined the death of the father–and took the son to a nearby medical clinic; he was pronounced dead shortly thereafter upon the arrival of MADA and IDF forces.
Why were MADA and the IDF so slow to arrive?
It turns out that Israeli security forces decided weeks ago to reduce their forces in and around Huwwara on Shabbat–because fewer Jews supposedly drive through Huwwara on Saturday.
This reduction was decided on despite the fact that terrorist attacks (reported and non-reported) now average more than 200 per week according to an IDF statement today.
Yesterday’s attack was the tenth attack in Huwwara alone since February: 6 shootings, 2 stabbings, 2 run-overs–in which 4 Israelis were murdered and 8 wounded.
33 Israelis have now been murdered in Palestinian terror attacks since January–the same number that were murdered in all of last year.
But back to Huwwara.
Note that Road 60 passes straight through Huwwara and that Israelis living in Jewish communities north of Huwwara have no expeditious way to get from their communities to ones to the south–or to Jerusalem.
There is no doubt that Road 60 through Huwwara is probably the most difficult place to defend in Judea and Samaria (excluding the Jewish neighborhoods in Hevron).
To put it a different way, that section of Road 60 is a 4 km long death trap. There are stores lining both sides of the road and traffic jams at all hours of the day that make Israelis sitting ducks. Easy escape routes for terrorists are located in side streets all along the way.
All of this has long been realized, and in 2019, planning began and budgeting was approved for a Huwwara Bypass Road–only after a hunger strike by Jewish community members outside then-PM Netanyahu’s home. However, it wasn’t until this past month that the first concrete was poured–and it won’t be until December that the road is finished.
Nevertheless, a bypass road will not solve the problem by itself as we have seen by the continuing terrorism on the Nabi Elias Bypass road. What is needed is the return of the checkpoints throughout Judea and Samaria so that armed Palestinians cannot drive willy-nilly to their next terror destination.
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.