Yom Chamishee
Thursday
21 Elul 5783
September 7 2023
The Quotes of the Day
Context: For those of you unfamiliar with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, he has devoted his most recent years to incessantly attacking Israel. On Tuesday, he unleashed another scathing assault–this time focusing on the Biden Administration attempt to achieve Israel-Saudi Arabia normalization.
In his column he urged Biden and the Saudis:
“Do not let Netanyahu make you his useful idiots. You cannot have normalization with an Israeli government that is not normal. It will never be a stable U.S. ally or Saudi partner. And right now, Israel’s government is not normal.”
Last night, Israeli FM Eli Cohen responded on Israeli TV:
“This is the same Thomas Friedman who wanted Israel to return the Golan Heights to Syria; this is the same one who said there is nothing to fear from leaving Gaza. This is the same Thomas Friedman who is currently part of the anti-government protests here. He must say strange and delusional things; otherwise no one will pay attention to him.”
Cohen is exactly correct. We can point to dozens of columns in which Friedman excoriated Israel for anything and everything. Of course, that excoriation fits right in at the Times–which never misses an opportunity to trash Israel.
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and Gaza.
Stabbing attack:
A Palestinian terrorist (self-identified) from eastern Jerusalem went to the walkway down to the Jaffa Gate along the outside of the Old City Wall at 3:20 pm yesterday, pulled out a butcher knife, and began stabbing people.
Most seriously wounded was the person he stabbed in neck (the 50-year-old man remains in critical condition). Two others were also stabbed. Unfortunately and inexplicably, the terrorist was merely arrested and not eliminated.
“Rock”, Molotov, IED attacks:
Palestinian terrorists tried to kill Israelis in Daheisha, Bil’in, Tarqomiyya, Jilazon, Al Abuv, and at numerous places along the Hevron-Gush Etzion Road.
Former officials gone haywire . . .
It seems that every former Israeli official (think Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Benny Gantz, Yair Lapid, Gideon Saar, and . . .) fights with each other every day to see who can get to a microphone the fastest and fraudulently trash Israel.
In doing so, they are doing nothing except arming our enemies with ammunition to use against us in every venue from the United Nations to the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
Yesterday it was former head of the Mossad Tamir Pardo‘s turn as he proclaimed: “Israel runs an apartheid regime in Judea and Samaria.”
Unbelievable.
Apartheid? In the first place, some 90% of the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria live in Areas A and B under PLO governance. The PLO practices ethnic cleansing in its areas allowing no Jews in Areas A and B.
As for the 10% living in Area C, the Israeli government and military go out of their way to protect them—even to the point of often elevating their rights above those of Israelis living there.
By the way, after Pardo left the Mossad to join private Israeli internet gambling entrepreneur Noam Lanir, he called the Mossad “a crime organization with a license.”
What’s the point? . . .
Scientists at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot published a paper in the journal Nature this week in which they reported that they had created human embryos without the need for an egg, sperm, or uterus. The embryos have been developed from stem cells – and grown in the laboratory until day 14.
The article notes that the artificially created embryos have all the characteristics of a normal embryo including “the placenta, the yolk sac, the amniotic sac, and the other external tissues necessary for normal development.”
Your humble servant’s questions are simply: “What’s the point?” and “Doesn’t anyone see the danger in creating a factory for the production of artificially produced humans?”
TODAY’S BLOG
The U.S. Black Caucus Fiasco
The Congressional Black Caucus meeting with PM Netanyahu this past week in Jerusalem. Smiles are few and far between.
As you may not know, a delegation of 10 Democrat Party members of the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus have been in Israel for the past week.
They were brought here on an all-expenses paid junket by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora–with some assistance from AIPAC. The purpose of the visit was supposed to have been to increase Israel’s connections with the Democrats in Washington.
Secondarily, the visit was also obviously designed to curry favor with the Biden Administration which–9 months after Netanyahu took office– has yet to even invite PM Netanyahu to the White House.
After meeting with Netanyahu several days ago, the delegation was supposed to have gone to Judea and Samaria to tour Israeli communities there and see for themselves the challenges that they face.
But wait!
Yesterday, the delegation canceled that trip and instead headed for Ramallah where they visited Yasser Arafat’s tomb and then met with senior officials of the Palestinian Authority, including Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Ashtia.
The visit was not approved in advance by Israel, and all of the visit to Ramallah was paid for by the Israel Diaspora Ministry–in other words, by Israeli citizens like your humble servant.
As of yesterday, the best that the Diaspora Ministry could say is that it has launched an “internal investigation” into what happened.
The bottom line is simply this: anyone who really thought that bringing the Congressional Black Caucus to Israel would somehow rally support for Israel in Washington was a fool.
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.