Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
19 Tishrei 5784
October 4 2023
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea and Samaria.
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF troops in Bet Heifer. No Israelis were wounded; 1 terrorist was shot.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israelis in Hevron.
Palestinian terrorists fired at the Jewish community of Gan-Ner in Gilboa.
IED, Molotov, “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists tried to murder Israelis at Hawara (3 year old girl wounded), Hizma, Azzun, Singil, Luban al Sharqiya, Al Abuv, at numerous locations along the Gush Etzion-Hevron highway, between Ariel and Tapuach, and at numerous other locations.
About that Yom Kippur protest in Tel Aviv . . .
It turns out the disruptions of Yom Kippur services in Tel Aviv extended well beyond the one in Dizengoff Square.
In fact, 18 separate Yom Kippur services were disrupted in an obviously well-planned and executed series of assaults (both verbal and in some cases physical). More than 500 disruptors fanned out all over the city.
In one of the disruptions which has gone unreported until now, a man wearing a speedo bathing suit pushed his way into the cantor’s position while his cohorts chanted that the worshipers were “Nazis who kill children”. By the way, this disruption took place at a location where there was no partition between men and women.
Fly Air Seychelles at your own risk . . .
For the second time in six weeks, another Air Seychelles airplane developed difficulties on the route between the Seychelles and Ben Gurion Airport and was forced to make an emergency landing in Jeddah.
128 Israelis were on board. Once again the Saudis have graciously welcomed them, and another plane has been dispatched to return them to Israel today.
By the way, in case you missed it, Israel Minister of Communication Shlomo Karhi who is visiting Saudi Arabia at the moment, videotaped a Sukkot prayer service that was held in Riyadh yesterday:
Karhi on the right in Riyadh yesterday. Did you ever think you would see this in Saudi Arabia?
TODAY’S BLOG
Yesterday The Bidenites, Today The OECD
No day passes here in Israel without some country or some organization telling us how to live our lives. Yesterday it was the Biden Administration arrogantly telling us that we should not tear down two illegally built (by Palestinian owners living outside of Jerusalem) apartments. Today we have the OECD, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, telling us how to run our economy.
The focus of today’s criticism was on the ultra-orthodox.
By way of context, it needs to be pointed out that the ministries in every Israeli government wage budget battles with each other–just as in every country. In Israel, more times than not, those battles focus on subsidies for the ultra orthodox vs subsidies for the non-orthodox.
Now that we have a Coalition government held together by the Ashkenazi United Torah Judaism Party (UTJ) and the Sephardic Shas Party, the battles are more intense than ever.
The Opposition anti-government has been particularly focused on excoriating the ultra-orthodox and calling for monies allotted to them to be severely reduced.
Now we have the OECD joining the anti-government chorus.
According to its report issued yesterday:
1. The government should remove all subsidies for yeshiva students.
[The report ignores that Israel currently spends a paltry $960 million dollars on these subsidies–0.2% of the total budget].
2. The government should “condition childcare support on fathers’ employment.
[The report completely ignores that aside from the 50% of ultra orthodox men who have jobs, more than 80% of ultra-orthodox women do (the percentage of ultra-orthodox women working exceeds the percentage of non-orthodox women working.)]
The report went on to ludicrously castigate Israel in other areas:
*Israel is not doing its “share of using renewable energy in electricity generation.”
[What a joke. Every home in Israel has solar panels which produce energy. Not to mention that Israel is perhaps the world leader in renewable water use: 88% of sewage water is recycled here].
*Israel needs to allocate more public land for solar installations.
[Israel has massive solar farms–some of the largest in the world.]
Part of the vast “sun field” at Kibbutz Ketura near Eilat–one of many such solar panel fields in the area that provide electricity to southern Israel.
*Israel needs to improve its public transport.
[Israel has public transport out the kazoo. Every place is reachable by bus and/or train.]
The ridiculously biased anti-government OECD report reads like it was written by Opposition leaders Yair Lapid, Benny Gantz, and Avigdor Lieberman.
When all we hear are negative declarations about Israel from the OECD, U.N., Biden Administration, and the European Union, all we do is ignore them.
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.