Yom Shnee
Monday
6 Adar I 5782
February 7 2022
Photo of the Day
Sunset at Dor Beach near Haifa (photo Gur Ben Kfir).
Graphic of the Day
The new triad: Russia, Iran, China.
Social media is awash today with this graphic of the new power axis in the world–an axis that bodes poorly for Israel.
The Outrageous Quotation of the Day
“The main reason for the high cost of living in Israel is that 50% of the ultra orthodox do not work.”
Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman
Say what? How in the world do 50% of the orthodox men studying in yeshivas (80% of ultra orthodox women do work) cause price increases in housing, gasoline, food, and everything else under the sun?
We have all known for a long time that Lieberman has a special hatred for the ultra-orthodox, but this comment reveals the full depth of that animus.
Lieberman’s declaration is outrageous for three additional reasons:
First, it is factually inaccurate: prices in Israel are sky high because 15 families have a stranglehold on the economy through their monopolies.
Second, it is yet another attempt by Lieberman to drive a wedge into Israeli society by provoking public anger toward the haredi population.
Third, it is also yet another attempt by Lieberman to find a scapegoat for his total ineptness as Finance Minister.
The News on the Israeli Street
The daily Corona update . . .
The numbers yesterday:
52,600 new cases of Corona were diagnosed yesterday bringing to 323,911 the number of active cases in the country.
The positive test rate was 28.16%.
1,224 are in serious condition; 380 in critical.
9,208 Israelis have died according to the Health Ministry database–33 since yesterday.
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The police spying scandal widens exponentially . . .
We have already written several blogs about how the Israel Police have used NSO spyware to illegally spy on activists on the left and right as well as on potential witnesses in the Netanyahu trial. Your humble servant has speculated that the police probably spied “on pretty much anything” they felt like gaining information about.
It now turns out that the spying is much worse than anyone else in Israel imagined. According to an article in the Calcalist today, the police spied on business CEOs, disabled activists protesting for more benefits, Ethiopians rallying for more immigration from Ethiopia, all sorts of municipal officials, Jewish community members in Judea and Samaria, and more members of former PM Netanyahu’s family including his sons and possibly his wife.
Those involved in the spying did so under the claim that those they spied on posed a “harm to public order.”
What an outrageous commentary on the state of affairs in Israel.
And what turmoil is now coming in the judicial system. Anyone convicted of a crime in the last 10 years will demand that his or her conviction be thrown out.
Also, anyone currently under indictment for anything–including former PM Netanyahu–will demand to have his or her charges dropped.
Bennett and Gantz drop to their knees again . . .
It was reported yesterday that PM Bennett and “Defense” Minister Gantz are going to accede to Biden Administration demands and not engage in any construction planning for the strategic area between Jerusalem and Maaleh Adumim.
Whatever the Biden Administration says is quickly kowtowed to in Israel: erasing young Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, freezing construction in Judea and Samaria, halting all planning for Jewish homes in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem, supporting the nuclear appeasement talks in Vienna, and on and on and on.
The Bennett, Gantz, Lapid government is nothing but a Biden rubber stamp.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Netanyahu’s Blistering Attack On Bennett And The Government
Netanyahu and Bennett in the Knesset yesterday.
The Knesset was the scene yesterday of former PM Netanyahu’s most vehement attack to date on PM Bennett and his pitiful government.
It all began with PM Bennett making a speech in which he accused Netanyahu and the opposition of trying to sow chaos and discord. Bennett said that he was “hurt” by what Netanyahu was doing.
Here are some excerpts from Netanyahu’s response:
On the spyware revelations:
This is a black day for the State of Israel . . . I think it affects all citizens of the country both right and left. Something unthinkable has happened here. Police officials using the most aggressive tools in the world have illegally spied on countless citizens, journalists, social activists, mayors, businessmen, politicians and their families. They have followed them, listened to them, gone into their most secret secrets, and who knows what misuse they made of it. Spyware designed to thwart terrorism has become an everyday tool in the hands of police officials to spy on civilians in violation of any norm and law. There is only one way to deal with it. The way is through an independent and strong inquiry that will be acceptable to both sides of this house. Only in this way will we restore public confidence in our country and in democracy.”
On Corona:
Naftali asked what hurt us. I will tell you–it hurts that within a few months you and your failed government destroyed all the achievements we brought to Israel. Eight months ago we transferred to you the first country in the world to emerge safe from the Corona virus. There were zero sick, infected, and dead . . . . In recent months, almost 3000 have died from Corona . . . The hospitals are overwhelmed. All time records in critically ill patients, postponing surgeries, postponing life-saving treatments, and all when we have vaccines. What a failure.
On the economy:
You promised Singapore, you promised to lower taxes–but you did nothing except bring us an economic sickness. You raise the prices of products, everything goes up and gets more expensive–and everything to finance the dark deal you made with the Islamist Ra’am Party, the so-called “Abbas tax.” You do not even care. You blame everyone except yourself. You drive the car, and you blame others.
In summary:
We are all in the abyss. The citizens of Israel are looking at the government and they do not understand why they were abandoned to their fate. None of you are trying to save their lives. None of you are trying to support businesses and citizens: citizens are bankrupt and businesses are closing, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are in isolation without any help, and you do not even care. Never before has there been such a failed government, so opaque, so hypocritical, and so arrogant.
Can anyone argue with anything a seemingly revitalized Netanyahu had to say? Spyware, Corona, the surging cost of living, the dire situation of many Israelis: Netanyahu is absolutely correct.
We are indeed in the midst of dark days.
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.