Yom Reva’ee
Wednesday
1 Cheshvan 5783
October 26 2022
The Photo of the Day
A mother crossing the street in Petah Tikva this morning with her two children.
The rainy season is upon us with thunderstorms and rain throughout Israel this morning.
The News on the Israeli Street
The War in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria: Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours . . .
In Jerusalem.
A Palestinian terrorist armed with a knife was seized at the Qalandiya Crossing in northern Jerusalem this morning just prior to carrying out a stabbing attack.
Shooting attacks in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on our soldiers in Shechem (Nablus). Three more members of the Lions’ Den were captured:
One of the rooms of the house in Shechem where 5 terrorists were killed yesterday. It looks like the only survivor of the IDF onslaught was the television.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on our soldiers at the Salem Crossing.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on Israeli civilians near Shaked in northern Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire between Hvara and the Tapuach Junction.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF forces at the entrance to Lata. Click here to hear the gunfire.
Stabbing attack in Samaria.
A Palestinian terrorist stabbed a 60-year-old Israeli in the stomach at A-Funduq. The terrorist was later captured. There is no word on the condition of the Israeli this morning.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks in Judea and Samaria.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israelis with IEDs, Molotovs, and “rocks” on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Al Aruv, south of Ofra, in Huwara, on Road 446 at Shukba, north of the Nilin Checkpoint, on Road 465, at Singil, south of the Karmi Tzur Junction, north of Ofra, at Beit El, Einav Nazam, between Avni Hefetz and Einav, at the Ta’anim Pass, near Gesher Halhol, on the Hevron-Tarkomiyya Road, Kedumim (Israeli badly wounded), between the large and small Yitzhar Junctions, Tofuh, on the Hosan Bypass between Al Khader and Beitar, near Ariel, at the Marda Junction (Israeli wounded in the head), between Tapuach and Ariel (bus driver wounded), between Bruchin and Ali Zahav, near Emanuel, on Road 55 at the Azzun Junction, on Road 465 near Umm Safa, at the Jinspot Junction, and at a dozen other locations.
Thank you to Josh at Rescue without Borders SSF for much of the above reportage.
On the election front . . .
Ayelet Shaked announced in a press conference last night that her party, Beit Yehudi, is staying in the race despite polls that show her only receiving 2.2% of the vote. Her party must receive at least 3.25% of the vote in order to receive the 4-seat minimum in the Knesset.
In a surprising development this morning, PM Yair Lapid declared that under no circumstances would he sit in a coalition government with Benny Gantz as the head.
Lapid also expressed fear this morning that no Arab party would pass the 3.25% thresh0ld. This would be a disastrous development for Lapid since he depends of the Arab parties to have 61 seats.
They may determine the result of the election . . .
As you know, there are two main orthodox groups in Israel that win seats in the Knesset in each election: Shas (the Sephardic Orthodox), and United Torah Judaism (the Askenazi Orthodox). Both Shas and United Torah Judaism support Benjamin Netanyahu
Whether each party can get their constituency to the voting booth will sway the election one way or the other. In the most recent polls, Shas continues to register 8 possible seats while UTJ tallies 7. If each one could get one more seat, Netanyahu would almost certainly become prime minister.
Shas is out beating the bushes for voters and seems to have momentum to increase their number; however, UTJ seems to be going in the opposite direction. Netanyahu’s team is currently going all out to increase the UTJ vote.
Google expands in Israel . . .
As you may not know, Google already employs 2,000 people in Israel. Today, it was announced that the company will sign an agreement to rent 20 floors of a new 77-floor tower going up on Yigal Alon Street in Tel Aviv.
The rental price will be 90,000,000 shekels ($26 million dollars) per year.
TODAY’S BLOG
Who Is Worse?
Your humble servant has been struck over the past week with the show being put on by PM Yair Lapid and “Defense” Minister Benny Gantz. Tomorrow this show will be on full display when Israel signs the atrocious agreement with the United States (aka “The Israel-Lebanon Maritime Agreement”).
But before we get to that tomorrow, let’s review the past 24 hours.
This is now Gantz likes to picture himself. This photo is from a few years ago; last night, he was seated in his “Oval Office.”
Benny Gantz has quickly turned the events in Shechem two nights ago in which members of the Lions’ Den terror group were eliminated into a full-blown political event. He began by releasing photographs of himself “overseeing” the operation from an IDF control room in a scene reminiscent of what we saw Obama doing during the Osama Bin Laden raid.
Next, Gantz appeared on Channel 13 last night sitting at a desk surrounded by Israeli and IDF flags with photos on the wall behind him to discuss the Shechem operation. If one did not know differently, you would have thought that Gantz was in the U.S. Oval Office addressing the nation.
All of this “I did it” from Gantz must have rubbed his partner Lapid the wrong way because as we noted above, Lapid declared shortly thereafter that he would not sit in a government with Gantz as the head.
While all of this was going on with Gantz, we had the ongoing spectacle of Lapid’s lies about his military service.
Yesterday, his wife Lihiya was being interviewed on Channel 13 by reporter Nehia Kraus. When Kraus asked her about her husband’s service, Lihiya first said she knew him as a photographer in the IDF (a never-before-heard story), then she abruptly left the interview when pressed on the subject, and was heard off camera commenting about “the stupid question” asked by Kraus.
Click here to see the short video of Lihiya leaving the interview.
Of course, Lihiya’s behavior was quickly noticed by Israelis on social media, one of whom commented: “The whole point here is not that his wife lied, but that her husband, the Prime Minister of mine and yours lied and continues to lie about his military service. . . this kind of lie by Prime Minister Lapid is shocking, stupid and above all very, very embarrassing.”
So, I put it to you dear reader. Who is worse? A prime minister who continually lies about his military service, or a failed IDF Chief of Staff turned “Defense” Minister who aggrandizes himself at every opportunity?
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.