Yom Shnee
Monday
12 Cheshvan 5783
November 7 2022
Photos of the Day
Duvdevan undercover fighters on an early morning patrol. Most of their operations are carried out at night (Photo: IDF).
Another photo from the IDF this morning:
Exhausted new soldiers of the Yahalom combat engineering unit after finishing a grueling “graduation” hike on Mt. Muhraka (where the prophet Elijah confronted the priests of Baal). Afterwards, the soldiers received their unit’s pin and officially became Yahalom fighters.
The Funny Quote of the Day
As is usual these days whenever leftists lose an election anywhere, many of them immediately announce that they are leaving the country. Such has been the case here in Israel over the last few days.
Yesterday, Knesset Legislator Moshe Abutbul of the Shas Party was interviewed on Channel 14 and had this to say: “The leftists should not threaten us that they will leave the country because they lost to the right and Bibi–a threat, by the way, that shows how un-Zionist they are and how little they love the State of Israel. When we on the right sat in the opposition for the last 17 months, none of us threatened to leave the country.”
Abutbol paused and then jokingly added: “Well . . . if they leave and go abroad, we shouldn’t worry, it will help us solve the lack of housing in the country.”
The News on the Israeli Street
Palestinian terror in the last 24 hours: the war in Judea, Samaria, and Jerusalem . . . .
Shooting attacks:
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on our soldiers in Hevron. No Israelis were wounded; two terrorists were captured.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on vehicles near Marda. No Israelis were wounded.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers at the Balata Palestinian settlement east of Shechem.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks:
Palestinian terrorists tried to murder Israelis on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road near Omer, in Wadi Harmiya near Mazraa a-Sharkaiya, at Al Aruv, near Yakir in the direction of Nofim, on Road 55 at Al-Funduk, at the Yakir Al-Hodalah Junction, between the Jinspot Junction and Emmanuel, between Tapuach and Ariel, and at dozens of other locations.
News about the new government . . .
*Negotiations between Netanyahu, Shas, UTJ, and National Zionism have begun. Netanyahu has made it clear he wants to appoint all of his cabinet ministers by next week and save writing coalition agreements until later. In this way, he wants to enter office much more quickly than usual.
However, Netanyahu is running into resistance from his coalition partners who want to hammer out government positions before creating the coalition.
*Itamar Ben Gvir is already making clear what two of his demands would be if he is appointed Minister of Homeland Security:
–add 6 billion shekels to the Ministry of Police to hire more police and increase their salaries.
–toughen and worsen the conditions of Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons.
*It appears that the former major of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, is being offered the “Minister of Energy” portfolio.
Attacks against the “right” today . . .
It is simply unbelievable how the leftists in Israel are ranting everyday about how the “right” is inciting hatred against the left. The truth is exactly the opposite:
*All of the Israeli left is apoplectic today over remarks made by National Zionist legislator Bezalel Smotrich during Yitzhak Rabin remembrance day in the Knesset. In his remarks, Smotrich said that Israel’s Shin Bet security services should have done more to protect Rabin.
Based on this comment, the left–led by always abominable Benny Gantz–is absurdly accusing Smotrich of perpetuating a conspiracy theory as to who murdered Rabin.
This morning Smotrich spelled it out so that even a kindergartner like Gantz can understand: “There was no conspiracy – the abominable murderer Yigal Amir murdered the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, and we are all still pained and shocked by the terrible murder. Yes, there was a major failure by the Shin Bet, and yes, to this day, it refuses to take responsibility for it. The media as usual is once again distorting and misrepresenting.”
*Soon to be ousted Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, whose obsessive animus against orthodox Jews controls his life, ludicrously told the Maariv newspaper yesterday that “Israel’s credit rating will be in danger if the new government spends additional money on ultra-orthodox education.”
Say what? Was Israel’s credit rating in danger from 2009 to 2021 when the orthodox were in the government and received budgetary subsidies for ultra-orthodox education?
*Next we had Meretz Legislator Michal Rozin mount the podium in the Knesset and rail against the “right”: “We see your smile these days. It is the same smile that you had after the massacre of Baruch Goldstein, the same smile as after the Elor Azaria incident, and the same smile as after Rabin’s murder.” Thank goodness Rozin and her hatred-filled cohorts in Meretz have been voted out of the Knesset.
TODAY’S BLOG
The “Anti-Democratic” Canard Being Fomented By The “Left”
To hear the newly created opposition and their international friends, one would think that the election was carried out undemocratically and signaled the end of Israeli democracy.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Israel is startlingly democratic. What one sees in elections here is government by the people. Animated discussions take place in every neighborhood in the country about who to vote for and why.
Take a look at a few screen shots of which party “won” a particular town or village in Israel. Note the colors: dark blue=Likud, orange=Yesh Atid, brown=National Zionism, light blue=National Unity Camp , green=Hadash Tal Arab party, purple=Meretz, yellow=Raam, very light blue=Yisrael Beiteinu, gray=Shas.
How they voted from Haifa north to the Lebanese border:
Also note how these politically diverse communities all live in close proximity to each other.
Here is another screen shot from further south:
You will note that Ashdod to the far left is solid Likud, Jerusalem on the far right is solid Shas.
And a final one from the Tel Aviv area:
Tel Aviv is almost solid for Yesh Atid, but north, south, and west of the city went for Likud.
You might want to remember these maps the next time you hear someone say that “the elections in Israel are undemocratic” or that “democracy is in danger in Israel.”
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.