Yom Shishee
Friday
23 Cheshvan 5783
November 18 2022
The Photo of the Day
Congratulations to Dana Azran for winning the silver medal at the World Taekwondo Championship in Guadalajara, Mexico (photo Amadine Loreul, Israel Taekwondo Federation).
Along the way, 21-year-old Dana defeated opponents from the Ivory Coast, France, Mexico, and Germany before narrowly losing (2:1) in the final to the competitor from Uzbekistan.
Dana’s silver is the first medal ever won by an Israeli woman in the world championship! You may remember that last year, taekwondo athlete Avishag Semberg also made history when she won the bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
Kolakevod to Dana her and her coaches (also pictured in the above photo)!
The News on the Israeli Street
The war in Judea and Samaria yesterday:
Shooting attacks.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire at the Jalama (aka Gilboa) Crossing near Jenin.
Palestinian terrorists opened fire on IDF soldiers in the Nur al-Shams Palestinian settlement east of Tulkarm.
IED, Molotov, and “rock” attacks.
Palestinian terrorists attacked Israeli children, women, and men near Marda, at Beit Omer on the Gush Etzion-Hevron Road, on the Har Homa Road near the Liberman Bridge, on Road 60 at Luban a-Sharqiya, at the large Yitzhar Junction, on Road 458 (IED was a burning tire with a gas cylinder inside), and at dozens of other locations.
Stabbing.
There was an attempted stabbing this morning near the gas station at the entrance to Kiryat Arba.
The difference between Israelis and Palestinians . . .
Last night a huge fire caused by leaking gas enveloped the upper floors of a residential building in the Jabaliya neighborhood of Gaza. At least 25 people died including 14 children.
Immediately, Israel offered to open the Erez Crossing to assist Gazans coming to Israel for medical help.
If the fire had happened in Israel with the same number of casualties, Gazans would be out in the streets today handing out candy to celebrate.
The Friday Corona update . . .
1,218 Israelis tested positive yesterday. There are 9,307 active cases in the country.
The positive test rate was 12.14%; the coefficient of infection was 1.1%.
108 Israelis are seriously ill; 36 critically ill, and 32 ventilated.
11,810 have died–22 since last Friday.
The summary: all numbers are heading in the wrong direction. The number of active cases has jumped by more than 1000 in the last week, and the number of seriously and critically ill has significantly increased.
TODAY’S BLOG
Netanyahu Sets A Wednesday Deadline
Amidst continuing reports of trouble getting Bezalel Smotrich of the National Zionism Party to agree to something other than Minister of Defense or Minister of Finance, PM-elect Netanyahu has set a deadline of next Wednesday to wrap up Coalition negotiations and form a government.
One report suggested yesterday that if Smotrich doesn’t agree to some other post, Netanyahu would continue without him and form a government based on 57 seats and add Smotrich and his 7 seats later (National Zionism has 14 seats, but they breakdown as 7 for Smotrich, 6 for Ben Gvir, and 1 for the Noam party).
However, when that report began to circulate, both Ben Gvir and United Torah Judaism both indicated that they would not be part of the new Coalition without Smotrich.
All of this political maneuvering is par for the course after every Israeli election as each party jockeys for more power. It is a virtual certainty that compromises will be reached by next Wednesday so that we can move forward.
On that note, we wish you all:
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.