End the Election Cycle

In this election season, many are bemoaning the unsatisfactory rules governing the way we elect members of the Knesset. One of my mailing readers posted the following point of view, with which I totally agree?

     Ho-hum, another election coming up.  Will the cycle never end?  Will a stable government finally be formed?  And finally, does it matter?  

     After all, the economic, military and international situations are all pretty good to excellent, and as an Israeli friend once told me, when I complained about the lousy governmental structure, "Don't worry--we don't pay the slightest attention to what the government does!"

     Well, maybe so, but then again, maybe they should.  Especially with the possibility of a government dependent upon the support of extremists who threaten not the structure, but the essence of democratic governance.

     At least two changes in the structure of the government are absolutely essential if the electoral circus is to come to an end:

     1.  Term limits.  At least the position of prime minister must be limited to a maximum of two terms, not necessarily consecutive.  In a true democracy no-one is indispensable, or if he or she is, it is not a democracy.  Henry Kissinger once said "Power is an aphrodisiac" (he should know).  Even Winston Churchill, one of the truly greats of modern history, didn't know when to quit and was unceremoniously turned out of office by a nonentity after leading Britain to victory in world War II (Churchill characterized Clement Attlee, the Labour Party leader who succeeded him thus:  "An empty taxi pulled up at No 10 Downing Street and Clement Attlee stepped out.")

     2.  The members of the Knesset currently represent no-one but their party leader.  This must be changed to a system whereby all or most of the members of the Knesset are elected in constituencies, and thus represent and are responsible to real people.  If a Briton or an American has a serious problem, they know they can always go to their Congressperson or member of Parliament for redress.  Not here.

     There are other changes in both the executive and legislative branches of government that would be helpful, but these two are essential.  Can a true leader be found to push them through?  We shall see.

Israeli forces destroy bomb lab in Nablus, 5 terrorists killed

 At least five members of Lion's Den terrorist group were killed during clashes with Israeli troops

Israeli security forces conducted an overnight raid in the West Bank city of Nablus, destroying an explosives manufacturing site belonging to the Lion’s Den terrorist group.

The military’s spokesperson said that Israel Defense Forces (IDF), the Israel Security Agency (ISA) and the Special Police Unit took part in the joint operation. They raided a hideout apartment that served as a headquarters and bomb lab for the Nablus-based terrorist organization. 

“The site was used by the main operatives of the “Lion’s Den” terrorist group. The forces detonated the explosive manufacturing site,” the army’s statement said.

Clashes broke out between the troops and armed Palestinians, leaving five members of the terrorist group dead and at least twenty wounded, according to Palestinian reports. Videos show heavy gunfire exchange between Israeli forces and armed Palestinians, who also threw stones at the military and burned tires. More on this at https://tinyurl.com/4fxhm23k  

Maritime Border Dispute

 

Negotiations have been taking place for years to resolve the maritime borders of Israel and Lebanon. The question took on a great significance with the discovery of gas in the area under dispute.

In the map below, there are four lines emanating from the land border crossing at Rosh Hanikrah. There are two gas fields involved in the disputed area Karish and further north Quana. Israel placed the border as the most northern line which kept the Karish field in Israel and also 40% of the Quana field. Lebanon countered this proposal with the most southern line maintaining Quana totally in Lebanon waters and also 50% of the Karish field.

As far as the negotiations have progressed so far, it appears there seems to be a compromise solution on the table giving Israel control od the Karish field and 17% of the Quana field. (line23)

At this moment in time, thr Karish field is almost ready to start pumping gas whilst exploration of the Quana field has not yet started. Thus, it is unclear whether there is gas there nor how much. The company Total Energy has the rights to drill in this field but it expected to take up to 10 years before gas can be extracted in commercial quantities.

Since Lebanon still refuses to accept Israel’s existence, the proposed financial agreement is planned to be between Total Energy and Israel, not Lebanon.

The Lebanese have stressed that this is not a first stage to normalization since Hezbollah are dictating this to the Lebanese government.

Is it a good agreement for Israel, this is not certain? Can the present caretaker government legally conclude such an agreement, also not certain?

So the question remain, do we have an agreement or not? Time will tell.

Three Israeli Women in Forbes list of Most Powerful Women

 

Three Israeli women—Eynat Guez, Adi Tatarko and Daphne Koller—are included on Fortune magazine’s “The 15 Most Powerful Women in Startups” list for 2022.

All three head so-called unicorn companies, valued at $1 billion or more.

Tatarko, ranked eighth on the list, founded the highly successful home remodeling and design platform and community Houzz in 2009 with her husband, Alon Cohen, in Palo Alto.

Guez, ranked ninth, is cofounder and CEO of Herzliya-headquartered multinational firm Papaya Global, whose payroll automation platform is used by more than 700 companies in 160 countries.

Koller, ranked thirteenth, is a machine-learning pioneer who previously cofounded online education powerhouse Coursera. She’s currently founder and CEO of San Francisco-based Insitro, a data-driven drug discovery and development company. Koller also was named to Forbes’  “50 over 50”  list of notable entrepreneurs.

Palestinian's habit always backing ‘wrong side’

 When it comes to major international conflicts throughout history, the Palestinian leadership has often, if not always, chosen to support “the wrong side.” From Adolf Hitler to Saddam Hussein, and now Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has opted to side.

During World War II, the Palestinians faced the decision to either support the Axis alliance or the great Allied powers. They chose the German Nazi Reich. Their then-leader Mufti Hajj Amim al-Husseini spent the duration of the war in Berlin, and allegedly advised Hitler to destroy all Jews in the Arab world. Local Arab communities were ecstatic when Nazi general Erwin Rommel invaded Egypt, and headed for Palestine.

When will they learn?

On Twitter an anti-Semitic tweet every 20 seconds in 2020.

Between 2019 and 2020, more than two million Twitter posts regarding Jews or Israel were anti-Semitic, according to a study from the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (ISCA) at Indiana University.

In 2019, 849,253 tweets—6.9 percent of all conversations about Jews on Twitter—were anti-Semitic. That proportion rose in 2020 to 10.7 percent, meaning 1,531,912 anti-Semitic tweets were posted, 4,197 per day or one every 20 seconds, in conversations that include the word “Jews.”

ISCA said the content was mostly related to conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination, the Middle East conflict and the Holocaust

“We need to do more research to identify the sources of anti-Semitic propaganda. Some of it comes from neo-Nazi groups, anti-Zionist organizations and Iranian-sponsored activities,” the institute said.

Denying the Jewish people a right to self-determination was also a common theme found by ISCA in anti-Semitic Twitter conversations about Jews and Israel. The words “Palestinian” and “apartheid” were often in the Twitter conversations.

ISCA said instances of such content increased from 2019 to 2020 “despite claims from Twitter that they were cracking down on anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.”

“Social media has become the largest medium for anti-Semitic narratives, which can radicalize individuals and lead to violence, and push Jews out of these spaces,” the researchers explained in the report. “We plan to continue increasing the size of the dataset and the variety of content within it so that it can serve as a gold standard for automated detection of anti-Semitic tweets … The results contribute to our understanding of online hate speech against Jews.”

 

International Christian Embassy Jerusalem holds annual Sukkot event

The event was attended by more than 1,700 Christians from over 70 countries.

The International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) held its annual Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) celebration on Sunday at the Capernaum National Park on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.

The event, which will run until Sunday, October 16, was attended by more than 1,700 Christians from over 70 countries.

The attendees include former Chief Justice of South Africa Mogoeng Mogoeng, who will receive the ICEJ's annual Nehemiah Award for his pro-Israel actions, Andrew Brunson, an American pastor who was imprisoned in Turkey on false "terrorism" charges, and two Iranian singers.

he celebration featured performances by artists from Israel, the Philippines, Brazil, Norway and South Africa, including Trevor Sampson, known as the "Golden Voice of Africa.”

 After a second night at Capernaum, the event will move to Jerusalem for five days, where activities will include the Roll Call of the Nations at the Jerusalem Pais Arena on Tuesday and the Jerusalem March on Thursday afternoon.

 To close out the event, attendees will travel to the Negev to join Keren Kayemeth Le’Israel-Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) and leaders of the Gaza border communities for a solidarity rally and tree-planting ceremony.

Russia And Saudi Arabia Cut Oil Output, Why?

 In what appears to be a checkmate on American energy consumption – Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed to cut oil output by 2 million barrels a day.

With American energy prices already sky high and the economy teetering on collapse, the oil cut may be the move that breaks the USA. While Russia’s decision is no surprise, MBS’s part in this is. The USA has provided Saudi Arabia with advanced weaponry and included it in its defense umbrella – so why has Saudi Arabia decided to side with Putin?

The biggest reason is Biden’s weak leadership with the addition of America’s desire for a new nuclear deal with Iran. Saudi Arabia wants to stick it to the Biden administration. By cutting oil output – Russia and Saudi Arabia are pressing American citizens to the brink.

Biden’s team has one choice – they need to either up domestic production of oil or face a systemic collapse.