Archive for July, 2012
Here is a small addition to last weeks blog concerning the BBC. I forgot to mention that when they published details about each country and its athletes taking part in the Olympic games, they also showed a picture which was meant to be typical of that country (buildings, monuments, views and such), but when it came to Israel ,( they not only forgot to say that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital city,) the picture they showed was of an Israeli soldier with an Arab in an unfriendlly attitude. How should I comment on that ? As for the Olympic games, the Israeli athletes so far are not doing so well, although some will continue to further contests, amongst them is Alex Shatilov in Artistic Gymnastics, and Andy Ram with Yoni Erlich in tennis. Anyway, it’s the “taking part” that is most important , though a medal or two would be nice :-)
Our Minister of Foreign Affairs Liberman asked EU council officials to put the Hizbullah organisation on their terrorist list, especially now after the last bus bombing in Bulgaria, but this evidently requires the consensus of 37 countries and the request was denied. Reasons given ” Hizbullah is an official political party in Lebanon and they also help the poor”. What can I add to that?
Prices are going up in Israel. It’s not only the price of cigarettes, beer, petrol and even bread, that is going up, but also income tax evidently by 1 % for normal incomes, 2% for the very wealthy .VAT (Value Added tax) is going up by 1% on food, clothes, services and everything sold except vegetables, and that affects everyone. Hard times ahead for many.
Posted in Observations
Terrorism against Israelis has no borders and last week it came to Bulgaria, when a suicide bomber, believed to be born in Lebanon but with a Swedish passport, blew up a bus filled with Israeli tourists who had just left the airport in Burgas in Bulgaria. There were six dead (including the Bulgarian bus driver) and over thirty people wounded, amongst them of course women and children.
In Syria the fighting continues, tens or even hundreds dead each day, thousands are escaping to neighbouring countries, and it is believed that Assad’s troops will be using chemical weapons in the near future. If these weapons reach the Hizbulla, Israel will have much to fear and Prime Minister Natanyahu has made it clear that we will try to prevent that, physically it there is need. And I heard that President Obama too has threatened the Syrians not to use chemical warfare. And when Assad goes down as is expected, who will take his place? Will there be chaos in Syria? Hopefully it will not be the Muslim brotherhood taking the lead.
In less than a week the Olympic games will take place, and even now there is talk of a possible terrorist act during that period. It was only 40 years ago, during the Olympics in Munchen in Germany, that many Israeli sportsmen were murdered. And whilst on the subject of Olumpic Games, I must mention a BBC sports program which gave details of the different teams from all the countries taking part. They also gave the name of the capital city of each country, but for Israel no capital was mentioned, although when writing about the Palestinian Olympic team they referred to their capital as ”East Jerusalem”. When we complained that they do not treat Israel as a sovereign nation, and did not mention Jerusalem as our capital, they added to Israel – “Jerusalem is the seat of government” but “most foreign embassies reside in Tel Aviv”. And on the Palestinian page they then stated “its intended seat of government is East Jerusalem. Ramallah serves as administrative capital”. The BBC don’t like us, that is for sure. They certainly know that Jerusalem is, and always has been, Israel’s eternal capital!
Tags: Many Israeli tourists visit Cyprus these days, and that is apparently the reason that a “would-be” terrorist was plotting a series of bomb attacks on Israeli planes and/or tourist buses. Luckily his plans were foiled and he was arrested by the police in Cyprus who had been warned about him, evidently by our Mosad. He is a 24 year old Lebanese born man, strangely enough holding a Swedish passport. He was found carrying notes with details about Israeli airplanes and such. Hopefully others like him won’t try blowing up Israelis anywhere else in the world.
Israel is going through a great heat wave, much hotter than the usual summer climate, but this year it makes a greater problem, because there are electricity problems, not only lack of enough gas for production since the Egyptians stopped supplying it, but evidently there are also not enough power stations.The Electric Company has been trying to build new power stations, but needed more money and also the places they had planned for this were not approved for different reasons (ecology, too near civillian centers etc. ). People have been warned there might be power cuts which may last an hour or two, each time in a different place, and have been asked not to use electric instruments or machines during special hours, and to use air conditioners at a higher warmth. So far these instructions have held and hopefully this will continue, and power stations will be built and enough gas supplied.
Posted in Observations
The water level of the Dead Sea has been going down and seems to be sinking by almost one meter a year. This is due to the fact that less water is flowing into the Dead Sea (due to drought years) and the high rate of evaporation. One solution to stop this is to dig a canal
and a series of water line conduits from the Red Sea (Gulf of Akaba and Eilat) to the Dead Sea to replenish and stabilize the water level. Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have evidently come to an agreement concerning this, but it will surely take many years to build and will need much help in financing.
The rocket shooitng from Gaza continues and yesterday our airforce responded again, hitting only Hammas held areas – not an easy task as those “brave freedom fighters!!” always hide among civilians.
A terrible trageday was averted last week when one of the engines on an EL-AL plane flying to Israel caught on fire, but the captain of the plane managed to return to Heathrow airport in England safely, even without causing panic amongst the many passengers. Many safety crews, and ambulances had been on the ready at the airport, but luckily none were needed. Many similar disasters in the past all over the world have ended much more tragically.
The problem of those not doing military service here is still not settled. The ultra-religious are still against their students serving, and their parties are needed for the coelition government, but even so some other coelition party members have said they will vote against their excemption – this makes a problem for prime Minister Natanyahu for keeping his government together. Large demonstrations for equal service for all have also been going on, but so far we don’t know what the outcome will be.