Jacob's in trouble now. What to do? Part 1

 7 Sivan 5781 | Isru Hag Shavuoth

 

Israeli police forces in Lod, Israel, 11 May 2021 (Wikipedia)

 

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Lod On Fire | Part 3:  What can we do, and what is best left to HQB"H?

The local WhatsApp group and I got a very disturbing message this morning, from Lod. To understand its importance, I'll have to do some explaining before I bring it here. It would be good to absorb this commentary first, while I type up the message. 

I have to do that because I have a policy not to synchronize my phone with my computer. They are separate entities as far as I'm concerned, and I type pretty fast. So, now to the comments.

***

First of all, I'd like to congratulate our military leadership on the masterful way in which many Gazan terrorists were led to their end in the "Hamas Metro," when the tunnel infrastructure inside Gaza was bombed where many were hiding last Saturday night, when Shabbat had ended (if one can believe this news report), as part of Operation Wall Guardians(1).

We know that the army can carry out effective missions when the leadership wants to.

The times when nuclear reactors and other potential nation-destroying weapons have been destroyed just in the nick of time before they were supposed to go on line are witness to this. The one in Iran was the most recent of them.

I understand that Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to bring these Arabs, both Israeli and from Gaza/the "West Bank" to surrender. I hope it's true, but I'm not counting on him having unimpeded access to that goal. 

Apparently, this was known some time ago. From Arutz-7, in September 2020, Saeb Erekat, ym"sh, claimed that Netanyahu "...does not want peace, but wants the Palestinian surrender..."

The heavy bombardment of fake news in the last half-decade or more makes people suspicious of any news item, even if it is true. So, kindly show us proof. A lot less will on their part to fight, whether from Gaza or on the streets of Israeli cities, would be a good start. 

Innocent civilians shouldn't have to protest constantly for a decent government to keep deadly, war-like violence from affecting ordinary people living ordinary lives, especially when it's their children who are fighting back.

Over time it has become apparent to anyone who has lived in Israel that those times are few and far between; and right now they are even fewer than ever, and the needs are greater. Either the governing apparatus has decided to give the impression that they are bumbling fools and have no overriding priorities in favor of the survival of Israel as a country, OR it has no overriding priorities of that kind, and the survival priorities are rather more personalized, if you will, toward certain groups over others.

If you understand the makeup of the country, you know that non-religious people from Jewish families from the Tel Aviv area tend to rule the important elements (e.g., education, media, laws and statutes) even when the more religious make up the majority, and they can't stand many of the other groups of Jewish people who inhabit this land, especially those who are happy and proud to be Jews and who couldn't care less about people who rule the parts of Eretz Yisrael that we currently hold, but who would just as soon give them up to local (Arabs) and not-so-local (such as the Vatican) non-Jews.

They clearly prioritize political correctness from outside Israel over proper provision of land for all of Israel's Jewish citizens.

But that doesn't explain why reports are coming in that the Blue and White police and border guards are not doing their jobs (or, not able to do their jobs) even in Haifa and Lod — generally among the places where Jews and Arabs live literally side-by-side, or even in the same buildings, and Tel Aviv, which promotes pro-Arab messaging but doesn't seem too concerned that not enough Arabs live there. Why would our government davka not express concern about the situation in the areas of Israel where compliance with the agenda put forth by it is greatest?

That would have to be explained by someone more familiar with these issues than I am. But it would seem to me that people above the Israeli government are either giving orders like these, or making it difficult-to-impossible to enforce proper orders. 

Or, it could be because of an agreement with another country. Here is an interesting-looking article: Litigation: Enforcement of foreign judgments in Israel, that might go some way toward a general explanation of the phenomenon.

Many other parts of the country are also suffering from lack of law enforcement, while most of us have access to the Pikud haOref  (Home-front Command; in American terms, Homeland Security) in one way or another, and are aware of the attempted or successful bombings of cities within and outside the "Gaza Envelope."(2) Considering the intense law enforcement of the last year due to "corona," this situation makes absolutely no sense. The message from Lod claims that there is NO news about this anywhere.

And neither does the behavior of law enforcement in Meron of recent memory (let us not forget). See what you think of this summary of research and posting of a sampling of evidence that something very different happened to cause the deaths of 45 and the many injuries on La"G laOmer. Here is the post it came from.

The message from Lod gives more specific details on this (but not too specific, I would assume, for safety reasons). (It seems we haven't heard from anyone in French Hill (Givah Tsafartit), a mixed neighborhood in Yerushalayim, and I wonder why.)

What I'm not talking about...

I'm not discussing the Sheikh Jarrah/Shimon haTzaddik housing rental issue in this series, if ever; that's a separate legal matter whose resolution has been put off by this war. 

Jerusalem is closer to the heart of it, but for some reason we seem to have been left alone since Yom Yerushalayim. This has to be some kind of trick. As I noted above, we haven't heard about our own mixed neighborhood.

Please let me know if I've left out something important in the comment section. 

Let me end this part with my translation from Hebrew of a WhatsApp post, again from this morning, that expresses the hopes and prayers of many, written by Kobi Bornshtein in Hebrew and forwarded to us:

Rosh haShana wasn't Rosh haShana
Simchat Torah wasn't Simchat Torah
Meron wasn't Meron
Shavuot wasn't Shavuot
Likewise, with G-d's help, Tis'ha be'Av won't be Tish'a be'Av.

***

😉

 (1) Note to English speakers: Guardian, in the singular, is an incorrect translation. In the original Hebrew term, Shomrei haKirot, both words are plural. Of course, if it refers to G-d, the singular would be correct —  it seems not to be the case here — as Shomer haKirot. I only wish it were so!  

(2) According to the Pikud haOref application, the Gaza Envelope (Otef Aza) extends out to four kilometers (4 km) from the borders of Gaza. A number of smaller communities live within this envelope.