A good week for Israel or here’s spit in your eye
Overall it wasn’t a bad week for Israel unless you were one of the ‘left-wing elitist with pretensions of being cliquey opinion-makers, self-serving trend-setters and bon-ton groupies glory in posturing as anti-establishment nonconformists’ as Sarah Honig refers to them. If you are the last week in Israel was verging on a disaster of biblical proportions.
Let us start with the good news. Settlement growth in Samaria and Judea continued to grow, abet more slowly than last year but still at a respectable 4.9%.
Friends of the IDF held a fund raising dinner in New York and managed to raise $20 million at a period of time when virtually everyone with an equity portfolio saw the value of their portfolio cut in half or more. Face it, New York City and suburbs are an expensive place to live.
Tourism in Israel saw a 46% increase over last February.
The Israeli GNP rose higher than predicted, the job market continued to be strong and consumer confidence is at a 10 year high.
The international clothing retailer H&M opened their first store in Israel despite the firestorm of international progressive rage which attempted to sideline the company’s executive business development plan. I doubt H&M will see much of a backlash considering the progressive element are hardly H&M regular clientele. The store opened with much fanfare and 15,000 visitors in its first day of operation. Although, on a personal note, there is an H&M near me and I cannot for the life of me understand why anyone shops there but the Last Amazon loves it.
The historical reconstruction of the 18th century Churva Synagogue in Jerusalem was finally complete and official ceremonies commence on March the 15th. The Jordanian deliberately destroyed it in the Independence war of 1948 not because the shul was used as an ammo dump or staging ground for Israeli forces but to show their utter contempt for anything Jewish.
Ehud Barak, Minister of Defense saw his budget request for increase funding of the IDF’s civil administration branch which is charged with settlement freeze enforcement operations denied, denied, denied.
A record number of Hesder students enlisted in the IDF.
The so-called settlement population grew by 4.9% over last year. Jerusalem Post:
The West Bank settler population grew almost three times faster than that of the country as a whole in the first nine months of 2009. However, the 4.9-percent increase, when compared with the same time last year, shows that for the second year in a row, population growth has slowed down slightly, according to data posted recently on the Central Bureau of Statistics Web site.
Joe Biden and the Obama administration’s faux outrage. Oh, I suspect his ‘outrage’ is real enough but I take a rather contrary view of the whole scenario. Oh, I realize pissing off the Obama Administration and allegedly embarrassing Joe Biden can be considered a ‘bad thing’ in some circles – especially if you are the Obama Administration or part of the Arab world, but in my world its all good.
There never was a building freeze in Jerusalem so crying ‘foul’ now is a little bit too crying about the barn door after all them animals have fled the building. The time for outrage was when the Obama Administration was busy bullying Netanyahu to agree to a ’settlement freeze’ in the first place – although Netanyahu drew the line at Jerusalem and the Obama Administration knew it then and called it all good. So boohoo, and go cry someone else a river.
Secondly, the incidence proves something to the Americans – there are definite limits to their ability to influence in Israeli politics and it illustrates to the Arab world that American influence does have its limits in terms of the Israeli body politic.
Thirdly, building of 1,600 housing units shows the Israelis are resolute about keeping Jerusalem their undivided capital. So all in all, a good week, unless you are the Obama Administration, Joe Biden or a Gush Katif refugee.
