Minister Dudi Amsalem stepped up to the building of the Supreme Court to petition it, once again (or as he says, for the fifth time) to draft the Arab citizens of Israel - they should either serve in the IDF or at least perform National Service, like any other Israeli.

Minister Dudi Amsalem just filed a petition with the Supreme Court to draft the Arab community in Israel to the IDF.

The Israeli public, or maybe it is actually the media, is fickle. 

MK Ayman Udah (United Arab List) said yesterday harsh words against Israel, saying that Arabs serving in the police force is insulting and humiliating, and called on them to throw their weapons back in the faces of their officers and to resign. Arabs Israelis he said, should be a part of the Palestinians and work to overthrow the occupation. And he said more than that, but you get the idea.

I remember when just a few years ago Udah was the darling of Israeli society and media. He was looked at as someone who against all odds was promoting coexistence and partnership between Arabs and Jews.

And now the calls increase to investigate him for incitement to violence, for being a traitor, and the like. He showed himself to be more of a demon and less of the conciliatory figure he has portrayed himself as over the past few years.

It is sad that this is how it turned out, the other way would have been better, but better that it has been exposed. Better late than never.

How bad has this tiktokifada gotten?

איילה חסון ל@fathizimri: ״משפחות בלוד עקרו את המזוזות מפתחי הבתים כדי שלא יזהו אותם״

— גלי ישראל (@IsraelGaley) May 13, 2021

Just two weeks ago Israel suffered a horrific tragedy when 45 people were crushed to death at a religious festival in Meron on Lag B'Omer. It is hard to call anything a bright point in such a horrific incident but one of the bright points was when the Arabs from a nearby town called Tamra provided water and food to Meron survivors. They set up stations offering free food and drink to thousands of evacuees as they were trying to make their way off the Meron mountain in the chaos.

The Arabs are Israeli citizens, at least for now..

Abulafia Bakery in Tel Aviv - Yafo is an interesting story. The bakery was opened in 1879 by an Arab baker, Masoud Abulafia (I have seen a variety of spellings of the Abulafia name and I do not know which, in English, is accurate, so I am just spelling it the easiest way of the options). The Abulafia bakery was very popular, eventually opening other branches, including a branch that is kosher mehadrin.

This evening MK Orly Levi Abuksis, currently a member of the unified list of parties Labor-Gesher-Meretz, upset a lot of people on the Left when she announced that she will not help Gantz form a government that includes reliance on the Joint Arab List.

People on the Left are upset, saying she has no right to do this, she is stealing their vote, this is not what they voted for her for, etc.

They have a right to be upset at her, just like every person has the right to be upset at any politician that lets him or her down - that does not live up to expectations, no matter how realistic those expectations were.

That being said, Orly Levi Abuksis did not steal anyone's vote. Perhaps had she made a specific promise on a given issue and went back on that with no reasonable explanation, perhaps she could be accused of stealing a vote. No matter who you might have voted for, it is extremely unlikely that you agree with that politician 100% on every issue. Whenever that politician does something you do not particularly agree with, you might accuse the politician of stealing your vote. That is not how it works - at least not in the political system of Israel. Perhaps if the politician made a specific promise that he or she reneged on, or if the politician did the opposite of what was "pledged" in the party platform, without a reasonable explanation, then you might argue your vote was stolen. In this case, Abuksis never made a pledge to sit with the Arab parties. Her deciding not to is not stealing the votes of her voters, and it is definitely not stealing the votes of people who did not vote for her and just don't like her decision. As a matter of fact, no government in the history of Israel has brought the Arab parties into the governing coalition, so unless she promised otherwise, which she did not, it is fair to assume that her default was to continue not sitting with them. No matter what other Left or social policies she might have spoken about and whatever other promises she might have made, it is fair to assume that her default was not bringing the Arabs into government, just like it was everyone else's default.

I get the disappointment. I get the feeling that she could help Gantz get rid of Bibi, at least temporarily, and she is not taking advantage of the opportunity. And that is fair. Going so far as to say she is stealing your vote by not doing something she never promised to do and nobody else before has ever done it, that is not fair. She does not deserve to be kicked out of politics because of it, though maybe she does for other reasons - I do not know. On this specific issue, Abuksis is not being unreasonable.

The Arab towns of "The Triangle" region in Israel, such as Umm Al Fahm, Baqa Al Gharbiyya, Taibe and others, are upset with Trump's Deal of the Century.

Since the beginning of peace talks between the Palestinians and the Israelis, way back in the early 90s, The Arab towns in The Triangle region were always considered potentially for land swaps in an eventual agreement, with these Arab villages going to a new Palestinian State with other lands going to Israel. They always opposed it, despite their hard-core and even extremist and fundamentalist stances against Israel. The populations of these towns are not, generally, friendly and cooperative Israeli Arabs, as the residents of Abu Ghosh, for example, are. These are often Israeli Arabs that are somewhat hostile to Israel and to Israelis. Yet they have always said they wish to remain part of Israel.

And they are saying it again.

The representatives of these towns are speaking out against Trump's Deal of the Century because the Deal calls for them to be absorbed into a new Palestinian State that would be founded.

These Israeli Arabs want to stay part of Israel and not become Palestinians.
source: Ynet

And they have a good claim. They aren't Palestinian Arabs with refugee status or some other non-Israeli status. Despite their hostile environment, they are full Israeli citizens. I can understand why they do not want to give that up and become part of a Palestinian state.

That's how bad the corruption out there must be - even the biggest supporters only want it for other people, but not for themselves...

The Nation State Law is really making waves. Even though it practically changes nothing, which makes one wonder why it was so necessary anyway, it has effected a wave of protests, and now last night MK Bahloul (Hamachaneh Hatzioni) announced, on live television during an interview with Rena Matzliach, that he will be resigning from the Knesset as he cannot stay in with such a law being passed on his clock.

Interestingly enough, Bahloul said he would submit his resignation to the Knesset at the end of the vacation period. That means that MK Bahloul, who is so deeply troubled by the passage of a specific law to the point that he cannot possibly stay in the Knesset and work from within to improve it or to change it or to bring down the government or whatever, has no problem taking 3 more months of salary for the 3 month vacation period of the Knesset and only resigning at the end of that. A man of very high scruples. He must truly be troubled by this law.

UAL, the United Arab List, has announced that its MKs are all considering resigning from the Knesset together, to make a point.

I do not know who the next 12 on the UAL list are, nor do I know their politics or style, but of these 12 I can think of a few that we will breathe a sigh of relief and say Baruch Shepitarani over their resignations... After all the efforts to get rid of a few of these MKs, all it took in the end is this Nation State Law.. and if that is all it accomplishes, dayeinu.

I would rather die than since the Israeli national anthem

  -- MK Jamal Zahalka (UAL)

ok... yaharog v'al yaavor...

According to Channel 2 News, the Arab party for Knesset and member party of the United Arab List, Balad, has held its primaries and announced the results for the next elections, whenever they might be.

The results indicate that they have had enough of Hanin Zoabi and her antics that make them look bad. Zoabi has been pushed down to what is considered an unrealistic spot on the party list. Zoabi is now number 5 on the list, while the party currently holds 3 seats total.

The most noteworthy part of this news report, in my mind, is that Balad, the most extreme of the Arab parties, is more democratic in its functioning than most of the Jewish parties in the Knesset. Balad holds primaries to decide its party list while most other parties in the Knesset do not.

The Ministry of the Interior is subsidizing transportation for Muslims from the Galilee area wanting to go to Al Aqsa on Temple Mount. The State-sponsored buses are free of charge for them.

Deri, the Minister of Interior, speaking at a Ramadan break-fast event, spoke about the need for peace between neighbors and living together in peace and with cooperation, and mutual respect.
source: Kikar

1. From a social perspective, and from a democratic society perspective, this is wonderful of the Misrad Hapnim to help them with their religious worship.

2. Are there similar programs for Jews wanting to visit the Kotel or Har Habayit? Are there similar programs for Christians wanting to visit the Church of the Holy Suplchre, or others?

3. I am sure Deri does not want to encourage Jews to visit Har Habayit, as he believes Jews should not be there, but shouldn't he also not encourage Arabs to visit? Arabs can be on Har Habayit, but they also go to areas that the Torah says non-kohanim cannot go. So the same problem Deri has with Jews being up there he should have with Arabs being up there. Being passive about it and not fighting for them to be banned form Har Habayit is one thing. Encouraging them to go by sponsoring free buses is another.

the Arab mayor of Nazareth screams at Uman Aida for ruining his city because now no Jews are coming to it to spend the day, spend money and coexist




the mayor, Ali Salaam, had more to say and spoke to Globes about the problems and how the MKs are only making it worse and destroying the city...

this is aa news report about the debut speeches of the new MKs.. the interesting part, to me, i s at 1:55 - I so far like the style of MK Uman Aydeh, head of the Joint Arab List. After his speech Eichler started his speech with a bit in Arabic, praising and welcoming Aydeh.

Netanyahu graciously apologizes for his words, and gets cheered. The standing ovation he gets here is probably more valuable than the many standing ovations he got in Congress a couple of weeks back...