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11:30 PM Overheard in the Likud corridors: In order to be a government minister, one needs to move over to Labor.
Many Likud MKs afraid to speak out loud in order to not lose their dwindling chance at a ministerial position.
7:53 PM Labor votes to join Bibi-led coalition. Barak promises to be opposing force within the government.
5:25 PM Impressive gallery of photos from Um Al Fahm today.
4:17 PM Qassam rocket launched from Gaza -- lands just south of Ashkelon. No injuries, no damage.
11:41 AM Photos from the march today. Interesting sign reads "Racism = Violence" yet the only violence came from the Arab and Leftists who pelted the police with rocks, not from the demonstrators who only marched, carrying Israeli flags through sovereign Israeli territory for 10 minutes.
10:48 AM Jewish marcher end march peacefully as expected. Arabs throw rocks at marchers. Police use tear gas and stun grenades to prevent escalation of Arab violence.
10:45 AM Intermittent blackouts throughout Gush Etzion.
10:12 AM Policeman stabbed by Palestinian in Tel Aviv yesterday while being apprehended in the middle of stealing a car. Second Palestinian escaped.
9:56 AM Rocks thrown at Israeli police at Uhm El-Fahm junction. Police arresting protesters. Situation looks like it is growing out of control.
9: 49 AM Likud and Ehud Barak's representatives in Labor sign Letter of Understanding for a coalition agreement.
Main points include (1) the Likud agreement to uphold international political treaties signed by the State of Israel (this intentionally vague wording leaves wiggle room as the PA is not an international recognized state), (2) illegal outposts will be dismantled according to law (this intentionally vague wording leaves wiggle room as the outposts can then be legalized).
This agreement will be brought to the Labor party committee for approval or rejection. Intense internal battle raging within the Labor party.
Other possible outcomes include Labor party split or Barak leaving Labor and being Defense Minister independent of any party.
9:47 AM At police request, the 100 Jewish marchers have been transferred from regular buses to armored, bullet proof buses due to escalated tensions and fears that Uhm El-Fahm residents will resort to extreme violence as they announced they would.
9:43 AM IDF Radio (Galei Tzahal) reports: Due to upcoming scheduled march of 100 demonstrators with Israeli flags led by National Union (Ichud Leumi) MK Dr. Michael Ben-Ari in the town of Uhn El-Fahm (Wadi Ara area), Israel's police has over 3000 border policemen and Yassam troops in anti-riot gear to provide Marcher's safety.
At the Uhm El-Fahm junction (Road 65) hundreds of Arab and Leftist demonstrators are waving Palestinian flags and chanting anti-Israel rhetoric.
Hundreds of Arab school children are wear kafiyah masks covering their faces and brandishing rocks in preparation for the marchers arrival.
9:40 AM At 10:00 AM today Jerusalem and surrounding areas will be testing the emergency sirens. Do Not Panic. The sirens will sound for one minute. In the event of a real emergency, the sirens will sound for more than a minute.
Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד
Thanks for this- my radio broke, and otherwise I would have thought it was an actual emergency!
ReplyDeletePersonally I don't think there is any wiggle room in the Barak-Bibi agreement. The message is quite clear.
ReplyDeleteI was just transcribing.
what was the point of the march through Uhm El-Fahm ? what were the marchers trying to achieve ?
ReplyDeleteThe goal was to show that you can (or should be able to) walk anywhere within the borders of the pre-67 State of Israel carrying the Israeli flag.
ReplyDeleteOr perhaps to illustrate that the Arab residents of Israel completely don't identify with the State of Israel to any degree whatsoever.
Or perhaps to test the limits of the police and legal system and determine to what level of hypocrisy they are willing to go to in order to deprive the Right of the same basic rights unquestionably afforded to other groups.
Or perhaps to show that Eretz Yisrael belongs to Am Yisrael, Bli Lefached Klal.
I guess it makes sense that the Neturei Karta and the Israeli Leftists are marching together. They have more in common than they think.
ReplyDeleteanonymous spoke well, but the problem is not that the arabs dont identify with the state of israel, it's that they haven't any respect for and they think they have a natural right to assault any person with an israeli simbol, legitimized by extrem-left Shalom Ahshav, of course
ReplyDelete