Terror on Road 443

The Modi'in - Jerusalem 443 highway has been opened to general traffic.

After Israel's Supreme Court ruled that the highway must be opened to Palestinian traffic as well as Israeli traffic, despite the numerous terror attacks, the road has been opened.

If you take that road to Jerusalem (like I do, several times a week), a new and serious problem has arisen.

The IDF moved a checkpoint on 443 from 10 meters south of the Atarot junction to the IDF Ofer base junction. Actually, they didn't move the checkpoint on 443 near Atarot, the IDF abandoned that checkpoint and a built a new one a few kilometers north of it.

So what's the big deal? The traffic light at the Atarot junction.

How can a traffic light be a big deal? If you don't know, highway 443 is a divided highway, 2 lanes in each direction, where the average speed limit is about 90 kph (55 mph). Since the IDF has abandoned the checkpoint, the traffic light has stopped working.

After almost getting smashed by another car yesterday, who was making a left hand turn across 2 lanes of traffic, with a non-operational traffic light, I called up Israel's "National Safety Organization" which is responsible for all safety hazards on Israel's roads. The person on the other end knew right away what I was going to say as soon as she heard, "road 443"

She said; "Its not our fault. We have been trying to resolve the problem of the broken traffic light, but you have to hear the whole story. The light isn't broken at all, but the night the IDF abandoned the intersection, Palestinians stole the electrical transformer for the light.

We immediately called the electric company, which came the next day with a replacement transformer, and the traffic light was operational again.

24 hours later, the new transformer was stolen again by Palestinians.

The police say its not their problem, Maatz say its not their problem, and the electric company is now trying to pick a guarded location for the third transformer, which will take time to be installed..."

I suggested in the meantime, that big signs are posted warning drivers of a dangerous intersection.

Its only a matter of time before someone gets seriously injured or killed there.

I guess the Supreme Court didn't think their decision through properly enough.

In the meantime, if you drive to Jerusalem on 443, please be extremely cautious at the Atarot intersection...its a death trap, courtesy of the Palestinians transformer thieves.

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Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Fatah Reaffirms Commitment to Terror

Lots of colorful speakers at the Fatah Conference in Bethlehem today.

Palestinian Authority President (and US mandated peace partner) Mahmoud Abbas had the following to say:

"Although peace is our choice, we reserve the right to resistance, legitimate under international law," he said in a lengthy oration during the opening session of the conference. The term resistance is often used to encompass both violent and nonviolent means of struggle.

He said the Palestinian side is committed to the US-backed Road Map peace plan, but the Israeli side failed to uphold its obligation under the document. (Ma'an Palestinian News Agency)

Israel's Palestinian Member of Knesset, Dr. Ahmed Tibi joined the conference as well. His statements brought down the house with tremendous applause:

He called for peace based on a two-state solution, "clean of settlers and settlements."

Tibi turned to the settlers, entreating them to "leave Palestinian lands. Leave all of us alone. Get out!" These statements were met with great applause from the crowd. (YNET

Senior Fatah terrorist official Jibril Rajoub was also there.

Fatah will never abandon the option of armed struggle. "Resistance was and is a tactical and strategic option of the struggle... part of Fatah's policy" which Israel must acknowledge. (JPOST)

Why the Jerusalem Post lists Zakaria Zubeidi as a "former terrorist" is beyond me.

Former terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi, a senior member of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades who was released from prison in return for a pledge not to engage in terror activities, said Israel has no desire for peace and that the Palestinians must ready themselves for the possibility that "it is war that Israel wants, and not peace." (JPOST)

Thankfully, at least one of Israel's government minister's was awake. Government Information Minister and MK Yuli Edelstein realized that Fatah and the PA haven't changed at all.

Information and Diaspora Minister Yuli Edelstein (Likud) on Tuesday referred to the Fatah congress being held in Bethlehem as "a declaration of war."

"We must not act as if we haven't heard," he told Ynet. "We must emerge from the circle of illusions that these are moderates who want peace. They explicitly say that they support continuing the armed struggle."

"Are these the moderate leaders the world wants us to hold negotiations with?" he asked. "My feeling is that we are not interested in listening to the voices calling for an armed struggle, for the right of return and for the establishment of a capital of their own in Jerusalem.

"We are pretending not to hear the clear trend demonstrated by Abu Mazen (Abbas) and his people to adapt themselves to Hamas," the information minister said.
"This is Fatah we are talking about, those who the international community is allegedly pushing us to negotiate with. If anyone should talk about settlements endangering peace, the most violent and extreme settlement is the Palestinian state, which will be established and run by the 'moderate' speaking today at the Fatah conference.(YNET)

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד

Murder in Hevron Hills

Even though I have some thoughts to share about my recent birthday, Israel, and blogging in general, I couldn't let this pass without mentioning it first.

 

A land flowing with milk and honey. 

 

This past Shabbat's Torah reading includes G-d promise to take the Jews out of Egypt, and lead them to Eretz Yisrael -- a land flowing with milk and honey.

 

Those of us fortunate to live here today, and those of us even more fortunate to realize what a beautiful land we live in -- take the opportunity to tour the land, seek it out, and appreciate the trails, rocks, streams, springs and landscape.

 

This past Friday 3 Jewish hikers went out to explore the land, Nachal Telem in the Hevron mountains.   Guilty of touring.  Palestinian terrorists neared to group and opened fire.  2 of the hikers were in elite IDF units and bravely returned fire, and a gun battle ensued.  Outnumbered and attacked first, the hikers bravely fought to the end...killing one terrorist, seriously wounding one, moderately wounding another, and another one or two got away.

 

The third Jewish hiker hid and managed to alert security services which evacuated her.

 

"Two IDF soldiers on leave were killed on Friday in an apparent drive-by shooting south of Hebron. Cpl. Ahikam Amihai (20) and Sgt. David Ruben (21), both residents of the neighboring settlement of Kiryat Arba, were hiking through the Telem Creek area with an unnamed female companion when a group of four Palestinians drove up towards them and opened fire.

 

The third hiker in the group managed to take cover as the first gunshots were heard and called the Kiryat Arba security headquarters to alert them of the incident. "We've been hit, there are two critically wounded Israelis here," she reported. However the female hiker had difficulty giving rescue services the party's exact location and the searches took over an hour.

 Amihai and Ruben were seriously injured and died of their wounds shortly afterwards, they were pronounced dead at the scene by a military doctor. They will be brought to rest Saturday evening, after Shabbat.

Eli Rosenberg, a volunteer with the regional MDA rescue services told Ynet that the third hiker was crying hysterically when the search party reached the scene after a 1.5 mile walk from the central path.

"She said they had been walking near the creek and noticed a car driving back and forth near them several times. At some point the car left the path and began driving towards them, as its occupants pulled out their weapons," said Rosenberg.  YNET

One of the 2 hikers killed, Achikam Amichai, is the son of the head of Machon HaTorah VeHa'aretz (which is responsible for Otzar Ha'Aretz -- a mehadrin shmita solution which I've blogged about before).

 

A healthy Jewish response would be reaffirming our commitment to the land.

 

Instead...

 

What Israel does: Ehud Olmert continues to release Palestinian terrorists and re-arm them with bullets, rifles and armored vehicles.  Olmert has  frozen all Jewish construction in the West Bank, and virtually stopped all new plans for Jewish construction in Eastern liberated Jerusalem.

 

What the EU does: Israel said on Saturday it had recently seized a truck carrying chemicals used to make explosives hidden in bags marked as EU aid for the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.  The army said 6.5 tons of potassium nitrate were in bags marked as sugar from the European Union for Palestinians in the coastal enclave.  EU officials in Jerusalem had no immediate comment.   The cargo in a Palestinian truck was traveling in the West Bank and seized several weeks ago at an Israeli checkpoint, the army said.

 

What Haaretz wants: (see below**) Israel needs to be raped. (After last week's story that IDF soldiers are racist and evil for not raping Palestinian women, it's only logical for the leftists to demand that Israel to get raped...?)

 

Don't worry - I'll post some good news later.

 

Shavua tov,

 

Jameel.

 

** Since the JPost link keeps breaking, here is the entire article before it's not available in the google cache.

Dec 27, 2007 21:45 | Updated Dec 28, 2007 9:25
Ha'aretz editor: Israel wants to be raped
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF

Ha'aretz editor David Landau told US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a recent private dinner that Israel "wants to be raped by the US" and needed more vigorous American intervention to resolve Middle East conflicts, according to a report in the New York Jewish Week.

Landau made the remarks at a confidential gathering of Israeli guests at the home of US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones on September 10, the Jewish Week reported on its Web site Thursday.

The paper said that Landau, who was seated next to Rice, reportedly referred to Israel as a "failed state" politically that needed a US-imposed settlement. It added that Landau reportedly "implored Rice to intervene, asserting that the Israeli government wanted 'to be raped' and that it would be like a 'wet dream' for him to see this happen."

In response, Landau told the New York weekly that this description was "inaccurate" and "a perversion of what I said," and that he had expressed his views with "much more sophistication."

But, he went on, "I did say that in general, Israel wants to be raped - I did use that word - by the US, and I myself have long felt Israel needed more vigorous US intervention in the affairs of the Middle East."

He explained to the paper that each of the participants at the dinner spoke of Israel's challenges, and he chose to point out that since 1967, Israel had failed to resolve its territorial conflicts with the Palestinians. "I told [Rice] that it had always been my wet dream to address the secretary of state" on this critical issue, Landau told the Jewish Week.

Rice was "fantastic" and "completely unfazed" by his comments, he said, and remained "urbane and diplomatic."

Landau said he had no regrets about what he had said, and that he was later congratulated by several professors in the room who felt "I articulated what many Israelis feel."

Other participants said Rice told the guests that the US had no intention of imposing a settlement on the Israelis and Palestinians.

Channel 2's Arab affairs expert Ehud Ya'ari briefly reported the incident some weeks ago, but did not name Landau. Ya'ari called the incident "embarrassing."

 

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael