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A full month of war, and there really isn't anything to report on our war front, with the emphasis on "our". The north is still under a pretty constant barrage, including damage to the refineries in the Haifa area which is always in danger of developing into a major ecological disaster but luckily hasn't, including from today's missile. In the morning there were missiles to Be'er Sheva, and probably also Dimona, and during the evening news there were two alerts in the Tel Aviv area. In other words, a quite regular day for our war, even a quieter one than normal. And by us? Quiet. That partially explains why I only started this report at about 22:30. The other reason is that I finally succeeded in getting myself back into writing mood, and this evening I posted to my blog for the first time in a month and a half.
Israel, however, is far from normal. A short while ago I saw on a WhatsApp group that our defense department intends to destroy the first line of villages in southern Lebanon and establish permanent outposts. This is, of course, in order to protect the residents of our northern border. These are people who really do need protection. They're living under quite unbearable conditions. But the forced evacuation of Lebanese from their own border in order to protect Israelis near theirs is not only morally unacceptable, it's also unproductive. We already know that Hizballah can send rockets from beyond any demilitarized zone Israel might create, and with "permanent outposts" this wouldn't even be demilitarized. So our phenomenal success in Gaza is now being translated into Lebanon.
Last night's parliamentary blitz was pretty terrible, but we knew that today's would be worse. A couple of hours ago the Knesseth passed the death penalty for Arab terrorists law. That's not a typo. It's not a death penalty law. It's specifically for Arab terrorists. I'll paste Gil'ad Kariv's statement here:
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This is a law that is a disgrace, both in terms of its content and the political way in which it was approved in the Knesset - a rotten deal of cash for yeshivas in exchange for a noose for the Otzma Yehudit faction. It is an immoral law that contradicts the fundamental values of the State of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state, and the provisions of international law that Israel has accepted.
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In my notes I wrote that I'm sure the American press will report more about this, but before my shower I read Dan Perry in The Forward - An abominable new Israeli law is a death warrant for democracy. He covers the territory very well. I trust that even without my recommendation you'll read it.
And now I'm ready to shut down, semi-pinching myself that the entire day went by without a siren, or even an alert, in our area. So we're okay, but Israel isn't.
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