It is still too early to say, and the Israeli censor has now slammed a gag order while the inquiry continues. What is clear is there has been massive destruction to Israel’s Mediterranean seashore. Simultaneously, an enormous storm raged in the Mediterranean Sea – a similar tempest also resulted in similar destruction to Denmark. In any case, the Israeli Navy is now involved in the investigation and the cleanup operation, with its capabilities unavailable to all others.
Around the same time of the disaster, a huge young whale, 18 yards in length, weighing an estimated 25 tons, was washed up on Israel’s shore – a sad result no matter what the cause. Some experts say it may have died, possibly before an oil spill, or whatever, at sea. What is clear, the whale did not die of old age. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s coast to the north has also been severely damaged.
In the whale’s case, construction equipment dug a huge hole nearby on the shore, and then bulldozers pushed it in and covered it up. In another few years, the skeleton will be dug up and assembled in an Israeli natural museum. There, visitors will be able to pay their respects to the biggest of all in our animal kingdom. Meanwhile, ecology experts are trying to figure out just who or what caused the greatest marine pollution in Israel’s history. The cleanup operation will cost tens of millions of dollars, and meanwhile, scores of Israeli volunteers flocked to the coast to help out. However, the ecology authorities have warned them to stay away because the pollution might be dangerous to their health – as if COVID-19 is not enough!
The last straw for Benny Gantz?
By all accounts, Benny Gantz and his Blue and White party are also washed up (pardon the pun). A former IDF Chief of Staff Gen. Gantz failed in his political mission to topple Bibi Netanyahu and become Prime Minister. On the contrary, Gantz is now facing the ignominious reality of his party not even garnering the minimum number of votes to be elected in the upcoming election on March 23. The party must get enough votes to elect a minimum of four Knesset members; otherwise, all of their votes will be thrown into the garbage bin. Gantz, the General turned politician, once led his party to a spectacular tie with Netanyahu’s Likud, but that was two years and three elections ago. Since then, it’s been all downhill for Benny.
Now there might be the last straw – his IDF brothers-in-arms, including Ehud Barak, have published, at their own expense, a full page in the Haaretz newspaper calling on Gantz to pull out of the election that could result in hundreds of thousands of votes in his favor being flushed down the drain. However, so far, Benny is hanging in there. He quipped, “My brothers-in-arms have just shot me in the back!”
Biden finally calls Netanyahu …
After several weeks of keeping Bibi waiting, the Biden call came through. Clearly, it was Joe’s way of showing Netanyahu that he has relegated the new administration’s order of priorities after the Trump era. When it comes to the Middle East, the signs are the new administration is bent on renewing Obama’s deal of 2015 – the easing of US sanctions on Iran in return for the Ayatollahs slowing down their nuclear weapons program (the agreement did not include the development of guided missiles required for delivering the nuclear warheads).
The former Obama agreement delayed but did not eliminate Iran’s nuclear weapons production while easing sanctions on the Iranian economy. Instead of developing nuclear weapons (the IDF estimate is about two years), Tehran will have to wait a bit longer after Biden eases the current sanctions. But make no mistake, the Shiite Muslim regime is determined to go nuclear, not only for wiping out the Jewish state but also to dominate their Sunni Muslim brothers in the Gulf. But America no longer depends on Gulf oil, so the Iranian threat will now be downgraded in the State Department and Pentagon.
On the other hand, the Biden administration is calming Israeli concerns with two new arms deals – one for advanced F-35 aircraft and a new Arrow-4 defensive missile program. In another step, the US has brought Israel into CENTCOM, America’s Central Command. The commander of CENTCOM, Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said, “We do a lot of business with Israel, not just as a practical matter of fact because their threats emanate from the east. In a certain way, this is just natural recognition of that at the operational level.”
The shocking case of the Israeli woman who walked across the border into Syria …
At first, the general reaction was, “you have to be kidding!” On the Golan Heights, a young Israeli woman simply decided of her own free will to walk over the Israeli border into Syria. It’s no joke. Apparently, the IDF is so concerned with infiltrators from Syria that it pays little or no attention at all to any sane Israelis walking into a country known for its torture chambers, etc.
In any case, Netanyahu swiftly called Russian President Vladimir Putin, who calls the shots in Syria. Bibi and Vladimir agreed the woman be released, and in return, Jerusalem was to pay 1.4 million dollars to Moscow in order to provide Damascus with a large supply of Russia’s COVID vaccine. Upon her safe return from Syria, the Shabak Security Service questioned the woman (probably by their top psychiatrist). So far, no details have been disclosed other than the young woman was not molested in any way during her brief sojourn in Syria.
