Tel Aviv Diary April 14, 2023

Two Weeks of Terror and Rockets Attacks; Protests Continue, Netanyahu Sinks in Polls and the Economy is Slipping

In my update before Passover, I wrote I planned to skip last week, unless extraordinary events took place. For a short while, I thought I would issue a special edition, as it appeared we were swiftly headed toward war. Thankfully, we seem to have stepped back from the precipice, for the moment. It has been a difficult two weeks, however, with terror attacks, including one which was particularly horrific, and rocket attacks on three borders— all this while our internal divisions seems as large as ever.

DEFENSE

During the days before Passover Israel reportedly attacked targets in Syria, as many as four times. An Iranian drone was also downed over the Golan Heights, also in that time frame.

On the Tuesday before Passover April 4th, there was a terror attack outside an army base in the center of the country (not far from Ramla), in which two soldiers were wounded by an attacker who came from Hebron. Passing civilians spotted the attack and joined the soldiers in subduing the terrorist

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On the night before Passover, Israeli police entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque to remove approximately 300 mostly young worshippers who refused to leave, violating the norms. The ostensible reason for the raid was that those who remained in the mosque overnight intended to disrupt the Jews visiting the Temple Mount the following morning. In fact, this was a trap that Palestinians have used before, i.e., luring Israeli police into the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and then capturing videos of Israeli actions inside the mosque. Israeli police took the bait, and the Palestinians swiftly circulated videos of police arresting and beating "worshippers" inside the mosque. As issues in and around the mosque provide a sure-fire trigger of Palestinian violence, the outcry claimed Israel had upset the status quo, in attempts to take over the mosque. Condemnations from Arab capitals poured in, and that evening, as Jewish residents of the Gaza border area sat down for Seder, several rockets were fired from Gaza into their area. Israel responded with limited fire on Hamas positions in Gaza.

The next morning, a more significant round of missiles was fired at the area surrounding the Gaza Strip, including one that penetrated Israel's missile defense system, and landed on a house in Sderot, a city very close to the Gaza border. One person was lightly wounded.

Meanwhile, during Shabbat Chol Hamoed, an unprecedented 34 rockets were fired from Lebanon at towns in the Northwest Galilee. Almost all the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome, but one fell in the middle of the town of Shlomi, where members of my family were visiting for Pesach. The rocket fell just a few hundred meters from their home, which I was told shook from the impact. Luckily, the residents of Shlomi, who live practically on the Lebanese border, were almost all in their shelters, and no one was injured from this attack.

On Thursday night, after the first day of Chag had ended, the security cabinet met. Before the full meeting, Netanyahu, the not-exactly-fired Defense Minister Galant, and the Army Chief of Staff Halevi met and decided on a very limited response to the rocket fire in the Galilee. They chose to only attack targets of Hamas, which also operates in Lebanon, in attempts to avoid a showdown with Hezbollah. The full security cabinet met, and although the far-right members of the cabinet reportedly demanded a major response, the cabinet — meeting for the first time since the early weeks of this government— decided on the limited response, which took place later Thursday night into Friday morning. A few more rockets were fired at Gaza, but by 8 AM, this part of the confrontation had ended, for the time being.

A few hours later, a horrific attack occurred, when a terrorist forced a car carrying a mother and two of her daughters off the road in the Jordan Valley. Once off the road, the terrorist approached the car, then shot and killed 20-year-old Maya and 15-year-old Rina Dee, at point-blank range. Their mother, Lea (Lucy), 48, successfully clung to life for three days, before succumbing to her wounds.

That evening, there was another terror attack, this time, by the sea in the area between Jaffa and Tel Aviv. An Arab Israeli drove his car down the bike lane near Charles Clor Park, hitting eight people, along the bike path, all tourists. After mowing down the people, his car flipped, and the offender was shot by a police officer, who thought he had a gun (which he did not). One Italian tourist was killed in the incident. The offender’s family claims the attack was not an act of terror, but rather a terrible accident. I know that area well, as I use that bike path a couple of times each week— and I found the whole incident strange. On one hand, it's a very odd place to carry out a terror attack; I have almost never been there on a Friday night, but on any regular night, that area is very empty. At the same time, from my knowledge of the path, it seems almost impossible to visualize how someone could get on it accidentally, so unfortunately, it appears to have been a terror attack.

Violence continued on Friday night into Saturday, when rockets were fired from Syria into the Golan Heights. Israel responded with airstrikes against Syrian positions. 

POLITICS & PROTEST

Throughout this period, demonstrations continued against the government's planned judicial “reforms”. Despite the temporary hold while negotiations took place, the number of demonstrators remained large. Even this past Saturday night, following several terror attacks, and in the middle of Passover (when a large number of Israelis are away), over 150,000 people turned out at the main protest rally in Tel Aviv. Although negotiations to reach a broad agreement have taken place at the President's Residence, many are skeptical about the chances of any real success

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On Sunday night, Israel’s Channel 13 broadcasted a devastating poll for the current government. The poll indicated that if new elections were held today, the opposition easily forming a government— with the Likud dropping to the third-largest party from its current position, as the largest. For the first time ever, both Yair Lapid and Gantz polled higher than Netanyahu on suitability to serve as Prime Minister

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As a result, Netanyahu scheduled a public address and press conference on Monday evening. In his speech, which was panned by almost all observers, Netanyahu blamed the current security situation on the previous government, and said it would take time to correct. He also blamed the insubordination of the reservists who were volunteering for weakening the country in the eyes of its enemies, thus bringing the wave of attacks on the nation. At the end of the speech, he announced that he was reinstating Defense Minister Galant.

In direct reaction to Netanyahu's words, demonstrations took place immediately afterward, including one in Tel Aviv where thousands appeared.

Another response in opposition to the current set of proposed judicial reforms, was a letter from Netanyahu's brigade commander in the reserves, who was indignant at Netanyahu for attacking reservists. He stated that Netanyahu stopped doing reserve duty and did not take part in the first Lebanon War. This caused a mini storm, with Netanyahu issuing an angry alleged denial on Tuesday afternoon on the eve of the holiday.

On Tuesday afternoon, Netanyahu angered some of his right-wing ministers when he decided to block the entry of Jews to the Temple Mount during the last days of Ramadan. This has been the policy in the last few years, but several of the right-wing ministers had promised to change that.

POLAND

Another controversy this week involved the signing of an agreement between Israel and Poland that will allow the resumption of youth trips. The agreement was criticized by some as a surrender to the Poles, because the list of recommended sites to visit includes several that celebrate the Polish resistance or similar groups, which clearly included many anti-Semites. I don't share the criticism, as none of the site visits are mandatory. Furthermore, our relationship with the Poles is undoubtedly complex.

Over the past seven years, I have worked closely with Poles, at times, to develop two versions of our tour guide app on Poland, which focus specifically on Jewish Poland. I understand these complications; two of my grand uncles (my Zaydie's brothers) survived the war, only to return to Poland and be killed by local Poles when they tried to reclaim their property. On the other hand, the people and the Polish government genuinely want to recognize the rich Jewish history their country has had, and yes, they have a hard time acknowledging that while the overwhelming majority of the killings were done by Germans, some Poles did take part. However, it is also true that the greatest number of righteous gentiles came from Poland.

ECONOMY

The Central Bureau of Statistic reported today that inflation in Israel in the month of March was .4% a bit lower than expected.  For the first time in two years they reported a drop in the prices of apartments, .4% for the month.

A survey conducted by Start-Up Nation, an independent organization established to promote the high-tech sector in Israel, examined the impact of attempts to change the judicial system on the CEOs of Israeli high-tech companies, primarily startups at various stages. The results are stark:

• 80% of companies trying to raise additional funds at the moment report that meetings were cancelled by investors; while 30% report a complete halt in the willingness of foreign investors to meet.

• 77% believed it will be difficult not to get foreigners to invest; 40% believed that that their next rounds will be 50% lower than their previous round, while the rest believed their next round will be between 20-50% lower.

• Almost 30% said they were considering moving their worker overseas, if the judicial reform goes through.

In the first quarter of 2022 Israeli companies raised a total of $1.72 billion, compared to $5.8 billion last year in the same quarter. This was the lowest amount of capital raised since 2018.  During this quarter most of the deals that were finalized had been in the works for a number of months. Based on the above survey, future raises do not look promising

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BUSINESS

Israeli Rubert raised $8 million in a seed round. The company has developed a system to analyze a company’s data and transform it to understandable text for employees to act upon.

The war in Ukraine continued to indirectly provide business for Israeli defense firms. This week, Rafael signed two big deals — the first, with Finland, which ordered anti-aircraft missile systems for 360 million Euro, and Italy ordered spike missiles for a total of 370 million euro.

A PIECE OF HISTORY— The Exodus

Illegal immigration had begun before World War II, and a few ships attempted to bring Jews to Palestine during the war. One attempt ended tragically in Istanbul Harbor when the Struma, a ship carrying 800 Jewish refugees from Romania, was sunk by a Soviet submarine, resulting in the deaths of almost all its passengers.

Once the war ended, survivors in Europe, primarily those in Eastern Europe, began moving westward, crossing over to Allied lines. Most of the refugees were placed in Displaced Persons Camps, but many did their best to make their way to Palestine. The Yishuv organized a campaign of illegal immigration called Aliyah Bet. Old ships were purchased or chartered to make their way to Palestine in the hope of avoiding the British blockade. Most were stopped, and their passengers were sent to detention camps first in Atlit and then to Cyprus, but a few succeeded in sneaking past the blockade and landing their passengers in Palestine.

The most famous ship was the Exodus. It had been named President Warfield and had plied the waters of Chesapeake Bay before the war. During the war, it had been turned over to the British Royal Navy and was returned to the US at the end of the war. The Haganah purchased it in the US to use for running the blockade. It was hoped that the ship would be able to beach itself on the shore. The boat traveled to Sete, France, where 4,000 Jews boarded the ship. On July 11th, the ship left the port, ostensibly bound for Istanbul. The British closely followed the ship. On July 18th, with the ship about 20 miles off the coast, the British tried to board the vessel, but the Haganah refugees and members aboard resisted. The battle was broadcast live on the ship's radio and relayed throughout Palestine. Finally, the British turned their machine guns on the boat, killing two passengers with gunfire; they also clubbed to death the second officer, an American Machal volunteer named Bill Bernstein

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The ship was then towed into Haifa Harbor. The British decided to force the refugees to return to France, so they offloaded the passengers and forced them onto three other ships. This was done as representatives of the United Nations Commission on Palestine were observing. The ships returned to France, but the French said they would only accept the refugees back if the refugees would disembark willingly. They were unwilling, and the British decided they had no choice but to transport the 4,500 Holocaust survivors to the British Zone of occupation in Germany. The Exodus story received worldwide publicity and is said to have affected some of the members of UNSCOP. The story of Exodus became a best-selling book and a major motion picture.

THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Movie Review—Saint Clara

In my occasional review of Israeli movies available on Netflix, this week, we take a look at the rather quirky 1996 film, Saint Clara. Centered on the struggles of a new immigrant trying to be accepted in a high school class, this film offers a unique twist: the protagonist, a young girl named Clara, possesses the ability to see the future.

The movie opens with a scene in which a teacher is exasperated, questioning how every student managed to score a perfect 100 on a recent exam. As the story unfolds, we witness Clara's journey to fit in and be accepted by her classmates while grappling with her supernatural gift. Through a blend of surreal and humorous moments, Saint Clara explores themes of belonging, identity, and self-discovery.

While the film's plot may seem a bit strange and offbeat, it ultimately delivers a heartfelt narrative about a new immigrant's desire to find her place in an unfamiliar environment. If you have a Netflix subscription and enjoy unconventional cinema, Saint Clara is worth checking out. However, it may not be a “must-see” film for everyone, so don't feel obliged to go out of your way to watch it.

A TASTE OF TEL AVIV—

RESTAURANT REVIEW, by Tali Schulman

Continuing with the theme of new Tel Aviv wine bars, this week we’re highlighting Rumiyah, located inside Shuk HaCarmel, between Malan and Yishkon streets. Opened by Chef Idan Panda, the brainchild behind Panda Pita (another very famous Shuk HaCarmel Staple), Rumiyah brings a whole new vibe to the Shuk with a beautifully re-done space extending backwards into an incredibly aesthetically pleasing and stunning partially outdoor space. I highly recommend their take on the Greek skordalia dip, made with leeks, almonds and garlic, accompanied by their fresh lachuch (Yemenite flatbread) to snack on alongside your wine. Come here on a date, with friends, or with a large group, this bar is perfect for pretty much any occasion!

For more Tel Aviv restaurant recommendations, you can find me on Instagram @talischulman where I save all my food adventures in my highlights!