Pro-Palestinian Rallies Await Israeli PM in London

By Tzippe Barrow

CBN News Internet Producer - Jerusalem

Wednesday, September 09, 2015

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JERUSALEM, Israel – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, left for a two-day state visit to England Wednesday, where British Prime Minister David Cameron awaits them, along with pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Demonstrations are less than what 107,000 signatories of a petition to arrest Netanyahu for alleged war crimes wanted, referring to theIDF's military incursion in the Gaza Strip last summer in response to Palestinian rocket fire and terror tunnels dug under Israel's border.

Earlier Wednesday, terrorists opened fire on an Israeli woman near the Tapuach Junction, not far from Nablus (biblical Shechem).

Miraculously, she was unhurt, though shaken up by the attack and the bullets that penetrated her car. The IDF dispatched soldiers to search for the shooter.

A few days ago, the European Union announced it was putting the finishing touches on its Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) package, the same week the SodaStream factory in Samaria gets ready to close and move to its new location in the Negev. 

SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum says BDS supporters just don't get it.

"It's propaganda. It's politics. It's hate. It's anti-Semitism," Birnbaum said. "It's all the bad stuff we don't want to be part of."

Meanwhile, skies remained hazy Wednesday, following Tuesday's massive sandstorm that blanketed Israel from north to south, as well as Syria, in a thick yellow, sand-filled haze. Israeli media reported it was the most massive sandstorm in 15 years.

Environmental Protection Ministry warned people with heart or lung problems to stay indoors. Domestic flights were cancelled and many people held scarves to their faces as they walked the streets.

Sweltering temperatures that accompanied the sandstorm are expected to last through the start of Rosh Hashanah, literally "head of the year," which begins Sunday at sunset.

Meanwhile in Jerusalem, light-rail construction to outlying neighborhoods, along with school and holiday traffic, snarled city streets.

But despite boycotts, sandstorms, terror attacks, traffic jams and anti-Israel protests, there's a pervasive and undeniable optimism as Israelis prepare to celebrate the New Year. Everywhere people wish one another Shana tova u'metuka, a good and sweet New Year.