Israel, Weather, Drives Back Plague of Locusts from Egypt

Teresa Neumann : Mar 7, 2013
Aaron Kalman and Ron Friedman – Times of Israel

It was called Operation Buzzkill, and rabbis had to dissuade Orthodox Jews from feasting on the "crunchy critter delicacies."

(Israel)—Israel wasn't about to sit by and let the same plague of locusts attacking Egypt destroy crops in their country as well. As millions of insects blackened the skies of Israel near the Egyptian border, Israel's Agriculture Ministry sent two planes and a host of trucks out to an agricultural area bordering the country and set to work spraying pesticides. (Photo: Dror Garti/Flash90)

An insurance representative for the government, Shmuel Turgeman, declared the threat was now under control.

According to a report in The Times of Israel, though the locusts were still moving north, they were not expected to reach central Israel's major population centers because of a cold front predicted to drive the locusts south. (Photo: Marc Israel Sellem)

Saleh Bakheet, director general of the Department of Plant Protection in the Ministry of Agriculture, said, "the situation is under full control and protection of the Ministry of Agriculture."

On a side note, apparently locusts are eaten as snacks by some Israeli's (shades of John the Baptists?) Indeed, Rabbi Yizhak Yosef was quoted as having instructed his yeshiva students not to eat the insects.

"We are not familiar with their names and their signs," he said. "We have no clear tradition about them."