Wednesday, August 05, 2020

08/05 Links Pt1: Lebanese confront devastation after huge blast kills 100+, damages half Beirut; Lebanese blame years of government corruption; Netanyahu: We distinguish between regime and people

From Ian:
Lebanese confront devastation after huge blast kills 100+, damages half Beirut
Residents of Beirut confronted a scene of utter devastation Wednesday, a day after a massive explosion at the port rippled across the Lebanese capital, killing at least 100 people, wounding thousands and leaving entire city blocks blanketed with glass and rubble.

Smoke still rose from the port, where a towering building of silos was half destroyed, spilling out grain. Hangars around it were completely toppled. The blast knocked out a crater some 200 meters (yards) across that filled with seawater — it was as if the sea had taken a bite out of the port, swallowing buildings with it.

Much of downtown was littered with damaged vehicles and debris that had rained down from the shattered facades of buildings.

An official with the Lebanese Red Cross said at least 100 people were killed and more than 4,000 were wounded. George Kettaneh said the toll could rise further.

The blast has left 300,000 people homeless and caused damage across half of the city estimated to cost more than $3 billion, Beirut’s governor said. “I think there are between 250,000 and 300,000 people who are now without homes,” says Marwan Aboud.

The blast appeared to have been triggered by a fire that touched off a cargo of ammonium nitrate that had been stored at the port for years, though it was unclear what sparked the fire. Hitting with the force of an earthquake, it was the most powerful explosion ever seen in the city, which was split in half by the 1975-1990 civil war and has endured conflicts with neighboring Israel and periodic bombings and terror attacks.

Scores of people were missing, with relatives pleading on social media for help locating loved ones. An Instagram page called “Locating Victims Beirut” sprang up with photos of missing, and radio presenters read names of missing or wounded people throughout the night. Many residents moved in with friends or relatives after their apartments were damaged and treated their own injuries because hospitals were overwhelmed.
Lebanese blame Beirut explosion on years of government corruption
In Lebanon, citizens are accustomed to fury at the government, with the crumbling economy, hours-long electricity cuts, and an armed group dominating much of the country’s politics.

But the shock and horror following Tuesday night’s explosion at the Beirut port, which has claimed over 100 lives so far and left thousands wounded, marked a new low for an already demoralized public. In the midst of one of the worst crises in Lebanon’s history, the catastrophe marked what many called a new, painful nadir.

Though the source of the blast remains unconfirmed, most of the evidence so far points to government negligence, and many Lebanese seem to agree. The official government account indicates that 2,750 metric tons (about 3,000 tons) of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ignited Tuesday night, according to Lebanese Public Security Director Abbas Ibrahim. The explosive material had been idling in the harbor since 2013.

An investigation by Al-Jazeera found repeated letters from Customs Director Badri Daher asking for the cache of ammonium nitrate to be removed. No action was ever taken by authorities.

“We knew they were there,” said Beirut customs official Hasam Quraytam, referring to the tons of ammonium nitrate, “We just didn’t know it’d be this dangerous.”

The Higher Defense Council, which has called a two-week state of emergency, has announced that it is launching an investigation. The results will be announced in five days, the HDC said in a statement.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun stumbled through a speech at a Lebanese cabinet meeting on Wednesday, barely raising his eyes from his screen as he promised that the government would uncover the truth behind the explosion and punish those responsible “with the full measure of the law.”
Seth Frantzman: Israeli aid should be on the ground in Lebanon, regional policies prevent it
Within hours of the explosion that tore apart Beirut, killing a hundred and injuring 4,000, Israel was prepared to support its victimized neighbor in its time of need. Lebanon and Israel are not just neighbors; the countries share many commonalities.

The architecture and design of their port cities are rooted in the 1940s and 1950s. The coastline is the same.

The people of Beirut, like Israel’s Tel Aviv, are open-minded and progressive. But the policies of the Lebanese government appear to have prevented immediate aid or support from reaching the tragedy-stricken country.

Israel has extensive experience in search and rescue as well as disaster relief. The Jewish state has pioneered the use of technology to aid in disasters as well, part of the overall technological innovations in the Home Front command.

These technologies and abilities have been learned from Israel’s experience assisting Haiti in the 2010 earthquake and also in Japan in 2012 after a 15-meter tsunami disabled the Fukushima Daicchi reactors. Israel has also sent aid to Nepal, the Philippines and Mexico during disasters there.

In interviews I conducted in recent years, the Home Front Command described its new technological innovations to help map and locate survivors after a disaster.

Israel has already been recognized for offering support to Lebanon. But Lebanon’s authorities have been slow to respond.

This is despite the fact that Israel’s hospitals in the North are a short trip from Beirut. They have experience working with wounded people from Syria.









‘Like Hiroshima or Nagasaki’: Pictures, videos show devastation across Beirut
A giant mushroom cloud rose above Beirut on Tuesday following massive explosions at its port, which devastated buildings across Lebanon’s capital and injured dozens. Miles from the scene of the blasts, balconies were knocked down, ceilings collapsed and windows were shattered.

Witnesses saw many people injured by flying glass and debris. Dazed injured residents, their faces and bodies caked with blood, meandered through the smoldering wreckage, aided by passersby and medics. The number of wounded was not immediately clear.

Videos of the explosion quickly proliferated across social media and pictures showed the breadth of the carnage across the city.

“This reminds me of what happened in Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” said Beirut Governor Marwan Aboud. “I have never seen such widespread destruction. This is a national catastrophe. This is a disaster for Lebanon. We’re already living through days where we can barely keep going.”

“And now this…I don’t know how we’re going to recover from this,” Aboud told Sky News, before bursting into tears.

The blast was attributed by local media reports to fireworks or other explosive materials stored in warehouses along the port. Israel denied any involvement amid tensions with the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist group, which also indicated it was an accident rather than a deliberate attack.








Israeli Ambassador Warned UNSC About Hezbollah Control Over Beirut Port
While Lebanon’s Red Cross organization is working together with search and rescue teams to pull survivors out from under the rubble and find anyone else who has survived so they can be taken for medical care as quickly as possible, Lebanese investigators are probing the cause of two massive explosions that leveled buildings surrounding the Port of Beirut early Tuesday evening and damaged others up to 10 kilometers away.

Lebanese Health Minister Hamad Hassan told media Tuesday night that at least 73 people died and thousands more were injured, with those numbers still expected to rise.

The initial cause of the explosions — including one that resulted in a huge mushroom-shaped cloud of smoke — was reportedly linked to “chemicals and fireworks” that were being stored in warehouses at Gate 12 in the area of the port.

No matter what, it’s still not clear what caused the explosions, even with “fireworks and chemicals” because those items do not detonate themselves on their own. As soon as the first blast went up, the Al-Arabiya television station reported that Hezbollah troops were deployed throughout the port. An Arabic television station associated with Hezbollah reported that the terror group said the cause of the blast was not an Israeli strike on a Hezbollah weapons warehouse. Both are odd. But when one considers a bit of news from one year ago, it all falls into place.

Danon to UN Security Council: ‘Beirut Port Has Become Hezbollah’s Port’

Speaking at a special news conference a year ago (July 2019) at the United Nations, Israel’s then-Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon joined US then-Special Representative for International Negotiations, Jason Greenblatt, to talk about the fact that the Iranian regime is using the Port of Beirut for military purposes.

“They use commercial companies, mainly from Europe, to support Hezbollah to develop its missile program,” Danon said. “Unfortunately, the Port of Beirut has become Hezbollah’s port.”

“In the years 2018-2019, Israel found that dual-use items are smuggled into Lebanon to advance Hezbollah’s rocket and missile capabilities,” Danon told the UN Security Council. “Iran and the Quds Force have begun to advance the exploitation of the civilian maritime channels, and specifically the Port of Beirut,” Danon said. “The Port of Beirut has become the Port of Hezbollah.”
Will Beirut blast make Hezbollah remove arsenal from residential areas?
Four years after Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah threatened to hit Haifa’s ammonia tank, Nasrallah saw with his own eyes what such an explosion would do. But it wasn’t in Israel: It was in his own country.

On Tuesday evening, 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate stored in a hangar at the city's port exploded, causing a massive explosion and shock wave that tore through Lebanon’s capital of Beirut, killing over 100 people and injuring thousands.

In 2016 when Nasrallah threatened Haifa, he said it “would be exactly like a nuclear bomb... any rocket that might hit these tanks is capable of creating an effect similar to a nuclear bomb.” Shortly after the explosion, Twitter users speculated that it could have been one such rocket that caused the explosion.

Though this was quickly ruled out, Beirut was devastated. Pictures from the once Paris of the Middle East were reminiscent of war zones in Grozny and Aleppo.

Residents of Beirut have quickly laid the blame on Lebanese officials who, according to reports, knew of the dangers posed by the dangerous cargo that had been placed in Hanger 12 of Beirut Port, after being offloaded from a Russian-owned cargo ship flying a Moldovan Flag that had been heading from Georgia to Mozambique.

According to a report in Al Jazeera, numerous letters had been sent from Customs officials asking for a solution, but all went unanswered.
Hezbollah stockpiled chemical behind Beirut blast in London and Germany
Hezbollah kept three metric tons of ammonium nitrate, the explosive thought to be behind the mega blast in Beirut this week, in a storehouse in London, until MI5 and the London Metropolitan Police found it in 2015.

The Lebanese terrorist group also stored hundreds of kilograms of ammonium nitrate in southern Germany, which were uncovered earlier this year.

The Beirut explosion took place at a warehouse that held 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate that had been confiscated from a ship.

The Iran-backed terrorists kept the explosive in thousands of ice packs in four properties in northwest London, according to a report in The Telegraph last year. The ice pack deception tactic was used in Germany, as well.

A source was quoted in The Telegraph saying the ammonium nitrate was to be used for “proper organized terrorism” and could have caused “a lot of damage.”

MI5 arrested a man in his 40s for allegedly planning terrorist attacks, but did not find evidence that the terrorists were planning an attack in the UK.

A foreign government reportedly tipped off MI5 to the explosives stockpile. KAN reported that the Mossad gave the UK the information.
“MI5 worked independently and closely with international partners to disrupt the threat of malign intent from Iran and its proxies in the UK,” an intelligence source told The Telegraph.




Netanyahu on offering aid to Lebanon: We distinguish between regime and people
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday expressed condolences to the Lebanese people following a mysterious explosion at the Beirut port that killed more than a hundred people, and reiterated his offer to send humanitarian aid.

“First of all, in the name of the Israeli government I am conveying our condolences to the Lebanese people,” he said at the beginning of a speech at the Knesset.

“Yesterday there was a very great catastrophe in Lebanon. We are ready to send humanitarian assistance to Lebanon, as human beings to human beings,” he added, speaking over loud heckling by opposition lawmakers.

“We have done that in the past. During the humanitarian crisis in Syria, I ordered the building of a field hospital at our border in the Golan Heights… We offered several times, after earthquakes and natural disasters in Iran, humanitarian assistance to the Iranian people.”

“That’s our way. We distinguish between the regimes and the people,” he added.

He also tweeted his offer of aid in Arabic:




Israeli aid offers pour into Lebanon after Beirut disaster
Following a deadly chemical explosion Tuesday evening at a warehouse in Beirut, the Israeli government, aid organizations and hospitals rushed to offer assistance.

“Israel approached Lebanon through international defense and diplomatic channels to offer the Lebanese government medical humanitarian aid,” Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi said in a joint statement.

Lebanese President Michel Aoun said that unsafe storage of 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate in a warehouse at the port started a fire, which triggered a huge explosion and additional fires.

At least 100 people are dead and more than 4,000 injured in the capital city. Rescue workers are searching for more victims amid the rubble. Hundreds of thousands are left homeless.

Israel’s response was immediate, despite a history of conflict between the two countries and current tensions caused by the Hezbollah terrorist group entrenched in Lebanon on Israel’s northern border.

“This is the time to transcend any conflict,” tweeted the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson after the explosion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office reported that Netanyahu immediately “instructed the head of the National Security Council Meir Ben-Shabbat to talk to the UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov to find out what else Israel can do to help Lebanon.”

“We share the pain of the Lebanese people and sincerely reach out to offer our aid at this difficult time,” President Reuven Rivlin tweeted on Tuesday night in English, Arabic and Hebrew.

Mladenov acknowledged Israel’s offer, posting on Twitter: “The region and the world must come together to help the people of Lebanon through this time of anguish.”

After it was reported that several Beirut hospitals were damaged in the blast, Ziv Medical Center in Safed — which treated about 5,000 Syrian civilians injured in that country’s civil war between 2013 and 2019 — sent word to Lebanon that the Israeli hospital is “experienced and prepared” to assist in any way possible. Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya made a similar offer.

Nonprofit aid organizations based in Israel also are reaching out to Lebanon. One group, SmartAID, released a statement that it is assessing the situation with the help of global aid partners and stands ready to provide medical equipment, solar-powered lanterns, chargers for cell phones, clean water and basic relief items.
Israeli hospitals offer to take in injured from Beirut explosions
At least three Israeli hospitals offered on Tuesday to help treat the thousands of Lebanese injured in the massive explosions that ripped through Beirut.

The explosions flattened much of the city’s port, damaging buildings across the capital and sending a giant mushroom cloud into the sky. More than 70 people were killed and 3,000 injured, with bodies buried in the rubble, officials said.

Israel offered humanitarian aid to Lebanon in a rare show of support for the enemy country, and three hospitals said they were volunteering their services.

Ziv Medical Center in the northern town of Safed and Rambam Medical Center in Haifa both said they would take in injured.

We are “experienced and prepared,” Ziv said. Both northern hospitals have extensive experience treating patients from hostile countries and were involved in treating Syrians wounded in the civil war. Ziv has treated more than 5,000 Syrian patients since 2013, keeping their identities confidential.

Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv also offered aid.

“We have offered any medical assistance needed to the injured in the Lebanon explosion disaster,” hospital director Yitshak Kreiss told Army Radio. “We are obligated to help anyone who needs assistance, especially our neighbors. We are ready and prepared for any mission we will be given.”

Sheba routinely treats Palestinian patients and has run training courses for Palestinian nurses from the West Bank and Gaza
Mayor of Haifa, home to oil, chemical facilities, warns of Beirut-style disaster
The mayor of Haifa voiced concern on Wednesday that the “horror scenario” gripping Beirut could unfold in the northern Israeli port city, a day after blasts in Lebanon’s capital claimed the lies of at least 100 people and wounded thousands.

Calls to speed efforts to move potentially dangerous oil and chemical factories out of the densely populated Haifa area before disaster strikes came thick and fast in the wake of the massive explosion at the port of Beirut, which was linked to stockpiles of some 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate.

Close to residential areas housing 900,000 people, the Haifa Bay in northern Israel is home to the country’s biggest industrial area. It has two ports and more than 60 industrial plants including oil refineries and processing factories, power plants and storage facilities. It is crossed by major national road systems along which hundreds of thousands of people drive each day.

Haifa’s mayor, Einat Kalish Rotem, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday, “The fear of all of us, based on experts in the field, is exactly of a horror scenario like the one that erupted yesterday north of Israel….Yesterday we received a wake-up call from Beirut… There is no place for hazardous substances and polluting factories within the urban space and among the population. After being shocked by the harsh sights from Lebanon, it’s time to act.”

Eli Dukorsky, mayor of Kiryat Bialik, just north of Haifa, echoed the plea for the evacuation of the petrochemical industries in a post on his Facebook page.
After blast, Tel Aviv city hall to light up as Lebanese flag in solidarity
Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai said his City Hall would light up in the colors of the Lebanese flag in solidarity Wednesday night, following the deadly explosion in Beirut.

“This evening we will light up City Hall with the flag of Lebanon. Humanity comes before any conflict, and our heart is with the Lebanese people following the terrible disaster that befell them,” Huldai wrote on Twitter.

Many Israelis have expressed horror over the disaster that struck Beirut and sympathy with the Lebanese people, despite past enmity between the countries.

But Yair Netanyahu, the son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, tweeted that he was opposed to displaying the colors, falsely claiming that it was illegal.

“This is crazy. Lebanon is officially a terrorist state,” he wrote on Twitter in response to Huldai. “Flying the flag of an enemy state is a criminal offense!!!”

Yamina MK Ayelet Shaked said, “In a proper country, the color orange would be painted this evening on the Tel Aviv City Hall as a reminder of the [August 2005] withdrawal from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlements in Gaza]. Instead, we get the flag of an enemy state.”








Dore Gold - The Battle of the Narratives
Amb. Dore Gold at Council on Foreign Relations - Virtual Meeting on Middle East Peace, July 20, 2020 - debating U.S. Amb. Martin Indyk, Palestinian negotiator Hanan Ashrawi, and moderator Farah Stockman of the New York Times (Part 1)

Dore Gold: I want to first of all thank CFR for raising the issue of the definition of terms that we use because we have a real problem here. During the years that I served as Israel's ambassador to the UN and later as director general of the Foreign Ministry, I used to review previous Israeli speeches penned by Israeli officials to the UN secretary general. One such letter written way back on July 10, 1967, by our foreign minister, Abba Eban, complained about a Pakistani draft resolution which referred to measures taken by Israel after the Six-Day War to integrate eastern parts of Jerusalem as " annexation." He insisted on using the term "extension of Israeli law and jurisdiction" to eastern Jerusalem.

And since that time we've been going through a battle of the narratives - when you get Israeli and Palestinian spokesmen in conferences or on television and also people who are not either party but interested parties. And they carry these battles out in the UN, in specialized agencies like UNESCO. It's a battle over political terminology and it's a battle over history.

Today we're considering if the term "annexation" even applies to recent Israeli proposals to extend Israeli sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria - that's the West Bank - in the context of the American peace plan. You know, the International Committee of the Red Cross - the ICRC - plays an important role in providing authoritative definitions of this sort. It defines "annexation" as "a unilateral act of a state through which it proclaims its sovereignty over the territory of another state." So the obvious question is whether the West Bank was the territory of another state. Now this may be tedious, but those are the facts that we have to contend with.


Fatah leader: Contacts underway to resume peace process
Several parties are trying to resume contacts between the Palestinian Authority and Israel and the US administration, Mahmoud Aloul, deputy chairman of the Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, said on Wednesday.

Aloul did not name the parties that are reportedly seeking to resume contacts between the Palestinians and the Israelis and Americans. “There are many parties that are in touch with us and the Americans and Israelis in order to find solutions,” he said without elaborating.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014.

The PA leadership has been boycotting the US administration since December 2017, when US President Donald Trump announced his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

A PA official told The Jerusalem Post that some Arab states, including Egypt and Jordan, have been trying to convince the Palestinian leadership to resume its contacts with the US administration and Israel. The official said that some European states had also “advised” the Palestinians to end their boycott of Israel and the Trump administration.

The PA leadership previously expressed readiness to resume peace talks with Israel, but only within the framework of an international peace conference that would deny the US the chance to act as a sole and major broker.

Aloul said that the PA leadership is prepared to sit with all relevant parties, “but only on the basis of international resolutions and legitimacy.”
Democrats Gutted Anti-Hezbollah Legislation Days Before Attack on Israel
Just days before the Iranian-funded terror group Hezbollah waged a terrorist attack on Israel’s northern border, congressional Democrats gutted legislation that would have halted U.S. funding to the Lebanese military, which is almost entirely controlled by the terror group.

Congress has been working on legislation that would slash millions in American taxpayer funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which has long been under Hezbollah’s thumb. Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have been pushing to cut this funding for some time, arguing that U.S. aid should not be sent to an institution known to conduct attacks against Israel on Iran’s behalf.

While the original bill had bipartisan support in both chambers, House Democrats recently attached an amendment to their version of the legislation that nixed the funding cut. Other GOP amendments that would have strengthened the legislation and pushed the LAF to isolate Hezbollah from its forces were also struck down by the Democrat-led House.

The House last week passed a watered-down version of the bill that leaves the LAF funding fully intact. The wrangling over the legislation came just days before Hezbollah launched a foiled attack on Israel from southern Lebanon, where the LAF and international forces have been tasked with stopping such terror strikes. Republican congressional sources who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon accused House Democrats of standing in the way of a major reform effort that could have forced the LAF to eradicate Hezbollah from its ranks or face a cutoff in U.S. aid dollars.
Ashkenazi urges Latin American countries to ban Hezbollah
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi called on Latin American countries to ban Hezbollah, in a meeting with ambassadors from the region on Wednesday.

“Terrorism affects all countries and we have to fight it in a mutual way,” Ashkenazi said. “The best way to do that is sanctions on Hezbollah.”

The Foreign Minister pointed out to the Latin American ambassadors: “Some of your countries already suffered from this organization. There’s a place to change that and outlaw Hezbollah. We will appreciate it if we see progress with Latin American countries regarding this issue.”

Ashkenazi has emphasized bans on Hezbollah in conversations with his counterparts in all countries that still allow the organization to be active, but Latin America is particularly significant because the terrorist group is especially active in the region.

Hezbollah has a major presence on the border of Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay, and in Venezuela, which does not have official diplomatic relations with Israel, though acting president Juan Guaido seeks to remove Hezbollah from the country and establish ties with Israel.

The Lebanese terrorist organization bombed the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994, killing 85.

Colombia, Honduras and Guatemala have all banned Hezbollah.


349 Israelis in Serious Condition as Coronavirus Death Toll Rises to 554
More than 22,000 coronavirus tests conducted in Israel from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday resulted in 1,801 new confirmed cases, the Health Ministry reported on Tuesday.

According to Health Ministry data, as of Tuesday afternoon, the COVID-19 death toll stood at 554, with 349 Israelis listed in serious condition, among them 97 on ventilators. Another 139 patients were listed in moderate condition. In total, the number of coronavirus patients hospitalized in Israel stood at 761.

There were 24,764 active or symptomatic cases nationwide.

The COVID-19 treatment units at Hadassah Medical Center Ein Kerem, Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv, and Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem were at full capacity. The rest of the dedicated coronavirus units at other medical facilities had beds available.

On Monday, Esther Agmon, chairwoman of the Israel Association of Biochemists, Microbiologists and Laboratory Workers, told the Knesset Coronavirus Committee that despite the government’s having promised funds for an additional 200 lab workers to help process COVID-19 tests, only 40 had been hired.

Agmon pointed out that the low salaries, which she said have not been raised since 1995, made it difficult to recruit new workers. Additionally, while laboratory workers used to hold bachelor’s degrees, now many have doctoral or post-doctoral degrees, yet are expected to work for the same pay.

Agmon said that since 2019, 20 percent of the staff at Israel’s medical laboratories had left, meaning that the country was hit by the coronavirus epidemic with a shortage of trained personnel.
Ministers to meet on removing weekend virus restrictions as death toll climbs
Government ministers were set to meet Wednesday to discuss rolling back weekend restrictions on retailers and a plan for giving municipalities more autonomy to set their own virus regulations, as the number of active virus cases approached 25,000 and infections showed no sign of slowing.

The so-called coronavirus cabinet was scheduled to meet at 4:30 p.m. with Ronni Gamzu, who has been appointed to lead the national response to the virus but has reportedly been criticized by ministers for failing to bring concrete proposals to the table.

Among the topics of discussion at the meeting will be Gamzu’s scheme to introduce a color-coded rating for cities based on how they are faring in the battle against the coronavirus.

Under the plan, places that have avoided outbreaks would be granted the freedom to create their own rules, allowing event halls, for instance, to open, according to reports. Cities doing less well would be funneled extra funding to help deal with the problem while those faring the worst would be managed at the national level.

Israel has struggled in recent months to contain the outbreak, confirming close to 2,000 new infections a day.
Medical personal at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan in the hospital’s coronavirus ward on June 30, 2020. (Yossi Zeliger/Flash90)

On Tuesday, the Health Ministry announced that 15 people died on Monday, the highest single-day toll yet. Three more deaths Wednesday morning brought the death toll to 564.
Israel said preparing to block Rosh Hashanah travel to Ukraine pilgrimage site
The government will block Israelis from visiting a Ukrainian pilgrimage site over the Rosh Hashanah holiday due to the pandemic, according to a television report on Tuesday.

In previous years, about 30,000 pilgrims, mostly from Israel, have gathered for the Jewish new year in Uman, home to the burial place of Rabbi Nachman, an 18th-century luminary and founder of the Bratslav Hasidic movement.

Rosh Hashanah this year begins in the evening of September 18.

Israeli officials are weighing various options to prevent the mass holiday gathering over fears of a serious COVID-19 outbreak from the returning pilgrims, Channel 12 reported.

In the coming days, representatives from the Health Ministry, Foreign Ministry and National Security Council will meet to discuss various options. The first, the network said, is outreach to the Hasidim and public campaigns to discourage travel to Uman over the health risk. The second is to persuade the Ukrainian government to bar Israelis from the country. If those measures fail to yield results, Israel will cancel all flights to Ukraine, the report said.
Activist targets New Israel Fund for ‘electioneering’ via anti-racism groups
A pro-Israel activist has filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service that, if successful, could severely restrict freedom of speech for non-governmental organizations.

David Abrams’ lawsuit alleges that the nonprofit New Israel Fund “electioneered” in violation of its tax-exempt status by supporting grantees in Israel who are vocal on political issues. Among other things, the lawsuit cites the NIF for supporting Israeli organizations that have sought to have candidates barred from running for office for being racist, for calling candidates racist and for praising candidates who embrace their initiatives.

The suit, filed on behalf of an organization Abrams leads, The Zionist Advocacy Center, seeks $110 million in damages from NIF, which, under New York state law, Abrams would be entitled to as much as 30 percent of as a whistleblower. The NIF must file its objections by Friday.

Critics say the NIF activities Abrams is targeting are routine for many nonprofits, Jewish and otherwise, and that if he is successful it would impede the efforts of those groups to work on behalf of political issues they care about.

Abrams could “undermine a lot of the work that nonprofits do both in the United States and around the globe to promote the value of constitutional democracy,” said Brian Hauss, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, which joined the case in June.

Abrams has long sought to use legal means to restrict the activities of anti-Israel groups. As a registered foreign agent with an Israeli legal outfit that has ties to the Israeli government, he has largely focused in the past on organizations he sees as acting against Israel’s interests.




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