Saturday, April 11, 2020
Israel’s virus death toll jumps to 101, with 10,743 confirmed cases
The Health Ministry announced late Saturday evening that Israel’s death toll from the coronavirus stood at 101, with five more deaths reported between Saturday morning and night.29-year-old COVID-19 patient treated with Israel's new ‘passive vaccine’
According to Health Ministry figures late Saturday, Israel has 10,743 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 175 in serious condition and 129 people on ventilators.
Another 154 people were in moderate condition, the ministry said Saturday, with the rest having mild symptoms. Close to 7,000 of those diagnosed with the disease are hospitalized at home.
As of Saturday evening, 1,341 have recovered from the illness.
Israeli health officials are expecting a surge in coronavirus deaths in the next 10 days, according to a Friday report.
The rise in deaths does not signify an increase in infections, however. Patients who are already hospitalized and on respirators are likely to succumb to the virus in the coming days, according to predictive models from the Health Ministry, Channel 13 reported.
Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have been elderly and suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials. The novel coronavirus has been spreading quickly in nursing homes around the country, raising intense concern for the safety of elderly residents.
A 29-year-old haredi (ultra-Orthodox) coronavirus patient who is being treated at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital has improved from serious to serious but stable condition, after receiving multiple doses of plasma over the weekend from a donor who recovered from coronavirus, a spokesperson for the hospital told The Jerusalem Post.Netanyahu-Modi Diplomacy: India Ships Hydroxychloroquine to Israel
On Friday, “with the assistance of Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman and his assistant, a suitable donor, a resident of Jerusalem, was found,” explained MDA director-general Eli Bin.
MDA brought her in an ambulance to its blood service center before Shabbat. A special team was waiting for her and transferred the plasma units to the laboratories to perform all required tests and prepare them for transfusion.
Then, with the approval of the Health Ministry, the blood units were delivered to Assuta and given to the patient.
The man is among the country’s youngest severe patients. He has several underlying medical conditions, and has been hospitalized at Assuta for around a week-and-a-half.
The first patient who recovered from coronavirus donated plasma on April 1, according to MDA deputy director-general of blood services Prof.
Eilat Shinar. Since then, some six other patients have made donations and, in the last two days, plasma units were provided to three different hospitals.
Lifting a blanket export ban, India has shipped a huge consignment of coronavirus treatment drugs to Israel. New Delhi delivered a five-tonne cargo of medicines including chloroquine, the antiviral drug currently being used in the treatment of Wuhan coronavirus.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, for the move. “Thank you, my dear friend, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, for sending hydroxychloroquine to Israel. All the citizens of Israel thank you!” the Israeli leader tweeted on Friday.
New Delhi had previously banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and other coronavirus-related medicines. India is reportedly the biggest manufacturer of the drug typically used in the treatment of malaria patients.
The Times of Israel news website reported New Delhi’s decision:
A plane from India carrying materials used to make medicines for treating coronavirus patients has arrived in Israel.
The five ton shipment, which the Ynet news site said arrived Tuesday, includes ingredients for the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are used to treat malaria.
Several countries have been experimenting with hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus symptoms and US President Donald Trump has touted its potential. Experts, however, have urged caution until bigger trials validate hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness, as it and chloroquine can have potentially serious side effects, especially in high doses or administered with other medications.
Passover in Israel Looks Like Yom Kippur — Roads Empty Due to Coronavirus
Israel’s highways, intersections and back streets were deserted during Passover on Thursday, as coronavirus restrictions and a holiday curfew left the country looking more like Yom Kippur, when almost all road traffic stops.How JFK saved Passover for America's Jews
Police cars stopped the occasional passing vehicle, demanding to see documents identifying them as essential workers.
Israelis celebrating the Jewish Passover holiday this week were confined to their homes on Wednesday night for the “seder” — the traditional large festive meal celebrating freedom from biblical slavery.
A ban on inter-city travel went into effect on Tuesday afternoon and was set to end on Friday morning.
As Passover approached in April 1962, a wheat flour shortage left US Jews searching for how they were going to make matzah (unleavened bread) for that year's Passover.Netanyahu stops all flights to Israel after more NY arrivals enter unchecked
President John F. Kennedy came to the rescue that February when he issued a special proclamation that granted special permission to import around five tons of wheat flour from Israel that year in order to allow Jews the opportunity to make all the matzah they needed.
The president's proclamation, dated February 5, 1962, stated: "For the purpose of this proclamation 'Shmurah wheat flour' means wheat flour which has been thoroughly safeguarded for ritual purposes under rabbinical supervision, as certified to the Secretary of Agriculture by an authorized representative of the government of Israel or its designee, and which is imported into the United States for use solely for religious and ritual purposes in the making of matzos for Passover."
A recent tweet by the JFK Library wishing Jewish people a happy Passover showed the official White House press release regarding the transaction.
"The president today signed a proclamation allowing a limited quantity of wheat flour produced in Israel to enter the United States," the statement read. "In the absence of such a proclamation, Orthodox Jews would have been unable to observe the Passover holiday in accordance with their traditional rituals."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday halted all flights to Israel until legal steps could be taken to allow the Home Front Command to transfer all travelers arriving in Israel to state-run quarantine hotels for 14 days.Erdogan said holding up privately purchased Israeli medical shipment in Turkey
Flights that are already en route to Israel will be allowed to land but no new flights will be permitted until the situation is resolved, the Prime Minister’s Office said.
The move came after some 70 passengers on a United Airlines flight from the virus-stricken New York area arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on Saturday morning and were allowed to travel home in taxis without having their temperatures checked or filling in forms detailing where they would be quarantined for the requisite 14 days.
The incident came despite Netanyahu last week ordering all incoming passengers to Israel to be quarantined at specially designated hotels around the country.
However, legally passengers can’t be forced to move into the quarantine hotels, with neither the police, nor the military which operates the facilities, legally able to compel travelers to go there.
A Health Ministry source told The Times of Israel on Friday that passengers who could prove they could self-isolate were allowed to leave the airport independently and return to their homes, while those who could not were sent to state-supervised hotels for a 14-day quarantine period.
The official said that while the ministry would prefer for all passengers to be sent to hotels, complications deriving from a legal opinion submitted by the Attorney General were preventing that from happening. He called the opinion a “complete misunderstanding” of the situation.
Turkey is reportedly holding up hundreds of crates of medical equipment purchased by Israelis to aid in Israel’s fight against the coronavirus.PM Johnson Out of Intensive Care as He Continues COVID-19 Recovery
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded that a similar amount of equipment be transferred to the Palestinians before the Israeli supplies are released in a move Israeli authorities decried as propaganda, Channel 12 reported.
The gear was purchased by Israelis, but not by the government, with Turkish authorities’ permission to export it to Israel, the report said.
Before the equipment was loaded onto planes for transport to Israel, Erdogan’s office halted the move, demanding that Turkey be allowed to transfer a similar amount of gear directly to the Palestinians.
Israeli officials were angered by the demand, calling it propaganda and saying that anyone who wants to directly transfer equipment to the Palestinians was already permitted to do so.
The crates are being held in an Istanbul warehouse and contain gear, including personal protective equipment, which was produced in Turkey, one of the world’s leading suppliers of medical equipment.
The equipment was meant to be used in Israeli medical facilities, including Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Channel 12 reported.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson was resting in hospital on Friday, recovering from COVID-19, while his fellow Britons were told to resist the temptation of spring sunshine over Easter as the coronavirus outbreak approaches a peak.'We have the rights to answers': Nikki Haley demands WHO investigation over coronavirus response
The flamboyant 55-year-old leader’s visible decline shook the nation, but he came out of three nights of intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital on Thursday, having been admitted after suffering from a high temperature and cough.
“The prime minister is back on a ward and continuing his recovery, which is at an early stage,” his spokesman told reporters.
“I was told he was waving his thanks to all of the nurses and doctors he saw as he was moved from the intensive care unit back to the ward. The hospital said that he was in extremely good spirits last night.”
Johnson was the first world leader to be hospitalized with the coronavirus, forcing him to hand control to foreign minister Dominic Raab just as Britain’s situation worsened drastically.
The death toll is 7,978 — the fifth highest in the world.
Despite his condition improving, it remained unclear how long Johnson would be incapacitated. His spokesman said his recovery was only just beginning and he would take advice from his medical team.
“He must rest up,” his father, Stanley Johnson, told BBC radio. “You cannot walk away from this and go straight back to Downing Street and pick up the reins without a period of readjustment.”
One of the most prominent Republicans in the United States chewed out the top global health organization over concerns that it covered up key information out of China that could have slowed the spread of the coronavirus.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Wednesday that the relationship between China and the World Health Organization was a threat to U.S. sovereignty and that it should be investigated.
"The United States does fund 22% of the World Health Organization," Haley said. "But this is even bigger than the World Health Organization, this is about China's influence into these multilateral organizations."
Haley decried China's involvement in several international organizations, including its recent inclusion in the United Nations Human Rights Council as the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, China, continues to tear through hospitals and economies around the world.
"This is what China does," she said. "They try and leverage and get influence. And what we're seeing is the World Health Organization, once again, has fallen for it. And I can't believe they're going to go so far as lecture the president. I mean, if anything, we deserve to hold them accountable. We have the rights to answers. They need to be investigated."
Haley noted that Taiwanese health officials warned the WHO of a human-to-human virus on Dec. 31 before accusing the organization of having a slow response to the pandemic as a result of its allegiance to China.
"Why did it take a whole month for the World Health Organization to respond? You want to know why that is? Because China has kept Taiwan from being a member of the World Health Organization," she said.
The American people deserve answers from the World Health Organization. But this is more than just the WHO, it is about China and their determination of gaining influence in the world. pic.twitter.com/Z4pThlESko— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 9, 2020
NGO Monitor: On World Health Day, end the COVID-19 blood libels
April 7 marks “World Health Day,” which according to the WHO is aimed at creating “awareness of a specific health theme to highlight a priority area of concern for the World Health Organization.”Investigation: How Anti-Israel Activists Are Hijacking The Coronavirus Crisis And Turning It Against Israel
This year, attention will obviously be centered on the COVID-19 pandemic. Political leaders, activists, and officials of humanitarian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will flock to social media to proclaim their solidarity in the fight against the virus.
However, for some NGOs, their battle is not against coronavirus – it is against Israel. Claiming to advocate for Palestinian human rights, these groups push narratives of demonization and blaming Israel instead of supporting local health care workers, increased testing, and #StayatHome.
The most aggressive and hysterical attacks, as usual, revolve around Gaza, where NGOs are exploiting the pandemic to recycle their nearly 20-year-old campaigns of blaming Israel for the plight of Gaza’s population and alleging that Israel will be responsible for the potential spread of the virus and resulting deaths. In parallel, these propagandists erase the fact that the Hamas terror group controls Gaza and for years has diverted funds from health care to terror. Reminiscent of medieval blood libels, they accuse Israel of exclusive responsibility for non-Jewish deaths and ascribe nefarious motives to the Jewish state.
A clear example of this theme is reflected in a letter written by a group of anti-Israel activists and published in The Lancet (not the first such letter from repeat offender Mads Gilbert and the Palestinian NGO Al-Haq). The since-removed letter attacks “Israeli oppression and international complicity” mentioning only Israel as the cause for the health care crisis in Gaza. Ironically, the letter pushes a Palestinian “right of return” myth, calling for Palestinians to “return” to Israel precisely when Israel is suffering from a much higher rate of infection than Gaza. The authors, all with long records of anti-Israel campaigning, shamefully declare “no competing interests,” hiding their histories behind the façade of objectivity.
For BDS spin-doctors, not much is sacred. From faking injuries to using children as props, from welcoming Jewish suffering to accusing the Jewish state of the same behavior perpetrated against it; for decades, anti-Israel agitators have staged elaborate and horrifying scenes of Israeli brutality and Palestinian victimhood while simultaneously trumpeting their own righteousness for doing so.German exhibit on Black Death goes viral, then virtual; shows Jews were blamed
The COVID-19 crisis has proven to be no different. Attaching the Jewish national liberation movement and the world’s only sovereign Jewish nation-state to coronavirus devastation allows Israel haters to more easily frame Israel in the same way anti-Semites have tried to frame Jews for generations: a wantonly destructive but shadowy force, almost uncontainable and unknowably powerful, just like the virus itself.
Professor Landes has noted that BDS enthusiasts and Pallywood manufacturers are able to succeed in their propaganda endeavors in large part due to the credulity and eagerness of the western enablers to present these images, which reinforce the image of the Palestinian David struggling valiantly against the overpowering Israeli Goliath. In the age of the novel coronavirus, international Islamists and their leftist intersectional enablers have added to this myth: Goliath is using biological warfare, and David doesn’t even have a mask.
When the exhibition “Plague!” opened at the Museum of Archeology in the west German city of Herne last September, interest was largely limited to local audiences and media. By mid-March, when Germany adopted the first measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, the exhibition was making headlines nationwide.Brazilian TV anchor ousted for proposing ‘concentration camp’ for virus patients
“This is understandable because parallels can be drawn — although the plague is caused by bacteria and is therefore curable, unlike COVID-19, which is caused by a virus,” says the exhibit’s curator, Stefan Leenen. “Although interest in the exhibition has increased enormously, most [potential] visitors, and especially school classes, could not come at all because of restrictions on travel.”
Only a few hours after the interview with Leenen, the museum was closed. The new plague had triumphed over the old one. But now, a virtual tour of this highly interesting exhibition is online.
Via some 300 objects, “Plague” shows both the medical and the religious reactions to medieval plagues, especially the Black Death (or Great Bubonic Plague), which hit Europe in the 14th century. Doctors at the time believed that bad vapors or an unfavorable constellation of the stars were to blame for the mass extinction. Christians and the Catholic Church chalked it up to the wrath of God.
A Brazilian television anchor was fired after proposing on air that a concentration camp be created to house patients diagnosed with the coronavirus.Gantz officially requests extension of mandate to form gov’t as talks drag on
Marcao do Povo made the comment during Wednesday’s edition of Primeiro Impacto newscast, the second most-watched program on Brazilian television in the morning hours, Veja magazine reported.
“Mr. President, wouldn’t it be interesting to set up a concentration camp, with care, with the more sophisticated equipment, with the best professionals, and put there these people with problems, with symptoms? Got a symptom? Take the person there and treat him with care.”
The polemic drew media attention and the anchor’s name became a top trending topic on Twitter.
In 2017, do Povo was fired from RecordTV after calling black Brazilian singer Ludmilla a “monkey.”
“We sincerely regret that the anchor used our platform in such a way that it goes against our principles so deeply. To all who in some way may have been offended or even indignant at the presenter’s personal opinions, our most sincere apologies,” read a statement by the SBT TV network released on Wednesday. “He was ousted from his duties,” the statement also said.
“Marcao do Povo called Ludmilla a monkey and won a program at SBT. Now, he proposes concentration camps for those infected with the coronavirus. Silvio Santos is Jewish and today is Pesach, the Jewish Easter,” read one reaction on Twitter by @priskika, referring to the channel’s Jewish owner.
Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz on Saturday requested a two-week extension from President Reuven Rivlin Sunday on his mandate to form a government, amid stalled unity talks with Likud.Releasing video footage, IDF accuses Syria of helping Hezbollah set up on Golan
The current mandate expires overnight between Sunday and Monday.
In his request Gantz cited the coronavirus pandemic and the Passover holiday as having caused delay in negotiations to form a government. He said he had moved towards forming a unity government with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to the “political, health and social crisis…even while paying a heavy political and personal price.”
Gantz said he believed the sides were “close to signing a deal, and this necessitates more time in order to reach a final agreement.”
Reminding the president that he was toiling to bring about the latter’s own September proposal for a power-sharing government, Gantz said he believed “we can meet the challenge.”
Meanwhile, two top Likud ministers signaled that Netanyahu’s party was poised to oppose Gantz’s request, and to ask Rivlin to task Netanyahu with forming the government.
Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz reasoned in a statement that as both Likud and Blue and White have agreed that Netanyahu would be the first to lead a unity government, it makes sense to hand him the baton and not extend Gantz’s time.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said the country needs a “stable government to deal with the big challenges ahead of us and in this case, the mandate should be given to Benjamin Netanyahu who has a higher chance of rapidly forming a wide, stable government.”
The Israel Defense Forces on Friday accused the Syrian army of helping the Hezbollah terror group establish a permanent military presence on the Golan Heights, releasing video footage showing a senior Syrian officer visiting the region.
“Even during the coronavirus period, the new commander of the Syrian army’s 1st Division, Lua’a Ali Ahmad Asa’ad, continues to help and allow the Hezbollah terror group establish a front on the Golan Heights,” the IDF said in a statement.
The Israeli military released video footage from the border from one of its surveillance cameras, showing Asa’ad and a number of other army officers walking around an unidentified area along the border.
“In the clip, the new division commander is seen on a patrol of the front, including passing through areas known to be used by Hezbollah, with the head of Hezbollah’s southern command, Hajj Hashem,” the IDF said.
In a tacit threat, the military added that the Syrian regime would “be held responsible for all enemy activities emanating from its territory.”
“Consider this a warning,” the IDF added.
The military refused to comment on when and where exactly the footage was filmed.
Look closely. See the man with white hair? That's the head of the Syrian Armed Forces 1st Corps, Luau Ali Ahmad Assad. He's visiting Hezbollah positions in #Syria.— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 10, 2020
Our message: We see you. Consider this a warning.
We won't allow Hezbollah to entrench itself militarily in Syria. pic.twitter.com/vmPtZe1VuC
U.S. State Department publishes a $10 million dollar reward for #Hezbollah's Muhmmad Kawtharani. He was one of four Hezbollah members sanctioned by the U.S. in 2013 for being in charge of Hezbollah's financial activities in #Iraq. https://t.co/0HliW98k33— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) April 10, 2020
Coronavirus: Hamas arrests Palestinians for video chats with Israelis
Hamas has arrested several Palestinian activists who participated in web-based video conference conversations with Israelis earlier this week to discuss cooperation between young people and the situation in the Gaza Strip, particularly in light of the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.Syrian Air Force Behind Chemical Attacks, Investigation Team Finds
Hamas accused the Palestinians of engaging in “normalization” activities with the “Israeli occupation.”
Several Palestinians in the Gaza Strip also took to social media to condemn the Palestinian-Israeli online meetings. Some claimed the video conferences with the Israelis could not have taken place without permission from Hamas.
“Why does Hamas allow such conversations to take place?” asked Nader Talal, a Hamas supporter in the Gaza Strip. “These people are traitors because they are promoting normalization with the enemy.”
Eyad al-Bazm, spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Interior, said the activists were suspected of holding “normalization activities with the Israeli occupation via the internet.”
The suspects, he said, will be interrogated about their activities, and legal proceedings will be opened against them.
Among those arrested by Hamas is Rami Aman, a prominent political activist and journalist in the Gaza Strip.
Syrian Arab Air Force pilots flying Sukhoi Su-22 military planes and a helicopter dropped bombs containing poisonous chlorine and sarin nerve gas on a village in the country’s western Hama region in March 2017, a new team at the global chemical weapons watchdog concluded in its first report.State Dept. Accuses Iran of ‘Nuclear Extortion’ as Tehran Amps Up Uranium Enrichment
The special investigative unit was established by members of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in 2018 to identify perpetrators of illegal attacks. Until now the OPCW had only been authorised to say whether chemical attacks occurred, not who perpetrated them.
Officials in the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its military backer Russia have repeatedly denied using chemical weapons and accuse insurgents of staging attacks to implicate Syrian forces.
Syria’s United Nations Mission in New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment and there was no immediate reaction from Damascus to the report. In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The OPCW Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) said more than 100 people were affected by the attacks, carried out on March 24, 25 and 30 in 2017 in the town of Ltamenah.
According to the ITT report, the 50th Brigade of the 22nd Air Division of the Syrian Air Force dropped M4000 aerial bombs containing sarin on the town and a cylinder containing chlorine on a hospital. The raids were conducted from the Sharat and Hama air bases, it said.
“Military operations of such a strategic nature as these three attacks only occur pursuant to orders from the highest levels of the Syrian Arab Armed Forces,” it said.
The State Department accused Iran of "nuclear extortion" in the wake of new moves by Tehran to significantly increase its production of enriched uranium, a key nuclear component that the Islamic Republic is barred from producing.Previously Undisclosed Iranian Nuclear Weapons Site Identified
Iran declared this week that it would "continue its uranium enrichment" until the United States and European nations scale back economic sanctions and provide Tehran with access to cash. Iran has been steadily increasing its production of uranium during the past several months and is now threatening to vastly increase its in-country stockpile of the nuclear substance.
At the same time, Tehran has taken steps to renovate its Arak heavy water facility, a contested nuclear site that could be used to provide Iran with an alternate plutonium-based pathway to a nuclear weapon.
The State Department said it is closely monitoring Iran's continued enrichment efforts and will be taking steps to hold Tehran accountable for its "nuclear extortion."
"Unfortunately, Iran's continued expansion of uranium enrichment activities comes as no surprise," a State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday. "This is something that they threaten regularly in a transparent attempt at nuclear extortion."
The State Department said the United States would not stand by as Iran violates international accords and marches closer to a nuclear weapon.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo "has made clear that the right amount of uranium enrichment for the world's top sponsor of terrorism is zero," the State Department official said. "We will continue to impose maximum pressure on the regime until it abandons its destabilizing behavior, including proliferation-sensitive work."
A new Iranian nuclear weapons site has been identified by a team of experts, who are now calling on Tehran to acknowledge the previously undisclosed site to international inspectors.Trump To Block Iran’s $5 Billion IMF Loan Request
The Institute for Science and International Security announced on Wednesday that it has evidence Iran operated a nuclear weapons construction facility in northern Iran until at least 2011, when it was likely destroyed as Western nations began to investigate the country's weapons program. The information was found in a tranche of records recently smuggled out of Iran by Israel.
The facility still has not been declared as a former weapons site by Iran, as it is required to do under international law.
"The facility was intended as a pilot plant, aimed at developing and making uranium components for nuclear weapons, in particular components from weapon-grade uranium, the key nuclear explosive material in Iranian nuclear weapon cores," according to the institute.
"The key building of the site, the uranium metals workshop, was apparently gutted and abandoned between late 2010 and early 2011," the research organization found.
It is likely Iran destroyed the site after the international community discovered the existence of its Fordow nuclear enrichment plant in 2009. That site, a military bunker dug into the side of a mountain, contained a large portion of Iran's weapon infrastructure.
David Albright, president and founder of the research institute, called on Iran to come clean about this site to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
U.S. President Donald Trump plans to block Iran’s bid for a $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), news reports say. The international funding organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., is currently considering an Iranian request for “emergency funding,” citing the outbreak of Wuhan Coronavirus in the country.
The request for foreign funds is surprising since the oil-rich regime sits on massive financial reserves, the Trump administration disclosed. According to senior White House officials quoted by the Wall Street Journal, Tehran already has access to reserves worth over $300 billion. The multi-billion-dollar assistance from the IMF will only go towards financing pro-Iranian terrorist groups in the Middle East, they added.
Humanitarian and medical assistance does not fall under the sanctions put in place after the American withdrawal from the Obama-era nuclear deal in 2018. In addition to these waivers, the State Department has repeated its offer of help in dealing with the recent outbreak.
The State Department, however, remains opposed to handing out fresh cash to the Shia Islamic regime, the biggest sponsor of the terrorism in the world.
“Hezbollah has fewer dollars today to engage in nefarious activity than they did when President Trump took office,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a press conference on April 7. “We will reduce the threat that Iran will ever chase a nuclear weapon in the way that they were on a path toward chasing under the previous administration.”
Everybody who knows the Iranian terrorist regime knows that this money would not go on looking after it’s people but furthering it’s violent imperialism across the Middle East and beyond. What’s that word? Fungible. https://t.co/opaO5E4olO— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) April 10, 2020
Omani Legislator and Islamic Scholar Sheikh Zaher Al-Abri: Women Who Use Makeup Become Old Prunes, Get Cancer; Temptress Starlet Marilyn Monroe Warned Women pic.twitter.com/sl50n2BxXI— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) April 10, 2020
German politician urges festival to disinvite BDS academic
The Free Democratic Party (FDP) politician in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Lorenz Deutsch, urged the director of the music and cultural festival Ruhrtriennale to pull the plug on an appearance from an academic supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel who has also trivialized the Holocaust.Germany imposes four-year travel ban on senior Palestinian terrorist
Writing in late March, Deutsch told the director of the festival, “The BDS movement is not characterized by factual criticism of Israeli government acts, but aims at demolishing its existence through demonization, delegitimization, and disinformation. Achille Mbembe, who you invited, is unfortunately an example of this way of dealing with Israel.”
Deutsch termed the BDS an “antisemitic movement” and noted that, in 2018, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia banned public funds for institutions that provide BDS activists a platform. The Ruhrtriennale festival, which runs from August 14 to September 20, is a recipient of tax-payer money.
Deutsch, who is the cultural spokesman for the FDP, noted that Achille Mbembe signed a petition calling for an academic boycott of the Jewish state.
The FDP politician said he finds this education boycott “attitude fundamentally questionable among academics. In addition, he [Achille Mbembe] also stands out in a recent publication with theses on Israel and the occupied territories, which have no factual basis and fall under the categories mentioned above.”
Deutsch cited Achille Mbembe's essay titled, "The Society of enmity" in the publication Radical Philosophy from 2016 to show that he equates Israel with South Africa's former apartheid system, which is well-known from BDS circles.
The German government has issued a four-year travel ban against a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who allegedly supports terrorism and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state.CAMERA Op-Ed: The Role of the Media in Promoting Antisemitism
The Palestinian journalist and alleged PFLP terrorist Khaled Barakat, who is based in Canada, said in a webinar in late March that the German authorities imposed a “four-year ban on me entering Germany" because “I support [the Palestinians'] right to resist Israel, call for the liberation of Palestine from river to sea… that I support the Palestinian organization and they name it the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).”
The EU and the US both classify the PFLP as a foreign terrorist organization. Barakat is a senior member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, according to the Israeli government.
Barakat also said that Germany cited his opposition to the Oslo peace plan and a two state solution for the Israel-Palestinian conflict, refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist, as well as his support for the BDS campaign targeting the Jewish state in the 23-page ruling.
The German document outlining the six reason for banning him deemed his refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist as “antisemitic,” said Barakat.
The German and Austrian parliaments designate BDS as an antisemitic movement.
“Antisemitism,” the British writer Nick Cohen has observed, “is unique among religious hatreds.” Indeed, antisemitism is unique. Not only because the virus has shown a remarkable ability to permeate through the ages and mutate to find new hosts. But because antisemitism is perhaps the only hatred in the Western world today that is both excused and even promoted, if implicitly, by major U.S. news outlets.Investigation Exposes Terror Ties Behind Islamist Charity's Humanitarian Facade
If, as the famed columnist Walter Lippmann one wrote, “there can be no higher law in journalism than to tell the truth and shame the devil,” many in the press are failing—conspicuously—to tell the truth about the oldest hatred, a hatred that has, in living memory, murdered millions.
The proof is in the coverage—or, more often than not, the lack of it. Indeed, when far-left antisemites in the United States Congress traffic in, and promote, vile bigotry, many news outlets are silent.
Take, for example, reporting on U.S. Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). In the summer of 2019, both freshmen congresswomen tried to go on a trip to Israel, which was labeled as “Palestine” in their itineraries. Both Omar and Tlaib support the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement which seeks the end of the Jewish state, singles out only Israel for opprobrium, has been declared antisemitic by various legislative bodies, and is endorsed by terrorist organizations like Hamas.
The Israeli government’s decision to deny entry to Omar and Tlaib—a decision in keeping with Israeli law barring BDS activists from entering Israel—received widespread news coverage. The Washington Post alone ran no fewer than four stories on the incident. Less widely noted, however: the trip was sponsored by the organization Miftah, which has praised suicide bombers and claimed that Jews consume Christian blood.
As NGO Monitor has documented, on March 27, 2013 Miftah “published an article by Nawaf al-Zaru that repeated the antisemitic blood libel.” That article asserted that “much of the historical stories and tales about Jewish blood rituals in Europe are based on real rituals and are not false as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover.”
Miftah has also published articles hailing suicide bomber Wafa Idrees as “the beginning of a string of Palestinian women dedicated to sacrificing their lives for the cause.” Idrees detonated herself on January 27, 2002, killing 81-year-old Pinhas Takatli and wounding another 150 Israeli civilians.
A prominent American Islamist charity is publicizing its role in the nationwide coronavirus emergency response effort.
"Zakat Foundation of America stepped up its nationwide coronavirus emergency response ... delivering thousands of direly needed medical-grade gloves to two far South Side Safety-Net hospitals in Chicago," said the Illinois-based Islamist charity in a March 27 press release.
"We're all in as a frontline charitable provider helping people survive COVID-19, on every level — financially, medically, nutritionally, mentally and spiritually," executive director Halil Demir said in the release. (Demir also spells his first name "Khalil.")
Since its 2001 founding, the Zakat Foundation claims to "have empowered millions of people to recover from disasters and escape poverty by taking control of their own lives." A timeline on the charity's website showcases its humanitarian accomplishments over the years, from providing aid to Iraq war victims to establishing a university for refugees in Turkey.
Behind the Zakat Foundation's outward humanitarian façade lie longstanding terror ties.
But behind the Zakat Foundation's outward humanitarian façade lie longstanding terror ties that include support for Hamas- and al-Qaida-tied charities, a joint investigation by the Investigative Project of Terrorism and the Middle East Forum finds.
The misuse of Islamist charitable organizations to support terror is not new. American Islamist charities have been known to use humanitarian assistance as a cover to solicit funds for terrorist groups.
"While some terrorist supporters create sham charities as a cover to raise and move funds, other terrorist groups and their supporters use charities to provide funds or otherwise dispense critical social or humanitarian services to vulnerable populations in an effort to radicalize communities and build local support," says the Treasury Department's 2015 National Terrorist Financing Risk Assessment.
A founder of an NGO and a self described 'Islamic preacher' with 17k followers misues an image from a Nazi camp and pretends the bodies were Arabs killed by Jews.— David Collier (@mishtal) April 10, 2020
These are Holocaust victims and the image is from the Nordhausen camp in 1945. Every year the same sickening trick. pic.twitter.com/NfAQ5TExg1
The @Independent hits a new low https://t.co/DbUJ0KzA2t— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) April 10, 2020
Man arrested for spraying swastikas on DC-area synagogue
Police said Friday they had arrested and charged a man for spraying swastikas on a synagogue in Rockville, Maryland, a town just north of Washington DC.Neo-Nazi graffiti sprayed on Alabama synagogue on 1st night of Passover
Montgomery County Police said they identified Andrew Lemond Costas, 28, after releasing surveillance video from the scene of the March 28 incident at Tikvat Israel Congregation and received tips from the public.
Costas had sprayed swastikas and “derogatory epithets” on the building, police said.
He was charged with “malicious destruction of property, defacing religious property, and damaging property of a group because of the group’s religious beliefs.”
Costas was released after posting a $5,000 bond, police said.
Rockville has large Jewish and Israeli communities.
A synagogue in Huntsville, Alabama was vandalized on Wednesday, the first night of Passover with neo-Nazi graffiti.Sticker blaming Jews for coronavirus found on window of German subway car
Among the graffiti sprayed sometime during the night on the Etz Chayim Synagogue were “F— Kikes,” “Gas Em All,” “White Power,” “Jew rats,” “Jew Scum,” and “Holohoax.”
Several swastikas and the lightning bolt symbol of the Nazi SS also were spray painted on the building and the property.
Etz Chayim is a Conservative congregation of about 60 families in South Huntsville.
No services have been held in the building in recent weeks due to the coronavirus crisis, Southern Jewish Life Magazine reported.
The magazine reported that police are reviewing security camera footage but since it was raining at the time of the incident it is not easy to identify the perpetrators.
Two antisemitic stickers were found pinned to the windows of a Hamburg subway car between the Brambach and St. Pauli stations on Thursday.Gal Gadot teaches Hebrew, spills love for Israel in '73 Questions'
One of the two stickers included a yellow heart with the text. "I ☣ CORONA". The second one was in the form of a yellow Star of David with the caption "Corovnavirus ☣ Fake!!"
The shape and color of one of the stickers embodies the so-called "Jewish Star" patch that Jews had to wear in Nazi-era Germany and its occupied territories.
Deputy chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel responded to the event, saying: "The coronavirus does not differentiate race, gender or religion, but gives fertile ground to antisemitic conspiracies."
He continued, emphasizing that "this phenomenon, of accusing the Jews of creating pandemics, diseases and more, is not new. We saw it in the Middle Ages during the Black Plague. Then, like today, people incited against the Jews and accused them of being behind the plague.
Famed Wonder Woman and Israeli actress Gal Gadot sat down with Vogue to answer its infamous "73 questions" questionnaire, during which she shared her love for her homeland Israel. Although the video was uploaded on Thursday, it was filmed far before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.
Joe Sabia, the host of the regular interview show, greeted Gadot with the traditional Israeli kiss on the cheek and a "Shalom."
When asked how often Gadot returns to her homeland, she said, "As often as I can, but not enough." In response, Sabia asked her what she misses most about Israel, to which she said, "My family, my friends."
To bring her a slice of home, Sabia handed Gadot a handful of Israeli candy, including what seems to be Pesek Zman and Milky.
Sabia then asked Gadot what he should do once he manages to come and visit Israel. "You should go to Tel Aviv and go to a restaurant on the beach," Gadot responded. "There are so many and they're so great."
Gadot described Israeli culture as "one big melting pot."
"With people from so many different places and different cultures and flavors," Gadot added.
A powerful & heartfelt #Passover message amidst #Coronavirus, by Australian PM @ScottMorrisonMP & Treasurer @JoshFrydenberg (who of course is also proudly Jewish himself). https://t.co/GhOEyhq7hD— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 11, 2020
Israeli Judo World Champion Sells Memorabilia to Buy Ventilators
'I hope I can raise as much money as I can for the purpose of saving lives'Jewish astronaut about to return: Earth still looks stunning, but it has changed
Israeli judoka Sagi Muki is auctioning off his memorabilia to raise money for more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients at the Laniado Hospital in Netanya, the 2019 World Judo Champion told i24NEWS on Tuesday.
"All the money that I will raise in this project will go to the hospital for equipment to protect against the virus," Muki said.
Muki will be auctioning off personal items online, including his judo belt, a unique "red patch" awarded to Judo World Champions, and uniform from his winning moment at the 2019 Judo World Championship finals in Japan.
"We have raised almost 50,000 shekels (approx. $14,000)," Muki said. He shared that his target is to raise enough money for at least five ventilators.
"I hope I can raise as much money as I can for the purpose of saving lives."
Since the postponement of the Olympics in Tokyo, which Muki was set to attend, he has continued his training from home despite the limitations being "very hard."
Two NASA astronauts said Friday they expect it will be tough returning to such a drastically changed world next week, after more than half a year at the International Space Station.Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Releases Virtual Passover Music Medley
Andrew Morgan said the crew has tried to keep atop the pandemic news. But it’s hard to comprehend what’s really going on and what to expect, he noted, when his nine-month mission ends next Friday.
“It is quite surreal for us to see this whole situation unfolding on the planet below,” said Jessica Meir, who took part in the first all-female spacewalk last fall. “We can tell you that the Earth still looks just as stunning as always from up here, so it’s difficult to believe all the changes that have taken place since both of us have been up here.”
As an emergency physician in the Army, Morgan said he feels a little guilty coming back midway through the medical crisis.
“It’s very hard to fathom,” Morgan told reporters.
Meir said it will be difficult not being able to hug family and friends, after seven months off the planet. She anticipates feeling even more isolated on Earth than in space.
“We’re so busy with so many other amazing pursuits and we have this incredible vantage point of the Earth below, that we don’t really feel as much of that isolation,” Meir said.
“So we’ll see how it goes and how I adjust,” she said. “But it will, of course, be wonderful to see some family and friends, at least virtually and from a distance for now.”
As Jews around the world prepared for the first Passover Seder on Wednesday night under the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) released a stirring music video to raise spirits.
Introduced by music director-designate Lahav Shani, 19 musicians of the IPO played parts of “Ma Nishtana,” “Simcha Raba,” “B’tzet Yisrael” and “Avadim Hayinu” — all songs from the Passover Haggadah that is read during the Seder — in the three-minute virtual performance.
“We miss you and prepared something special for you,” said Shani in his introduction, as the musicians — who came together on an online video platform from their separate locations — launched into the medley.
Just wow! An Israeli-Arab nurse reading the Haggadah to Jewish patients in the geriatric ward. This is what gives me hope for a better future! https://t.co/Z9AX3MjttF— Moshe Kwiat (@mokwi8) April 10, 2020
