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Saturday, October 02, 2021

10/02 Links: Far-left Democrats push anti-Israel 'peace' bill; AOC's tears, Schumer's silence, Kamala's ignorance; NYTs Warps History of Iraqi Jewry

From Ian:

Far-left Democrats push anti-Israel 'peace' bill
Let’s break down the bill into its individual pieces.

First, the two-state solution has been dead from the moment Israel was founded. The 1947 United Nations partition plan would have created a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted the plan, while the Arabs rejected it. This led to Israel’s founding following war in 1948. Since then, Israel has made numerous offers of statehood to the Palestinians. They have been rejected, and terrorism has, in most cases, followed. Put simply, the Palestinians have repeatedly demonstrated their refusal to co-exist with the Jewish state. A state, we should remember, that was founded only in the aftermath of 6 million Jews being killed in the Nazi-led Holocaust.

Second, there is no Israeli "occupation of the Palestinian territories." The West Bank has never belonged to the Palestinians. It used to belong to Jordan. Israel seized that land, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 six day war. Jordan eventually ceded the land to Israel. The bill would condition U.S. assistance to Israel on the Jewish state not "[undermining] the prospects of a negotiated two-state solution."

This would be dangerous, especially as Israel faces numerous threats, the biggest from Iran.

The bill would also mark products made in the "Palestinian territories" as either "West Bank/Gaza," "West Bank/Gaza Strip," or "West Bank and Gaza." This is labeling designed to be loved by supporters of the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.

Finally, the bill would end the designation of the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terrorist group. At least, that is, once the Palestinians are found to be in compliance with the Taylor Force Act (which prohibits U.S. taxpayer funds from going to the Palestinian Authority as long as it rewards terrorists and their families). The bill would allow, once that condition is met, for the PLO office in Washington to reopen.

But the bill forgets that the PLO has shown little interest in peace. President Donald Trump was right to shutter the PLO office in 2018. The Biden administration resumed funding for Palestinians earlier this year. So what’s to stop the secretary of state from certifying that the Palestinians are in compliance with the Taylor Force Act when they’re actually not?

Recall that the administration revoked the terrorist designation of the Houthis in Yemen even though they are a terrorist group backed by Iran.

Ultimately, any solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to be worked out between the two sides without the U.S. dictating what it thinks is best. One thing is for certain. To quote the late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: "Peace will come when the Arabs will love their children more than they hate us."


AOC's tears, Schumer's silence, Kamala's ignorance
The question that requires analysis and exploration is why nine duly elected members of the House of Representatives saw it as a good thing to leave millions of civilians defenseless to a terrorist onslaught. As Congressman Fleischmann said the other day, these are just plain anti-Semites. There is really no other way to explain it.

The other day, Vice President Kamala Harris visited a university classroom in Virginia. The question posed to the vice president by a student was about funding for Israel, a country that commits “ethnic genocide,” which is actually the furthest thing from reality.

Vice President Harris stood there as the student spoke about how Israel kills people based on who they are, and instead of disagreeing and correcting the student she just nodded her head in agreement.

Ms. Harris is not a here-today-gone-tomorrow fringe member of Congress. She’s the vice president of the United States and should not be nodding her head in agreement when a woke college student uses “ethnic cleaning” and “Israel” in the same sentence. Harris told the student, “Your truth must be heard.” Does that mean that VP Harris believes Israel is perpetrating ethnic genocide?

I’m reluctant to use the best word to describe her actions, but here it is: stupid.

Even AOC knew better.
UKLFI Charitable Trust: The Accusation of Israel as an Apartheid State
Recording of a UKLFI Charitable Trust Webinar: The Accusation of Israel as an Apartheid State With Professor Orde Kittrie, Chair: Natasha Hausdorff

A new UN Commission of Inquiry of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) is poised to accuse Israel of apartheid. Professor Kittrie discusses this Inquiry and its mandate, and the potential relationship with prosecutions by the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The mandate’s reference to apartheid was apparently inspired by a lengthy report, accusing Israel of committing the crime of apartheid, published by Human Rights Watch (HRW). However this report is based on a definition of “apartheid” which is not found in the ICC’s Statute or the International Convention on Apartheid.

Professor Kittrie discusses the different definitions of apartheid, reasons why the apartheid charge is wrong even under HRW’s definition, and options for responding.


House Committee approves bill to strengthen and expand Abraham Accords
The House Foreign Affairs Committee approved on Thursday night the bipartisan Israel Relations Normalization Act during its markup. The bill would encourage the continued cooperation of the Abraham Accords and urge expansion of these peace and normalization agreements to countries that do not currently have diplomatic ties with Israel.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee already adopted the bipartisan version of the bill, which requires the State Department to provide a strategy “to strengthen and expand the Abraham Accords and other related normalization agreements with Israel.”

If signed into law, the State Department would be required to provide “a detailed description of how the US government will leverage diplomatic lines of effort and resources from other stakeholders to encourage normalization, economic development and people-to-people programming.”

The bill states that “it is the policy of the United States to expand and strengthen the Abraham Accords to encourage other nations to normalize relations with Israel and ensure that existing agreements reap tangible security and economic benefits for the citizens of those countries.”

In addition, it calls to develop and implement “a regional strategy to encourage economic cooperation among Israel, Arab states and the Palestinians to enhance the prospects for regional peace, respect for human rights [and] transparent governance,” among other issues.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees says it will seek $800m at November confab
The UN agency supporting Palestinian refugees announced Friday it was seeking $800 million at a donor conference scheduled for November in Brussels.

UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York that the organization needed “predictability” for its operations.

To fund UNRWA’s “three core activities” — education, health and social services — “we are seeking $800 million a year,” he told reporters ahead of the gathering, organized by Jordan and Sweden.

“The main objective of the conference is to have a better predictability” and to “promote visibility,” the Swiss diplomat said.

The funding would allow the agency to keep open the 700 or so schools it managed, catering to 550,000 children, as well as health centers and to provide social welfare to Palestinian refugees and their descendants.

In addition to the $800 million, Lazzarini said there was also a need for funds for the humanitarian aid provided by UNRWA, which varies from one year to the next, depending on the crisis, but which the agency estimates will be around half a million dollars in 2022.

Lazzarini, who took the post last April, said his agency was $100 million short to see out this year, and warned that it might have to shut down some activities in November and December.


Arab town’s hired muscle assault cops; PM: Violence in Arab society intolerable
Police arrested four suspects over the weekend after several officers were assaulted early Friday by private security guards working for the central town of Kafr Qasim. Government and police leaders expressed outrage at the attack on law enforcement officials in the Arab Israeli town.

The officers had sought to enter the town’s municipality after receiving a report that someone had been violently taken into the building, but were denied entry by the guards. A scuffle broke out and several cops were beaten and bloodied.

Hebrew media reported on Saturday that the guards were part of an organization hired by local leaders to maintain order in the town amid the epidemic of violent crime in the Arab community. According to Channel 13 news, MK Walid Taha of the coalition’s Ra’am party had himself been involved in forming the group. Taha did not comment.

In response to the attack on the officers, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday condemned “violence in Arab society” which he said had “reached an intolerable point.”

He tweeted: “We will fight it with all our strength. I expect the Arab community, which has been asking the state to intervene, to give police officers full backing and support.”

Public Security Minister Omer Barlev described the private security guards as a “local militia,” adding that “the suspects who were arrested and anyone who thinks he can lift a hand against those in uniform will be brought to justice.”
Demonstrators in Israeli-Arab towns commemorate 21 years since October Riots
Several Members of Knesset arrived in the Israeli-Arab city of Sakhnin on Saturday afternoon to join an event commemorating the “martyrs” of the October 2000 riots, in which 12 Israeli-Arab civilians were killed by police forces across Israel.

The riots were a series of protests in Arab cities and towns in northern Israel that broke out days after then-defense minister Ariel Sharon’s ascent to the Temple Mount and the outbreak of the Second Intifada. The protests quickly escalated into rioting by Israeli Arabs throughout the country and counter-rioting by Israeli Jews. During the riots, 13 Arabs – 12 Israeli-Arabs and one Palestinian from the Gaza Strip who had been demonstrating in Israel – were killed by the police.

The demonstration, organized by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Affairs, also called for lives devoid of crime for Israel’s Arab citizens, as the 100th person from the Israeli-Arab community was killed for crime-related reasons on Friday night.

Deputy Knesset Speaker and Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi stated on Saturday morning that six Joint List MKs would be participating in the event marking 21 years since the riots.

“The demonstration will take place in the shadow of the 100 people murdered this year [in the Arab sector] and the more than 1,600 killed since October 2000,” his statement read.
"Cop-Killing Terrorists Honored by Wall Mural in Israeli Arab City of Umm al-Fahm"
The outside wall of a private home in the Israeli Arab city of Umm al-Fahm has become a memorial wall for five terrorists.

Under their faces the artist quoted a Facebook post by one of the terrorists prior to the attack carried out at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, writing, “Tomorrow’s smile will be wider.”

The artist honored the killers of two Israeli Border Guard Police officers in a July 14, 2017 terror attack at the Temple Mount compound in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Muhammad Ahmed Muhammad Jabarin, 29, Muhammad Hamad Abdel Latif Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmed Mafdal Jabarin, 19, all cousins from the northern Arab town of Umm al-Fahm, stormed the Temple Mount during the attack. The attackers were killed by other Israeli forces at the scene after killing Israeli Druze police officers Master-Sgt. Kamil Shnaan, 22, of Hurfish and Master-Sgt. Haiel Satawi, 30, of Majaar. Satawi left behind a wife and newborn son. Shnaan was the son of former MK Shachiv Shnaan.

The elder Shnaan told Israeli public broadcaster Kan News that he was outraged when he learned about the memorial for the terrorists, saying, “It is inconceivable that we lose sovereignty in the country. I demand this wall be eliminated.”
694 Palestinians illegally in Israel caught near Old City of Jerusalem
694 Palestinians who were illegally in Israel were caught by Border Police as they tried to enter the Old City of Jerusalem on Friday.

Police acted to catch the illegal aliens in light of recent incidents in Jerusalem, including an attempted stabbing attack on Thursday, in which a resident of the West Bank town of Kabatiya near Jenin attempted to stab police officers after exiting the Temple Mount complex.

The 694 illegal aliens were residents of the West Bank who were attempting to enter the Old City.

Palestinian media reported on Friday morning that Israeli police set up checkpoints between the Damascus Gate and the Temple Mount and checked the IDs of all those entering the Old City, arresting hundreds who were attempting to reach the Temple Mount.

Additionally, three Palestinians were reportedly arrested by Israeli security forces in Kabatiya on Thursday night, with Palestinian terrorists firing towards Israeli forces in the city during the arrests, according to Palestinian media.
IDF Arrest 2 Gazans Trying to Infiltrate into Israel Armed with Grenades
Israeli security forces on Saturday arrested two Palestinian suspects who tried to cross into Israeli territory from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

According to a brief statement by the Israel Defense Forces spokesperson’s unit, “a bag containing grenades was seized from the suspects.”

“The suspects were taken for questioning by security forces,” the statement further added.

Last week the Israeli military announced that it thwarted a series of terrorist attacks Hamas planned to carry out against Israeli targets, on the heels of escalating clashes in the West Bank.
Nuclear Armed Iran More Dangerous Than North Korea
General Hossein Salami, the chief of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has made the Iranian regime's plans vehemently clear: "Our strategy is to erase Israel from the global political map," he stated on Iran's state-controlled Channel 2 TV in 2019. Supreme Leader Khamenei, in 2015, also published a 416-page guidebook, titled "Palestine", about destroying Israel.

"The mission of the constitution is to create conditions conducive to the development of man in accordance with the noble and universal values of (Shiite) Islam." The regime's constitution goes on to say that it "provides the necessary basis for ensuring the continuation of the revolution at home and abroad."

There is the dangerous likelihood of nuclear weapons falling into the hands of Iran's proxy and militia groups, or that the Iranian regime will share its nuclear technology with its proxies and allies such as the Syrian regime or the Taliban in Afghanistan.

If this is how Iran's leadership treats its own citizens, what makes anyone think they would treat their perceived adversaries any better? As others have asked: If Hitler had acquired a nuclear weapon, do you think he would have hesitated to use it?

Once such leaders have weapons of mass destruction, it is far more costly in life and treasure to try and stop them. Iran might not even need to use its nuclear weapons; the threat should be more than enough.
Head of Military Intelligence: Iran not getting the bomb any time soon
Despite enriching uranium at a level not seen before, Iran still has a long way to go before acquiring a nuclear bomb, according to Israel’s Military Intelligence head Maj.-Gen. Tamir Hayman.

According to Hayman, while the levels of enriched uranium are “disturbing,” the Islamic Republic still has a long way to go before acquiring a functioning nuclear bomb that can threaten Israel.

“There is an enriched amount [of uranium] in volumes that we have not seen before and it is disturbing. At the same time, in all other aspects of the Iranian nuclear project, we see no progress,” Hayman said in an interview with Walla News.

“Not in the weapons project, in the financial area, not in any other sector. Therefore the period of time that still remains of two years has not changed. Because even from the moment you have a breakout, there is still a long way to go before a bomb,” he said.

“To the best of our knowledge, the directive has not changed and they are not heading toward a breakout. They are not heading toward a bomb right now: It may be in the distant future.”

The Iranians face three choices, he said: a return to the previous 2015 nuclear deal, break out and go for “unprecedented defiance” including in weapons and continued enrichment or go for an improved agreement where they will achieve far more than they have in the past. Tehran will likely try to exhaust long negotiations with the West while continuing to enrich.

Hayman said that while the “right thing to do” is to act on the side of diplomacy vis-a-vis Iran and its nuclear program, there must be a practical, reliable military option along with the economic and diplomatic tools.
Iran Supreme Leader’s rep. calls for destruction of Israel
Lotfollah Dezhkam, the representative for the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Fars Province, urged the elimination of Israel in a Friday sermon in the city of Shiraz.

The Islamic clerical firebrand declared, “The global arrogance led by America with complicity of Israel seeks to delay the realization of an important issue, which is the destruction of the Zionist regime.” Kian Meli, a news outlet opposed to the Islamic Republic of Iran, quoted his remarks. Three regime-controlled news organizations – Islamic Republic News Agency, Fars News and Tasnim – reported on his speech.

Sheina Vojoudi, an Iranian dissident who fled to Germany to escape persecution, said, “The more the mullahs spread hate speech against the Jewish State of Israel, the more Iranian people realize that Israel is our friend, because the regime in Iran is the only enemy that we have. His hate speech against Israel is not surprising.... Ali Khamenei as the leader of the Islamic Republic calls for the annihilation of Israel and Dezhkam is his representative.”

She added, “We are tired of their antisemitism. We have a long history with the Jewish people and we want to be able to revive that 2700 years of friendship. The Islamic Republic’s antisemitism is lethal and endangers both Iranians and Israelis. The regime accuses Iranian dissidents of being Israeli spies, and calls the protesters against the regime’s corruption Israeli agents, and considers them against the national security. We want to normalize relations with Israel like other normal countries.”
Student Groups Tell UK Nightclub: Performance by British Rapper Wiley ‘Sends Message That Antisemitism Is Tolerated’
A nightclub in the United Kingdom is facing pressure from a number of student groups to cancel a live performance by British rapper Wiley scheduled for Saturday due to the artist’s antisemitic past.

Wiley, whose real name is Richard Kylea Cowie, is set to perform at the Switch nightclub in Preston as part of the University of Central Lancashire’s (UCLAN) Preston Freshers 2021 line-up of events, which span over the course of two weeks in multiple venues.

Last year, Wiley was banned from various social media platforms and lost his recording deal after publishing a series of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel comments online. Among the offensives comments that he shared on social media, he called Jews “snakes;” told “black people” to go to “war” with Jewish people; and tweeted that Jews should “hold some corn,” a slang expression that means they should be shot, adding, “Jewish community you deserve it.” He later apologized for his comments.

The UK’s Union of Jewish Students (UJS) said on Thursday it is “disgusted to hear” that Wiley will be performing at Switch nightclub.

“Just over a year ago he was publicly criticized and permanently suspended from Twitter, for writing antisemitic tweets and spreading hateful conspiracy theories about Jewish power and control,” UJS wrote in a statement. “Allowing him to perform sends the message that antisemitism is acceptable and the wellbeing of Jewish students in Preston is not important. UJS insists that Switch club review this event and show they will not tolerate antisemitism.”
The Intercept Offers Impassioned Defense of Ph.D. Student/Teacher Who Called Israel Supporters ‘Zionist Dirtbags’
Kylie Broderick is a Ph.D. student within the University of North Carolina’s History Department and teaches a class to undergraduates named “The Conflict Over Israel/Palestine.”

However, if any students were hoping to take the course in order to receive a nuanced and balanced insight into one of the Middle East’s most complex issues, it is likely they were mistaken.

Because Broderick can only be described as an avowed anti-Zionist who has made no effort to hide her hatred of the Jewish state and its people.

Broderick, who has now deleted her Twitter account, used the social media platform to call defenders of Israel “Zionist dirtbags”; this, during May’s conflagration in which Hamas terrorists fired thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli civilian-populated towns and cities.

In other remarks, she described Zionism as an “oppressive ideology” that is supported by its “patron, the US imperialist death cult,” and retweeted a comment that labeled all of Israel “occupied Palestinian territory.”

Despite this, American non-profit news organization, The Intercept, still ran an impassioned defense of Broderick that suggested she was the victim of a smear campaign by “right-wing pro-Israel websites and an advocacy group.”

The article, published on September 28, quotes Broderick at length, including her claims that those who are critical of her employment have never seen “past evaluations which have said that [she treats] students fairly, and thus [they] have no right to dictate what [she says] inside the classroom.”

Now, this could be true. Broderick may indeed be open-minded when it comes to diversity of thought and freedom of speech does allow her to express her opinions on thorny issues without fear of censure.

But the mere fact she was invited in the first place to teach a course on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when she clearly holds such extreme views on the subject is troublesome, to say the least. Also concerning is that UNC faculty heads did not find someone less partisan to teach this class, even after her online posts were drawn to their attention and given the university’s chancellor recently stated that, “At Carolina, we unequivocally reject and deplore antisemitism. It has no place on our campus.”
Group Advocating ‘Inclusion’ at CUNY Continues Pressure Over Faculty Union Resolution Condemning Israel
A controversial resolution condemning Israel passed this summer by the City University of New York’s teacher’s union sparked a new faculty group, opposing what they call “a climate of hostility” toward the Jewish state on campus.

The June 10 resolution by the Professional Staff Congress CUNY union (PSC) had labelled Israel an “apartheid” and “settler colonial” state responsible for the “massacre” of Palestinians during its conflict with Hamas in May, and advanced chapter-level discussions on supporting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Calling itself CUNY Alliance for Inclusion (CAFI), and operating since August, the group comprises over 2,700 community members, including over 400 faculty and staff who had signed a letter denouncing the June resolution as an inappropriate foray into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Ilya Bratman, Executive Director of Hillel at CUNY’s Baruch College, told The Algemeiner last Thursday that nearly half of CAFI faculty members have already resigned from the PSC. But, he said, “this is not an anti-labor movement. We are the opposite. We are folks upset with the union because of this specific resolution.”

“Most would return to the union and would be excited to work with it to make wonderful conditions for faculty in our great university,” he said. “We just need to right now address the voices that are creating a hostile environment for Jews.”

Leaving the union is not a condition for membership, though the group’s website has publicly posted several resignation letters from members of the public university’s faculty. On August 6, CAFI wrote to PSC President James Davis asking for a “repudiation” of the controversial measure and that he address the “culture of antisemitism pervading the PSC Delegate Assembly.”
New York Times Warps History of Iraqi Jewry
That falsely suggests that it was only “the creation of Israel in 1948” that turned Iraqis against the Jews. Yet the Times itself acknowledged back in 2016: “Iraqi Jews had always been the targets of sporadic attacks. But the danger soared with the rise of the Nazis’ influence in the 1930s as well as unhappiness around the Arab world with Zionism’s push for a Jewish state. A pogrom in June 1941, the Farhud, killed nearly 200 Jews in Baghdad.” The 2021 Times article makes no mention of the Farhud or of Nazi influence in Iraq.

The Farhud was before the creation of Israel, not “after.”

And the Farhud was, sadly, not the end of it. Edwin Black, who wrote a book about Iraqi Jewry, reports, “on May 9, 1947, a Baghdad mob killed a hapless Jewish man after hysterical accusations that he gave poisoned candy to Arab children.”

The word the Times chose — “pressured” — is a highly sanitized way of describing what happened to the Jews of Iraq. As Black reports, “One man was sentenced to five years’ hard labor for merely possessing a scrap of paper with an Old Testament Hebrew inscription; the paper was presumed to be a coded Zionist message. Hundreds of Jews were now arrested, forced to confess under torture, punished financially, and sentenced to long jail terms.” The wealthiest Jew in Iraq, Shafiq Ades, “was publicly hanged in Basra. His body was allowed to languish in the square for hours, to be abused by the celebrating crowds.”

Back in 2017, the Times erroneously attributed Iraqi anti-Jewish sentiment to “Israel’s defeat of its Arab neighbors in 1967,” so I suppose it’s a kind of modest progress that the Times is now falsely blaming the events of 1948 for Iraq’s turn against the Jews, rather than the events of 1967.

Even better would be for the newspaper to get the story fully accurate, and to stop blaming Israel for Iraqi Jew-hatred that predates the Jewish state.


Nazi Hunter on Nuremberg Trials Anniversary: Most of the ‘Baddest Actors’ Escaped Justice
Most of the “baddest actors” charged at the Nuremberg Trials escaped justice, Dean Reuter, general counsel and vice president at the Federalist Society and co-author of The Hidden Nazi: The Untold Story of America’s Deal with the Devil, stated on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.

“One disturbing scene that came out of a lot of these Nazi trials [is that] the folks that weren’t executed — that were given a term of years — very, very few of them served their full sentences,” Reuter noted. “I just found that really disturbing. … “These were the baddest actors that we’ve identified — that the legal process really has identified — in history, and a lot of them just didn’t serve their full sentences.”

He added, “Hundreds of people made deals at various levels of complicity [and] various levels of guilt. … Hans Kammler is probably the highest ranking, most ridiculously bad person that would have able to escape justice, but Nuremberg, I think, was effective in terms of putting down a marker and basically underscoring the phrase that has now become famous: ‘Never Again.'”

In The Hidden Nazi, Reuter explained how General Hans Kammler, a Nazi S.S. commander who designed the Third Reich’s network of concentration camps and V-2 rocket program, likely escaped Europe with aid from the U.S. government in exchange for intelligence.

Reuter remarked on the Nuremberg Trial’s impact on treaties. It “revolutionized international law,” he stated.
US looks to Israeli military data to weigh safety of booster shots
US health officials are said to be looking to data from Israel’s military to help shed light on the safety of Pfizer/BioNtech’s COVID-19 booster jabs in young people, and the risks of developing a heart inflammation condition known as myocarditis.

The condition, while rare, has been linked to the two-dose mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, mostly in males under 30.

US chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, told Reuters on Friday that a key question yet to be answered was “the safety data of an mRNA in young people vis-a-vis myocarditis.”

US regulators will weigh the question and the data to determine whether to grant full approval for a booster shot in the wider population. A third jab was already approved for Americans over 65 years of age, healthcare workers, and those deemed to be at high risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19.

“The Israelis will relatively soon have that data because they’re vaccinating everybody in the country I think from 12 years old up, including their military recruits,” Fauci said. He added that the data could “help address the gap in safety information on mRNA vaccines, ‘which is one of the things that the advisory committee was interested in,'” according to the report.

On Friday, Israel’s Health Ministry released data showing that the known side effects from the COVID-19 vaccines were significantly milder from the booster shot compared to the first two doses. Reported side effects, such as fatigue, weakness, and pain in the arm where the injection was administered, were all less common the third time round in every age group, according to the ministry.
Coronavirus: Serious patients drop as new Green Pass system kicks in
The number of serious COVID-19 patients over the weekend dropped below 600 for the first time since mid-August.

As of Saturday night, there were 587 patients in serious condition, 100 less than a week earlier. The highest number recorded in the fourth wave was 738 on September 23.

The new Green Pass system is set to come into effect on Sunday as the coronavirus cabinet is scheduled to meet for the first time in a month. In light of the encouraging data, which also included a decline in the reproduction and positivity rates, the cabinet is not expected to introduce any new restrictions, including no cap on large gatherings which had been widely discussed.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett expressed satisfaction over the development but said it is too soon to celebrate, as the outbreak is not over. “We are at a critical stage, with the reopening of the education system and our intention to end mass isolation and move to a model of extensive testing and isolation required only for identified cases,” he said on Saturday night. “Right now, we must strictly keep the Green Pass rules and not be complacent.”

By mid-October, the pilot program to change the isolation and testing requirements in the education system will be completed, and starting from October 17, only those infected will need to quarantine, while their classmates will undergo coronavirus tests every day for a week. In addition, parents of children under 12 are set to receive at-home test kits to check them regularly – possibly once or twice a week.
Israeli-made COVID vaccine at least 80% effective, initial results show
The latest results from the clinical trials of Israel’s homegrown COVID-19 vaccine, BriLife, show that it is at least 80 percent effective at preventing severe disease and may provide longer-lasting protection.

Channel 12 reported on Friday that the government-run Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) in Ness Ziona indicated that, so far, over 80% of volunteers who received the two-shot Israeli vaccine at its highest doses during clinical trials developed antibodies, suggesting an efficacy rate of 80%.

These high doses were trialed in Israel and are being applied in Georgia and Ukraine where the jab is being tested in Phase IIb/III trials with unvaccinated volunteers over the age of 18.

The institute hopes that additional results will show the vaccine to be up to 85% effective, according to the report.

This would make BriLife, pending results from Phase III studies, one of the most effective non-mRNA vaccine, with the AstraZeneca jab demonstrating approximately 74% efficacy and the Johnson & Johnson Janssen shot showing 85.4% efficacy against severe disease and 93.1 % against hospitalization.

Of the mRNA ((messenger RNA) vaccines, a type of jab that teaches our cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response, both Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna have shown over 90% efficacy against severe infection and at preventing hospitalization.







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