Despite that fact, and in opposition to the politically correct thinking that people should be able to define how they are labeled, most media refer to Arab citizens of Israel as "Palestinian" by default.
The Guardian:
The Washington Post:
Al Jazeera:
I don't agree with this terminology, and neither should any liberal. It makes it sound like some citizens of Israel are not really Israeli. It promotes division and discrimination. People who prize equality should abhor "otherizing" certain parts of the population.
So why does the major media consistently use this terminology that is both wrong and offensive to most Arab Israelis?
They do it exactly because it helps promote an anti-Israel narrative that Arab citizens of Israel are discriminated against. It pushes the agenda that Israel hates Palestinians both within and without Israel. It subtly tells readers that Arabs in Israel are not really Israelis and one day they will be free o fbeing forced to live in a Jewish state.
Yet recent headlines from these same major media outlets, about COVID-19 vaccinations in Israel, have flipped the script. They use the word "Palestinians" to refer only to Arabs under Palestinian rule, and not Israeli Arabs who are obviously getting vaccinated in Israel.
The Guardian:
The Washington Post:
Al Jazeera:
Suddenly, Palestinians are only a subset of what these newspapers usually call Palestinians!
If these newspapers were consistent, these headlines would be outright lies - no one denies that Israel is working hard to inoculate "Palestinians" who live in Israel. Clearly, in this context, "Palestinian" cannot mean Arab Israelis.
But there indeed is a consistency here.
When it helps them to bash Israel, Arab Israelis are "Palestinian." And when it helps them to bash Israel, only Palestinians under Palestinian rule are "Palestinian."
Media bias is sometimes subtle and insidious, but once it is pointed out, any fair person would see how outrageous it is.
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A couple of weeks ago, a series of NGOs including the Amnesty, Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, B'Tselem and even two Palestinian human rights organizations issued a press release demanding that Israel provide vaccines for Palestinians.
They use poor arguments, most of which I debunked in last night's webcast, but one of them deserves more attention - because it shows how bigoted these groups are against Palestinians.
We express grave concerns about media reports that the Russian-developed vaccine will be delivered to the Palestinian Authority (PA). The PA has not fully indicated which vaccines it aims to purchase and distribute, although it has made clear that it does not have sufficient funds and capabilities to purchase the necessary vaccinations. Israel cannot transfer a vaccine which is not approved for its own citizens. Such a step would violate the Paris Protocol on Economic Relations and the long-standing policy of the Israeli Ministry of Health to only allow the distribution of medicines in the OPT which have undergone the necessary scientific and regulatory procedures. Although the Paris Protocol has come under criticism in the past for, inter alia, obliging the PA to import medications that are beyond its financial reach, as long as it is binding, Israel cannot import a vaccine that it has not approved for its own population and send it to the occupied population. Israel must ensure that the vaccines delivered to Palestinians in the OPT, also meet the approvals of the Israeli health system, and that these vaccines be purchased and delivered as soon as possible.
...Both sides will maintain the same import policy (various exceptions) and regulations including classification, valuation and other customs procedures, which are based on the principles governing international codes, and the same policies of import licensing and of standards for imported goods, all as applied by Israel with respect to its importation. Israel may from time to time introduce changes in any of the above, provided that changes in standard requirements will not constitute a non-tariff-barrier and will be based on considerations of health, safety and the protection of the environment in conformity with Article 2.2. of the Agreement on Technical Barriers to trade of the Final Act of the Uruguay Round of Trade Negotiations.
So even if this paragraph applies to importing medicines (which is not at all obvious) Israel can change the policy for maintaining public health!
Members shall ensure that technical regulations are not prepared, adopted or applied with a
view to or with the effect of creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade. For this purpose,
technical regulations shall not be more trade-restrictive than necessary to fulfil a legitimate objective,
taking account of the risks non-fulfilment would create. Such legitimate objectives are, inter alia:
national security requirements; the prevention of deceptive practices; protection of human health or
safety, animal or plant life or health, or the environment. In assessing such risks, relevant elements
of consideration are, inter alia: available scientific and technical information, related processing
technology or intended end-uses of products.
These very regulations referred to in the Paris Protocols say that Israel should not place any barriers in place to stop Palestinians from getting the medicines they need!
Clearly, when the Palestinians don't have ultra-cold freezers needed to stockpile the Pfizer vaccine , the Russian Sputnik vaccine seems like a viable alternative to help millions of their citizens. The Palestinian Authority has scientists and doctors that can look at the literature and see whether it makes sense to accept the Russian vaccine. Other countries like India have decided that the Russian vaccine is safe enough to rely on. One can argue about the decision, but is hardly irresponsible for leaders to choose the Russian vaccine in the interests of protecting the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time.
But Amnesty and these other NGOs disagree with this. They want to take away Palestinian choice as to how to treat their own people!
If anyone else would say that Palestinians are too immature or too ignorant to decide on how their own health programs should work, they would be rightly considered to be bigots.
Beyond that, Amnesty and the other NGOs are saying that it is better for Palestinians to wait for Israel to build an entire infrastructure to distribute the Pfizer vaccine, or to wait to receive the Moderna vaccine, than to import the Sputnik vaccine today. Every day a couple of dozen Palestinians are dying of COVID-19 and Amnesty is saying that time is not of the essence to provide vaccines to them, even though the logistics of Israel providing the vaccines in Palestinian areas is enormously expensive and time consuming.
The NGOs even say it is Israel's responsibility to keep the medicines cold:
Ensuring smooth entry of vaccines and other medical equipment to the oPt, including preserving a 'cold chain’ to keep vaccines refrigerated during transit if necessary.
Ultra-cold freezers aren't exactly available at Best Buy. There are only a couple of manufacturers and they are swamped. It would take months to acquire an adequate supply of this equipment to bring into the territories, by which time there will be other vaccines available that do not require anything colder than a refrigerator.
This demand, by itself, shows how out of touch these NGOs are - and how willing they are to sacrifice Palestinians as long as they can blame Israel for their deaths.
There is only one conclusion that can be drawn: Amnesty and the other NGOs hate Israel more than they care about Palestinian lives. This demand, by itself, proves how hateful they are both towards Israel and towards Palestinians themselves.
To call these "human rights "organizations is a sick joke.
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Mrs. Elder and I discuss the absurd reporting from various news organizations that libelously claim or imply that Israel is withholding vaccines from Palestinians.
We talk about why they are wrong from the perspective of international law, existing agreements, and even how some of the demands are infantilizing Palestinians.
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By now, you have probably seen a chart like this showing how far ahead Israel is in vaccinating its citizens for COVID-19 per capita compared to the rest of the world:
This is due to a strong infrastructure where the security apparatus of the state has pivoted to provide virus protection. But part of it is also by having a centralized decision making process where, for example, leftover vaccines at the end of the day that would have been otherwise discarded (because of Pfizer's requirements that the vaccine is kept in ultra-cold temperatures and they cannot be re-frozen) are being used for people who would otherwise not qualify for the first round that is meant for front line workers and the elderly.
It is also due to Israel's willingness to reportedly pay a huge premium per vaccine in order to ensure that it would have an adequate supply, as well as a huge publicity campaign to ensure that people who might otherwise be skeptical - such as the Arab and haredi communities - get vaccinated.
Yet as well as Israel is doing, there is an even more remarkable chart from the same source that shows that Israel's efforts are getting even better every day in the percentage of the population being inoculated:
These charts are not going to remain looking like this, because some countries will hold off on giving first vaccinations and prioritize giving second vaccinations to the people who already had it. However, Israel seems to have realized that it can reach herd immunity in relatively little time compared to other countries and reaching that goal - which will allow things to return to near-normal - is worth investing huge amounts of time and money in, and ultimately will be a bargain where the economy can rebound.
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Here are excerpts of a ridiculous article in the Hamas-oriented Middle East Monitor by Dr Amira Abo el-Fetouh:
This year has seen the world hit with the Covid-19 pandemic but some Arab leaders have afflicted us with the normalisation plague as they race to be best friends with the Zionist state. This plague is deadlier in many ways than the pandemic; the coronavirus affects individuals, while normalisation affects whole nations and threatens the present and future of the Arab people.
The Arab rulers have persisted in their hatred of their own people, and have joined hands with their enemies to conspire against Palestine, the cause that is central to the Muslim Ummah, not just the Arabs.
These normalisers have forgotten Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third Holy Mosque and the fulcrum of the Prophet's miraculous night journey, peace be upon him. In doing so they have made it the sole responsibility of the Palestinians oppressed in their own country, that was usurped by the Zionists, where they face all types of torture, humiliation and deprivation. They stand alone in defence of the Muslim sanctities.
The Palestinians didn't ask anyone to join the ranks of the resistance; they simply wanted moral support. Nevertheless, the Almighty will ask us all what we did to help them in the struggle to defend Al-Aqsa. Those who have made Israel their Qiblah and joined with the usurpers of the Noble Sanctuary have some serious questions to answer. They have given a veneer of legitimacy to the Israeli occupation and helped to strengthen Zionist control over Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque. The least they can do is spare the Palestinians from the normalisation evil.
The claims that normalisation will not harm the Palestinian cause overlook the fact that Israel is nothing but a Western colonial project to divide and rule the region through client states. It is beyond comprehension to normalise relations with it, due to the nature of the Zionist project and its expansionist goals, which may include the normalising countries.
Let the normalised regimes rejoice in their relations with the Zionists, while preparing for the day when their people will rise up and depose them. The day will come when the Arab people will be liberated from the tyrannical regimes occupying their lands, and from the externally-imposed occupation state. Tomorrow is just a day away.
At least this article doesn't pretend to care about Palestinians. It shows that the entire supposed Arab support for Palestinians is really just to use them to help destroy Israel.
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The supposedly racist Israeli authorities will be giving Palestinian prisoners the coronavirus vaccine before most Israeli citizens get inoculated.
The head of the Palestinian Prisoners and Executives Affairs Authority, Major General Qadri Abu Bakr, announced Saturday that the Israel Prison Service has informed the prisoners that they will be vaccinated against COVID-19 during the next few days.
The vaccinations, which will use the Pfizer vaccine, will be voluntary.
This is of course not good enough for the Palestinians. The Palestinian prisoners Authority is demanding that the vaccinations be held under the supervision of international doctors.
This all of course doesn't jibe with the many news stories that came out last week that claimed that Israel was withholding vaccines from Palestinians. If Israel was racist, the prisoners would be the last ones to get the vaccine, if at all.
But when it comes to Israel, truth is apparently optional.
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Abukhater went to the University of Dundee, Scotland, and since then has used his English skills to write for Countercurrents, Electronic Intifada and most recently The Guardian. He lives in Jerusalem.
In his Al Jazeera piece, he complains that Emiratis visiting Israel are a "slap in the face" for Palestinians.
He writes:
In the second half of the year, a series of Arab states added to our collective misery by announcing their decision to normalise their relations with Israel. By effectively abandoning their supposed commitment to supporting Palestinian self-determination for money, weapons and a few short-term political gains, they sent us a clear message that our suffering and struggle for the most basic human rights no longer matter to them.
If there is one skill that is completely lacking in Palestinian DNA, it is the ability to view the world from any other perspective besides their own bitter viewpoint. They have been so blinded for so long that they simply cannot comprehend that there has been a huge change happening under their feet for two decades in how the Arab world views them.
Arab leaders would speak about their support for Palestinians out loud every day, drafting lots of anti-Israel resolutions in Arab and international forums, but beneath the surface everyone but the Palestinians themselves could see the fissures in the relationship. Arab nations would pledge hundreds of millions of dollars for "Palestine" or "Jerusalem" and pay only a tiny portion, if anything. They expressed deep frustration at how Palestinians couldn't unify under one leadership. They saw how the Fatah and Hamas would fight, bicker and arrest members of the other groups. They saw Palestinian leaders say "no" to repeated peace offers by Israel. And, of course, the Arab nations saw how Palestinians continued to cozy up to Iran as Iran threatened the Arabs of the Gulf.
Palestinians kept themselves blind to this. Their newspapers would rarely report on these stories. Their anger at the UAE "betrayal" is more because of their own choice to ignore 20 years of warning signs than anything the UAE is actually doing.
As far as the UAE not caring about Palestinians, this is clearly not true - they have sent COVID aid to the Palestinians, which was rejected by the PA even before the Abraham Accords but which Hamas has accepted. The UAE has been arranging to bring the Russian COVID vaccine into the PA territories.
More manifestations of Palestinian cluelessness manifest in Abukhater's op-ed:
The arrival of hundreds of Emiratis in Israel to enjoy the historic sites of Jerusalem and pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque was a slap in the face for us. After all, millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, just two dozen kilometres away from Al-Aqsa, can only dream about stepping foot in the mosque that is the third holiest site in Islam.
They can only dream about it? In recent years, Israel has issued hundreds of thousands of travel permits for Palestinians to visit Jerusalem - and even Tel Aviv! - during Ramadan, and Palestinians over 40 didn't even need a permit. In fact, some years the PA itself prohibited Palestinians from traveling!
There's another irony here. Abukhater lives in Jerusalem, meaning that he can visit Al Aqsa every day. He can also visit the rest of Israel every day. And he can also visit Ramallah every day. He, an Arab, has more freedom of movement than any Jew in Israel, including Jews who want to visit holy sites in Nablus or Jericho or elsewhere.
Of course, we Palestinian Jerusalemites were already used to seeing Muslim pilgrims from Turkey, Malaysia, Indonesia or other non-Arab Muslim-majority countries at Al-Aqsa. Over the years, Palestinians rarely had any problem with these visitors, as they overwhelmingly believe this holiest of mosques should not be monopolised by any subset of Muslims, even under the devastating conditions of an occupation.
But the Palestinian Jerusalemites were not as accepting of Emirati tourists as others.
So who is intolerant?
Abukhater doesn't even realize what he is saying here. Citizens of countries that make peace with Israel are given the right to visit Israel proportionate to the closeness of relations. This should not be surprising - it is natural.
A Jewish woman was murdered, apparently by Palestinians, only two days ago. There was a Palestinian terror shooting also this week in Jerusalem. Is it really so strange that Israel limits Palestinian access to areas with Jews?
If Palestinians would act like Emiratis, they would have a state. If they accepted Jews as natives of the Middle East as Emiratis do, accept Israel as a Jewish state, and end their rhetorical and monetary support for terrorists, they would be able to visit Israel freely as well.
Israel's peace with the UAE and other Arab states proves this. Israel isn't anti-Arab or Islamophobic - it wants peace, security and acceptance, and is willing to bend over backwards to accommodate Arabs who provide that.
Palestinian hate and antisemitism and intransigence are the obstacles to peace. The UAE and Bahrain and Morocco prove it.
(h/t Josh Korn)
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AP has a biased report essentially accusing Israel of anti-Palestinian racism because the Pfizer vaccine cannot be used in the territories, due to a shortage of super-cold refrigeration units that are needed for it to remain effective.
Left unsaid is that millions of Israelis will also have to wait months - there are not enough vaccines to go around now. AP is suggesting that Israel prioritize its own citizens behind Palestinians, which no nation on Earth would or should do.
While buried in the story it mentions that all rich nations are getting the vaccines before all poor nations, only Israel is blamed for this. No one is telling the US to wait to inoculate its citizens until Haitians are all vaccinated.
It isn't a question of discrimination. It is a question of logistics and limited resources. And even with that, PBS doesn't mention how Israel is working to provide vaccines for Palestinians by the millions.
But there is one part of the report where an Israeli Leftist NGO, Physicians for Human Rights, makes an incredibly condescending statement about Palestinians, and no one even bats an eye.
Physicians for Human Rights-Israel, a group that advocates for more equitable health care, says Israel has a legal obligation as an occupying power to purchase and distribute vaccines to the Palestinians. It says Israel must also ensure that vaccines that don’t meet its own safety guidelines — like the Russian shot — are not distributed in areas under its control.
The Palestinian Authority has approved the Russian vaccine. Israel hasn't.
PHRI is saying that Palestinians cannot make their own decisions as to which vaccines are safe for them to use. Even worse, they are saying that the potential benefits of the Russian vaccine must not be made available to Palestinians but that they must adhere to Israeli medical standards, whether they want to or not - and at the risk of many more people becoming ill and dying.
The Russian Sputnik-V vaccine, although viewed with some skepticism by some, has been bought by countries like India, Brazil and Mexico. Russia claims a 92% effectiveness rate, on par with those of Pfizer and Moderna. Israel's Hadassah Hospital is helping the Palestinians import the vaccine, even though it will not be used by Israel at this time.
Yet Physicians for Human Rights-Israel is against this potentially life saving measure, because they condescendingly consider Palestinians too stupid to make life and death decisions for themselves.
That is Leftist racism.
And you can be sure that if Israel blocked the Russian vaccine from being sent to Palestinians, PHR-I would be the first to accuse Israel of human rights abuses.
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As usual, for Palestinians, everything must be politicized to be against Israel.
The latest example is Palestinian prime minister Mohame Shtayyeh's video speech at the lighting of the Bethlehem Christmas tree. During his address, he compared Israel to COVID-19 more than once, even referring to Israel as a "pandemic."
We will not surrender, neither to the virus nor to the occupation measures, and we will accomplish what we have started .
...
We presented a message in the political steadfastness in the face of the colonial occupation pandemic, and in the face of the seizure of our money, and we presented a message in the national steadfastness in the face of the disease pandemic.
This is the hate that Palestinians grow up with and receive every day of their lives.
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Israel's Hadassah Medical Centre is currently in talks with the UAE over the sale of 1.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine for Palestine, Quds Press reported yesterday.
According to the news site, the Israeli public radio Kan, reported that the negotiations between the two sides related to the Russian vaccine.
Kan noted that the Israeli Ministry of Health has not yet approved the Russian vaccine and it is not expected to approve it in the near future.
If I am reading this correctly, even though Israel does not trust the Russian vaccine for its own citizens, it allows Hadassah and the UAE to work to get the vaccine to Palestinians, which presumably do approve it.
This story blows up all the narratives: that Israel doesn't want to provide Palestinians with medicines, that the UAE hates Palestinians, that "normalization" is a catastrophe for Palestinians.
So far Russia has agreements to sell its vaccine to a number of countries including India, Venezuela, Mexico, China, Egypt and Brazil.
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I don't even know how to wrap my head around this.
Earlier this week it was revealed that, in blatant disregard for COVID guidelines and of people's lives, a Satmar Chassidic group in Brooklyn had held a massive wedding with 7,000 maskless participants.
Mayor DeBlasio decided to give a hefty $15,000 fine to the synagogue that hosts the social hall, Yetev Lev D’Satmar.
Last year we reported about the blatantly antisemitic TruNews network, whose leader, Rick Wiles, said on his show that "Jews ...are deceivers, they plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda....People are going to be forced, possibly by this Christmas, to take a stand because of this Jew coup in the United States. ...You have been taken over by a Jewish cabal. The church of Jesus Christ, you’re next. Get it through your head! They’re coming for you. There will be a purge. That’s the next thing that happens when Jews take over a country, they kill millions of Christians."
That same Rick Wiles offered to pay the fine for the Satmar shul - and the Satmars are happy to accept the cash from the antisemite who wants to incite a religious war in American between Jews and Christians.
Another Satmar account claimed that HQSatmar was fake:
עד מתי יהי' זה לנו למוקש!
This Twitter handle @HQSatmar has ZERO right to talk in the name of Satmar in any capacity. It has as much with Satmar as Satmar has with the Neo Nazis. https://t.co/ScrO8IT2UX
But HQSatmar seems legit to my untrained eye, with far more followers and a feed that seems more in sync with the Satmar community's public political positions. (UPDATE: I'm told that this account does not speak for any segment of Satmar.)
Naturally, people started tweeting to TruNews about their blatant antisemitism, wondering how they can donate money to a synagogue. TruNews' response is mind-blowing:
Rick Wiles of TRUNEWS: “We love the Jews but hate Zionism.”
Suddenly, the Jew-haters at TruNews are claiming that they love Jews - and only hate Zionism!
The far-Right antisemites are now issuing talking points that are identical to far-Left antisemites!
And how does the far-Left respond to this?
JewishWorker, a socialist account and website, followed the TruNews/Satmar story with the proper level of astonishment. But then, in response to the far-Right using a far-Left talking point, the anti-Zionist Leftists used a Zionist talking point!
His account name is "Zionism is Goyish" - which sounds exactly like Satmar. But when TruNews befriends Satmar, suddenly the openly anti-Zionist Jewish Worker turns his back on his fellow socialist Left anti-Zionists - who indeed hate 90% of Jews - and effectively calls them antisemites.
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In another crushing blow to those who were hoping that Israel would use the coronavirus to finally perform the genocide of Palestinians that they have been predicting for 72 years, Israel is preparing to provide millions of doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to those who want to see Israel disappear.
Israel Hayom (Hebrew) quotes a senior Palestinian Authority official saying that "between 3 and 4 million vaccines will be transferred from Israel to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank, and some of the vaccines will also go to Gaza. Israel is committed to helping us curb the virus."
Senior sources in the Palestinian Ministry of Health told Israel Today that the Palestinian Authority is included in any negotiations to purchase vaccines or order doses from Pfizer, Moderna or any other pharmaceutical company that Israel has or will have a supply agreement.
Unlike Israel, though, the Palestinians will also get millions of doses from the UN and other international organizations.
It is unclear whether Israel will be delaying vaccinating some of its own citizens to help the Palestinians.
Israel is filled with the world's worst genocidists, to be sure. But one can expect that Palestinians will start a rumor that the vaccines provided by Israel will be actually poison.
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But the Palestinian Authority has been reducing the number of permits of sick Palestinians to go to Israeli hospitals in recent years.
In 2017, it drastically reduced the number of Gazans given permission to travel to Israel for medical treatment.
Earlier this year, in order to fulfil a promise by Mahmoud Abbas to end all coordination with Israel, the Palestinian Authority stopped all transfers of patients to Israel - resulting in some deaths. Israeli NGOs scrambled to try to allow the most sick patients to come to Israel for treatment, while Palestinian NGOs angrily said that they would not try to help save Palestinian lives - the principle of non-cooperation was far more important than mere human life.
Well, that only applies to expendable Palestinians. But not the VIPs.
Apparently, the PLO rules of Palestinian honor only extend to allowing normal Palestinians to die for the cause, but not highly placed PLO officials.
A government that actively works against the interests of its own people does not deserve to exist to begin with. But when it distinguishes between the masses of its people it doesn't care about and its own top officials, it shows that it doesn't even adhere to its own stated principles to justify treating its citizens like dirt.
Palestinians deserve better leaders than this.
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Dr. Saeb Erekat, Secretary-General of Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), told CNN that President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas wishes US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania a speedy and full recovery.
However, if you look at the "Presidency" section on the Wafa Arabic website where all Abbas' official statements and communications are, there is not a word about wishing Trump a recovery on that page.
Abbas' Facebook page likewise does not say a word about this.
It's almost like Saeb Erakat is making things up to stall the freefall of Abbas' reputation in the US.
UPDATE: Just as I was publishing this, I saw this amazingly hypocritical tweet from Erakat:
Met with China’s 🇨🇳 Ambassador to Palestine 🇵🇸 QWA WEI . Appreciated China’s firm stand with int. Law , end the Israeli occupation. No to annexation and settlements . Two States 1967 borders. Help Palestine to fight COVID 19. pic.twitter.com/pYBED4Wf6Z
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) October 5, 2020
Yes, the Palestinian leaders are praising the Chinese government - which, as one commenter noted, is "the only regime in the entire world that has a systematic and openly admitted occupation and detention programme targeted at Muslims, Tibetans and Mongolians" - as a paradigm for upholding international law!
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This morning (Wednesday) Israel’s Health Ministry announced that in the past 24 hours there were 6,861 new cases of Covid-19 detected in 59,169 tests, an 11.5% positive ratio. This ratio has been steadily increasing, which is an indication of the explosive spread of the disease.
This is the worst ever for Israel, which has had the greatest average number of new cases per day per million population in the world for several weeks now. The Health Ministry’s “point man” on Corona, Dr. Ronni Gamzu, predicted that within a week the number of serious cases that require hospitalization will exceed the capacity of the system. When that happens, the system will stretch a bit. One hospital converted a parking garage into a Corona facility in a remarkably short time; the IDF is setting up field hospitals. But if the numbers continue to increase, soon there will be no more flexibility. Doctors will have to decide whom to treat and whom not. People will die who could have been saved.
Last week Israel began a second partial lockdown. Its effect will not be felt for another week, but it’s doubtful – based on the various loopholes left in it for political reasons and a general lack of observance of the rules – that it will be enough to reduce the spread of the disease significantly.
There is a lack of good information available about how to reduce the number of infections, but it seems clear that crowds are bad, crowds indoors are worse, and masks – if properly worn – help, especially if both the infectious person and the one at risk wear them. It also seems that the amount of virus that a person picks up can affect whether they will be infected and how seriously; so the amount of time spent in a dangerous situation is important.
The strategy (as it appears today) of the Health Ministry is to apply restrictions to reduce the daily number of new cases to the point that it will be possible to track the contacts of each infected person, test them, and quarantine anyone who is positive or who has had direct contact with someone who tests positive. That is called “breaking the chain of infection.” But that can only happen if the number of new cases is manageable. Once that is achieved, it should be possible to gradually release the restrictions and return the society to normal without causing a new spike in infections. Estimates of how low it must go vary widely, between 100 and 1000 new cases per day.
The objective in applying restrictions is to restrict those behaviors that facilitate the spread of the virus as much as possible, while doing the smallest possible damage to the economy. And here we run into the problems of politics and attitudes.
Yesterday and today the “Corona Cabinet” – a committee of government ministers from relevant ministries – has been discussing the tightening of restrictions that will be needed. One of the biggest conflicts concerns two activities which involve large crowds, including numerous people without masks who do not observe “social distancing,” and which have zero impact on the economy. It would seem obvious that these would be the first to be restricted.
But the activities we are talking about are the weekly raucous, theatrical, and sometimes obscene demonstrations outside the Prime Minister’s residence in Jerusalem, and his home in Caesarea; and the coming synagogue services on Yom Kippur.
The Left believes that there is nothing more sacred than the right to demonstrate. An attempt to shut down or even limit the numbers of demonstrators is met with fury on the street and from opposition politicians. It’s claimed that would “destroy democracy.” The Attorney General, who in Israel is more a functionary of the legal establishment and the Supreme Court than of the government, says that the government would have to get the Knesset to pass a special law if it wants to stop demonstrations.
Observant Jewish Israelis, of course, insist that it is unacceptable to forbid Jewish prayer in a Jewish state. And both sides are right, but they are both wrong in their insistence that they get their way in the face of the fact that both demonstrations and packed synagogues are known to effectively spread the virus.
The tracking mechanism of the Internal Security Service (Shabak) that is being used to track exposure and locate people violating quarantine is ineffective in these cases, since both demonstrators – just for that reason – and synagogue-goers leave their cellphones at home.
The government could not stand against the pressure, so it punted and appointed a “professional” committee to come up with limitations on demonstrations and public prayer that would allow both to continue. Unfortunately, these rules will be broken, because a large segment of each group does not respect any rules that come from the government. The police are outnumbered, and even though they can impose fines, have a hard time enforcing rules – and the more complicated they are, the harder it is.
Much of the Haredi educational system is operating, including schools for children and yeshivot and kollelim for adults, despite the closings decreed in “red zones.” Limits on the number of congregants in synagogues were widely broken during Rosh Hashana. Dozens of anti-Bibi and anti-lockdown protestors set up tables in front of the PM’s residence and had a festive meal. Over the weekend, a large group held what was essentially a beach party, allegedly under the rules permitting “demonstrations.”
In the Arab towns on both sides of the Green Line, the problem has been massive weddings, which sometimes go on for several days with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of participants. Mayors of Israeli Arab towns imposed nighttime curfews, which may have helped, although weddings are then sometimes held during the day.
In anything less than a Chinese-style totalitarian system, laws are upheld primarily by the willingness of citizens to obey them, with enforcement only needed for egregious violators. That mechanism is breaking down in Israel. A recent survey showed that 68% did not trust PM Netanyahu to manage the response to the virus, and 41% did not trust Dr. Gamzu. And Israelis tend to ignore people and rules that they don’t respect.
This is literally a question of life and death, both for Israelis and for their economy. A two-or-three week lockdown is bad enough, but two or three months would be intolerable. Either we get a handle on this epidemic, or we will be facing the choice between economic disaster or hundreds of deaths every day (today there were 31). Or if we are indecisive enough, maybe we’ll get both.
What needs to happen is that the government has to make simple rules, stick to them, and enforce them with severe penalties. No demonstrations, period. Close the synagogues, period. No weddings, period. And the people, Arabs and Jews both, need to follow the rules. In a few weeks, we can break the back of the epidemic, and then return to something closer to normalcy.
Continuing to take two steps forward and three steps back as we’ve been doing will only earn us a bunch of funerals – and no economy, either.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
On May 14, 2018, the US embassy was officially inaugurated in Jerusalem, and a double standard applied to Israel in the US for 70 years finally came to an end.
The moving of the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem not only recognized Israel’s capital as it had seen it since the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948, but also removed a myth from any future negotiating table. Jerusalem, the United States determined, was non-negotiable. It was Israel’s capital.
“We were applying [until then] a double standard to Israel, relative to every other country in the world,” US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told The Jerusalem Post last week. “We were telling Israel, you don’t have the right to choose your capital city.”
That changed with the moving of the embassy even as some critics claim that beyond the symbolism of the move, it didn’t achieve much more. Other countries did not follow suit and the fact is that peace negotiations seem no farther away today than they were before.
Friedman did not agree. Don’t, he said, underestimate the power of symbolism.
“Americans who support Israel understand the significance of Jerusalem,” he said. “It’s what the Statue of Liberty, the Lincoln Memorial, Plymouth Rock and Valley Forge are. We understand symbols are more than symbols. Every nation that made a mark on this world stood for something. Nations that stand for something stand for deep historic principles. Because America was founded on those types of principles, Americans profoundly understand the importance of Jerusalem to the State of Israel.”
We agree. The moving of the embassy not only put an end to a historic travesty but also made clear to the world something everyone anyhow already knew – Jerusalem is not for sale. While the Palestinians can still lay claim to parts of the eastern side of the city, Jerusalem is Israel’s capital as it was 3,000 years ago when designated so by King David.
With that said, peace is not made between Jerusalem and Washington DC. It needs to be made between Israeli and Palestinian leaders and sadly, for the last three years of the Trump administration, when it comes to direct talks, there has been no tangible progress.
Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to swear in his fifth government in a few days, has served as Israel’s prime minister for 14 years. The thought that in his 15th year as prime minister he will suddenly change his policies and engage with the Palestinians in ways he has not until now also seems unlikely.
Seven Republicans in Congress warned Jordan that the United States was now in a position to sanction that country unless it extradites one of the terrorists who plotted the 2001 bombing of a Jerusalem pizzeria.
“The potential seriousness of these sanctions provisions reflect the deep concern of the Congress, the administration and the American people,” said the letter sent April 30 to Jordan’s ambassador and released this week by EMET, a pro-Israel group lobbying for the letter.
Why it matters: The letter was initiated by Rep. Greg Steube, R-Fla., and signed by Congress members known for their closeness to the Trump administration. That signals an increase in pressure on Jordan to extradite Ahlam Al-Tamimi, who facilitated the bombing of the Sbarro restaurant that killed 15 people, including two Americans.
Jordan, a key ally to the United States and Israel, gets $1.7 billion in U.S. assistance.
The United States has sought Al-Tamimi’s extradition for years, but the law allowing the State Department to leverage aid to demand extradition did not go into effect until late last year.
Al-Tamimi was sentenced to life in Israel but released in a prisoner exchange with Israel in 2011. She has since become something of a celebrity in Jordan.
The parents of one of the victims, 15-year old Malki Roth, have led an effort to make Al-Tamimi face U.S. charges under American laws that allow the prosecution of terrorists who have harmed Americans overseas.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed on Friday he would travel to Israel to next week, in what will be his first overseas trip since the coronavirus crisis began.
Pompeo will be in Israel next Wednesday, May 13, and he will meet in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Knesset Speaker Benny Gantz “to discuss US and Israeli efforts to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as regional security issues related to Iran’s malign influence,” a State Department statement said.
“The US commitment to Israel has never been stronger than under President Trump’s leadership,” the statement added. “The United States and Israel will face threats to the security and prosperity of our peoples together.”
“In challenging times, we stand by our friends, and our friends stand by us,” it concluded.
One issue that could be on the agenda during Pompeo’s visit is the possible Israeli annexation of parts of the West Bank in the near future.
Pompeo himself said last month that such a move was up to the Israeli government.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo next week will become the first senior foreign official to visit Israel since it put in place strict travel restrictions to stem the spread of the coronavirus.
Pompeo’s visit will require medical precautions to prevent infections, which were coordinated with Israeli officials, Israel’s Channel 13 reported Friday.
Dr. William Walters, the US State Department’s deputy chief medical officer, said Friday that everyone flying with Pompeo will be tested for the virus one or two days before the flight, will be checked for symptoms before boarding, and will wear face coverings during the trip.
Pompeo and his small traveling party will be exempt from Israel’s virus restrictions that bar foreign visitors from entering and require returning Israelis to self-quarantine for 14 days. Pompeo is currently undergoing daily checks by medical personnel, Walters said.
Pompeo will be on the ground in Israel for only several hours on Wednesday before returning to Washington from his first overseas trip since making an unannounced visit to Afghanistan in March.
Everyone who meets with the US team during the trip will be checked for COVID-19 symptoms. Pompeo’s movements will be strictly controlled and limited to working meetings and the airport, and he will not meet with anyone in public settings.
Diana Buttu
Yara Hawari
Yousef Munayyer – Moderator
Additional speakers to be announced
About the Event
Arab Center Washington DC’s upcoming webinar focuses on the threat of the coronavirus pandemic in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip as well as for the Palestinian citizens of Israel. As Israel’s policies of occupation and settler colonialism continue in the midst of this global health crisis, what additional challenges are Palestinians facing under military occupation, apartheid, siege, and discriminatory policies?
Well, let's see.
The West Bank has less than 300 COVID-19 cases, two deaths.
Gaza has 17 COVID-19 cases, zero deaths.
Palestinians in Israeli prisons have zero cases, zero deaths.
Israel has over 15,000 cases and 204 deaths with 93 people on ventilators.
Where should the bulk of ventilators, PPEs and effort go? What evidence is there that Israel is not doing everything it can to keep the virus from spreading in the territories and prisons?
For two months now, Israel haters have been warning about an impending epidemic of the virus in the territories.
As is the case with wars, they want to see Palestinians die so they can have ammunition to attack Israel.
As is the case with wars, Israel has more incentive to protect Palestinian lives than to let them die.
As is the case with wars, Israel cares more about the lives of Palestinians than the entire "pro-Palestinian" community in the US and Europe together.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This is just from the Arab media. There is a great deal more in English, in mainstream and social media.
Some of the stories being told are exaggerated or even false. But there are still religious Jews, today, who think that they are holier than everyone else, who feel that the rules don't apply to them. I know there was a large outdoor minyan in Staten Island on Saturday. I know there is a daily minyan still in Flatbush. One can't even keep track of the many other stories of engagement parties, funerals and weddings that occurred in recent weeks in Jewish communities.
If there is a definition of a chilul Hashem - "an act that brings discredit or reflects badly on the Torah, Torah scholars, the Jewish religion, or the Jewish people" - this is it.
Sure, some non-Jews are seen doing the same thing. That is not an excuse.
Sure, some of the publicized issues turned out not to be true. That doesn't excuse the ones that are.
Sure, there are antisemites around who are willing to exaggerate anything bad Jews do. But that isn't reason to defend it - it is reason to go above and beyond to ensure that no one has even an excuse to denounce Jews during this time.
Sure, it is only a tiny percentage of religious Jews violating the rules - but that tiny number's actions have effects that end up with people dying and there is clearly not enough peer pressure in those communities to stop it.
STOP MAKING EXCUSES.
Can you blame non-Jews, especially those who live nearby the Jews who spit on the rules, for being angry?
Some of my irresponsible Jewish brothers are not only dragging the name of all Jews through the mud - they are directly complicit in the deaths of too many prominent Jewish leaders already.
Here is a graph of the number of known cases in New Jersey communities with large Jewish populations over the past couple of weeks.
Teaneck Jewish leaders all instituted strict rules against gatherings on March 12, days before it was mandated by the state. Stories of Lakewood violations continued well into last week. Toms River and Jackson are satellite communities of Lakewood, but with a smaller percentage of Jews in the general population.
One does not need to be a math genius to see the difference in slopes between the major Jewish community that took action immediately and the ones that dragged their feet.
If there were similar statistics available for Borough Park and Monsey and Kiryas Yoel, I bet their curves would resemble Lakewood more than Teaneck.
Please, please, fellow Jews - don't try to be "frummer" than your very leaders who are telling you to stay home. You aren't doing any mitzvos with your davening (prayer) - quite the opposite.
All of these tragedies were preventable. We are all responsible for one another.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Egyptian Dr. Makram El Nabrawy writes a seemingly reasonable article in Vetogate, where the author cautions against believing Egyptian claims that they have devised a vaccine for the coronavirus. He recalls an embarrassing incident from 2014 when the Egyptian army claimed to have created a device that could cure hepatitis-C and AIDS without touching the patient and warns against a repeat of that stunt.
And then he reveals his crazed antisemitism.
Through my readings of the situation and the realization of what I read in the past about conspiracies that are carried out today in full detail, which were mentioned in the book "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," I support all who work towards overcoming this ordeal, and we call upon God Almighty to lift this scourge from the country and people.
The wonderful thing about the "Protocols" is that they can be used to show that Jews are behind everything!
In another article, in Al Watan Voice, the author looks at the possible sources of the coronavirus. Could it be a natural event? Or perhaps biological warfare that got out too soon?
No, we are told, the only theories that makes sense are the ones where Jews are behind it:
Fourth: The hypothesis that the Corona crisis is related to the Deal of the Century, which was announced by US President Donald Trump in the presence of representatives of the Organization of the Elders of Zion and Zionism in conjunction with the spread of the virus in the Chinese state of Wuhan and the transmission of infection to the rest of the world, and I think that this hypothesis is the strongest and most explanatory of this crisis...
Fifth: The hypothesis that the Corona crisis is a Zionist play directed by Masonry and the representation of the sons of the Elders of Zion and its hero, Netanyahu, the far-right leader, and interior designer Kushner, who completely disappeared from view at this stage, and no appearance or statement has been recorded since the beginning of the crisis. According to this hypothesis the aim of this play is to draw the world's attention away from reality of what is going on in the Middle East and in the Palestinian territories and the endeavors of the Israeli occupation to complete the Zionist project and build the Greater Israel in the Middle East and the control of Zionism over the world as planned and documented in the protocols of the Elders of Zion, where it was indicated in the novel "Stones on the Chessboard".
In fact, every single thing that happens in the world is an attempt by Jews to divert the world's attention from Israel. It's amazing that Israel is ever mentioned in the media. it is all brilliantly diabolical!
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
On Sunday, after I noted that as of Friday the two New Jersey towns with the highest religious Jewish populations also had the highest number of coronavirus cases, I tweeted that I was very concerned about what would happen in Lakewood this week:
While the vast majority of religious Jews in Lakewood have been taking the social distancing guidelines seriously, there have been reports up through yesterday of some Jews ignoring the rules and continuing to hold gatherings - yesterday for a bat mitzvah on a lawn and a school bus filled with kids caught traveling (this was not true), and another school caught with 35 people inside.
Teaneck, on the other hand, has been - to all reports - taking the rules very seriously since March 12.
So, sadly, Lakewood has just zoomed past Lakewood and other New Jersey towns with a hundred new cases in just 24 hours.
Here is the chart mapping five communities with significant numbers of Orthodox Jews - Toms River is essentially a suburb of Lakewood and Clifton a suburb of Passaic, with the Jewish community traveling in the same social circles.
Teaneck's curve shows social distancing works.
Lakewood has been more lax and we are seeing the results now - and they will get much worse in the future. The Lakewood incidents are fueling a huge increase in antisemitism online, so much so that the governor of the state has denounced it along with anti-Asian bigotry.
Jews are dying today because too many on their community laughed off the risk since it became apparent that shuls and schools would have to close.
Within days, it will become common knowledge that the hotbed of coronavirus in NJ is in a town most people never heard of that is filled with religious Jews. The very name Lakewood, instead of being synonymous with Torah learning as it is now, will become associated with the few Jews who decided that they can ignore the government and their own religious leaders, and thereby endanger everyone else.
This minority that think they are above the rules is hurting all religious Jews in the United States. It is a massive chilul Hashem.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Tuesday, January 05, 2021
Elder of Ziyon
