Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 22, 2020

03/22 Links: Israel can escape Italy's fate; Israel's "Social Isolation Until Herd Immunity" Strategy; Israel named world's 14th happiest country in annual UN report

From Ian:

945 Israelis test positive for coronavirus, 20 in critical condition

Some 945 Israelis have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, SAR-CoV-2, on Sunday morning, as numbers continue to increase.

The Ministry of Health reported that the majority of cases - 863 - are mild, 24 are moderate and 20 critical. One person died from coronavirus over the weekend. The 88-year-old Holocaust survivor was the first Israeli to die from the disease.

So far, 37 people have recovered.

The number of coronavirus patients in the country is expected to climb by even hundreds each day, according to Health Ministry director general Moshe Bar Siman Tov, as Israel expands the number of tests it takes each day.

When coronavirus first came to Israel, the Health Ministry tested around 750 people per day. That number climbed to 2,200 over the weekend. Some 3,000 people are expected to be tested on Sunday.

Bar Siman Tov said that Israel will likely test as many as 10,000 people per day in the coming days.

Israel can escape Italy's fate

The important question, however, is until when? How long will we have to live in such extreme quarantine conditions? The answer is complicated and depends on several factors. First, we will have to examine the morbidity rate in the coming weeks and determine whether the spread is fast or slow, and whether it's possible to start taking calculated risks.

We should not expect life to return to the way it was a month ago. Social distancing, on-line school and medical appointments will just be a part of our lives in the months ahead. But significantly expanding the scope of testing for the virus, including blood tests to determine morbidity or recovery, will provide us an "exit window" from complete quarantine.

This strategy will be predicated on the timely detection of as many infected people as possible in their early stages and putting them in quarantine. And on releasing those who have recovered from quarantine. All this will happen gradually, and it all depends on the public's ability to sufficiently heed the quarantine instructions.

To this end, what is required now is the complete and total separation of family units, to prevent chain infection and stop the spread of the virus in its tracks. This is the duty of each and every one of us, and this is the meaning of mutual responsibility at this time – if even just a few people engage in risky behavior the collateral damage will be immense.

We must not make light of the safety instructions handed down, not even a little. If the entire public adheres to them, we will traverse these coming weeks in one piece.

Israel's "Social Isolation Until Herd Immunity" Strategy

I reported last Wednesday that Palestinian leaders, including Mahmoud Abbas, Mohamed Shtayyeh and Saeb Erekat, were going to international bodies demanding pressure for Israel to unilaterally release Palestinian prisoners and terrorists, falsely claiming that Israel is negligent towards their medical needs and does not provide prisoners with cleaning supplies.

Now Ma'an quotes an Israeli broadcast saying that the Israeli Prison Service has a comprehensive plan to address the threat of infection in the prisons and is fully aware of the dangers of having a population in prison.

Strict sterilization and disinfection is being done in all prison cells, prison departments and shared places.

Sterilization, cleaning and disinfection materials are being distributed to prisoners in all departments, and members of the IPS are overseeing sterilization, disinfection and cleaning activities.

A team has also been established in each prison, whose specific mission is to maintain frequent cleansing.

Israel can expect no thanks from the Palestinian Authority or Hamas, who apparently would prefer that an outbreak occur for public relations purposes.

Last week, a rumor was spread by social media, Palestinian NGOs and then Hamas that four prisoners had contracted the virus, and Israel had to announce - together with the Palestinian Authority - that it wasn't true. In fact, four prisoners were suspected of being in contact with someone who became ill so the four, who have no symptoms, have been quarantined.

This doesn't stop haters from spreading ridiculous rumors, like the IPS is telling prisoners to use socks for masks.

The US State Department mentioned in a press briefing that the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem noted that "the Palestinians and the Israelis are having excellent cooperation and exchanges on COVID-19." There was an article about this cooperation in Al Monitor last week as well.

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The Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, rejected any US medical aid to his country this morning.

His reason? The US might be sending them more of the Covid-19 virus under the guise of medicine.

"The US government has declared a few times that they are ready to help #Iran with medicines to fight the #CoronaOutbreak. That's strange. Firstly, based on the words of your own officials, you face shortages in the US. So use what you have for your own patients," he tweeted.

"[Secondly ]you're accused of having created #Coronavirus. I don't know how true it is. But when there's such an allegation, can a wise man trust you? You could be giving medicines that spread the virus or cause it to remain. Experience shows you can’t be trusted and you do such things," he continued.

For some reason no one thinks it is strange that Khamenei is spreading absurd conspiracy theories that the US is infecting the world with Covid-19.

By his logic, it was certainly very stupid for the US to ever make an agreement with Iran over nuclear weapons - because experience shows that they do not adhere to agreements and wise people can never trust Iran since there were (more than) rumors that they seek nuclear weapons capabilities and have tried to hide them.

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Iran's enriched uranium now at 5X JCPOA limits

With all the other news, this AP story from March 3 didn't receive enough attention:

The head of the UN's atomic watchdog on Tuesday sounded the alarm at Iran's cooperation with the agency and demanded "clarifications" over an undeclared site in Tehran where uranium particles were found late last year.

It comes on the same day as the IAEA issued two reports, one on Iran's current nuclear programme and the other detailing its denial of access to two sites the agency wanted to visit.

The IAEA has for months been pressing Tehran for information about the kind of activities being carried out at the undeclared site where the uranium particles were found.

While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources told AFP the agency asked Iran about a site in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, where Israel has alleged secret atomic activity in the past.

In addition, according to a report issued by the IAEA on Tuesday, "the Agency identified a number of questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material and nuclear-related activities at three locations in Iran".

At one of them the report said the IAEA had from early July 2019 observed "activities... consistent with effort to sanitize part of the location".

A diplomatic source said that the three locations were separate to Turquzabad.

The source also said that the agency's queries were thought to relate to Iran's historic nuclear activities and not to its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

The IAEA report says the agency first raised questions about the sites last year and that Iran refused access to two of them that the agency wished to visit in late January.

The second report from the agency detailed Iran's current breaches of several parts of a landmark 2015 international deal on scaling back its nuclear programme.

The report showed Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium now stands at more than five times the limit fixed under the accord.

It said that as of February 19, 2020 the Iranian stockpile stood at the equivalent of 1,510 kilogrammes, as opposed to the 300 kg limit set under the agreement.

Some experts consider this amount to provide sufficient material to produce a nuclear weapon, depending on its exact level of purity.

However, it would still need several more steps, including further enrichment, to make it suitable for use in a weapon.

Isn't it funny that the people who are using the coronavirus as a means to pressure the West to lift sanctions don't mention this?

(h/t Irene)

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03/21 Links: Israel’s first virus fatality named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even; Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus

From Ian:

Israel’s first virus fatality named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even

Israel’s first fatality in the coronavirus pandemic was on Saturday named as 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even.

In a statement, Even’s family said they regretted that they were unable to be by his side for his final moments.

“He was a dear and beloved man, living a full life, devoted to his family, a strong man until the end. We are sorry to have passed his last days and moments at a time when his family members were prevented from being by his side.”

Even immigrated to Israel alone from Hungary in 1949. He is survived by four children, 18 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center said late Friday that Even had been admitted in very serious condition with multiple preexisting conditions. Despite intensive treatment, including being resuscitated from heart failure, his state deteriorated rapidly and he died, the hospital said.

Even was among several residents of the Nofim Tower senior home in Jerusalem who have contracted the virus.

The virus generally only shows mild symptoms in the young and healthy, but can cause serious respiratory issues and death in older adults and those with underlying conditions.

883 Israelis diagnosed with coronavirus, 15 in serious condition

The Health Ministry announced on Saturday that 883 Israelis have tested positive for the coronavirus, 15 of whom are in serious condition.

Among those in critical condition are mostly older adults or those with pre-exisiting conditions. However, according to the ministry, one person is in his 40s and was healthy before contracting the virus.

Moreover, more than 3,000 medical professionals are in isolation, including 814 doctors and 893 nurses.

The 178-person increase represents the largest jump in numbers Israel has seen to date.The ministry added that 274 of those diagnosed are currently hospitalized.

Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus

The World Health Organization has said at least 20 vaccines for coronavirus are in development around the world — though the process is likely to take many long months, as the medical world races to find both preventive measures and treatments for those infected.

“At least 20 vaccines are in development for COVID-19. Their first clinic trials are already starting,” Maria Van Kerkhove, head of the WHO’s emerging and infectious diseases unit, said Friday.

She cautioned that “We are still some time away before we would have a vaccine that could be used, and they still need to go through the trials for efficacy, but this work is under way.”

The head of WHO’s Health Emergencies Program, Dr. Mike Ryan, stressed that “There is only one thing more dangerous than a bad virus, and that’s a bad vaccine.

“We have to be very, very careful in developing any product that we are going to inject into potentially most of the world’s population.”

He added that China’s work on sequencing the genome of the virus before it became a global pandemic, and its sharing of that data, had helped work on vaccines around the world move much faster.

On Wednesday, The Times of Israel spoke with Dr. Ofer Levy, of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Precision Vaccines Program, whose team is one of the groups working on developing a vaccine, with a unique focus on a solution for the elderly.

Currently, there is no medicine specifically approved for treating COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, which has infected nearly 300,000 people worldwide and killed nearly 13,000 people.

03/20 Links Pt2: Israel’s first coronavirus death; Blood Libels, Conspiracy Theories, and Coronaviruses; Heartwarming Applause for Israeli Doctors During Coronavirus

From Ian:

Man, 88, dies in Jerusalem hospital, Israel’s first coronavirus death

An 88-year-old man died in Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek hospital on Friday night from the coronavirus, Israel’s first fatality in the global pandemic, while several other patients were in a critical condition.

The hospital said the patient had been admitted in a very serious condition with multiple preexisting conditions. Despite intensive treatment, including being resuscitated from heart failure, he had deteriorated rapidly in recent hours and died, the hospital said.

The condition of three other Israelis being treated at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon for COVID-19 deteriorated Friday, with all of them in serious to critical condition.

The three patients include a 67-year-old woman with a preexisting medical condition, a 91-year-old woman and 45-year-old man with no past health problems, according to the Kan public broadcaster.

Another 10 people infected with the virus are receiving treatment at the hospital, three of them in moderate condition.

Global virus death toll tops 10,000 as epicenter shifts west

The worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic topped 10,000 on Thursday, as the scourge extended its march across the West, where the United States and other countries increasingly enlisted the military to prepare for an onslaught of patients and California’s governor ordered people in the most-populous U.S. state to stay home.

Worldwide the death toll surpassed 10,000 and infections topped 240,000, including 86,000 people who have recovered.

Italy’s deaths from the coronavirus pandemic eclipsed China’s on Thursday, infections across the globe passed the 240,000 mark, including some 86,000 people who have recovered.

In Israel, the number of cases jumped to 677, a single day increase of nearly 200, and a Jerusalem woman, 89, was fighting rapid respiratory deterioration to avoid becoming the country’s first fatality from the COVID-19 disease.

The virus has infected at least one European head of state: Monaco’s 62-year-old Prince Albert II, who continued to work from his office. And it appeared to be opening an alarming new front in Africa, where health care in many countries is already in sorry shape.

Record 627 deaths in Italy; military vehicles said used to transport bodies

Italy on Friday reported a record 627 new deaths from the novel coronavirus and saw its world-leading toll surpass 4,000 despite government efforts to stem the pandemic’s spread.

The Mediterranean country’s daily death rate is now higher than that officially reported by China at the peak of its outbreak around Wuhan’s Hubei province.

Italy’s previous one-day record death toll was 475 on Wednesday. Italy has seen more than 1,500 fatalities from COVID-19 in the past three days alone.

It has now recorded the five highest one-day tolls officially registered around the world.

Italian media broadcast pictures it said was military vehicles brought into the Bergamo area to transport away the hundreds of coffins.

Italy’s total number of deaths now stands and 4,032. Infections rose by nearly 6,000 to 47,021.

The nation of 60 million currently accounts for 36.6 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths after surpassing China’s total on Thursday.

The Daily Beast has an article about the charge we've been hearing for weeks that says that US sanctions on Iran is causing life-threatening supply issues.

Parsing the article, however, shows that the "experts" are all speaking about a theoretical threat, and can't point to any actual issues.

The Trump administration’s policy of crippling Iran economically through “Maximum Pressure” is exacerbating the novel coronavirus outbreak in one of the epicenters of the global pandemic, according to sanctions experts.

While U.S. sanctions formally exempt humanitarian supplies, sanctions-watchers say the reality is more complex. The breadth of the Maximum Pressure sanctions is extensive enough to dissuade firms, foreign governments, and banks from participating in the transfer of life-saving medical supplies, for fear of incurring secondary or third-degree sanctions from Washington. Reports of medical shortages followed very shortly after the Trump administration reimposed sanctions in 2018, long before a global medical crisis arrived.

But have the sanctions actually stopped any world government or company that wants to help Iran from doing so?

In October, the Trump administration established a channel, through Switzerland, to ease payments for Iran’s importation of food, medicine, and other humanitarian supplies. That operation began in late January, coincidentally around the time the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a global public health emergency. “A big part of our Iran strategy from the very beginning is standing with the Iranian people instead of standing with the regime,” the State Department’s Iran special representative, Brian Hook, said at the time.

Asked about the sanctions’ impact on the Iranian coronavirus outbreak, a Treasury Department official said the administration “encourage[s] companies to use the recently established humanitarian channel in Switzerland.”

But those who follow the Iran sanctions closely say that the Swiss channel isn’t going to be sufficient. Sanctions make it difficult for Iran to access its foreign currency reserves held in banks in countries that purchased Iranian oil. “You can have a channel, but no foreign currency to pay through it,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj of Bourse & Bazaar, which tracks the Iranian economy.

“The Swiss channel is a good development, but because it funnels payments through a single Swiss bank, BCP [Banque de Commerce et de Placements], it isn't useful to companies that don't maintain accounts at that bank. Moreover, the Swiss channel has probably the most onerous due diligence and disclosure requirements of any payment channel ever created for Iran. So setting up to work through the channel, though possible, isn't going to cut it at this time of emergency,” Batmanghelidj explained.

Ah, the bolded sentence in the last paragraph explains it all. It is certainly more difficult for Iran to get supplies, because the US wants to make sure that any aid is used specifically for helping people and not going towards nuclear research, missile development or funding Hezbollah. So there are a few more hoops to jump through. For saving people's lives, the hoops are worth jumping through. And, frankly, who isn't jumping through hoops to get what they need nowadays?

These "experts" are really against sanctions altogether, so instead of pointing out that Iran can get what it needs, they are saying flatly "it isn't going to cut it."

I see little to nothing that stops Iran from getting needed medical supplies. I do see people who were always against any sanctions on Iran using the coronavirus as an excuse to pressure the US to lift them.

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For Palestinian leaders, everything has to be about them. They try to hijack every issue from the environment to feminism to water.

It is hard to hijack a worldwide crisis. But they are still trying, as this video shows.

NEW VIDEO| As countries worldwide focus on combating the #coronavirus pandemic, for Israel it's occupation as usual. pic.twitter.com/UcaoMiymZS
— PLO Department of Public Diplomacy & Policy (@PalestinePDP) March 19, 2020

This video was made by the PLO Department of Public Diplomacy, headed by Hanan Ashrawi, the person responsible for lots of antisemitic propaganda through her Miftah NGO. (It seems funny to call it an NGO when it is headed by a PLO operative.)

There are two themes to this video:

1) Israel is still oppressing Palestinians even during the coronavirus crisis, by doing everything it has been doing for decades.

Yes, Israel is still defending itself from terror attacks. Here the Palestinians are trying to grab the spotlight from and hijack the coronavirus story, because, like children, they hate not being the center of attention.

2) Israel is actively stopping Palestinians from fighting the virus.

This was a cynical provocation by the Palestinian Authority. They sent their "medics" into Jerusalem to pretend that they were the official health authorities for the city, putting up notices and saying they were spraying disinfectant. Israel properly arrested them because there can only be one municipal authority and one unified plan of action, and the Palestinians were engaged in a political maneuver disguised as humanitarian - a game they have played before.

As the world combats Covid-19 -the PLO is making anti-Israel propaganda videos.

(h/t Teresa)

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03/20 Links Pt1: 'Jerusalem stands with the world,' city walls declare; Teva to send US millions of malaria pills with potential to help COVID-19

From Ian:

'Jerusalem stands with the world,' city walls declare

The Israeli flag lit up Jerusalem's city walls Thursday night, carrying the slogan "Jerusalem stands with the world," in a move seeking to reflect solidarity with nations worldwide during the global coronavirus pandemic.

The move followed an initiative by Israel Hayom, which called on all Israelis to fly the blue and white flag at home in this time of crisis.

"Just as the coronavirus does not differentiate between the people it threatens, our flag does not differentiate between the people it safeguards. Look at the flag and remember, we are together, always," Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom's editor-in-chief, wrote in an opinion piece Thursday.

Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said in a statement, "Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel, lit up the Old City walls with the Israeli flag this evening [Thursday] as a sign of the tremendous strength of our society.

"Even during the coronavirus outbreak that is spreading in Israel and around the world, we will stand firm and win, as the people of Israel have done throughout history," he said.

Boaz Bismuth, Israel Hayom's editor-in-chief, praised Lion's initiative, saying, "I am pleased and thankful for Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion's response and his decision to illuminate the Old City walls with the Israeli flag.

"There is nothing more symbolic and unifying for Israelis than the flag. These challenging times call for national pride and unity. "

Netanyahu tells Israelis: Now it’s an order — you must stay at home

Netanyahu said the mandatory regulations would come into effect immediately after their overnight Thursday-Friday approval and would remain in force for an initial period of seven days.

“The purpose of these instructions — to ensure as few people will be infected and will infect [others],” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu acknowledged the move was “unlike any since the founding of the State of Israel,” but said the country has never before faced anything like the coronavirus.

There was no immediate information on what the punishments would be for violators of the Health Ministry directives, which were originally announced Tuesday.
A man wearing a face mask cycles down Jaffa Street Jerusalem on March 19, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

The regulations permit people to leave their homes only for the following activities:
1. Going to work and coming back;
2. Stocking up on food, medicine, necessary products and to receive essential services;
3. Receiving medical treatment;
4. Donating blood;
5. Participating in demonstrations;
6. Unorganized sports activity in groups no larger than five people;
7. Brief walks for a short time and to a place close to the person’s residence, without coming close to people they don’t live with;
8. Going to a wedding, funeral or for prayer;
9. Helping a person who due to their age, medical conditions or a disability, requires assistance;
10. Going out for a vital need that hasn’t been specified in articles 1-9.

During all those activities, people should maintain a distance of two meters, or six feet, from anyone, as much as possible. People staying in the same household do not need to keep that distance from one another.

Coronavirus: Infected Israelis hit 705 as emergency orders roll out

The Health Ministry guidelines to fight the spread of coronavirus will no longer be recommendations or requests. Rather, overnight Thursday the government signed existing restrictions into legally enforceable orders, hours after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared a national state of emergency.

Going forward, for the next seven days, whoever breaks these orders will be subject to fines.

"There has not been anything like this since the establishment of the state," the prime minister said. "There has actually been no such thing like this in the last 100 years."

“It is not going to be easy; I am asking for your cooperation.”

In general, the new orders include that Israelis are not allowed to leave their homes unless "absolutely necessary." Visiting parks, beaches, pools, libraries and museums is prohibited, as are all social interactions. Work that can be done from home should be.

Currently all “essential” services will remain open, including supermarkets, pharmacies and most medical services. In addition, while Israelis are encouraged to work from home, employees who need to travel to work will be able to do so.

The announcement came on the backdrop of the largest spike in the number of infected Israelis: 677, according to the Health Ministry. At press time Wednesday, 433 Israelis had been diagnosed with SARS-CoV-2 - an increase of 244 patients in one day.

This comes from a comment in an article in a Moroccan news site.

According to the encyclopedic book Social Glimpses of Iraq's Modern History by Ali Al-Wardi, during a cholera pandemic in Iraq under Ottoman rule (possibly around 1852,) the Jews of Iraq locked themselves in homes by order of the rabbis - and they were saved from death.

When Muslims asked their clerics what to do, they were told to say the words, "Allah will not afflict us except for what he has already ordained."

Entire Muslim villages and cities were wiped out.

I am curious as to how true this is - I am not aware of any time before now that rabbis ruled that Jews should stay in their houses even at the expense of prayer with a quorum, but this story makes it sound like is did happen in the mid-19th century. I'd love to verify this - we definitely need more source materials on the lives of Jews in the Middle East throughout the ages.

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Salon shows that it is hard to tell the difference between antisemitism and Trump Derangement Syndrome

Salon magazine's Sarah Okeson writes:

The Kushner family is trying to cash in on the pandemic that could kill millions of us.

Oscar Health, the health insurance company co-founded by Jared Kushner's younger brother,announced Friday it has launched a testing center locator for COVID-19. It shows where more than 100 centers are in the United States. The company is also offering a risk assessment survey and means to talk to a doctor online.

How exactly is a health insurance company offering a free on-line screening test to everyone, and telling them afterwards where the nearest testing center is, "cashing in"?

Aren't those admirable? Isn't that what one would hope every insurance company - or online magazine like Salon - would do?

The rest of the article doesn't explain why this is a bad thing, or how the Kushner family is "cashing in on the pandemic that could kill millions of us." It criticizes Trump's and Jared Kushner's response to the pandemic, mentions that Mar-a-Lago is a coronavirus "hot zone," and that Oscar Health co-founded by Joshua Kushner has been losing money.

The name "Kushner" is literally the only thing negative about this story.

In fact, Joshua Kushner is a long-time liberal and not a Trump fan. Part of the reason Oscar Health is losing money is because Oscar is one of the companies working under "Obamacare" and there is uncertainty as to what Trump will do with health care.

All this has nothing to do with Jared.

The online survey from Oscar Health is not earth shaking but can certainly be useful. Just the ability to guide people to the right decision about whether to seek help without taking the valuable time of doctors is admirable. It does use the latest information to estimate one's chances for getting the coronavirus. Its list of testing centers is very sparse, only showing centers in about five states - but I haven't seen any better list yet, and Oscar Health promises to update the list continuously.

So what is Salon's problem?

This is an article about how a Jewish family is supposedly trying to get rich over a world health catastrophe. It sure sounds like an antisemitic conspiracy theory. There have been articles like this about the Rothschilds for over a hundred years. The methodology Salon uses to tar the Kushners is very familiar to those who have read other antisemitic and anti-Israel pieces, with disparate information being put together to prompt the reader to come to a conclusion that some evil conspiracy is happening when the facts show nothing of the sort.

But the same can be said for Trump Derangement Syndrome. Everything he does is assumed to be evil, and only the thinnest excuses for evidence are needed for "proof." This insanity expands the hate for not only Trump, but seemingly Trump's family, Trump's family's family, and a company owned by Trump's family's family members which is negatively affected by Trump's actions.

This isn't to say that Trump cannot be criticized - there is plenty to criticize - but the aura of hate around everything Trump is way beyond sober criticism and far into the irrational.

Just like antisemitism. Just like anti-Zionism.

This piece by Salon is, by any measure, trash. It is pure insinuation and incitement with no facts to support it. The only question that remains is whether the article is a result of deep-seated baseless hatred of Jews or of Trump. And if it is hate for Trump, the writer should explain exactly how the actions of a health insurance company whose co-founder's brother is Trump's son-in-law is remotely related to anything Trump does.

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On Thursday night I did a livestream interview with CAMERA's Dexter Van Zile about modern Christian antisemitism. Check it out!

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03/19 Links Pt2: Rabbi Sacks: "Coronavirus will change everyone"; Chief Rabbi: Leave phones on during Shabbat; Israelis take to balconies to applaud medical staff for coronavirus fight

From Ian:

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks: "Coronavirus will change everyone"

Rabbi Sacks' extended BBC Newsnight interview on the Coronavirus situation

On Tuesday 17th March, Rabbi Sacks was interviewed by Emily Maitlis on BBC Newsnight about how the themes of his new book Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times* relate to the current Coronavirus situation. Please find the full interview below.

"As this challenging situation continues, please follow the various guidelines being put in place by your individual Governments. Please remember that pikuach nefesh, the sanctity of human life, is Judaism's highest ideal and sits above all other commandments." (h/t Yerushalimey)

Corona pandemic opens floodgates for anti-Semitism

The Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy published a new report this week detailing how anti-Israel and anti-Semitic outlets and activists are taking advantage of the global coronavirus pandemic in order to pin blame on Israel.

In Turkey, a senior official who is close to the president said that the virus "serves Zionist interests" and Turkish bloggers said that the Jews created the virus in order to take over the world.

Iran's PressTV ran a piece clearly insinuating that Israel and the US deliberately "engineered" the novel coronavirus as a form of biological warfare against the Iranian and Chinese regimes.

In France, a local politician shared an anti-Semitic video on social media that promotes the conspiracy theory that the virus was an invention that was designed to "cement Jewish supremacy."

In the US, a torrent of anti-Semitic content flooded twitter after it transpired that about 30 students who had attended The American Israel Public Affairs Committee's annual conference were forced into quarantine over potential exposure to a carrier.

"You created the virus, you started this," one user said with glee. "So you are telling me that I am going to be infected because a Zionist mother tried to talk with the pandemic manager?"

Parents Keeping Warring Children At Bay In Lockdown Ready To Tackle Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Giv'at Shmuel, March 19 - Heads of a family who have so far succeeded in preventing their offspring from killing one another amid restrictions that keep everyone housebound in the face of a deadly pandemic believe that after handling that fraught situation, they feel prepared to broker a lasting settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

Udi and Linor Harel, father and mother of Pazit, Malachi, Itamar, and Hadas, announced yesterday that their experience over the last several days with the conflict-plagued children confined to the family's three-bedroom apartment has provided them with the skills and wisdom necessary to resolve even the most intractable violent disagreements, including those that have stymied or thwarted diplomats and brokers for generations, such as the century-old Arab-Jewish territorial dispute over the Holy Land.

"We can probably get the two sides to reach an agreement inside of six hours, seven tops," predicted Udi, who until Sunday worked as a driving instructor. "If we can get our children to keep their fighting to a minimum, and on occasion even cooperate, we can get ANYONE else to do the same. Intifadas, counter-terrorism operations, military incursions, blockades, and rocket attacks are peanuts compared to the hostilities we've defused here."

"The parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have another think coming if they believe they can just keep fighting," added Linor, who develops educational materials for a non-profit. "Everyone in this family knows by now that's unacceptable. Give me some time with the leaders of the parties to the conflict and I'll get them to see the correct decision, if they know what's good for them. For starters, if I hear or see evidence of a single Molotov cocktail, that's no allowance for two weeks. Uh, not that there's any way to leave home to spend such money in the near future, but still."

The Harel children offered cautious agreement. "If Mom can get Malachi to stop invading my personal space, maybe she can do better than those idiots who ran the Oslo process," assessed Pazit, 14. "He's so annoying! I swear, if I hear [the children's Passover song] 'Simcha Rabbah' ['Great Joy'] as 'sim chara bah' ['put feces in it'] one more time I'm going to shove his smartphone up his... disease vector."

"Oh my God, this nightmare has to end, and then maybe Dad can tackle smaller problems like the political conflict," concurred Itamar, 8. "That is, if Pazit sticks to her side of the bargain and shuts up about her stupid social life and how this situation is killing it. Hello? It won't be your social life that I end if I hear one more gripe about missing a friend's birthday party."

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Peace Now loves to deceive with statistics

Peace Now issued a report, and AP described it this way:

Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank surged ahead in 2019, a watchdog group said in a report Tuesday, maintaining a rapid pace that has drawn strength from the friendly policies of the Trump administration.

Peace Now, a monitoring group that opposes the settlements, said that Israel’s average annual construction rate has risen 25% since President Donald Trump took office in 2017.

Perhaps more significantly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government last year approved plans to build thousands of new homes, laying the groundwork for a sharp spike in construction in the coming years. That included an explosion in plans for new settlement projects approved early this year.

This is accurate and quite misleading. Peace Now is cherry picking the statistics to make them sound like there is a dramatic increase.

In this report, they are saying that the average number of completed structures has gone up in the past 3 years than in the 8 year previous, comparing the entire Obama term to the entire Trump term.

But the highest year was under Obama - in 2014. And in the three years of the Trump administration, the numbers have gone down by 31% from 2017 to 2019!

Yearly average of construction since Trump’s administration (2,267 units) is 25% higher than the yearly average under Obama’s administration (1,807 units). In the last 3 years there were 6,800 new units (yearly average of 2,267 units) according to Peace Now’s count. 2,783 units in 2017; 2,100 units in 2018; and 1,917 units in 2019; compared to an average of 1,807 units per year in the years 2009 – 2016: 1,174 units in 2009; 1,545 units in 2010; 1,792 units in 2011; 1,554 units in 2012; 1,684 in 2013; 3,100 in 2014; 1,800 in 2015; and 1,814 in 2016.

Here is what the last ten years looks like - hardly a pattern.

Peace Now has another chart of the same information over a longer time period - but the numbers are different, I'm not sure why.

Every year Peace Now tries another way to make it sound like there is more construction than the year before, and half the time they have to play statistics games to make it appear that way. As you can see, there is very little upward slope.

Their deceptions don't stop there:

Nearly 63% (1,200 housing units) of the new construction was in settlements east of the proposed Geneva Initiative border, i.e. settlements likely to be evacuated in a two-state agreement.

Who says that the failed 2003 Geneva Initiative reflects anything close to what a two state solution could look like? Most people would say that the security barrier was the more natural border, if Palestinians ever decide they want peace. My guess is that most of the new construction is within the security barrier - but Peace Now does not want that to be the border, so they are trying to prop up Geneva.

Here is my attempt to show an overlay of Geneva (blue areas east of the 1967 lines) and the security barrier (thin and thick red lines:)

Peace Now is careful not to lie, but they are equally careful to deceive.

See also here, which indicates that the real numbers are much different than Peace Now's.

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