In the middle of a Haaretz article on the New York Orthodox community and the coronavirus, it quotes Gershon Schlesinger, CEO of the ParCare Medical Centers in Brooklyn:
Schlesinger said that several members of the Orthodox community with pre-existing conditions had passed away from COVID-19. One of them was a 102-year-old Holocaust survivor of the Satmar Orthodox Jewish sect in Williamsburg. Liba Ettel Silberstein leaves behind some 1,200 grand and great grandchildren, according to her great grandson Moshe Klein.
Lita Ettel was born in 1917 in the city of Terszell in northeast Hungary to David and Gital Glick, the youngest of ten children.
She was the only member of her family to survive the Holocaust. She came to the US and married Rabbi Natan Dovid Silberstein in 1946, and raised a family with eight children.
When she was young, when her twins Abraham and Elazar about to have their Bar Mitzvah, she had terminal cancer and was in very critical condition. Her husband was a disciple of the Satmar Rebbe, Rabbi Yoel Teitelbaum and he came in and asked for a blessing for her but the Rebbe did not want to promise anything, saying it was a decree from heaven. Rabbi Natan Dovid refused to leave without a blessing. The Rebbe's wife heard this, came into the room and insisted that he give a blessing that should include a long life for Liba Ettel, which he did.
It turned out to be effective, as Liba Ettel recovered fully and ended up a matriarch to great-great-grandchildren, over 1200 descendants in all.
Even a couple of weeks ago, on Purim, she was healthy and walked by herself, remembering the names of all her the family and praying.
A week ago she was not feeling well, and over the weekend the condition worsened and she succumbed.
"The funeral took place only with the participation of her sons and daughters and a limited number of grandchildren who were in close contact with her, and with God's help when the corona crisis passes, a reunion will be made with the whole family." her grandson Rabbi Moshe Klein, of Monsey, told the website.
Klein added that "she would deliberately read the entire the book of Psalms every Shabbos and pray for her grandchildren, we would go on Friday nights to be blessed and welcomed by her."
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A 67-year-old woman died of the coronavirus Tuesday afternoon in Holon’s Wolfson Medical Center, the hospital said, confirming Israel’s second fatality in the global pandemic.
The woman suffered from “a serious preexisting medical condition,” according to the hospital.
Israel’s first fatality from the virus, 88-year-old Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even, was buried overnight Saturday in a funeral service that was capped at 20 mourners. All present were required to stand at a two-meter (6.5 ft) distance from one another.
Hours before the announcement of the latest death, the Health Ministry reported that the number of diagnosed cases of coronavirus in the country has risen to 1,656, an increase of 214 from the previous night.
So far, 49 people have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, the ministry said in its morning update.
Of those being treated, 30 are in serious condition.
Over 71,000 Israelis are in quarantine, down from nearly 75,000 reported on Monday morning. In total, over 135,000 have spent time in self-isolation, almost 6,000 more than the number reported on Monday morning.
The number of diagnosed cases of coronavirus in the country rose to 1,656, the Health Ministry reported Tuesday morning, showing an increase of 214 from the previous night.
So far, 49 people have recovered from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, the ministry said in its morning update. One person has died.
Of those being treated, 31 are in serious condition.
Over 71,000 Israelis are in quarantine, down from nearly 75,000 reported on Monday morning. In total, over 135,000 have spent time in self-isolation, almost 6,000 more than the number reported on Monday morning, meaning more people are leaving isolation than entering it.
The rise in cases came alongside a boost in the number of tests for the virus, with 3,743 people tested in the previous 24 hours. On Monday morning the ministry said it had tested 3,230 in the previous 24-hour period.
Tuesday’s increase followed what appeared to be the biggest single-day jump on Monday, when the ministry reported 371 new cases for a total of 1,442. The ministry generally sends out two updates a day, in the morning and at night, and Tuesday’s 12-hour surge of 214 since the previous report could indicate the record will again go up by the end of the day.
Israel is in 21st place on a list of cases by countries hit by the virus, according to data from the John Hopkin University virus website, which collates information on the global pandemic. China remains at the top, followed by Italy, the US, and Spain.
Israel is reportedly set to announce drastic new restrictions on public movement it hopes will help stanch the spread of the virus, though policy experts expect any effect to only be seen in 10 days or more.
As Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assesses tightening social distancing measures aimed at stemming the coronavirus outbreak, the government is reportedly considering imposing a full lockdown on elderly Israelis.
The measure would forbid all men aged 70 and up and women aged 65 and up from leaving their homes, Channel 12 reported Monday.
COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the globe, has the most adverse effects on the elderly and those with underlying conditions, while younger people often experience only milder symptoms.
As of Monday afternoon, the virus had killed over 15,000 people and infected over 350,000 worldwide, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Other options being considered by the government include closing all shops except food stores and pharmacies or placing further limits on what kind of workers can go to their place of employment.
“There is no choice but to step up the measures. This is still not a curfew — but it is the closest there is to it,” a source with knowledge of the deliberations was quoted as saying.
Natan Sharansky: 5 Tips to Get Through the Coronavirus Quarantine
My name is Natan Sharansky. I was born in the Soviet Union and at the age of 29 I was arrested for my Zionist activity. I spent 9 years in prison, half of it in solitary confinement and 405 days in a punishment cell. So I have some experience of spending time in solitary confinement and I want to give you 5 tips to get through the quarantine.
Tip 1: In prison I always had to remind myself I am part of a huge, global battle. You also should remind yourself that we are at war with a very dangerous, though invisible, enemy. And whether we will succeed in the battle depends also on your behavior.
Tip 2: In prison, I didn't know when I will be released or if I will be released at all. Don't build your future plans based on the hope that in the next few days, or the next few weeks, it all will be finished. It does not depend on you. So try to build plans which fully depend on you.
Tip 3: Never give up your sense of humor. I remember how in prison I enjoyed telling anti-Soviet jokes to my prison guards.
Tip 4: Don't give up on your hobbies. I knew how to play chess without the board and in the punishment cell I could play thousands of games in my head. You can enjoy singing, playing music, drawing, or whatever you like to do.
Tip 5: Feel your connection. Remember that you are not alone. We Jews, for thousands of years, were scattered all over the world. But we always had this feeling that we are part of a great people, with our mutual past, with our mutual future, and with our mutual mission. Think about it. Feel your connection. Together we will succeed. Am Yisrael chai [The people of Israel live].
Lebanese social media has been sharing this video of an unusual convoy of ambulances that reportedly were on their way to the Beirut airport.
According to the rumors, the convoy picked up over 50 Iranians who arrived clandestinely in a cargo plane on Saturday, in order to be treated for Covid-19 in Lebanese hospitals.
The Lebanese health minister denied the report, although he did not explain the purpose of the convoy.
Lebanese citizens are upset that there are still flights to and from Iran.
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There are a few differences between life for Palestinians in Gaza and in Lebanon.
While camps in Gaza resemble small towns, those in Lebanon are slums. Gaza "refugees" have access to hospitals, there are no hospitals in Lebanese camps and there are restrictions on entering and exiting them. The population density of Gaza is about 5000 per square kilometer; in the Ein al Hilweh camp in south Lebanon it is 40,000 - eight times as crowded as Gaza.
If a coronavirus outbreak in Gaza would be catastrophic, imagine how bad it would be in Lebanese Palestinian camps.
Up until now, Palestinian refugees, who have been living in Lebanon for decades yet remain without rights, are not clear about what actions are being taken to protect and support their communities. In a recent interview, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) stated that an emergency room has been set up for Palestinians. It hasn’t, however, shared any information about an actual response plan beyond “awareness” campaigns. Awareness can be helpful but not necessarily effective to people who have no access to healthcare, or the right to access healthcare. Moreover, the Lebanese Red Cross recently refused to transfer a patient from a refugee camp to the RFUH, causing more anxiety amid camps residents.
Many Palestinians worry that they might be forced to pay for testing and hospitalization, money they don’t have. Making the situation worse, xenophobic discourses remain and intensify with no end in sight, even in a raging epidemic. Several Lebanese officials such as Samir Geagea, for instance, have called for greater control in refugee camps, places where Palestinians are already under complete surveillance and control. These practices separate those who are deemed “deserving” of treatment from those who are “not deserving.” Citizens, in cases of pandemics, are typically framed as sanitary subjects deserving to survive whereas the non-citizen, the refugees, are “un-sanitized” and a “burden” and, thus, not deserving of treatment or allowed to live. This is complicated by the normalized xenophobic treatment causing Palestinians to be wary of health services in Lebanon. In 2018, for instance, a three-year-old Palestinian boy died after hospitals across Lebanon refused to provide him with a bed in an intensive care unit because of his nationality.
Palestinian refugees in Lebanon lack health and other forms of social security, and those who live in camps face added challenges. Palestinians in refugee camps experienced health complications caused by deteriorating living conditions, low wages, 66% poverty rate and increasing deprivation. Without access to health care, anxieties and fear intensified as refugees face the increasing threat of a COVID-19 outbreak, even as many pertinent questions remain unanswered. Meanwhile, the UNRWA has been experiencing an ongoing drastic cutback, especially its health services.
Palestinians living in Lebanon are almost entirely dependent on the UNRWA and other humanitarian NGOs for most aspects of their lives because they are excluded from (Lebanese) public education, public health and other social services.
As of this morning there are 267 known cases of COVID-19 in Lebanon. I am not aware of any in the camps - yet.
There is another difference between Gaza and Lebanon.
While the Israel-hating Left in the US and Europe are pretending to agonize over the possibility of a coronavirus outbreak in Gaza, and even raise money for purportedly helping Gazans, they are completely silent about the same possibility in far more overcrowded Palestinian camps in Lebanon.
If Palestinian problems cannot be blamed on Jews, they are not worth the time or effort of so-called "Palestinian activists."
I can find nothing about sending aid to Palestinians in Lebanon from Muslim American charities Baitulmaal, Islamic Relief USA or Muslim Relief USA. The only aid I've seen so far for Palestinians in Lebanon comes from - Hamas! Hamas is sending a half million dollars to help fight the epidemic in Lebanese camps - which also helps to cement their political influence among Palestinians in Lebanon.
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Linda Sarsour is fundraising for a charity called Baitulmaal USA to supposedly help Gazans prepare for a Covid-19 outbreak:
Baitulmaal USA is linked to Hamas and has been shown to give its food specifically to Hamas officials.
In an amended complaint filed by Stanley and Joyce Boim on behalf of their son David who was killed in a 1996 Hamas bombing in Israel, the links between Baitulmaal and Hamas are detailed. As the Investigative Project summarizes:
Bailtulamaal, Inc. is a member of the Union of Good, a charity sponsored by radical Egyptian cleric Sheikh Yusuf Qaradawi and tagged in 2008 by the U.S. Treasury as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Group.
The Gaza-based Unlimited Friends Association for Social Development (UFA) "is closely aligned with senior Hamas leaders" and "openly states that it channels funds from Baitulmaal to the 'families of martyrs of the Palestinian people,'" the complaint says.
"Baitulmaal has openly distributed meat to Hamas functionaries and government workers on Muslim holy days claiming that "it is a matter of principle for the charity to help [Hamas] officials who can't afford to buy meat," it adds.
In addition, the suit notes that "Baitulmaal has sponsored numerous AMP [American Muslims for Palestine] events including its conventions from at least 2007 until the most recent in November 2018. " The lawsuit shows that AMP is the successor, with the same members and goals, to the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) and the American Muslim Society (AMS). The IAP/AMS were shown in court to have been liable for David Boim's death and the $156 million judgment put them out of business. The leaders simply started the new group to avoid paying the judgment, and this is what the new lawsuit is meant to show.
The links are clear in the simple fact that Hamas allows Baitulmaal operatives to walk around publicly in Gaza - not every charity group can do that. Here are people with the Baitulmaal logo on their vests in Gaza.
There are lots of charities that can help Gazans, including international aid organizations. But Sarsour chooses one that is closely linked with Hamas.
(h/t kweansmom)
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A 25-year-old Gaza woman was killed at dawn Monday from a gunshot.
Rawa Nasrallah was in her family home in the Amer project in northern Gaza.
The woman arrived at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where she was pronounced dead..
The police in Gaza opened an investigation into the circumstances of the incident.
There are a couple of dozen honor killings" in areas under Palestinian control every year - 21 in 2018.
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I’ve been flooded by examples of Israelis helping to buy tons of flowers from private farmers that would otherwise get dumped in the garbage. I’ve seen Israelis support small businesses from pet stores to herb stores, to help them from collapsing financially.
I’ve seen teenagers and students deliver groceries and medicine to senior citizens homes, right to their doors. NGOs have established ‘hot lines’ for emotional support, and privately owned Israeli businesses have donated laptops and computers to impoverished children.
And I’ve also witnessed Israeli families “adopt” Holocaust survivors, ensuring they have everything they need.
This deep sense of Israeli solidarity is heavily integrated into the current crisis as well as other life-threatening scenarios. It is who we are as people. It is based on the values our country was founded upon. It is something we will always cherish and pass on to our children.
And there’s another resemblance between the coronavirus crisis and terror attacks on Israeli soil. In both cases, we have a strong army. It is not only an army of jets, tanks, and submarines. It’s an army that first and foremost is based on brilliant minds, devoted spirits, who work around the clock to ensure the safety of Israel. It’s an army of researchers who spend long hours at scientific labs, searching for the best vaccine for the virus.
It’s an army of innovative minds who develop apps and sites for the individuals and families locked in communities, making information more accessible for them. It’s an army of teachers who keep our kids studying with long distance technologies, who don’t forget they are educators before anything else.
The best thing? These minds are an asset for the world. Israel is working closely with other countries to promote required solutions, not only on a vaccine for coronavirus, but on many aspects of daily life affected by this new enemy.
Today more than ever, please recognize that Israel is a strong power, not only militarily, but even more importantly, in the capacity of its people and the values they represent.
It is often the challenging times that we remember the best — and learn from the most. They are also our proudest moments, if we rose to the occasion, and our most shameful moments, if we failed the test before us.
For our kids, who now have lots of time with mom and dad, they may remember this time as the most memorable of their lives, the most fun. The time they were able to be with their family.
As parents, we may learn that the most valuable gift we can give our kids is not a new iPad or a cell phone, but rather an hour of undivided attention, an hour of fun adventure walking in a park or having a picnic, an hour of listening to what is truly important — what is on their mind and in their heart at this moment.
Children also rise to the occasion. During the Holocaust, it was the children who crawled through the sewers and the small cracks in the walls to escape the ghettos, and bring food back to their families. During the pogroms, it was the 13-year-old kids who made their way to America and worked in sweat shops to earn money to bring their families to America. During war time, it has been the 18-year olds who saved the world from tyranny. King David was a boy when he defeated Goliath.
Looking back, we may find that our kids are more resilient than we would have ever thought.
As we “teach our children diligently,” as the Torah commands, and they rise to the occasion as they often do, we may ask ourselves: Are we giving them the message that they need — or are we entrusting that to a school system to feed them, educate them, and teach them their values?
Stanford biophysicist and Nobel laureate Michael Levitt says that based on how the COVID-19 crisis has played out in multiple countries, the threat is less severe than the media has portrayed it to be and might be over sooner than most think. “The real situation is not as nearly as terrible as they make it out to be,” Levitt says, and, in the end, “we’re going to be fine.”
Levitt, who accurately predicted the slowdown of coronavirus cases in China, has been making the rounds with various media outlets to discuss his findings on the most recent data from nearly 80 countries involving the global pandemic. Like several other experts, Levitt maintains that the threat of COVID-19 is less severe than many reports make it appear.
In a report published by the Los Angeles Times on Sunday, Levitt assured the public that the world, and the U.S., are going to survive COVID-19, and that, as has occurred in countries first hit by the pandemic, the cases of the virus will begin to decline more rapidly than some are projecting.
Levitt, the L.A. Times’ Joe Mozingo notes, “correctly calculated that China would get through the worst of its coronavirus outbreak long before many health experts had predicted” and now “foresees a similar outcome in the United States and the rest of the world.”
In a report published on February 1, Levitt predicted with remarkable accuracy how China’s cases would end up, saying that around 80,000 would contract the disease and among those around 3,250 would die. Mozingo notes that as of March 16, China, which has nearly 1.4 billion people, reported a total of just 80,298 cases and 3,245 deaths related to the virus and the number of new cases has slowed down to around 25 per day.
Levitt says that after studying data from 78 countries, he sees a similar pattern. As occurred in China in February, the rate of case increases will begin to decline, signaling the downside of a spread curve. “What we need is to control the panic,” Levitt told the paper.
The important metric, Levitt explained, is the number of new cases, not the total number of cases. The new cases data allows one to see more clearly the rate of spread. He also stressed that only when the virus is not being detected will it spread “exponentially.” When countries are testing and responding aggressively, the growth rate tends to decrease significantly.
After two months of voting and an unprecedented surge in participation, Orthodox and right-wing groups dramatically increased their share of American delegates to the World Zionist Congress, according to the results released Monday.
More than a third of delegates will belong to the Orthodox Israel Coalition and Eretz Hakodesh, groups that will push the Congress for more funding for religious schools. Only around one in 10 American Jews are Orthodox.
Because voter turnout was so high, nearly every established party increased its raw vote total, but only the Orthodox and conservative organizations substantially increased their share of the overall vote, and thus the number of delegates they will send to the Congress.
While the slate of the Reform movement, the most liberal of the three major branches of Judaism, once again finished in first place, their share of the vote declined from 39% in 2015 to 25% this time. The Conservative movement, the more centrist of the three denominations, also declined from 17% to 12%. And Hatikvah, the coalition of progressive Jewish organizations that targeted disaffected liberal Zionist voters in a new voter turnout campaign, more than doubled the number of votes it received, their share of the overall delegation only grew from 5% to 6%.
This means that the vast majority of the new votes went to Orthodox and right-wing Zionist parties.
And the major reason why is because they were afraid of what the Hatikvah party planned to do - to subvert the Congress into accepting positions that go against the Jerusalem Program that it is based on.
A number of progressives who ran for the liberal slates were deeply uncomfortable with the Jerusalem Program and Zionism altogether:
When Hatikvah, the US progressive Zionist slate first asked me to join their list for the World Zionist Congress, I was deeply confused (wait, wasn’t that Herzl’s thing from 1897? That’s still around?) and deeply conflicted. As a candidate, I would have to sign the Jerusalem Program, a Zionist loyalty oath of sorts, when I had spent the past two years leading a campaign against Jewish communal loyalty oaths.
Hadar Susskind gets why some people might not want to click the button. Susskind—who is coordinating the liberal Zionist Hatikvah slate’s efforts to turn out unprecedented numbers of progressive Jews to vote for them—acknowledges that the language in the Jerusalem Program makes some potential voters uncomfortable. For instance, the final principle that voters must stand by is “[s]ettling the country as an expression of practical Zionism.” Most progressive Jews are well aware that the primary “settling” effort in “practical Zionism” today is the further establishment of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, in defiance of international law. Left-leaning Zionists—as well as non-Zionists and anti-Zionists—have railed against such settlements for decades. So how can these critics affirm the WZC’s platform in good conscience?
“Most people read that as a right-wing statement, right?” says Susskind. “They go, ‘Oh, my God. If I click this thing, I’m supporting annexation [of the West Bank].’ But it’s vague. It doesn’t actually say that.” In his eyes, the line could just as easily refer to development inside the UN-recognized borders of Israel.
...The struggle of Hatikvah in the WZC contest is, in many ways, the struggle of liberal Zionism everywhere today. Advocates of the ideology are attempting to remain a force within institutions increasingly dominated by the right, while alienated leftists say they cannot in good conscience participate in organizations like the WZC; for leftists, the moral dilemmas that liberal Zionists face today are emblematic of contradictions that have been present since liberal Zionism’s founding. After all, the kibbutzniks whom Susskind admires may have been egalitarian on their agricultural settlements, but there were many of them among the Jewish soldiers who spurred the Nakba—the mass expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians in 1948—and the kibbutzim themselves were often established on the sites of eradicated Palestinian villages.
Hatikvah has candidates like Peter Beinart, Jeremy Ben Ami and the New Israel Fund CEO Daniel Sokatch.
Mainstream Zionists know what these people are about. When they announced the slate, there was a lot of publicity as to their aims - to stop funding for Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, for example. The organizations have been spending years actively trying to undermine Israeli democracy and the will of the Israeli people. So while Hatikvah sent out a call for liberal Jews to vote for them, conservative Jews, especially religious Zionists, put out their own call.
In previous Zionist Congress elections, there was little sense of urgency and many Zionists didn't bother. Hatikvah added that sense of urgency that had been lacking previously. And when it comes to Israel, the more religious/right wing is far more emotionally invested than the Left is.
So even though Hatikvah managed to double their votes from 2015, the right-wing must have quadrupled or quintupled theirs.
All because of the threat of the Left taking over a venerable institution. Even haredi Jews who ignore all such events were urged by some of their leaders to vote for the Eretz Hakodesh slate which was the third largest party with 16% of the vote.
There may be far more Jews who embrace leftist causes than conservatives, but when it comes to which Jews are the most committed to Israel, the right is by far the winner. And there is a direct correlation between how
So, thanks, Peter Beinart and Jeremy Ben-Ami. You got religious and right-wing Jews to vote.
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The UN and other agencies keep track of Gaza's exports every month. The last UN OCHA-OPT report was for December.
If the number of trucks goes down, Israel-haters use that as ammunition to say that Israel is blocking Gaza exports and trying to keep Gazans in misery.
The undersecretary of the ministry of agriculture in Gaza, Ibrahim Al-Qudra, announced the end of exports of all agricultural products from the Gaza Strip to foreign markets, in order to prevent the local merchants to raise prices on produce as apparently they have been doing.
Gaza vegetable sellers were price gouging customers and, to prevent a panic, Hamas decided to flood the local market with the produce that nornally would be sold in the West Bank and elsewhere.
This means that exports are going down to zero. And when those figures are released, will they come with an explanatory note that it was Hamas that decided to stop exports, or will it be assumed to be an arbitrary Israeli decision to hurt Gazans?
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In spite of the potential for change that the pandemic creates, it seems that most players in the Middle East (who so far report limited damage) view it as just an imposed break and, right after it disappears, they intend to keep promoting their interests. The tensions between rival camps in the region and their attitude toward Israel are not expected to change.
The most affected country in the region so far is Iran and there is the main potential for change. Many in Iran believe that the dangerous reality of corona is the result of the problematic conduct of the regime. Meanwhile, the regime tries to blame the U.S. and is presenting its support for terrorist elements as useful in the fight against corona. Thus, the Iranians showed Hizbullah members from Lebanon disinfecting the streets of Qom.
The possibility of beginning negotiations with the U.S. on a new nuclear agreement from the point of weakness in which the regime currently finds itself is not on the agenda. Yet if it becomes clear to the regime that all other avenues of action have failed and public anger threatens to explode, it may have no choice but to consider even this possibility.
The Palestinian issue is completely pushed aside. The focus on the U.S. peace plan is frozen. Even if there is an increase in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority stemming from a joint interest in the fight against the virus, it is doubtful if this will have any impact on Palestinian positions regarding the conflict.
The enormous economic damage and the blow to the idea of globalization as an organizing principle of the international system may deepen the responsibility of each country to deal by itself with the virus and later with the need for economic revival, that will likely take time. The economic recession, the potential for growing tension between the U.S. and China, and the impact on the results of the U.S. elections may affect Israel's national security interests.
The tension between the need to invest in the military or in health to guarantee national security and the international economic crisis may put pressure on the military budget and affect its ability to implement long-term plans.
One clear way for Israel to deal with the new and complex challenges arising in the aftermath of the coronavirus epidemic is to invest in the advancement of responses to the virus and to thereby expedite its contribution as a center of scientific research to the security of the West and the U.S.
Last Wednesday, the speaker of the Knesset, Likud’s Yuli Edelstein, shuttered the plenum in order to prevent a vote that would likely have seen him replaced by a candidate from the rival Blue and White party.
As a consequence, the vote was delayed and control of Israel’s parliament, and of Israel’s parliamentary agenda, remained with Edelstein and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud.
His move prompted an extraordinary phone call to Edelstein from Israel’s President, Reuven Rivlin, who warned him of the harm to Israeli democracy caused by the shuttering of parliament — especially at a time of global and national emergency when Israel is battling the coronavirus pandemic.
Because the Knesset was out of action, crucial parliamentary committees were not established. Most dramatically in the context of the fight against the virus, the government that same day utilized emergency regulations to introduce, without parliamentary oversight, the digital monitoring of the movements of all Israelis, in order to alert them if they have been in unwitting contact with virus carriers and need to self-quarantine.
A parliament suspended by a speaker whose job would have gone to the newly elected majority? (Blue and White’s Benny Gantz was tasked last Monday with building the next coalition government because 61 of 120 Knesset members recommended him to Rivlin for the post.) A government introducing drastic surveillance over all citizens with no Knesset supervision? A judiciary already ordered onto a reduced, emergency footing amid the crisis, on the orders of another Likud politician, interim Justice Minister Amir Ohana?
And all of this overseen by a prime minister who has been leading a transitional government having failed to win a Knesset majority in three elections inside a year?
While Rivlin did not specify to Edelstein that his actions might be construed as preventing the proper representation of the will of the electorate, and thus be seen as an attempted political coup, plenty of others have seen in the events of the past few days precisely such an attempt by Netanyahu, Edelstein, Likud and its right-Orthodox bloc to illicitly retain central channels of power.
Officials from Israel’s two largest political parties in the national legislature announced they each remain open to a government in equal partnership with the other, provided the terms of the equal partnership grant effective control of policy to the party of the person making the announcement.
Representatives of both the Likud Party and the Blue and White Party disclosed to reporters today that they are willing to sit in a government with the other and agree in principle to a national unity government with a rotation arrangement for prime minister, on condition that the agreement provides for one party to sideline the other, with the identity of the dominant party varying depending on who describes the terms.
In separate press conferences about progress in negotiations, the two parties – neither of which could cobble together a majority of the Knesset’s 120 members into a governing coalition from among its allies – disclosed the current issues under discussion, which they have narrowed to the single digits including which party would select which of several ministers, and which party would surrender to the other and let the other’s agenda define government policy for the next several years.
...In 2013, an ADL report claimed that JVP consistently co-sponsors “rallies to oppose Israeli military policy that are marked by signs and slogans comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, demonizing Jews and voicing support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.”
In 2017, JVP honored convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh at the 2017 JVP National Membership Meeting.
The group is also known for disrupting and trying to shut down pro-Israel events.
Canary Mission also has a run-down on the leadership of JVP:
Led by Executive Director Rebecca Vilkomerson, JVP consists of American Jews and non-Jewish “allies.”
Vilkomerson is one of the leading promoters of BDS in the United States. In 2016, Vilkomerson wrote a Washington Post opinion article titled “I’m Jewish and I want people to boycott Israel.” She has also targeted LGBTQ Jews for harassment in order to push JVP’s anti-Israel agenda.
Judith Butler, a professor at UC Berkeley and a leading proponent of BDS, is also on JVP’s advisory board and has called terror groups Hamas and Hezbollah “progressive.”
Daniel Boyarin, a professor at UC Berkeley and a member of JVP’s advisory board, has compared Israelis to Nazis, referred to himself as an “anti-Zionist" and has a sticker on his office door at UC Berkeley calling to “End U.S. Aid to Israel."
You get the picture.
Considering the strong anti-Israel stand of JVP, it is interesting that on the day it announced their list of the candidates it was supporting, Anarcho-Zionist made the following observation:
Those 3 congressmen -- endorsed by both Jewish Voice for Peace and J Street -- are:
o Mark Pocan o Pramila Jayapal o Betty McCollum
Just how does that work?
How can "pro-Israel" J Street support the same candidates as anti-Israel JVP?
First, here is how J Street, itself, describes the virtues of each of these three congressmen:
Rep. Jayapal is a champion of progressive issues, and her stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is consistent with this profile. The Congresswoman supports the Iran nuclear deal and believes the United States has a constructive diplomatic role to play in the Middle East. She also supports a two-state solution. Her upbringing in India, against the backdrop of the Indian-Pakistani conflict, has informed her strong pro-peace perspective. Since being elected to Congress, Rep. Jayapal has been a consistent supporter of J Street’s legislative priorities, and she was an early cosponsor of House Resolution 326, which reaffirms Congress’s commitment to two-state solution and opposes settlement expansion and annexation.
Congresswoman McCollum has been a JStreetPAC endorsee since 2008 and is one of J Street’s most vocal allies on the Hill. Last session, she supported the entire J Street legislative agenda, and this session she was an early cosponsor of H.Res. 326, which gets Congress on the record reaffirming support for the two-state solution and opposing annexation and settlement expansion.
Throughout his time in Congress, Rep. Pocan has been one of the most steadfast supporters of J Street issues. He has consistently voted with J Street’s entire legislative agenda. Rep. Pocan has traveled to Israel and the Palestinian Territories and is a strong advocate for US leadership towards a two state solution. He was one of the earliest cosponsors of House Resolution 326, which reaffirms Congress’s commitment to two-state solution and opposes settlement expansion and annexation.
Notice what J Street doesn't say about any of them:
Not one of them is described as a friend, let alone a strong supporter, of Israel.
But they are all supporters of J Street and its agenda -- and that, of course, is what matters, isn't it?
Betty McCollum is the representative of Minnesota’s 4th district. She is a St. Paul native and was the second Minnesota woman elected to Congress. First elected in 2000, Congresswoman McCollum is a champion for Palestinian rights, including leading the fight to protect Palestinian children from Israeli military detention and abuse by introducing the first legislation for Palestinian rights in the House of Representatives. Throughout her career, she has also championed public education, protecting the environment, and foreign policy centered on human rights.
PRAMILA JAYAPAL WA-07
Pramila Jayapal is the representative for Washington’s 7th district and is the first South Asian American woman elected to Congress. First elected in 2016, Congresswoman Jayapal is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and a leader on immigrant rights, labor rights, Medicare for All, College for All, fighting white nationalism, and more. She is a stalwart supporter of Palestinian rights in Congress, including standing up against Israel’s military detention of Palestinian children and Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes, as well as for a resumption of aid to Gaza, and more.
MARK POCAN WI-02
Mark Pocan is the representative of Wisconsin’s 2nd district. First elected in 2012, Congressman Pocan is Co-Chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has long been a leader in promoting economic and social justice initiatives. He is a consistent and leading voice for Palestinian rights in the House of Representatives, including breaking the silence around the Israeli military blockade and humanitarian crisis affecting Palestinians in Gaza and protecting Palestinian children.
JVP seems as reticent to brag about how anti-Israel these three are as J Street is silent as to how anti-Israel their stances are.
Let's take a closer look at each of the three.
Pramila Jayapal is a good friend of Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar -- such a good friend in fact that when the 2 were criticized a year ago for their attacks on Israel, Jayapal jumped to their defense on Twitter:
Rep. McCollum has been 'a strong ally of the pro-Israel community'?
Seriously?
Is it any wonder that J Street has been forced to repurpose their endorsements of candidates to reference their support for J Street instead and expunge any claim of support of Israel?
More recently, in 2019, Rep. McCollum introduced the ‘‘Promoting Human Rights for Palestinian Children Living Under Israeli Military Occupation Act’’ (HR 2407), which she claims
is expressly intended to end U.S. support and funding for Israel’s systematic military detention, interrogation, abuse, torture, and prosecution of Palestinian children. This bill not only highlights actions by the Government of Israel that violate international humanitarian law by their treatment of Palestinian children in detention, it affirmatively declares that equality, human rights, and dignity for Palestinians and Israelis are the values the American people expect the U.S. government to advance.
o The bill is based largely on the lobbying efforts and accusations of Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P). DCI-P is closely tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel.
o Citibank, Arab Bank and Global Giving have closed DCI-P accounts due to these PFLP connections. o Many of the citations to UN and other reports in turn simply copy lines from DCI-P publications.
o The new legislation includes several inaccurate factual claims and distortions of international law. o The bill applies standards to Israel that are not applied in the US in general, or in McCollum’s state of Minnesota in particular. o The bill misquotes a number of State Department reports
This is someone that J Street supports -- but not so enthusiastically that they can publicly boast of her as a friend and supporter of Israel.
o supported Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh o supported Islamic Relief, which has links to the Muslim Brotherhood. o criticized California’s Kamala Harris for discussing cooperation between California and Israel on water management, agriculture, and cyber security o accused Harris of “racism” for meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. o retweeted a post from Linda Sarsour supporting Ahed Tamimi, who was jailed for incitement and assaulting an IDF soldier -- and upon release voiced support for suicide bombing.
While we have long championed the value of a wide range of voices in discussion of the conflict and related issues, we cannot endorse candidates who conclude that they can no longer publicly express unequivocal support for a two-state solution and other core principles to which our organization is dedicated.
Fortunately for McCollum, accusing Isreal of apartheid does not contradict any of those "core principles" that J Street is dedicated to!
[Pocan] chose to facilitate a pro-BDS smear campaign using taxpayer dollars without even showing his face at the event...As millions of Jews and non-Jews alike celebrate the 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem, Congressman Pocan and his J-Street lackeys are spending their time working to undermine the state of Israel.
During the trip, the five met with Shawan Jabarin, whom the itinerary described as the General Director of Al-Haq, for a discussion on “Palestinian political prisoners”.
What the AGI itinerary failed to note, however, are Jabarin’s ties to terrorism.
A member of the PFLP, Jabarin was convicted for his efforts to enlist support abroad for attacks on Israel. He was sentenced to two years in prison, but was released after nine months due to respiratory difficulties.
It is obvious why Jewish Voice for Peace would want to support Jayapal, McCollum and Pocan -- that group and these 3 congressmen are clearly a good fit.
J Street obviously thinks they are a good fit with these 3 too.
It is worth noting that J Street does not need to convince those who strongly disagree with our positions within the American Jewish community or the political sphere. The majority of American Jews and many politicians already broadly agree with us; they just need a movement to validate, organize and amplify their voices. [emphasis added]
The fact that J Street deliberately makes a point of validating and amplifying the views of these 3 politicians demonstrates how badly J Street has stumbled.
Or how cynical J Street really is.
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.
Oxfam has pulled from its online shop two editions of a forged antisemitic pamphlet purporting a Jewish plot for world domination.
The virulently antisemitic tract first published in Czarist Russia at the turn of the century, inspired countless conspiracy theories and was invoked by Adolf Hitler.
The Israeli Ambassador Mark Regev took to social media on Friday after noticing editions of the Protocols of the learned elders of Zion donated to the charity appear on the global poverty charity’s online shop.
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A 1936 edition described as being in very good condition was marketed online for £100, while a 2002 reprint was being advertised for £12.99.
The books, both translated into English from Russian, appear to have been priced, photographed and online by volunteers.
The Board of Deputies vice president Amanda Bowman said on Friday: “It is unthinkable that a charity such as Oxfam would knowingly by offering for sale a book notorious for being an antisemitic forgery.
“Now that it has been removed, we urge Oxfam to ensure that procedures are in place to make sure this does not happen again.”
An Oxfam spokesperson said: “As soon as the books were brought to our attention we removed them from sale and they are being destroyed.
“They should not have been listed. We provide guidance to our staff on items that are not acceptable for sale. We apologise for the error and offence caused. We will look at steps to take to prevent it happening again.”
How did Oxfam come to sell antisemitic books?
The Oxfam shop accepts donations from Oxfam supporters. A team of Oxfam volunteers goes through the donations, photographs them and writes up descriptions of the products and prices them.
Here is the description of one of the books:
An entire chain of people who consider themselves supporters of human rights - the donor, the person who decided it was worth reselling, the person who photographed the book, the person who wrote up the description and set the price - every single one of these Oxfam supporters thought that this was okay.
Or this notorious book by Lenni Brenner, a key part of the hoax that Zionists colluded with Nazis during the Holocaust:
The problem is not simply that Oxfam accidentally is selling some antisemitic books. The problem is that these books are what Oxfam members are reading and recommending to others.
Meaning that many of the people who consider themselves in the vanguard of human rights cannot recognize, or worse, actively promote, antisemitism.
Too many British leftists, after decades of anti-Israel indoctrination from "human rights organizations" like Oxfam, have embraced mainstream antisemitism as normative.
Oxfam's problems are very, very deep.
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.
My latest livestream is about how Palestinian Arab leaders have consistently and cynically used the Gazans as political/medical pawns.
A quick roundup of what they have done:
The video has been remove from YouTube for reasons that aren't clear. I do not have a backup. I'm trying to recover it. Moreover, YouTube says they don't have enough people to review appeals.
I'm a bit upset.
UPDATE: YouTube restored it:
Here was my recovery video - lower quality but should be good enough. The second half is a soundless duplicate of the video, I have no idea why - so only watch 21 minutes of this.
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.
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.
The spokesman for the Gaza ministry of economy, Abdel-Fattah Abu Moussa, assured Gazans that there are plenty of supplies of basic commodities in the markets of Gaza.
In an interview with Felesteen, Abu Moussa said, "The goods are still flowing in their usual manner from the Kerem Shalom crossing."
He stressed that there is no reason to panic, as there are plenty of goods available in all governorates of the Gaza Strip, saying that the ministry conducted an inventory of all foodstuffs in the governorates and confirmed the availability of stock.
"Bakeries continue to operate and fuel is available. We have dealt with crises before, such as the three Israeli wars on Gaza, during which we did not witness any food crisis."
In short, this Hamas spokesperson is assuring Gazans that Israel has been a reliable partner for providing their needs even during wartime and certainly that applies now.
Someone should tell the "pro-Palestinian activists" that they can celebrate that they are worried for nothing.
Oh, that's right, they want there to be a crisis in Gaza to justify their hate for Israel.
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Tuesday, March 24, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
