Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 07, 2020

04/07 Links Pt1: Netanyahu announces Passover closure and curfew, but says exit may be in sight; Israeli researchers design low-cost open-source ventilator

From Ian:

Israel’s death toll rises to 60 as coronavirus cases top 9,000

The death toll in Israel from the coronavirus pandemic climbed to 60 on Tuesday, with over 9,000 infections recorded by the Health Ministry.

Among the three new victims since Monday night was an 80-year-old man who died in central Israel on Tuesday. The man, who had unspecified underlying illnesses, had been hospitalized at the Rabin Medical Center in Petah Tikva. He had been sedated and on a ventilator for several weeks prior to his death, the hospital said.

On Tuesday, the Ichilov Medical Center in Tel Aviv said a 95-year-old woman with preexisting health issues succumbed to the virus.

The third fatality, who died late Monday, was not immediately identified.

According to the ministry, 9,006 people were sick with the virus as of Tuesday morning, 153 of them seriously. Of the serious cases, 113 were on ventilators. Another 181 people were in moderate condition, with the remaining patients showing mild symptoms. The updated figures marked a rise of 102 cases since the previous evening.

The death Tuesday came after eight fatalities from the virus were reported a day earlier and as officials say they scrambling to secure more medical equipment amid a furious global battle over ventilators, masks, test kits and other essentials in the fight against the virus.

Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov said Tuesday that Israel had secured enough ventilators to bring the country’s count of the machines up to 3,000.

Netanyahu announces Passover closure and curfew, but says exit may be in sight

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday announced that Israelis would be barred from leaving their homes during the first night of Passover, as part of a general lockdown throughout the country over the holiday.

He also said restrictions meant to contain the coronavirus may begin to be rolled back after the holiday, but that the next few days were “fateful” to tackling the outbreak.

Beginning at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Israelis will not be able to leave the communities where they live until Friday at 7 a.m., Netanyahu said, while residents of some Jerusalem neighborhoods will be not be allowed to travel beyond restricted areas.

However, later Monday, Hebrew media, citing a draft of the measures that still need to be approved by the cabinet, said the lockdown would only end on Saturday evening at 7 p.m.

On Passover itself, which begins Wednesday evening, the prime minister said all Israelis must remain at their homes from 6 p.m. until 7 a.m. Thursday morning.

“We’re in a fateful week. A fateful week for the world and for Israel,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement from his official residence in Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said there were some “positive signs on the horizon,” but called on Israelis not become “complacent” and not to ease up on social distancing measures.

“Pesach won’t be Purim,” he declared, referring to the holiday festivities in early March that health officials believe contributed to the spread of the virus.

Israel PM Netanyahu Announces Nationwide Lockdown During Passover Holiday

Due to the restrictive measures taken by the Israeli authorities "we see positive signs on the horizon", Israel's caretaker Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday as he announced new anti-coronavirus restrictions ahead of the Passover holiday in Israel, with inter-city travels for non-essential reasons banned.

The full lockdown is to come into force Tuesday 4 pm local time -- 10 am EST -- and will end Friday morning.

Wednesday evening will also see what is apparently a full curfew for Israel, with Israelis urged to stay at home, except for the Arab communities that do not celebrate Passover.

Announcing the move, Netanyahu stressed that the week to come will determine whether the situation in the country deteriorates or takes a turn for the better and said that the upcoming Passover will not be like the holiday of Purim, which saw an uptick in transmissions.

Israel Makes Wearing Masks in Public Compulsory to Stem Coronavirus Spread

The Israeli government issued orders on Tuesday making the wearing of masks in public compulsory to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus.

It also approved a timeline for tightened travel restrictions for the Passover holiday, which begins on Wednesday when Jewish families gather for a festive meal commemorating the Biblical exodus from slavery in Egypt.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that this year the dinner should be a small affair, limited to household members, in a bid to keep infection rates in check.

Netanyahu last week urged Israelis to wear masks while in public, a measure the government said would become compulsory as of Sunday. Children under the age of six, the mentally disabled or those alone in vehicles or workplaces are exempted. The government said masks could be homemade.

From Tuesday evening until Friday morning, a ban on unnecessary out-of-town travel will be in place, effectively preventing large gatherings for Passover.

From 3 p.m. on Wednesday, a few hours before the meal gets underway, until 7 a.m. on Thursday, food shopping within towns will also be forbidden, in a tightened lockdown. Israelis are already banned from moving more than 100 metres from home except for visits to grocery stores and pharmacies, and travel to work.

Announcing an exemption in the Passover restrictions, a government statement said the holiday shopping ban would not apply to “non-Jewish minorities.” Around a fifth of Israeli citizens are Arabs, mostly Muslims, Druze and Christians.

Public transportation, including flights in and out of Israel, will be suspended from 8 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Tuesday until 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) on Sunday, the statement said.

Last month, Michelle Boorstein -- religion reporter for The Washington Post -- did a profile of Joel Rubin, Bernie Sanders's Jewish outreach coordinator: In Bernie Sanders was on a path to become the first Jewish president. That was everything to Joel Rubin, Boorstein touches upon the issue of Bernie Sanders as a Jewish candidate and his policy of welcoming Linda Sarsour, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib.

Rubin approves of that policy and encourages it -- which is not all that surprising.
After all, welcoming and endorsing opponents of Israel is a policy followed by J Street too, an organization that Joel Rubin helped found.

According to Rubin, the significance of the Bernie Sanders campaign is

the way the independent senator from Vermont forcefully rejected that his more left-leaning views — backing diplomacy with Iran and being willing to withhold aid to Israel among them — conflicted with his Jewish identity.

The question of Bernie Sander's "Jewish identity" is a topic all by itself, a question that revolves around a Jewish identity that Sanders only seems to address every four years. It is also an identity that is unclear not merely in light of his attack on AIPAC and his having never appeared at pro-Israel rallies -- but also in light of his praise for the Soviet regime while ignoring the plight of Soviet Jews at the time.

This contrasts with Rubin's claim about the Sanders story:

This is the most quintessential Jewish American story if ever there was one, to have him out there for the American Jewish community, which is attacked and under siege. It is so valuable to have a politician and a leader running who gets it in his kishkes. [emphasis added]

One can only hope that Rubin was not referring to indigestion, using a phrase that Sanders himself is unlikely to use.

But it is also odd that Rubin stresses the importance of Bernie Sanders for the sake of the Jewish community when it is being attacked, considering that Sanders himself embraces the attackers.

This apparent contradiction does not faze Rubin, who claims that Sanders welcoming of Sarsour, Omar and Tlaib is not only a positive thing, but that it actually highlights Sanders's Jewish identity.

Boorstein reports:

By welcoming even strong Israel critics into his campaign, Sanders had shown the way to fight anti-Semitism is to engage everyone. The senator had expanded the idea of what it means to be a good Jew. That’s how it seemed to Rubin...

Later in the article, Boorstein expands on Rubin's point:

Rubin believes American Jews need to keep their eyes on what he sees as the ball, instead of focusing so much on statements by Omar and Tlaib.

“They are not the primary threat to the U.S. Jewish community. They are not walking into Tree of Life and shooting it up,” he said, referring to the 2018 massacre at a synagogue in his native Pittsburgh. “If we’re going to defeat hate as a country, we need to find allies in this fight, and these are people who are part of rejecting hate in our society. ... And I’m willing to give more leeway to people of color who are critical of Israel who are in our coalition and are willing to engage and to accept errors.”

Are Sarsour, Omar and Tlaib really "people who are part of rejecting hate in our society"? Welcoming people who accuse Israel of white supremacy, are fans of Louis Farrakhan, toss around accusations of dual citizenship and focus their criticism solely at boycotting Israel -- this raises the question of which 'ball' Rubin has his eye on -- other than how to gain votes.

And what is all this about Sanders engaging antisemites in order to fight it and people joining his coalition who are willing to engage?

Is Bernie Sanders even qualified to engage critics of Israel?

o  Sanders made the outlandish claim that Israel killed 10,000 Gazans during Operation Protective Edge
o  Sanders accepts at face value that Israel shoots unarmed "protesting" Gazans
o  Now Sanders it claiming that Israel is withholding humanitarian aid from Gaza during the coronavirus crisis

Sanders is not engaging the critics, he is accepting their propaganda whole.

When Ilhan Omar claims supporters of Israel have dual loyalty -- Sanders jumps in to defend her and
claims that Omar is “one of the most extraordinary people in American politics." -- that is not engaging either.

In another Washington Post article, journalist Aaron Blake writes about knowing a politician's true religious beliefs:

"It's worth noting here that religious definitions are malleable. And it's impossible to know what someone's true beliefs are, beyond what they say. Skepticism about a president's declared religious beliefs has hardly been limited to the many Americans who believe President Obama is secretly a Muslim. Some presidents who have claimed the Christian faith have been suspected of not actually being religious."

That same may be said for a politician's claiming to be pro-Israel.

Take J Street, for example -- of which Joel Rubin was one of the founders.

The way that Sanders endorses and welcomes some of the most outspoken critics of Israel, many of whom who have allied themselves with antisemites such as Farrakhan and have been accused of antisemitic statements themselves -- is reminiscent of J Street's own approach.

As we have pointed out in other posts:

J Street endorses 3 congressmen who are also supported by Jewish Voice for Peace:

o Mark Pocan
o Pramila Jayapal
o Betty McCollum

Pocan tried to anonymously set up an anti-Israel event, "50 Years of Israeli Military Occupation & Life for Palestinian Children."

McCollum publicly accused Israel of being an apartheid state, and introduced a bill in 2017, and a revised version in 2019, which claims Israel utilizes military detention, interrogation, and "ill-treatment" of Palestinian children in violation of international humanitarian law.

In fact, Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers pointed out in 2017 that in addition to Betty McCollum and Mark Pocan -- Earl Blumenauer, André Carson, John Conyers, Jr., Danny K. Davis, Peter A. DeFazio, Raul Grijalva, Luis V. Gutiérrez, and Chellie Pingree were all supporters of McCollum's bill and yet were all still endorsed by J Street.

Another congressman supported by J Street, Hank Johnson, compared Israelis living in Judea and Samaria to termites.

Are we supposed to assume that J Street endorsed all of these congressmen in order to engage them?

Instead, in their endorsements, J Street refers not to their support of Israel but rather that the congressmen support the J Street agenda -- in other words, that they support a 2 state solution.

As long as a congressman supports a 2 state solution, and is a democrat, J Street appears to have a high threshold for anti-Israel politicians.

Similarly, Bernie Sanders has shown a high threshold for the anti-Israel and inflammatory statements of Sarsour, Omar and Tlaib -- among others who help him get the Arab vote.

They offer Sanders support and in return receive the kind of shield against claims of antisemitism that J Street offers those who would otherwise be immediately called out as anti-Israel.

And Joel Rubin, appointed by Bernie Sanders at the beginning of this year, is just the person to defend Sanders' disturbing choice of allies.

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AFP reports that the UN Security Council will meet about the coronavirus on Thursday, via videoconference.

This will be their first meeting on the topic.

Infighting has caused the delays, as China and Russia have been insisting that any such meeting should only talk about countries involved in a conflict and not the entire world. They seem to be echoing South Africa which believes that the UNSC is meant for security issues and the coronavirus is a "health" issue.

Why something killing tens of thousands of people isn't considered a security issue is a mystery.

The US isn't helping matters, according to the story, insisting that any meeting or statement mention that the virus originated in China. While this is true, it is unclear what such an admission accomplishes.

The UN General Assembly, amazingly, didn't talk about COVID-19 until last week, when it adopted by consensus a resolution calling for "international cooperation" and "multilateralism" in the fight against the virus - weeks after the UN building itself was evacuated because of the pandemic.

Science fiction writers have said that the only way to unify all nations on Earth is to have the planet face an overwhelmingly powerful enemy from outer space. The coronavirus is conceptually very close to that alien enemy, but the world remains as divided as ever.

The UN has proven itself to be utterly unable to show any leadership in the face of an invisible enemy that does not distinguish between nations, races or creeds. Its failure here to even schedule meetings or issue timely statements proves its irrelevance for anything.

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Al-Awda, The "Palestine Right to Return Coalition," has a calendar so people can see what dates are important in Palestinian history as well as the dates for Palestinian holidays.

Month by month, the calendar goes over what happened on specific dates in history.

The earliest date mentioned, and the only one before the 20th century, is this:

1840 Lord Palmerstone, British Foreign Minister-later Prime Minister, sent letter on 11 August, to his Ambassador in Istanbul, to encourage the Sultan to allow and bless the settlement of the European Jews with their wealth in Palestine, to prosper the economy, and to create a barrier against Muhammad Ali’s advancement.

This is Jewish history, not "Palestinian history."

The earliest event that can be remotely considered "Palestinian" is from 1918:

1918 Formation of the Moslem-Christian Committees in Jaffa and Jerusalem, spreading through the different Palestinian cities, in April.

This is after the Balfour Declaration so it is obviously a response to Zionism, not an independent movement.

This 1919 event shows that no one considered themselves Palestinian at that date:

1919 January 27 First Palestinian National Congress. Conference produces first National Charter. Sends two memoranda to Peace Conference, Versailles France, rejecting British mandate, Balfour Declaration, and Zionist immigration to Palestine. Demands full Palestinian independence. Calls for unity of Palestine and Syria and refers to Palestine as Southern Syria. Sends delegation to Damascus in support of Arab Government.

This is not entirely true, no one says that Palestinians demanded independence in the 1919 congress. The final resolution said, “We consider Palestine as part of Arab Syria as it has never been separated from it at any time...we are connected with it by national, religious, linguistic, natural, economic and geographical bonds…in view of the above we desire that our district Southern Syria or Palestine should be not separated from the Independent Arab Syrian Government and be free from all foreign influence and protection…”

Interestingly, one of the earliest events that they believe deserves commemoration is this early cross-border terror attack against Jews:

1920 First Palestinian attacks on Zionist colonies on the Syrian Boarders. (1 March).

So according to the Palestinians themselves, they have no history before the 20th century - in other words, there is no such thing as "historic Palestine" - and they entire movement is a reaction to Zionism and not an organic, independent call for independence.

This is why Palestinianism has been a failure. From its inception until today, it was never about creating an independent Palestinian state but rather about destroying the Jewish state. If their priority would ever change to building rather than destroying, perhaps peace might be something to think about.

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04/06 Links Pt2: Blood Libels, Conspiracy Theories and Coronaviruses, Part II; Yad Vashem to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day with global name-reading initiative

From Ian:

Blood Libels, Conspiracy Theories and Coronaviruses, Part II

In “Blood Libels, Conspiracy Theories and Coronaviruses” CAMERA discussed the history of the blood libel and how anti-Semites from across the spectrum have latched on to the coronavirus pandemic as a hook to hang their latest blood libels. As the pandemic continues, the libels have increased, as well. In Part II, we take a closer look at how Palestinian and BDS activists, in particular, have used the pandemic to libel and incite against Israel.

Anti-Semitic blood libels and conspiracy theories often incorporate irrelevant but true facts in order to create preposterous and defamatory accusations against Jews, which are seized upon and spread among the community, providing justification for even more Jew hatred. Medieval blood libels, for example, accused the Jews of brutalizing and murdering Christians in order to use their blood for the matzos required for Passover, incorporating true facts: Yes, Jews celebrate Passover and yes, Passover rituals include the eating of matzah (unleavened bread/crackers). But the only ingredients required for matzah are flour and water, not blood. In fact, the consumption of any type of blood is prohibited in Judaism, as is murder. Yet among the ignorant and credulous, this absurd fabrication continues to take hold.

Recent Palestinian libels similarly distort elements of truth into absurd, fabricated libels.

Accusing Israel of Deliberately Infecting the Palestinians Population with Covid-19
It has been widely reported that the Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in unprecedented cooperation and coordination between Israel and the Palestinians. Israel has provided the Palestinian Authority with hundreds of testing kits and protective gear for healthcare workers, as well as workshops with Palestinian doctors and joint monitoring groups to discuss methods to contain the pandemic in the region. Even Nikolay Mladenov, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, a group accused of “systemic anti-Israel bias”, has praised the excellent coordination and cooperation between the Israeli and Palestine authorities regarding the pandemic.

Yet despite this cooperation, anti-Israel incitement and libels continue. In fact, some of the same people who are coordinating with Israel about the pandemic are also using the coronavirus as a handy hook on which to pin their anti-Israel libels and incite the Palestinian populace against Israel.

Palestinian Mohammed Shtayyeh, for example, has acknowledged coordinating with Israel, establishing a joint medical committee to monitor and cooperate the response to the pandemic. But as Palestinian analyst Khaled Abu Toameh points out, Shtayyeh is hoping that the coronavirus crisis will boost his chance of becoming the next Palestinian Authority president and in order “to win the hearts and minds of his people, he needs to talk less about cooperation with Israel. The more he condemn Israel, the more he increases his chances of becoming the next Palestinian rais.”

No doubt that is why Shtayyeh put forth a new libel against Israel: On March 29th, the Palestinian prime minister proclaimed that IDF soldiers were deliberately trying to infect Palestinians with coronavirus. “This is racism and hatred of people who long for the death of the other,” he said. “We will record this in the list of crimes [against Israel].”

Combating Antisemitism | SWUConnect #9

Join Carly Gammill, director of StandWithUs' Center for Combating Antisemitism, for a webinar discussing recent manifestations of antisemitism, the progression of hate, and how we can work together during this time to combat the world's oldest hatred.

British PM Boris Johnson moved to intensive care as virus symptoms worsen

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson was moved Monday to the intensive care unit of a London hospital after his coronavirus symptoms worsened.

Johnson’s office said Johnson is conscious and does not require ventilation at the moment.

Johnson was admitted to St. Thomas’ Hospital late the night before, 10 days after he was diagnosed with COVID-19. He has asked Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab to deputize for him.

There was no indication of how long Johnson might remain hospitalized. The prime minister’s spokesman said earlier that Johnson had spent a comfortable night and remained in charge of government, despite being admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital, when COVID-19 symptoms of a cough and fever persisted 10 days after he was diagnosed.

Johnson had sent out a tweet thanking the National Health Service for taking care of him and others in this difficult time.

“On the advice of my doctor, I went into hospital for some routine tests, as I’m still experiencing coronavirus symptoms,” Johnson said in the tweet. “I’m in good spirits and keeping in touch with my team, as we work together to fight this virus and keep everyone safe.”

Johnson’s spokesman, James Slack, refused to say what kind of tests Johnson was undergoing. He insisted that “the PM remains in charge of the government.”

NEW PODCAST ALERT: A conversation with Colonel Richard Kemp, former Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan; permanent friend of Israel

LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE HERE: https://t.co/nD8WSJyoJy pic.twitter.com/zbaK67avPH
— The MirYam Institute (@MirYamInstitute) April 5, 2020

A previously unknown Biblical scroll, found by Arabs in clay jars in the desert, that is many centuries older than any known original Biblical text, and with some significant variations on the text itself from what we know.

It sounds like the Dead Sea Scrolls. But this find pre-dates the Scrolls by some seventy years.

A Jewish convert to Christianity who dealt with rare books and archaeological objects in the 1870s, Moses Wilhem Shapira, made that fantastic claim and was a celebrity in London for a few weeks while his find was scrutinized by an expert hired by the British Museum. Eventually he declared the scroll to be a fraud. Demoralized, depressed and disgraced, Shapira committed suicide not long after.

But after the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and authenticated, with a remarkably similar backstory, people have wondered - could the Deuteronomy scroll claimed by Shapira have really been legitimate? Could the experts at the time have been wrong? Now we have much better scientific methods of determining the age of old objects - could this case be re-opened?

Chanan Tigay, a journalist and creative writing instructor, became obsessed with finding the answers to these questions. The presumably fraudulent scrolls had disappeared and presumed lost in a fire, but Tigay uncovered more and more information that showed that perhaps the standard story was not really true. Could there be another ancient Biblical scroll whose value would be unfathomable sitting in some dusty library or museum? Also, every expert consulted agreed that even if it was a fraud, it was a very clever one. Who would have even considered creating an alternate version of Deuteronomy at a time that no one was aware of any variants on the Torah save for the Samaritan version?

This is a very entertaining book, part a biography of Shapira that Tigay painstakingly researched (much helped by his daughter's autobiographical novel) and part the story of Tigay's search, as he uncovers virtually every angle possible to find either the scroll or definitive evidence of what happened to it and whether it was legitimate. Tigay is almost obsessed and no detail is too small for him to follow up - and, often, to travel worldwide - to unearth more clues.

(I could only think of one thing Tigay didn't do, where he found an actual photo of the scroll in the British Museum but it was impossible to read so he felt that was a dead end. I wondered why he didn't enlist an expert in trying to tease out the text from the photo, something that can be done nowadays.)

In the end, it looks like he found the real answer about the scroll.

But the conclusion isn't the point. The fun of reading this book is the journeys, both Shapira's and Tigay's.

If you are looking for something different to read over Passover, this is an enjoyable read.

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Elder of Ziyon Haggadah - Now with transliteration!

(I'm re-upping this post from 2020)

An EoZ fan wanted to use the Elder of Ziyon Haggadah this year with his family on Zoom - but some of them needed the Hebrew parts transliterated.

So I quickly (and I hope accurately) added transliteration for the important parts, maintaining the rest of the Haggadah which includes the entire traditional text plus commentaries from religious Zionist rabbis.

Here is the new Haggadah:

Here is the original:

Elder of Ziyon Haggadah 5769 by Eldad Tzioni on Scribd

I hope people continue to enjoy it!

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Iranian media accidentally supports moving all embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem

Iran's Mehr News, which is consistently unreliable, claims:

Washington has recently announced plans to move its embassy in Baghdad to Ain al-Assad, Iraq's largest airbase. The US claims that by doing so, the embassy will protect itself from possible attacks by resistance groups.

I could find no such announcement.

But the next sentence from this official fake news agency is more interesting:

Many Iraqi experts and officials have reacted to the decision, saying the US embassy should be located in Baghdad and that moving it to a place other than the capital is against protocols and diplomatic practice.

If that applies to Baghdad, all the more so it applies to Jerusalem, right?

Thanks, Iran, and your puppet Iraqi officials, for proving beyond a doubt that all nations should move their embassies to Israel's capital.

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04/06 Links Pt1: Israeli Government to announce nationwide lockdown until Friday; BDS founder: If Israel develops coronavirus vaccine you can take it

From Ian:

7 more fatalities take coronavirus toll to 56; infections climb to 8,611

Seven people died in Israel as a result of the coronavirus Monday, the Health Ministry and hospitals said, raising the death toll to 56.

The Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem said a man aged 77 and a woman aged 91 had died at the hospital. Both had multiple underlying health conditions.

And Tel Aviv’s Ichilov Hospital announced the deaths of a 72-year-old man and an 87-year-old woman, who were also said to suffer from preexisting health complications.

A 90-year-old woman with preexisting conditions died in a Jaffa facility for coronavirus patients. She was moved there from Beersheba’s Mishan assisted living facility, and was the seventh person from the nursing home to die of the virus.

On Monday morning, the Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center in Be’er Yaakov near Tel Aviv announced there had been three fatalities at the hospital in the past 24 hours.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose to 8,611 on Monday morning, up only 181 from the evening tally a day earlier, continuing a slowdown that has largely been attributed to ongoing social distancing.

There are 141 patients in serious condition, including 107 on ventilators, and a further 191 in moderate condition. The ministry said 585 patients had recovered from the virus.

Government to announce nationwide lockdown until Friday

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce tough new restrictions on public movement on Monday evening, preventing all travel between cities from Tuesday afternoon until Friday morning.

The restrictions, set to be approved by ministers overnight, will also limit movement within towns and cities - only permitting access to shops in the immediate vicinity of residents' homes - amid fears that the Passover holiday could lead to an aggravation of the coronavirus outbreak.

Increased lockdown measures come at the expense of pinpoint containment measures which discussed overnight Sunday, targeting several cities with particularly high rates of infection.

The decision comes against the backdrop of a rising death toll, which climbed to 56 on Monday. Confirmed cases of the virus increased to 8,611, including 141 patients in severe condition.

A total of 107 patients currently require a ventilator - an increase of less than 1% during the past 24 hours. Some 585 people have recovered from the illness to date.

Haredi towns and cities continue to represent the hotspot of the coronavirus outbreak in Israel, with the highest number of confirmed cases per 100,000 people located in Efrat (656.1), Kiryat Yearim (634.4), Bnei Brak (622.5) and Kfar Habad (585.6).

As of Monday morning, the two cities with the greatest number of confirmed cases were Jerusalem (1,316 cases) and Bnei Brak (1,222). Tel Aviv-Jaffa was home to the third most cases, with a far more modest 370 incidences of the disease.

Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman reacted angrily after municipal workers from Ramat Gan put up fences overnight between the city and neighboring Bnei Brak, restricting pedestrian movement between the cities. The Interior Ministry subsequently ordered Ramat Gan Mayor Carmel Shama-Hacohen to remove the barriers on Monday morning.

"The residents of Bnei Brak, together with all cities and other areas with large concentrations of haredi residents, should not be subject to discrimination," said Litzman, who tested positive for coronavirus last week. "I urge the mayor of Ramat Gan to avoid provocative steps causing friction between the populations."

Italian officials okay experimental Israeli drug for use on COVID-19 patients

Tel Aviv and North Carolina-based RedHill BioPharma announces that Italian officials have approved use of one of its experimental treatments for COVID-19 patients under a compassionate use program.

The chemical compound, opaganib, is still in testing stages as a drug for relieving lung inflammations, such as pneumonia, and doctors hope it could help COVID-19 patients with other underlying conditions.

“The approved opaganib expanded access program allows physicians in the three major hospitals in Italy to treat patients at high risk of developing pneumonia and those with pneumonia, including acute respiratory distress syndrome, secondary to SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says Dr. Mark L. Levitt, medical director at RedHill.

The Italian National Institute for Infectious Diseases and Central Italian Ethics Committee okay the treatment for use on 160 patients in three major hospitals.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency has a weekly feature where it analyzes Israeli media and lists examples of what it calls "incitement and racism in the Israeli media."

Sometimes its examples prove their own bigotry and immorality far more than proving any supposed Israeli racism.

One of these examples from today comes from social media. Avi Dichter, a Likud member, wrote on Facebook:

Just as we were victorious over suicide bombings, we will also win the fight against the coronavirus! Two decades ago reality in Israel seemed unimaginable. For several years, the buses ran almost empty and the restaurants were desolate. Waves of terror suicide attacks caused many to shut themselves up in their homes. Just as we are careful nowadays who we are around because of those who could infect us with corona, even then we looked at suspicion towards anyone who was not familiar to us. And in the end, we defeated suicide terrorism.
...
This is a phenomenon, just like the suicide terror, where we have to be ready on the state, public and personal levels in new ways. As terror comes in waves, so does the coronavirus. In the next wave we will have to be prepared better than before to protect all of our citizens.

The official Palestinian news agency, which publishes nothing without approval from the Palestinian Authority, is saying that comparing suicide bombers to a deadly virus - both of whom kill random, innocent people - is "incitement" against Palestinians.

The only way that makes sense is if they are saying that suicide terror against the innocent is not terrorism at all but freedom fighting.

This is of course how they really do think, but they are careful not to say it in English. In reality, they are offended by anyone comparing the most immoral people on Earth - suicide terrorists - with a virus.

And they are right, in a way that they don't realize. The coronavirus doesn't have free will. Suicide bombers are far worse than the coronavirus. Yet to the mainstream of Palestinian society, suicide bombers are still people to be respected, praised - and, circumstances permitting, emulated.

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The massive chilul Hashem from some Orthodox communities during the pandemic

Here are some headlines from Arab newspapers this morning:

* "Corona" ignites the racism of the Jews against each other - about how Israelis are upset at the haredi Jews of Bnei Brak for ignoring the government rules on no large gatherings and how the virus is rampant there

* Despite the warnings, Jewish communities throng the streets of New York, USA - about two large funerals in Brooklyn

* Corona terrorism .. Jews deliberately transmit the epidemic to an Egyptian working in fire stations New York - about a story where haredi teens in Borough Park allegedly taunted a firefighter, who happened to be Egyptian, and one allegedly sneezed on him

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.

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Two weeks ago a major propaganda push was started by Israel haters where they warned that every single Palestinian who dies of COVID-19 in Gaza is Israel's responsibility.

Since then, some 50,000 people have died worldwide. Some 9000 in the US alone. And not one person in Gaza has died.

So if Israel is responsible for Gaza's health, then isn't Israel also responsible for the fact that no one in Gaza is even seriously ill from the virus, and half of those infected have already recovered?

For Israel haters, the answer is "of course not." Israel is only responsible when bad things happen, not when bad things are avoided. To put it another way, anything they can possibly blame on Israel - including, bizarrely, police brutality in the US - they will.

But anything positive that Israel does is never credited, or is twisted into a negative.

No, this is a strictly one-way definition of responsibility.

Of course, Israel is not responsible for the problems with Gaza's health sector. Over a decade of Hamas stealing medicines and hospital equipment, driving out health care workers who were not sufficiently supportive of the terror group, using medical facilities as cover for terror attacks, and the Palestinian Authority cutting medicine and electricity as levers to hurt all Gazans for Hamas' coup has caused the current problems.

And Israel isn't responsible for the lack of spread of the virus in Gaza either - Hamas has enforced an effective quarantine system for everyone entering the sector from Egypt or Israel, with over a thousand in isolation.

Only when the world actually demands that the Palestinians take responsibility for their own actions will there be a chance for peace. Until then, those who reflexively blame Israel for everything give the Palestinian leaders more excuses to act like spoiled children who have no reason to grow up.

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The Intercept pretends that the ISM is a non-violent, peaceful organization

The Intercept has a scoop! It found that back in 2006, the FBI was investigating some members of the International Solidarity Movement for terror ties.

The entire article is incredulous that anyone could think for a second that the ISM is anything but a peaceful group that supports a peaceful Middle East.

“These cases demonstrate the FBI’s unwillingness to distinguish non-violent civil disobedience protesting government policy from terrorism,” Michael German, a former FBI agent and current fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, who reviewed the documents, told The Intercept.
“The fact that ISM was under this kind of extensive investigation is ridiculous and a complete waste of taxpayer money,” ISM co-founder Huwaida Arraf told The Intercept. “ISM has always been open and transparent about who we are, what we do, and what we stand for, which is purportedly what this country stands for — freedom and human rights.”

In truth, the ISM explicitly supports and aids terror activities. A good summary of what ISM was like in the first half of the 2000s decade comes from UK Media Watch back in 2012:

ISM members posing with their non-violent Palestinian buddies and their guns

Of course, the suggestion that ISM is non-violent is beyond parody.The ISM’s website states that it recognizes “the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle.” [emphasis added]As I wrote previously, ISM’s activities have included “serving as human shields for terrorist operatives wanted by the Israeli security forces”, and “provid[ing] Palestinian terrorist operatives…with financial, logistic and moral support”.Paul Larudee, the Northern California head of the ISM, has said that his group “…recognize[s] that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so.”Similarly, in a 2002 article, ISM co-founders Adam Shapiro and Huwaida Arraf wrote, “The Palestinian resistance must take on a variety of characteristics, both non-violent and violent,” adding that “[i]n actuality, nonviolence is not enough…Yes, people will get killed and injured.”ISM activist Susan Barclay admitted that she worked with representatives of Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists originating from UK who had attacked the Mike’s Place bar in Tel Aviv, in 2003, murdering three people. The Mike’s Place bombers had, according to an Israeli report, ”forg[ed] links with…members of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM)”. Also, senior Islamic Jihad terrorist Shadi Sukiya was arrested while he was hiding in ISM’s Jenin office and being assisted by two ISM activists.Just because individual ISM members may not personally fire the weapons which kill and maim Israelis, an organization which aids and abets the Islamist terror groups, like Hamas and Islamic Jihad, that intentionally murder innocent Jews is – by definition – a reactionary, anti-peace, pro-violence movement.No amount of sophistry or doublespeak can obfuscate this painfully obvious fact.

So much for "non-violence."

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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04/05 Links: Coronavirus: 48 people dead, 8,258 infected - 127 in serious condition; Most Jewish, Arab Israelis believe gov dealt effectively with coronavirus

From Ian:

Coronavirus: 48 people dead, 8,258 infected - 127 in serious condition

Four more people died Sunday, bringing the country's death toll to 48.

The latest victim is a 98-year-old woman who was being treated at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Earlier, a 61-year-old woman who was being treated at Wolfson Medical Center passed away, as did an 84-year-old woman who was being treated at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba and a 63-year-old man who was being treated at Hadassah Hospital in the capital died, as well.

The 84-year-old woman was the sixth person to pass away from the Mishan senior living facility in the South and the fourth in the last three days.

At the same time, the numbers of infected people are on the rise. The Health Ministry reported 8,258 people with coronavirus Sunday morning - 127 in serious condition, among them 106 who are intubated.

The deaths per day appear to be escalating at a rapid rate. On Thursday, 10 people died – the deadliest day so far for coronavirus in the country. Over the weekend, Israel lost eight more.

Doctor says ‘knock-on effects’ of pandemic chaos could be deadlier than virus

The disruption being wrought on Israeli healthcare by the coronavirus crisis could kill more people than the disease itself, a leading doctor has claimed.

The warning by Anthony Luder, director of the Pediatric Department at Ziv Medical Center in Safed, came as an influential think tank raised alarm bells that the “collateral” effect of the coronavirus crisis could lead to more deaths than the virus, and after a minister said he was worried about people taking their own lives.

“We may have more suicides than deaths from coronavirus,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said on Tuesday, suggesting that the economic consequences will push some Israelis to kill themselves if the lockdown is kept in place for too long.

Luder fears that a potentially lethal domino effect of the crisis will be felt in the very health system that is treating coronavirus patients. “It’s entirely plausible that more people will die of the knock-on effects than of coronavirus itself,” he told The Times of Israel.

Luder has witnessed what he considers shocking cases of children’s lives being put in danger because parents are petrified to go to hospital. “We’re starting to see growing numbers of issues where children are sick, being kept at home, and then developing complications that are difficult to treat and dangerous to the child,” he said.

“A kid came in with a burst appendix — the appendix had burst at home. The parents had done nothing because they were frightened to go to an emergency room. By the time he came in, he had a big abscess in his abdomen and needed surgery.” Had the child been quickly hospitalized, Luder said, he may have been treated without surgery, or possibly just a keyhole procedure.

Luder added: “We are starting to accumulate cases like this. We had a kid who was at home for four or five days with meningitis.”

Most Jewish, Arab Israelis believe gov dealt effectively with coronavirus

About 60% of Jewish and Arab Israelis believe that the State of Israel has been dealing effectively with the coronavirus outbreak, according to Tel Aviv University’s March 2020 Peace Index that was released on Sunday.

About 35% of Jewish Israelis responded that they did not believe the government had effectively dealt with the outbreak. 30% of Arab Israelis replied similarly.

When the responses by Jewish Israelis were split by voter preference, the Peace Index found that 72% of right-wing respondents felt that the State of Israel is effectively dealing with the outbreak, while only 41% of center voters and 34% of left-wing voters responded similarly.

There are also large differences between age groups with 64% of young people up to the age of 35 and 61% of middle aged people (35-54 years old) thinking that Israel has been dealing with the outbreak effectively, while only 51% of people older than 55 agree.

The Peace Index noted that “in addition to the complete lack of trust among present-day opposition party voters in evaluating government conduct during the crisis, there is also a certain level of lack of trust among the age-group who are at the greatest risk of being harmed by the virus.”

A vast majority (between 83%-85%) of both Jewish and Arab Israelis believe that the prohibition to leave one’s home was necessary. Only 59% of left-wing Jewish voters believed the same.

Hamas newspaper cartoons shows Gaza rockets to force Jews to give aid, Jews as being "the most dangerous virus." (update)

This cartoon in the Felesteen newspaper (Gaza) is captioned "khawa" which means "by force" - the rocket is looked at by Gazans as a means to get medical care.

(I had the wrong translation beforehand)

And, of course, antisemitism is part and parcel of the Gaza mindset as well, as this other cartoon, captioned "The virus most dangerous to humanity," proves quite well.

This cartoon is also interesting. It shows a set of dominoes ready to fall, with the caption "The cities of the world." The last domino, Gaza, is not in line to be toppled. Meaning that while the Western Left falls over itself to say how dangerous the coronavirus is to Gaza, Gazans themselves feel pretty good about being isolated right now.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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