Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, April 11, 2020

04/11 Links: Israel’s virus death toll jumps to 101; Passover in Israel Looks Like Yom Kippur; How JFK saved Passover for America's Jews

From Ian:

Israel’s virus death toll jumps to 101, with 10,743 confirmed cases

The Health Ministry announced late Saturday evening that Israel’s death toll from the coronavirus stood at 101, with five more deaths reported between Saturday morning and night.

According to Health Ministry figures late Saturday, Israel has 10,743 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 175 in serious condition and 129 people on ventilators.

Another 154 people were in moderate condition, the ministry said Saturday, with the rest having mild symptoms. Close to 7,000 of those diagnosed with the disease are hospitalized at home.

As of Saturday evening, 1,341 have recovered from the illness.

Israeli health officials are expecting a surge in coronavirus deaths in the next 10 days, according to a Friday report.

The rise in deaths does not signify an increase in infections, however. Patients who are already hospitalized and on respirators are likely to succumb to the virus in the coming days, according to predictive models from the Health Ministry, Channel 13 reported.

Almost all of those who have died from COVID-19 in Israel have been elderly and suffered from preexisting conditions, according to hospital officials. The novel coronavirus has been spreading quickly in nursing homes around the country, raising intense concern for the safety of elderly residents.

29-year-old COVID-19 patient treated with Israel's new ‘passive vaccine’

A 29-year-old haredi (ultra-Orthodox) coronavirus patient who is being treated at Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital has improved from serious to serious but stable condition, after receiving multiple doses of plasma over the weekend from a donor who recovered from coronavirus, a spokesperson for the hospital told The Jerusalem Post.

On Friday, “with the assistance of Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman and his assistant, a suitable donor, a resident of Jerusalem, was found,” explained MDA director-general Eli Bin.

MDA brought her in an ambulance to its blood service center before Shabbat. A special team was waiting for her and transferred the plasma units to the laboratories to perform all required tests and prepare them for transfusion.

Then, with the approval of the Health Ministry, the blood units were delivered to Assuta and given to the patient.

The man is among the country’s youngest severe patients. He has several underlying medical conditions, and has been hospitalized at Assuta for around a week-and-a-half.

The first patient who recovered from coronavirus donated plasma on April 1, according to MDA deputy director-general of blood services Prof.
Eilat Shinar. Since then, some six other patients have made donations and, in the last two days, plasma units were provided to three different hospitals.

Netanyahu-Modi Diplomacy: India Ships Hydroxychloroquine to Israel

Lifting a blanket export ban, India has shipped a huge consignment of coronavirus treatment drugs to Israel. New Delhi delivered a five-tonne cargo of medicines including chloroquine, the antiviral drug currently being used in the treatment of Wuhan coronavirus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, for the move. “Thank you, my dear friend, Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, for sending hydroxychloroquine to Israel. All the citizens of Israel thank you!” the Israeli leader tweeted on Friday.

New Delhi had previously banned the export of hydroxychloroquine and other coronavirus-related medicines. India is reportedly the biggest manufacturer of the drug typically used in the treatment of malaria patients.

The Times of Israel news website reported New Delhi’s decision:
A plane from India carrying materials used to make medicines for treating coronavirus patients has arrived in Israel.

The five ton shipment, which the Ynet news site said arrived Tuesday, includes ingredients for the drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which are used to treat malaria.

Several countries have been experimenting with hydroxychloroquine to treat coronavirus symptoms and US President Donald Trump has touted its potential. Experts, however, have urged caution until bigger trials validate hydroxychloroquine’s effectiveness, as it and chloroquine can have potentially serious side effects, especially in high doses or administered with other medications.

Chag Sameach!

In every generation we are obligated to look at ourselves as if we have gone from slavery to freedom. This year it is a little easier to imagine having little control over our own lives. And as before, we will emerge free.

I wish all my readers and their families a wonderful Passover, a chag kosher v'sameach, and a very healthy and happy holiday.

(I will not be blogging from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday night.)

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.

04/08 Links Pt2: Pres. Rivlin: Passover reminds us that the Jewish people are all one family; Melanie Phillips: The story Jews repeat on Passover is the secret of their survival

From Ian:

Rivlin: Passover reminds us that the Jewish people are all one family

President Reuven Rivlin addressed the State of Israel and Jewish communities around the world before the Passover holiday, as many communities prepare to celebrate the holiday in lockdown.

"Dear Israelis, this year we will mark Seder night in difficult circumstances because of the ‘corona plague’, the modern affliction that casts a dark shadow on us all," said Rivlin in a Hebrew video. "Suddenly, we realize how important the simple things that make up our daily lives are to us. Simple things like going outside, and breathing the spring air which is always part of Pesach; like the bustling and hurrying – that are so Israeli – of the preparations for the holiday; and like the gathering of the family, loved and familiar, together around the Pesach table."

"Suddenly, when we are faced with ‘social distancing’, closures and isolation at homes, we feel even more clearly importance of the obligation to ‘tell the story to your children’, of passing on the story from generation to generation, from grandparents to children to grandchildren to great-grandchildren. This is our story, our anchor, what binds us together – even when we need to be apart," added Rivlin.

The president stressed that it is still a holiday and "despite it all" we will get ready for the Passover seder and "tell the story to those who are sitting with us as well as to those who are no less close, but need to celebrate the holiday with us from afar."

"In these days, my dear ones, we are all praying, together or separately, young and old, secular and religious, for the better days ahead. We all ask ‘remember the covenant of our forefathers’. Chag Pesach Sameach, a happy Pesach. To next year, together. Am Yisrael Chai, the Jewish people lives,” concluded the president.

A beautiful and heartfelt #Pesach message from #Israel's @PresidentRuvi to Jewish communities around the world, many of whom will not be able to celebrate the #Passover Seder with their loved ones tonight due to #CoronaVirus. pic.twitter.com/KlDyTtZpOq
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 8, 2020

Natan Sharansky: We will join forces and overcome this, together

Israel is a center of Jewish life, and a much safer, better-prepared society to handle world challenges. Now we need to think about how Israel can help the New York Jewish community, which is in a tough situation. In dangerous times, there is no place safer than Israel. In the past, when the plague struck Europe, millions died -- almost a third of Europe's population.

There were Jewish communities that were destroyed because people blamed them for the plague. The world has moved on, but even today there are some who blame the Jews for the current plague, and even say they are making money off it. This is a reminder to us all that prejudice does not die out. We need to be aware of it, and we must not stop our battle against anti-Semitism, whether it is aimed at Israel or at the Jews of the world.

As a former prisoner of Zion, I remember celebrating seder in solitary confinement. There were three slices of bread, three glasses of water, and a little salt. I decided that the warm water was wine, the dry bread was matza, and the salt was the bitter herbs. I tried to remember every sentence in the Haggada, and what I couldn't, I made up. "Next year in Jerusalem" was a very powerful sentence for me. I felt that I was with the rest of the Jewish people, on the right path. Then, Passover was a good opportunity to know just how much we weren't giving in and were continuing our battle.

I believe we will come out of this crisis stronger because we handled it correctly. The government made the right decisions before other countries did. It's important that we come out of this crisis more united, with a unity government.

A happy, healthy Passover to everyone, with much confidence in our role and our path.

Israelis Mark Passover, a Celebration of Freedom, in Virtual Isolation

The Jewish Passover holiday typically draws crowds of Israelis outside to burn heaps of leavened bread, commemorating the Biblical exodus from slavery in Egypt.

But on Wednesday a tightened coronavirus lockdown meant the streets of Jerusalem and other cities were nearly empty on the first day of the week-long holiday, when they would normally be dotted with fires and columns of smoke.

Israel this week imposed special holiday restrictions to try to halt the spread of the disease.

Jews may only celebrate the traditional “Seder” meal that kicks off the April 8-15 holiday season with immediate family.

And travel between cities is banned until Friday, with roadblocks erected at main junctions leading from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv.

A full curfew was due to take effect on Wednesday at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), just before the Seder begins, and will last until Thursday morning. This prompted a dash for last-minute shopping, which saw long lines of Israelis wearing face masks outside grocery stores.

Some areas found workarounds to keep festive traditions alive in a month that will also see Christians celebrate Easter and Muslims mark the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

It’s almost Pesach, when the thoughts of Jewish bloggers turn to plagues and freedom. Plagues we certainly have. In addition to the coronavirus, Africa (and possibly the Middle East) is about to experience one of the paradigmatic Biblical plagues, swarming locusts.

We have freedom, too. Leaving aside the corona-related restrictions – which are becoming significantly more severe in Israel around the holiday – Jews in Israel are among the most free peoples in the world. For example, academic freedom is almost unlimited, as illustrated by this article in the wonderful English Edition of Ha’aretz, in which seditious Ben Gurion University professor Neve Gordon argues that the coming impact of coronavirus in Gaza will be Israel’s fault. He’s right that there are few test kits and ventilators there, insufficient hospital beds, and countless other deficiencies that, if the virus spreads widely there, will prove deadly. But of course he’s wrong about whose fault it is.

Recently, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar threatened that if Israel doesn’t give Gaza ventilators, they would take them by force and “stop the breathing of 6 million Israelis (apparently he means only the Jewish ones, since there are 8 million if you count Arabs).”

Gaza certainly doesn’t lack money. Europe, Turkey, and Qatar continue to send aid and invest in projects there. Israeli officials estimate that between 2014 and 2017 Hamas spent about $120 million on tunnels (which have now been neutralized by an even more expensive Israeli project of an anti-tunnel barrier along the border). That’s equivalent to quite a bit of medical equipment. And that’s just tunnels. It doesn’t include the rockets and the villas, malls, and resorts of the Hamas leadership.

Gordon says that Israel has “occupied” Gaza for 40 years, and “continues to control its borders.” His definition of “occupation” is strange, since normally you have to be present somewhere in order to occupy it; but leaving this aside, Israel does not limit the ingress of most medical equipment and supplies to Gaza. It’s true that some electronic equipment is considered “dual use,” (civilian and military) and therefore requires special permission to be imported. But that is a question of extra time, not prohibition. The rules about dual-use items came about from bitter experience, after (for example) chunks of metal pipe imported from Israel returned home in the form of Qassams, and steel rebar ended up reinforcing concrete tunnels.

The biggest hospital in Gaza, al-Shifa Hospital – which boasts a Hamas military command center in its basement – was built by the British in 1946 and was Gaza’s only hospital until after 1948. It was greatly expanded and renovated by Israel during the period 1967-1993. Other hospitals were built with money from various foreign sources (indeed, I haven’t found evidence of any hospitals built by Hamas; if anyone knows of any, please comment).

Gordon refers to the “de-development” of Gaza, a concept attributed to the deranged misozionist Harvard “scholar” Sara Roy. It is certainly true that the conditions of life in Gaza have deteriorated recently – they were much better in the 1967-1993 period than before or after – but the simple and correct explanation that this is due to the diversion of resources away from the welfare of the general population and toward weapons and infrastructure, as well as the enrichment of the Hamas elite, escapes him.

Gordon insists that Arabs in “occupied” Gaza don’t have freedom. But their leaders are doing exactly what they want. Does anyone doubt for a moment that if, through some miracle, they would stop trying to kill us, Israel wouldn’t fall over herself trying to improve the lives of the people there?

Gordon has been fighting against the State of Israel for years while living in it and working at a state-supported university (he is currently on sabbatical in London, but he retains his position in Israel). And we let him do it.

Here are a few short takes on other important freedoms that we have in Israel:

What about freedom of the press? Yes, Israel has military censorship, which sometimes unjustifiably holds up the publication of embarrassing facts. But Israel also has (in Ha’aretz, naturally), Gideon Levy, the anti-Jewish Jewish journalist. Can anybody imagine what would happen to a Russian Gideon Levy? Actually, we don’t need to imagine – the dangers of being a journalist in Russia are well known (to be fair, Russian journalists are as often murdered by local hoods as by the government).

Israel also shines in the area of freedom of religion. The Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, is accessible to Jews through one entrance for limited hours. Jews (and Christians) are not permitted to bring any “religious objects,” and are subject to arrest if they are caught praying, which can include moving one’s lips or even crying (I recommend that you read the link to get the full flavor of the situation). If they are thirsty, they may not drink from the water faucets on site, which are reserved for Muslims to wash themselves.

Muslims, on the other hand, have several entrances available, and unless there is tension related to terrorism, unlimited hours during which they can visit. They can pray, and sometimes Arab kids play soccer there. Freedom.

Now consider freedom to bear arms. That is an interesting one. It is hard for a private citizen to get a pistol permit, and long guns are almost unheard of in civilian hands. But almost every male Jewish Israeli between the ages of 19 and 40 has the right, more correctly the obligation, to take a month out of his life every year and, er, bear arms (when I was here in the 1980s, it was six weeks a year until age 55). And that is in addition to two years of mandatory service, which women also serve.

But what about Arabs? Although Druze and Bedouin citizens serve in the IDF, most Arab citizens are not required to do so. But – here Israel proves to be special again – illegal weapons are rife in Israel’s Arab towns. Even automatic weapons. So they can bear arms whenever they want to, and are not limited to one month a year.

The American Bill of Rights includes the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure. And in Israel you have nothing to worry about – unless someone claims you owe them money! If that happens, they have recourse to a system called hotza’a lefoal by which a creditor can lock up a debtor’s bank account, make it impossible for them to leave the country, and charge outrageous fees and interest. But as long as you pay your cellphone bills and don’t have an angry ex-spouse, you have nothing to worry about.

So you see, here in Israel we have so much freedom that we can afford to give it to academics and writers who take the side of our enemies, to Muslims who deny our right to worship at our holy places, to members of the various Arab mafias, and to mobile phone providers.

We have so much freedom, in fact, that we don’t need the more traditional plagues.

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Followup on International Crisis Group's error-ridden story blaming Israel for Gaza

Last week, I showed that a report by the International Crisis Group NGO seemed to knowingly misrepresent the facts about medical aid Israel allows into Gaza.

A tweeter, Inquisitive Native, published a thread that exposed far more lies in the report that was retweeted by influential figures.

The report hasn't been corrected, which makes one wonder about the integrity and honesty of the International Crisis Group. It is acting far more like Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge any errors let alone correct them, and far less like a truly apolitical independent NGO.

A quick look at its officers shows that there is nothing apolitical about the ICG.

It is headed by Robert Malley, one of Obama's architects of the policy to weaken America's allies and strengthen its enemies. He has a long history of anti-Israel writings, and was the main proponent of the theory rejected by everyone at Camp David and Taba that it was Israel that was at fault for the failed peace negotiations with the Palestinians. He has met with Hamas several times from his earlier tenure at ICG and there are reports that he has met Hamas within recent months. His father was a key figure in Egypt's Communist Party.

And it looks like ICG was co-founded and funded by George Soros, who funds every single anti-Israel organization he can find.

No wonder it is not willing to correct its falsehoods. It never meant to be accurate to begin with.

(h/t David A)

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04/08 Links Pt1: Israeli COVID-19 treatment shows 100% survival rate; 7 more virus deaths bring toll to 72; In New York, the Distance Between Life and Death Grows Shorter

From Ian:

7 more virus deaths bring toll to 72; 10 are from Beersheba elder care facility

Israel reported seven new deaths from the coronavirus Wednesday, bringing the number of fatalities in the country from COVID-19 to 72.

At Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, a 97-year-old man and a 96-year-old man died.

According to Hebrew media reports, the two were residents of the Mishan assisted living facility in the southern city, raising the number of people from there who died of the virus to 10.

Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv announced the death of two men, a 77 and 75-year-old.

Another victim, a 67-year-old woman, had numerous preexisting conditions, according to Rambam Medical Center. Her husband was also sick and hospitalized elsewhere, though it was unclear from reports whether he also was infected with the virus.

The other fatality was a 85-year-old man being treated at HaEmek Medical Center in the northern city of Afula.

The man, who suffered from preexisting diseases, was a resident of the Yokra assisted living facility in the northern town of Yavne’el. He was the third resident of the facility to die, the Ynet news site reported.

The seventh fatality was a 90-year-old woman who died at Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

In New York, the Distance Between Life and Death Grows Shorter

For the city’s Jews, community has become a source of both danger and protection. Crown Heights, Williamsburg, and Borough Park are places where everyone knows and sees everyone else. “You can look at it as one big giant family that lost so many members,” Labin says of his neighborhood. For many, daily life is organized around spending time with a group of at least 10 people three times a day. The coronavirus preys on such tightknit places, and yet cohesion is also a line of defense. In Crown Heights, an organization of local Jewish medical professionals set up a help line early in the crisis and has now conducted an extensive survey tracking the virus’ impact among the area’s Chabad Hasidim.

March and April are the giving season in religious communities—charitable fundraising drives are often built around the upcoming Passover holiday. In every neighborhood, there are existing volunteer and charitable organizations, many of which are now under intense strain. The economic crisis means that former donors are now recipients. In a normal year everyone would give something if they could, as Alex Rapaport, director of the Masbia soup kitchen explained. Rapaport mentioned a neighbor of his who installs kitchen equipment for a living and is usually busy in the runup to Passover. The coronavirus has effectively put him out of work. “Last year he gave to the Pesach campaigns. This year he’s on line at the soup kitchens.” Rapaport says that demand for Masbia’s services is at roughly five times its normal levels and that the organization is distributing $100,000 worth of food every day, much of it to people who aren’t Jewish. “We’re actually giving matzo to people in seven different languages. There are lots of immigrants on line from many different countries of the world, and they can have matzo for the first time.”

Masbia will halt distributions over Passover. By then, Rapaport says, “There isn’t going to be a single piece of food in our facility.”

Supply isn’t Rapaport’s biggest problem, though—it’s labor. People are getting sick at a time when additional assistance is required to scale up operations. A shrinking pool of workers and volunteers is an issue throughout Jewish charitable organizations. The need is increasing while capacity rapidly contracts.

“Right now, our volunteers are at a very low number,” says Goldie Deutsch, coordinator for the Satmar Bikur Cholim of Borough Park. In normal times, Bikur Cholim maintains stockpiles of free kosher food and other such supplies in New York-area hospitals. Now that hospitals are closed to visitors, Deutsch and her volunteers have mostly been delivering food to coronavirus patients and their families. They are struggling to keep up. “We get a lot of phone calls for shiva houses,” says Deutsch. “People are sitting shiva and they need food. People are overwhelmed, but we have to use a thousand-times bigger word than overwhelmed ... We feel helpless. And in our organization we were taught from our cradle: Never say no. No matter where we are financially, we can never say no. “

One organization that has seen an especially wrenching jump in need is Links, which assists children in the Orthodox community who have lost a parent. Last week, Sarah Rivkah Kohn, the organization’s Borough Park-based founder and director, explained that 21 new families had approached her group in the previous 10 days, which is the number it would see during a typical four-to-five-month period. Since the crisis began, Kohn has conducted Zoom video sessions with preschool-age kids and received phone calls from children who got her number second- or third-hand.

“This kind of grieving is a very different kind of grieving,” Kohn explained. There’s the enormity of the disaster, suddenness of the disease, and the cruel impossibility of a normal shiva and funeral. “There is a sense that this just spun out of control so quickly, so fast. My father or my mother were just here, and now they're not.” Kohn anticipates that her organization’s budgeting for therapy will have to dramatically increase, although the impact of the crisis is too vast to measure right now. “It’s a very unique and different kind of loss ... It’s just something where we don’t have the answers yet.”

Morocco’s Tiny Jewish Community Hit Hard by Coronavirus, With 11 Dead

Morocco’s tiny Jewish community has taken a major hit from the coronavirus pandemic, with 11 members from the community of less than 2,000 people dying of the disease so far.

Most of Morocco’s once-thriving Jewish population fled the country beginning in 1948, moving largely to Israel and France.

The Israeli news site N12 reported on Wednesday that the latest community member to be taken was Yemin Peretz, 74, who passed away on Tuesday at a hospital in Casablanca, a week after his wife Simone and son Ari died of the virus. Ari’s wife Pascal Peretz is also in serious condition and is on a respirator at a hospital.

The four victims are relatives of Israel’s Labor party leader Amir Peretz.

“The blows fall on us one after the other,” a member of the Casablanca Jewish community said. “Almost every day there is a funeral for someone from the community who died from corona.”

“We have not yet recovered from the death of Ari and Simone, and yesterday the father Yemin also passed away,” he added. “They were the mainstays of the community, contributed greatly and helped a multitude of people. We pray that Pascal will survive.”

“We’re also such a very small community,” he said.

It is believed that the heavy toll is the result of a large Purim party attended by hundreds of people who had also been at a wedding a few days before with a person infected with the coronavirus.

The president of the Jewish community sent a letter to all members telling them not to leave their homes during the Passover holiday.

No, the US Defense Department did NOT procure a million face masks for Israel. The @JPost screwed up a translation.

The Jerusalem Post reported early this morning this headline:

A plane carrying over a million surgical masks for the IDF landed in Ben-Gurion airport Tuesday night, in an operation run by the US Department of Defense's Delegation of Procurement.

Predictably, and understandably, the anti-Israel crowd went crazy over the idea that the US was giving much-needed protection equipment to Israel rather than to local hospitals that desperately need them.

A few hours later, without explanation, the Jerusalem Post changed the story:

A plane carrying over a million surgical masks for the IDF landed in Ben-Gurion Airport Tuesday night, in an operation aimed to protect soldiers on the frontlines of preventing the spread of the coronavirus.

What happened? Did the censor pull the story?

No. The Jerusalem Post screwed up royally. They mistranslated, or used Google Translate, a story in Hebrew - possibly this one - where the phrase "In a procurement initiative of the Ministry of Defence’s procurement mission in the United States" was turned into "US Department of Defense's Delegation of Procurement." ..."בפעילות משלחת הרכש של משרד הביטחון בארה"ב"

The haters, being who they are, will never admit that they widely pushed a false story.

But newspapers like The Jerusalem Post need to be more cognizant of how a mistake on their side can prompt a wave of anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment, with hundreds of retweets from people who want to incite against the Jewish state.

(h/t TT)

UPDATE:

JVP @jvplive acknowledged the mistranslation - but says that Israel buying masks, with its OWN money, for its OWN first responders, is "morally wrong."

Let the Jews die.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is the "morality" of the anti-Israel mamzerim. pic.twitter.com/Kj0dKOevTl
— Elder of Ziyon 🇮🇱 (@elderofziyon) April 8, 2020

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Iranian opposition estimates nearly 20,000 COVID-19 deaths in Iran so far

There have been stories about Iran vastly under-reporting the number of coronavirus illnesses and deaths since the beginning of the breakout there. Now opposition officials have announced that the actual number of deaths from coronavirus in Iran is approaching 20,000, much higher than the official toll of 3,872.

Even worse, Iran is planning to bring people back to work and even restart sporting events in the next two weeks, despite evidence that the worst is not over yet.

In recent days, at least one Iranian official has come forward to disclose publicly just how inaccurate the Islamic Republic’s statistics truly are. In a recent interview with the official IRNA news agency, Hamid Souri, a member of Iran’s official National Coronavirus Combat Taskforce, laid out that the latest estimates suggest some 500,000 Iranians may actually be suffering from the disease, and that new outbreaks are expected in hotspot regions like Tehran, Khorasan Razavi, West Azarbaijan, Bushehr, Khuzestan, Kermanshah, and Semnan. "The coronavirus curve has not flattened in any of the country's 31 provinces," Souri concluded.

As with every other autocratic regime from Russia to China to Syria, one cannot believe their coronavirus figures. And organizations and governments believing those figures can endanger everyone, by allowing trade and interactions that they might otherwise avoid. One can imagine, for example, Iran or China pushing to ramp up trade with Africa now, and Africa has been comparatively spared the worst of COVID-19 with fewer deaths there than in just Louisiana. A single visitor in either direction could potentially begin infecting thousands.

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Hamas counts many more terror attacks in March than the Shin Bet does

The coronavirus has helped decrease the number of terror attacks in Israel significantly. Here is the Shin Bet's summary for March, where the number of attacks plummeted to 89 from February's 332:

But Hamas claims that by its count, there were 522 attacks in March in the West Bank alone!

Resistance operations continued in the occupied West Bank during the month of March, and these operations varied between shooting, armed clashes, attempted stabbing, detonating explosive devices, and throwing Molotov cocktails against the enemy army and usurpers.

A periodic report issued by the media department of Hamas in the occupied West Bank monitored the continuation of the resistance operations in the month of March 2020, when the West Bank witnessed 522 resistance actions, including 30 major operations, which resulted in the injury of 10 Zionists from usurpers and enemy army soldiers, The highest was in Jerusalem, where 5 Zionists were injured.

Shin Bet counts five injuries - four slight and one moderate.

Here is a rare case where Israel's enemies from the Left would not adopt Hamas' statistics over Israel's, because they want Palestinians to appear nonviolent. This argument loses its power when Hamas itself is bragging about attacks and wants to make itself look better politically - and attacks on Jews fill the bill.

But Israel's enemies still figure out a way to spin their own terror attacks - because Israel has the audacity to arrest them:

No idea if the number is even remotely true, as the source is "local humam (sic) rights associations."

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04/07 Links Pt2: Jews have always been blamed for plagues - coronavirus is no different; ‘The Guardian’ calls Trump a Nazi and Jews his enablers; Latma 2020 Eps 3

From Ian:

Jews have always been blamed for plagues - coronavirus is no different

This is why the attacks that come from both left and right, and from both Islamists and fascists (though the latter are in fact easy bedfellows in their toxicity and extremity) are so identical in form and tone. As I wrote in The Spectator last month, coronavirus is a boon to the propagandist because of its immense malleability. Because it’s invisible, it can take on the face of any enemy your narrative – be it left, right, Jihadist or fascist – needs. You can project onto it what you will. And people do and are, in their droves.

Still, we must remember that this is not the Middle Ages. Jews are being blamed (by some) for the virus, they are not being hurt or killed en masse for it. When China’s perceived responsibility for coronavirus means Asian Americans are being assaulted on a daily basis, a sense of moral perspective is required.

What the contemporary moment does show is that while hatreds often evolve or at least mutate, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes they just metastasize. The Jews no longer poison wells to spread the plague; they engineer it in biolabs. The Devil doesn’t give them immunity from it, Mossad does.

It is easy to dismiss all this as nonsense. I would suggest that this is an error. Coronavirus has shrunk the world’s attention to a degree previously unseen in our lifetimes. People are looking for answers – and once again, scapegoats. This will continue long after we come out of isolation and even after a vaccine is found (should those dates be different). Narratives of Jewish or Zionist culpability now threaten in ways they previously did not. Across the Middle East and in pockets of the West these ideas are the epistemological backdrop to everyday life: their hatred is leavened by their banality. If these societies suffer mass deaths the hatred will remain, the banality will not.

Almost three years ago a man shot up a DC Pizzeria because he believed online reports that Hillary Clinton was operating a paedophile ring out of it. It was the perfect embrace of the sinister and the absurd. Now false reports rise once more. The time of coronavirus is a time of fear and paranoia. If the death count rises it is just a matter of time before acts of violence against Jews rise along with it. And as the cliché goes, what starts with Jews never ends with Jews. The world must resist this poison, and resist it now, for all our sakes.

Anti-Semitism rages during coronavirus

Faceless anti-Semitic vandalism has been unimpeded by requests that people remain at home to contain COVID-19’s spread. On March 28, just days after Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan closed all nonessential businesses and “urged Marylanders to…stay home,” an unknown man ventured out at around 1:30 a.m. to deface the Rockville, Maryland, Tikvat Israel Congregation synagogue with swastikas and other hateful graffiti. Anti-Semitic and racist graffiti was also discovered in two locations in Bedford, Massachusetts, on Saturday. Massachusetts residents were asked to “do their part … and stay home” starting March 24.

With the recent global rise in anti-Semitism, it should come as no surprise that coronavirus-related anti-Semitism has not been confined to the U.S., but is found across the world and throughout the political spectrum. The Anti-Defamation League reports specific incidents of COVID-19-linked anti-Semitism emanating from far-right groups in France and Switzerland, government-sponsored sources in Iran and Turkey, and far-left groups in Spain and Venezuela.

Jews control the banks.
Jews control the media.
Jews control the weather.
And NOW Jews control viruses.

When do we have time to sleep?? 😂 pic.twitter.com/EMLFZITaGG
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) March 18, 2020

A reminder of the anti-Semitic tragedies that united Americans in December 2019 briefly pierced the coronavirus news cycle last week. On March 29, 72-year-old Josef Neumann died from the serious brain injuries he sustained on December 28, when anti-Semitic attacker Grafton Thomas used an 18-inch machete to attack Jews gathered for Hanukkah at the home of a rabbi in Monsey, New York.

A week after Neumann was attacked, his youngest daughter opined that his family “hope[s] he wakes to a changed world with peace, unity, and love for all.”

Though the momentum of the fight against anti-Semitism has flagged since the start of 2020, the hatred itself continues, fueled by the contortions of those whose impassioned hatred of Jews and the Jewish state of Israel knows no bounds. In honor of Neumann’s untimely passing, and in pursuit of a “changed world,” people of all backgrounds must reinvigorate their important battle against a dangerous and pervasive prejudice. (h/t Zvi)

Commentary Magazine Podcast: The Pandemic in Israel

American-Israeli journalist Ruthie Blum joins the podcast to discuss how the Coronavirus pandemic has reshaped Israeli society and politics.

Latma 2020, Corona Days, Episode 3

Our health correspondent explains the statistics on the statistics, Gantz’s voice changes and our favorite, Tawil Fadiha, in his first interview this season

COVID-19 has taken over the headlines. But that doesn’t mean that the anti-Israel crowd won’t exploit the situation for their own benefit. B’Tselem, for instance, put pressure on Israel to stop the scheduled demolition of illegal, inhabited Arab homes in Area C for the duration of the coronavirus lockdown.

Now it’s true that you don’t want to turn people out of their homes right now. But these people knew full well when they built their homes (likely with help from the EU), that they were building without permission. That the structures are illegal. And that the homes might end up being demolished by the Israeli government.

The homeowners, moreover, would have received ample warning that the buildings were slated for demolition. They had time to make other arrangements for housing. The fact that they did not do so until now was due to the hope of becoming the next headline in the anti-Israel press (which is most of the media). Or rather, that was the hope of the EU, whose wide pockets fund much of this illegal construction.

Note the EU logo, on prominent display on these illegal structures and associated infrastructure.

The headlines are actually the lesser goal of the rampant and widespread illegal building going on in Area C. The primary goal is to create facts on the ground by building homes for Arabs in uninhabited parts of Area C, something that is illegal according to the Oslo Accords without proper permits from the Israeli government. This illegal Arab building in Area C is the true illegal settlement going on in Israel today and it is absolutely a land grab. They’re building to create a de facto Arab state on territory under the jurisdiction of the Jewish State. Right under Israel’s nose.

The Israeli courts, meantime, make the process of stopping the building way complicated, so the proceedings drag on at length. But lengthy court proceedings mean that by the time a building has been scheduled to be demolished, there’s been plenty of warning that the structure is to come down. The residents have had time to pack and acquire alternate accommodations. That means that the global pandemic is just an excuse to continue the takeover of Area C.

You might think that with the coronavirus going on, the courts and the IDF would find it a relief to suspend the demolitions for now, that resources are strained at the moment. But the fact is that the demolitions have been ongoing, and soldiers for the most part, are available for the work. The army is keeping many soldiers on base without even sending them home on leave for the Passover holiday, in order to avoid spreading corona all around the country. This means that there is no earthly reason the work of the IDF, in this case the demolition of illegal structures in Area C, cannot continue. In fact, in addition to protecting the Israeli people, it is the primary duty of Israeli soldiers to protect Jewish land.

As more illegal homes are built in Area C, it makes it easy for anti-Israel bodies like the UN, to claim the land as “Palestinian” and to accuse Israel of the oppression and occupation of the illegal Arab residents. In other words, the homes, built largely with EU money, become another reason to bash Israel, and take away its land for the Arab Umma. This is specifically why scheduled demolitions should continue, even during an epidemic.

But Israeli courts were between a rock and a hard place: allow the land grab to continue, or hand the Arabs a different sort of victory: victimhood status, with Jews in the role of villain. Which is precisely why the demolitions should continue as scheduled. B’Tselem and the EU win no matter what Israel does. They may even prefer their Arab political pawns be made homeless during a global pandemic. Makes for much better headlines.

But Israel has already lost the media war. So why should we care what they say about us? We might as well hold onto our land.

Chag Kasher V’Sameach.

Stay safe!

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I discussed how dismissive IfNotNow was about Sheldon Adelson's generous decision to fully pay all his employees for two months of staying home. I estimate that his decision is costing between $100-$200 million, not counting his bringing in 2 million face-masks from China.

I also saw this graphic being passed around loony Left Twitter, with Jeff Bezos being targeted presumably because he was not being as good in taking care of his employees - who are all still employed - as he should be.

But Bezos also donated $100 million to food banks to help feed people during this crisis.

What has George Soros, the main benefactor of Leftist causes, done to alleviate the troubles of the victims of the pandemic?

The only thing I can find is that Soros gave $1 million each to the cities of Milan and Budapest to help them fight the coronavirus.

That's it. $2 million. Compared to the other billionaires like Adelson, Bezos, Bill Gates (hundreds of millions, potentially billions) and Mark Zuckerberg ($25 million plus $20 million), Soros' gifts seem positively skimpy.

So where are the snarky TikTok videos and graphics about Soros? After all, his $2 million represents 0.0024% of his net worth. It sure doesn't seem overly generous, especially compared to other billionaires.

If rich people are assumed to be evil greedy capitalists by the far-Left, then their patron saint seems to be the worst of the bunch from the information that is public so far.

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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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