By The Times of Israel— Officials from the National Security Council and Defense Ministry are reportedly set to meet on Wednesday night to discuss a lockdown from the eve of Memorial Day on April 27th until the end of Independence Day on April 29th. Defense officials are concerned about crowding at cemeteries where bereaved families…
By Bassam Tawil, Gatestone Institute— The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) claims that it is on the “frontlines of responding to COVID-19,” and its officials are appealing for donations to help Palestinian refugees in the Middle East. According to an UNRWA statement from April 5: “UNRWA is doing its part to flatten…
By Jacob Nagel and Jonathan Schanzer, Jerusalem Post—- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was among the first world leaders to understand the dangers of the coronavirus. He locked down the country in an attempt to halt the spread of the virus. Even so, the country’s economy has been hammered by the pandemic. The economic slowdown has…
By Associated Press— Israel’s president on Sunday turned down a request from Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz for a two-week extension to form a new coalition government. The announcement by President Reuven Rivlin means that Gantz and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have a midnight deadline on Monday night to reach a power-sharing deal.…
By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, JPost— For the first time since the outbreak of the coronavirus in Israel, there has been a decrease in the number of people on ventilators. There were 123 being intubated at 8 a.m. Sunday vs.132 people 24 hours before. However, at press time, the total number was back to 131. While some…
By Michael Freund, Jerusalem Post— In the Great Plague of London in 1665-6, nearly a quarter of the city’s population perished, while the Third Plague Pandemic, which struck beginning in 1855, led to more than 1 million deaths in China and over 10 million in India. Sadly, there are numerous other instances as well. But…
By Israel Today— Jerusalem, while small in geographical size, is a wildly diverse city, making its administration all the more difficult during times of national crisis like we are now experiencing amid the coronavirus pandemic. As a partial solution to the balagan (as we call such chaotic situations in Hebrew), the Jerusalem Municipality has effectively…
By Itay Blumenthal, Ynetnews— Dozens of passengers traveling from the United States were allowed entry to Israel on Thursday, despite regulations requiring any non-nationals to enter a 14-day quarantine at a state-run facility. It is the second time in days that such a breach has happened. According to health regulations that came into effect overnight…
By JPost— The curfew and other restrictions imposed on all Israelis to slow the spread of the coronavirus over the Passover holiday are supposed to be lifted Friday at 6 a.m. But at press time, as the number of Israelis infected with the novel virus hits 9,968 – 166 in serious condition – and 86…
By Sarah Stern, Emet— “Never underestimate the power of ideas. Philosophical concepts nurtured in the stillness of a professor’s study could destroy a civilization” – Heinrich Heine Among the manifestations of contemporary anti-Semitism are its ubiquitous nature, and its emergence in some of the least expected places. One might expect it, perhaps, in a working-class…