By Melanie Phillips— For the past 12 days I have been under effective house arrest in Jerusalem. That’s because, just over two weeks ago, Israel started requiring everyone arriving in the country, even if they were citizens, to self-isolate for 14 days. Now all foreign visitors with no place of permanent residence are banned. My…
By Jeremy Sharon, Jpost-— Half a million people participated in a mass online prayer event staged on various different digital platforms and involving rabbis and participants from around the world, to request divine intervention to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. The initiative was promoted by the chief rabbis of Israel Rabbis Yitzhak Yosef…
By Adina Katz, World Israel News Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a press conference Wednesday evening at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, stressed the need for citizens to stay at home and follow the lockdown rules amid the rise in the number of people diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus “Citizens of Israel, you know…
By Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, Breaking Israel News— Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shocked Israelis recently when he was quoted as saying that by the end of April, a “million Israelis could be infected with Covid-19 and 10,000 will die.” His office did not deny the statement. Prof. Gabi Barabash, a veteran physician, former director-general of the…
By Tzvi Joffre, JPost— As the coronavirus outbreak continues, Israel’s Chief Rabbi David Lau called on the public to fast at least half a day on Wednesday, which marks the eve of the first day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, according to Srugim. “Difficult days are affecting all of Israel and the entire world,”…
By Maytal Yasur Beit-Or, Ariel Kahana, Israel Hayom— The number of Israeli coronavirus fatalities rose to three on Tuesday, the Health Ministry reported, saying that 1,930 Israelis have been diagnosed with the virus. Malka Keva, 67, who was hospitalized in the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon, a suburb of Tel Aviv succumbed to COVID-19 early…
By Caroline Glick, Jpost— If Blue and White Party leader MK Benny Gantz forms a minority government with Avigdor Liberman’s Israel Beitenu Party and the Labor-Meretz party, based on the outside support of the Joint Arab List, Gantz’s success will torpedo Israel’s relations with the United States. This week, a senior official who was present…
By Khaled Abu Toameh, Gatestone Institute— Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, says it has taken drastic steps to prevent the spread of the coronavirus among the two million Palestinians living under its rule. On March 22, the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health announced the first confirmed cases of…
By Israel Hayom— Israel and the Palestinian Authority have reportedly set up a joint headquarters to combat the coronavirus outbreak, a Palestinian official revealed Wednesday. An Israeli Defense Ministry official confirmed the statement but did not elaborate. “Our shared borders and relations do not leave room for hesitation over the need to take severe measures…
By Arlene Bridges Samuels, Times of Israel— My bookshelf is lined with thrillers about good guys catching bad guys. David Baldacci, Daniel Silva and Brad Thor’s books are among them. Author Joel Rosenberg is on the top of my list right along with them. When I shelved his newest book THE JERUSALEM ASSASSIN next to…