Maj.-Gen. Itzik Turgeman, head of the IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate, said that 81% of army personnel have either been vaccinated or recovered from the virus.

JERUSALEM POST
Israeli military says its the first army in the world with herd immunity
by Udi Shaham
March 11, 2021

The IDF has become the first military in the world protected from COVID-19 with herd immunity due to a successful vaccine operation. Some 81% of the army personnel have either been vaccinated or recovered from the novel coronavirus, Maj.-Gen. Itzik Turgeman, head of the IDF Technological and Logistics Directorate, told reporters on Thursday. “We are at the end of the vaccination operation,” Turgeman said…Turgeman added that he estimates that the IDF will reach 85% immunity by next week. The IDF’s Medical Corp commander, Brig.-Col. Prof. Elon Glazberg, said that this achievement allows the IDF to start returning to its pre-corona routine. READ MORE

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“So malevolent and false are these claims that they make this Op-Ed in the Forward perhaps the most dishonest account of Israel’s vaccination program that has appeared in the mainstream, English-language press”

CAMERA BLOG
Forward Publishes Egregious Lie About Israeli Vaccinations
March 9, 2021

Sari Bashi says she is “dismayed” that Israel distributes and withholds COVID-19 vaccines according to ethnicity. This charge of ethnic discrimination is the central premise of her March 8 Op-Ed in the Forward, which argues that Jews, because they’re Jews, get the vaccine, while other ethnic groups, because they’re not, do not…The charge that Israel withholds live-saving resources from those who aren’t Jewish, moreover, not only echoes the ancient blood libel that accused Jews of the ritualistic killing of non-Jews, but also fuels the antisemitic slur that Jews care only about their own kind. In fact — and it is an uncontroversial fact — Israel vaccinates its citizens without regard to ethnicity. It vaccinates its Jews. It vaccinates members of the country’s large Arab minority, which numbers nearly two million. It vaccinates its Circassian and Samaritan citizens. And it vaccinates citizens of any other ethnicity. READ MORE

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“Heads of major vaccine producers say they expect Israeli data to help the rest of the world beat COVID-19”

ARUTZ SHEVA
Pfizer execs thank Israel for data
by Shlomo Witty
March 11, 2021

Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer revealed tonight (Thursday) why Israel was the first to receive a significant inventory of vaccines against COVID-19.”We knew it would be good for humanity if we chose one country where we could demonstrate what the complete vaccination of the population could contribute to the health of its people, and also to the economy – because the economy could be reopened,” Bourla said in an interview with Channel 12. “Of course I talked to several heads of state, including Netanyahu, and he convinced me that Israel is a place with the right conditions for an experiment. I was impressed by your prime minister’s obsession – he called me 30 times.” READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Restaurants fully booked as Israelis flock back after year of restrictions Some places reporting 10-day waiting lists for a spot; credit card use jumps after eateries, cafes reopen

ALGEMEINER ‘South Park’ Special Episode Pokes Fun at Israeli Vaccine Drive Israel’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign arrived in Colorado Wednesday night during an hourlong special of the long-running ‘South Park’ cartoon. The episode, ‘South ParQ Vaccination Special’, took on QAnon conspiracy theories and the struggle to vaccinate the fictional town’s population against the coronavirus. 

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Hamas and Islamic Jihad “see Soleimani as a hero because of his role in providing the Gaza-based terror groups with cash and weapons in order to continue their jihad against Israel and Jews”

GATESTONE
Palestinians: Why Terrorists Support Mass Murderers
by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 12, 2021

While many Palestinians hold Iran’s slain military commander Qassem Soleimani responsible for committing massacres against Palestinians and Arabs, especially in war-torn Syria, the Palestinian Islamist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are continuing to heap praise on him for supporting their anti-Israel terrorist activities. Soleimani, former commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was killed in a US drone attack in Iraq on January 3, 2020. Many Palestinians and Arabs have denounced Soleimani as the “murderer of hundreds of thousands of women and children” in Syria, Yemen and Iraq. The Iran-backed Hamas and Islamic Jihad have marked the anniversary of his death by hanging large billboards with Soleimani’s picture in some areas of the Gaza Strip. READ MORE

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FIDF launches new bi-weekly show

FIDF live, a project by the friends of the IDF, launches a new biweekly show, hosted by Joel Chasnoff, a former lone soldier himsel

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EVENT: Yishai Fleisher and Benjamin Anthony talk Judea

MIRYAM INSTITUTE
presents
Settle for More: The Future of the Jewish Presence in Judea
Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 9am PDT, 11am CDT, 12noon EDT, 7pm IT
with
Yishai Fleisher, International Spokesperson, Jewish Community of Hebron
and
Benjamin Anthony, Co-Founder and CEO, the MirYam Institute

Click here to RSVP

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“The most consequential effect of open immigration and lax criminal enforcement is to undermine the safe, stable environment law-abiding citizens need to go about their lives, free from predation”

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Predictable Train Wrecks on Crime and Immigration
by Professor Charles Lipson
March 11, 2021

If you think really hard, perhaps you can imagine more disastrous policies than throwing open our country’s southern border and abandoning criminal-law enforcement in city after city. The consequences are already emerging, and they are grim. It is important to examine them without ideological blinders so we can change course before more damage is done. Our border policies are national fiats handed down by the Biden administration. The abandonment of criminal enforcement, by contrast, is a local decision, made by supine city councils and district attorneys, many of them “social justice Democrats” backed by progressive elites and Black Lives Matter. READ MORE

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“There’s a cruel irony to this election: To win, each leader must cannibalize his own camp. But go too far and you hand the election to the other side”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
In final push, Netanyahu and Lapid turn on their own camps
by Haviv Rettig Gur
March 10, 2021

…Two months ago, Netanyahu’s Likud was running an upbeat campaign focused on the vaccination campaign and national unity, a campaign that sought to unify the broader pro-Netanyahu camp and push it over the 61-seat threshold to become, for the first time in two years, a parliamentary majority.In his race toward that majority, Netanyahu engineered the union of Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit on his rightist flank to ensure neither party fell below the 3.25 percent vote threshold and lost tens of thousands of voters for the right. He produced a new loyalty pledge that he asked Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism to sign on to — as a signal to right-wing challenger Gideon Sa’ar that he won’t be able to rely on the Haredi parties to piece together a coalition without Netanyahu. READ MORE

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“Barack Obama’s plan was never about stopping Iran from obtaining a bomb. It was about realigning American interests in the Middle East in order to remake the Democratic Party at home”

TABLET MAG
The Iran Deal’s Inevitable Sequel
by Lee Smith
March 10, 2021

…And here’s how anyone who was paying attention during the first iteration of the Iran deal debate knew the JCPOA was never about stopping Iran from getting the bomb­­: The key clauses of the agreement restraining Iran’s nuclear and nonnuclear activities were in no way permanent. In fact, they were specifically designed to expire over time. Had the deal been built to prevent Iran from a nuclear breakout, there would be no so-called “sunset clauses.” In other words, the JCPOA was written to ensure that a well-funded Iran (thanks to the elimination of American and U.N. sanctions), fortified with missing technology (also courtesy of the United States) got the bomb—once Obama was safely out of the White House. READ MORE

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Turkish president believes Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem illegitimate

JNS
Erdoğan again has his eyes set on Jerusalem
by Nadav Shragai
March 1, 2021

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s decision to change the name of the Directorate of Religious Affairs to the “Directorate of Jerusalem and Umrah Affairs” isn’t about semantics but substance. Erdoğan views himself as a successor to the line of Ottoman sultans. He wants to restore the empire of old and sees himself as responsible for Jerusalem from the Islamic perspective…From Erdoğan’s point of view, Jerusalem is “under occupation,” is of utmost importance after Mecca and Medina, and should be part of the “Umrah” (the “regular” Muslim pilgrimage throughout the year, unlike the Hajj). READ MORE

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