“Veteran Israeli hotelier says hotels must differentiate themselves to attract guests, who will mainly be domestic ‘staycationers’ through next spring”

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL 21C
With Covid killing hotels, flexibility is key to survival
by Abigail Klein Leichman
August 3, 2020

The hospitality industry has been hovering at death’s door since March. Even as hotels slowly and cautiously reopen amid waves of the pandemic, normal is still a distant dream. “The harsh side effects of Covid-19 will remain for several years,” predicts Leon Avigad, founder of Leopard Hospitality and the 50-property Brown Hotels chain rapidly expanding through Israel, Greece, Germany, Croatia and Cyprus. “We’ve actually lost between four and five years,” Avigad said in a July 14 webinar for hotel professionals from 13 countries.“My guess is that 2020 is dead, 2021 will hopefully be balanced out on a GOP [gross operating profit] level, 2022 we will maybe balance out on an NOP [net operating profit] level…READ MORE

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Memo to Seth Rogen: You have an obligation to think before you speak and to have some familiarity with facts before you libel people

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

AISH
An Open Letter to Seth Rogen
by Rabbi Benjamin Blech
Aug 1, 2020

…I can’t help but wonder how your grandparents who taught you about the reality of anti-Semitism would feel about your performance if they could have been “pickled” and returned to life like the hero of your film. What I can tell you though is the absolute glee of Jew haters in the aftermath of your hour of shame. Mondoweiss, a left-leaning news website co-edited by journalists Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz – two Jewish founders who describe themselves as progressive and anti-Zionist – reacted to your statements with the bold headline “Israel Is Ridiculous, Antiquated and Based on Ethnic Cleansing, Seth Rogen Says, But He’s Afraid To Tell Other Jews.” But obviously not afraid enough to prevent him from sharing his views on the most listened-to podcast in the world. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Seth Rogen says mom made him call Jewish Agency chief, appears to deny apology Jewish Agency said actor spoke on Zoom with its chairman, Isaac Herzog, and ‘apologized’ for recently saying that Israel ‘doesn’t make sense,’ claiming comments were made in jest

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Missouri Black Lives Matter activist wins primary, defeating another anti-Israel candidate

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

BREITBART
Cori Bush Is Latest Anti-Israel Democrat to Win a Primary
by Joel B. Pollak
August 5, 2020

Cori Bush, the “progressive” Black Lives Matter activist who defeated ten-term incumbent Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO) in the Missouri primary on Tuesday, is the latest left-wing Democrat with anti-Israel views to rise within the party. The Democratic Party has been moving to the left on the Israel issue for years. In 2012, the party platform had to be changed at the convention, over loud objections, to insert support for Jerusalem (and God) back into the document. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) led a new cohort of anti-Israel Democrats to Congress after she won an upset victory in 2018 over Rep. Joe Crowley. She was later joined by Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI). READ MORE

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Shabbat dinners are not the same: “Large gatherings on Friday nights are out, but baking challah is on the rise”

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
How the Pandemic Is Reshaping Shabbat Dinner
by Leah Koenig
August 4, 2020

…In the warmer months, some people have moved Shabbat meals outside—to the backyard, the front porch, an apartment rooftop, or the park—allowing them to share a socially distant meal with another person or small group. Others have expanded their nuclear family into pods they consistently gather with for meals. But the crowded, boisterous dinner table of pre-pandemic life feels, for now, to be a thing of the past. With fewer guests to cook for, some people have experienced a drop in motivation. “It is hard for me to make my normal special food when it is just four people,” said Rabbi Shira Koch Epstein who lives with her husband and two sons in Brooklyn. READ MORE

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In-depth Israeli study finds that vitamin D could play a major role in defeating COVID-19

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

THE BEET
Taking Vitamin D Appears to Protect Against COVID-Infection, New Study Finds
by Lucy Danziger
August 5, 2020

Low levels of vitamin D are related to COVID-19 infection and hospitalization, a new study out of Israel found. When doctors tested patients for risk factors of COVID-19 infection, one consistent marker was low levels of vitamin D in the blood: Patients at the highest risk for infection and hospitalization also had the lowest blood levels of vitamin D, according to the study of nearly 8,000 people…The most astonishing news in this current study appears to be the fact that vitamin  D may even prevent someone from getting COVID-19 if the statistical analysis proves out. Of those tested, 90 percent of COVID-19 positive patients had low D levels vs 85% of those who were negative for COVID-19. READ MORE

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“Yes, suburbanites, Democrats plan to destroy your community”

Posted on August 2, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

SPECTATOR
Wrecking the American Dream
by Robert Stacy McCain
August 3, 2020

…The one question the media don’t want Americans to contemplate is what will happen if indeed Landslide Joe is elected. Because the Left — that is to say, the radicals who actually control the Democratic Party, and who would be empowered by Biden’s election — has some mighty ambitious plans for “reform.” Eight years of the Obama administration failed to accomplish their goal of “fundamentally transforming the United States of America,” or else Donald Trump never could have been elected. So this time, Democrats are going finish the job. And by “finish the job” of course I mean completely ruin everything. Consider, for example, the Biden plan to destroy suburbia. READ MORE

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Long story short: “Only credible military threats have convinced Iran to postpone its nuclear ambitions”

Posted on July 30, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

THE DEFENSE POST
Countdown to Israeli Action Against Iran
by Michael Makovsky
July 31, 2020

Recent mysterious explosions at Iran’s nuclear facilities, which some have attributed to Israel, return to prominence a calculation not seriously considered since 2015: Iran’s dwindling “breakout” clock. The ensuing damage might successfully turn back time on that clock. But if not, Israel might have to consider military action; a decision lent urgency by the looming American election… Having now reportedly produced enough low-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, with further enrichment, Iran could reach nuclear weapons capability in 3 to 4 months. This “breakout” window would shrink further if Iran installs advanced centrifuges. READ MORE

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“How coverage of the Jewish state became a signifier of the ideological activism that now permeates Western culture”

Posted on July 30, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Israel Was Ground Zero for the New Woke Religion
by Matti Friedman
July 27, 2020

…Anyone following the doings of the past few months won’t need a recap of the attempted “cancellations” of scholars and scientists for heresies, the purge of editors for running the wrong op-ed, or the excommunication of J.K. Rowling. Adherents of the thought system vaguely described as “woke” believe themselves to be fighting evil in the name of justice. They share a hierarchy of good, a lingo, purity tests, and a stark division of the world into friend and foe, all of which borrow heavily from religious modes of thought. But one of the most obvious signs that religion is in play, and not merely empirical observation or political criticism, is the way this ideology has focused and amplified the condemnation of Jews. READ MORE

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Memo to Abbas: “The fact is, no other refugee population exists from the 1940s. They have all moved on to build their lives in the places to which they fled or in other countries”

Posted on July 30, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

FORWARD
The real killer of the two-state solution? The Palestinian right of return
Adi Schwartz and Einat Wilf
July 30, 2020

…The overriding Palestinian demand, more important than the explicit demand of statehood, has always been the innocuous sounding right of return — the demand for millions of Palestinians, descendants of those who fled or were expelled in the 1948 war, to be recognized as possessing each a “right” to settle inside the state of Israel. This right, not sanctioned by international law, crucially overrules Israeli sovereignty; since the number of these Palestinians is between five and nine million, and since Israel’s Jewish population is about seven million, the meaning of such a demand is the transformation of Israel into an Arab state. READ MORE

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Knesset member: “Wow. Twitter just admitted that tweets calling genocide against Jews by Iranian leaders DON’T violate its policy! This is a double standard. This is anti-Semitism”

Posted on July 30, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CLEVELAND JEWISH NEWS
Knesset makes effort to confront anti-Israel, anti-Jewish posts, hate speech online
by Israel Kasnett
August 1, 2020

…On July 29, the Israeli Knesset held a hearing concerning the growing concern of anti-Semitism found on social media….At the hearing, representatives from Twitter and Facebook were taken to task over the rampant anti-Semitism on their platforms. In the debate with Ylwa Pettersson, head of Twitter Policy for the Nordics and Israel, Cotler-Wunsh called on Twitter to adopt and implement the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, and utilize it to combat the hatred, double standards and violence against Jews taking place on its platform. READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Holocaust survivors push Facebook to delete Holocaust-denying posts
#NoDenyingIt campaign posts one video per day advocating for Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg to remove posts and groups that seek to spread false narratives about the Holocaust as hate speech.

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