Bibi: “I will leave office on the agreed date; there will be no shticks and tricks. Millions of Israelis are waiting for us”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Netanyahu implores Gantz to join gov’t, vows to rotate as PM without tricks
by Gil Hoffman
March 22, 2020

Imploring Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party to join the Likud in a national unity government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed Saturday night to rotate as prime minister and to leave the role at the agreed transition date without “any shticks or tricks.” Netanyahu claimed in an interview on Channel 12 that the Likud and Blue and White had completed negotiations for what a national unity government would look like, and under which he would serve first as prime minister and would then be replaced by Gantz. “I will leave office on the agreed date,” Netanyahu said. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Israel approaches 1,000-patient mark as lockdown rules to come into effect Ministers late Saturday night updated the emergency regulations designed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak, which will come into effect on Sunday at 8 a.m. for seven days. According to the rules, which the government has vowed to enforce, Israelis must remain at home, with exceptions made for buying essential food and medical supplies or seeking medical treatment.

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A solidarity message from Israeli Foreign Ministry to its Arab neighbors: “We are all human beings; we are all brothers”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Coronavirus Crisis Brings Israel and Arab World Together, at Least Online
by Benjamin Kerstein
March 18, 2020

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has been receiving messages of solidarity from across the Arab world as the coronavirus crisis intensifies, including messages like, “May Allah protect you.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported that the messages came in response to a social media post by the ministry, which showed a photo of three employees making heart signs with their hands. The accompanying Arabic-language text read, “This is a message to you from Israel: We pray to Allah to protect the inhabitants of Arab countries.” “The coronavirus that is spreading intensely in the world these days knows no borders, religions, and nationalities,” it added. READ MORE

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Echo Chamber redux: “In echo of Iran regime propaganda, Obama era critics falsely claim U.S. sanctions target food and medicine”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
Ayatollah’s American Allies Seize on Pandemic in Fresh Push for Sanctions Relief
by Adam Kredo
March 19, 2020

The architects of the Obama administration’s self-described pro-Iran echo chamber have used the coronavirus outbreak to argue that U.S. sanctions are to blame for the virus’s aggressive spread across the Islamic Republic—a line the Iranian government is also peddling. Former Obama officials and their allies have argued that the United States is depriving Iranian citizens of much-needed food and medical supplies by continuing to impose sanctions as the coronavirus has devastated the country. Trump administration officials say, however, that humanitarian channels have remained open to Iran since before the virus erupted. READ MORE

THE HILL Seth J. Frantzman: Cornered by coronavirus, Iran could lash out The picture that emerges is an Iran on edge and a precarious position for U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran has watched the U.S. drawdown of forces in Afghanistan and is eager to pressure the U.S. in Iraq. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Iranian regime may be more emboldened and beholden to its more militarist elements in the IRGC.  Iran still wants to avenge the U.S. killing of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, and Iran claims the “countdown” to U.S. withdrawal from Iraq has begun.

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“Teva, the giant Israeli pharmaceutical company, has announced that it will donate more than six million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Teva donates potential coronavirus treatment to hospitals across the US
by Staff
March 21, 2020

…Recently, Israel’s Health Ministry has approved multiple experimental treatments, and companies worldwide are attempting to determine what could be used to treat the deadly disease. Teva, the giant Israeli pharmaceutical company, has announced that it will donate more than six million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate tablets through wholesalers to hospitals across the United States, starting March 31. Over 10 million tablets are expected to be shipped within a month. The tablets are approved by US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of malaria, lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis. The tablets are currently under investigation to determine their efficacy against the coronavirus, and US government officials have asked for their immediate availability and use. READ MORE

TECH STARTUPS Hydroxychloroquine is found to be more effective and potent than chloroquine in vitro treatment of coronavirus, new study published by NIH shows New controlled clinical study conducted by doctors ​in France shows that Hydroxychloroquine cures 100% of coronavirus patients within 6 days of treatment (covidtrial.io) On March 16, we covered a story about new academic study that revealed over-the-counter anti-malaria med Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus. The study presented by Thomas R. Broker, (Stanford PhD), James M. Todaro (Columbia MD), and Gregory J. Rigano, Esq., in consultation with Stanford University School of Medicine, UAB School of Medicine, and National Academy of Sciences researchers, shows that over the counter anti-malaria pills Chloroquine may be highly effective at treating coronavirus COVID-19. 

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“CAMERA’s Israel office today prompted correction of Gideon Levy’s March 6 error-ridden Haaretz article “

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CAMERA BLOG
Haaretz Corrects: Israel Didn’t Deny Entry to Gazans Whose Daughter Died From Cancer
by Hanan Amiur and Tamar Sternthal
March 15, 2020

In Ha’aretz, Gideon Levy falsely alleged that the parents of young cancer patient Miral Abu Ambsha were denied permission by Israel to travel from Gaza to the West Bank to be by their dying daughter’s side. In truth, as Israel’s Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) confirmed to CAMERA, Miral’s mother was granted permission to travel, and her father never even applied for a travel permit. CAMERA prompted Haaretz to correct…In response to communication from CAMERA, Haaretz commendably ran the following correction in today’s print edition…READ MORE

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Two from Lipson: “What have these past bureaucratic egregious abuses got to do with CDC, NIH, HHS, and the Wuhan coronavirus? Quite a lot, actually”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Democracy and Bureaucracy in a Time of Pandemic
by Professor Charles Lipson
March 19, 2020

As the coronavirus spreads and the Centers for Disease Control work around-the-clock to mitigate the disaster, it’s easy to see why we need competent government agencies. We don’t always get them. The CDC and National Institutes of Health botched their initial response to the virus — and we are all paying the price. They distributed unreliable test kits and, incredibly, prevented top research hospitals from developing their own tests. They failed to plan for the now-predictable spike in demand for respirators, ventilators, and beds in intensive-care units. Only now are tests becoming widely available, long after the disease has spread. Ugh. READ MORE

SPECTATOR USA Charles Lipson: Beijing’s attempts to elude blame for the Wuhan virus will backfire [SUBSCRIPTION] All the people locked in their homes in California, all the people lying in intensive care units in Milan, Marseille and Seattle desperately ill, all the people being carried from those ICUs to cemeteries around the world: they are there because of policy choices by the Chinese Communist party. Every waiter and sales clerk who lost her job can look, in sorrow and anger, to those party apparatchiks in Beijing. The CCP may not have been able to stop the initial outbreak in Wuhan, but they could have prevented its spread to other countries. Instead, to protect their own hold on domestic power, they suppressed vital information and unleashed a deadly pandemic on the world.

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Israeli Superstar Gal Gadot tries to cheer us up but the knives are out: “Nothing like rich famous people singing “imagine no possessions” in their mortgage free homes as the rest of society queue at Lidl for broken biscuits”

Posted on March 19, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY BEAST
Celebrities Sing ‘Imagine’ to Console the Little People
by Tom Sykes
March 19, 2020

If you’re a wise celebrity, now is the time to tuck yourself inside your Hollywood Hills hideaway, lock the gates, and keep your privileged lifestyle and stash of in-beta retrovirals as quiet as you can until the 2021 Oscars season. It’s most definitely not the moment to try and burnish your credentials as a compassionate humanitarian by singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” in a celebrity mash-up to lift global spirits. However, in an extraordinarily ill-thought-out piece of COVID-19 marketing, a roll call of celebrities whose publicists really should have known better have done exactly that. READ MORE

DEADLINE ‘Imagine’ That: Gal Gadot’s Sweet Gesture Devolves Into A Social Media Feeding Frenzy As hard as it may be to conceive, there are worse things than being confined to your home. Like having to listen to celebrities sing along to John Lennon’s Imagine as you contemplate killing for toilet paper. Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot meant well, bless her heart, by organizing the online songfest. The problem is that many on the internet were not in the mood for treacle, and let the participants have it with both guns. In a video first posted to Instagram, Gadot explained that she was in “day six” of her self-quarantine and “feeling philosophical” about the pandemic.

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“AIPAC vs J Street: Pro-Israel Lobby Loses Ally as Progressives Score Win in Illinois”

Posted on March 15, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Pro-Israel groups react to Rep. Dan Lipinski’s primary loss in Illinois
by Jacob Kornbluh
March 18, 2020

Following incumbent moderate Rep. Dan Lipinski’s (D-IL) loss last night to progressive challenger Marie Newman, critics are questioning why pro-Israel groups didn’t spend more money to aid his primary campaign. Newman, who lost to Lipinski by a small margin in 2018, received 47% of the vote to Lipinski’s 45%, according to unofficial results. Rush Darwish, a Palestinian-American activist who went after the eight-term congressman and Newman for their support of Israel, came in a distant third with a little over 6%. Turnout yesterday was slightly higher than 2018 despite concerns that the campaign would be overshadowed by the growing threat of COVID-19. READ MORE

JNS Anti-Israel Democrat upsets House incumbent; neo-Nazi fails in Republican primary Democratic Majority for Israel chose not to endorse Lipinski in part due to his pro-life stance and opposition to the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare. However, Republican Jewish Coalition spokesperson Neil Strauss told JNS that “Newman’s win goes to show that, without fail, supposedly pro-Israel groups on the left will throw a pro-Israel candidate under the bus for a more liberal, anti-Israel candidate. Pro-Israel Democrats need to take notice that their party is no longer a pro-Israel party.

HAARETZ AIPAC vs J Street: Pro-Israel Lobby Loses Ally as Progressives Score Win in Illinois Marie Newman – who was supported by Sanders, Warren and AOC – managed to oust incumbent Dan Lipinski and supports conditioning aid to Israel

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Dan Hotels pitches in: “In addition to the Dan Panorama, the Dan Hotel in Jerusalem will begin accepting coronavirus patients”

Posted on March 15, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Luxury Tel Aviv Beachfront Hotel Being Converted Into Coronavirus Clinic
by Benjamin Kerstein
March 16, 2020

A luxury beachfront hotel in Tel Aviv is being turned into a clinic for coronavirus patients, the Israeli news site N12 reported Monday. Officials from IDF Home Front Command, emergency medical service Magen David Adom and the Israel Police are already at the Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv and making arrangements to isolate and secure the building in order to prevent infection when the patients arrive. A special sterile area has been set up, a CCTV network has been installed to monitor patients, and signs have been put up warning of possible infection. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Israel leads in the battle against coronavirus Israel took the danger seriously from the start and has done everything possible to contain it. If only my country, Italy, had been as wise. Now, as announced last night, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) will track down coronavirus patients and the route they took until they went into isolation or hospitalization. The technology will enable the Shin Bet to identify the people who were within range of the patient and those who were exposed to the virus can be informed, directly to their phones, that they must go into isolation or be tested.

JEWISH PRESS Israel Closes the Border, Bars Entry to Non-Citizens in Fight Against COVID-19 Israel has closed its borders to non-citizens, according to a notice from Population and Immigration Authority. Citing a recommendation from the Ministry of Health, ministry spokesperson Sabine Haddad said that after two weeks of restricting the entry of passengers who were not citizens of Israel or its residents, stricter measures were needed to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus

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“It is worth noting that Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, did not send any test kits or disinfectant materials to the Palestinians living there”

Posted on March 15, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus; Arabs Betray Them
by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 16, 2020

While Israel is working overtime with Palestinians to curb and prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Arab states appear to be doing what they do best when it comes to helping their Palestinian brothers: nothing at all. In the past few days, Israeli authorities delivered 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. In addition, Israeli and Palestinian professional teams have been working together to prevent the spread of the virus. The Israeli authorities have also delivered another 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip…READ MORE

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