1978 Coastal Road Massacre “Official PA daily promoted false information, for example that the Israeli victims were “soldiers” when they were in fact families on vacation with their children”

Posted on March 15, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

PALESTINIAN MEDIA WATCH
Ignoring Corona and Israel health care aid, PA praises murderer of 37 Israelis
by Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus
March 15, 2020

March 11, 2020, marked the 42nd anniversary of the most lethal terror attack against Israel, when Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 37 Israelis, among them 12 children, in 1978. Despite the current Corona crisis and the daily contacts and aid that the Palestinian Authority is receiving from Israel, the PA and Fatah still found it important to highlight the attack and praise its leader Dalal Mughrabi. In its official daily, the PA praised terrorist Mughrabi’s “daring, courage, well-developed national sentiment, and devotion to Palestine and Fatah” while she studied “military courses and received lessons in guerilla warfare” in Lebanon prior to the attack. READ MORE

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“Israeli Nobel Prize winner Michael Levitt has predicted that no more than ten Israelis will succumb to COVID-19”

Posted on March 15, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Nobel laureate: surprised if Israel has more than five coronavirus deaths
by Donna Rachel Edmunds
March 18, 2020

No more than 10 people will die in Israel as a result of the novel coronavirus disease known as COVID-19, Nobel Prize laureate Michael Levitt predicted on Wednesday as the government continued to impose additional restrictions on the general population. Levitt said that fears in Israel over the coronavirus were disproportionate to the threat, and that the number of cases in the country was uncertain due to reporting variances. “I will be surprised if the number of deaths in Israel surpasses 10,” he said, adding that the Jewish state was “not on the world map for the disease.” READ MORE

CTECH Corona Is Slowing Down, Humanity Will Survive, Says Biophysicist Michael Levitt Nobel laureate and Stanford professor Michael Levitt unexpectedly became a reassuring figure in China at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Now he assures Israelis: statistics show the virus is on a downturn

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“Blue and White leader says he has ‘not received a serious reply’ from the PM on offer to start negotiations to form emergency coalition amid pandemic”

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Gantz: Unity government needed now, I’m waiting for Netanyahu to okay talks
by Raoul Wootliff
March 13, 2020

…On Thursday evening, Netanyahu reached out to his political rivals to form an emergency government to fight the spread of the virus, inviting Gantz for talks. In a prime-time televised speech from the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, the premier called on the Blue and White leader to take the step following a year-long political deadlock during which neither has succeeded in forming a governing coalition. “It would be an emergency government for a limited time, and we will fight together to save the lives of tens of thousands of citizens,” Netanyahu said in his statement to the press, during which he issued dire warnings of a high potential death toll from the virus and announced that Israeli schools would be shut down starting Friday. READ MORE

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Three main parties are leading the Hamas-Israel mediation efforts: Egypt, Qatar and the UN

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

THE HILL
Palestinian Islamists disrupt an attempted truce in Gaza
by Eitan Dangot
March 11, 2020

While Israel attempted to achieve quiet in the lead-up to the March 2 elections, Hamas, with a strategic interest in pausing the fighting, also sought quiet to improve living standards in Gaza. But the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) torpedoed this attempt. The escalation that erupted between the PIJ and Israel in February is characteristic of the PIJ’s recent efforts to disrupt calm in Gaza. Hamas has determined that a truce can boost its regional standing in the Middle East and enable it to find support beyond its traditional, more radical allies. At the same time, a ceasefire enables Hamas to build up its resources and prepare for further developments in the West Bank…READ MORE

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“Founded in 1869, The Standard Club was long a who’s who of Chicago Jewish business leaders”

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CHICAGO TRIBUNE
The Standard Club, long the social nexus for Chicago’s Jewish leaders, is closing May 1 amid financial struggles
by Robert Channick
March 5, 2020

For more than 150 years, The Standard Club has been the social nexus for Chicago’s Jewish elite, hosting everything from business lunches to weddings at the members-only downtown institution. But times have changed. Facing dwindling membership and usage, the financially challenged club announced this week it is selling its storied building and closing May 1. “Unfortunately, the club has recently faced challenging business circumstances similar to those that have faced many urban private clubs in terms of membership, usage and revenue,” The Standard Club said in a statement Wednesday. “The board has come to the very difficult decision that club operations are no longer sustainable.” READ MORE

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“When Israel first started pulling up the drawbridges, it was taking the most extreme measures in the West to contain COVID-19”

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Is Israel at the forefront of coronavirus measures?
by Lahav Harkov
March 13, 2020

…After the government announced it was stopping flights from China, there was talk about adverse diplomatic effects. China is very sensitive to its image in the world, and as a result, Israel made efforts to show that its problem was with the virus, not all of China. Those efforts included a video, produced by the Foreign Ministry, of Israelis saying that they stand with the Chinese in this difficult time; it was such a success that major Chinese newspapers and official TV channels reported on it. Israeli aid organizations also tried to send supplies to Wuhan, where COVID-19 first broke out. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL All leisure venues closing as Netanyahu urges Israel: Adjust to new way of life Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and government officials on Saturday announced a shutdown of all leisure businesses and activities throughout the country, with the premier pressing upon the public the need to “adopt a new way of life” for the coming weeks and possibly months as the country deals with the new coronavirus — and particularly underlining a guiding principle of individuals maintaining a distance of at least two meters from others at all times.

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“A Trump-Biden matchup will give voters a choice between two different visions of relations with Israel, the Palestinians and Iran”

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Biden’s revival means a return to Obama’s Middle East policies
by Jonathan S. Tobin
March 11, 2020

…Biden has sounded more supportive of Israel than his boss or most of his 2020 Democratic competitors. But the former vice president also remains an enthusiastic supporter of Obama’s efforts to pressure the Jewish state into concessions that the majority of its people have rejected as irresponsible and a danger to their security. Biden opposes Trump’s efforts to end Obama’s policy of more “daylight” between the United States and Israel, such as the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, the recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory and the effort to force the Palestinian Authority to stop funding terrorism. READ MORE

JEWISH INSIDER The distinguished gentleman from Ra’anana: The congressman who now calls Israel home Former Florida Rep. Peter Deutsch (D) has been out of Congress for 15 years — but he has plenty of views on his former colleague Bernie Sanders… “Sanders would just be absolutely horrific for the world,” he said. “As a person, he’s a lovely person,” Deutsch said, though he’s “just as ornery as he always seems.”

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“With 500 dead, #Iran to empty the streets, check all 80 million people for virus”

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
Will Iran’s Regime Survive Coronavirus?
by Ilan Berman
March 12, 2020

Soaring inflation. Deepening domestic discontent. An expanding environmental crisis. Even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in recent weeks, the Iranian regime was struggling under the weight of domestic problems that increasingly threatened to undermine the integrity of the Islamic Republic. With the advent of COVID-19, however, matters have become much, much worse for the Iranian regime — so much so that it isn’t unreasonable to think that the Iranian regime could buckle under the weight of its own internal contradictions. That’s because, for Iran’s ayatollahs, coronavirus represents a true “black swan” event. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL With 500 dead, Iran to empty the streets, check all 80 million people for virus Top general announces: ‘Over next 10 days, entire nation will be monitored via cyberspace, by phone and, if necessary, in person; those suspected of being ill will be identified’ Iran said Friday the security forces will clear the streets nationwide within 24 hours so all citizens can be checked for coronavirus — its toughest measure yet to combat the outbreak. The COVID-19 epidemic in Iran — a nation of more than 80 million people — has now claimed over 500 lives and infected more than 11,000. 

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This just in from the Social Science Research Network: When Starbucks announced that people were welcome to loiter, their paying customers didn’t really appreciate it

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

POWERLINE
Starbucks Learns the Cost of Virtue-Signaling
by Steven Hayward
March 9, 2020

…In May 2018, in response to protests, Starbucks changed its policies nationwide to allow anybody to sit in their stores and use the bathroom without making a purchase. Using a large panel of anonymized cellphone location data, we estimate that the policy led to a 7.3% decline in store attendance at Starbucks locations relative to other nearby coffee shops and restaurants….The policy also affected the intensive margin of demand: remaining customers spent 4.1% less time in Starbucks relative to nearby coffee shops after the policy enactment. Wealthier customers reduced their visits more, but black and white customers were equally deterred. READ MORE

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The tyranny of the majority

Posted on March 12, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

THE AMERICAN INTEREST
Political Correctness Threatens American Higher Education
by Professor Michael Mandelbaum
February 28, 2020

…Besides violating the spirit (and perhaps in some cases the letter) of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, the suppression of speech subverts the two basic missions of the university. One of them is the discovery and production of knowledge, which requires free inquiry. The other is the education of students. At its best, this involves what the great sociologist David Riesman called “deprovincialization”—taking the individual beyond the boundaries of the familiar and exposing him or her to ideas, customs, and beliefs previously unknown and sometimes disorienting when first encountered. READ MORE

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