“There is not a single Hasidic family that has been untouched. It is a plague on a biblical scale,” – said chassid Shulim Leifer. He referred to the devastating impact of the coronavirus on the Chassidic community in Borough Park, Bklyn. The city does not track deaths by religion, but Hasidic news media report that roughly 700 members of the community in the New York area have died from Covid-19. (NYTimes, Apr. 21, 2020)“There is a good connection between the Health Ministry and the Prime Minister’s Office regarding what’s happening in the Arab sector. Everyone here, including our facility, understands that this is a time of cooperation, and not a time to widen gaps. This cooperation is happening very well and I can commend it and say that it’s going to the positive side,” – said Professor Fahed Hakim, medical director of Nazareth Hospital, the largest medical facility in the Arab sector. He praised the Health Ministry and the IDF on Friday for their assistance in combating the pandemic. (Jerusalem Post, Apr. 18, 2020)
“The present reality does not allow us to meet with the survivors, [but requires us to] support them, and draw inspiration and power from them. At this time, our mission is to guard them. As part of the IDF’s [coronavirus] efforts, we are also concerned about them … We will continue our way and be vigilant so that we will never be at the mercy of anyone. We will continue to tell their story, ensure that their testimonies are forever echoed, and we will capture in our hearts those who fell victim to the sheer evil of the Nazis. Memory is a source of power, spirit and values.” – said IDF Commander Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi on Yom HaShoah emphasizing that part of the IDF’s mission is to protect Holocaust survivors. (WIN, Apr. 20, 2020)
“During this unique time in Jewish life, as we all struggle with the uncertainty of the COVID-19 crisis, Dianne Lob brings a unique and valued outlook from her leadership position as the chair of one of the most storied organizations in American Jewish life and from her senior positions in the financial industry,” — Conference of Presidents CEO William Daroff and Vice Chair Malcolm Hoenlein said in a statement. Lob, the former chairwoman of HIAS, was nominated to become chairwoman of the Conference of Presidents. Her appointment raised much controversy. (Arutz Sheva, Apr. 21, 2020)
“There really are two Americas here: Those still getting a paycheck from government, corporations or universities, and those who are unemployed, or seeing their small businesses suffer due to shutdowns. And the America still getting paid is, so far, not showing a whole lot of sympathy for the America that isn’t. … eople don’t appreciate being lectured and condescended to and bossed around. They especially don’t appreciate being urged to sacrifice by people who make no sacrifices themselves. And that’s a different sort of class divide: When rulers ask for sacrifices without making any, they’re displaying a distinct lack of, well, class,” – writes columnist Glenn Harlan Reynolds regarding the pushback from those critical of protestors clamouring for businesses to reopen, especially from those who receive salaries. (USA Today, Apr. 21, 2020)
SHORT TAKES
NETANYAHU, GANTZ AGREE UNITY GOVERNMENT (Jerusalem) –Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue & White party leader Benny Gantz have signed an agreement on the formation of an emergency unity government. Under the agreement, Netanyahu will serve as prime minister for eighteen months and Gantz for eighteen months after him. Blue & White will receive half the portfolios in the new government, and Gantz will be deputy prime minister with a new status that will be defined in legislation. He will serve as minister of defense while Gabi Ashkenazi will be foreign minister. (Globes, Apr.20, 2020)
CORONA VACCINE DESIGN EARNS ISRAELI SCIENTIST A US PATENT (Jerusalem) — The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) granted a patent to Dr. Jonathan Gershoni of Tel Aviv University for an innovative vaccine design for the corona family of viruses. Gershoni, a professor of biology at the university’s School of Molecular Cell Biology and Biotechnology, is one of the first to get a corona-related patent as researchers worldwide work overtime to develop potential vaccines and drugs to fight the pandemic. Such a vaccine could be produced in a few months, but would then need to be tested in clinical trials that could take up to a year. (United With Israel, Apr. 20, 2020)
COMING SOON ACROSS ISRAEL: FUTURISTIC TEMPERATURE TESTERS USING DEFENSE TECH (Jerusalem) — Store workers and bosses expected to check customers’ and workers’ temperatures, greet arrivals with hand-held thermometers aimed at stopping people with a fever from entering. In Israel, the technology is being developed at lightning speed, because the building blocks are there in the defense sector. (Times of Israel,Apr. 20, 2020)
TECHNION RESEARCHERS CREATE RAPID HOME TESTING KIT FOR CORONAVIRUS (Jerusalem) -Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa – is developing a home kit that would enable people to be quickly and inexpensively tested for the coronavirus, without the need for elaborate lab equipment. The kit would only need two test tubes and a container with hot water. The team is claiming a 99% accuracy rate and says that the test yields results in less than an hour. (Times of Israel, Apr. 21, 2020)
FDA EMERGENCY GREENLIGHTS FIRST AT-HOME CORONAVIRUS TEST TO LET PEOPLE SWAB THEMSELVES(Washington) — U.S. health regulators authorized the first coronavirus test that allows home sample collection. The test from LabCorp will initially only be available to health care workers and first-responders under doctor’s orders. The sample will still have to be shipped for processing back to LabCorp. For the home test, people are initially screened with an online questionnaire. If authorized by a physician, LabCorp will ship a test kit to their home. (Arutz Sheva, Apr. 21, 2020)
3 MILLION DONATED SURGICAL MASKS TO BE GIVEN TO MDA, OTHER INSTITUTIONS (Jerusalem) — A new shipment arrived from Shanghai at Ben-Gurion Airport, carrying three million surgical masks to be transferred to Magen David Adom (MDA) and other essential institutions and facilities in the country. The masks were donated by the Milner Foundation, a nonprofit established by Israeli-Russian tech investor and philanthropist Yuri Milner alongside his wife Julia. (Jerusalem Post, Apr. 17, 2020)
EARLY PEEK AT DATA ON GILEAD CORONAVIRUS DRUG SUGGESTS PATIENTS ARE RESPONDING TO TREATMENT (Chicago) — Early peek at data on Gilead coronavirus drug suggests patients are responding to treatment. Remdesivir was one of the first medicines identified as having the potential to impact SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19, in lab tests. Positive results would likely lead to fast approvals by the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory agencies. If safe and effective, it could become the first approved treatment against the disease. (Stat, Apr. 16, 2020)
CORONAVIRUS CRISIS STOKING ANTI-SEMITISM WORLDWIDE: REPORT (Jerusalem) – Fuelled by centuries-old lies that Jews are spreading infection, the coronavirus crisis is stirring anti-Semitism around the world, researchers in Israel said. The findings, in the annual report on Anti-Semitism Worldwide by the Kantor Center at Tel Aviv University, showed an 18% rise in anti-Semitic incidents in 2019 over the previous year. In the first few months of 2020, far-right politicians in the United States and Europe and ultra-conservative pastors have seized upon the health crisis and its resulting economic hardship to foster hatred against Jews. (Reuters, Apr. 20, 2020)
ONTARIO’S CORONAVIRUS NUMBERS MAY HAVE PEAKED, NEW MODELLING SUGGESTS (Toronto) — Ontario health officials have revealed updated coronavirus modelling data that shows the province has already peaked in cases among community spread and numbers appear to be trending downwards towards a best case scenario. However, while community spread of COVID-19 has peaked, cases in long-term care homes, retirement homes and any other congregate settings appear to continue to grow. (Global News, Apr. 20, 2020)
TRUMP TO SUSPEND IMMIGRATION INTO THE UNITED STATES AMID CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC (Washington) –The US will temporarily suspend immigration amid COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. President Donald Trump announced. (Global News, Apr. 20, 2020)
ONLY 7% OF ISRAELI ARABS DEFINE THEMSELVES AS ‘PALESTINIAN’ (Jerusalem) — Preliminary data from the Jewish People Policy Institute’s (JPPI) upcoming annual Pluralism Index for 2020 indicates that about a quarter of Israeli minorities (23%) define themselves primarily as “Israeli” and half (51%) self-identify as “Israeli-Arab.” The proportion of non-Jewish people who define themselves primarily as “Palestinian” now stands at around 7%, down from 18% this time last year. Moreover, there was a sizable increase in the number of Arabs who define themselves as Israeli – that number rose from 5% last year to 23% this year. (Jerusalem Post, Apr. 21, 2020)
IRAN’S GUARD SAYS IT HAS HIGHER RANGE ANTI-WARSHIP MISSILES (Tehran) — Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard announced that it has significantly upgraded the range of its anti-warship missiles. The Guard says it now possesses surface-to-surface and subsurface anti-warship missiles with a range as high as 700 kilometers (430 miles), according to its top naval officer, Adm. Ali Reza Tangsiri. In September, Iranian officials said the country’s most advanced anti-warship missiles had a range of about 300 kilometers, some 180 miles. (The Star, Apr. 20, 2020)
EX-MOSSAD OFFICIAL: IRAN NUKE SUBMARINE IDEA COVER FOR URANIUM ENRICHMENT (Tehran) — Iran’s recent rumblings about developing a nuclear submarine are a cover for its desire to start enriching uranium at higher levels, former Mossad official Sima Shine said. Speaking as part of a videoconference organized by the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS), the key expert on Iran noted that the Islamic Republic has mentioned the possibility of developing a nuclear submarine before. However, enriching uranium to higher levels could bring Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei significantly closer to a nuclear weapon. To date, Iran has not enriched above the 5% level. The 20%, 60% and eventually 90% levels must be crossed before the uranium can be weaponized. (Jerusalem Post, Apr. 20, 2020)
POMPEO CALLS ON THE UN TO EXTEND IRAN ARMS EMBARGO(Washington) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged the United Nations Security Council to extend the international arms embargo on Iran. In a tweet, Pompeo asserted that lifting the sanctions imposed on Tehran may give rise to violence in the Middle East. The arms embargo is scheduled to be lifted in October 2020, five years after it was set in conjunction with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action signed that year to curb Iran’s nuclear program. (Radio Farda, Apr. 19, 2020)
IRAN BEGINS SOFT REOPENING AFTER CORONAVIRUS SHUTDOWNS (Tehran) — Tehran’s main bazaar reopened after more than a month and restrictions on travel between provinces were eased. But the tentative reopening of Iran’s economy drew warnings from some health officials, who said they feared a premature return to normalcy would jeopardize hard-won gains against the virus. The virus had spread into Iran’s leadership, sickening senior officials and ministers, and has dealt a heavy blow to an economy already struggling from damaging U.S. sanctions. (WSJ, Apr. 20, 2020)
CARE TO STORE SOME OIL? (Texas) — If you thought negative interest rates were bizarre, how about minus-$37 for a barrel of oil? That was the going price on the futures contract for a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude delivered in May. The real price of oil isn’t less than $0. The bizarre behavior in futures markets is a combination of crashing oil demand today and expectations for higher oil prices later in the year when the economy is beginning to recover. (WSJ, Apr. 20, 2020)
WILL TRUMP STOP INVESTMENT OF US GOVT PENSIONS IN CHINA? (Washington) — White House sources said President Donald Trump is aware of this decision to have retirement funds of government officials and U.S. military personnel invested in Chinese businesses, but so far has not acted to rescind it. But the same sources say this may change soon as newly named White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows assumes control in the West Wing. Meadows (N.C – Rep) offered the legislation in the House to stop the TSP’s investment of U.S. retirement funds in China. The companion measure in the Senate was offered by Marco Rubio (Fl.– Rep) and Jeanne Shaheen (N.H. – Dem). (Newsmax, Apr. 20, 2020)
GERMAN JEWISH GROUP SLAMS FESTIVAL INVITE TO PROMINENT ACADEMIC ACCUSED OF ANTISEMITISM (Germany) — In a letter to the elected leadership of the North-Rhine Westphalia state in western Germany, the Jewish Values Initiative asserted that the invitation to Prof. Achille Mbembe to speak at the renowned Ruhrtriennale festival on Aug. 14 should be revoked. The group said that Mbembe — a Cameroonian sociologist currently teaching in South Africa — had in his writings made the “antisemitic” equation between the former apartheid regime in South Africa and the Israeli government, endorsed the anti-Zionist campaign to boycott, divest from and sanction the Jewish state, and diminished the Holocaust by bracketing it with the apartheid system. (Algemeiner, Apr. 21, 2020)
FOR FURTHER REFERENCE
Why is Iran Bragging about ‘Replicating’ an Israeli Missile?: Seth J. Frantzman, Jerusalem Post, Apr. 21, 2020 — Iran’s media bragged on Monday that it reportedly “replicated” an Israeli anti-tank missile. At the same time Iran claims it is now among the best countries in the world in terms of missile innovation.
State Report: Russian, Chinese and Iranian Disinformation Narratives Echo One Another: Betsy Woodruff Swan, Politico, Apr. 21, 2020 — China, Iran and Russia are using the coronavirus crisis to launch a propaganda and disinformation onslaught against the United States, the State Department warns in a new report.
WATCH: Coronavirus Can Stop Economies But Not PA Hate: Nan Jacques Zilberdik, PMW, Apr 17, 2020 – PA continues terror and Martyrdom promotion — While the Corona pandemic is interfering with daily life and challenging economies around the globe, one sphere is unaffected. The Palestinian Authority is not letting the virus obstruct its obsessive promotion of violence and terror to Palestinians. The following are songs broadcast during the crisis that encourage continued terror, promote Martyrdom-death for children, and congratulate mothers on the dying of their sons as “Martyrs.” Several of them are songs that have been exposed in the past by Palestinian Media Watch:
