Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice
Sorted by date Results 1086 - 1110 of 1222
TEL AVIV (JTA) - For years Shlo Shalfy, a kindergarten teacher here, thought about the day she would send her 18-year-old son off to the army. She would drive him to Bakum, the enormous military induction base in central Israel, and like all mothers of combat fighters, pray that it wouldn't be their last car ride. In late March, as Israel was under near total lockdown, Shalfy received a letter instructing her son Ely to report to a smaller, alternative military base. He would need to pack a mont...
(JTA) - While the world has had its attention fixed on the George Floyd protests and the ongoing threat of COVID-19, a political development with monumental implications has been brewing in the Middle East: Israel's potential annexation ofa parts of the West Bank. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised his supporters during multiple election campaigns last year that he would make areas outside of the country's borders part of the state. Now his chance is fast approaching. The terms...
JERUSALEM (JTA) — If Israel annexes parts of the West Bank, the Palestinian Authority will declare a state on the 1967 borders with a capital in eastern Jerusalem, the P.A. prime minister said Tuesday. Mohammad Shtayyeh made the remarks in Ramallah to members of the Foreign Press Association, i24 News reported. Shtayyeh called annexation as “existential threat” to Palestinians, and said such a move also would mean the end of the Palestinians’ recognition of the State of Israel, which was given in an exchange of letters in 1993 between Prime Min...
By Maytal Yasur Beit-Or (JNS) — According to a new study by Tel Aviv University in conjunction with Magen David Adom and the Israeli Health Ministry’s Center for Disease Control, some 2.5 percent of Israel’s population, or some 200,000 people, have had COVID-19, most of whom may not have developed symptoms. As of Tuesday morning, the official number of Israeli COVID-19 cases was 17,219. The numbers are based on tests for coronavirus antibodies conducted among 1,700 people throughout Israel. The tests examined data from samples of blood donat...
(JNS) — Israeli media and their left-wing anti-Netanyahu allies have been anticipating for years the moment Benjamin Netanyahu would be dragged into a courtroom. Unable to beat Israel’s longest-serving prime minister at the polls, many have looked to a politically left-leaning legal system to get him out of office. Many pundits eagerly anticipated pictures of a guilt-ridden former prime minister, defeated at the ballot box, sitting depressed on the wooden benches of the Jerusalem District Cou...
(ISRAEL21c) — Research groups across the world are using a variety of approaches to formulating vaccines that could protect people from COVID-19. Big money and urgent demand are accelerating the normally lengthy process of vaccine development. Vaccine candidates from the U.S., U.K., China, Japan and Germany are on the fast track, and Israel has at least six projects on the go. This international effort may lead to multiple products. “We expect more than one could make it to market,” says Ronald Ellis, an Israel-based consultant to the indus...
This week, life is feeling normal. There are an average of 15 new cases of coronavirus daily. The numbers are decreasing on all fronts Corona-wise and we are suffering from a massive heat wave. It's always something! Stores opened up and we went to Beer Sheva. Boy, what an adventure! The outdoor shopping center was quite full. People were lined up on the sidewalks, waiting in groups due to the limited number of customers permitted inside stores at one time. These are the new rules. Security...
JERUSALEM (JTA) - Election rallies for the Arab parties in Israel rarely garner much attention or excitement. But recent policy proposals engineered thousands of miles away may have re-energized a once stagnant and unreliable voting bloc. The peaceful Arab village of Bartaa, home to about 4,500 residents, is located in the northern Triangle region, not far from the city of Umm al-Fahm. The inhabitants are all Muslim; most of them are members of the Kabha family. Despite its relatively remote...
JERUSALEM (JTA) — When Natan Sharansky learned in December that he would become the eighth Genesis Prize honoree, he decided he would use his $1 million prize money to promote issues to which he has devoted his life: human rights and Zionism. That was before the coronavirus crisis. Now, Sharansky, the former Soviet dissident who has become a prominent leader in Israel, and the Genesis Prize Foundation are announcing that his winnings will instead go to organizations fighting the pandemic and supporting individuals most affected by it in Israel,...
(Israel21c via JNS) — An immune system run amok may be responsible for some COVID-19 patients faring worse than others, suggests a new international study led by immunology researchers at Israel’s Weizmann Institute of Science. In the study, published in the journal Cell on May 7 under the title, “Host-viral infection maps reveal signatures of severe COVID-19 patients,” researchers in the lab of professor Ido Amit introduce Viral-Track, a computational method they have validated to systematically detect viruses from multiple models of infecti...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-The flags of countries that are home to Jewish communities hard hit by COVID-19 were projected on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The event held Tuesday night by the Diaspora Affairs Ministry in support of Jewish communities around the world and their home countries also saw representatives of youth groups in Israel waving the flags of dozens of countries in front of the Jaffa Gate. "Demonstrating support tonight for our Jewish brothers and sisters in all communities...
Israel’s sampling of 100,000 citizens’ blood will provide insights into how widely the novel coronavirus has spread and whether Israelis have sufficient “herd immunity” against a second outbreak. “This is the most important mission: Get ready for the next wave, especially a wave during wintertime,” when flu season will also begin, Ministry of Health Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov told The New York Times. Although nobody knows if antibodies against Covid-19 will protect against reinfection—especially if the virus mutates—the H...
(JNS)—Israeli health- care providers plan to start testing the population for coronavirus antibodies this week in an attempt to discover how many Israelis have developed immunity to the virus, Israeli media reported on Sunday. Depending on the results, large segments of the population could potentially not have to worry about being quarantined or isolated and could fly or rejoin the workforce without any restrictions, according to Ynet. Last week it was reported that Israel was planning to conduct 100,000 serological tests for COVID-19 as p...
Israeli medics have been on the front lines of the corona crisis playing an integral part of the national strategy to effectively fight the spread of infection. But the coordinated effort came from a number of places. Below, we've listed 10 of the top ways Israel managed in just six weeks to "flatten the curve" and get us on our way back to normal: Quarantine requirements were taken seriously As early as February people coming from Italy were directed into 14-day isolation. Soon afterwards, all...
Israel’s biological defense research lab has discovered what they say is a “breakthrough” in finding an antidote to the coronavirus by isolating and developing an antibody that attacks the virus, defense officials said Tuesday. The Israel Institute for Biological Research, which normally deals with responses to chemical and biological threats against Israel, presented its findings to Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who hailed the work as a “major breakthrough.” Researchers said the development phase has been completed and that they are filin...
(JNS)—A top Israeli health official said on Tuesday that the government is about to launch a campaign to test the population for coronavirus antibodies. Israeli Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov told The New York Times that 100,000 Israelis across the country will begin undergoing serological testing in one to two weeks to gauge the extent of the spread of the virus thus far and prepare for a possible second wave. His interview came in the wake of an easing in Israel of many restrictions imposed on the public since the outbre...
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The United States is ready to recognize Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank with conditions, the U.S. ambassador to Israel told an Israel newspaper. In an interview with the Israel Hayom daily, David Friedman said Israel must freeze building in other parts of the West Bank and prepare to reenter peace negotiations with the Palestinians on the basis of the Trump peace plan. The plan requires the Israeli prime minister to agree to negotiate with the Palestinians “in good faith” for four...
(JNS)-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday touted Israel's "major success" in confronting the coronavirus pandemic, and laid out the government's plan for a phased reopening of the economy following weeks of lockdowns. Speaking at a press conference on Monday night, Netanyahu presented a graph illustrating the Jewish state's low infection rates and death tolls relative to other countries, and said that the result proved that the strict anti-coronavirus measures he began to impose...
JERUSALEM (JTA)-As they do each year, Israelis stood at attention Monday for one minute as sirens wailed throughout the country to usher in Yom Hazikaron, or Memorial Day. What happened afterward was unlike other years, however: The official state ceremony at the Western Wall was held without an audience. That was because of the restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Israeli President Reuven Rivlin and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi participated in the... Full story
(JNS)—Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, reiterated on Wednesday that if elected in November, he would keep the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. “The move shouldn’t have happened in the context as it did, it should happen in the context of a larger deal to help us achieve important concessions for peace in the process,” said Biden in response to a supporter’s question during a virtual fundraiser with Boston-area donors. “But now that is done, I would not move the embassy back to Tel Aviv.... Full story
(JNS)-A U.S. Staate Department spokesperson said on Monday that the United States remains ready to recognize Israel's annexation of territory in the West Bank, but expects Israel to continue negotiations with the Palestinians. "As we have made consistently clear, we are prepared to recognize Israeli actions to extend Israeli sovereignty and the application of Israeli law to areas of the West Bank that the vision [U.S. President Donald Trump's "Peace to Prosperity" Mideast plan] foresees as... Full story
TEL AVIV (JTA)-On Friday, the first day of Ramadan, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem was virtually empty. A handful of masked worshippers kneeling on prayer rugs, distanced several feet apart from one another, listened to an imam who stood atop an 18-foot wooden pulpit. "We ask God to have mercy on us and all of humanity and to save us from this lethal pandemic," the imam said. The ban on mass communal prayer in Israel and the Palestinian territories is among the sobering restrictions... Full story
JERUSALEM (JTA)-Nearly six weeks have passed since Arie Even, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor, died of the coronavirus. It happened at the end of Shabbat dinner on a Friday night in March at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. Even drew headlines as Israel's first COVID-19 fatality. As of Thursday, the coronavirus death count in the country had risen to 222. There have been almost 16,000 confirmed cases. For Rachel Gemara, 33, the memory of Even has not lost its charge. It's stark an... Full story
(JNS)-Israel's 15-month political stalemate, which led to three election cycles within the course of a year, has come to a close with the signing of a unity government deal between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, head of the Likud Party, and Blue and White Party head Benny Gantz. The two sides are calling it a "national emergency government" in large part to manage the ongoing coronavirus crisis, which has stymied Israel along with the rest of the world. Both leaders posted tweets... Full story
(ISRAEL21c)-Israelis receiving daily coronavirus check-ins via text message can thank local startup Diagnostic Robotics for developing the cutting-edge questionnaire that is tracking the spread of the virus with uncanny precision and generating actionable recommendations. "Last Saturday night, we saw worrying data coming from Migdal HaEmek, Tiberias and Ashkelon," Kira Radinsky, the company's cofounder and chief technology officer, told ISRAEL21c. "On Monday morning, the government issued a... Full story
