Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

JERUSALEM (AP) Israels government Monday put forward a plan to double taxes on single-use plastics in a bid to reduce the proliferation of the environmentally harmful products.

The Finance and Environmental Protection Ministries said in a joint statement that raising taxes on disposable plastic goods is projected to cut consumption by 40%. It said Israelis use an average of 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds) of single-use plastics per person each year, five times the amount in the European Union.

We are drowning in single-use plastics, and we must all see its problematic influence on the cleanliness of the Earth and the quality of our lives, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg said in a statement.

Single-use plastic waste does not biodegrade, clogs landfills and significantly contributes to coastal and marine pollution. The United Nations Environment Program has called on governments to take action to curb plastics.

Israel instituted a tax on plastic bags in 2017, a step that helped cut usage by 80%, according to the ministry.

The Finance and Environmental Protection Ministries will advance the proposal for approval by the Knessets finance committee. If approved, the new plastic tax will take effect in early 2022.

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Israel plans to tax disposable plastic in bid to reduce use - Associated Press

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

Israels new government is a hybrida mixture of left, right and center. While most hybrid governments suffer total paralysis, Israels has a good chance of being effective.

In the U.S., there is a rift between liberals and conservativesa rift reflected in the divide between the Democratic and Republican parties. In most Western countries, the political divide reflects an ideological fissure in society. Israel, however, is an example of a curious political paradox: Political polarization does not reflect a divide within society but rather hides the fact that the ideological fissure in Israeli society has disappeared.

Two issues have traditionally split Israel into ideological camps: the relationship between religion and state, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most Israelis, including ultra-Orthodox, traditionalist and secular Jews, love Judaism and seek a certain connection with their tradition. At the same time, most Israelis dislike the religious establishment and oppose religious coercion. How can this twofold consensus be converted into policy? Most Israelis would agree with the following formulation: more Jewish education, less religious coercion. More knowledge, less power.

But much more important is the invisible consensus that has emerged around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Most Israelis do not want to control the lives of the 2.6 million Palestinians living in the West Bank or, as many Israelis call it, Judea and Samaria. At the same time, most Israelis dont want to withdraw from this territory, for fear of making their country so geographically small as to be indefensible. They agree on a paradoxthey dont want to control the lives of the residents of this territory, nor do they want to withdraw from itand this paradox might definitely lead to paralysis and stagnation. But it doesnt have to. In recent years, the Israeli political debate has been undergoing a paradigm shift toward an idea known as shrinking the conflict, which might convert this unusual consensus into an effective action plan that will transform reality.

The concept of shrinking the conflict means pursuing any policy that significantly boosts Palestinian self-government without jeopardizing Israeli security. At the heart of shrinking the conflict is an effort to create territorial contiguity between Palestinian autonomous islands in the West Bank, connect this Palestinian autonomy to the wider world, and promote Palestinian economic prosperity and independence. The purpose of this strategy is to transform the West Banks fragmented and fragile network of autonomous islands into a contiguous and prosperous polity. Shrinking the conflict would give the Palestinians what they currently lack: a critical mass of self-governance.

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Israels Surprising Consensus on the Palestinian Issue - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

Israel does not miss any opportunity to show how heartless it is. It did that once again in refusing to allow the Palestinian political activist Khalida Jarrar to leave her cell in order to participate in the funeral of her daughter Suha, who died at a young age, a week ago.

Among other things, the family suggested that the body be transferred by ambulance to the Ofer Prison compound, south-west of Ramallah, to which Khalida would be brought (in the torturous POSTA inmates' transport vehicle handcuffed and guarded by Israel Prison Service personnel) so she could at least say her last farewell. That offer was rejected too. The entire world followed and observed Israeli inflexibility in all its ugliness.

Now Israel the prison service, Shin Bet security service, minister of public security has the opportunity for tikkun, to make a small correction and, under the exceptional and tragic circumstances that were created, to give Khalida an early release. Let her leave prison now, and not in October, as scheduled. An early release, just and humane.

Mother Khalida had not hugged, kissed nor caressed her daughter Suha since October 2019, when Israeli army soldiers came to arrest her in her home. The last time Suha visited her in the Damon Prison south of Haifa was in February 2020, behind glass. And then the coronavirus landed on us. The two didnt see each other in the military court either because the hearings were held on Zoom. Suha attended a few times and saw her mother on the screen.

In our phone conversation Saturday, I forgot to ask Ghassan, the father, if Khalida had been able to see Suha as well.

The next visit in the prison took place in August 2020, but only one visitor was permitted entry. Suha told her father: You go, I know how hard it is for you without seeing Mom for so long a time. The next time was in October 2020. Suha had a bad flu, and Ghassan went again. From October 2020 until July, the prison authorities froze the visitations routine. Finally, permission for a visit was given on July 7. For a single visitor, again. Despite missing her, Suha once again told her father: You go. In other words, she gave up going twice for me, Ghassan told me.

Five days later, Suha was no longer among the living.

Because of the freeze on visits, the prison service allowed a number of telephone calls for Palestinian minors and female inmates. Khalidas turn for a phone call came relatively late. (At this stage in our conversation, Ghassans voice broke, and he asked to speak again another time. I didnt manage to ask him how many times Khalida spoke on the phone from the prison with Suha.)

The last time Khalida heard her daughters voice was on Friday, July 9, on the weekly radio show Letters to Prisoners. Relatives call Ramallah-based Ajyal Radio and speak to their relatives, who sit behind bars in their cells and listen. Ghassan told me on the phone: Khalida always said that Suha doesnt miss a single Friday to talk to her over the radio.

Khalida heard about her daughters death for the first time on the radio last Monday. It was shortly before her lawyers entered the prison to inform her of the terrible news.

The refusal to allow the mother to see Suha and to kiss her for the last time was not just a result of personal obtuseness (of prisons commissioner Katy Perry) and of a lack of courage and of creativity (of Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev, who may have lifted a finger, but not much more than that). The refusal is the denial of the humanity of the Palestinian prisoner and of the humanity of prisoners families, which is ingrained in the actions of the prison service and its regulations.

Preventing family and friends from meeting, and particularly from paying a final farewell, is one of the many instruments in the arsenal of psychological torture that Israel nurtures and uses against Palestinians who are outside the prison walls, as well as inside.

The prison service has especially long shelves on which it stores the tools for psychological torture of Palestinian inmates (for a lack of space we will skip the physical tools of torture). For example: denying the right to use a public phone to call ones family (except for during the days of the coronavirus pandemic and only for some prisoners); giving families the run-around for hours before allowing them entry for a brief visit with their imprisoned loved one; limiting visitors to first-degree family members only; and prohibiting textbooks from being brought in.

There is a well-considered and long-time goal behind this psychological torture of prisoners and their families: to deter others from resisting the settler-colonization regime, to make it clear what heavy price resistance entails in addition to loss of freedom. But in spite of this, new generations of Palestinians manufacture more and more opponents.

Or then, we the so-called chosen people of the book, so arrogant and conceited that we became ignorant and oblivious to the lessons of our own history take at least a little pleasure in exacting collective revenge on as many Palestinians as possible all at one time. Revenge for their not accepting or surrendering to our military supremacy and not groveling to the Jewish variant of settler colonialism, which is flourishing even during an era in which the international community already recognizes it as a crime.

Im in pain, my daughter, because I miss you so. This is how the letter Khalida sent from prison begins, which her sister read over Suhas fresh grave. She ended it with: They banned me from parting from you with kisses.

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Israels psychological torture of Palestinian prisoners and their families - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

Shortly before the start of a recent exhibition game, the members of Israels national baseball team assembled along the third base line at Maimonides Park in Coney Island and replaced their baseball caps with yarmulkes in preparation for the singing of the Israeli national anthem.

But only a few players knew enough Hebrew to sing along.

The team, currently on tour in New York, only has four players native to the country. The rest of the 24-player roster mostly consists of American players whose Jewish roots allow them under Olympic rules to play for the team.

Its a ragtag assemblage of retired major leaguers, current minor leaguers and even some weekend warriors with day jobs: The teams veteran pitcher works in Manhattan as head of programming for City Winery, a wine, food and music space. Another pitcher is an investment analyst with Goldman Sachs. An exporter of bathroom fixtures is the teams general manager.

Four years ago, the team was ranked 48th in the world, but they shocked the baseball world by qualifying for the World Baseball Classic, making it into the tournaments second round. In 2019, they continued their surprising run by qualifying for the Olympics.

Currently in the middle of a warm-up tour in the New York area, Team Israel will compete in Tokyo against five other qualifying countries: the U.S., Japan, the Dominican Republic, Korea and Mexico.

We joke that were a combination of the Bad News Bears and the Jamaican Bobsledding Team, said the teams trainer, Barry Weinberg, whose illustrious major league career included stints as a trainer for the New York Yankees, the Oakland As and the St. Louis Cardinals. He has earned seven World Series rings and has massaged aching joints for the likes of Thurman Munson and Reggie Jackson.

At Maimonides Park on July 11, some fans waved Israeli flags. Others wore hats and shirts bearing the Star of David. One fan wore a T-shirt of a rabbi slugging a baseball that included the words Jew Crew, a reference to the national team, which was wearing crisp blue uniforms also featuring the Star of David.

Team Israel gave the crowd a show, beating the Bravest, the club team of New York Citys Fire Department, 12 to 3.

The squad likely has more fans in New York than in Israel, said Peter Kurz, the fixture exporter who is the teams general manager.

Perhaps 1,000 people play organized baseball in Israel, since official ball fields are scarce there, Mr. Kurz said, and the last Israel team to qualify for the Olympics in a team sport using a ball was the mens soccer team in 1976.

Under Olympic rules, players can qualify to be on the team if they travel to Israel and obtain citizenship, which the country grants to anyone with at least one Jewish parent, grandparent, or spouse.

For many players, being on the team has connected or reconnected them to their Jewish identities. We got a chemistry, a brotherhood, that no other team has, that tribe feeling, said pitcher Matt Soren, 30, who has a wicked slider.

He grew up idolizing baseballs short but illustrious list of great Jewish players, from Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg to more modern stars like Shawn Green. They offered hope that he too could play professionally.

Mr. Soren, who lives in Astoria and coaches youth baseball teams on Long Island, was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in 2013 and pitched professionally for five seasons, including stints with the independent league Long Island Ducks and the New Jersey Jackals. He said he was often the only Jewish player.

We want to win not just for ourselves, but so that little kids in Israel can see it and know that they can make it too, Mr. Soren said.

Team Israel was formed in the 1990s but rarely had much success until recently. One challenge was finding the best available Jewish players, even those whose Jewish heritage was not so obvious, like Ty Kelly and Danny Valencia, both former Major Leaguers on the Olympic team whose mothers are Jewish.

Its not difficult to find the Cohens and the Levys, but try finding a Ty Kelly, said Mr. Kurz, who has been obsessively beating baseballs bushes for Jewish players.

Over the past decade the team has gotten 18 American players to fly to Israel to make aliya, the Hebrew term for homecoming which results in getting citizenship.

In 2017, the team gained use of a private jet owned by the casino magnate Sheldon Adelson to fly a group of players to Israel for their citizenship, including former major leaguers Ike Davis, Ryan Lavarnway and Jon Moscot.

That was the same year the team first made a mark on the baseball world by finishing sixth in the World Baseball Classic. They traveled with their Mensch on the Bench mascot, a life-size dummy of a Hasidic man who had its own locker and spot in the dugout and received ceremonial offerings like Manischewitz and gefilte fish. (The mascot has since been retired in hopes to cultivate a more modern image.)

The teams current star is Ian Kinsler, 39, second baseman and a four-time All-Star. He announced his retirement from the majors in early 2020 and quickly gained his citizenship that March, just before Israel locked down to stem the spread of coronavirus. Mr. Kurz said he has spoken to the father of Jacob Steinmetz, 17, a Long Island pitcher who recently became possibly the first Orthodox Jewish player selected in the major league draft, about his son joining the team.

Major league players currently cannot play for the team even if they qualified, since the Olympics fall during their season. Most minor and independent league players, by contrast, can take a hiatus to play in the Olympics.

One of them, D.J. Sharabi, 29, a member of Team Israel who currently pitches for the Sioux Falls Canaries, a minor league team in South Dakota, is a devoutly observant Jew who says daily morning prayers wearing a prayer shawl and keeps kosher despite the difficulty of finding kosher restaurants.

Mr. Kurz and his team of unofficial scouts depend on word of mouth and scour drafts and rosters for Jewish-sounding names to recruit players.

Summer Olympics Essentials

In the case of Mr. Kelly, he was signing autographs after a minor league game and mentioned to some young fans wearing yarmulkes about his Jewish heritage. The boys father happened to know Mr. Kurz and called him.

Mr. Kurz heard about the Jewish identity of another player, Scotty Burcham, a 28-year-old shortstop, when one of the teams scouts saw on the players mothers Facebook page that she might be Jewish.

Mr. Kurz had been told that Mr. Valencia, 36, had a Jewish mother. His father is Cuban and had converted to Judaism.

Scott Barancik, a journalist who runs Jewish Baseball News, a website that maintains a list of Jewish ballplayers and publishes a feature called Not a Jew to eliminate confusion caused by the Jewish-sounding names of non-Jews, was able to find a public notice of Mr. Valencias bar mitzvah in an online newspaper.

Mr. Valencia, who had spent nine years in the major leagues before retiring in 2018, obtained his Israeli citizenship to play for Team Israel.

The players are now sharing rooms in a hotel in New Jersey, working out at a minor league stadium in Rockland County, north of New York City, and traveling by bus to games against college squads, local independent league teams and club teams.

The tour has the feel of an old-time barnstorming exhibition. But because of the current unrest between Israel and Palestine, security at the stadiums has been tight and armed Israeli security agents act as protection.

But inside Maimonides Park on July 11, the mood was festive. Mr. Soren took the mound in the seventh inning in front of his own cheering section: family and friends from his hometown, Roslyn, N.Y.

Nearby, Brandon Lakind and his friend Cameron Johnson, high school students from Randolph, N.J., said they had been following the team.

Its crazy to see that they made the top six teams in the world, Brandon said. That alone is pretty cool.

One fan, Ed Schneider, 65, said he had attended 13 Olympic Games but is unable to go this summer because of a ban on spectators as a result of the pandemic.

Im here because I love an underdog and this is the closest Im going to get to going to Tokyo, said Mr. Schneider, a marketing supervisor from Long Island.

A onetime athlete, he said there was no way hed make Team Israel.

Im Catholic, he said.

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Where Are the Fans for Israels National Baseball Team? In New York. - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

A healthcare worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at Clalit Health Services, in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak, on January 6, 2021.

JACK GUEZ | AFP | Getty Images

Israel will allow adults with severe pre-existing medical conditions to receive a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine against Covid-19, making it the first country in the world to do so.

The Israeli government's decision comes as coronavirus infections rise due to the spread of the delta variant, but also stands in contrast to a recent statement from top U.S. health authorities regarding its own citizens that a booster shot isn't actually needed.

Israel's health ministry this week said that the booster will be offered to adults considered to be at risk, and specifically mentioned people with severe immunodeficiency or who have recently undergone an organ transplant.

It was not immediately clear whether the booster shot would also be made available to Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied territory.

Covid cases in Israel jumped to more than 400 per day in early July after staying in the single digits for most of June despite the fact that the country has been praised for executing one of the fastest vaccination campaigns in the world. More than 5 million of its 9 million citizens have been fully vaccinated against the disease.

But after fully reopening its economy in the spring, Israel has brought back some restrictions, including mandatory mask-wearing indoors and on public transport.

Still, despite the rise in case volume, Israel's health ministry said during the first week of July that only 47 of the 4,000 registered active cases in the country were considered serious.

Meanwhile, the debate continues as to whether a third dose of any vaccine is necessary and will make a significant difference in protecting people from the virus. Health officials in the U.S. don't take that to be the case so far.

"Americans who have been fully vaccinated do not need a booster shot at this time," the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control said in a joint statement on July 8.

"We continue to review any new data as it becomes available and will keep the public informed. We are prepared for booster doses if and when the science demonstrates that they are needed."

In a press release issued on the same day, Pfizer and BioNTech said that a third dose of their vaccine "has the potential to preserve the highest levels of protective efficacy against all currently known variants including Delta."

The American and German companies are currently developing a new version of their shot "that targets the full spike protein of the Delta variant," the statement said.

Pfizer has said it would request regulatory approval for its booster shot, while some countries where Chinese-made vaccines were widely administered are now offering a Pfizer booster amid doubts over the efficacy of Chinese vaccines. Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are among the countries now offering a Pfizer booster for people who have received two doses of China's Sinopharm, despite the jury remaining open as to whether the practice is ultimately safe.

On Monday, chief WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan warned against mixing vaccines.

"It's a little bit of a dangerous trend here we're in a data-free, evidence-free zone as far as mix and match (of vaccines)," she said during a press conference.

"There is limited data on mix and match, there are studies going on, we need to wait for that, maybe it will be a very good approach, but at the moment we only have data on the AstraZeneca followed by Pfizer. So, it will be a chaotic situation in countries if citizens start deciding when and who should be taking a third and fourth dose."

The West Bank's ruling Palestinian Authority in June canceled a vaccine swap deal with Israel, under which it would have received 1 million doses of an ageing stock of Pfizer vaccines from Israel that needed to be used up, and would in exchange give Israel a similar number of Pfizer doses it planned to receive from the company later in the year.

But the stock's expiry date was in June the same month it was meant to be delivered to Israel and the Palestinians rejected them, saying they were initially told the shots would expire in July and August. Israel denies this and says they were clear about the expiry dates.

Palestinian students wearing face mask stand in line to enter their school after face-to-face education, which was interrupted within the scope of the new type of coronavirus (Covid-19) measures, resumed today for primary and secondary school students in Gaza Strip on January 13, 2021.

Ali Jadallah | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Israel in January sent 5,000 vaccine doses to Palestinian health workers living in the West Bank, which rights activists and Palestinians say is insufficient and a dereliction of Israel's duty of care as an occupying state.

Israel's foreign ministry did not immediately reply to a CNBC request for comment.

Just over 30% of eligible Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have received at least one vaccine dose, Palestinian officials say, largely thanks to the COVAX vaccine sharing initiative and donations from various countries.

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Israel is offering a third Pfizer shot amid spiking cases, even as the U.S. says it's not yet needed - CNBC

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

The road to Tokyo ran straight through Aberdeen Monday night. The Israeli baseball team was in town for an exhibition game.Team Israel took the field at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen Monday. Many Baltimore area synagogues took groups to watch."It means a lot, it really does, it's very special, it's actually something I didn't think I could ever imagine happening here," Pikesville Jewish Congregation President Dani Vanderwalde said."It's kind of cool seeing the Israeli team play and soon they're going to be in the Olympics playing for baseball," 9-year-old Olivia Zakhein said.The team was assembled in 2019, ahead of the 2020 Olympics that were canceled due to COVID-19. The game against the Cal Ripken League All Stars is one of 10 exhibition games the team is playing before heading to Tokyo."It's just important to get us all together to kind of to get gelling again and guys get work in so we can work together," Team Israel Manager Eric Holtz said.The team knows this is an Olympics like none other with no spectators and COVID-19 protocols in place. They admit they're not quite sure what to expect."Sadly, in some ways, we've become accustomed to the unknowns and accustomed to not knowing what's next so just kind of taking that approach in terms of getting over there trying to be as careful as possible," Team Israel pitcher Jeremy Bleich said."It's crazy but like in baseball, as a coach, I tell my guys, 'Let's just control what we control. I can't control there's 50,000 people in the stand or nobody, the game doesn't change,'" Holtz said. The players and coaches are just excited to finally be heading to the Olympics. Twenty members of the team are Jewish Americans with Israeli citizenship."Representing the state of Israel, just my upbringing and culture and growing up Jewish and proud of that, my dad's parents were holocaust survivors so its something to me that I hold close to my heart and its just an incredible honor," Bleich said.The team has an exhibition game Tuesday in New York before flying to Tokyo on Wednesday.

The road to Tokyo ran straight through Aberdeen Monday night. The Israeli baseball team was in town for an exhibition game.

Team Israel took the field at Ripken Stadium in Aberdeen Monday. Many Baltimore area synagogues took groups to watch.

"It means a lot, it really does, it's very special, it's actually something I didn't think I could ever imagine happening here," Pikesville Jewish Congregation President Dani Vanderwalde said.

"It's kind of cool seeing the Israeli team play and soon they're going to be in the Olympics playing for baseball," 9-year-old Olivia Zakhein said.

The team was assembled in 2019, ahead of the 2020 Olympics that were canceled due to COVID-19. The game against the Cal Ripken League All Stars is one of 10 exhibition games the team is playing before heading to Tokyo.

"It's just important to get us all together to kind of to get gelling again and guys get work in so we can work together," Team Israel Manager Eric Holtz said.

The team knows this is an Olympics like none other with no spectators and COVID-19 protocols in place. They admit they're not quite sure what to expect.

"Sadly, in some ways, we've become accustomed to the unknowns and accustomed to not knowing what's next so just kind of taking that approach in terms of getting over there trying to be as careful as possible," Team Israel pitcher Jeremy Bleich said.

"It's crazy but like in baseball, as a coach, I tell my guys, 'Let's just control what we control. I can't control there's 50,000 people in the stand or nobody, the game doesn't change,'" Holtz said.

The players and coaches are just excited to finally be heading to the Olympics. Twenty members of the team are Jewish Americans with Israeli citizenship.

"Representing the state of Israel, just my upbringing and culture and growing up Jewish and proud of that, my dad's parents were holocaust survivors so its something to me that I hold close to my heart and its just an incredible honor," Bleich said.

The team has an exhibition game Tuesday in New York before flying to Tokyo on Wednesday.

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Israeli baseball team plays exhibition game in Aberdeen before leaving for Tokyo - WBAL TV Baltimore

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

The ministers met for several hours on Friday, only completing their meeting shortly before Shabbat, and agreed on several principles, the first of which was to ensure that Israel maintains a continuous inventory of vaccines and that vaccination efforts be stepped up.

According to Segal, only around 4,000 people were vaccinated last week not enough to help move Israel back toward herd immunity.

The government also said it would evaluate the need for a third shot of the vaccine, at least for the elderly.

Next, the ministers said they would put an emphasis on rolling out rapid home testing as early as next week. Bennett said he wants to see these and other rapid tests accessible to everyone to enable life to go on during the pandemic.

The system applies to indoor gatherings where food and drinks are served and people mingle or stand, such as dancing at weddings or concerts. While there will be no cap on participants, people will be required to wear masks.

Establishments that do not follow the rules will be subject to a NIS 5,000 fine.

Several top health officials are pushing for the government to bring back the Green Pass within the next two weeks for all gatherings over 100 people, including at restaurants. The coronavirus cabinet is expected to discuss the idea this week and insiders have said they are likely to accept it.

Already on Sunday, a team of 1,600 municipal inspectors will be charged with ensuring that the public is wearing masks, mostly in malls and larger grocery stores. The fine for not wearing a mask in closed public spaces is NIS 500.

Another action authorized at the meeting is that a joint team run by the Health and Transportation ministries will examine the policies at Ben-Gurion Airport and the relevant authorities will begin preparations for the High Holy Days and the opening of the school year in the shadow of coronavirus.

Finally, the ministers also agreed that all of the staff hired by the hospitals to help during the coronavirus crisis will remain employed until the passing of a state budget. This includes some 600 doctors and 1,600 nurses.

Last week, thousands of administrative and other support staff from 30 medical centers across the country went on strike over some 200 positions that were likewise hired during the pandemic and were under threat of cancellation.

The strike ended on Thursday and all of the employees agreed to go back to work after a deal was brokered between Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and the Histadrut Labor Union, which similarly said that until a state budget is formulated, all employees that were hired during the COVID-19 pandemic would remain in their jobs.

The doctors, nurses and support staff who were hired to help the hospitals during the crisis were supposed to lose their jobs at the end of the month.

In addition, it was agreed on Thursday that Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David would discuss a wage increase for these workers with the Finance Ministry.

THE MEETING came shortly after the Health Ministry announced its intention to add Spain and Kyrgyzstan to the list of banned countries, and Britain, Cyprus, Turkey, Georgia, Uganda, Myanmar, Fiji, Panama, Cambodia, Kenya and Liberia to the list of red countries beginning Friday, July 23 meaning that if Israelis travel to these places, they will have to be isolated upon returning for seven to 14 days.

Other countries for which there is already a severe travel warning include the United Arab Emirates, Seychelles, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, Paraguay, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Tunisia.

Additional countries are also expected to be added soon, including Thailand, Greece and Holland, according to reports from Israeli media.

The list of banned countries includes Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico, Russia and Belarus. Israelis are prohibited from visiting these countries unless they obtain permission from a special governmental exceptions committee.

The government is expected to approve the new list of countries this week.

The government will continue to monitor all developments and convene frequently to discuss them and plan the next steps in advance, Bennett concluded, so that the public will understand where we are going and what we are doing, without the mishaps, without panic and mainly, with advance planning, to anticipate the future.

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More than 1,000 Israelis test positive for COVID - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

An international tug-of-war has broken out over a desperately ill 2-year-old girl in England, where an American dad is fighting British doctors who want to pull the plug on her life support.

Severely brain-damaged at birth, little Alta Fixsler has been on a ventilator her entire life, requires a feeding tube and suffers from seizures. She cannot maintain a core body temperature, or even blink, at times needing her eyes taped shut.

Her doctors at Royal Manchester Childrens Hospital believe Alta has no conscious awareness, and English courts have backed the medical experts decision to let Alta die.

But Altas father, Abraham Fixsler, who attended yeshiva in Brooklyn as a youth, continues to fight for her life.

There is no reason to kill my daughter like this, he insisted to The Post.

The familys 11th-hour plight has caught the bipartisan attention of powerful American pols.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-NY) is pushing to get the family to the United States.

My heart breaks for the Fixsler family, Schumer told The Post.

There are doctors in the U.S. and Israel, where the family once lived, willing to treat Alta, said the desperate dad.

There are a lot of places around the world where I can take care of my daughter and they would be happy to take care of her long term, said Fixsler, 28, who accused the British government of holding Alta and his family hostage.

Let me go. Thats all I am saying, said Fixsler, who is also father to an 8-year-old son.

The doctors dont think she has quality of life, Fixsler said. But I think she has quality of life.

This is something very, very painful.

The family has been fighting for Alta in British courts since 2019, and has faced a string of losses as the case slowly wound its way through the legal system. In May a high court judge ruled that life support could be removed. On July 9 the countrys Court of Appeal affirmed the ruling, saying the decision was in Altas best interests.

So far the British government has refused to allow Alta to leave. The issue is not one of red tape, but rather the wish of her current doctors not to see her life extended elsewhere, court papers show.

It cannot be said to be in Altas best interests to be transferred to Israel for life sustaining treatment to continue, ruled high court Justice Alistair MacDonald in his June decision.

Letting their daughter die would violate the familys strongly held Hasidic Jewish beliefs.

Our value of life is built into our religious upbringing. Orthodox Judaism encourages the continuation of life until all means are exhausted, family spokesman Yossi Gestetner told The Post.

The family moved to England five years ago to be near Altas grandparents.

Alta was born prematurely in 2018, and initially showed no signs of life, forcing doctors to resuscitate her. Left critically deprived of oxygen, with severe brain and nerve damage, physicians said the girl had no hope of recovery, court records show.

But Fixsler, who holds American and Israeli citizenship and is a legal resident of England, said he was encouraged by doctors abroad, who said there may yet be superior treatment options not available to Englands price-conscious socialized healthcare system.

The family is currently awaiting a hearing to determine if Englands highest court will hear their case. No date for the hearing has been set.

As the saga progressed, the case drew international attention and electrified the global Jewish community. The familys legal bills in excess of $340,000 so far have been paid through crowdfunding donations.

Israel has offered to take Alta Fixsler and continue her treatment there. The countrys former president, Reuven Rivlin, has personally lobbied Englands Prince Charles.

Many organizations are trying to deal with Alta and to save her life and to prevent pulling the plug and killing that girl, Rabbi David Niederman, Executive Director of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn told The Post.

Schumer has taken the lead in the U.S., securing a visa, and sending a letter to British ambassador to the U.S., Karen Pierce, demanding that no health decisions be taken against the familys wishes and that they be allowed to travel to the US.

Her father is an American citizen and we are going to keep fighting until she is allowed to come. Her life is at stake and she is a beautiful 2 year old little girl, Schumer said.

New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker and Robert Menendez followed up with a letter of their own to Pierce saying their states Phoenix Center for Rehabilitation and Pediatrics was ready and willing to take Alta.

Ten Republican senators have also written to President Biden. We are profoundly troubled that the child of an American citizen is being treated thisway, in a country with whom we have a deep alliance and special relationship, they wrote. We urge you to advocate to Prime Minister Johnson on behalf of the Fixsler family.

The White House did not respond to repeated inquiries from The Post.

Under UK law, the decision about Altas welfare is one for the independent judiciary and not the British Government. The courts are bound by law to make a decision on the basis of what is in Altas best interests, Toby Usnik a rep for the British Consulate General in New York, told The Post.

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Parents fight to save daughter on life support after UK court demands they pull plug - New York Post

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Posted By admin on July 19, 2021

Mildred Zare

August 19, 1920-July 17, 2021

ROCK ISLAND-Mildred Zare, 100, longtime respected Rock Island business owner, died Saturday, July 17, at home.

Services are 11:00 a.m. Tuesday at the Congregation Beth Israel at the Tri-City Jewish Center, Rock Island. Burial is in Hebrew Cemetery, Rock Island, immediately followed by a luncheon. Trimble Funeral Home & Crematory, Moline, is assisting the family. Memorials may be made to the Jewish Federation of the Quad Cities or Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The former Mildred Wyman was born August 19, 1920, in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Saul and Bertha Wyman. She graduated from The Ohio State University in 1941. She married Isadore Zare on November 23, 1944, at the Tri-City Jewish Center, Rock Island. He died December 1, 1988.

Mildred worked as a schoolteacher at McKinley Elementary in Moline, and later owned and operated Artcraft Printing Company with her husband.

She belonged to the Congregation Beth Israel at the Tri-City Jewish Center, where she active with the Hadassah, B'nai B'rith Women, and Beth Israel Sisterhood. She enjoyed golf, watching game shows on television, and was gifted at math and spelling.

Mildred is survived by a son, Michael Zare of Rock Island; a daughter, Harriet Zare of Rock Island; two grandchildren, Russel (Sarah) Beaulieu and Eric (Stacey) Beaulieu; three great-grandchildren, Wyatt, Jaxon, and Morrigan Marie Beaulieu; and a son-in-law, Lloyd Beaulieu of East Moline. She was preceded in death by her husband, Isadore Zare; daughters, Sandi Beaulieu and Nadine Zare; a son, Robert Zare; and two brothers.

The family invites friends to share stories and condolences at TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.

Published by The Rock Island Dispatch Argus on Jul. 19, 2021.

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Mildred Zare Obituary (1920 - 2021) The Rock Island Dispatch Argus - Legacy.com

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2021

Indias latest abstention on a Palestine-related resolution at the Human Rights Council (HRC) of the United Nations is not a new stand, said Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi.

The official response came days after Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki wrote a strong letter to External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, observing that Indias action stifled human rights of all people.

Palestine has written similar letters to all the countries that abstained during the UN Human Rights Council vote. The position that we took is not a new position, said Mr. Bagchi, substantiating the Indian decision to abstain during the resolution, aimed at enforcing international humanitarian law in the Palestinian territories and in Israel.

The resolution was supported by 24 members of the HRC. Nine members voted against it and 14, including India, abstained. Passing of the resolution led to the establishment of the International Commission of Inquiry to Investigate Violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.

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The Hindu

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