In a diplomatic first, an Israeli minister visited Sudan on Monday. Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen’s trip to the North African country marked the first official visit since Jerusalem and Khartoum signed a US-brokered normalization agreement three weeks ago.
Israel Hayom reported that Cohen led a delegation comprising officials from the Intelligence Ministry and Israel’s National Security Council. The team met with several Sudanese leaders, including Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who heads the country’s governing transitional council.
During the meetings, political, security, and economic issues were discussed. Cohen also signed a memorandum of understanding with Sudan’s Minister of Defense. After Ben Gurion Airport reopens, a Sudanese delegation will also visit Israel, a statement said.
The first results from Israel’s coronavirus immunization drive seem even more successful than expected. A week after receiving the second dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, preliminary findings show fewer than 0.01 percent of inoculated people thereafter contracted the virus.
The data was shared by the Israeli health maintenance organization Maccabi. While the results are still preliminary, Maccabi called the numbers encouraging.
So far, more than 2.6 million Israelis have received the first dose, and about 1.2 million have been given both shots. Although the amount of new infections is slowing down, the number of severe cases and deaths remains high.
Concerns about new coronavirus strains have prompted Israel to completely shutter its international airport from Tuesday until the end of the month. Moreover, COVID-19 czar Prof. Nachman Ash suggested that it is not clear yet when Israel will completely exit the current lockdown.
A last-minute proposal by the Trump administration to declare several international NGOs antisemitic over their support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has been shelved by the US State Department.
The move had reportedly targeted organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam. It was announced in the last two months of the Trump presidency by then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo. NGOs that support BDS would have lost US government funding.
According to former US officials, the previous administration failed to compile a list of organizations that support BDS in time. Additionally, the policy faced pushback from career diplomats, who expressed concerns that it would limit free speech.
Twenty-year-old Ethiopian-Israeli Eden Alene will represent the Jewish state at the Eurovision Song Contest in May with the song Set Me Free, Israel’s public broadcaster announced on Monday.
Set Me Free was chosen by the Israeli public. It is mostly in English, but also includes some Hebrew lyrics.
The Israeli contestant is set to sing her song in the competition’s first semifinal on May 18. If she finishes among the top 10, she will perform again in the May 22 final.
Alene was Israel’s candidate for Eurovision 2020, which was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2021 edition will take place in the Dutch port city of Rotterdam.
Sunday, January 31
Webinar and Q&A – ‘How to Make Your Point and Keep Your Cool!‘
Has Israel become a dirty word? Do you feel as if you’re banging your head against the wall? Join us to learn the secret to getting your point across effectively. Due to popular demand, we are rerunning this webinar, updated with live Q&A.
- On This Day: Israel Held First Ever Elections for Knesset in 1949 (Eve Young, Jerusalem Post)
- International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance Publishes Guidelines to Combat ‘Pernicious Threat of Holocaust Distortion’ (Algemeiner)
- Hidden Bunker Discovered in Warsaw Ghetto (Hanan Greenwood, Israel Hayom)
- HBO Max’s Next Israeli Show: ‘Possessions,’ a Thriller About a French Woman Caught in a Murder Case (Curt Schleier, Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
- 15 Israeli Dishes You Must Try in 2021 (Naama Barak, Israel21C)
