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COVID-19: There’s encouraging news from Israel in the battle against COVID-19. A study by the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center has found that Israel’s coronavirus mortality rate is among the lowest in the world. According to the study, the mortality rate in Israel is only 0.7%. The new data suggests that severe morbidity is decreasing because the virus reproduction rate (R) is now less than 1, which also means that the number of cases is also falling.
Since the global pandemic hit the Jewish state in mid-March, Israel has recorded 68,769 cases. 497 people have died from the disease and 35,516 Israelis have recovered from it. “One of the most important ways to measure the burden of COVID-19 is mortality,” the researchers noted in the study.
While the world waits for vaccines, an Israeli company, Kando, hopes that by collecting and analyzing sewage samples it can help governments around the isolate problem areas to more effectively contain COVID-19. The idea, according to Kando Vice President of Product and Marketing Yaniv Shoshan, is to put hardware into wastewater pipes that will capture samples on their own, then send out people to collect those samples and deliver them to labs where they can be analyzed to find out how much, if any, of the virus is in it. The company is currently gearing up to start selling its sensors and services around the world.
On the eve of the Muslim feast of Eid al-Adha, the IDF stepped up its efforts to help residents of east Jerusalem as they face a sharp increase in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases. The Home Front Command has been operating in the Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in March. “Our mission is to help all residents during this difficult time, Arabs and Jews alike,” Col. Itay Levi, Commanding Officer of the Jerusalem and Central District of the Home Front Command said. Col. Levi added: “We don’t distinguish between one citizen and another. As far as we are concerned, there’s no difference between [Arab] Isawiya and [Jewish] Gilo.”
Israel will reopen its skies to more flights on August 16. According to the Transport Minister, Miri Regev, the Israel Airports Authority is already preparing to resume flights, including the setup of a rapid 20-to-30-minute coronavirus testing procedure. Regev noted that passengers arriving in Israel from countries with low morbidity will not have to enter quarantine.
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Thousands of Israelis protested near the official residence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and marched through the capital, while thousands more demonstrated at close to 300 locations across the country on Saturday night. Israel Police foreign press spokesman Micky Rosenfeld put the number of demonstrators near Netanyahu’s official residence on the Balfour Street at “more than 10,000” and other reports said 13,000.
Despite the unrest, a new poll indicates that if an election were held today, Netanyahu would win, and would have the possibility of building a narrow right-wing government. According to the poll, the Likud would secure 33 seats, followed by Yesh Atid-Telem, which was projected to win 17 seats. Blue and White was projected to win 12 seats, as was Yamina.
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Archaeologist and Hebrew University professor Yosef Garfinkel argues that recent excavations close to Jerusalem show the face of Yahweh, the God of Israel. These excavations of the ancient Kingdom of Judah have unearthed a number of anthropomorphic male figurine heads from the 10th century BCE. A bearded man with a square flat-topped head, protruding nose, holes for earrings, and somewhat bulging eyes. The similarity between the figurine heads suggests that they depict the same figure, but who is this oddly shaped character? If accurate, the sensational claim would mean both that ancient Israelites made idols (despite the strict biblical commands not to) and that we now have an early portrait of God.
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Antisemitism Watch: The United Nations has named Spanish diplomat Miguel Ángel Moratinos, high representative for the UN Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), as its envoy tasked with monitoring antisemitism. Moratinos, appointed by UN Secretary-General António Guterres, will now be responsible for “enhancing a system-wide response” to combat global antisemitism.
The position mirrors similar roles in the EU, US, UK, Germany and France, positions that have been used to coordinate global efforts among governments and NGOs to take antisemitism head on.
Nick Cannon reviewed former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss’s 2019 book, “How to Fight Antisemitism.” Cannon has been in hot water ever since he made antisemitic comments on his podcast. Cannon posted his review on Instagram “after a full day of fasting, meditation, study and prayer honoring for the first time Tisha B’av,” calling the book “an insightful and powerful read.”
The Voice, a British weekly aimed at the African-Caribbean community, pulled an interview with the rapper Wiley in which he repeated antisemitic tropes about Jews. “The Voice has not, and makes it clear again, supported or in any way condoned the outbursts by Wiley that the Jewish community finds offensive,” the statement said. “We do not support the stereotyping of any race or group.”
Former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke has been banned from Twitter for breaking the social media platform’s site’s rules forbidding hate speech. The company said on Friday that Duke’s account “has been permanently suspended for repeated violations of the Twitter rules on hateful conduct. It didn’t specify what exactly Duke posted that triggered the ban, but its policy on hateful conduct prohibits promoting violence or threatening attacks against people based on religious affiliation, race, and ethnic origin.
Recommended Reading
- Mark Zuckerberg, kick Holocaust denial off Facebook now (Gideon Taylor)
- Israel’s great risk for peace: The 2005 Gaza Disengagement (Dov Lipman)
- Algorithms can help fight COVID-19. But at what cost? (Boaz Lavie)
- Iran’s ayatollahs are down but far from out (Yaakov Peri, former head of Israel’s Shin Bet)
- Israel’s security barrier: The truth (Margo Dickstein)
