RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/coronavirus-masking-the-message-of-purim-opinion-659433

According to the plan approved by Israel’s coronavirus cabinet on Monday, celebrations during the Purim holiday next weekend will be curtailed. Festive meals will be limited to nuclear family members; synagogues will operate at half capacity for the fully vaccinated, or with a cap of 10 people indoors and 20 outside; and the traditional nationwide Adloyada (“until one no longer knows”) parades and customary costume parties will be banned.

Purim, the annual commemoration of the Jewish people’s rescue from Persian empire vizier Haman, as told in the biblical Book of Esther, has been of particular concern to Israel’s health authorities of late. Last February, as the COVID-19 pandemic was just beginning to rear its head, a toy-store owner in Or Yehuda – who returned from a trip to Italy where he contracted the virus – spent three days interacting with customers bustling to buy Purim garb. By the time that the proprietor of the “Red Pirate” was diagnosed, he had infected several people.
Less than two weeks later, synagogues were packed with worshipers reading the Scroll of Esther while unwittingly catching and spreading the coronavirus. Ditto for the other mass gatherings of kids and young adults in wacky getups drinking and dancing. It was during Purim last March, as well, that many Jewish communities in the Diaspora were hit hard by COVID.

On the one hand, it’s hard to believe that a full year has passed since then. On the other, last Purim seems like a lifetime ago. One might assume, then, that Israel’s swift and successful vaccination campaign would be cause for the kind of optimism that enables a degree of patience. Within a mere few weeks, after all, a majority of the country’s nine million citizens 16 and older will have been fully inoculated. 

https://bit.ly/3u6QpL8

Conventional wisdom assumes that the Palestinian Authority is amenable to peaceful-coexistence with Israel; that peaceful-coexistence is advanced by financial support of the Palestinian Authority; that a core concern for the Palestinian Authority is the land acquired by Israel in the 1967 War; and that land-for-peace (Israel’s retreat to the pre-1967 lines) is a prerequisite for Israel-Palestinian peaceful-coexistence.

Are these assumptions consistent with the Palestinian reality?

While the Palestinian ethos features religious, political, ideological, demographic and legal components, its core ingredient is a specific parcel of land, which pulls the rug out from under the “land-for-peace” assumption.

The centrality of the “1948 land” in the Palestinian ethos is underscored by the late Dr. Yuval Arnon-Ohanna, who was the head of the Mossad’s Palestinian research division and a ground-breaking researcher of the Palestinian issue (Line of Furrow and Fire). This is documented by pivotal Palestinian books, such as the six-volume Al Nakbah (“The 1948 Catastrophe”), as well as the 1959 and 1964 Fatah and PLO covenants – which are the ideological and strategic core of the Palestinian Authority – and the Palestinian educational curriculum.

These foundational documents have served as a most effective generator of Palestinian terrorism since 1948, and especially since the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords.  They focus on the outcome of the failed 1948 Arab military invasion – by five Arab countries and the local Arabs – of the Jewish State. 

https://www.jns.org/opinion/when-abundance-breeds-contempt/

 In a recent phone call, a friend complained about the pressure that the Israeli government, media and much of the public have been applying to citizens who refuse to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
As someone who felt that she had been virtually “bullied” into getting inoculated, she was protesting in particular the latest carrot-and-stick element of the campaign to rid the country of coronavirus: a proposal to grant certain privileges to those possessing the Health Ministry double-dose certificate.

Among the epidemiological benefits being discussed—aside from the existing exemption from quarantine after exposure to infection—are unhindered entrance into malls, theaters, stadiums and other venues when they reopen.

“Why does it matter whether everyone complies?” she asked, pointing to the warning by officialdom that even after full vaccination, the virus can still strike and be spread. As a result, we’ve been told, mask-wearing and social distancing will continue to be required for a long time.

She clearly hadn’t heard the more encouraging research revealing a serious drop in viral load after a single shot—indicating not only a less severe reaction to infection, but a lower chance of transmitting the virus to others. Nevertheless, she is not alone in her resentment on behalf of the anti-coronavirus-vaxxers.

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/02/israeli-elections-2021-joseph-puder/

Although Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu is facing a long-delayed trial, his party – the Likud – is rising in the polls. Six weeks to Election Day, on March 23, 2021, is a long time in Israeli politics, and it has the potential for many surprises. The discernible trend has been an upward climb for the Likud, which remains the largest party with a wide margin between it and the next party. Netanyahu, moreover, has been polled consistently as the most qualified to serve as prime minister.

The Irony about the upcoming election is that it is more than likely to end up in another draw, and possibly a fifth election in two years. The last two years have been essentially a story of two blocs: the anti-Bibi camp, which includes all the center-left parties, of Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid,  Merav Michaeli’s Labor party, Nitzan Horowitz’s Meretz, and Benny Gantz, the current Defense Minister and leader of the Blue and White party.  They are joined by Gideon Saar’s New Hope party and Avigdor Lieberman’s Israel Beitenu.  Naftali Bennett’s center right Yamina  (rightward), is potentially in this camp, too.

In this election cycle, Naftali Bennett (48, pictured above) is the clear kingmaker. While ideologically Bennett is much closer to the pro-Bibi bloc, which includes the Orthodox parties of Shas (Sephardic), Torah Judaism (Ashkenazi), and Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism.  (Netanyahu pushed Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir of Jewish Strength or Otzma Yehudit, to merge, since separately neither would cross the electoral threshold of 3.25% of the vote, and thus, right wing votes would go to waste.) Bennett has however, declared his ambition to replace Netanyahu as prime minister.  He believes that he is qualified for the job.  

https://worldisraelnews.com/opinion-is-israel-still-a-us-ally-the-answer-was-no/

Jen Psaki’s circuitous answer wasn’t pretty but it said plenty.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

There are at least 42 ways to say “yes” in English. Biden’s White House press secretary chose none of them. That’s because the answer was “no.”

“Does the administration still consider the Saudis and the Israelis important allies?”

The question was simple enough, but at last Friday’s press briefing, Jen Psaki couldn’t get the appropriate one-syllable answer to form on her lips, which is incredible, because even if you plan to shaft Israel at every turn, you still say, “Of course it is!” Then you throw out the well-worn cliches like, “unbreakable,” “unshakeable,” and “special relationship.”

Psaki did none of that, so she gets credit for being honest, if turgidly so. She said, instead:

“Well, you know, again, I think we — there are ongoing processes and internal interagency processes — one that we, I think, confirmed an interagency meeting just last week — to discuss a range of issues in the Middle East. We’re — we’ve only been here three and a half weeks, and I think I’m going to let those policy processes see themselves through before we give, kind of, a complete laydown of what our national security approaches will be to a range of issues.”

She didn’t even circle back.