Israel Daily News, Thu. Feb 4, 2021

Knowledge is the best weapon!

The Israeli government keeps native -English speaking reps out of office; are people living in caves in Hebron? And a full investigation into Israel’s vaccination campaign.

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1. Rumors are circulating that the Israeli government may be keeping Ben Gurion airport closed until the end of February — or the beginning of March. This isn’t confirmed yet. Special arrangements will be able to be made for special circumstances and there’s a link on the government website where people stuck abroad can file a petition for re-entrance.
2. Israeli aircraft conducted a strike last night targeting sites in southern Syria near Damascus. That’s according to the Syrian state news agency SANA. The airstrikes hit positions of both the Syrian military and Hezbollah including locations near their international airport. Hours earlier, two flights of airlines allegedly used by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to transfer weapons arrived in Damascus from Tehran. Last night’s attacks, the fifth in the past month, come during a time of increased tension in the region. In addition to the November assasination of an Iranian nuclear scientist, which Iran attributes to Israel, concerns that the United States might return to a nuclear deal with Iran leads Israeli Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kohavi to order operational plans to strike Iran’s nuclear program — if that will become necessary. According to Kan News, Prime Minister Netanyahu met with key government ministers and IDF officials on Monday to discuss the necessary budget for a strike of this magnitude. Israeli Iranian tension appears in other places too. On Monday, Kan News reported that a planned Iranian terrorist attack on an Israeli embassy in east Africa was recently prevented and just yesterday, Hezbollah forces, supported by Iran, fired an air missile at an IDF drone while Israel was using it to scopy out Lebanese territory. It’s a level of aggression not seen since late 2019. According to the IDF, however, the drone was unaffected by the attack and continued on its mission.
3. The Times of Israel has an article out highlighting that a load of former Likud supporters are now joining Gideon Saar in his New Hope party. The article stuck out to me because it reminded me of a recent conversation I had with a government advisor named Zohar Tal who, after 16 years of working with the Likud party has decided to leave the gang. His reason? He says “The party itself is not allowing young talented individuals to thrive and advance.” and that “It wasn’t always like that.” Parties wrapped up filling in the names of new members today and the New Hope party has the list all filled in. Saar says his top picks “reflects the diverse face of Israel. It is a mosaic of Israeli society, in terms of gender, geography, age, cultural, and social groups.” Saar hopes to challenge current Prime Minister Netanyahu. Sa’ar was with Likud from 2003 until 2014 and served as the country’s education minister and Minister of the Interior.
4. Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party also filed their list for party members. One of the newest includes a novelist and right wing radio personality named Galit Distal Atbaryan. She’s got the 10th spot and Netanyahu says she’s an independent woman who doesn’t hesitate to share her opinion and belives int he national idea. Whatever national idea means. The media star speaks Farsi because her parents came to Israel from Iran and she says her placement in government is a win showing that the Likud party offers mobility. She says this move “gives hope to many people, because I am not like the people, I am the people…I know what it is to manage a store.”
5. This is very sad news for English speakers in Israel — but there are virtually no members of Knesset on any party list that are Anglo or English -speaking. Not even Michael Cotler Wunsh who we have interviewed on this show. Despite her tireless efforts to protect and speak up for immigrants, she was left off of the party list and not picked up by Gideon Sa’ar, despite the fact that she worked with him personally to help launch him into the lime-light and shared with him her work in the last several weeks to ensure immigrants would be united with their families during the country’s 3rd lockdown, Sa’ar did not include her on the list. The only representative of native english speakers would be Jonathan Javor who is number 42 down the list. Saar included Member of Knesset Sharren Haskel as his number 5 choice. She was born in Toronto but spent her life in Israel and has not familiarized herself with the english speaking community. Israel has 400,000 english speakers, many of which struggle to get representation and struggle to even understand the rules and regulation that apply to them. Cotler Wunsh produced videos in English with subtitles and was also able to speak fluently in Hebrew. She just recently addressed the court with the many stories she has been receiving from people who have reached out to her and are stuck outside of the country while the border is closed. Some people are parents, some business-owners and she highlighted one woman who was not able to make it back into the country to see her father before he passed away. Wunsh released a statement on facebook saying she will not be running in the upcoming election, that it was an honor to serve the Israeli public and she plans to continue sounding the alarm on issues that plague the immigrant community. Ehs says she is filled with hope and optimism with the Israeli public as they have shown great perseverance in the face of Covid -19 and its challenges. We will be reaching out to her to get a comment on how she’s feeling and what her next move is. Naftali Bennett, a strong contender leading the Yamina or right wing party, also did not include any native english speakers or anglo representatives on his list.
6. We talked about it and now its here. The 10,000 doses of Sputnik, which is the Russian vaccine has been imported from Russia. It’s enough to inoculate 5,000 people. The first round tof people to get the vaccine will be the healthcare workers on the front lines dealing with sick and infected people. The Palestinian Authority will be receiving vaccines from COVAX, which is the global vaccine sharing organization as well as some shipments from China. Israel transferred over some initial doses last week and facilitated moving the Sputnik vials over as well. The State says Monday they sent out 2,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine and is scheduling another 3,000 to go to their Palestinian neighbors next.
7. The Jerusalem Post has a piece today about Palestinian cave dwellers. Did you know that some people still live or work out of caves? Well why not. The West Bank region has a slew of stone caves that apparently have served as a home or an outpost for animal herders. Reports of tension are coming out in the Hebron area near where one family, the Mour family in particular say they are sleeping in the cave every night in order to protect it from jewish settlers who have been trying to get in and destroy them. The family lives in a traditional house in a different village but uses the cave for work. The family claims 70 settlers broke into the place just last week trying to damage their property. Protests and riots have been held outside of the cave in support of the Palestinans who inhabit them. The left wing Israeli Betselem advocacy group says Palestinian families have been living and working out of these caves since the 1830s.

Feature investigation:

It’s been nearly eleven months since the COVID-19 pandemic changed Israel and the rest of the world’s complete idea of normalcy. Everyone is counting down the days to when we can resume our lives without fear of seeing one another or spending time with one another. People are putting their minds into overdrive in order to adapt to full-time, online school and work. Many have family and friends who have died. And those who’ve gotten sick with the virus and survived have to face life-long complications. No one knows that better than Israeli American journalist Sarah Tuttle-Singer. Our feature reporter Benny Forstadt took a deep dive into Israel’s current vaccination program. His story starts with Tuttle-Singer who’s recovering from COVID-19 quite publicly. She posts about her experiences on social media, warns people to protect themselves and answered questions from the Israel Daily News Podcast. Click here to listen to the report.