Israel Daily News Wrap

Thu. Jan 15, 2021

Knowledge is the best weapon!

#124

A police officer gives a kid a kick in his butt. Did he deserve it? A 67-year old woman gets 5x the Coronavirus vaccine & we have a live interview with veteran TV news anchor turned Meditation Coach Tracy Alexander.

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Music from today’s podcast: Erika Krall Flying High — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE0fnZ9Ktuk

1. Wednesday, the plan for a new U.S. Embassy was approved by the Jerusalem Municipal Building and Planning Committee. The embassy will be built on Derech Hebron in Jerusalem. Those involved still need approval from a district council, but that is expected to pass easily. There will also be an extension built on the current temporary embassy in Arnona, which is a neighborhood in Jerusalem. The city’s Mayor, Moshe Lion calls this a “historic and exciting moment,” and says it will inspire other countries to move their embassies to the capital as well.
2. The government may be rolling out what they’re calling “green passports” for those vaccinated against COVID-19 once lockdown measures start to ease up. The lockdown is set to end on January 21st, but officials warn it will probably be extended, since Israel has been reaching record highs in daily confirmed infections. The green passport document, which is being spearheaded by the Health Ministry, will be given to Israelis who have received a vaccine or recovered from the virus. Those who have the document would be allowed to attend large gatherings and cultural venues. The ministry has also said those who test negative for COVID-19 can receive a temporary green passport for 72 hours. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of the ministry’s public health services division, says 73% of Israelis who are over the age of 60 or who have other high-risk factors have already been vaccinated with at least one of the two shots. She points out that the process has been slower in the Arab and ultra-Orthodox communities, since those groups are often more skeptical of the mainstream measures. The latest number given by officials for total vaccinations is 1,910,330, which is about 20% of the population. There are between 9 million and 10 million people living in Israel. Though officials say 1 million 900 thousand have been vaccinated, just Tuesday, Prime Minister Netanyahu held a ceremony to celebrate the two-millionth person to be get inoculated.
3. A 67-year old patient in Israel was accidentally injected with 5 times the amount she was supposed to be! She was taken to a hospital just in case, but doctors say it’s no big deal. During trials, patients were tested with extra vaccine and nothing happened. They say its an easy mistake because typically, nurses inject full vials into patients arms. But this time, since only a small amount is needed, it can be tough to remember to separate the liquids properly.
4. Mayhem was reported and video taped in Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood when police came in to break up illegal schooling. Right now Israel is under a full lockdown and that has forced schools to close. But many remained open in this Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. And when officers came to investigate further, the community came out and tried shoeing them away, dancing and clapping as a form of intimidation. One officer was seen on video with egg yolk on him, and another officer was caught on camera kicking a small boy in his behind to get him out of the way. No legal penalties have been reported as a result of those schools remaining open.
5. Transportation Minister, Miri Regev, was photographed at a ministry office birthday party on Tuesday with more than twelve employees — a clear violation of the national lockdown rules. The lockdown, which Regev herself voted in favor of, limits indoor gatherings to just five people. Regev’s office later explained that she was only at the event for a short time and that she told the workers to obey the restrictions. But nobody in the photo was keeping social distancing orders or wearing a mask. A statement from her office said that, “ those photographed..are essential workers who work together as a pod in the workplace.” Regev has been seen breaking a lockdown before, when she attended an event in July with more than the maximum number of people permitted. But she’s not even the only minister who’s been caught disobeying the rules over the past year, showing that even officials are struggling to fully adopt all of the regulations
6. Israel Hayom, a newspaper that was actually funded by the late Sheldon Adelson has a big scoop on their front page. They say Israel is in the process of planning an attack on Iran that would wipe out its nuclear program. The paper reports that IDF chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi is asking for three proposals to review. All of which would derail Tehran’s program. If the operation would involve a full military strike, he would allegedly need to get a big boost in funds for the IDF.

Israel Daily News Podcast host Shanna Fuld in conversation with former news anchor turned meditation coach Tracy Alexander

And finally, we have this week’s Women in Israel series. We’ve been doing Thursday live shows on Facebook where we bring in interesting female immigrants who have moved to Israel and started something new. This week we spoke with Tracy Alexander, who hails from Australia. She’s worked as a news reporter and anchor for around 10 years and decided she wanted to heal people so that there would be less disturbing news to read. She’s forging her own business as a Mental Health and Meditation coach, teaching people how to feel better and talk to themselves more kindly.

The Israel Weekly Newswrap comes out on Monday mornings and includes the top 5 news stories from the week plus the cliff notes version of our investigations, interviews and special reports. Send your email to us on our site http://israeldaily.news/