Rivlin warns if agreement between Blue and White chair and Netanyahu not reached by Monday deadline, he will ask Knesset to recommend candidate

By RAOUL WOOTLIFF, TOI

[…]

“If the two do not sign an agreement by midnight tomorrow, and if the number of recommendations for each candidate does not change, the task of forming the government will return to the Knesset and a period of 21 days will begin during which Knesset members can form a majority to recommend an agreed-on candidate to form a government, who would have 14 days to do so,” the statement said.

During that time, Knesset members are able to recommend one of their peers, who agrees to be nominated, to be given the mandate to form a government. The first MK to receive more than 61 recommendations will be tasked by Rivlin.

The statement from Rivlin’s office added: “If, during the remaining initial time given to Gantz to form a government, the circumstances change and the two sides come to the president with a request for an extension in order to help them come to an agreement, the president will reconsider his decision.” Read more…

Gesher MK reverses previous position of not supporting any candidate, includes herself in PM’s bloc of right-wing parties; Meretz MKs accuse her of stealing left-wing votes

By RAOUL WOOTLIFF, TOI

Labour-Gesher party co-chairwoman Orly Levy-Abekasis at a faction meeting at the Knesset on November 11, 2019 (Hadas Parush/Flash90 )

Gesher MK Orly Levy-Abekasis called on Sunday for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to be tasked with forming a government, changing her previous position of not recommending any candidate, and included herself in the premier’s bloc of right-wing religious parties.

Levy-Abekasis broke off last month from the now-defunct Labor-Gesher-Meretz alliance, citing her opposition to a potential government led by Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz that was supported by the predominantly Arab Joint List.

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The Saudi Kingdom’s propaganda — or the turning over of a new leaf?

MK Ayelet Shaked told ‘Meet the Press’ that the New Right party has been left out of coalition negotiations.

Arutz Sheva Staff , 11/04/20

MK Ayelet Shaked on Saturday night told “Meet the Press” that the New Right part has been left out of coalition negotiations.

“Negotiation are being held without us –only with Blue and White,” she said. “We are aware of the existing differences and unequivocally believe that the Justice Ministry and Judiciary Committee should by no means be abandoned.”

“I chaired the committee over the past four years. During that time, I created a right-wing majority and established a conservative approach in these committees, and we are currently 334 judges strong,” she continued.
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By Jim Hoft, GATEWAY PUNDIT
April 11, 2020 at 12:11pm

While the US shuts down all commerce for weeks and destroys the economy, other countries like Sweden and Brazil are doing the opposite and allowing the China coronavirus to run its course. 

Data indicates there no material differences in fatalities between the three countries leading the casual observer to question why is the US killing its economy?

The US continues to prevent nearly all commerce from occurring to combat the China coronavirus.  Many other countries are following suit.  But some countries like Sweden and Brazil are keeping their countries open for business. Read more…

The medical problem, even under worst-case scenarios, can be managed simultaneously with a full operating economy,

RAND has the capability to map the exit route that will take us through these perilous times and allow the US to exodus from our current state of limbo and return to being a dynamic democratic economy.

Howard Laitin
02:12 (3 hours ago)

I believe that RAND has the capability to map the exit route that will take us through these perilous times and allow the US to exodus from our current state of limbo and return to being a dynamic democratic economy.

I have listened to many of the briefings given by Pres. Trump/ VP Pence /Dr. Fauci as well as the briefings given by New York Gov. Cuomo, New York City Mayor de Blasio, California Gov. Newsom, Los Angeles city Mayor Garretti, Los Angeles County public health officials, etc. The reason given, over and over, by Dr. Anthony Fauci and most of the others for shutting down the US economy by self quarantine has been to flatten the curve in order to prevent the limited medical resources of the United States from being overwhelmed by a peak and demand generated too many cases simultaneously occurring in a short period of time .
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By John Leonard, AMERICAN THINKER

[…]

Is that what this coronavirus outbreak is — a large-scale outbreak?  Let’s look at the numbers.  The state of Georgia has a population of 10.52 million people.  As of this writing on Good Friday, Georgia has had a total of 11,483 confirmed cases and 416 deaths.  For the sake of comparison, consider that 1,505 people were killed in automobile accidents in 2019.

It is helpful to remember that according to some reports, every person who dies after being diagnosed with coronavirus is counted as a death by coronavirus, which inflates the statistics on virus deaths.  And please recall in 2018, a whopping 28,544 abortions were performed in Georgia.  Indeed, every man will die, but not everyone will be given the opportunity to live.

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by Soeren Kern, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  April 11, 2020 at 5:00 am

• • In addition to the ethical questions raised by the rationing of healthcare according to age, the denial of medical attention to the elderly, many of whom have paid into the social welfare system all their lives, also casts a spotlight on the shortcomings of socialized medicine in Southern Europe, where austerity measures imposed by the European Central Bank have resulted in massive budget cuts for public healthcare.
  • In documents leaked to several Spanish media, the Catalan Emergency Medical Service (Servicio de Emergencias Médicas) instructed doctors, nurses and ambulance personnel to inform the families of older patients suffering from coronavirus that “death at home is the best option.” … The protocol also advised medical personnel to avoid referring to the lack of hospital beds in Catalonia.

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RE:Coronavirus is NOT the leading cause of death in America

US and much of world reporting Is Counting Death of Anyone with Coronavirus as a COVID-19 Death, Regardless of Other Conditions

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By Yaron Steinbuch, NY POST  April 10, 2020  9:58am

A hospital worker wears protective equipment while moving bodies in Brooklyn, NY.AP

COVID-19 — the illness caused by the novel coronavirus spreading across the globe — is now the No. 1 cause of death in the US, where it is killing more people every day than heart disease or cancer, according to a report.

A new graph published this week by Dr. Maria Danilychev, a San Diego-based physician, showed the disease causes 1,970 deaths across the country per day, according to Newsweek.

Meanwhile, the graph shows that 1,774 deaths per day are caused by heart disease and 1,641 to cancer, the mag reported.

Only last week, COVID-19 was the third-leading cause of death, averaging about 748 deaths per day, taking the place of accidents, according to Danilychev’s previous report.
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Moscow spent years building influence in the region—and lost it all playing hardball with Riyadh.

By STEVEN A. COOK, FOREIGN POLICY
APRIL 9, 2020, 3:56 PM

Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) looks over at Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as they line up for the family photo during the opening day of the G-20 Leaders’ Summit at Costa Salguero in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30, 2018. DANIEL JAYO/GETTY IMAGES

For the past few years, the foreign-policy community has collectively come to believe that a new era in international politics is emerging. The defining features of this post-post-Cold War order are great-power competition and the realignment of America’s relationships around the world. Nowhere is this more apparent than the Middle East, where U.S. allies are developing diplomatic, commercial, and military relationships with the very powers with which Washington is supposed to be competing—China and Russia—and precisely at a time when so many U.S. experts, analysts, officials, and politicians are expressing a desire to retrench from the Middle East. That has led many of the same folks to conclude that the new regional order will be forged in either Beijing or Moscow.
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by Con Coughlin, GATESTONE INSTITUTE  •  April 10, 2020 at 5:00 am

• Rather than criticising Beijing for its initial attempts to cover up the outbreak, Dr Tedros instead praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for his “very rare leadership”, and China for showing “transparency” in its response to the virus.
• “The W.H.O. really blew it… Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?” — US President Donald J. Trump, Twitter, April 7, 2020.
• Why indeed?

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93 people dead * Testing in senior facilities increases * PM slams Bennett for public attack

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN and ANNA AHRONHEIM, JPOST

Residents stand on their balcony as they watch Israeli soldiers performing for them in a bid to assist civilians observing government stay-at-home orders to help fight the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Tel Aviv, Israel April 7, 2020.  (photo credit: AMIR COHEN/REUTERS)

The curfew and other restrictions imposed on Israelis to slow the spread of the coronavirus pandemic over the Passover holiday were lifted Friday at 6 a.m., notwithstanding that the number of Israelis infected with the novel virus has hit 10,095, of whom 164 are in serious condition, and 93 have died.

As of Friday morning, 125 people are intubated.

An extension through the end of the seven-day Festival of Freedom that was considered would have continued the ban on intercity travel except in urgent cases and when food, medicine or other essential services are not available nearby. Still, public transport – except cabs – and flights will not run until Sunday morning. And, as has become the new normal, citizens will only be able to walk 100 meters from their home.
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By Daniel Greenfield

After September 11, we began the long process of trying to build a society that would be hardened against massive terror attacks. Airports became grueling fortresses in which shoes, bottled water, and personal dignity had no place. A vast intelligence infrastructure was built to violate privacy. But the big decisions were never made. Instead, America became more vulnerable than ever to Islamic terrorism.

That’s why President Trump ran on, among other things, a travel ban from terrorist nations.

As the nation undergoes another shock, we are going to have to think about how to rebuild our society so that it will be hardened against another pandemic. That is going to require hard choices beyond throwing more money at the same alphabet soup government agencies that failed to protect us.
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By Dr. Frank Musmar, BESA April 8, 2020

Qom, Iran, Hazrat-e Masumeh, Holy Shrine, photo via Flickr CC

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Iran is struggling with a devastating coronavirus outbreak, a broken economy, and a severe shortage of medical equipment. Iran’s lack of transparency about its coronavirus outbreak has resulted in a catastrophic public health risk not only to the Iranian people but also to its neighbors. Tehran has confirmed more than 47,000 cases and more than 3,000 deaths, though public health experts estimate the real toll to be significantly higher.

Rather than take responsibility and do their best to provide for the health and wellbeing of their subjects, Iran’s leaders are wasting time and resources as the coronavirus crisis rages. In keeping with their longstanding policy of attempting to deflect blame by lashing out at foreign parties, the mullahs are trying to distract Iranians from their own failure to handle the crisis by spreading lies that the US engineered the virus. The Iranian media are intensifying the regime’s failures by promoting false cures, which has led hundreds of Iranians to blind and even kill themselves by consuming bootleg methanol. The regime also avoided taking steps to curb mass visits to imams’ tombs, a practice that exponentially spread the virus. Read more…

1. Dmitry Krass, Sydney Cooper Professor of Business Technology, Professor of Operations Management and Analytics, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto; krass@rotman.utoronto.ca
March 20, 2020

What is the message? This article contributes to the debate on what forms of social distancing policies will be most effective in addressing the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Strict social distancing measures, such as those being used in Italy, much of Europe, and North America, may lead to unfortunate trade offs in health and economic well-being, with excessive economic stresses leading the even larger damages to health. By contrast, milder social distancing policies, if combined with strong policies of testing, quarantine, adopting face masks, protecting high-risk groups, safety in public places, and economic recovery, may be more effective in supporting both health and economic welfare.

What is the evidence? Basic cost-benefit analyses, using assumptions based on the recent trends of the coronavirus pandemic. Timeline: Submitted: March 26, 2020 Cite as: Dmitry Krass, 2020. Why are We Emulating Italy Instead of South Korea? HealthManagement, Policy, and Innovation (HMPI.org), volume 5, Issue 1, special issue on COVID19, March 2020.
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