7 South Koreans said to test positive for virus after returning from Israel

Woman in Israel infected by coronavirus during quarantine in Japan reportedly in good condition; Italy records its first death amid a cluster of cases near Milan

By AGENCIES and TOI STAFF

Workers wearing protective gears help clean each other’s suits after disinfecting against the coronavirus at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Feb. 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

The World Health Organization warned Friday that the window to stem the deadly coronavirus outbreak was shrinking, amid concern over a surge in cases with no clear link to China.

The warning came as Italy saw its first death from the virus amid a rash of infections and moved to close public spaces in 10 towns, in a move with echoes of China’s lockdown of entire cities in the province at the center of the outbreak.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has for weeks insisted the low number of cases of COVID-19 outside the epicenter of the deadly outbreak in China’s central Hubei province presented a “window of opportunity” to contain the international spread.

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How they refuse to engage

by Seth Mandel, COMMENTARY

Something unusual happened in the world of Arab–Israeli negotiations early this year: The Palestinians were given a reason to come to the negotiating table. On January 28, the president unveiled “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People,” to great fanfare at the White House. The plan leaves open a path to a Palestinian state without holding Israeli security needs and political legitimacy hostage. It calls for a settlement freeze in most of the West Bank and offers amnesty for illegal Palestinian construction, thus giving a boost to Palestinian sovereignty, while allowing Israel to retain control over the areas of the Jordan Valley it deems necessary.

Attending the White House ceremonial release of the plan were envoys from Bahrain, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates. In a statement, the Saudi foreign ministry said it “appreciates the efforts of President Trump’s administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides” and encouraged further talks using the Trump plan as the basis for negotiations. Similar statements came from Morocco and Qatar. Even Egypt chimed in with praise.
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by Jonathan Spyer, JPOST

The global spotlight has currently returned to Syria because of the Assad regime’s current bloody offensive in Idlib, Aleppo and Latakia provinces. The regime is trying to reduce the last enclave held by Sunni Arab rebels in the country’s northwest.

The assault has precipitated one of the worst humanitarian disasters of the bloody, nine-year war. Eight hundred thousand people have left their homes to flee the advance of regime forces and the relentless, indiscriminate bombing of Assad’s Russian allies.

Far to the south of Idlib, however, and largely ignored by the global media, events are under way that may offer a clue to the future direction of Syria. These events are of direct interest to Israel. Read more…

by Howard Rotberg

20-20 eyesight is a normal and good eye-sight. We now are in the year “2020”. We wonder, in the context of historical knowledge and recent political, economic, and cultural events, whether the year 2020 is going to usher in for Israel and its friends in America, a clear vision of geo-political threats and appropriate actions and words. The big issue is whether 2020 will see a war between Israel and Iran and/or between Israel and Iran’s terrorist proxies. The Iranian leadership continues to seek power, influence and territory, from Iraq to Syria to Yemen, even as the Iranian people themselves are showing discontent with that leadership.

Sadly, both America and Israel, while blessed with outstanding leaders who understand the threats to Israel, are bogged down in political and legal disputes, which takes up much of the media reporting. The year 2020 has already exposed certain lessons. President Trump, despite constant attempts by the American Democratic Party and its media shills to chase him from power, has shown great strategic success in assassinating the leading Iranian terrorist Solomeini and re-framing, in his Deal of the Century, the paradigm for peace between Arabs and Israel, and possibly has encouraged some rapprochement between Israel and certain Sunni Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Emirates, who now realize that Iran, not Israel, is the leading threat.
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By AP Reports

Rahmat Gul / AP PhotoIn this Nov. 13, 2019, file photo, Afghan security personnel gather at the site of a car bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Rahmat Gul / AP Photo)

The countdown to the signing of a peace agreement between the Taliban and the United States on Feb. 29 to end the 18 years of war in Afghanistan will begin at midnight Friday, when a seven-day “reduction of violence” promised by the Taliban goes into effect, an Afghan official said.

After that week-long period, the long-sought peace agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban will be signed in Doha, Qatar, paving the way for a withdrawal of U.S. troops and intra-Afghan negotiations, a senior U.S. State Department official said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the deal and its details.

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Backing Israel’s position against pending war crimes probe, 7 countries say Palestine is not a state that can transfer jurisdiction to the ICC. Not a single one argues the opposite

By RAPHAEL AHREN, ISRAEL HAYOM

Demonstrators carry banners and Palestinian flags outside the International Criminal Court, ICC, urging the court to prosecute Israel’s army for war crimes in The Hague, Netherlands, November 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

The notion that “Palestine” is a full-fledged state that can grant jurisdiction to the International Criminal Court was dealt a serious blow over the past week, as seven countries and many scholars of international law argued that the issue was not as simple as the Palestinians and their supporters would like to make it seem.

Even some countries that have formally recognized the “State of Palestine” along the pre-1967 lines argued that Palestine cannot necessarily be considered to have validly granted the ICC jurisdiction to probe war crimes allegedly committed on its territory. Read more…

BY MATT MARGOLIS, PJMEDIA

President Barack Obama speaks during the awards dinner for Syracuse University’s Toner Prize for Excellence in Political Reporting at Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium, in Washington, Monday, March 28, 2016. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Ever since President Trump commuted the sentence of disgraced former governor of Illinois Rod Blagojevich, I’ve been asking myself why he would do such a thing. I have a theory about what might have contributed to the decision, and if I’m right, Barack Obama should be concerned.

When Barack Obama won the presidency in 2008, it was then-Governor Blagojevich’s responsibility to appoint someone to fill the seat. But, Blagojevich didn’t just want to give it away, he wanted something for it. “A Senate seat is a f—ing valuable thing. You don’t just give it away for nothing,” Blagojevich said at the time.

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By Abe Katsman

Those whose hatred of political opponents exceeds their hatred for the country’s enemies should be kept far from the Presidency.  A party which treats foreign policy only as a means to claw back power at any cost cannot be trusted with America’s own national security interests; how reliable can it be when it comes to Israel’s?

This is getting dangerous.

Embassy attacks in Baghdad.  Targeted killings of top Iranian militia generals.  Threats of war, and counter-threats.  Widespread riots destabilizing both Iraq and Iran.  Implications of President Trump’s “Deal of the Century” peace plan, and the backlash against it.

Oh, the events themselves aren’t unusually dangerous; but the reactions by the Democrats’ top presidential candidates and party leadership are.  The Democrats’ evident political priorities and leftward shift should scare American voters concerned with Mideast policy, particularly regarding the welfare of Israel and its U.S. relationship.  So far, those voters have yet to show sufficient levels of alarm.
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“I will do everything to prevent a third Lebanon war, a 14th Protective Edge, to go to the source, to go to the same people who pay $1b. a year to Hezbollah”

By TZVI JOFFRE, JPOST

Defense Minister Naftali Bennett during a recent visit to the Syrian border

As Israel granted a record number of travel permits to Gaza merchants after weeks of explosive balloons, rockets and a sniper attack, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said he was trying his best to avoid a conflict with Hamas or Hezbollah to focus on Iran in Syria.

On Tuesday, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories announced that it would increase the number of travel permits for Gaza merchants by 2,000, bringing the total number to 7,000 permits. COGAT also decided to expand Gaza’s fishing zone from 10 to 15 nautical miles.

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Former Justice Minister: The Likud doesn’t want a Justice Minister and a Defense Minister from religious Zionism.

Arutz Sheva Staff, 

Ayelet Shaked-Kobi Richter/TPS

Former Justice Minister MK Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) spoke about Prime Minister Binyamin’s Netanyahu’s behavior toward her party, commented on her relations with Naftali Bennett and discussed her opinion on Rabbi Rafi Peretz’s statements against the LGBT community.

In an interview with the Israel Hayom newspaper, Shaked said, “In the first round of elections, had it not been for Netanyahu, we would have had a strong and stable right-wing government today. On Friday, five days before the April elections, I called one of the people closest to Netanyahu and told him: ‘He is running a ‘gevalt’ (scare tactics -ed.) campaign, one of the parties in the bloc will collapse for sure, and he will have no government.’”
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By Vic Rosenthal

I belong to a Masorti (Conservative) congregation in Israel. Although most Israelis don’t believe this, the movement is theologically much closer to Modern Orthodoxy than to Reform Judaism. There is a commitment to halacha, albeit somewhat more lenient than in Orthodoxy (but not so much as Orthodox Jews tend to think). The biggest difference is the equal role granted to women and men in every respect, including participation in ritual.

Our rabbi leans a little leftward, at least compared to me, but he is capable of distinguishing politics from religion, and I like him.

Having said that, I am absolutely appalled by the anti-Israel politics rampant in the Conservative seminaries in the US, where most of our rabbis, American and Israeli, are educated.
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News from the Middle East Forum

PHILADELPHIA – February 14, 2020 – The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) just unveiled a new work-plan inspired by the Middle East Forum’s Israel Victory Project.

The five-year “Momentum” plan is designed to increase the IDF’s capabilities sevenfold. Defense Minister Naftali Bennett explains that it “puts the principle of victory back at the top of the list of priorities.”

The IDF’s paradigm-shift is the culmination of over three years’ work in Israel. MEF has inspired a non-partisan national movement through intensive contacts with senior policy-makers; the Knesset Israel Victory Caucus; hosting conferences; hundreds of media engagements; public campaigns; and grassroots outreach.
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Turkish troops shell Syrian army positions while Russian air force bombs Turkish positions in Idlib, Syria.

By Yochanan Visser, INN

Recep Tayyip ErdoganA week after Israel National News reported that Turkey was on a crash course with Russia over Syria the parties are now at war technically speaking.

This happened after talks between a Turkish delegation and the Kremlin in Moscow about the worsening crisis in northeast Syria and the imminent threat of a new Turkish invasion in Syria over the Idlib Province, which is home to a range of Sunni Islamist groups supported by Turkey, broke-down.

The Turkey-backed Islamist militias in Idlib are on the verge of defeat after the Iranian-Russian-backed pro-Assad coalition rapidly advanced in the last rebel stronghold and even surrounded Turkish observation posts which were set up to monitor a 2018 de-escalation agreement between Russia and Turkey that failed miserably.
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By Bruce Ticker

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania — Someone finally did it – publicly blaming the Jewish people for the crucifixion of Jesus and, even more disgracefully, applying this libel to explain Israel’s so-called occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Henry M. Bradford’s words were printed on Jan. 27 in The Chronicle Herald, the daily newspaper serving Halifax in Canada’s Nova Scotia. His letter to the editor responded to a commentary about anti-Semitism by freelance journalist Ralph Surette.

“Ralph Surette is right to point out the absurdity of Western anti-Semitism in his Jan. 13 column,” Bradford wrote. “Presumably, it has its roots in Christian resentment of the crucifixion of their messiah by his fellow Jews. But that was 2,000 years ago!

“The most contentious remnant of this event is the occupation of Palestinian lands by the state of Israel,” he continued.
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Ted Belman

“Despite Lebanon’s immense economic struggles, Hezbollah is persisting with its efforts to procure and arm itself with precision weapons with which to hit the Israeli home front, and it continues to prepare south of the Litani River to attack communities and roads in our territory,” says Maj. Gen. Amir Baram.

ISRAEL HAYOM

GOC Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, at Tel-Hai Academic College on Wednesday | Photo: Eyal Margolin / JINI

Head of the IDF’s Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Amir Baram, said on Thursday that the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terrorist organization continues to violate United Nations resolutions through its actions along the border with Israel in a manner that puts the lives of Lebanese civilians in danger.

“Around two weeks ago, the president of Lebanon told the French press that Hezbollah is not involved in the decision-making process of the new Lebanese government and that he personally guarantees that Hezbollah will honor UN Resolution 1701,” Baram said at a conference hosted by the Tel-Hai Academic College in northern Israel. Read more…

by Michael Rubin, Wash Examiner

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is threatening to fight the Syrian army directly if Syrian President Bashar Assad does not stop his assault on Idlib, the last major zone controlled by the Syrian opposition. While Erdogan imagined himself a master tactician, he is now learning that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who played him. Erdogan discarded decades of alliance with the United States for a brief fling, only to discover Putin’s professions of love were for more limited aims.

This is not the first time Erdogan has found himself outplayed. But, after deliberately trashing Turkey’s relationship with the U.S., it is time Washington plays hardball. Those who say that Erdogan notwithstanding, Turkey is too important for the U.S. to turn its back against are likely underestimating the corrosive impact of 17 years of Erdoganism, the incitement and indoctrination broadcast over the airwaves or taught in Turkey’s schools, and demographic change.
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By Michael Derfler

“To be for the Israeli people and to be for peace in the Middle East does not mean that we have to support right-wing, racist governments that currently exist in Israel.” – Bernie Sanders

This quote fills me with disgust. I would respond with an essay, but I don’t have time for more than a few relevant quotes from rabbinic sources (separated by a thousand separations from the candidate’s vile words).

“…judge the whole person favorably.” – Pirkei Avot 1:6

“Every part of you is fair, my darling, There is no blemish in you.” Song of Songs 4:7. Rashi explained Song of Songs as a parable: it is the conversation between God and Israel. In this verse, according to Rashi, God is saying that He sees no blemish in Israel.
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