With tens of thousands of daily coronavirus cases seemingly around the corner, prophets of doom and government critics aren't waiting to have their say
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Ultra-Orthodox Hayat brothers practice Capoeira, a Brazilian martial art that combines elements of dance, acrobatics and music, in the Western Wall in Jerusalem s Old City. (Nati Shohat /FLASH90)
1. Symbolic bombshell: A High Court ruling that people who convert to Judaism in Israel through the Reform and Conservative movements must be recognized as Jews for the purpose of obtaining citizenship through the Law of Return is regarded as a major bombshell Monday, upending years during which Israel’s Interior Ministry refused to take such a step.
The deal is predictably celebrated by the non-Orthodox and deplored by the ultra-Orthodox, and is also thrust almost immediately into the political sphere, coming a few weeks before Israel goes back to the polls. With Conservative and Reform Jews making up just a tiny slice of Israel, most news reports focus not on the historicity of the ruling, but the fight surrounding it.
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Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat during a ceremony before boarding an El Al plane to Bahrain to sign a series of bilateral agreements between Jerusalem and Manama, at Ben Gurion Airport in Lod, near Tel Aviv, Israel October18, 2020. (Marc Israel Sellem/POOL via FLASH90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided to appoint National Security Advisor Meir Ben-Shabbat to lead talks with Washington regarding the Iranian nuclear deal, according to a report Friday by Walla news.
Senior officials told Walla’s Barak Ravid that Ben-Shabbat will be appointed to conduct discussions with world powers and other regional partners on the future of the moribund accord.
People walk in Jerusalem on December 16, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
1. Lock till you pop: Israel’s stumbling path toward a third lockdown is high on the media agenda Thursday morning, with infections piling up like presents beneath the Hanukkah bush.
“Between vaccines and a lockdown,” reads the top front page headline of Yedioth Ahronoth. “Vaccine storage is filling up, but in the meantime the virus is rearing up and Israel is in a race against time,” the paper continues.
It’s not much of a race, Prof. Eli Waxman, who advises the government’s pandemic advisory team, tells Army Radio: “We need to take steps immediately. Until the population is vaccinated to a wide enough degree, it will take a long time. The current outbreak needs to be stopped some other way.”