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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Monday, March 23, 2020

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President Reuven Rivlin and Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein inspect an honor guard during a swearing-in ceremony for the new Knesset, April 30, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Justice Minster Ohana urges defying the court

High Court: Knesset speaker should schedule vote on his job by Wednesday

Blue and White is bidding to replace Likud’s Yuli Edelstein, gain control of key committees; ministers, others in Netanyahu bloc urge speaker to reject court order, block vote

A nearly empty plenum, due to restrictions against the coronavirus, is seen at the swearing-in of the 23rd Knesset, March 16, 2020. At left is Benny Gantz. Center, with back to camera, is Benjamin Netanyahu (Gideon Sharon/Knesset Spokesperson)

MKs will enter six at a time for first votes of new Knesset amid coronavirus

Disinfecting the Knesset ahead of the swearing in of MKs amid the coronavirus crisis, March 16, 2020 (Knesset spokeswoman)

Blue and White demands Edelstein find solution to allow quarantined MKs to vote

By Raoul Wootliff

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right) and Supreme Court Chief Justice Esther Hayut at a ceremony at the President's Residence in Jerusalem on June 17, 2019. (Noam Revkin Fenton/Flash90)

Op-ed

Israel’s democratic crisis deepens

The High Court’s position that Speaker Edelstein must put his job up for a vote appeared to have stalled what many saw as an attempted coup by Likud. Relief may prove premature

AnalysisDemocracy resumes as the Knesset reopens, but the political crisis is deepening

By Haviv Rettig Gur

Op-edPaternal doomsayer Netanyahu fights virus, and accusation he’s undoing democracy

By David Horovitz

Police officers in protective gear arrest an individual who allegedly violated a quarantine order in Tel Aviv on March 14, 2020. (Screen capture/Twitter)

Live updates (closed)

State asks High Court to allow use of cellphone locations to enforce quarantines

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

Request filed with top court seeks lifting of injunction barring police from using cell data to track whether Israelis required to stay in mandatory isolation are doing so

9:42 pm

Arrangements Committee approves formation of defense, finance panels
9:31 pm

Postponement of Tokyo Olympics inevitable, official says
9:12 pm

State asks High Court to allow use of cellphone locations to enforce quarantines

Magen David Adom medical team members, wearing protective gear, handle a coronavirus test sample at a drive-through site for testing in Tel Aviv, on March 22, 2020. (Flash90)

Coronavirus crisis

Israel moves toward tighter lockdown as number of infected climbs to 1,238

24 people in serious condition from virus; over 5,000 tests administered in 24 hours; police minister reiterates call for full closure for 2 weeks

Israeli police officers stand guard outside the Old City on March 20, 2020, in Jerusalem. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Roadblocks, patrols and crime response teams: Police prepare for full lockdown

Medical staff use a trolley to move a patient toward a medical helicopter at The Emile Muller Hospital in Mulhouse, eastern France, on March 22, 2020, as patients are evacuated to another hospital facility, on the sixth day of a strict lockdown in France to stop the spread of COVID-19. (SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)

Global coronavirus toll soars to 14,400 as world panic mounts

By AFP

The Dan Panorama Hotel in Tel Aviv on March 17, 2020. (JACK GUEZ / AFP)

65 of 114 quarantined NY Chabad passengers now diagnosed with coronavirus

Group sent to Jerusalem hotel after arrival on on El Al flight last week amid fears many had already been exposed to virus; 200 passengers were on plane

Police seen in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim, as they disperse public gatherings, following the government decisions, in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus. March 22, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Crowds of Jerusalem ultra-Orthodox clash with cops enforcing virus lockdown

Orthodox Jewish men use 'social distancing' as they pray outside the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, March 20, 2020, in the Brooklyn borough of New York, before leaders of six major organizations released a joint statement urging worshipers to 'avoid, to the maximum extent feasible, any outside interactions' to help stop the coronavirus pandemic. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

American Orthodox Jewish groups call for observance of social distancing

From the blogs

‘We will guard and protect you’: Our forgotten promise to Israel

Why are so many of us – rabbis, backpackers, politicians, with their recklessness during a pandemic – willing to endanger the extraordinary Jewish life we’ve built here?

Hundreds of Israeli backpackers aboard an El Al Dreamlimer taking them from Lima, Peru, to Tel Aviv, March 2020 (Sivan Farage)

Coronavirus crisis

As skies close, Israel scrambles to get thousands of stranded backpackers home

By Raphael Ahren

Citing ‘mutual responsibility,’ officials vow to leave no one behind, organizing flights to four corners of world; fume at those who want to take advantage of the system

Hundreds of Israeli backpackers aboard an El Al Dreamlimer taking them from Lima, Peru, to Tel Aviv, March 2020 (Sivan Farage)

Israelis repatriated for free from Peru refuse to commit to quarantine – report

An Israeli Navy officer inspects the INS Dragon submarine currently being constructed in Kiel, Germany, in an undated photograph. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF brings 30 sailors back from Germany after country imposes lockdown

By Judah Ari Gross

Israelis visit the beach in Rishon Lezion on March 22, 2020. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Backtracking, interior minister says Israel can’t delay daylight savings time

Deri says it’s too late to change computer systems, move would wreak technical havoc; proposal was aimed at keeping Israelis indoors amid pandemic

People stand outside a branch of McDonald's in downtown Jerusalem in this file photo. The company has temporarily shut down its branches in Israel due to the coronavirus. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder)

Citing coronavirus, McDonald’s to temporarily shut down Israel operations

The cast of the Israeli series 'Fauda,' which is available on Netflix. (Ohad Romano/via JTA)

Netflix to reduce streaming quality in Israel amid outbreak

This March 19, 2020 photo, shows a playground toy at Tel Aviv's beachfront wrapped in tape to prevent use. (AP Photo/Oded Balilty)

Israel media review

Things will get worse before they get worse: 7 things to know for March 23

By Joshua Davidovich

Coronavirus cases are going up, the lockdown hammer is coming down, money is lost but tech dreamers are found, and questions are being raised but dissent is getting stomped on

Screen shot from the download page for a Health Ministry app to track possible exposure to the coronavirus, launched on March 22, 2020. (Google Play)

Health Ministry launches phone app to help prevent spread of coronavirus

By Stuart Winer

Illustrative. In vitro fertilization (IVF) of an egg cell. (iStock by Getty Images/ man_at_mouse)

Israel halts all new IVF treatments over coronavirus fears

By Judah Ari Gross

Shira Pasternak Be'eri

The men in the white suits

This insidious fear for myself and my loved ones is unrelenting, and the people who don’t take social distancing seriously are making it much worse

Yossi Klein Halevi

David brought us all together. In his death, we are isolated and desolate

Co-founder of Jerusalem’s landmark Tmol Shilshom bookstore café, David Ehrlich, created a home for writers and everyone else

Thinking bigger than me in my world

14 tips and practices to stay healthy in this era of coronovirus, to better serve each other and our planet

‘You were the only one who stopped to help me’

When the widowed father flagged me down, it was a reminder that in times like these many of us need an extra kindness

Coronavirus crisisChief Rabbi Mirvis closed UK synagogues under his purview

Two ultra-Orthodox Jews die in London as coronavirus shutters most communities

By Jenni Frazer

While modern Orthodox and liberal communities close in fear of COVID-19, the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations, an ultra-Orthodox umbrella group, continues religious services

Illustrative: Ultra-Orthodox Jews in the Stamford Hill section of London. (CC BY-dcaseyphoto/Flickr)

Palestinian Muslims gather to perform their Friday prayers in front of the the closed doors of Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, after clerics shut the doors of the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, in a bid to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, on March 20, 2020. (AHMAD GHARABLI / AFP)

Waqf closes Al-Aqsa to the public, as coronavirus proliferates

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh announcing a series of measures, which he said aim to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus in Ramallah on March 22, 2020. (Credit: Wafa)

PA premier declares wide-scale lockdown to head off spread of virus

Muslim pilgrims wear masks at the Grand Mosque in Saudi Arabia's holy city of Mecca on February 28, 2020. (Abdel Ghani Bashir/AFP)

Virus knows no borders, but Israel and Arab world not cooperating to fight it

By Raphael Ahren

Jerusalem is not coordinating its emergency response with other Middle East countries; a planned call by Netanyahu with Middle East leaders never took place

Qatar announces $150 million in aid to Gaza, including funds to fight virus

Senior Hamas security officials quarantined after contact with virus cases

Arrival of virus in Gaza raises fears about vulnerable areas

By Agencies and ToI Staff

A man stands near the body of Holocaust survivor Aryeh Even, 88, the first man to die in Israel from the coronavirus epidemic, at the Har HaMenuchot Cemetery in Jerusalem, early on March 22, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Burial society gears up for COVID-19 funerals, as health officials lay out rules

By Marissa Newman

Ministry initially bans religious funeral rite for coronavirus victims, then backtracks; chevra kadisha volunteers, in protective gear, being trained to deal with virus casualties

This March 19, 2020 photo provided by Bob Arrington of Arrington Funeral Directors shows a viewing room with seating arranged to facilitate social distancing amid the coronavirus outbreak, at their funeral home in Jackson, Tennessee. (Cliff Walker Jr./Arrington Funeral Directors via AP)

In the US, grieving and saying goodbye in the time of the coronavirus

By DON BABWIN and Amy Taxin

Chabad children in Argentina study in the movement's online school in 2007. During the new coronavirus outbreak, the school has offered guidance to other Jewish schools transitioning to remote learning. (Courtesy of the Nigri International Shluchim Online School/ via JTA)

Saying Kaddish from balconies and fasting: The Haredi response to coronavirus

People outside the unemployment office in Jerusalem. (Yossi Zamir/Flash90)

Unemployment hits 17.6% amid wave of coronavirus layoffs

Some 573,000 newly out of work since beginning of March as entire industries shut down; officials expect cost of benefits to top NIS 3 billion

United Hatzalah director Eli Beer (YouTube screenshot)

United Hatzalah head, hospitalized with COVID-19, berates ‘evil’ health minister

New Yorkers wait in line outside a Whole Foods supermarket in Manhattan, March 20, 2020. (AP/John Minchillo)

Less travel, more talk: Startups use analytics to gauge virus impact

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More Headlines

An Israeli vehicle hit by a rock in the West Bank on March 22, 2020 (IDF Spokepserson)

Palestinian throwing rocks at Israeli vehicles in West Bank shot dead by IDF

Tmol Shilshom founder and co-owner David Ehrlich (Renee Ghert-Zand/TOI)

David Ehrlich, beloved owner of Jerusalem’s Tmol Shilshom, dies suddenly at 61

By Jessica Steinberg

Fans wait to attend an outdoor concert by Radiohead in Tel Aviv on July 19, 2017, one of the delights of summertime (AFP PHOTO / JACK GUEZ)

No word yet on whether summer performers will cancel concerts

By Jessica Steinberg

Harvey Weinstein arrives at the Manhattan Criminal Court, on February 24, 2020 in New York City (TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP)

Harvey Weinstein diagnosed with coronavirus in prison

Illustrative photo: An Orthodox Jewish woman sits in the garden of the abused women's shelter in Beit Shemesh, July 15, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

With families cooped up at home due to virus, domestic violence complaints soar

A cyclist rides his bicycle down the middle of a main road in downtown New York, March 22, 2020. (Wong Maye-E/AP)

New York quiets as it becomes next coronavirus hot spot

By Jim Mustian and Jeffrey Collins

A volunteer delivers a package of meals to an elderly resident of Tel Aviv, March 22, 2020. (Oded Karni, Government Press Office)

State distributes meals to 75,000 housebound elderly in expanding program

A police car parked in front of a Target store in downtown Chicago, March 22, 2020. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

FBI says extremists are urging spread of coronavirus to Jews, police

Men pray outside a synagogue in Bayit Vegan, Jerusalem, on March 22, 2020 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash 90)

Prayer in time of coronaNeighbors welcome Shabbat together from safety of porches

By Jessica Steinberg

A special section of Yad Vashem that pays tribute to the Righteous of the Nations. (Naama Bar-Am)

Last German honored by Yad Vashem for saving Jews during Holocaust dies

By AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks at a press conference about coronavirus, in Berlin, March 22, 2020. (Michael Kappeler/ Pool photo via AP)

Merkel enters quarantine after doctor tests positive for virus

By AP

A Lebanese flag flies over Khiam prison, in the southern town of Khiam, Lebanon, August 16, 2006. (Nasser Nasser/AP)

Former member of Israel-backed militia shot dead in Lebanon

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