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The Daily Edition

What Matters Most On Friday, April 17, 2020

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US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) attend a press conference in the East Room of the White House on January 28, 2020. (Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP)

US alerted Israel, NATO to disease outbreak in China in November — TV report

White House was reportedly not interested in the intel, but it was passed onto NATO, IDF; when it reached Israel’s Health Ministry, ‘nothing was done’

In this April 16, 2020 photo, a staffer disinfects an alley of the Clinica CEMTRO in Madrid, Spain. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

‘Tip of the iceberg’: Global virus death toll thought to be seriously incomplete

By Aritz Parra, Mike Corder and Joe McDonald

Medical workers move a person who died of COVID-19 at a hospital in Wuhan in central China's Hubei province, February 16, 2020. (Chinatopix via AP)

China’s Wuhan abruptly raises number of virus dead to 3,869, an increase of 50%

A stun grenade thrown by police hits a 9-year-old girl during riots in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Mea Shearim on April 16, 2020. (Screenshot: Twitter)

Riot in Jerusalem Haredi area over virus rules; girl hit by police stun grenade

Ultra-Orthodox rioters in Mea Shearim hurl objects at forces who arrest 12; stun grenade explodes next to stroller, hurting 9-year-old; police say didn’t see group; 3 officers hurt

Illustrative: A doctor checks a medical ventilator control panel while wearing protective clothing at the Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, March 16, 2020. (Jack Guez/AFP)

Test error: 14 nursing home residents in COVID-19 hospital wards never had virus

Surgical face masks arrive in Israel from China, April 17, 2020 (Screen grab/Kan)

3 million face masks arrive in Israel from China for medics, government workers

Signs showing Gov. Gretchen Whitmer are taped to vehicles during a protest in Lansing, Michigan, April 15, 2020 (AP/Paul Sancya)

US far-right extremists are now calling social distancing a Nazi policy

By Eric Cortellessa

Fringe activists are comparing governors fighting COVID-19 to Hitler; Jewish leaders fear the conspiratorial rhetoric will lead to violence against community

US coronavirus death toll passes 30,000, with over 640,000 cases

By AFP

In virus-battered New York, talk of restarting economy is ‘madness’

By David B. Caruso, Michael Hill and Michael R. Sisak

Police find 18 bodies of coronavirus victims at New Jersey nursing home

By AP

Volunteers including students and professionals load up personal protective equipment in the parking lot of Beit Midrash of Great Neck. (Cathryn J. Prince/ Times of Israel)

NY yeshiva raises funds, distributes protective gear to local medical facilities

By Cathryn J. Prince

Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Live updates (closed)

Health chief can’t say if worst is over, fears fresh virus wave in winter

By Jacob Magid and Michael Bachner

Moshe Bar Siman-Tov acknowledges ‘encouraging indications’ that enable rolling back restrictions, as TV report sets out likely measures to be approved tomorrow night

7:02 pm

Accepting J Street endorsement, Biden says he's committed to Israeli-Palestinian peace
7:01 pm

Haniyeh: The PA is not 'sufficiently' cooperating with us on the coronavirus
7:00 pm

Haniyeh: Israel must free prisoners for us to enter talks for exchange

Yair Netanyahu, son of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, is seen in Tel Aviv on November 26, 2017. (Flash90)

Netanyahu’s son under fire for tweeting that leftists should die of virus

Prime minister and Meretz party head both condemn statement from Yair Netanyahu accusing Tel Aviv protesters of endangering public health and wishing illness on political rivals

Drone footage of a 'black flag' protest in Tel Aviv attended by some 2,000 people on April 16, 2020. (Courtesy of Black Flag protest)

2,000 protest erosion of democracy under Netanyahu

Likud MK Nir Barkat at a party campaign event in Tel Aviv on February 16, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Likud MK flouts virus restrictions during Passover, apologizes

A medical team receives a patient with suspected coronavirus at Shaare Zedek hospital in Jerusalem, April 16, 2020 (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

7 deaths take virus toll to 150, including 8th resident of J’lem nursing home

Health Ministry says 182 people are in serious condition with 129 of them on ventilators; 12,855 confirmed coronavirus cases

A medical personnel takes a sample from a driver at a Magen David Adom drive-through testing site in the northern city of Kiryat Shmona on April 12, 2020. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Number of daily coronavirus tests again falls below 10,000

A Military Intelligence technology unit tests a an improvised ventilator it created to help the healthcare system handle the coronavirus pandemic on April 15, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF to give hospitals hundreds of makeshift ventilators to ensure supply

By Judah Ari Gross

People walk through Jerusalem's mostly shuttered Mahane Yehuda Market on April 16, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Netanyahu okays plan to gradually reopen parts of economy, ease restrictions

PM’s office says ‘pilot’ to be conducted allowing some industries to resume operations if they meet Health Ministry guidelines; exercise up to 500 meters from home to be permitted

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon (left), Health Minister director Moshe Bar Siman-Tov (standing) and other officials meet Thursday to discuss easing social distancing measures put in place to battle the coronavirus (PMO)

With 2020 economy already ‘in the garbage,’ ministries clash over exit strategy

By Michael Bachner

Border Police officers enforce a curfew in the ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, April 16, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Cabinet eases Bnei Brak lockdown, extends Jerusalem neighborhoods closure

Rep. Lois Frankel, a Democrat of Florida, speaks as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appears before a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing on budget on Capitol Hill, March 27, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Interview

Eric Cortellessa

Blaming Trump for chaos, Jewish congresswoman bids to save Florida from outbreak

Via Zoom from her West Palm Beach apartment, Lois Frankel aims to get her state more medical equipment and unemployment relief as the COVID-19 pandemic ravages on

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump arrive for an event with President Donald Trump to sign a new North American trade agreement with Canada and Mexico, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)

Ivanka Trump, Kushner skipped lockdown for Passover trip, White House confirms

By AFP

President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Thursday, April 16, 2020, in Washington. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Trump gives states phased plan for restarting economy

By Zeke Miller, Alan Suderman and KEVIN FREKING

Illustrative - Palestinian shepherd Fawzy Daraghmeh herds his flock of sheep at an area designated as military zone in Um Zuka town, north of the Jordan Valley, on February 19, 2020. (Emmanuel DUNAND/ AFP)

Op-Ed

Gidon Bromberg, Yana Abu Taleb and Nada Majdalani

COVID-19 shows how reckless Jordan Valley annexation would be

The extensive cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian health professionals would halt if an annexation policy were advanced in the midst of this health crisis

Palestinian workers clear streets and homes in the West Bank city of Nablus on April 3 2020, enabling measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. (Nasser Ishtayeh/Flash90)

Small but symbolic: US pledges $5 million to help Palestinians cope with virus

By Raphael Ahren

Hilary Faverman

Stranded in paradise: Our traveler’s dilemma (2 of 3)

The very expensive hoops we jumped through figuring out a way back to Israel were Kafkaesque – and moving, as we discovered just how many people were willing to help

PA and Hamas try to ‘coronawash’ their own corruption

Israel has no role in the Palestinians’ medical supply shortage. The real story is a shortage of leadership — and rampant corruption

Aaron’s moment of thundering silence

Perhaps by virtue of the awful and terrible experience of the death of his sons, the high priest made himself the highest vessel in the service of the Divine (Shemini)

Robert Festenstein

Hugs will have to wait

With condolence visits out, this pandemic has upended the mourning process. Zoom and WhatsApp will have to do for now

Blue and White leaders Yair Lapid (R) and Moshe Ya'alon at a faction meeting at the Knesset on June 24, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Lapid proposes 6-month political freeze as Ya’alon says Gantz isn’t fit to be PM

By Michael Bachner and ToI Staff

Yesh Atid-Telem leader says he isn’t happy with current caretaker government, but adds it’s better than 4th election or Netanyahu-Gantz unity deal

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz in the Knesset, November 10, 2019. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Coalition talks resume, with Gantz threatening anti-Netanyahu legislation

Israelis protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calling on him to quit, at Habima Square in Tel Aviv on April 16, 2020. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)

Israel media reviewDeciding not to decide: 6 things to know for April 17

Ceremonial burning of last hut at Bergen-Belsen, Germany, 1945 (public domain)

Author interview

75 years ago this week, ‘typhus fever’ met its match at Bergen-Belsen

In ‘All the Horrors of War,’ a survivor’s daughter describes how H. L. Glyn Hughes, first Allied Medical Officer to enter Nazi ‘horror camp,’ strived to save lives after liberation

Arie Even, the first casualty of COVID-19 in Israel. (courtesy)

Israel’s 1st virus death: Hid in hay bale after saved by Wallenberg in Holocaust

Illustrative: The entrance of the SS concentration camp at Ohrdruf in Thuringia, Germany on April 8, 1945, in which yet more damming proof of atrocities committed by Hitlers SS was uncovered when units of the fourth armoured division of General Pattons Third US army overran the district and liberated those inmates who were still alive. (AP Photo)

Jewish liberator of Nazi camp, wife of 78 years die hours apart

By AP

Israelis walk their dogs and exercise in Tel Aviv's Yarkon Park on March 22, 2020, as the government issued instructions to avoid public spaces to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Let us back into parks, forests! Experts say it’s ‘essential for public health’

Association of Public Health Officials and Society for Protection of Nature issue joint plea; say time in green spaces reduces depression, lowers blood pressure, speeds recovery

A soldier prepares to distribute food packages to residents of cities and towns hit by the coronavirus, in an undated photograph. (Israel Defense Forces)

IDF girds for long-term battle with coronavirus

By Judah Ari Gross

Screen capture from a video of IDF soldiers taking part in Mimouna celebrations at the Nahal Infantry Brigade's training base near Tel Arad, April 15, 2020, in violation of directives against the coronavirus. (Screen capture: Twitter)

IDF investigating large Mimouna party on military base

By Judah Ari Gross

Medical clown Nimrod Eisenberg performing at Tel Aviv’s Sourasky Medical Center (courtesy)

Reinventing the red nose: Clowns join the frontlines of the coronavirus fight

By Nathan Jeffay

‘We’re keeping the system sane,’ says clown chief, as his 100-strong team prescribes laughter as best medicine at 30 hospitals across Israel

The bioreactor where Pluristem produces cells for its treatment (David Garb)

Israeli firm hopeful as it starts treating COVID-19 patients with placenta cells

By Nathan Jeffay

A chemist displays hydroxychloroquine tablets in New Delhi, India, April 9, 2020. AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Trials halted for drug stockpiled in Israel as potential COVID-19 treatment

By ToI Staff and AP

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More Headlines

The JAMD Chamber Choir recorded a rendition of Leonard Bernstein's 'Somewhere,' in honor of the choir's 50th anniversary (Courtesy JAMD Chamber Choir)

Nowhere and everywhereJerusalem choir marks 50th with Leonard Bernstein’s ‘Somewhere’… at home

By Jessica Steinberg

Michael Cohen, US President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, walks down Madison Avenue, May 4, 2019, in New York (AP Photo/Jonathan Carroll)

Former Trump fixer Cohen to get out of jail amid pandemic

By MICHAEL BALSAMO

Maccabi Tel Aviv's Deni Avdija controls the ball during the Euro League basketball match between Olimpia Milan and Maccabi Fox Tel Aviv, in Milan, Italy, November 19, 2019. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)

Top Israeli basketball prospect Deni Avdija declares for NBA Draft

By Alexander Fulbright

In this photo made from video footage released by Roscosmos space agency US astronaut Jessica Meir sits in a chair shortly after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-15 space capsule near the town of Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, April 17, 2020 (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)

Jewish astronaut, colleagues return to Earth roiled by coronavirus pandemic

By AFP

Border Police officers enforce a curfew in the ultra Orthodox Jewish neighborhood of Mea Shearim in Jerusalem, April 16, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Israel media reviewThis is the breadth of our affliction: 7 things to know for April 16

By Joshua Davidovich

The development team of VAST Data in Israel (Courtesy)

Israeli-founded data storage startup raises $100 million

By Shoshanna Solomon

The Ruth's House assisted-living facility in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. (Screen capture: Google Street View)

Judge releases man accused of anti-Semitic attack on retirement home

By AP

In this April 13, 2020, photo a priest takes part in a Holy Monday ceremony held without worshipers at the Athens Cathedral, in Greece, during a lockdown order by the government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Lockdown weighs heavily on Orthodox Christians during Easter

By Elena Becatoros and DARIA LITVINOVA

Amy Schumer at the world premiere of "I Feel Pretty" at the Westwood Village Theater in Los Angeles, April 17, 2018 (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP)

Ballsy moveAmy Schumer changes her son’s name because it sounded like ‘genital’

Illustrative. BioCatch software in use on a phone. (YouTube screenshot)

Israeli cybersecurity firm BioCatch secures $145m in funding

By Luke Tress and Shoshanna Solomon

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