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Tuesday March 31, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Animals are taking back the cities they were banished from when cities were built! I have seen videos and still pictures of ibex walking down the streets of Eilat, Israel’s southerner most city, nestled between the Red Sea and the Arava Desert on the north and beautiful mountains to the east and west. Malabar, an endangered animal that was thought extinct until seen again for the first time in 1990, is photographed walking down a street in India. A cobra jumps out of a moped’s steering wheel looking dangerously venomous. Dolphins are swimming in places they have not been seen in centuries. 3,000 pound bison are pictured wandering around cities, many in the middle of the street just looking for food. With humans and cars no longer creating a natural fence, wildlife is retaking their land. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
Reports from around the world identify a natural yet startling and bizarre phenomenon directly resulting from COVID-19.
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Monday March 30, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
COVID-19 is just another excuse and another example of the Palestinian conspiracy theory that Israel is murdering Palestinians. On Sunday Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Shatayeh was the latest to add his voice to the conspiracy. Shatayeh, who has a history of perpetuating this canard, said that Israeli soldiers are spreading the virus by putting it on car door handles of Palestinian cars. He said: "We were exposed to testimonies that some of the (Israeli) soldiers are trying to spread the virus on car handles." He also said that Israel will be held accountable for their racist actions: "This is racism and hatred of people who long for the death of the other. We will record this in the list of crimes.” Shatayeh demanded that Israel pay 90,000 Palestinian workers for their missed work. In the past Shatayeh has accused Israel of "waging war on the Palestinian narrative" and attempting to "Judaize the history of the Holy Land." Thus far coronavirus numbers among the Palestinians, in Gaza and the West Bank combined, are at 100 cases and 2 deaths. Relatively speaking, those are low numbers for this deadly virus. Had Palestinians been exposed the way their prime minister claims, the numbers would have skyrocketed. They will never admit it, but the best thing that happened for Palestinians was that Israel shuttered the crossings between Israel and Palestinian areas preventing Palestinians from being infected. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
For decades Palestinian leadership has blamed Israel for their dismal conditions. They have consistently accused Israel of Blood Libel – deliberately poisoning and murdering innocent Palestinians.
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Wednesday March 25, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
This parrot has become a celebrity in Israel. Like all other Israelis, her owner, Zahava Shabbat, has been sheltered in her apartment since the arrival of COVID-19 in Israel. Zahava took advantage of the time and taught Luca to say “It’s Corona! Stay Inside.” Little children have found this to be particularly fun and helpful. Reuters News Service picked up the story. In searching I found the video published on news websites as far away as Malaysia. Luca is one example of so many ways in which people, around the world, hunkered down at home, find positive ways to occupy their time. It’s a nice alternative to playing video games, binge watching and noshing on snacks. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
Luca is a 22 month old parrot who lives in Kiryat Shmona in the very northernmost part of Israel, bordering Lebanon.
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Tuesday March 24, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Hundreds of Israelis were startled Wednesday by an unsolicited text message. "Hello. According to an epidemiological investigation ______ (fill in your name). You were near someone sick with the coronavirus. You must immediately isolate at home [14 days] to protect your relatives and the public. ... This information will be used only for this purpose and will be erased when no longer needed. Sincerely, Public Health Services." Tens of thousands of Israelis are in self isolation, many because they received this message, as they confront coronavirus. With this text message, Prime Minister Netanyahu pushed the envelope on violating personal liberties and freedom. He instructed Israel’s Internal Security Services, aka the Shin Bet, to use their highly advanced and sophisticated tools to help bring the virus under control. These are the tools that are normally used to protect against terror. Now they are being used to fight a virus that has the potential to kill many more people than would be killed through acts of terror. Cell phones identify the locations of people and are cross referenced with the locations of people who tested positive for the virus. It’s a Big Brother tactic – but it is a tactic that will save lives. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Monday March 23, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
The US Surgeon General warned this morning that this is going to be a very difficult week. The reason is obvious - the number of Americans infected with COVID-19 is going to increase. The Surgeon General knows what we all know, but he knows to take it seriously. He knows and, more importantly, he accepts what many of us have not been able to fully accept. Many people than we know have contracted the virus. We do not know who they are for several reasons. Some have not been tested. Some do not show symptoms. Some have symptoms that are mild. All of these people can possibly transmit the virus to the people around them – and those people will get sick. One doctor from New York sent a plea to President Trump laying out the details of the community he treats and suggesting an early treatment and even a prophylactic treatment. He said that he has treated hundreds of people with the virus. Based on his practice, this physician estimates that 60% of his community has the virus. That alone equals 20,000 people. Truly frightening. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Sunday March 22, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
This is current Israeli policy: If you violate self-quarantine you will be arrested, spend six months in prison and fined 5,000 NIS, which is about $1,800. There are exceptions: There are rules: Only 2 people are permitted in a car, prayers are permitted but only with a maximum of 10, sports are only permitted 2 players only. You are permitted to go outside and stand very close to your home. This is a very stern set of laws and a major limit on citizens’ rights and freedoms. But Israeli leadership has to clamp down in order to stop the spread of the virus. People especially older people, will die if they contract the virus. Many people still do not understand that they are required to sublimate their personal, selfish, needs for the greater good by staying inside. By venturing outside, that very person pursuing their selfish acts may contract the virus endangering themselves and endangering their family. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
You are permitted to go shopping for food, to an essential job, help someone in need.
Selfishness is blind in another way, too:
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Friday March 20, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
As of 11am, which is 5pm just before Shabbat began in Israel, these are the most recent numbers of Coronavirus cases in Israel. The numbers need to be divided into categories: Also since Wednesday, the Mossad successfully procured thousands of tests kits. 10 are in serious condition, 18 moderate condition, 271 light condition and in hospitals. 149 people are being treated at home, 58 in hotels transformed into Coronavirus facilities. 212 are awaiting decisions as to they should be treated. Israel has been extremely aggressive in their approach. They are using GPS tracking on the phones of people who tested positive. They are fining and even arresting those who violate their restrictions. The Coronavirus numbers in Israel are going up and up. The new labs and the availability of the testing kits will automatically increase the numbers. Many, many people have the virus and are asymptomatic. The higher numbers should not serve as a source of alarm and panic. They are a more realistic assessment of reality. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
Most important is that as of Wednesday there are twenty testing labs, that’s eighteen more than Israel had until now.
705 people have tested positive.
15 people have been released from the hospital and are free of the virus and totally recovered – that’s an important figure.
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Tuesday March 17, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Iran is suffering from Coronavirus. That much we know. We also know that the Iranians do not report the truth. For two days in a row they have been reporting over 100 deaths each day. On Monday the Iranians said that new infections for the day hit 1,053 putting total infections in Iran at 14, 991. There is no doubt that the numbers in Iran are far higher. How much greater is a serious unknown. The one good thing is that Iran has been isolated for some time now, so few people have been in and out of the country. There is one major exception to that – and it is China. That does not bode for either of those nations, both of them centers of the virus. If China has topped out and is now having fewer and fewer infections – which is the way it appears to be - it is because they closed down a city of 23 million people. That move localized the contamination to one region. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
There were113 deaths on Sunday and 129 on Monday. Total Coronavirus deaths in Iran, so far, is 853.
It was a good move by China.
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Monday March 16, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
I watched two videos on twitter that shocked me. In both clips Israeli police were arresting people who broke their Covid-19 isolation. In one clip, all the police were in total hazmat garb. It was right out of a spy movie. Several days ago Israel announced that it was using tracking software on the cell phones of people required to be in quarantine to insure that they were not violating the procedures. Isolation is not a suggestion - it is a requirement. In both cases on the videos the violators were arrested and put into isolation. Quarantine and isolation are in place not for the safety of the entire community. Coming out of isolation early could endanger thousands of other people. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
They will have hearings and a judge will determine whether more punishment is needed.
Sometimes we need to put our personal needs on the side for the good of the larger community especially because people’s lives are at stake.
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Friday March 13, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Television, radio, newspapers, internet, social media - almost all news is news about Covid-19, aka, Corornavirus. It’s blanket coverage relating to everything – sports, medicine, art, entertainment, business and of course, hard news. Broadway shows are dark. Disney, the happiest place on earth is closed for the rest of March. March Madness is shut down. There are important lessons to be learned. Most importantly is that epidemics are real. Epidemics, and certainly pandemics, do not follow a set prescription. Economic lines are crossed, international boundaries are ignored, race and religion play no role. The risks are great. This is not rocket science. We, the public, must follow the advice we are given and the guidelines that are set out. We can’t outsmart this virus. But we can do our best to limit its destructive power and the havoc it plays with our lives and with our health. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Tuesday March 10, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Finally, there is talk about the possibility of a minority government in Israel. I have been discussing this for months, so I say, it’s about time! A minority government is not a very stable government, but neither is a government with a majority of 61. Either way, the government can fall at any time. The principle of a minority government is that the ruling coalition has less than the 61 majority – but it comes with the promise of other members of Knesset that they will not vote against the coalition in the case of a vote of ‘no confidence’. The life expectancy of such a government is short, but at least it can begin to function. At this point, both large parties have the ability to create a minority government. To do so, the Blue/White coalition will depend on 15 members of the Joint Arab list. Several members of that list reject Israel’s right to exist so they are not dependable. Two members of the Blue/White party are against an agreement with the Joint Arab List. They may bolt bringing the Blue/White number to 60. Not enough to fell a government, but enough to swear in a government. Minority governments have successfully existed in the past in Israel. But they had a purpose. In European parliaments they have also been successful - in the short run. Again, with a purpose. If the two Blue/White members leave, they will have to create their own, new party. They cannot switch parties – if they do they will not be able to run in the next election cycle. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
Let me explain.
And if they bolt, that also brings the Likud coalition to 60.
If nobody switches, or if no agreement for a minority government is reached, Israel is in for a fourth election.
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Monday March 9, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Israel is responding to Coronavirus very aggressively. 150,000 people are in isolation - most in self isolation. Many borders with neighboring countries, specifically Egypt, are closed. Flights from many other countries, in Europe and Asia, are not permitted in. Now they are seriously considering isolating every single person who arrives in Israel from any destination - Israelis, tourists and business people. All this may backfire. The virus has already arrived. As of late Sunday 39 Israelis have tested positive. That is more than most other counties in the world. Actually, Israel ranks 33 in the world out of 196 countries with numbers of people with coronavirus. Israel’s response probably has a political side to it. Netanyahu needs to be seen as a capable leader handling - and or protecting - his country from a huge danger. No one else can do this. But the more leadership responds and comments, the bigger the crisis becomes. And by extension, the better a leader Netanyahu becomes. On all levels, Netanyahu can do things and make decisions that his counterpart, Benny Gantz, cannot do, especially because his counterpart is embracing the Joint Arab List which is anti-Zionist and some membrane even preach the destruction of Israel. If the virus spins out of control Netanyahu's plan could backfire. It could also backfire if Gantz can show that Netanyahu is causing more damage than good. The tourism industry, a major source of revenue in Israel, had ground to a halt. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
The virus is not just a medical headache. It’s tendrils reach all segments of society and government.
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Monday March 8, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
The youngest brother of the Saudi king was arrested by his nephew over the weekend in Saudi Arabia. He was not the only person arrested - several other members of the royal family were also arrested including a nephew of the king. Mohammed bin Salman, the Crown Prince, is the son of the King. Since 2017 he has been the de-facto total leader of the kingdom. And since 2017 the Crown Prince has periodically arrested high ranking members of the royal family in an attempt to consolidate power and eliminate challenges to authority. He has also been clamping down on corruption and kickbacks. It is a system rife with kickbacks - the family controls everything. Corruption is an easy tool to apply against political rivals. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
We will watch and see
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Friday March 6, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
An Arabic language newspaper published in Canada called “Al-Meshwar” published an article on February 28th entitled “The Abuse of Martyrs and the Manipulation of Their Bodies Are Jewish Commandments and Israeli Directives”. It’s a blood libel. The article describes how Israel mutilates Palestinian prisoners and sells their organs and body parts. The Toronto based paper fed the age old canard that still reverberates throughout the Islamic world. This particular blood libel emanates out of the Christian society. According to the myth, Jews murdered an innocent Christian child and then extracted the child’s blood to bake matzah. The child represented Jesus and the myth of killing that child is the re-enactment of Jews killing Jesus. There is also a history of blood libel in the Islamic world. The Islamic blood libel does not center on the killing of Jesus. Rather, it is about a Jewish conspiracy that centers on the abuse and disrespect of Muslims. In the Islamic world, even today, these stories are powerful and incendiary. They emphasize how evil the Jew is and how Jews act to destroy Muslim interests. Look no further than an article, published in Toronto, on February 28th. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Thursday March 5, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
There are several essential takeaways from Israel’s election. #1: Rather than exhibiting voter fatigue during their third election in the course of one year, Israeli were energized with more people voting in this election than in any election since 1999. #2: Predictions about Netanyahu being punished by voters and about voters being unable to overlook the legal issues he is entangled with, proved false. #3: Labor and Gesher have truly imploaded, Israel’s founding political party is now barely breathing. #4: The Joint Arab List leached voters from Labor and are now the real left in Israeli politics, steadily increasing with each election and has become, as they are about to receive 14 or 15 Parliamentary seats, the third largest political party in Israel. #5: Israelis have long believed that, because there are 120 seats in the Knesset, 61 was the magic number for coalition building, yet governments have been built and functioned with as small a coalition as 53 seats. A coalition of 61, or even of 59, is very difficult to keep together and is not a stable government, it works for a short time, but Israeli governments do not last. Not a single Israeli government has ever survived its entire term. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Wednesday March 4, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
With Super Tuesday behind us, it seems clear that there are two leading candidates within the Democratic party. Elizabeth Warren will most certainly drop out. Michael Bloomberg, just pulled out despite his desire to stay in the game and walk into the Democratic Convention with over 100 - maybe even 200 delegates - out of the 1991 delegates needed to nominate the candidate who will lead the Democratic ticket against President Donal Trump. A week ago it was unthinkable that Joe Biden would be a competitor, let alone a leader, for that nomination. A week ago it appeared as if Bernie Sanders was the presumptive candidate and nothing could stop him. But the exits of Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar and the throwing of their support behind Biden served to unify the party and bring it back to its home. Biden embodies the traditional, old time, Democratic party. Sanders is not a Democrat. He is an independent and describes himself as a Social Democrat. The people will decide. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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Sunday March 1, 2020
I've Been Thinking:
Azerbaijan has shut its borders to Iran. No Iranians or Iranian products can cross the border and no one from Azerbaijan may enter Iran – all because of coronavirus. The tourism industry in Iran has already been decimated by US sanctions and now, because of this virus, Iranians are taking another economic hit. This is the season of the Iranian New Year, called Nowruz. The Nowruz Holiday stretches over a two-week period. Reports are that 80% of hotel reservations in Iran have been cancelled. One media report said that in the northern holy city of Mashad 90% of the hotels have no guests. No one is visiting the city. These are devastating numbers. Iran will not be having a happy New Year. Read my latest book THUGS. It's easy. Just click. To reprint my essays contact sales (at) www.featurewell.com
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