IDF's elite Sayeret Matkal playing role in war against coronavirus

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IAI (Israel Aircraft Industry) and Invoytec to produce Israeli-developed ventilators in missile production plant.

From JPost, By ANNA AHRONHEIM   MARCH 31, 2020

For the full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/v27ke4g

The famed General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, or Unit 269, more commonly known as Sayeret Matkal, is helping with medical logistics in the IDF’s fight against the coronavirus, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Its commandos have been counting the number of respirators in hospitals and healthcare facilities throughout Israel. The elite unit is more accustomed to gathering field intelligence deep behind enemy lines, carrying out counter-terrorism operations and rescuing hostages. It is now playing a key role in the fight against COVID-19.

Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov last week said Israel has 2,864 available ventilators, including some owned by the IDF. But some reports said the Health Ministry does not know the true number of ventilators in the country.

“The State of Israel must develop independent capabilities in everything related to dealing with the COVID-19 virus pandemic,” Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Tuesday. “We cannot remain dependent on procurement from other countries. We must develop independent, advanced capabilities.”

Amid fears that the number of patients needing respiratory assistance may exceed the number of respirators available, the Defense Ministry, along with Israel Aerospace Industries and Invoytec, will also begin producing Israeli-developed ventilators.

“The Directorate of Production and Procurement (DOPP) and the Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D) at the Defense Ministry, in collaboration with medical company Inovytec and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), have completed the establishment of a first-of-its-kind production line for Ventway Sparrow ventilators,” the ministry said in a statement.

The first 30 ventilators have been delivered to the Health Ministry.

With a lack of ventilators in Israel and around the world, Inovytec and IAI established a production line for ventilators within days. It was inaugurated on Tuesday at a classified IAI missile production site.

“The best minds in the field of missiles, aviation and space joined Inovytec, under the auspices of the defense and health ministries, and together we have established in just a few days an advanced production line for ventilators,” said Boaz Levy, general manager and executive vice president of IAI Systems, Missiles and Space Group.

The production line was built in a short time to expand the production of Ventway Sparrow machines, the ministry said.

“Turning a missile production line into a ventilator assembly plant is a very complex task,” DDR&D director Brig.-Gen. (ret.) Dani Gold said, adding that the ministry is “continuing in the race around the clock to translate the extraordinary tech capabilities of the defense establishment to the fight against corona.”

The Ventway Sparrow, which provides life-sustaining respiratory care for patients with COVID-19 in various conditions, is a state-of-the-art, turbine-powered, lightweight, easy-to-use ventilator that enables effective invasive and noninvasive mechanical ventilation for adults and children.

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Anti-Israel NGOs Exploit COVID-19 To spread hatred

Video Of The Week - Security Technology Tracks Coronavirus- https://tinyurl.com/urvgr5m

From JNS, By Becca Wertman

For the full article go to - https://tinyurl.com/wle98nj

The cynical exploitation of a global health crisis by so-called human-rights organizations sends a clear message: These groups aren’t about justice and morality.

·         

For anti-Israel advocacy non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which constantly attempt to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish state, the COVID-19 pandemic’s domination of the global news cycle poses a significant challenge—the world now has real problems to deal with.

Nevertheless, some NGOs have a solution. Namely, they have decided to link their agendas to COVID-19. This is consistent with previous attempts by NGOs to capitalize on the prevailing public discourse, such as manipulating narratives of climate change and LGBTQ rights as part of their anti-Israel campaigns.

Take, for instance, the offensive and anti-Semitic sentiment expressed in a tweet by Sarah Leah Whitson, the former head of Human Rights Watch’s Middle East department and now with the Quincy Institute. Not for the first time, Whitson deployed classic anti-Semitic tropes, in this case the blood libel. In response to a cynical tweet that “6 million Jewish [sic] Israelis” will now understand life under “occupation” due to virus-related restrictions, Whitson lamented that it was “such a tiny taste. Missing a tablespoon of blood.”

To be sure, not all NGOs have gone that far. Some have stuck to their standard anti-Israel nonsense. One common theme is the “occupation,” where the COVID-19 virus has been appended to standard anti-occupation rhetoric and campaigns that, for some obsessed NGOs and activists, are still the most pressing global concerns. Of course, their complaints about Israeli policy in the West Bank do not seriously grapple with whether it will effectively curb the spread of disease, but rather presume Israel must be acting in bad faith, because “occupation.”

On March 10, for example, Students for Justice in Palestine at the University of Maryland hosted an event with the title, “Corona and Countering the Occupation.” According to the poster advertising the event, the issues to be discussed included “How is corona being handled in Palestine?” “How does occupation worsen the situation?” and “What is the best way to counter the occupation.”

Another example is a tweet by the American fringe group IfNotNow, claiming that “Demolishing Palestinian homes will worsen the coronavirus spread. It was already inhumane to displace people, now it’s also an urgent matter of public health. The Israeli army must stop demolishing homes and focus on the health and wellness of all Israelis and Palestinians.”

A second theme is “Blame Israel for Gaza.” For the 15 years since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza, NGOs continue to attribute a “humanitarian crisis” to Israel, based on a unique standard of international law applied to Israel alone. NGOs deny Hamas and other actors agency for diverting resources from public infrastructure and services to weapons, tunnels and terrorism. In the current context, NGOs have been using COVID-19 as an excuse to condemn legitimate anti-terrorism policies and to preemptively blame Israel for an outbreak in Gaza.

For example, on March 15, Ken Roth, Human Rights Watch’s Israel-obsessed executive director, tweeted, “The coronavirus will test the wisdom of Israel’s policies for crippling the economy and health systems of Gaza and the West Bank. As the occupying power (for Gaza, too, given Israel’s severe restrictions on movement), Israel is responsible for health care.” The Israeli NGO Gisha similarly published an article, “Crossings update: Israel to impose extensive travel restrictions at Erez Crossing over coronavirus concerns,” belittling Israel’s policy of restricting access to its borders, including Gaza’s, to curb the spread of the virus.

Palestinian terror-linked organizations are also exploiting the public health crisis for their anti-Israel advocacy. For instance, Samidoun, a group with noted ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group, posted an article on its website, “Israeli apartheid, COVID-19 and Palestinian prisoners: Freedom now!” The NGO claims, “Palestinian prisoners are continuing their struggle to confront Israel’s apartheid COVID-19 response that poses a threat to Palestinian prisoners and, indeed, all Palestinians. No Palestinian prisoners have yet been diagnosed with coronavirus, but their conditions of confinement present a serious concern.”

Addameer, another PFLP-tied group, has also shared articles with sentiments such as, “at the moment, while the world is suffering from the pandemic, COVID-19, Palestinian prisoners are still suffering medical negligence.”

This cynical exploitation of a global health crisis by so-called human-rights organizations should therefore send a clear message: In times of emergency, expect the regular drumbeat of anti-Israel propaganda from organizations claiming to espouse justice and morality.

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Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus

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https://tinyurl.com/te84b4o

Israel Helps Palestinians Prevent Coronavirus; Arabs Betray Them

For the full Article go to - Gatestone - https://tinyurl.com/rp2lhhh

by Khaled Abu Toameh
March 16, 2020

While Israel is working overtime with Palestinians to curb and prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the Arab states appear to be doing what they do best when it comes to helping their Palestinian brothers: nothing at all.

In the past few days, Israeli authorities delivered 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. In addition, Israeli and Palestinian professional teams have been working together to prevent the spread of the virus.

The Israeli authorities have also delivered another 200 coronavirus testing kits to the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, despite the thousands of rockets and incendiary and bomb-carrying balloons that the ruling government, Hamas, has launched from there towards Israel.

In addition, Israeli authorities have coordinated the transfer of 20 tons of disinfectant material from Israeli factories to the Palestinian health sector. The material included chlorine and hydrogen peroxide, used for disinfection, preservation of hygiene and sanitation. These disinfectant materials are used for cleaning surfaces in open areas and help in cleaning closed areas, including mosques and churches.

It is worth noting that Egypt, which has a shared border with the Gaza Strip, did not send any test kits or disinfectant materials to the Palestinians living there.

Palestinians in Lebanon, meanwhile, are worried that the Lebanese authorities may use the coronavirus as an excuse to intensify restrictions even further on their refugee camps.

Samir Geagea, a Lebanese politician and chairman of the Lebanese Forces, an anti-Palestinian Christian political party, has come under sharp criticism for calling for the immediate closure of the 12 Palestinian refugee camps in his country.

As of January 2019, there were 475,075 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). "Palestinians in Lebanon do not enjoy several important rights," UNRWA pointed out.

"They cannot work in as many as 39 professions and cannot own property [real estate]. Because they are not formally citizens of another state, Palestinian refugees are unable to claim the same rights as other foreigners living and working in Lebanon. The conflict in Syria has forced many Palestinians from Syria to flee to Lebanon in search of safety. Nearly 29,000 of them are receiving UNRWA assistance in the country, including cash assistance, education, health care, and protection."

Palestinian refugees are barred from numerous professions in Lebanon, including medicine, law and engineering.

"After more than seventy years, Lebanon remains the country where Palestinian refugees suffer the most, where they are deprived of many of their economic and human rights, including working in certain professions, procedural complications in obtaining work permits, and denial of the right to own property," said Dr. Mohsen Saleh, Director-General of the Zaitouna Center for Studies in Beirut.

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Israel a ‘Living Lab’ to Treat Coronavirus

Video Of The Week - Corona Cure Breakthrough - https://tinyurl.com/tfclc23

 For the full Article go to - https://tinyurl.com/t9zg6uz

JERUSALEM – AT A medical center outside of Tel Aviv, 11 Israelis remain quarantined  after disembarking last week from the Diamond Princess luxury cruise ship in Japan, where hundreds of passengers became sick with coronavirus. But even after two of these quarantined Israelis have tested positive for the new virus, medical staff have hardly touched the group. Instead, they are relying on telemedicine tools to remotely monitor and communicate with the isolated patients.

"We have been able to meet all their medical needs without exposing the staff," says Eyal Zimlichman, the doctor overseeing the group's isolation and care at Chaim Sheba Medical Center, a sprawling campus on a former military barracks.

The model reflects the increasing embrace of telemedicine in general in recent years, and its potential in dealing with the new virus, officially known as COVID-19, which emerged in Wuhan, China, late last year and now affecting at least 40 countries, health officials say.

Highest Technological Expertise In the World

"This current environment certainly makes for an interesting proving ground (for) existing solutions," says Crystal Riley, a lecturer in health administration at New York University's Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. "It's not outside the realm of possibilities that new technologies will emerge from this epidemic."

Chaim Sheba's innovation center recently put out a call to entrepreneurs in Israel, which has a large digital health sector, and around the world for proposals for new solutions to test and treat patients with coronavirus.

"Word has gotten out that we have this group of people here and we have gotten so many emails from startups offering us their solutions," Zimlichman says. "This is like a living lab here."

Last week, when the passengers from the cruise ship arrived on a chartered flight to Israel, medical officials transported them in shuttles to Sheba. Upon arrival, doctors wearing protective gear physically examined the patients, none of whom had any symptoms of the virus.

But since then, doctors have not had much physical contact with the patients. Rather, each day, the patients use hand-held smart devices from Israel-based startup TytoCare, which they hold over their chests, allowing doctors to listen to their heart and lungs remotely. They also use the devices to let doctors look into their ears and throats. Under their mattresses, a sensor system from the Israeli medical device company Early Sense, which never touches the patient, monitors their breathing patterns for subtle changes and potential signs of respiratory infection. The EarlySense system collects and analyzes more data than traditional methods, and is not invasive, which is key in getting people who may not even be sick to comply with precautionary medical monitoring, doctors and company officials say.

Health officials hope a new directive for those in Israel who are worried about possible coronavirus symptoms or exposure to call a hotline rather than visit a medical facility will help prevent any spread of the virus. The hotline, run by the Magen David Adom emergency response service and the ministry of health, allows callers to have video conversations with doctors, nurses and medics.

"Barriers to telehealth are largely in people's lack of education on the utility of it," says Mariea Snell, professor and assistant director of the online doctor of nursing program at Maryville University in St. Louis. Another challenge is scale, Zimlichman says, especially when it comes to new products.

Sara Toth Stub is a journalist based in Jerusalem.

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UK Taxpayers Fund Inciteful PA Text Books

Video Of The Week - EU Checking Incitement In Palestinian Text Books -https://tinyurl.com/u7jxhot

 For the fulll Article go to -https://tinyurl.com/tpjhql5 

By TOM KELLY INVESTIGATIONS EDITOR FOR THE DAILY MAIL

UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use textbooks on martyrdom in lessons.

Jihadi textbooks in schools funded by £100 million of OUR, British, cash as foreign aid goes on science material that teaches physics in Palestine by showing a slingshot being fired at 'Zionists'

·        1. Foreign aid cash is funding schools where textbooks on radical Islamism used

·        2. Money goes via United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees

·        3. Agency's work includes healthcare, but 58 per cent of funding is for education

·        4. Books include reading exercise for six-year-olds with words 'martyr' and 'attack'

·        5. Nine-year-olds learn maths by adding number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings

Ministers pledged urgent action last night after it emerged that British foreign aid cash is funding schools where textbooks on martyrdom and radical Islamism are used.

The Daily Mail has discovered that tens of millions of pounds of UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use such material in lessons.

The money goes via a UN agency that some other nations have chosen to stop financing because of concerns.

The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words 'martyr' and 'attack', plus poems for eight-year-olds which include phrases such as 'sacrifice my blood' to 'eliminate the usurper from my country' and 'annihilate the remnants of the foreigners'.

UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use textbooks on martyrdom in lessons. Pictured is a page on Newton's Second Law, used to teach 11-year-olds, showing the image of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers. A caption alongside it reads: 'During the first Palestinian uprising, Palestinian youths used slingshots to confront the soldiers of the Zionist Occupation and defend themselves from their treacherous bullets. What is the relationship between the elongation of the slingshot's rubber and the tensile strength affecting it? What are the forces that influence the stone after its release from the slingshot?'. Textbook examples research and translations by Impact-se. The schools are attended by 325,000 pupils, up to age 16. 

Nine-year-olds learn maths by adding the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings in textbooks illustrated with pictures of their funerals.

And ten-year-olds learn the most important thing is giving their life for 'sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle'. 

Newton's Second Law is taught to 11-year-olds through the image of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers.

The Mail has also learned that teachers who work at them have called for Jews to be murdered, abused them as 'pigs and apes' and praised Adolf Hitler.

And the schools are said to be 'fertile grounds' for terrorist groups to recruit with scores of suicide bombers and jihadi leaders among past pupils.

Other pages from the textbooks - which are funded through the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees - show children being taught violence. Next a page teaching reading comprehension with a glorified account of terrorist Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 'Coastal Road Massacre' in which 38 Israelis including 13 children were murdered on a bus.

The British aid money goes via the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). During the past five years, the UK has given £330million and pledged another £65million for this year.

Although the UN agency's work also includes healthcare, relief and social services, most of the funding it receives – 58 per cent – goes on education.

Of that money, about 62 per cent is for schools in West Bank and Gaza – which means about £120millon of UK funding has gone where the textbooks are used. UNRWA insists these schools have to follow a curriculum set by the Palestinian Authority, which produces and pays for the textbooks.

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PALESTINIANS HURT MOST BY THE UN'S BLACK LIST

Video Of The Week - 'UN 'Black List' 'Shame on Them' - https://tinyurl.com/uzplxmq

For the full article, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik- go to  https://palwatch.org/page/17409

During an official Palestinian Authority TV program called Workers' Affairs, which focused on internal labor issues for Palestinians, Israel was lauded for its better conditions for Palestinians. Israeli labor laws, positive working conditions, higher pay, health benefits, vacation time and more that Palestinian workers enjoy while working for Israelis were praised by Palestinian workers and their lawyers. As a result of the better treatment by Israelis, Palestinians choose to work for them rather than Palestinian employees: 

This PMW report documents the basis for these conclusions as found in interviews with Palestinian labor lawyers and workers on PA TV and in the official PA daily, and with statistics from the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.

"Whenever Palestinian workers have the opportunity to work for Israeli employers, they are quick to quit their jobs with their Palestinian employers.” - [Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 21, 2014]

The daily salary for Palestinians working for Israelis is more than double the average West Bank salary from Palestinian employers and more than four times the average salaries in the Gaza Strip:

“The average daily wage for employees in the West Bank was 98.8 shekels compared with 56.7 shekels in the Gaza Strip… the average daily wage for the wage employees in Israel and the Israeli settlements reached 233.3 shekels in the 3rd quarter of 2017.” - [Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey. (July-September, 2017), Nov. 9, 2017, English original]

“The  average  daily  wage  for  wage  employees in  the  West  Bank  was 107.9 shekels compared with 62.6 shekels in Gaza Strip in the 2nd quarter 2018…The average daily wage for the wage employees in Israel and the Israeli settlements reached 247.9 shekels in the 2nd quarter of 2018 compared with 242.5 shekels in the 1st quarter of 2018.” - [Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, Labour Force Survey (April-June, 2018) Round (Q2/2018), English original]

The higher Israeli salaries have been consistent for years according to surveys published by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics. In addition, Palestinian workers who work for Israelis have much better working conditions than those employed by Palestinians, and by Israeli law receive the same rights and protection that Israeli workers have.

Israeli Arab labor lawyer Khaled Dukhi, who works with the Israeli NGO Workers' Hotline, says that Israeli labor law is "very good" because it does not differentiate between men and women, Israelis and Palestinians, or Muslims and Jews. However, he explained that Palestinian workers who work for Israelis still suffer because Palestinian middlemen "steal" a significant part of their salaries, especially those of women:

Attorney Khaled Dukhi of Workers’ Hotline: "Israeli labor law is a very good law regarding workers' rights, for both men and women. Israeli law does not differentiate between a worker who has entered Israel illegally or legally... Unfortunately, even though it is very good, in practice, the law has become very bad for female Palestinian workers. For instance, the Palestinian female workers in the agricultural sector enjoy many rights, like any Israeli worker in the agricultural sector: The salary is higher than the minimum wage, 14 vacation days a year in the first four years, 2,000 shekels convalescence pay [yearly] in the first year and 2,200 shekels in the second and third year for every worker in Israel, payment for holidays, whether Islamic or Jewish. It is a matter of choice."

An article in the official PA daily lauded Israel and Israeli employers of Palestinians for their positive employment ethics towards their Palestinian workers, while condemning Palestinian employers for taking advantage of their workers.

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"Israel Facts Not Fables"

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 From J.Post 31-01-2020 - By STEWART WEISS

This past week in Israel, leaders from around the globe – from Pence to Putin to Prince Charles – gathered dramatically in Jerusalem to commemorate the Shoah and to spotlight both the victims and the villains of the Holocaust.

The Nazis were masters of deception, ingeniously creating a pervasive false reality that masked their crimes and their central cause – the murder of every Jew on the planet. Concentration camps were “labor farms,” roundups of Jews and mass murder were “Aktions,” and death camps were “resettlement centers.” Show camps like Theresienstadt put a false face on the horror, while signs of “Arbeit Macht Frei” on the outside gates masked the terror within. Much of the world was fooled, with disastrous consequences for our loved ones.

And even today, the Palestinians create a parallel universe made up of smoke and mirrors, forging a phony history of their own while using every means to erase, expunge and obliterate our truth: the truth of King David and King Solomon, of the Temple in Jerusalem and the 3,000-year presence of Jews in our homeland. Our holy texts affirm without a shred of doubt our legitimate claim to this land, while they are the authors of the shortest book in history: Ancient Palestinian Culture and Custom.

YET I wonder: Will the true events of Jewish history remain fact in the years to come, or will they be turned into fiction? The question is worth considering, for indeed our accomplishments in the last century boggle the mind and invite disbelief.

Will generations to come believe that we could survive the devastating Shoah and emerge to revive and recreate our ancient land and language?

Could we have really won a War of Independence against all odds and predictions, and then, soon after, vanquish seven Arab armies in just six short days?

Could we have actually taken in millions of immigrants – many of them elderly and impoverished – and could we have increased our population by 1,000% in just two generations?!

Could we possibly have made our tiny nation the hi-tech capital of the world, dramatically bestowing innovations of all types upon humanity, increasing its quality and longevity of life?

Will all this be acknowledged by future generations as fact, or will it be dismissed as fanciful fairy tales concocted by creative Jewish minds?

There are two conflicting narratives fiercely competing in the world today. One suggests that the Jews are an oppressive, malevolent force, robbing the world of its resources, stealing the property of others and espousing a doctrine of supremacy and world domination.

The other affirms that the Jewish people are benevolent, decent, industrious citizens who hold the moral high ground and bring abundant blessing to every nation in which they live.

It is our sacred task, I suggest, to fight passionately for the truth we know to be real, to dispel the clouds of doubt and defamation that too often swirl around us.

It is an uphill battle, to be sure, because ignorance is a societal cancer that spreads exponentially, perverting and polluting even the best and brightest of minds.

We have the obligation to devote ourselves to separating the facts from the fables and declare, with unabashed pride: Israel is real.

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