‘It isn’t Lebanon and Gaza – Egypt most active front’
IDF links success in thwarting drug smuggling through Egyptian border to rise of crime in Bedouin sector
While the borders with Lebanon, Syria and Gaza make most of the headlines, the actual border with the most action seems to be the one with Egypt.
The soldiers protecting the border have to deal with two main threats: the terrorist threat, which usually focuses on Wilayat Sina’ (the Sinai District), an organization affiliated with ISIS; and the criminal threat, which usually takes the form of drug smuggling.
The latter might seem to be less dangerous, but a senior source in the border protection apparatus told The Jerusalem Post these events, which happen on a regular basis, tend to develop into live-fire incidents.
“Our commanders and soldiers are experienced in live-fire incidents more than any other front,” the source said. “Once a week, during a smuggling attempt, they [the smugglers] shoot all over, and commanders and combat soldiers have felt here the bullets hovering near their heads.”
Ex-intel chief: We know almost all about Nasrallah, Page 3
The units protecting the border made a significant change in recent years in the way they deal with smuggling, the source said.
“We have managed to cut down a large percentage of the smuggling in recent years,” he said. “Because of our success, we see a rise in the phenomenon that we dub as ‘violent smuggling.’ In these incidents,
Judas and the Black Messiah, Minari, Nomadland, Promising Young Woman, Sound of Metal
and The Trial of the Chicago 7.
Aaron Sorkin was nominated for Best Screenplay for The Trial of the Chicago 7, while one of the film’s stars, Sacha Baron Cohen, was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Abbie Hoffman in the film. Baron Cohen was also nominated, with a number of co-writers, for the screenplay of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm.
After years of criticism that the Oscars were “too white” and have not recognized a diverse enough range of filmmakers, including women directors, this year there are an unprecedented number of nominees of color in all categories and women in behindthe-scenes categories.
In the Best Actor category, the late Chadwick Boseman is nominated for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. His competitors are Anthony Hopkins for The Father, Gary Oldman for Mank, Steve Yeun for Minari
and Riz Ahmed for Sound of Metal.
The Best Actress category features actresses from two movies about blues music in the 20th century: Viola Davis from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
and Andra Day for The United States vs. Billie Holiday. They will face off against Vanessa Kirby for Pieces of a Woman,
Carey Mulligan from Promising Young Woman and Frances McDormand for Nomadland.
For the first time, two women were nominated for Best Director: Chloé Zhao for Nomadland and Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman. They will compete against Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, Fincher for Mank and Lee Isaac Chung for Minari.
Another interesting development this year is that, following the unprecedented win last year by the Korean-language film Parasite,
there are a large number of nominees in many categories for movies and roles not in English.
Minari, the story of a Korean immigrant family to the US, most of which is in Korean, was nominated in six categories, including Best Picture. Vinterberg’s Another Round,a
Danish film, received a nomination for Best Director, in addition to its nomination for Best International Film (the category that used to be known as Best Foreign Language Film).
The Oscars will be presented at a ceremony in Los Angeles on April 26. •
There is plenty of intrigue on the local pitches as the Israel Premier League heads towards the final gameday of the regular season, with fans finally being allowed back in the stands for the first time in a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The championship race will see Maccabi Tel Aviv and Maccabi Haifa battling it out for the title, while a number of other championship playoff spots will be up for grabs next weekend.
Along with the yellow-and-blue and the Greens, Ashdod SC has also punched its ticket to the playoffs while three of the following five clubs – Maccabi Petah Tikva, Ironi Kiryat Shmona, Maccabi Netanya, Hapoel Beersheba and Beitar Jerusalem – will also enter the final stage of the season searching for a chance to play in a European competition next season.
This past weekend, Maccabi Tel Aviv blanked Kiryat Shmona 2-0 in the northern capital to remain at the top of the table.
Dor Peretz opened the scoring in the 31st minute when he stole the ball in the midfield, played a give-and-go with Eyal Golasa and then beat Dziugas Bartkus to give Patrick van Leeuwen’s squad a 1-0 lead.
Kobi Refuah’s side was reduced to 10 men just a few minutes later when Yoav Hofmayster was issued his second yellow card. Matan Hozez took advantage of the situation with an 82nd-minute penalty after being hauled down in the box by Dor Elo to seal the deal and allow the yellowand-blue to take the points.
“This was an important win,” said van Leeuwen following the victory. “We prepared for this game just as we do for every match and we wanted to win. We aren’t looking at the table as it’s not over yet and right now it’s not that important. We want to continue this way and we want to win every game, that’s our goal.”
Refuah lauded his team’s effort in a losing cause.
“Credit to the players for their hard work with only 10 men,” said Refuah. “As for the playoffs, we will be ready to face Hapoel Kfar Saba with one game left in the regular season.”
Meanwhile, Maccabi Haifa kept pace with Maccabi Tel Aviv as it defeated Bnei
Yehuda 2-0 thanks to a pair of second-half goals to remain one point behind the yellow-and-blue.
Neta Lavi broke the goalless deadlock in the 53rd minute when he headed in a brilliant Omer Atzily cross while Sun Menachem put in an Atzily corner 10 minutes later to give Haifa the three points.
“This was exciting,” said Greens’ coach Barak Bachar. “To play in front of 1,500 fans felt like 30,000 after getting so used to such a quiet atmosphere; it was great. Anytime you play against a team like Bnei Yehuda, which is battling for its life, it will never be an easy game. But we controlled the pace of play and had a couple of very good chances. I am happy that we have continued to improve.”
Bnei Yehuda coach Yossi Abukasis lamented the situation his club is in.
“It doesn’t look good, especially when you can see the difference in the levels between us and Maccabi Haifa’s,” stated Abukasis. “We played well in the first half, but Haifa is a quality team and we didn’t play well in the second half and came in complacent and tired from our game last week.”
Elsewhere, Beitar Jerusalem snatched a 2-1 win over Hapoel Kfar Saba as David Dego scored a late winner to keep the capital city squad in the running for a championship playoff spot.
Timoti Muzie gave Elisha Levy’s team a
quick 1-0 lead in the sixth minute, but Eliran Atar drew Beitar even just ahead of the halftime break thanks to a 43rd-minute penalty kick.
Yarden Shua and Dego played give-andgo in the 84th minute as the latter beat a helpless Matan Zalmanovich to keep Beitar’s hopes alive heading into a duel with Ashdod next weekend.
“We needed this win and it’s a sweet one that came a bit late, but still gives us a chance to make it into the playoffs,” said Beitar coach Slobodan Drapic. “We played well and you could see how much the players wanted this for the fans who were in the stands. With them there, we could have earned many more points compared to what we have collected up until now.”
Also, Hapoel Hadera slipped by Maccabi Netanya 1-0 as Menachem Koretzky’s squad continued to climb the table and move further away from the relegation zone.
Liran Rotman continues to score for Hadera after coming on loan from Beitar Jerusalem as he took a brilliant Gustavo Marmentini through ball to score the 42nd-minute.
After the defeat, Raymond Atteveld’s squad plays Maccabi Haifa as it will attempt to make it into the championship playoffs.
“All the credit goes to the players,” said a content Koretzky. “They went through a tough week or so, but they gave it their all. I’m proud of them and there is a tremendous amount of potential here. We were able to take the win against a very good team, but we still need to work hard and continue to improve.”
Hapoel Haifa hosted Ashdod to a 2-2 draw at Sammy Ofer Stadium in an entertaining matchup that saw Ashdod clinch a playoff berth while Haifa will feature in the relegation playoffs for the balance of the campaign.
Fahad Bayo and Dean David gave Ran Ben Shimon’s team a quick 2-0 lead after just 15 minutes, but Niso Kapilto pulled a goal back in the 28th minute to keep the Carmel Reds in the game.
Just as Ashdod looked to have earned the three points, Hanan Maman lofted a corner kick into the box that Itay Boganim nodded behind Yoav Gerafi to earn his side the draw.
Hapoel Beersheba and Maccabi Petah Tikva played to a goalless draw at the Moshava Stadium to split the points.
Beersheba will play Bnei Yehuda while Petah Tikva will face Bnei Sakhnin on the last match day as both squads will look to earn a trip to the championship playoffs.
Bnei Sakhnin downed Hapoel Tel Aviv 1-0 at Bloomfield Stadium to snatch the three points in the relegation battle and is now level with the Reds on 26 points.
Ismaeel Ryan sent a pinpoint perfect corner kick to Ihab Ganayem, who headed home the lone marker of the game in the 22nd minute.
To seal Hapoel’s fate, Raz Shlomo was sent off in the 57th minute with his second yellow card of the game leaving the 1,500 home fans who attended their first match in over a year disappointed with the final result.
Agroundbreaking Supreme Court ruling on March 1 astounded international observers of legal news in the Jewish world and beyond. The High Court of Justice has finally decided a painful issue of non-Orthodox religious conversions in Israel after some 15 years of suspension.
Before the ruling, the Law of Return had not recognized non-Orthodox conversions performed in Israel. Those who converted to Judaism in Israel under non-Orthodox auspices could not be recognized as Jews for purposes such as marriage and divorce.
Since the establishment of the state in 1948, Israel has struggled with the dilemma of who is Jewish and, in fact, who is Israeli. In contrast with many other democratic countries, immigration law in Israel grants citizenship based on religion. Ethno-religious nationalism is embedded in two fundamental laws that were enacted as part of the process of nation-building in the 1950s: the Citizenship Law from 1952, and more crucial and very fundamental, the Law of Return from 1950. The latter is defined in prominent Supreme Court rulings as Israel’s most fundamental piece of legislation.
A Jew can get citizenship upon landing in Israel, in absolute contradistinction from a non-Jew, who is required to go through a highly convoluted process of demonstrating loyalty and even security or military service for the country. As far as immigration to Israel is concerned, Israeli law is clearly demotivating non-Jews from immigrating while stimulating Jews to do so. The main purpose has not been merely religious but national as well; namely, preventing Palestinians from immigrating and changing the demographic balance between Jews and Arabs.
In a country besieged by issues of protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict and dealing with the trauma of the Holocaust, most of the public has considered the law legitimate and even desirable. Yet, in a gradual process beginning the late 1960s, Israeli society has become more liberal, and the Supreme Court has propelled a flexible legal interpretation, according to which an immigrant to Israel can declare upon arrival that he or she is Jewish, and based on some form of evidence, can be granted instant citizenship.
However, the Law of Return remained relatively intact for 71 years. While in 1989, a liberal Supreme Court ruled that non-Orthodox conversions performed outside of Israel would be recognized for the purposes of the Law of Return, non-Orthodox conversions inside Israel were not recognized under Israeli law until now. Beyond the cover of formalities, the real struggles have not been about who is a Jew but about who will decide who is a Jew. Is it exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Orthodox and the ultra-Orthodox establishments, or can the Conservative and Reform movements also be responsible as processors of conversions?
Amid bitter political rivalry in which Orthodoxy maintained its hegemony, the Israeli government (usually based on coalitions with Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox parties) has not been neutral. It has clearly sided with the religious political parties, without which no government coalition could have been established since the late 1980s. Political dependency of the executive on the religious parties created a deadlock, and prevented any feasible solution to an increasingly severe conflict between the Orthodox and most Israelis, who are either observant or secular.
Already in 2018, expert recommendations were submitted to the government to allow non-Orthodox actors to perform conversions, but the government avoided any reform due to political pressures. It was paradoxical. While some 80% of Israeli Jews are non-Orthodox, the hegemony over religious conversions is totally dominated by an Orthodox minority. Hence, following this month’s court ruling, a coalition crisis is only a matter of time. The ultra-Orthodox political parties have formally announced that reversing the court’s recent ruling through legislation will be a fundamental condition to joining any government coalition. Has a legal revolution erupted? Time will tell.
The writer is a full professor of law and former dean of law at the University of Haifa Law Faculty; an emeritus professor of law, society and international studies at the University of Washington; and an expert on law, governance and society.
Some might call this the fifth of the “why is this night different” questions from the Haggadah. After all, thanks to vaccines and a clearer understanding of how to protect ourselves from the coronavirus, this Passover, especially the Seders, will certainly be different from last year’s. And last year’s Seders were most definitely different from every other previous Seder.
But for me, the question is more akin to the High Holy Days prayer Unetaneh Tokef, which asks the question: Who will live and who will die?
With whom shall I spend my Passover Seder is not about composing a guest list. It’s not about the dilemma of spending time with parents or with in-laws, or about staying close to home or traveling. It’s not about having some of the kids over or all of the kids and grandchildren over, or about which hotel to choose.
It is, still, about life and death.
Is it finally time to emerge from the isolation of this last year and spend Passover, the holiday of freedom, with other people? And the answer is: It all depends.
Vaccines have provided the world with new-found freedom, but now it is up to us to determine how far to take that new freedom. In Israel, much of the decision-making is taken out of the hands of individuals. Rules and regulations are mandated by the various ministries and the office of the prime minister, his cabinet and those infamous committees. Annoying, certainly, but the expectation is that these rules and regulations are the work of experts in their fields. Police enforce the rules and fine the violators.
In the United States, there is more leeway. In place of ministries there is the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And in place of mandates, there are recommendations. And then there are the executive orders of each state’s governor and health department and every state with its own set of rules.
According to the CDC, a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the final dose of vaccine. People in that category are then able to “visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying six feet apart.” That makes, I believe, perfect sense. But upon closer inspection, what it is really saying for Passover Seder purposes, is that those people who are over 65 years old – which is the golden number for vaccines in the United States – can share their Seder with other 65-year-olds. So much for spending Seder with children and grandchildren. Or maybe not.
Then the CDC adds that fully vaccinated people are also able to “visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying six feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.” Who determines that? It’s only natural that wishful thinking will persuade most people to determine – or rationalize – that the people they most want to spend time with are at “low risk for severe disease.” We are, after all, only human.
The internal debate is wrenching. The decisions are ours to make.
This pandemic has upended our lives. But we are the lucky ones. We are still here, still alive, still healthy enough to wrestle with the dilemma this Passover presents. Let’s not, at this late date, try to evade the warnings, restrictions and mandates that are being handed down.
We’ve made it this far. Let’s make it to next year when, God willing and we all cooperate, we will be able to enjoy Passover Seder with whomever we please, wherever we please.
However you spend it, I hope it’s a happy and healthy Passover. We can greet people and instead of “Next Year in Jerusalem” we can say “Next Year at the Passover Seder!”