Fifth, sixth- graders return to school today Haredim trust rabbis more than state on COVID- 19,
Against regulations, Kanievsky calls to open all grades in haredi girls’ institutions
Fifth- graders and sixth- grade students across the country are returning to their classrooms today for the first time in around eight weeks, after the coronavirus cabinet confirmed that its previous decision could be implemented regardless of the rate of infection.
At the same time, it is likely that girls in the ultra- Orthodox community will also be returning to school soon. Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, the leading non- hassidic ultra- Orthodox rabbi in Israel, said that all ultra- Orthodox girls’ schools and all grades in them should reopen, despite the ongoing closure of many school grades due to the COVID- 19 crisis.
The coronavirus cabinet met late into the night on Monday, debating an outline for potentially opening more classrooms.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said he supports allowing students in seventh through 12th grade who live in green and yellow cities to return to their classrooms as early as next week, so long as the government agrees that no more commerce could open at the same time.
At press time, no decisions had been made.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz exchanged blows at the meeting, according to reports. Netanyahu warned that the infection rate would go up, saying that “there is no chance we can make it through the next four months without crashing,” likely alluding to when the country is expected to have access to vaccines readily available against the virus.
Gantz reportedly mocked Netanyahu for raising a proposal about high schools and removing it. Netanyahu responded by accusing Gantz of being uninformed about government decisions.
The infection rate in Israel has been rising moderately,
Israel in exchange for their vision of a two- state solution.
The meeting took place in Neom, a new city in northern Saudi Arabia on the Red Sea meant to show off the kingdom’s technological advancement.
Meetings between Netanyahu and senior Saudi officials had been discussed several times in the past, going back nearly 10 years. A former official close to the prime minister said that early in the previous decade, there were attempts to have Netanyahu meet top Saudi officials on an American ship in the Red Sea, which did not come to fruition.
The meeting would have taken place around the same time as a coronavirus cabinet meeting was scheduled to take place. The Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday that the cabinet meeting would be pushed off because ministers Izhar Shay and Ze’ev Elkin needed more time to work on their digital surveillance program, which turned out to be a cover story that had not been coordinated with Shay.
Obama- era Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action ( JCPOA), the agreement between world powers and Iran which limited and delayed, but did not outright ban, the Iranian nuclear program. Biden said that he would “strengthen and extend it, while more effectively pushing back against Iran’s other destabilizing activities.”
Yet there is concern in Israel and Gulf states that Biden’s vagueness on changes he would seek for the JCPOA could end up putting them in danger.
By displaying a united front, Netanyahu and MBS – as the Saudi crown prince is known – are telling Biden they are willing to take unprecedented, far- reaching steps to counter a nuclear Iran. They are telling Biden, at the very least, to take Israel’s and Saudi Arabia’s security into consideration before rejoining the JCPOA.
Though much has been made of the differences between US President Donald Trump’s extremely favorable policies toward Israel and Biden’s more traditional pro- Israel stance, it is the Saudis who are likely to have a much more difficult time with the incoming administration.
Biden has said he plans to reassess the US- Saudi relationship, which was quite close under Trump. This would entail restricting arms sales and pushing back against Saudi human rights violations, especially in light of the regime’s murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi two years ago.
MBS could see an almost- public display of friendship with
Israel as a way to get on Biden’s good side and show him that the Kingdom seeks peace. Further steps toward normalization could follow, to create a positive image for Saudi Arabia as Biden assumes office.
However, it is unlikely that MBS and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman will establish diplomatic ties with Israel before Biden’s inauguration.
The leverage of normalization with Israel is too good for Saudi Arabia to give up without knowing it is getting something in return, whether weapons sales, promises on Iran policy, or something else.
This is also an area in which the Saudi leaders and Biden have shared interests. Both have said publicly that they want the Abraham Accords to go together with progress on IsraelPalestinian peace. The Saudis have their peace plan, which offers full normalization with all Arab states in exchange for a two- state solution based on pre1967 lines. The kingdom’s foreign minister, in an interview on Sunday, said they continue to adhere to it.
It seems unlikely, however, that the Saudis are going to wait for the Palestinians before recognizing Israel. MBS is enthusiastic about ties with Jerusalem, and Saudi Prince Bandar slammed the Palestinian leadership’s obstinacy several weeks ago.
But they could offer normalization or steps toward it in exchange for a return to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, or some other form of progress toward peace, which the Biden administration would likely enthusiastically support.
Israel is a willing participant in the Saudi attempt to curry favor with the Biden administration, foremost because of the importance of a united front against the Iranian threat.
But normalization with Saudi Arabia is very important in its own right for the Jewish state.
Saudi Arabia is the crown jewel of the region. It holds a major leadership position in the Arab and Muslim world as custodian of Mecca and Medina, and relations with Israel will reverberate further than ties with the UAE and Bahrain. And for those who criticized the “peace” element of the Abraham Accords as disingenuous – because there was never war – Saudi Arabia, unlike the UAE and Bahrain, sent troops to fight in the Arab wars against Israel in 1948 and 1973.
Between facing the Iranian threat and expanding the Abraham Accords, Israel and Saudi Arabia have a lot to say to the incoming Biden administration – and Sunday night’s meeting sent those messages, loud and clear. • should be worried.”
Netanyahu’s associates criticized Gantz for forming the ministerial committee while Netanyahu was on the way to
Saudi Arabia. “While Gantz is playing politics, Netanyahu is making peace,” Netanyahu’s social media adviser Topaz Luk wrote on Twitter.
Netanyahu told his Likud faction that the committee Gantz was forming had already decided against him in advance. He called on Gantz to cancel his decision immediately.
“I think it’s shameful that Gantz is using the IDF as a tool for political criticism,” Netanyahu said. “No defense minister made such political use of the IDF.”
Interior Minister Arye Deri also criticized Gantz’s decision at a meeting of his Shas faction, saying that he “crossed a redline for political considerations.” Deri warned Gantz that his behavior made him question the current partnership with Blue and White.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, announced that next Wednesday he will call for the dissolution of the Knesset and will not withdraw the motion as he has done twice recently.
“We won’t withdraw it at the last moment, we won’t negotiate over it, the bill will come to a vote,” Lapid said. “It is time for elections. Netanyahu wants elections in June, so he’s playing for time. There is no reason to let him go to elections at the time it’s convenient for him. The national interest is to go to elections quickly, to create a new government that will deal with COVID- 19 and the economy.”
If the Knesset dissolution bill is brought to a vote and fails, it cannot be reintroduced for six months.
Gantz defended his planned inquiry into the submarine purchases, telling his Blue and White faction it was necessary to deal with Netanyahu with both sticks and carrots.
“After reconsidering the Submarine Affair and looking at the courses of action available to me, I’ve decided to launch a governmental commission of inquiry to look into how those patrol boats and submarines were procured,” he said. “Over the coming period, we will continue working, with both our metaphorical olive branch and sword. We will keep pushing for a state budget and a functioning government, peacefully. But we will also use that metaphorical sword if it proves necessary, and insist that we get back on track working for the people, and only for the people.”
But Gantz stopped short of calling for Israelis to go to the polls again.
“Everyone’s talking about elections,” he said. “I’d like to say that I think that the State of Israel needs a functioning government, supported by a state budget and a spirit of cooperation. No, I am not afraid of elections. I just don’t think that they’re what the country needs at this time, and I will keep doing everything I can for this government. Not by compromising on my principles, not by compromising on what this country’s priorities should
be, and not by putting my own needs before the needs of this country.” •
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and unite, it will be too late – and the entire people of Israel will unfortunately pay the price.”
In other words, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz do not do what they were supposed to start doing on day one of the coalition, Israel will return to where it was before the “Emergency Coronavirus Government” was formed: an endless cycle of electoral stalemates.
Neither Netanyahu nor Gantz want elections immediately, because it is not good for either of them politically. Netanyahu needs more time for a vaccine to be readily available in Israel before voters cast ballots. Polls show Gantz facing political doom, and that even is before Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai forms a party that could steal many of Blue and White’s remaining voters.
But if Netanyahu and Gantz do not rise to Deri’s Yom Kippur challenge, they will find themselves going to elections between the Purim and Passover holidays.
The most likely date for elections if the government falls over the failure to pass a state budget is March 23. But it is possible that if Netanyahu and Gantz continue to delay the inevitable, the race could even be held right after Passover on April 6.
The earliest possible date for the race is March 2, which would be Election Day if opposition leader Yair Lapid succeeds in his quest to draft Blue and White’s support for dispersing the Knesset next Wednesday.
Lapid is taking a risk by bringing the bill to a vote, because if it fails, no MK can raise a Knesset dispersal bill for six months. There is technically a very small chance that Gantz could get so angry at Netanyahu over the next two days that he could bring his own Knesset dispersal bill to a vote and initiate elections in February, but that would prevent him from passing legislation that would harm Netanyahu first.
Then, of course, just like any Yom Kippur, there is the chance that both Netanyahu and Gantz will finally repent just in time. If they do that, elections could still be two or three years away.
The march to unwanted elections in March 2021 can still be stopped – before the gates finally close. •
There are currently 1,530 children in preschool through 12th grade who are infected with coronavirus, the Education Ministry reported. Some 906 of them, or 60%, are from the Arab sector. Another 27% are from the general population and 13% are ultra- Orthodox.
The ministry was backed up by a report prepared by Hebrew University of Jerusalem researchers that likewise showed that there has not been a direct connection between the rate of infection and children returning to school.
Similarly, Eran Segal, a computational biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science, said there was a stable rate of infection among children ages six to 10 who went back to school and a decrease for children between the ages of newborn and six.
“We see a decrease and stability in morbidity in the education system,” Segal said, according to N12. “The education system reflects the morbidity in the locality. If there is a zero level of morbidity in the city, the education system will not be a trigger for an increase in morbidity.
“We are convinced that the differential opening of the education system can be done safely,” he said.
Segal’s words were proven accurate by a report presented by the Health Ministry ahead of the meeting showing that there were nine red and 22 orange localities in Israel – the majority of them in the Arab sector.
At the meeting, Education Minister Yoav Gallant said that students who become infected generally catch coronavirus outside of school.
“We see that the morbidity is due to events outside the education system, such as a birthday party in the afternoon and mixed meetings after school,” he said.
Before the meeting, Gallant and Interior Minister Arye Deri joined forces and said that they would push hard for the opening of schools.
“We must not lose an entire generation of children,” Deri said.
Health officials have long argued that children not being in school does not only impact their book learning, but their social and emotional growth.
The Health Ministry reported 749 new COVID- 19 cases on Sunday – 2.3% of those screened – and another 536 between midnight and press time on Monday. There were 296 people in serious condition, including 115 who were intubated. The death toll stood at 2,810. The reproduction ( R) rate stood at 1.07.
Regarding Kanievsky: Although the cabinet was discussing opening more schools, when the rabbi gave his instructions to open schools for girls, they flew in the face of the government’s orders and joined his previous instructions a month ago to open all ultra- Orthodox boys’ schools and grades.
Kanievsky’s
Kolodetsky wrote a letter to the principals of schools in the non- hassidic, ultra- Orthodox sector, telling them the rabbi had said that all girls’ schools and grades should reopen as soon as possible.
“The girls are sitting at home and are bored... and the situation of many girls is truly bordering on life threatening,” she asserted.
“My father Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky told me that principals and teachers must do everything to prevent a deterioration of Jewish girls and to open educational frameworks for all girls with appropriate caution,” she continued in reference to COVID- 19.
Kolodetsky said that the rabbi instructed all pupils at the girls’ schools to recite several passages of psalms after morning prayers – “and he gave a blessing that whoever does this will not be harmed and will not suffer any damage from this, and will merit to increase the honor of heaven and will have much pleasure from all their offspring.”
At the cabinet meeting, Higher Education Minister Ze’ev Elkin pointed out that the morbidity among ultra- Orthodox students is lowest, even though they have opened most of the educational institutions.
Gallant agreed with this, but said that he “will not praise those who do not follow the guidelines.”
Economy Minister Amir Peretz continued to push for opening malls. He said Monday that the discussion at the cabinet should center not on what to open but how to open it.
“We need to behave differently,” he said in an interview with Reshet Bet ahead of the cabinet meeting. “There are a few good months until the vaccine arrives.”
He claimed that the more stores that open, the more people will not be crowded inside them or in lines waiting to get in.
At the meeting he added that, “for several days now, there have been lengthy discussions between the ministries of Economy, Health, Finance and Justice and the National Security Council on how to carry out the pilot [ program in malls]. There is no reason to wait for the hearings to end and then set a date.”
He called on ministers to approve the pilot program immediately.
The program is meant to see if the ability exists to control the number of shoppers entering stores and to epidemiologically track them where there is an outbreak.
The cabinet did approve an increase in bus occupancy from 50% to 75%, at the request of the Transportation Ministry.
Passengers have noticed that the occupancy on many lines is already much higher than 50%, so instead of increasing the frequency of bus service, the cabinet has chosen to permit more passengers per bus.
But the Transportation Ministry also noted in a memorandum: “Density in the queue at the entrance to the means of transportation will lead to increased exposure to the virus at the station.”
The regulations will go into effect within a day and will be submitted to the Knesset’s Economics Committee for approval, according to a statement by the Transportation Ministry.