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In a policy change, the Health Ministry said Wednesday it would adjust its criteria for allowing grades 5-6 and 11-12 to resume in-person studies in low- and medium-infected areas, in a shift that will allow more schools to reopen next week.
Under the new criteria, those grades in so-called “yellow†and “green†low-infection areas can all reopen on Sunday.
In addition, medium-infected “orange†zones whose ranking is below 7 out of 10 on the ministry’s scale can resume classes. Previously a locality had required a score below 6.5 to allow in-person studies.
The ministry will also consider local vaccination rates of over-50s in adjusting its rankings, requiring a rate of 70% and taking into account the number of people who have recovered from COVID-19 and are not currently eligible for inoculation.
Grades 1-4 and daycares in light- to medium-infected locations have already been open for a number of days.
The ministry will publicize on Thursday a full list of cities and towns where the new criteria are applicable. According to the Walla news site, students were expected to return to the classroom in Holon, Ashkelon, Kiryat Ata, Yavne, Rosh Ha’ayin, Sderot, Shaarei Tikva, Gan Ner, Kadima-Tzoran, Tzur Moshe, Kafr Yasif, Nitzan and Karnei Shomron.
The announcement came as the Health Ministry said another 4,406 people were diagnosed with the virus on Tuesday, bringing the number of active cases to 53,048, as infection rates appeared to continue to decline.
With an additional 2,170 cases diagnosed since midnight, the total number of people diagnosed with the coronavirus in Israel since the start of the pandemic stood at 737,644.
According to the data, 6.4 percent of the 71,367 tests conducted on Tuesday returned positive.
The ministry said 981 people were in serious condition, including 313 on ventilators, and the death toll stood at 5,463.
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced on Wednesday that over 50% of Israelis age 30-plus have been vaccinated.
According to the ministry, 4,082,201 people in Israel have now received the first dose of the vaccine, with 2,704,766 also having received the second shot.
That amounts to around 44% of the country’s total population having now received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Around 3 million Israelis are not eligible to be vaccinated, including those younger than 16 and people who have recovered from COVID-19, among other reasons.
The issue of vaccine hesitancy and skepticism has been a concern, with Israel’s world-leading inoculation campaign slowing in recent weeks. But rates were on the rise again this week as ministers approved measures to reopen certain venues and events only to those who have been vaccinated or previously contracted the virus.
The reluctance has been most pronounced among Israelis below the age of 50, including among teaching staff. The government is seeking to pass a bill that will require all workers who have a high exposure to the public to be vaccinated, or have a virus test every two days.
A military task force said Wednesday morning that Israel’s transmission rate was continuing to slow as the basic reproduction number (the R-number), the number of people catching the virus from each infected person, stood at 0.81. Officials have previously set a transmission rate of 0.8 as the level at which restrictions can be eased.
Cabinet ministers on Monday approved the reopening of stores, gyms, hotels, and other venues from Sunday, in a major easing of sweeping lockdown measures meant to slow the spread of the virus.
Street-front shops, malls, markets, museums, and libraries will be open to all Israelis. But only those who have been vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 will be able to use gyms, enter sporting and culture events, hotels, and swimming pools. They will have to bring proof in a so-called “green card†plan.
The decision marks a major move toward normalcy during the ongoing national vaccination drive. Many of the institutions set to open Sunday have been shuttered for the better part of the past year due to the pandemic. By TOI STAFF
The Times of Israel ©2017 Jerusalem Prayer Team
I FELL ON MY FACE AND WORSHIPPED THE KING. THE LORD OF MY LIFE MY EVERYTHING. I WAS STEPPED ON, BATTERED, BROKEN, BRUISED, SHIPWRECKED, HOPELESS AND ABUSED. NOTHING SEEMS REAL ANYMORE, BUT IN THE SHADOWS OF DESPAIR AND MY DARKEST HOUR, I FELL ON MY KNEES AND WORSHIPPED THE KING.
WHEN ALL YOUR HOPE IS GONE AND YOU'RE AFRAID AND ALONE, TIME SEEMS TO MOVE SO SLOWLY, NOTHING SEEMS REAL ANYMORE. I FELL ON MY FACE AND WORSHIPPED THE KING.
LIFE SEEMS TO BE PASSING YOU BY, AND YOUR DREAMS ARE SHATTERED BEYOND REPAIR, IT SEEMS. NO MORE TO RECALL, NO MORE TO BEHOLD. I FELL ON MY KNEES AND WORSHIPPED THE KING.
I CRIED AND CRIED AND I ASKED WHY? NOT KNOWING WHAT ELSE TO DO. YOUR HEART CRUSHED IN A MILLION PIECES, SEEMED LIKE THE END. HOLD ON TO HOPE, HE'S NOT DONE YET, NOR FAR AWAY. HOPE IN THE LORD, HOPE IN THE LORD. I FELL ON MY FACE AND WORSHIPPED THE KING.
HE WILL COME TO YOUR RESCUE, HE'LL COMFORT AND CONSOLE YOU. YOUR SPIRIT WILL SOAR AGAIN HIGHER AND HIGHER, NO NEED TO WORRY, IT'S ONLY TEMPORARY. GOD WILL SMILE ON YOU AGAIN. I FELL ON MY KNEES AND WORSHIPPED THE KING.
The IDF is preparing for a massive war drill, slated for this upcoming summer. The drill is expected to last a month, and will simulate a full-scale war, including with Gaza, and extending to the northern threat, which will be the main focus.
The IDF said that the main goal is to have their forces prepared, but there is also an important message to be conveyed to Hezbollah in the north, the Syrians in the east and to Iran.
This means that over the month of drills, everyone from the main IDF command centers to those in charge of day-to-day procedures will take part.
Concurrently, ground troops will perform various practices out in the field, and will even extend to joint operations with the Israel Air Force.
Many IDF reservists are expected to take part in the operation.
The decision was finalized after several discussions took place among top military leadership, keeping in mind the rising number of coronavirus cases in the IDF.
The General Staff Reconnaissance Unit is convinced that the COVID-19 vaccine will set things back to normal, enough to conduct a large-scale military operation such as this one.
That said, assessments will take place closer to the drill's projected start date to examine the severity of coronavirus in the IDF, and how it might affect the month-long drill.
Some 1,840 IDF members tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Wednesday. As of Tuesday, some 11,921 are quarantining in their homes. In addition, some 62,183 IDF members have been vaccinated with the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. By TAL LEV RAM/MAARIV The Jerusalem Post
Among the teams dashing around the dunes in their cars at the Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia this month, there were two whose presence would have been unthinkable a year ago.
The participation of Israelis in the rally's lightweight vehicle and truck categories comes after a rapprochement between Israel and Arab states that has been in high gear, fueled by Riyadh's quiet assent.
In total, ten drivers, navigators and support staff entered Saudi Arabia on Israeli passports, according to team member Omer Pearl.
"It was extraordinary - huge dunes that go on for hundreds of kilometers," said Danny Pearl, one of the Israeli drivers and Omer's father.
For decades, Saudi Arabia, Islam’s birthplace and supporter of the Palestinian cause, shunned official contacts with Israel, with virulent anti-Jewish rhetoric the norm among clerics.
But Riyadh gave its assent to Israel's US-brokered normalization of relations last year with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, although it held off on establishing full ties itself. Israeli airliners have since been permitted to cross Saudi airspace, trimming flight times.
"I couldn't take my eyes off the track to enjoy the sights, but I kept thinking: This is our neighbor. Maybe one day - tomorrow, the day after - I'll be able just to drive in for a trip," Pearl senior said.
However, the rally website listed the teams as Belgian and American - a possible indicator of official reluctance to publicize an Israeli presence.
The Saudi government's media office and rally spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The annual rally started in 1978 as a race from Paris to the Senegalese capital, Dakar, but moved from Africa for safety reasons in 2009. The race is now held entirely in Saudi Arabia, after a stint in South America, where some countries withdrew from hosting parts of the route due to concerns over its environmental impact.
The race began in Jeddah, its circuitous route passing by Riyadh, Ha'il and the new mega-business zone called Neom under construction at the northern tip of the Red Sea.
It ended back in Jeddah on Friday, with the Israeli lightweight vehicle and truck teams placed 40th and 18th in the general rankings, respectively.
Start well
After the typical one-plus hour commute common to many New Zealanders, we start the day on the wrong foot. Remember to kick off your morning with a well-balanced breakfast, listen to worship music or podcasts as you commute, and attempt to have a prayerful and positive attitude to the workday ahead. Another great option is to declare relevant scriptures over yourself and your situation in the morning.
Understand your requirements
Nothing is more stressful than working for a boss who regularly moves the goalposts for the work you are doing. If you are not sure what's expected of you, you never know if what you're doing is enough. Partner that with a boss who gives no (or only negative) feedback, and you are on a one way trip to stress town. In this scenario, it is important you talk to your manager and confirm what your daily / weekly expectations are, as well as strategies for achieving them.
Establish strong work / life boundaries
Due to the hyperconnectivity we now all have (even when we go on holiday or bereavement leave), it is easy to feel pressure to respond to emails, texts and calls on a 24-hour basis. Make sure you establish strong work-life boundaries and clearly communicate these to your boss and colleagues. These may include not checking emails or answering your phone in the evening. I know setting up these types of boundaries has significantly improved the quality of my family's and my own life.
Say No (nicely)
As a bit of a people-pleaser, I love to say yes to new things, helping out others and being seen as a bit of a work hero. Sadly, this leads to me becoming overworked and overcommitted, causing high levels of stress.
Learning how to nicely say no is a vital and mature skill that can improve your confidence in your workplace. Negotiate priorities and respect others' right to say no too.
Walk away from conflict
Interpersonal conflict impacts your physical and emotional health, and workplace conflict is worse as you can't escape it by walking out the door. Therefore be proactive in avoiding conflict where you can through not joining in office gossip, not sharing too many divisive personal opinions, and being wary of dodgy office humour. Though you don't want to paint yourself as the boring one, many of the things we do to feel we fit in can lead to conflict and heightened stress later on.
Most Importantly - Bring God into the situation!
I remember being in highly stressful situations at work, with no option but to cry out to the Lord. Psalm 32v8 says "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you". This has been a great comfort to me throughout my life, giving me peace that God is ultimately in control and He actually wants to help me! Trust that He is really available and at your side, ready to step in and support you at a moment's notice.
Remember God really does answer prayers, and wants to help you in your situation. Bring God into your workspace through prayer, and trust in Him to help minimise stress, and improve your patience and resilience.
This week's prayer request: Ask God to show you how you can demonstrate His love and generosity in your work situation or your daily community connections.
The new US administration should not return to the spirit of the Iran deal, which could spark an arms race in the Middle East, former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger said Monday at a Jewish People Policy Institute online conference.
He criticized the 2015 Iran deal, which President Donald Trump left in 2018. President-elect Joe Biden seeks to return to it if Iran agrees to comply again with the agreement’s limitations on its nuclear program.
“We should not fool ourselves,†the 97-year-old diplomat, consultant and author said. “I don’t believe that the spirit [of the Iran deal], with a time limit and so many escape clauses, will do anything other than bring nuclear weapons all over the Middle East and therefore create a situation of latent tension that sooner or later will break out.â€
The current leaders in Iran “don’t seem to find it possible to give up this combination of Islamist imperialism and threat,†Kissinger said. “The test case is the evolution of nuclear capacities in Iran, if these can be avoided.â€
“I do not say we shouldn’t talk to them,†he added.
Dennis Ross, a former adviser to presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, interviewed Kissinger at the JPPI farewell event for its founding director, Avinoam Bar-Yosef.
Ross asked Kissinger what he would advise Biden and his administration to do to take advantage of the Abraham Accords, in which four Arab states normalized ties with Israel.
“We should not give up on what has recently been achieved in these agreements between the Arab world and the Israeli world,†he said. “I would tell the incoming administration that we are on a good course.â€
The accords “have opened a window of opportunity for a new Middle East,†Kissinger said. “Arab countries understood that they could not survive in constant tension with parts of the West and with Israel, so they decided they had to take care of themselves.â€
Normalizations with Israel show that the four states taking part “have come to the conclusion that their national interests transcend their ideological interests,†said the secretary of state and national security advisor to presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford in the 1970s. “So they have decided, and Israel has advocated, that they should pursue their interests and come together, and they will take into account Arab concerns where they clash.â€
That idea “has worked out very well,†Kissinger said, adding that he always opposed the idea of finding “all-out solutions†to peace in the Middle East, advocating for the US “to work out the solutions that we can because they can build on themselves.â€
The Palestinians need to give up on their “ultimate aims†and look for possible interim achievements, Kissinger said.
Bar-Yosef is leaving the JPPI after 18 years as president and founding director. The institute formulates policy recommendations for the government of Israel and Jewish organizations in areas such as Jewish identity, religion and state in Israel, fighting antisemitism and Jewish demographic trends.
His successor is Yedidia Stern, a law professor at Bar-Ilan University and longtime senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute.
The first documents of the historic Israeli-Moroccan normalization deal will likely be signed in Rabat this week during a visit by White House special adviser Jared Kushner and Israeli National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat. Earlier this month, the two countries declared the normalization of ties, but have yet to sign any agreements to solidify that understanding.
Archaeologists said Monday that they have unearthed one of the largest oil lamp workshops discovered in Israel, dating back 1,600-1,700 years, in a discovery that also solves a more modern mystery: the lost location of a cistern with ancient artifacts that was found by a researcher more than 85 years ago.
According to the Israel Antiquities Authority, the workshop, in the city of Beit Shemesh — unearthed ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood — contained hundreds of ancient ceramic oil lamps, two of which bore the Jewish symbol of the menorah, as well as stone molds for the production of lamps, and terracotta figurines.
“The festival of Hanukkah is a wonderful opportunity to tell the public about the recovery of these oil lamps, which was the main method of lighting in ancient times,†said the archaeologists behind the find, which was made with the help of teenagers and pre-military academy students from around the country.
But another thing that fascinated the archaeologists was the similarity between the site they discovered and photos published in the 1930s by archaeologist Dimitri Baramki, which led them to solve a decades-long mystery.
In 1934, Baramki, an inspector on behalf of the Department of Antiquities during the British Mandate, discovered a water cistern in the region of Beit Shemesh in central Israel west of Jerusalem, the IAA statement said. Upon excavating the cistern, he uncovered a huge quantity of intact oil lamps bearing animal and plant motifs and geometric designs.
The lamps, dated to the Late Roman period (third or fourth century CE), became known as the “Beit Nattif lamps†after the name of the nearby village and have become an archaeological hallmark. Baramki also said he had recovered stone lamp molds and a wide variety of pottery figurines depicting animals, horse-riders, women and birds.
After the British Mandate-era discovery, the location of the cistern was lost and remained a mystery despite all efforts to locate it — until now.
The researchers recognized the new site from photos appearing in Baramki’s excavation publication. It even contained items left behind by Baramki himself, including leather baskets used to extract soil and an empty metal box.
“The Beit Nattif oil-lamp cistern has been brought back to life,†said a statement attributed to excavation directors Moran Balila, Itai Aviv, Nicolas Benenstein and Omer Shalev.
“We are extremely excited since this is not just an important archaeological discovery in its own right, but also tangible evidence of archaeological history.â€
“The figurines and the motifs on the lamps from the Beit Nattif region tell the story of the Judean Hills in the period following the Bar Kokhba Revolt,†said Benyamin Storchan of the Israel Antiquities Authority, an expert on the Beit Nattif lamps.
“From the writings of Josephus, we know that in during the Second Temple period, Beit Nattif was a regional administrative center — one of the ten principal cities under Hasmonean rule,†he said, adding that figurines unearthed at the discovered site indicate that in the following centuries many pagans moved to the area.
“At the same time, a small number of the ceramic oil lamps area are decorated with distinctively Jewish symbols such as the shofar, incense burner and seven-branched menorah,†Storchan added. “The fragment tells us that Jewish life continued to exist in the Judean Hills, well after the rebellion’s failure.
“During this period, Christianity also began to emerge and some of the Beit Nattif oil-lamps carry fish motifs, one of the symbols of Christianity. The sheer variety of lamps and figurines proves, therefore, that the local population featured a mix of pagans, Christians and Jews.â€
TOI STAFF The Times of Israel ©2017 Jerusalem Prayer Team
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