Israel Prepares for Cautious Exit from Coronavirus Restrictions…….
April 17, 2020
Unmoved by the economic gloom ahead, the Ministry of Health insists on slow stages for Israel’s transition from coronavirus restrictions to normal activity, even as unemployment spirals past the million jobless mark to 26% and the economy drops an estimated NIS 43bn ($US 12bn).
A heated debate among ministers and experts was sparked by the rival exit plans put before PM Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday afternoon, April 16.
While it was clear to all sides that the country would have to endure some form of “coronavirus routine” in the foreseeable future, Treasury officials and business interests were up in arms over the spaced-out exit stages demanded by health officials.
According to those officials, the first exit stage, going into effect next Sunday, would allow 15% of economic activity to double to 30%, but schools would stay shuttered and elderly people over 65 confined to home.
The reopening of small street shops and other businesses would be delayed for two weeks until the second stage starting in mid-May.
Even then, schools would remain closed.
But to enable some people to go to work – up to 50% – families would be allowed to set up baby-sitting pools for a maximum of five children each.
The Treasury demands that schools for children up to 6 be reopened on Sunday together with shops and small businesses.
The Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon maintained that the Health Ministry’s plan would raise unemployment by 3%.
The economy, he said, was already reeling under the damage caused by the emergency restrictions for curbing the spread of the covid-19.
Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar-Simantov countered with a warning that the Treasury plan was the recipe for a fresh coronavirus outbreak in two weeks.
He said that the public had not completely observed all the guidelines for the Passover festival and Independence Day later this month was another sensitive date.
Thousands of businesses are foundering under uncertainty about the future and the general public is growing restive over the tight reins on normal movement.
Thousands of businesses are foundering under uncertainty about the future and the general public is growing restive over the tight reins on normal movement.
The NIS80 bn stimulus package earmarked by the Netanyahu caretaker government favours firms bringing back to work their sacked employees and those on unpaid leave since the start of the coronavirus crisis more than a month ago.
But expanded testing has exposed new hotbeds of covid-19 infection in the Arab community.
Systematic testing in institutions for the elderly has come too late to save the high proportion of this highly vulnerable population who succumbed to the disease and did not recover.
On the plus side, the lock-down and the widespread observance of the strict regimen for containing the spread of the virus gave the system time to cope.
The hospitals have set aside coronavirus isolation wards and are operating them below their current capacity.
There is a constant influx of respirators, reagents for tests and protective clothes for medical staff, acquired by the Defence Ministry and other government agencies.
The Bank of Israel Research Department predicts that the Israel economy will shrink by 5.3% in the current year under the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, but return to full operation by June and the downturn will be offset by 8.7% growth in 2021.
The International Monetary Fund’s outlook is bleaker.
The IMF sees Israel’s economy contracting by 5.3% in 2020 and not returning to its current level until 2022.
This forecast is in keeping with the IMF’s global forecast that the coming recession due to the pandemic will “dwarf the dimensions” of the 2008 financial crisis and rival the Great Depression of the 1930's.
Inside the White House…...
By William Koenig
White House Correspondent
18 April 2020
By William Koenig
White House Correspondent
18 April 2020
$13 Trillion and Growing………….
The G.W. Bush two-state plan for Israel was completed on September 10, 2001.
It was followed by major terror events in New York City and Washington, D.C., on September 11, 2001, leading to the $6 trillion and growing war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Trump “Peace and Prosperity” plan was delivered on January 28, 2020, followed by the coronavirus pandemic, a swift economic collapse and a $2.2 trillion stimulus bill from Congress and the Federal Reserve’s commitment to $4 trillion in loans to businesses and Wall Street to rescue the U.S. economy.
From the beginning of the “land-for-peace” Madrid Conference of 1991 to the present, there has been 132 events and just under $1 trillion in property damage since the Perfect Storm [pictured below] of October 30–31, 1991, was sending 30-foot waves into President George HW Bush’s home in Kennebunkport to the present.
Total cost and commitments corresponding to events pertaining to the land of Israel to date exceeds $13 trillion.
In the coming days, the president will have to make a lose/lose decision either to inaugurate a graduated return to work or keep the country locked down for weeks longer.
As the days pass, the November election also draws nearer. Every presidential decision concerning the epidemic will inevitably be politicised.
Trump supporters will likely favour a quick return to work to avoid a November recession. His opponents prefer a longer shut-down.
The historical date of infamy for Israel and her enemies; Rome, Mohammed, Hitler, and Khamenei – April 19-22
This calendar period has also had a dramatic impact on Israel and Jews. In the last 2,000 years, Jews have had many enemies and many antagonists; but four, in particular, stand out:
- The birth of Rome (by Romulus) is dated as April 21, 753 B.C.
- The birth of Mohammed is dated as April 22, 571 A.D.
- The birth of Adolph Hitler was April 20, 1889.
- Supreme Iranian Leader Ali Khamenei – April 19, 1939.
- Israel faced the Great Arab Revolt of April 19, 1936.
- The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising began April 19, 1943.
- The ascension of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt on April 18, 1954. Nasser was Israel’s lead antagonist for almost two decades. He was responsible for three wars with Israel from 1956–1970. He was also responsible for the first United Arab Republic—in 1958–1961, a concept that could reach a more cohesive realisation in the coming years.
To say the least, this period just ahead has been a very significant period of time for centuries.
Chinese Aircraft Carrier Sails Past Taiwan as US Navy Struggles with Coronavirus……
17 April 2020
17 April 2020
A Chinese aircraft carrier sailed past Taiwan over the last few days in a show of strength as the U.S. Navy struggles with coronavirus.
Japan’s ministry of defence said Monday that the aircraft carrier Liaoning [pictured above] and its strike group, including five warships, passed through the 155-mile wide Miyako Strait between the Japanese islands of Okinawa and Miyako, before turning south and passing east of Taiwan.
The strait is an international waterway.
Taiwan’s navy also sent ships to monitor the strike group as it passed according to Taiwan’s ministry of defence, per the South China Morning Post.
“We have conducted reconnaissance and monitoring over the sea and air space around Taiwan,” ministry spokesman Shih Shun-wen said.
In response, the U.S. Air Force then posted a tweet showing a number of bombers, including B-52 Stratofortresses, lined up on the runway in Guam during an exercise known as "Elephant Walk". [pictured above]
The Liaoning, one of China's two aircraft carriers, is currently the only one in the Western Pacific. The U.S. carriers Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan are both in port.
China’s state-run Global Times newspaper, a mouthpiece for the Communist Party, meanwhile claimed that the deployment of the Lioaning illustrated China’s successful response to coronavirus as the U.S. Navy struggles.
China’s Central Bank to Run Simulations of Digital Currency Use……….
April 18, 2020
April 18, 2020
China’s central bank has given the green light for some commercial lenders to run trials of its digital currency, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing it a step closer to becoming the world’s first major monetary authority to issue its own digital tender.
State-owned Chinese banks are conducting internal, hypothetical-use tests of a People’s Bank of China digital currency as if it were being used in Suzhou, Xiong’an, Chengdu and Shenzhen, the people said, asking not to be named as they’re not authorised to speak on the topic.
The functions of the “pilot” digital wallets include conversion between cash and digital money, account-balance check, payment and remittance, one of the people said.
They added that the research is still ongoing and those functions are subject to change.
Remember, This is all running alongside the vaccination, RFID chip, digital currency being hurriedly prepared by our very own Bill Gates.
What in the World is Actually Going On? Document Reveals Plans, Step by Step…..
18 April 2020
18 April 2020
How come COVID deaths are the same a Flu deaths historically?
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