Articles by March, 2020

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for the past 11 years, is never one to waste a good crisis. In recent days he has used his televised briefings on the covid-19 pandemic to exhort the leader of the opposition, Benny Gantz, to join an emergency unity government—under Mr Netanyahu, of course. The prime minister seems undeterred by the failure of his coalition of nationalist and religious parties to win a majority in the parliamentary election on March 2nd, or by the charges of bribery and fraud that he faces for allegedly receiving illegal gifts and trading favours for positive...

Melisron reported a cut in executive and board wages in light of the Corona crisis and damage to the company's operations. According to the report, Chairman of the Board Liora Ofer is giving up monthly benefits; the CEO and VP will absorb a cut of 20% of their salary; Melisron is a mall company, and as such, is exposed to the country's guidelines most acutely. The company noted that the directives - which include shopping malls and entertainment venues, including restaurants and cafes, and reducing access to workplaces - led to the closure of most stores in the company's malls. This is...

Distance learning will cease as of Thursday and all teachers in Israel - some 180,000 teachers - will be on paid leave. This was the case today between the Ministry of Finance and the Teachers' Union. The teachers' organization, which represents high school teachers, is expected to update its position soon, but it is estimated that it will agree to the outline. In return, the Teachers' Union agreed to shorten the holidays by 10 days - instead of 14 days according to the original proposal of the Ministry of Finance. Great freedom will be shortened by 9 days, and the day off granted to Lag...

Conflict, urgency, shouting and great disappointment: While more than a thousand backpackers are making their way back from South America back to the country, 23 Israelis remain in Lima the capital of Peru after finding no place on flights. Four EL AL planes and another Lattam leased aircraft that took off from Cusco are involved in the complex flight of Israeli backpackers. Last night, after two El Al planes took off from Lima airport, it became clear that some Israelis had no place in the planes. It also turned out that many of those who arrived at the airport were not registered at all...

The government-approved emergency restrictions last Thursday, as part of the fight against the spread of the Corona virus, will officially take effect as of Sunday at 8 a.m., which includes some changes from the document released this past week. Before the official document, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed Saturday's need to tighten restrictions in order to reduce house exits. This, after hundreds of civilians in the middle of the country took to the streets, and spend the beach and municipal parks - despite the Ministry of Health's anti-rallying guidelines. At present,...

65 young Chabad followers who returned to Israel last week on El Al flight from New York were diagnosed on Sunday as corona virus carriers. The flight had 49 additional passengers and eight of them are still awaiting the results of their tests. In which about 8,000 corona cases have been diagnosed so far. As they were getting off the plane, passengers were waiting for isolated buses to transport them to the Dan Hotel in Jerusalem, the complex opened by the Ministry of Defense for light corona patients. For a whole day, the young people stayed there without the Ministry of Health conducting...

The Ministry of Health, the health funds and the inpatient system are not prepared for an outbreak of an infectious viral disease, such as pandemic influenza, for which some 2,250,000 people may be infected, according to an annual report by the state comptroller published on Monday. Medication shortages, which today account for only 16% of the population, vaccines and outpatient solutions. In addition, the visitor warns of a shortage of ICU and respiratory machines. In fact, on days when doctors, nurses, MDAs and other medical professionals work nights to treat the large number of corona...

The Treasury has declared that an economic plan will be presented tomorrow. Against the backdrop of the statement, business organizations have passed on their demands to the Treasury, including the Manufacturers' Association, which has held meetings of the industrialists throughout the day, led by the association's president, Ron Tomer. Manufacturers presented the Treasury with their plan for saving and accelerating the economy as the crisis ended. They continued to negotiate on both fronts that are leading the economic crisis, and also met with representatives of the National Security...

"Without health there is no economy but without economy there will be no health." This is what the Governor of the Bank of Israel, Professor Amir Yaron, said today at a special press conference he initiated, aimed at presenting a recent snapshot and explaining the policy steps the bank has taken in recent days. "When the crisis ends will depend primarily on the world's ability to overcome the virus. However, it is the right policy that will dictate the rate of crisis exit and determine the size of its vulnerability. Our ultimate goal is to support the economy and society to help the...