Fact-checking Trump's claims on national stockpile of medical supplies

Jake Tapper to Trump: This requires a plan. Do you have one?

Fact-Checking The Claims Made At Thursday's Coronavirus Briefing - Day That Was | MSNBC

חולה קורונה נתפס עם נוסעים באוטובוס לירושלים

https://www.kikar.co.il/354666.html

חוסר אחריות: כוח משטרה עצר היום חולה קורונה חרדי שברח מבידוד בחיפה ונסע באוטובוס 'אגד' לירושלים • עשרות הנוסעים נשלחו לבידוד • נהג האוטובוס קיבל קנס

Coronavirus Is Coming—And Trump Isn’t Ready

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/01/now-trump-needs-deep-state-fight-coronavirus/605752/

We all knew the moment would come. It could have been over Iran or North Korea, a hurricane or an earthquake. But it may be the new coronavirus out of China that tests whether President Donald Trump can govern in a crisis—and there is ample reason to be uneasily skeptical.

The U.S. government has the tools, talent, and team to help fight the coronavirus abroad and minimize its impact at home. But the combination of Trump’s paranoia toward experienced government officials (who lack “loyalty” to him), inattention to detail, opinionated rejection of science and evidence, and isolationist instincts may prove toxic when it comes to managing a global-health security challenge. To succeed, Trump will have to trust the kind of government experts he has disdained to date, set aside his own terrible instincts, lead from the White House, and work closely with foreign leaders and global institutions—all things he has failed to do in his first 1,200 days in office.

 Trump briefly withdrew from politics after his “birther” campaign against President Barack Obama was discredited, but his next big public splash was a virulent, xenophobic, fearmongering outburst over the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014. Trump’s numerous tweets—calling Obama a “dope” and “incompetent” for his handling of the epidemic—were both wrongheaded and consequential: One study found that Trump’s tweets were the single largest factor in panicking the American people in the fall of 2014. How paranoid and cruel was Trump? He blasted Obama for evacuating an American missionary back to the United States when that doctor contracted Ebola while fighting the disease in Africa. Fortunately, Obama ignored Trump’s protests, and Kent Brantley was successfully treated in the U.S.; he continues doing good works today.

Some of the world’s leading infectious-disease experts continue to serve in the administration, led by the incomparable Tony Fauci at the National Institutes of Health, and the level-headed Anne Schuchat at the CDC. These two, along with other leaders at key science agencies (and scores of men and women working for them), have decades of experience serving under presidents of both parties, and are among the world’s best at what they do.

Rush Limbaugh So Mad At Deep State Coronavirus Liars Like Dr. Fauci, He Just Might Die!

https://www.wonkette.com/rush-limbaugh-so-mad-at-deep-staters-like-dr-fauci-he-just-might-die

Rush Limbaugh is telling your Republican parents that it's cool to go outside and play right now, because the so-called "experts" in the White House are actually just Deep State plants sent (probably by Hillary Clinton) to make Donald Trump look bad.

You know, Rush Limbaugh has advanced lung cancer and he's not dead yet -- clearly -- but if he keeps going like this, ignoring the actual science about coronavirus, he might end up killing himself at least seven minutes before God planned to, and he might take a bunch of his old-balls-ass listeners with him in the process.

 

Right-Wing Influencers Are Convinced Dr. Anthony Fauci Is Working With Hillary Clinton To Undermine Donald Trump

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanhatesthis/qanon-right-wing-influencers-fauci-deep-state-clinton

 Right-wing influencers and QAnon supporters are waging an information war against Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and top-ranking member of the White House's Coronavirus Task Force. They are falsely claiming that Fauci is working with Hillary Clinton and the deep state to cause an economic collapse and discredit President Donald Trump.

 

Coronavirus: Fox News host criticises top health expert for 'national suicide plan'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-fox-news-tucker-carlson-dr-anthony-fauci-shutdown-national-suicide-a9447756.html

Fox News host Tucker Carlson has criticised infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci over his national recommendations to help curb the spread of the coronavirus.

Mr Carlson used time on his show on Friday evening to release a diatribe against the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and his suggestion of a nationwide lockdown.

"More than 10 million Americans have already lost their jobs," Mr Carlson said. "Imagine another year of this. That would be national suicide, and yet, that is what Anthony Fauci is suggesting, at least."

 

Anthony Fauci becomes a fringe MAGA target

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/24/anthony-fauci-fringe-maga-target-147401

The far-right’s most zealous Trump supporters have set their sights on Dr. Anthony Fauci.

To the vast majority of Republicans, the entire medical community and the country at large, Fauci is the government’s leading infectious disease expert, respected for providing Americans with consistent, factual information about the coronavirus pandemic — even if it means contradicting President Donald Trump while he hovers feet away.

 

But to a vocal minority of right-wing blogs and pro-Trump pundits, Fauci is the embodiment of the establishment forces that have been arrayed against the president since he came to Washington. And those voices are getting louder amid rumblings about Fauci’s standing with Trump as the president itches to get the economy restarted in the coming weeks.

Another Thing to Fear Out There: Coronavirus Scammers

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/05/us/politics/coronavirus-scams-fraud-price-gouging.html

The white banner with images of red crosses had been hastily erected in front of two pop-up tents at a convenience store parking lot in central Louisville, Ky. “Covid-19 testing here,” it read.

A clutch of workers in white hazmat suits swabbed the mouths of drivers, who had each forked over $240 to learn whether they had been infected with the coronavirus.

“I have managed hospitals for years,” a man in charge told journalists and skeptical community activists at the scene on Wednesday. “We are doing things the right way.”

 

Jared Kushner and his shadow corona unit: what is Trump's son-in-law up to?

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/jared-kushner-coronavirus-aid-trump-governors

His vast responsibilities include weighing requests from governors for aid and coordinating with private companies to obtain medical equipment, work he carries out from a special post created for him inside the Federal Emergency Management Agency, where his team is called “the Slim Suit crowd” for their distinctive tailoring, the New York Times has reported.

Saluting the Heroes of the Coronavirus Pandumbic | The Daily Show

First shipment of emergency eggs arrives in Ashdod

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/First-shipment-of-emergency-eggs-arrives-in-Ashdod-623633

 The first shipment carrying millions of eggs arrived at Ashdod Port on Sunday, after the government worked to import millions of eggs from Spain after Israel was hit by a nationwide egg shortage.

The second ship is expected to arrive on Tuesday. Government agencies prepared trucks and logistics centers in order to bring the eggs to stores starting on Sunday.

 

Trump spars with reporter over Kushner's 'our stockpile' remark

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/491124-trump-spars-with-reporter-over-kushners-our-stockpile-remark

 President Trump defended his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner on Friday for suggesting the federal stockpile of medical resources was not for states, lashing out at a reporter for asking about the comments and accusing her of having a “nasty tone.”

CBS News reporter Weijia Jiang asked Trump what Kushner meant when he referred to the national stockpile as “our stockpile” and implied it wasn’t for states while appearing at the administration's daily coronavirus press conference the previous day.

Donald Trump's murder math: Any death toll under 2 million is a "very good job"

https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/donald-trumps-murder-math-any-death-toll-under-2-million-is-a-very-good-job/

The only thing more stunningly dumb than the willingness of Donald Trump's disciples to die for the sake of their cult leader's approval poll numbers is the fact that Trump, this past weekend, established a new and terrifying benchmark for "success" in fighting the COVID-19 outbreak. 

During a presidency that's beyond satire, no one really anticipated that Trump's Red Hat militia would end up being a death cult, but here we are. The cult's warped calculus is basically this: Trump will only be re-elected with a prospering economy, but if COVID-19 decimates the economy, Trump could lose. So we have to save the economy, literally at any cost, even if it means we have to sacrifice older Americans (who typically vote Republican).

That was the starting point — the first idea floated by several of Trump's propaganda flacks, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Glenn Beck and Fox News' Brit Hume. 

However, during the Sunday edition of the Trump Show, the president swerved into Mad King territory once again with a remarkably desperate and perhaps psychotic attempt to rescue his chances for re-election. As the U.S. death toll nears 9/11 territory, Trump blurted out that forecasts suggested the death toll could have been as high as 2.2 million Americans had nothing been done to mitigate the spread of the virus.

From there, he landed on a startling new range for acceptable pandemic deaths in America.

"So you're talking about 2.2 million deaths, 2.2 million people from this," the president began. "And so if we could hold that down, as we're saying, to 100,000 — it's a horrible number, maybe even less — but to 100,000. So we have between 100 and 200,000, and we all together have done a very good job." Cutting through his usual refrigerator-magnet sentence structure, Trump preemptively congratulated himself for presiding over the deaths of 100,000 to 200,000 Americans.

Unfit

Fox & Fiends

Police Impersonators 'Up to No Good' as Quarantine Rules Are Used to Defraud and Harass

https://www.newsweek.com/police-impersonators-quarantine-defraud-harass-1496121

People are impersonating police officers during the coronavirus pandemic to defraud and harass others, law enforcement officials have warned.

 

Orthodox EMS’ ventilator transfer solves hospital’s conflict with Jewish patients — for now

https://forward.com/news/442940/maimonides-medical-center-boro-park-protest-ventilators-nurses-coronavirus/#

Brooklyn’s biggest hospital has made concessions to the Orthodox community in its neighborhood by allowing for broader and longer use of ventilators amid the coronavirus crisis, in contrast with other New York City hospitals who might increasingly need to start deciding who gets a ventilator and who doesn’t due to the combination of more patients and equipment shortages.

AP FACT CHECK: Trump, ‘wartime’ pandemic leader or ‘backup’?

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/ap-fact-check-trump-wartime-pandemic-leader-or-backup

  Is he a wartime president or a backup point man? President Donald Trump seems to go back and forth on that, or both ways at once, in responding to the coronavirus pandemic that takes more lives by the hour.

In his recent rhetoric, the president who declared “It’s a war” and invoked wartime powers enabling him to direct the production and shipment of critical medical supplies sought to avoid responsibility for persistent shortages. “The federal government,” he told New York’s governor, “is merely a back-up for state governments.” Meantime the government changed its online description of the national stockpile to put state responsibility more front and center.

And after public-health authorities warned that infection and death are spreading at a needlessly fast rate because Americans are not respecting social-distancing guidelines as they should, Trump incongruously asserted we should all be “thrilled” with how that’s going. Separately, he bragged inaccurately about his Facebook followers.

A look at how some statements over the past week compare with the facts:

 

NYT: Nearly 40k flew to U.S. from China after Trump's coronavirus travel ban

https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-trump-china-travel-ban-45a2da12-8063-4ad9-ba28-61cdeb1ce0b3.html

Nearly 40,000 Americans and authorized travelers have come into the U.S. from China since President Trump imposed travel restrictions more than two months ago, the New York Times reports.

WHO says following Taiwan virus response closely, after complaints

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-taiwan-who/who-says-following-taiwan-virus-response-closely-after-complaints-idUSKBN21G0F9

TAIPEI (Reuters) - The World Health Organization (WHO) is closely following the development of the coronavirus in Taiwan and is learning lessons from how they are fighting it, the body said on Sunday, after complaints from Taiwan it was being intentionally ignored.

 

After Kushner says 'it's our stockpile,' HHS website changed to echo his comments on federal crisis role

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/kushner-stockpile-hhs-website-changed-echo-comments-federal/story?id=69936411

At Thursday's briefing on how the government is responding, Trump's senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner scolded states for not building up their own stockpiles, saying that the "the notion of the federal stockpile was it’s supposed to be our stockpile, it’s not supposed to be states’ stockpiles that they then use."

But the national stockpile actually is intended for states' use, which was clearly explained on the government's own website -- until the language was changed, without explanation, hours after Kushner provided his inaccurate description. 

 

Until Friday morning, the website of the Department of Health and Human Services, which maintains the stockpile, read, "When state, local, tribal, and territorial responders request federal assistance to support their response efforts, the stockpile ensures that the right medicines and supplies get to those who need them most during an emergency."

But midday Friday, hours after Kushner directly contradicted the language on the HHS website, the text was changed without explanation. Retroactively matching what Kushner said, the website no longer says states can rely on the stockpile, but now says it exists to “supplement” them.

Jared Kushner Is Running ‘Shadow’ Coronavirus Task Force and Causing Confusion, Officials Say

https://www.thedailybeast.com/jared-kushner-is-running-shadow-coronavirus-task-force-and-causing-confusion-officials-say

President Trump’s son-in-law and White House adviser Jared Kushner created his own coronavirus team to work alongside the official coronavirus task force, The Washington Post reports. The team reportedly consists of Kushner’s government allies and individuals from private industry who are focused on setting up drive-through testing sites and delivery of health care supplies. However, Kushner’s team has reportedly sowed confusion within the Trump administration—with some calling it a “shadow task force” that makes requests outside of the regular coronavirus response efforts. “We don’t know who these people are,” one official told the Post. “Who is this? We’re all getting these emails.”

Kushner was reportedly pulled into the coronavirus effort last week, at the request of Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff. In an interview, Kushner said his goal was to bring an “an entrepreneurial approach” to the pandemic response. “We’re getting things done in record speeds and are doing everything possible to avoid damage and mitigate the negative impacts,” he said. “In America, some of our best resources are in our private sector.” A spokeswoman for Pence said the vice president and Kushner were in constant contact, speaking to each other “ten times a day.” Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said Kushner has been “essential” to the effort and in bringing private sector “insights.”

Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu: 'More women are immersing in ritual baths'

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/278245

Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu has said that many women who were not in the habit of immersing in a mikvah (ritual bath), are now doing so.

"Many women who for years did not come to the mikvahs, are now coming to immerse, in ever-growing numbers," he said.

"The situation that Israel has found itself in over the past few months connects people to their roots. At one mikvah, located in a secular neighborhood in Tzfat, the number of women immersing has doubled several times in the past month. Apparently the desire to become clean and purify yourself is stronger than all fears."

 

Telzstone beats back its severe coronavirus outbreak

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Telzstone-beats-back-its-severe-coronavirus-outbreak-623239

 Two weeks ago, the haredi town of Kiryat Ye’arim, known as Telz-Stone, had the highest rate of coronavirus infections per capita in the country. Almost one-third of its population was under Health Ministry quarantine orders.

Today, although the ultra-Orthodox town’s residents are all confined to their homes, just 100 people are officially quarantined, and only one new case has been reported over the last seven days.

 

Social disease: how fraudsters adapt old scams to exploit coronavirus

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/mar/29/coronavirus-social-disease-fraudsters-adapt-old-scams

The email is immediately threatening. “I know every dirty little secret about your life,” it begins. “To prove my point, tell me, does [REDACTED] ring any bell to yοu? It was one οf your passwords.”

The message goes on to inform recipients that the sender knows where they live, to whom they talk and how they spend their days, before delivering the punchline: “You need tο pay me $4,000. You’ll make the payment via bitcoin … If I do not get the payment: Ι will infect every member οf your family with the coronavirus.”

Kushner ‘Doesn’t Know What The Hell He’s Talking About’ Com. Of Katrina Task Force | All In | MSNBC

Jim Acosta yells at Trump that he’s been president for 3 years when he blames Obama

Defense Leaders Back Navy Secretary's Firing of Captain Over COVID-19 Warning. His Sailors Cheered Him as He Left His Ship

https://time.com/5815610/sailors-cheer-navy-captain-fired-coronavirus/

 U.S. defense leaders are backing the Navy’s decision to fire the ship captain who sought help for his cornonavirus-stricken aircraft carrier, even as videos showed sailors cheering him as he walked off the vessel.

Videos went viral on social media Friday, showing hundreds of sailors gathered on the ship chanting and applauding Navy Capt. Brett Crozier as he walked down the ramp, turned, saluted, waved and got into a waiting car.

Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly abruptly fired Crozier on Thursday, saying the commander created a panic by widely distributing a memo detailing the escalating virus outbreak on his ship and pleading his leadership for help. Modly said Crozier “demonstrated extremely poor judgment” in the middle of a crisis.

Acosta to Trump: Who dropped the ball on pandemic preparation?

Trump fires intelligence community watchdog who told Congress about whistleblower complaint that led to impeachment

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/03/politics/trump-fires-inspector-general-michael-atkinson/index.html

President Donald Trump on Friday fired Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson, who had told Congress about the whistleblower complaint that led to Trump's impeachment, the President told Congress in a letter obtained by CNN.

Atkinson will leave his job in 30 days, Trump told the House and Senate Intelligence committees, and he has been placed on administrative leave effective immediately, according to a congressional source.

Trump did not name a permanent successor.

 

Fact check: Georgia governor says we only just learned people without symptoms could spread coronavirus. Experts have been saying that for months

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/fact-check-georgia-gov-brian-kemp-coronavirus-no-symptoms-stay-at-home/index.html

Atlanta (CNN)Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said on Wednesday that new information on the spread of coronavirus influenced his decision to issue a stay-at-home order. In particular, Kemp pointed to what he said was the recent discovery that the virus can be spread by people who are not exhibiting symptoms.

Alarm, Denial, Blame: The Pro-Trump Media’s Coronavirus Distortion

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/01/us/politics/hannity-limbaugh-trump-coronavirus.html?algo=top_conversion&fellback=false&imp_id=352627997&imp_id=996661251&action=click&module=trending&pgtype=Article&region=Footer

The pervasiveness of the denial among many of Mr. Trump’s followers from early in the outbreak, and their sharp pivot to finding fault with an old foe once the crisis deepened, is a pattern that one expert in the spread of misinformation said resembled a textbook propaganda campaign.

 

Yochai Benkler, a professor at Harvard Law School and co-author of a book on political manipulation called “Network Propaganda,” said that as the magnitude of the virus’s effects grew and the coverage on the right shifted, Mr. Trump’s loyalists benefited from having told people not to believe what they were hearing. “The same media that’s been producing this intentional ignorance is saying what they’ve always been saying: ‘We’re right. They’re wrong,’” he said. “But it also permits them to turn on a dime.”

Step 1: Blame China

Step 2: Play down the risks

 

 

Jared Kushner Is Going to Get Us All Killed

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/02/opinion/jared-kushner-coronavirus.html

Reporting on the White House’s herky-jerky coronavirus response, Vanity Fair’s Gabriel Sherman has a quotation from Jared Kushner that should make all Americans, and particularly all New Yorkers, dizzy with terror.

 

According to Sherman, when New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, said that the state would need 30,000 ventilators at the apex of the coronavirus outbreak, Kushner decided that Cuomo was being alarmist. “I have all this data about I.C.U. capacity,” Kushner reportedly said. “I’m doing my own projections, and I’ve gotten a lot smarter about this. New York doesn’t need all the ventilators.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top expert on infectious diseases, has said he trusts Cuomo’s estimate.)

 Even now, it’s hard to believe that someone with as little expertise as Kushner could be so arrogant, but he said something similar on Thursday, when he made his debut at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing: “People who have requests for different products and supplies, a lot of them are doing it based on projections which are not the realistic projections.”

 

Kushner has succeeded at exactly three things in his life. He was born to the right parents, married well and learned how to influence his father-in-law. Most of his other endeavors — his biggest real estate deal, his foray into newspaper ownership, his attempt to broker a peace deal between the Israelis and the Palestinians — have been failures.

Undeterred, he has now arrogated to himself a major role in fighting the epochal health crisis that’s brought America to its knees. “Behind the scenes, Kushner takes charge of coronavirus response,” said a Politico headline on Wednesday. This is dilettantism raised to the level of sociopathy.

No 'magic pill': The fight over unproven drugs for coronavirus

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/02/coronavirus-drugs-fda-162411

The Food and Drug Administration’s rush to greenlight unproven malaria medicines to fight the coronavirus may derail clinical trials of other potential cures for the deadly virus.

Right now, dozens of potential therapies — from antivirals to antibodies taken from the blood of coronavirus survivors — are being tested in people. The first results from these studies could come within months if drugmakers enroll the thousands of patients needed to complete the research.

But with the malaria drugs chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine available by prescription from any doctor, and the president touting them as coronavirus treatments at his daily briefings, enlisting volunteers to enroll in clinical trials of other potential therapies may be a tough sell.

Yes, We Need to Measure Lives Against Money. Here’s How.

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/02/coronavirus-economy-reopen-deaths-balance-analysis-159248

When can America reopen from its coronavirus shutdown? The answer depends how you weigh human health against the economy. We asked experts how to think about the tricky calculus.

Doctor Drops Some Coronavirus Truth Bombs On Fox News, Lights Up Twitter

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/doctor-rishi-desai-fox-news_n_5e8578ecc5b6f55ebf47e55b

 A doctor’s no-holds-barred analysis of coronavirus testing shortcomings is going viral ― not just because of his blunt talk but because of where he made his case: live on Fox News.

Dr. Rishi Desai, chief medical officer of the Osmosis website, vigorously shook his head “no” as Fox News host Martha MacCallum mentioned, as President Donald Trump has, that there were supposed to be millions of tests available. She also said people were still waiting for a quick test for COVID-19. 

Desai responded with a fact-check.

“Yeah, they’re working on it,” he said. “They should’ve been working on it for months.”

 

ההכרעה נפלה: אין בעיה להתפלל במרפסות

https://www.kikar.co.il/354446.html

לאחר הפולמוס ההלכתי בנוגע לתפילות דרך המרפסות, הגר"מ שטרנבוך הכריע שמותר. ומסביר את התנאים הנדרשים לכך, איך קוראים בתורה ואיך 

 zהכהנים נושאים את כפיהם

Israeli Corona Forces / צה"ל = צבא הקורונה לישראל

\

BS"D

IDF: Israeli Corona Forces 

/ צה"ל: צבא הקורונה לישראל

~~~~~~~~~~~~

ver.1:  https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/04/military-corona-threat.html

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"T'zva Ha'Karona Le'Yisroel?" *** "Israeli Corona Forces"?

8 Nissan 5780 °°  April 3, '20 (v.2, updated)


By Binyomin Feinberg,

FeinbergBinyomin@gmail.com

~~~~~~~~~~~

1.  Last week we mentioned the hypocrisy of the Israeli government in allowing the Army to be exempt from the same Coronavirus health precautions most of the world is taking seriously. We quoted the informative non-response we received from the Health Ministry (https://firstamendmentactivist.blogspot.com/2020/03/corona-concerns.html, https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2020/03/corona-concerns.html ).

2.  What we didn't quote was the blistering critique launched against the Army brass - from within and without - over their reckless disregard of human life, national security, and compliance with the very same basic lifesaving hygiene guidelines the government is requiring of the entire country.  Reportedly, the Army had been continuing to draft about 700 to 900 Israelis a day, in the midst of the international and national epidemiologic crisis (according to a mother of a female Army recruit, quoted in Arutz Sheva, March 21). Furthermore, as reported by Arutz Sheva, the Army deems itself exempt from basic Coronavirus infection-control precautions, even denying soldiers the very right to protective gear, reportedly to avoid scaring recruits. Thirdly, and most ominously, IDF General (Res.) Yitzchak Brick, on Facebook, raised the alarm over the tens of thousands of "home front" soldiers return home nightly, after mingling in the military by day without restrictions, thereby advancing the spread of the virus throughout Israeli society (reported in that same Arutz-7 expose). This, courtesy of the same government now greatly curtailing just about everyone else, all in the name of fighting Corona. Currently, the biggest epidemiologic threat to Israeli residents appears to be  Army brass themselves, who (perhaps out of  subconscious nostalgia for the ill-fated self-esteem of the Yom-Kippur War Labor regime) put the entire country at risk.

~~~~

Drafting Girls Continues, Unrelentingly:

3.  "Chomosaich" volunteers recently came into contact with an 18 y/o religious girl, Ofek E., who, for technical reasons (apparently somewhat beyond her control), had been switched to a non-religious school. As is recent Army policy, they targeted her for a "Rayon Dat" (often taking the form of a religiosity interrogation), and then a "Shimu'ah" (a "hearing" akin to an indictment, essentially ordering her to enlist in the Army). Her repeated pleas to recognize her religiosity as basis for securing her legal right to an exemption from military service were rejected, and early this week she was ordered to enlist on Sunday, April 5. 

Update:

4.  After the posting of the first version of this report, we received late word that Ofek's draft date has been deferred a couple of weeks, until after Pesach. 

5.  This may have been related to the closing of the Jerusalem draft offices this week, due to Coronavirus.  It is noteworthy that as recently as last Thursday, the Jerusalem draft offices were open for business.

6.  We like to remind our readers about the management choices of the Jerusalem draft office. We've previously reported on the antireligious Head of the Jerusalem Draft Office, Col. Keren Levy (see our brief report in the Jewish Press, Sept.13,'19, as well as https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/another-religious-girl-and-her-idf-vet.html;   https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/08/alh-report-2-28-augviolating-vineyard.html;   https://daattorah.blogspot.com/2019/09/violating-vineyard-update.html ).

Ms. Levy is the draft official who bullied the mother of a religious girl simply seeking a religious exemption, Avigail Leah Hausband, in February of '19, threatening:

"I will decide if your daughter is religious. I will profane (or "violate", "achalel et ha'Kerem") "The Vineyard," and I will start with your daughter."

In a subsequent phone conversation with the Lishkas HaGiyus, the office confirmed that the then ongoing effort to draft Avigail - by forcing her into a Rayon Dat - despite her being undeniably religious - was being directed by the very same Keren Levy.

One noteworthy facet of that unforgettable government vendetta was that it was orchestrated in a manner literally placing the life of the mother (who'd been fighting cancer for seven years) at serious risk. The fact that the mother, a Ba'alas Teshuva, served as a captain in the Israeli Air Force didn't insulate her or her family from this ongoing Israeli government hate-crime.

Thank G-d, their attempt to "violate the vineyard" failed. Ultimately, with the assistance of Shalhevet and Shomrei Torah, Avigail took legal action and obtained her religious exemption, without sacrificing her religious principles by submitting to a Rayon Dat.

7.  Please daven for Ofek bas Ester, and all of the other girls, both religious girls (like Ziva bas Mazel and Olga Shamilov), as well as other girls, who are still being pursued, duped, harassed, or persecuted by Israeli draft officers.

Perhaps we should also daven that these draft officials immediately experience a massive priority shift, so that they stop chasing teenage girls for their "legal" human-trafficking quotas, in the midst of the Coronavirus epidemic -- and while Israelis are under the threat of some 150,000 rockets being upgraded to become guided-missiles R"L (drastically raising their lethality level; please read the full article at the MEF link below).

8.  Note the sheer absurdity of drafting girls, or boys, into the Army in the midst of an unprecedented epidemic, when the Army itself has been outed (by one of their own) as infecting the Israeli population with Coronavirus, via its own soldiers.

9.  Also note the sheer wickedness of drafting girls, and even religious girls, in blatant violation of Torah law, and basic human decency - despite the global manifestations of Divine Wrath that we are all currently enduring, to one extent or another.  Our Sages warn us that the wicked refuse to repent even at the Gates of Hell. (Infamously, the European experience eloquently testified to that Chazal.)

10.  Consider how external  threats have not disappeared in the New Corona Order, e.g. see "Iran's New Guided Rocket Kit Is Certain to Raise Tensions with Israel" by Michael Peck, in The National Interest, March 21, 2020 (https://www.meforum.org/60610/irans-new-guided-rocket-kit). Those who are responsible for allowing the drafting of girls into the military ought be warned that G-d has many ways to exact Justice. We need to daven that we and others not suffer as a result.

~~~

11.  The gravest epidemiologic concern right now may be the threat to the viability of the healthcare system, as Netanyahu has so eloquently articulated. How his hawkish posture balances with the recklessness of his own military brass is an interesting question. Perhaps this is yet another small part of his ongoing campaign to posthumously validate the timeless maxim of Rabbi Meir Kahane, HY"D, "Israel 

doesn't have an Arab problem -- Israel has a Jewish problem."  Instead of shutting down the whole country, perhaps just replacing Army brass may do the trick (as long as the replacement team isn't even more cocky).  Or, given current events within the government, perhaps Corona will perform that task for us.

12.  What's at the root of this lemming-like recklessness? Perhaps sheer secularist arrogance... "Kochi  v'Otzem Yadi." Or perhaps there's another, more calculated agenda afoot.

13.  Whatever the reasons, the fact is that Torah observant Jews have an obligation and opportunity to reach out to the broader non-religious Jewish community on this issue, as well as regarding our shared opposition to forcibly drafting girls into the often lawlessly immoral, exploitive military.

14.  We need not unite with non-religious Jewry to speak to their concerns. And, remember, it is not the non-religious Jews who pose the primary spiritual and physical threats, it's the core of diehard antireligious Jews that are much of the primary source of our problems.

~~~~~~~

15.  Regarding the escalating Corona crisis, we suggest circulating the crucial information regarding ventilator alternatives at this link. These low-tech improvised but effective ventilator devices can save many, many lives, globally.  (Those with accurate, updated information about their manufacture and distribution are requested to update us.)

https://www.kare11.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/going-full-on-macgyver-u-of-m-doctor-creates-makeshift-ventilators-to-battle-covid-19/89-ecf8ced9-fd76-478b-ad6e-ae3aeab50b4a

 ~~~~~~
To check for updates,   please visit the Adar Update link:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Z2nuHMNh-CQ3Te2MdV04dmFfkkmQ0TLNKElS9JT6yJc/edit?usp=sharing
~~~~~ 

Wishing all of our upstanding readers around the world an uplifting and safe Shabbos and Pesach,

Pakistan re-arrests four men acquitted in Daniel Pearl murder case

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Pakistan-re-arrests-four-men-acquitted-in-Daniel-Pearl-murder-case-623475

  Pakistani authorities ordered on Friday four men, including a British militant, convicted of the 2002 murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl, to be detained for three months despite a lower court's ruling to overturn their convictions.

 

Police deploy in force as virus-struck Bnei Brak becomes ‘restricted zone’

https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-deploy-in-force-as-virus-struck-bnei-brak-becomes-restricted-zone/

Over 1,000 officers set up checkpoints to close off ultra-Orthodox city; police official says some residents will be removed to quarantine, troops can use ‘proportionate force’

The Far Right Is Looking for Miracles and Scapegoats to Bail Us Out of the Coronavirus Crisis

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/04/far-right-conspiracy-fauci-security-miracle-cure-scapegoat-coronavirus.html

The U.S. government is now providing a security detail for infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci because as his stature has grown as one of the pillars of the American response to the pandemic, so have the rumblings of the far-right, conspiracy-theory wing of President Donald Trump’s support. The 79-year-old has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for more than 35 years, working with numerous administrations on infectious disease preparedness and response, ranging from HIV/AIDS to SARS and H1N1. To most Americans, that is a comforting sign of the experience and expertise that you would look for and appreciate in, say, the doctor who was treating your family. To conspiracy-minded Trump supporters, those decades of experience and public service are an indicator of something sinister: the anti-Trump deep state.

Fauci given security detail after threats: Source

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/fauci-security-detail-threats-source/story?id=69933965

Dr. Anthony Fauci, someone millions of Americans are trusting to help them deal with the coronavirus crisis, has now had to be given increased security after threats to his safety, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.

 

Fact-checking coronavirus briefing: Trump says scarves 'better' than masks, exaggerates Europe travel restriction

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/02/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus-briefing-april-2/index.html

 President Donald Trump made fewer false claims than usual at Thursday's coronavirus briefing, ceding the floor to administration officials for extended periods and trading his usual inaccuracy for some vague musings and boasts.

Trump did, however, offer some more medical advice that is not endorsed by experts, this time claiming that thick scarves make for more effective protective masks than masks themselves. He also repeated his exaggeration that he had cut off travel from Europe.

Here's our fact check:

Brooklyn’s Orthodox neighborhoods have high rates of coronavirus

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Brooklyns-Orthodox-neighborhoods-have-high-rates-of-coronavirus-623455

The record of positive COVID-19 tests in the five boroughs shows that Borough Park, Crown Heights, Williamsburg and Midwood all have above-average positive test rates.

 

I’m an ultra-Orthodox rabbi. We are not criminals.

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/im-an-ultra-orthodox-rabbi-we-are-not-criminals/

I am Haredi.

I am the principal of a Haredi school network.

If you read the media both in Israel and around the world, you would conclude that I am a criminal who violates the rules of the state and doesn’t care about the lives of others.

I see the way people are writing about me and my community on social media. I hear the way people are talking about me and my community on the radio.

And it is extremely painful.

Tucker Carlson Doesn't Think America Should Let Medical Experts Make Coronavirus Decisions

https://www.newsweek.com/tucker-carlson-doesnt-think-america-should-let-medical-experts-make-coronavirus-decisions-1495898

 Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Thursday lashed out at the medical establishment for allegedly failing the country with their handling of the coronavirus outbreak and questioned why America is allowing them to make pandemic decisions.

In his heated Tucker Carlson Tonight monologue this evening, Carlson said it is "bewildering" that the U.S. have let public health officials decide the country's COVID-19 response. Carlson then questioned whether it would have made more sense to quarantine only the elderly and immunocompromised citizens rather than issue stay-at-home orders for the entire population.

"It's clearly a conversation we should've had before we locked the entire country down and put 10 million people out of work. But we didn't have that conversation," he said. "Instead, we outsourced the decision to public health officials, and that is the strange irony of the moment we're living through."

Carlson then declared that "one of the main lessons of this crisis is that the public health establishment failed us badly."

Coronavirus crisis in France sparks antisemitic conspiracy theories

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Antisemitism/Coronavirus-crisis-in-France-sparks-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-623458

Disease-related antisemitic conspiracy theories haven't been seen in France since the plagues of old. But with the new coronavirus pandemic, the strain is re-emerging.

 

Quebec Hasidic Jewish community under quarantine due to coronavirus oubreak

https://www.jpost.com/Diaspora/Quebec-Hasidic-Jewish-community-under-quarantine-due-to-coronavirus-oubreak-623438

The region's public health department noted that there have been 10 confirmed cases of coronavirus discovered among members of the Tosh Hasidic community.