Politics and Knesset
Schools will be able to reopen before test results in, and staff will not have to self-quarantine unless they test positive • Knesset Education Committee axes open-air classes.
Until now, said Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Omer Yankelevitch, Israel spoke to global Jewish leaders only when it was convenient or necessary in their eyes, leading to “miscommunication, hurt and missed opportunities on both sides.”
Grades three and four to return to class in capsules; grades one and two to be divided, with attendance on alternate days • Druze town of Majdal Shams declared a restricted zone.
Until Friday’s announcement that Sudan had joined the peace effort, the Abraham Accords was the only treaty reached between the Jewish state and a Muslim-majority country since the 1994 deal with Jordan.
Some Arab Knesset members quietly support Israel’s new agreements with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, but were forced to vote against them and follow the Joint List leadership.
“Violent Palestinian rejectionism is still alive and kicking,” says Knesset member Oded Forer.
“I’m not willing to be held hostage to anyone’s political situation,” says Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz • Blue and White’s “blackmail” is “unacceptable,” says Israeli Finance Minister Israel Katz.
Transparency International’s global index ranks Israel in its highest category with respect to enforcing laws barring the bribery of foreign officials.
Overall visits during the period fell by 76 percent compared to last year, while for September, the figure was 96 percent.
Former MK Yehuda Glick, who spent years as an activist for one of the most politically sensitive sites in the world, says that the presidency should not be political. What Israel needs, he thinks, is a president who can talk to everyone and bring the people together.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says that every country in the world is in line for vaccinations the moment they are ready, and that Israel is trying to get producers to consider its “special difficulties.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin calls on the government to urgently pass a budget and appoint a police commissioner, saying the country has “lost its compass.”
