“‘There are no borders here,’ Brig. Gen. Ghassan Alian, the military’s point man for civilian Palestinian affairs, told Kan Radio on March 8. ‘There is no ‘them’ and ‘us.’… People in Judea and Samaria [the West Bank] live together.’ Alian’s colleague Dalia Basa, the civil administration’s health coordinator, was quoted as saying: ‘Bacteria and viruses do not stop at the border, and the spread of the dangerous virus in Judea and Samaria can also jeopardize the health of the residents of Israel.’”

“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday extended quarantine orders to all people arriving in the country, requiring them to stay isolated in their homes for two weeks. Netanyahu called the move ‘a difficult but vital decision.’”

“Seven more Israelis were diagnosed with coronavirus on Tuesday….The newly diagnosed patients were announced less than 24 hours since the government released a set of new restrictions on the country, including that all people entering Israel from abroad will be required to spend 14 days in home isolation.”

“Jordan and Palestine are considering closing their common borders as the number of those affected by the coronavirus continues to climb, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh announced yesterday. They may also request Israel to close the Allenby (King Hussein) border crossing, which spans the Jordan River and connects the occupied West Bank with Jordan. PA arrests Palestinians for spreading fake news about coronavirus”

“The Palestinian Authority has begun cracking down on Palestinians for allegedly spreading fake news about the coronavirus in the West Bank. In Hebron, the PA General Intelligence Service arrested two Palestinians on suspicion they were behind an audio message about the discovery of coronavirus cases in the city. In Bethlehem, the PA Preventive Security Service arrested a Palestinian also on suspicion of spreading fake news about the virus. A third Palestinian was arrested in Nablus by PA security forces after he reportedly posted a fake comment on his Facebook page claiming 12 new coronavirus cases have been detected in the city. The fake claim caused panic in Nablus and its surrounding villages.”

“More than 100 people, including 33 toddlers, have been instructed to go into quarantine in the Einav settlement in Samaria after close family members of a Magen David Adom worker with coronavirus tested positive. “

“The Gaza Strip has remained free of the coronavirus, but authorities are taking precautions, closing schools after a state of emergency was declared last week. Health officials have urged all returning travelers to go into home quarantine for 14 days and Gazans have been stockpiling sterilizers and other cleaning materials. While some in Gaza advocate closing border crossings with Israel and Egypt entirely to stave off infection, others voiced concern about deepening economic hardship in the territory, where unemployment hovers around 50 percent.”

“If the virus spreads in the Strip, Israel will have difficulty shirking responsibility for it. The international community has never accepted Israel’s argument that it stopped being responsible for Gaza after the disengagement of 2005. And the PA, which is responsible for the Strip under the Oslo Accords, isn’t present there since it was violently expelled by Gaza in 2007. ‘How will we behave if tens of thousands of Palestinians march to the fence demanding that Israel assist with the humanitarian disaster in the Strip?’ asks Dr. Dana Wolf, an expert in international law at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. ‘The coronavirus is bringing to the surface unsettled problems regarding Israel’s relationship to the Strip that were never resolved over the years.’”

“The Taiwanese Foreign Ministry’s move comes a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his government has decided to quarantine anyone, whether Israelis or tourists, arriving from overseas for 14 days over the outbreak of COVID-19. The Level 2 travel notice urges all Taiwanese nationals travelling to Israel to “practice enhanced precautions.”

“…I said: You look at me, you see me, you’re talking with me, and you still think I should be killed? Totally, he said. Leftists are worse than the Arabs, because they’re traitors. They hate the country and work against it. I told him I act out of love of the country – otherwise, I wouldn’t be here, volunteering at a polling station. Furthermore, my son is serving in the army now and he surely wouldn’t be doing so if he didn’t love the country and want to defend it. The United Torah Judaism rep intervened again on my behalf, saying: This woman’s son is serving in the army, defending you, whereas you don’t even do that. The guy didn’t miss a beat. He said he hoped my son would be killed in the army, and that he was certain that after that, I’d change my mind and stop loving Arabs.”

“Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz described Israeli Arab MKs as ‘terrorists wearing suits’. Speaking to Israeli radio station Makan about the possibility that the Joint List – a Arab dominated bloc – may help form the next government, Katz said: ‘Arab MKs are terrorists wearing suits.’ ‘We heard Benny Gantz, chairman of Blue and White, speaking about forming a minority government supported by the Joint Arab List. Such matter has not taken place even in the era of Rabin. They opposed the Arab League’s decision to recognise Hezbollah as a terrorist organisation. They are terrorists wearing suits.’”

“…’Our people want something very specific,’ Odeh said, speaking live on Facebook. ‘They want to see a direct link between the political situation and their everyday concerns.’ Two issues singled out by Odeh were the issue of Jewish visits to the Temple Mount, and the “Deal of the Century” being proposed by the United States. On the first of these, Odeh noted: ‘We have a clear position on the issue of the al-Aqsa mosque. We want to see the cessation of all visits of extremist settlers [i.e. all Jews] to the mosque. This is something that [began] during the Netanyahu era, and we want the status quo to be restored. Al-Aqsa is a Muslim place of worship, and east Jerusalem should be the capital city of the Palestinian state. We will be focusing on the issue of al-Aqsa at the present stage [of negotiations],’ he added. Referring to the American plans for a brokered peace agreement, Odeh insisted that if his party is to support Gantz in forming a government, he would demand the cancellation of all unilateral steps included in the US plan, including a declaration of sovereignty over much of Judea and Samaria.”

“Benny Gantz intends to form a government and have it sworn in by March 23, a source familiar with the Kahol Lavan leader’s plan told Haaretz on Tuesday. He aims to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu three weeks after Israel’s election, which ended with no decisive victory for either of the two main political blocs. To that end, Gantz is working on securing endorsements from Arab-majority alliance Joint List, which has 15 Knesset seats, and Avigdor Lieberman’s Yisrael Beiteinu, with seven seats. Together with Kahol Lavan’s 33 seats and Labor-Gesher-Meretz’s seven, Gantz could secure a majority in the 120-seat parliament.”

“To form a minority government, the Joint List will only need to vote in favor of the coalition one time and then cooperation with the list of Arab parties will end, Blue and White’s number two, MK Yair Lapid, wrote on social media on Tuesday.Lapid responded to threats from Blue and White MKs Tzvi Hauser and Yoaz Hendel, who strongly oppose the formation of a minority government backed by the Joint List. They said Tuesday that they would remain in the Knesset and oppose the government, even if they were thrown out of Blue and White.” Also see: Gantz’s No. 2 Says Arab-backed Minority Government Better Than Another Election

“It took Benny Gantz less than a week to renege on one of his central campaign promises. Before Election Day, Gantz and his Kahol Lavan colleagues consistently and collectively rebuffed Likud allegations that they would collaborate in any way, shape or form with the largely Arab Joint List. Five days later, that is exactly what Gantz and Kahol Lavan are advocating.”

“The Likud began taking steps to prepare for a fourth election on Tuesday, as the political stalemate continued.The party sent out invitations to convene its constitution committee. The committee is set to meet next week to cancel its automatic primaries for Likud leader and the Knesset list for the 24th Knesset. Likud officials said Tuesday that the most likely scenario was that ‘political instability would continue.’ Blue and White mocked the Likud for preparing for another election.”

“Defense Minister Naftali Bennett announced Monday the approval of a plan to build a “separate road for Palestinians” to connect the northern and southern parts of the West Bank. The construction of the road is meant to serve as a solution to a controversial settlement plan, known as E-1, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revived two weeks ago. The plan to construct 3,500 homes, has been put on hold for years largely due to international criticism as the homes would cut off the northern part of the West Bank from the southern part, making it more difficult to create a viable Palestinian state.”

“Palestinian leaders have slammed the Israeli defence ministry’s approval of planning for a road that would separate Palestinians and Israeli commuters east of Jerusalem, a highly controversial move meant to help advance an illegal settlement plan in the strategically sensitive E1 region.”

“Israeli security forces on Tuesday neutralized a suspect who brandished a knife at a checkpoint of Damascus Gate, one of the main entrances to the Old City of Jerusalem.”

“Almost every day for the past nine months, Israeli Police have raided the Palestinian neighborhood of Issawiya in eastern Jerusalem in a campaign to maintain law and order. Rights groups say the police search homes and issue fines, as well as detaining hundreds of people on the suspicion of stone-throwing, according to an AP report published on Saturday…’There’s no use of unnecessary force,’ Israeli Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told the AP. ‘There’s no unnecessary patrols that are taking place. Everything is carefully calculated based on what is taking place inside Issawiya.’”

“…even in a ‘weak’ year, this means that there are over 200 stories that journalists found newsworthy but could not make public, and more than 2,000 stories that faced some sort of external interference. This is still a huge number, considering that no other country in the world that defines itself as a democracy imposes such an obligation on journalists to receive a government official’s approval prior to publication. Since 2011, 2,863 stories have been scrapped by the censor and 21,683 stories have been redacted.”

“One of the factors preventing Hamas from controlling the factions is that it does not want to serve as a policeman that safeguards Israel’s security in Gaza as the Palestinian Authority does in the West Bank. This is while the factions know that they cannot exercise their resistance without the consent of Hamas, which is still ‘the head of the household’ even though for the moment many Gazans are seeing the rest of the factions in a better light.”

“Hamas on Monday criticized the secretive criminal trials in Saudi Arabia of dozens of members and supporters of the militant Palestinian group.The group, which rules the Gaza Strip, said Saudi authorities detained dozens of ‘the best of and the most elite of the Palestinian people residing in Saudi Arabia.’”

“Saudi Arabia has put dozens of Palestinian activists on trial, accusing them of supporting the Gaza-based rulers Hamas. According to Arabic press reports, 68 Palestinian and Jordanian citizens faced the ‘special terrorism court’ in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, beginning on Sunday. Families of the accused said their relatives were being prosecuted without legal representation. The detainees were arrested by Saudi secret police in April of last year.”

“If Israel adopts the Trump plan, it will trigger a right-wing messianic ideology that will spark chaos – declares Carmi Gillon, who asserts Jewish terrorists are no longer on the margins.”

“Israel used its participation in an international anti-terrorism conference in Morocco last week, which was dedicated mainly to the re-emerging threat from al-Qaeda, to call for stronger action against Iran.”