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MARCH 17, 2022 | The Jewish Home
call on Saturday evening. During the conversation, which lasted over an hour, the two also discussed possible options for ending the fighting in Ukraine, as well as Israel’s efforts on the matter.
On Friday, reports claimed Bennett had pushed Zelensky to surrender the war to Russian President Vladimir Putin. At the time, however, Bennett’s office denied the report. On Saturday, more details were revealed, and a senior official in the Ukrainian government told Israel’s Walla! news site that Bennett told Zelensky, “If I were in your place, I would think about the lives of my people and take the offer.” According to a Ukrainian government official, however, Bennett is not brokering negotiations but rather acting as a “mailbox” between the two sides. “We do not need a mailbox. We have enough of those,” the government official said.
Israel: No Sanctions for Russia
tions will not be imposed. Rather, as Lapid suggested, the State of Israel will maintain open lines of communication with both Moscow and Kyiv while showing support for Western positions without necessarily joining them. Moreover, Israel cannot bar Israeli citizens like Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch who has been sanctioned by Western countries, from entering the country if there is no arrest warrant out for them, nor can it legally confiscate property in Israel. Abramovich was spotted at Ben Gurion Airport’s VIP terminal on Monday evening, leaving Israel for Russia after apparently spending less than 24 hours in the country. A Twitter account that tracks the movement of Abramovich’s six aircraft showed that a Gulfstream G650 belonging to Abramovich landed in Tel Aviv at around 9 p.m. local time Sunday, having taken off from Moscow. Jerusalem said that is focusing its efforts on ensuring that Russian individuals and banks don’t use Israel as a means to bypass Western sanctions. “We are putting in place measures that will make sure this can’t be a place where people can basically find their way around,” said a senior official. “You won’t be able to cheat sanctions.” One example is that Russians won’t be able to park their private jets in Israel indefinitely to keep them from being seized elsewhere. Banks in Israel also understand quite clearly that they are putting themselves at risk if they allow themselves to be used to circumvent sanctions.
Cyberattack Crashes Gov’t Website For now, Israel is not preparing sanctions on Moscow or Russian oligarchs. This revelation came just a day after Foreign Minister Yair Lapid declared in Slovakia that “Israel will not be a route to bypass sanctions imposed on Russia by the United States and other Western countries.” British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss tweeted after his remarks that she welcomes “news from @YairLapid that Israel will support sanctions against Russia.” Still, Israel is clear that sanc-
Israeli government websites were down for over an hour due to a major cyberattack on Monday evening, officials said. Communications Minister Yoaz
Hendel held an assessment with officials due to the “broad cyberattack” on government websites. Users attempting to enter sites with gov.il extensions were unable to for at least an hour, before the sites slowly began to come back online. “Operations have been carried out by communications companies in order to return the service as soon as possible, and the service is gradually returning,” the Communications Ministry said. “The ministry will continue to monitor [the situation] until full restoration.” An official said the National Cyber Directorate declared a state of emergency in order to study the extent of the damage caused by the “massive” cyberattack. According to assessments, the Israeli sites were taken down via a denial-of-service attack, which bombards websites with junk traffic to render them unreachable, although this remained unconfirmed. For now, there is no clarity as to which group caused the attack.
Amazon Relocates Due to Violence
Amazon office workers that were working in downtown Seattle are now being relocated. The company announced last week that it has decided to move the staff due to an uptick in violent crime in the area. Other companies in the area are opting for their workers to work remotely because of the violence. The location that office workers are being moved from employs around 1,800 people. However, it is currently unclear how many are being relocated as many have continued to work remotely since the start of the pandemic two years ago.
The spike in the city’s violent crime hit a new peak on March 2, when 15-year-old Michael del Bianco was shot and killed at the intersection where Amazon’s office building is located. In order to address the issues plaguing the area, the Seattle Police Department set up a mobile precinct at the intersection and increased its number of patrolling bike cops. Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office said in a statement that the mayor “is working every day to make downtown a safe and thriving neighborhood for residents, workers, and businesses.” Numerous other businesses have closed due to the recent spike in crime, including Qumulo, a cloud technology firm, and Piroshky Piroshky, a popular Russian bakery. McDonald’s also confirmed the closure of its downtown Seattle locations, citing an inability to keep its workers safe.
4th Dose Needed?
According to Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, people will need a fourth dose of vaccine to help fend off another wave of COVID-19. “Many variants are coming, and Omicron was the first one that was able to evade – in a skillful way – the immune protection that we’re giving,” Bourla told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “The protection we are getting from the third (dose) it is good enough – actually quite good for hospitalizations and deaths,” Bourla said. But protection after three doses is “not that good against infections” and “doesn’t last very long” when faced with a variant like Omicron, he admitted. “It is necessary, a fourth (dose) for right now,” Bourla told CBS. Currently, anyone ages 12 and up who got a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine at least five months ago can get a third dose. Anyone ages 18 and up who got the two-dose Moderna vaccine should get a booster shot six months after the second dose, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
