"Hatred for Arabs turns to gratitude for their contribution to the health care system as nurses, physicians, pharmacists and hospital employees, and Palestinians in the Territories become, if only briefly, partners in a shared fate, exposed to the same danger. It’s a good time to ask what is it that we have been fighting over for generations."
--—A Haaretz Editorial suggests that issues which until recently seemed all-important, such as nationalism, ethnic identity and religion, fall away in the face of a pandemic.*

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Breaking News:
President Rivlin Denies Gantz's Request for Extension to Form Government
Gantz, who is still negotiating a unity deal with Netanyahu, now has until Monday at midnight to form a government. (Haaretz+ and Israel Hayom)

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"I don't understand why I'm good enough to work in Israel, but not good enough for the Israelis to test me."
--A Palestinian worker at an Israeli chicken factory, which Palestinians point to as the source of West Bank coronavirus outbreak.*

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Corona Craziness:
A lengthy unity government negotiation meeting between Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz and israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took place this week between the Prime Minister's study and his patio. Gantz stood in the patio of the official residence, while Netanyahu remained in his study and the two leaders shouted to each other because Netanyahu is in quarantine.**

Double irony: On the holiday celebrating the Jewish people's liberation from slavery in Egypt and in a reverse of situations dating back to Israel's military rule over its Arab citizens, Jewish Israelis will be under curfew in their homes on Passover, while the country's Arab citizens will be free to move.***

"At least the Arabs can be happy that they are the first people in history whose name begins with “non.”
--Haaretz commentator Odeh Bisharat reacts to how Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu referred to Israeli citizens who are not Jewish.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
Israel detained two Palestinian Authority officials from E. Jerusalem, who were reportedly working to assist Palestinian residents as part of their response to the coronavirus pandemic.Yet, last week, Israel was fine to let Palestinian security forces enter the city to deal with armed clashes between Palestinian residents.**

“We are all fighting the same enemy, which is a global enemy...the corona.”
—IDF Col. Iyad Sarhan, the commander of the IDF’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, sums up the reason Israel is now allowing some things in to Gaza that it banned for years.*

"A month ago, this appeared imaginary."
--A driver in a car at one of the checkpoints at the corona-hit ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak, where police prevented all people from entering or exiting, Maariv reported.

You Must Be Kidding:
"People who met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent months have heard lengthy speeches that seemed to be taken from one of Oliver Stone’s conspiracist screenplays. He told them that even though he has been elected repeatedly, in reality, the country is controlled by a ‘deep state.'"
--Haaretz's Gidi Weitz reported about Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's conspiracy theories.**

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"On the one hand, the comic video clip of police cars in pursuit of a lone bicyclist in the Hayarkon Park, on the other hand, a funeral attended by hundreds of people which received police approval in Bnei Brak. Where are the brains, where?"
--Columnist Oded Shalom looks at how the police discriminate in their implementation of the isolation restrictions and don't use discretion in their treatment of Arabs.*

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You Must Be Kidding: 
"The Iranians have enough resources to deal with the global coronavirus pandemic."
--Israel Hayom's commentator Eldad Beck writes that Iranians aren't suffering enough to warrant easing US sanctions on them.**

“Benny, how did you get there?...What are you doing over there, Benny?”
--Yesh Atid MK Yoav Segalovich said to his former faction chairman, Knesset Speaker and Kahol-Lavan chairman Benny Gantz, at the first full plenum session that Gantz presided over, after being elected by the right-wing bloc.*

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Breaking News:
IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi is now in quarantine after contact with someone infected with coronavirus, a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu entered quarantine for same reason.

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You Must Be Kidding: 
The IDF General Staff planned to deploy armed soldiers to accompany police as they patrolled ultra-Orthodox cities, where people have been bucking the health guidelines and endangering lives. But it decided against it because of the "potential for problems," for example, when a soldier shoots into the air to disperse civilians, reported Haaretz+. Yet, that potential never stopped the IDF from employing the method in the Palestinian Territories.**


“Why take the child support away from children because their mother – like the rest of the country – was put on unpaid leave?”
—Etti Manshur, 42, a single mom of three asks. She was dismissed from her job due to the corona virus effects. Under current Israeli law, single mothers who get child support payments from the National Insurance Institute suffer a double financial blow when they lose their jobs: they also get a reduction in their child support.*

You Must Be Kidding: 
“For lack of choice."
--Reasoning for Israel National Security Council decision to provide asylum seekers from Sudan and Eritrea with the same treatment for the coronavirus as Israelis, even though they aren't citizens and don't have health insurance.**

"The State of Israel manages the corona crisis without an elected government, without a Police Commissioner, without a Director General of the Ministry of Justice, without a Prison Service commissioner, without a State Prosecutor, without an elected Prime Minister, without a Knesset Speaker, without a state budget, without a National Emergency Authority, without masks, without protective equipment, without (enough) respirators, without rule of law, without [corona test] swabs, without a national information system."
--Maariv's top political commentator, Ben Caspit, sums up the situation in Israel.*

Breaking News:
POLITICAL DRAMA: Kahol-Lavan leader Benny Gantz shocks and offers himself to be Knesset Speaker with right-wing support in order to form a unity government with Binyamin Netanyahu and prevent law from being passed that would prevent anyone with an indictment from forming a government - i.e. Netanyahu. Kahol-Lavan faction unravels as partners break-off. (See Elections 2020 / Netanyahu Indictment News below.**)

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