Israel

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates is planning to make its first official visit to Israel on Sept. 22 to build up the countries’ agreement to normalize relations, a source familiar with the provisional itinerary said on Monday.

Israeli officials declined to comment and UAE officials did not respond to calls seeking comment.

The two countries announced on Aug. 13 they would normalize diplomatic relations in a U.S.-brokered deal that was hailed as a breakthrough by Washington and Israel but spurned by the Palestinians.

05 Sep 2020; MEMO: Official international data reveals that Israel is the world’s leading country with regards to the spread of the coronavirus, which is proliferating significantly in certain neighbourhoods in Jerusalem.

04 Sep 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu privately approved America’s sale of F-35 fighter jets to the UAE, despite coming out against the deal publicly,  the New York Times reported late yesterday, citing officials familiar with the negotiations.

According to the report, Netanyahu chose not to try to block the deal during talks to establish diplomatic ties with the UAE.

03 Sep 2020; MEMO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday welcomed Saudi Arabia’s decision to allow flights from “all countries” to pass through its airspace while traveling to or from the United Arab Emirates, Anadolu news agency reported.

03 Sep 2020; MEMO: Israel’s state attorney has charged 11 suspects over the August gang rape of a 16-year-old girl in a hotel in the Red Sea resort of Eilat. The suspects include three adults and eight minors.

According to the Times of Israel, two of the suspects, named as Ilizir Meirov, 27, and Isi Raphaelov, 28, both have criminal records and have previously served time in prison.

03 Sep 2020; MEMO: Casting further light on the nexus between Zionism and the rise of the Islamophobia industry, the Israeli government has approved a grant to an American “anti-Muslim hate group”.

JERUSALEM, Aug 31 (NNN-MA’AN) – Israel’s director of budget, at the Finance Ministry, resigned yesterday, claiming intervention by the political echelon, mainly Finance Minister, Israel Katz, in professional decisions.

In his resignation letter to the minister, Shaul Meridor wrote that, “the ability to perform my duties has become impossible. Unfortunately, you do not allow me and others to formulate policy measures that will enable the Israeli economy to get through the severe COVID-19 crisis.”

31 Aug 2020; MEMO: An airliner carrying Israeli and US delegations to the UAE on Monday will fly over Saudi Arabia, according to a source familiar with the itinerary, in what would be the first publicly acknowledged entry of an Israeli plane into Saudi air space, reported Reuters.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 31 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli delegation, joined by senior U.S. officials, departed from Tel Aviv on Monday to Abu Dhabi in Israel's first commercial flight to the United Arab Emirates.

Flight LY971, a direct flight operated by Israel's national airline carrier El Al, departed at around 10:30 (0730 GMT).

The two-day visit will include working meetings of the joint teams ahead of the signing of cooperation deals following the U.S.-brokered agreement to normalize ties between Israel and UAE, which was announced on Aug. 13.

JERUSALEM, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Corona Cabinet has approved a "traffic light" plan to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Israel's Prime Minister's Office and the Ministry of Health said in a joint statement released Sunday night.

According to the statement, coronavirus restrictions will be set according to local authorities' classification of four levels: red, orange, yellow and green, depending on the extent of morbidity.

Each city or town will receive a grade between 0 and 10 according to the weekly morbidity rate.