Likud Speaker’s closure of Knesset goes to High Court * 600,000 Israelis watch virtual ’save democracy’ protest * PM urges Gantz to help ’save I srael’ * 1st virus funeral

[Visit timesofisrael.com for 24/7 updates]( The Daily Edition Sunday, March 22, 2020 [AG, Knesset adviser say neither virus nor politics justifies shuttering Knesset]( By [TOI staff]( [Ahead of High Court hearing on Knesset closure, Speaker Yuli Edelstein defends move as only path out of the political deadlock; Likud warns of fourth election if Edelstein replaced]( [Israel media review / Diseased and confused: 6 things to know for March 22]( By [Jacob Magid]( [Nearly 600,000 watch virtual protest against PM, Likud’s shuttering of Knesset]( By [Jacob Magid]( Live updates [High Court to hear Blue and White petition against Knesset speaker at 4 p.m.]( By [TOI staff]( [The party has appealed against Edelstein’s decision to shutter the Knesset last week, and is demanding he allow votes on forming committees and appointing a new speaker]( Coronavirus and politics [Netanyahu urges Gantz to help him ‘save Israel’ as nations sink like ‘Titanics’]( By [TOI staff]( [Sets out terms for emergency coalition; says pandemic could prove worst since Middle Ages, with world’s medical services at risk of collapse, UK and US on brink of losing control]( [Analysis / Blue and White says Netanyahu’s unity plea is a bluff. Not necessarily]( By [Raoul Wootliff]( [Gantz’s party vows to push on with Edelstein’s ouster as PM says it’ll nix unity]( By [TOI staff]( [Volunteers in protective gear bury Israel’s first virus victim]( By [TOI staff]( [88-year-old Jerusalem resident Aryeh Even, a Holocaust survivor, is laid to rest at ceremony constrained by pandemic]( [Five more people in serious condition from virus, 945 total cases reported]( By [TOI staff]( [Coronavirus crisis / Number of sick medical staff rises to 42, with over 3,000 quarantined]( By [TOI staff]( [Police shut popular open air markets, but may allow up to 20 people at weddings]( By [TOI staff]( [Jerusalem and Tel Aviv markets shuttered as new rules sow confusion; internal law enforcement directives also said to state that action won’t be taken against individuals]( [Coronavirus crisis / Social distancing rules will last at least into the summer, health official says]( By [TOI staff]( [Coronavirus crisis / Israel’s strict new regulations go into effect amid fears of spike in new cases]( By [TOI staff]( [Israel’s jobless rate surges to 16.5% as virus puts 500,000 out of work]( By [TOI staff]( [Employment Service says new applications slowing after ebbing of initial wave of layoffs in travel, service industries, but more expected as pandemic affects other industries]( [Coronavirus crisis / FM says will launch emergency plan to rescue Israelis stranded abroad]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [Cornavirus crisis / Israeli travelers beg to come home, complain Foreign Ministry not doing enough]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( [As virus hits tight-knit Haredi communities, rabbis among first to fall ill]( By [TOI staff]( [Chabad’s Rabbi Masoud Tubul, 64, passes away from COVID-19 in Paris; Satmar’s Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, 72-year-old head of world’s largest Hasidic sect, is diagnosed with virus]( [In Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jewish community, a socially distant wedding]( By [Maggy DONALDSON]( [Photo essay / No games today: Virus (mostly) clears out Tel Aviv beach, play areas]( By [Oded Balilty]( Top Ops [Sally Abrams]( [What does a ‘good sendoff’ look like now?]( [There is no online equivalent for holding a hand. There is no technology that equals simply showing up, arms open, to comfort mourners.]( [Noa Hirsch Choritz]( [When ‘Do no harm’ becomes ‘Do the best you can’]( [Everything I learned in nursing school has been abandoned in favor of rationing, creativity, and the need to adapt to this new reality]( [Shana Schick]( [Joe Biden and me]( [Knowing that the candidate copes with the same speech disorder I struggle with has been a revelation for me]( [Jason Fredric Gilbert]( [10 people worse off than you during the crisis]( [Feeling sorry for yourself? Give a thought for medical workers, house robbers and Benjamin Netanyahu. Then go chat with a bot]( [Young NY Hasidic woman reboots life in secular Berlin in Netflix’s ‘Unorthodox’]( By [Renee Ghert-Zand]( [Coronavirus kicks global warming off the public agenda]( By [Sue Surkes]( [World’s focus on pandemic raises questions about climate change and why the public response to both has been so different]( [Global coronavirus death toll tops 13,000 as medical supplies dwindle]( By [Agencies]( [Coronavirus crisis / Over 20 vaccines, multiple treatments currently in development for coronavirus]( By [TOI staff and Agencies]( First Person [Simone Somekh]( [Learn from my Italian Jewish community’s response to the virus]( [‘Canceling every social gathering, working from home when possible, closing down schools and testing aggressively are probably the best weapons we have against the virus’]( [A month after the first Italian died of coronavirus, the country is transformed]( By [Alexandria SAGE]( [World battles coronavirus / Italy: Record 800 dead from virus in a day, with almost 5,000 fatalities in all]( By [Amy Forliti and Frank Jordans]( [Iran leader refuses US help, citing conspiracy theory that virus man-made]( By [Jon Gambrell]( [Claim with no scientific evidence is increasingly used by Chinese officials to deflect blame for the pandemic]( [Palestinians announce first two cases of coronavirus in Gaza Strip]( By [Agencies and TOI staff]( [Will coronavirus slow the world’s conflicts — or intensify them?]( By [Philippe RATER]( [CRM]( More Headlines [Austria’s chancellor says Netanyahu ‘shocked’ him into tough moves to stop virus]( By [TOI staff and AFP]( [From France to Florida, authorities look to crash lockdown rebels’ parties]( By [Elaine Ganley]( [US vice president and his wife test negative for coronavirus]( By [Agencies]( [No joke / ‘Step away’: How to not kill your kids during coronavirus lockdown]( By [Julie CHARPENTRAT]( [Unsubscribe from this List]( © 2020 THE TIMES OF ISRAEL, All Rights Reserved