Israel and UAE in historic direct flight following peace deal

The first official flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates has landed, a major step in normalising relations after the announcement of a peace deal.

The El Al airliner made the three-hour trip, carrying a delegation of Israeli and US officials.

The flight was allowed to cross Saudi Arabian airspace, normally blocked to Israeli air traffic.

The UAE has become only the third Arab country in the Middle East to recognise Israel since its founding in 1948.

On Saturday, the UAE repealed a law boycotting Israel which had been in place since 1972, and earlier this month the two countries opened direct telephone services for the first time.

The agreement to normalise relations - brokered by the US - was made public in a surprise announcement on 13 August.

Flight LY971 - numbered to represent the UAE's international dialling code - carried delegates including Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner and Israel's National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat.

The El Al plane was decorated with the word for "peace" in Arabic, English and Hebrew. EPA

Mr Kushner led secret talks which resulted in the agreement between Israel and the UAE, a federation of seven Arab monarchies in the Gulf, including Dubai.

Speaking to the media after landing in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, Mr Kushner described the deal between the countries as a "historic breakthrough" and said it was a "tremendous honour" to have joined the flight.

"What happened here was three great leaders came together and they started writing a new script for the Middle East. They said the future doesn't have to be predetermined by the past," he said.

The joint teams will meet Emirati representatives to develop areas of co-operation between Israel and the UAE. The return flight will be numbered LY972, after Israel's international dialling code.

In a tweet in Hebrew, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hailed the advent of the flight as an example of "peace for peace" - alluding to his long-held disbelief in the notion that only trading occupied land will bring peace between Israel and Arab countries.

While it was welcomed by much of the international community, the UAE's recognition of Israel without the precondition of the creation of a Palestinian state was denounced by the Palestinians as a betrayal of their cause.

In return for official relations with the UAE, Mr Netanyahu agreed to suspend controversial plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank - land claimed by the Palestinians for a future state of their own.

Mr Kushner on Monday said his message to Palestinians was "one of hope".

"We've put an offer to their leadership on the table that will enable them to have a state and self-determination and an economic plan that could revitalise their economy, but we can't want peace more than they want peace and so when they are ready the whole region is very excited to help lift them up and move them forward but they can't be stuck in the past," he said.

"Peace will be ready for them and opportunity will be ready for them as soon as they're ready to embrace it."

Palestinian officials have condemned the deal, saying it undermines their struggle for an independent state.

"Peace is not an empty word used to normalise crimes and oppression," Saeb Erekat, a leading figure in the Palestine Liberation Organisation, said on Monday.

"Peace is the outcome of justice. Peace is not made by denying Palestine's right to exist," he added.

A US peace proposal unveiled in January holds out the prospect of a Palestinian state, as well as a $50bn (£37.5bn) investment plan for the Palestinians, though the Palestinians have rejected the proposal as heavily biased towards Israel.

Before the UAE, Egypt and Jordan were the only other Arab countries in the Middle East to officially recognise Israel, after signing peace treaties in 1978 and 1994 respectively.

Mauritania, a member of the Arab League in north-west Africa, established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999 but severed ties in 2010.

Analysis by Tom Bateman Middle East corresapondent

Monday's three-hour flight has taken more than 70 years to make, and it marks a new turning point in relations between Israel and the Arab world.

There are big prizes for all three players: Israel's historic need to boost regional recognition of the Jewish state (could Saudi Arabia one day do so too?); the Emiratis' glittering finance hubs can benefit from open links with the region's security and cyber superpower; while a US president under pressure at home gets to tout his role as peacemaker in the Middle East.

These are truly significant achievements and further shift the dynamics in a deeply polarised region. But the deal is striking for another reason - it leaves the Palestinians feeling as sidelined as ever.

They believe it breaks years of Arab solidarity - and leverage - against Israel's occupation of land they want for a future state; while ordinary Palestinians feel more and more hemmed in as Israeli settler numbers grow.

They see not only betrayal, but a blind eye being turned by the Emiratis to their reality on the ground.

(Source: BBC)

Israel's PM Benjamin Netanyahu claims win in party leadership challenge

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed a "huge win" in a vote that challenged his leadership of the Likud party.

About 49% of Likud's 116,000 eligible members voted on Thursday, party figures show.

Challenger Gideon Saar conceded defeat, saying he would now back Mr Netanyahu in March's general election.

The internal party vote was seen as a test of Mr Netanyahu's hold on power at a time of mounting difficulties.

Mr Netanyahu, 70, faces trial on bribery and corruption charges, as well as a third national election within a year.

Mr Netanyahu faced a challenge from Gideon Saar (right), a former government minister

Previous elections held in April and September saw Likud deadlocked with the centrist Blue and White party - with neither able to form a government.

After polls closed at 23:00 local time (21:00 GMT) on Thursday, Mr Netanyahu tweeted a claim that he had won, although a result is not expected until early on Friday.

"With God and with your help, I will lead the Likud to a big victory in the upcoming elections and continue to lead the State of Israel to unprecedented achievements," he posted (in Hebrew).

Mr Saar, a 53-year-old former minister, later conceded defeat in a tweet (in Hebrew).

"I am content with my decision to have stood. Those who are unwilling to take a risk for what they believe in will never succeed," Mr Saar wrote.

"My colleagues and I will stand behind [Netanyahu] in campaigning for the Likud's success in the general elections," he added.

Mr Saar, a well-known figure in the party, had wanted to take Likud on a new path.

Earlier on Thursday, with reports of low turnout amid bad weather, Mr Netanyahu appeared on a Facebook Live broadcast appealing for members to get out and vote.

He was predicted to win comfortably but campaigned tirelessly because he wanted the result to show his grip on the party remained strong, the BBC's Barbara Plett Usher in Jerusalem said.

Mr Netanyahu, who is the country's longest serving leader, is facing mounting scrutiny after being indicted in three corruption cases last month.

He denies wrongdoing and claims the charges are a politically motivated "witch-hunt" against him.

One exit poll cited by local media suggested Mr Netanyahu had won more than 70% of the vote.

(Source: BBC)

'I spotted a lump when preparing for my ritual bath'

In the Orthodox Jewish community, there is a sacred space for women: the mikveh. Now it has also become a place where they can spot signs of breast cancer and domestic violence, and guide one another towards help.

It is a religious requirement for all married Orthodox women to go to the mikveh, or ritual bath, at night seven days after their period has finished. It is a way to spiritually purify themselves. While some women in the Jewish community might take issue with the need to "purify" themselves for their husbands, it has great emotional significance for many others.

HEIDI LEVINE

A woman will traditionally go to the mikveh for the first time just before her wedding and will continue to go every month until she stops menstruating.

Before stepping into the mikveh, a woman will first spend time cleaning her body thoroughly and making sure that there are no external objects on her which would form any kind of barrier between her and the mikveh water - an example of this might be a bit of leftover nail varnish, or fluff from a towel. She will step into a private room where she can bathe, shampoo, comb her hair, clean under her nails and examine her body carefully.

Once she is ready, she will go to the mikveh, where she needs to fully immerse her body, including each hair on her head. She will usually immerse herself completely three times and say a blessing.

A mikveh typically resembles a private miniature swimming pool which is filled with "living" natural water, usually rainwater. There will often be one attendant present to guide the woman, but women in Israel have recently won the right to immerse themselves alone, which some prefer. There will, however, be attendants in the building if a woman wishes to speak with them or seek their guidance.

A Jewish woman enters the water of a mikveh in Jerusalem - it is a religious requirement for all married Orthodox women to go to the ritual bath, at night, seven days after their period has finished

In Israel, where around 750,000 women go to the mikveh each month, charities are taking the initiative to train the attendants who work there to look out for signs of cancer or domestic violence so they can sensitively direct women to find help.

They are also encouraging mikvehs to put up posters for breast cancer awareness, as well as domestic violence, so that they can take steps to help themselves.

Dr Naomi Marmon Grumet is the founder of the Eden Center in Jerusalem, a charity which has so far trained about 800 mikveh attendants, working in about 150 mikvehs, who go to talks on breast cancer with medical professionals. The mikveh attendants take part in role-playing exercises to plan how they could delicately suggest that women seek help, and they are also given numbers they can pass on for doctors.

Dr Naomi Marmon Grumet is the founder of the Eden Center in Jerusalem, a charity which trains mikveh attendants to be aware of breast cancer

She explains that mikveh attendants will avert their eyes when a woman steps in to immerse herself, but they might still see something such as a bruise or an unusual lump.

They might also notice that one of the women is reluctant to leave the mikveh building after the bath, as this means returning to her husband, which might be a sign that she is being abused. In the Orthodox community, marital relations will only resume once a woman has been to the mikveh, seven days after the end of her period.

Dr Marmon Grumet did her doctorate about how Jewish women observe laws about ritual purity, which is when she started speaking to women about their experiences at the mikveh.

One of them was a woman with 10 children whose husband was abusive.

"She told me that the only woman who really knew about it was the mikveh attendant, because, she told me, 'She sees my body, she sees my bruises.'

"A light went on in my head and I realised that there are people in our community who see a lot of things, and if they only knew how to reach out and help women, then they could really be an amazing resource. They could be first responders and not just see women, but also offer some kind of help or support."

For Marmon Grumet, the support could simply involve showing women that they care.

"I don't expect mikveh attendants to be therapists, but to be able to say to women 'There's a hotline that you can call and they'll support you' - or just to say 'I care, and I'm here for you - you don't deserve this'."

A Balanit, or mikveh attendant, holds a towel for a Jewish woman who entered the water of a mikveh in Jerusalem

In other scenarios, women might actually ask the attendant for their advice.

Marmon Grumet gives the example of a woman who told the attendant that her breast was bleeding sometimes, although she thought it might have been because of her new bra. The attendant told her that she needed to get it checked and gave her the name of a doctor.

The woman came back to thank her. "I would have just written it off, but it was stage one cancer," she said.

"We certainly don't want attendants offering unwanted comments about women's bodies. However, sometimes a woman will say, 'Does this look okay?'

No-one understands the importance of checking your breasts at the mikveh more than Shani Taragin, 45, a Jewish law teacher in Jerusalem.

"I thank God that I am here today," says Shani Taragin, who noticed a lump in her breast as she was preparing to immerse herself at the mikveh

Taragin noticed that she had a lump in her breast five years ago, as she was preparing to immerse herself. She was teaching at a summer camp and so she was using the natural waters of a nearby lake for her mikveh.

It was very dark, and so at the time she examined herself much more carefully to see if there were any foreign objects on her body, such as a smudge of sun cream. Taragin had always quickly checked her breasts when preparing for a mikveh, but this time she was more thorough.

"I felt a lump in the upper left-hand corner of my breast and I kept on pressing it. It really felt like an external object. I kept on pushing and pushing it down and then I realised that it was internal, so I could go ahead and immerse myself in the mikveh.

Even as I immersed, all I could think about was, 'What is this lump?'"

Taragin knew that something wasn't right, and she booked an appointment with a specialist as quickly as she could, who found that it was breast cancer.

At this point, Taragin had already been working with the Eden Center, teaching Jewish law to mikveh attendants, but she decided that she would incorporate breast cancer awareness into her courses.

"My story shows that you can really use the mikveh as a basis for teaching breast cancer awareness," she says.

Shani Taragin during a class at the Matan Women's Institute for Torah Studies in Raanana

It's a very important project - Ashkenazi Jewish women, Jews of central or Eastern European descent, have a high risk of developing breast or ovarian cancer. This is because one in 40 Ashkenazi Jews will carry a BRCA gene mutation, more than 10 times the rate of the general population. Recent studies show that Sephardi Jews, of Portuguese or Spanish descent, may also be genetically predisposed to hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.

"It's almost like the halacha (Jewish law) is telling you to be sensitive to your body," Taragin says.

It is also a woman's time to be in touch with her physical state. "You are examining yourself anyway, so it's an amazing opportunity to check yourself."

In terms of mikveh attendants spotting signs of cancer, Taragin recommends that they are as delicate as possible.

"There are ways of saying things so you are not invading a woman's privacy," she says.

She has this philosophy for domestic violence as well. The Eden Center is also advocating for mikvehs to put up posters with hotline numbers. There is a growing problem with domestic violence in Israel, with 20 women killed in 2018, according to data collected by the women's charity WIZO.

The Eden Center is also offering training for its mikveh attendants to be much more sensitive in terms of making sure that women who have cancer, or who have had cancer, have a positive experience when they are at the mikveh. This training would include, for example, that a mikveh attendant does not stare at a woman who might have had a mastectomy or treat her in any way which might make her feel uncomfortable.

A poster for breast cancer awareness inside the changing room of a mikveh in Jerusalem

There is also now a scheme in England to give information and advice for mikveh attendants, to help them be sensitive to the needs of women who have received a diagnosis and also inform them so that they can act as a resource within the community. Chai Cancer Care, the Jewish community's cancer support charity, have developed booklets for mikveh attendants.

The scheme has been launched in London and Manchester by Michal Mocton, 41, who had breast cancer six years ago.

Mocton was inspired to set up the training after her own experiences of going to the mikveh when she was diagnosed.

She says that mikveh attendants are only checking to see if women have immersed themselves, but some women will feel especially self-conscious.

"It's important for attendants to remember that she might not have shown anyone her scars, and then she is under bright light, having to scrutinise her body and then feeling like someone else might be looking at her when she steps into the mikveh."

She recommends that mikveh attendants should take their cues from the woman herself - they should not stare, and act with heightened sensitivity.

The booklet makes attendants aware that increasing numbers of women are having elective mastectomies if they have the BRCA gene, and recommends that these women should feel welcome and cared for.

"Going to the mikveh is the height of spirituality, but it can be very hard for women who have received a diagnosis," says Louise Hager, the chair of Chai Cancer Care.

"It's a privilege to be a mikveh attendant and to help women fulfil this mitzvah (religious obligation). The more we can do to prepare them, the better.

"We are entering an age where women are more open to talking about cancer. We need to empower the mikveh attendants to have that information and feel they can pass it on".

Mocton went to the mikveh for the last time at 37 when she had her ovaries removed, as this meant that she would no longer be menstruating. She wants attendants to be aware that some of the women might be going to the mikveh for the last time, and it's important that they help make her experience meaningful.

She asks attendants to remember that the "mitzvah of mikveh has connected women for generations", which is why it's so important that every single woman who goes there feels welcome and connected to her heritage.

p.s. All photos courtesy of HEIDI LEVINE

(Source: BBC)

Israel ready to help India in dealing with water shortage

At a time when large parts of India are facing excessive water crisis and drought, Israel has extended support in dealing with desertification and water management.

t a time when several parts of India are facing acute water shortage and drought situation, Israel has expressed its keenness to share its experience in dealing with desertification and water management, in which it is a world leader.

Israel, with over 60 per cent of its territory being a desert and another 20 per cent semi-arid land, has developed a variety of solutions to desertification through desert agriculture, irrigation, desalination, aquaculture, afforestation and management of water resources.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu at the Olga beach in 2017. (Representative Image/File Photo)

The country is one of the world's leading nations in desert technologies and methods of dealing with desertification.

"As part of our growing partnership with India, Israel is keen to work together and share all its experience and cutting edge technology in our joint fight against desertification, including a strategic partnership on water management and water security," said Israeli Ambassador to India Ron Malka in a statement.

His statement came in the context of World Day to Combat Desertification, which is observed on every June 17 to promote public awareness of international efforts to combat desertification.

The statement assumes significance as it comes at a time when several parts of India are facing acute water shortage and drought situation.

A statement issued by the Israeli Embassy said MASHAV, the country's Agency for International Development Cooperation, places special emphasis on development cooperation and assistance in the fight against desertification and drought by introducing international programs of capacity building, training, project development and research.

MASHAV's approach is based on Israel's experience in facing harsh climatic conditions, combines the transfer of adaptable technology, research and development, and a hands-on experience originating from leading Israeli experts and institutions, it added.

Under the Indo-Israeli Agricultural Project with the federal and state governments of India, the centre of excellence for date palms in the heart of the desert in Bhuj, Gujarat introduced Indian farmers to date palms suitable for arid conditions made more common by desertification, the statement said.

Date palms are ideal value crops for farmers in arid conditions that can be found in India and Israel alike, it added.

(Source: India Today)

Incredibly, Eurovision is staving off Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But not for long

The song contest is one of few things stemming the violence. Once it’s over, anything from the US peace plan to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza will escalate things once more

Hamas, war and Eurovision are three words not normally heard together. But over the last week, the international song competition, known for its hammy acts and sometimes terrible songs, has hurtled straight into the heart of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict, becoming the last bulwark against a war between Israel forces and fighters in Gaza.

Last weekend, just days before Madonna is due to fly into Tel Aviv and perform, it really did look like we were at the gates of another devastating conflict.

Militants in Gaza had fired nearly 700 rockets and mortars at southern Israel, Israeli jets and tanks had pounded 350 targets in Gaza. In just 36 hours, 25 Palestinians were dead in Gaza, including two pregnant women and two toddlers. Four were dead in Israel, which is just short of the entire Israeli civilian death toll of the seven-week-long war in 2014.

This was at least the fourth cycle of cross-border flare-ups in less than a year, which, for the short time they last, are everything but war in name. The time periods in between the mini-wars are getting shorter, fuses on both sides are shrinking, the solutions are disappearing.

And this time was considerably worrying. The sheer number of projectiles being fired from Gaza and the unusually high Israeli civilian death toll (including a man killed in his car by an anti-tank missile) in the past would have been a red line for the Israelis.

They deployed an armoured and an infantry brigade to the border ready for a ground incursion. They even began targeted killings for the first time in five years, obliterating a Palestinian fighter they said was a top Hamas financier in a strike on his vehicle.

But the prospect of long-range rocket fire from Gaza raining down on thousands of terrified tourists in Tel Aviv was too much.

Out of nowhere, a truce was announced. Had it not been for Eurovision, I believe, war would have broken out.

So what happens in a week’s time, when the show’s over and everyone goes home?

Michael Oren, a former MK and ex-Israeli ambassador to the US, has an idea.

“Hamas must go. Right after our holiday and Eurovision,” he tweeted without a drop of humour.

“Israel must evict Hamas from Gaza. The US should back us militarily and diplomatically and, together with Arab states, commit to Gaza’s renewal. Peace in the region is impossible with Hamas in Gaza. Israel is ready to act.”

His words echo many within Israel I have spoken to. Everyone, from families exhausted by living under a barrage of rockets in the south to chief election rival Benny Gantz, have criticised prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for losing Israel’s “deterrence” and not being tough enough on Hamas. Many in the south told me they were furious Bibi had put Eurovision before his people.

In Gaza, which is under a crippling 12-year-long Israeli and Egyptian-imposed blockade, the desperation is different. And in many ways deeper. People literally have nothing to lose because the territory is on the brink of total collapse. And I don’t say that lightly.

For Gaza’s militant rulers, the humanitarian crisis is morphing into a potentially existential one for them. This year saw an attempted internal protest in Gaza, dubbed the hunger revolution, against devastating standards of living and poor governing by the authorities. It was snuffed out pretty quickly in a round of arrests and violence.

But this isn’t going away as the dire situation is only going to get worse. In less than a month, unless there are immediate donations, the funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency (Unrwa) will dry up after Washington, Unrwa’s biggest donor, cancelled all its financial support last year.

If that happens, a million people in Gaza will go out without food, Unrwa’s schools, some of the best in the Strip, will close. The agency, which is the second largest employer in Gaza after the Palestinian Authority, will be forced to fire staff. The last time they did that, there were such big protests, the UN lost control of its Gaza compound for three weeks.

Its health services will also be halted. The UN warned last week that it could see 1,700 people shot by Israelis, who need complex surgery provided by the UN, forced to have their limbs amputated.

Their vaccination programme – basically the only line of defence against epidemics because Gaza’s water is so filthy, and it cannot treat its sewage – could also be cancelled. No size of gate can stop disease crossing borders – this could pose a threat to Israel.

Compounding this is the Palestinian Authority’s financial troubles. Due to a fight over tax remittances from Israel (more on that here), the PA is on course for a $1bn budget deficit this year, according to the World Bank.

They have already slashed salaries to those in Gaza causing havoc and could be forced to do the same again.

And all this is happening at the exact time the US is due to deliver on its peace plan: a document the Palestinians have already rejected on the grounds that it will likely be too pro-Israel. (The Palestinians cut all diplomatic ties with the US last year after it recognised the contested city of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and slashed funding to Unrwa.)

According to completely unverified leaks in Israeli media, the plan would legitimise pretty much every Israeli settlement in the West Bank (which are illegal under international law) and see the new Palestine, denied a proper army, forced to pay Israel to defend it.

If both sides do not agree, they lose international financial support.

No one knows if these points are really in the peace plan, but indications show the document could end up being a touchpaper for further conflict, rather than a fire extinguisher.

And there simply aren’t enough song contests to stem the tide of violence in the meantime.

(Source: Independent)

Netanyahu to push through new law protecting his immunity from prosecution, Israeli media reports

The new bill will cancel High Court oversight allowing the right-wing leader to protect his immunity as he faces indictment in three graft cases 

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu is planning to push through a new law that would allow parliament to protect his immunity from prosecution, as he faces possible indictment in three corruption cases, according to leaks to the Israeli media.

The new far-reaching bill would allow the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, and government ministers to essentially ignore any High Court of Justice ruling, Haaretz revealed, including the potential revocation of Mr Netanyahu’s immunity.

According to the left-leaning daily, the move is written into a “legal appendix” of the coalition agreement and government guidelines Mr Netanyahu is currently drawing up as he builds a new coalition government after winning the April general election.

If passed, the clause would give additional protection to the powerful right-wing leader, who secured a record fifth term in office and whose avid supporters dominate the legislative body.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a paper at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting at his Jerusalem office on 12 May ( Reuters )

Mr Netanyahu has already tried to restore the 2005 wording of an immunity law where the Knesset House Committee could reject the attorney-general’s request to rescind immunity of a particular parliamentarian.

But the law on its own would not safeguard the prime minister as the High Court of Justice is ultimately given the final word.

According to Haaretz, the new proposed “override clause” would mean this is no longer the case, as the Knesset would be permitted to reject even the High Court’s administrative decisions, effectively turning all their rulings into legal suggestions which can be ignored. 

Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party rejected the media leaks calling them “sensational” and “misleading” in a statement on Twitter, but failed to give any further details.

Anshel Pfeffer, an Israeli journalist, author and expert on Mr Netanyahu, sounded the alarm.

“The implication of this law, if it passes, will be that the High Court will lose its powers of judicial review over government actions, in any field, the military occupation, state and religion, etc. All this to save Netanyahu from being put on trial,” he wrote on Twitter.

“In 13 years in power, Netanyahu has never tried something like this. He never truly challenged the Supreme Court. But now it’s his neck on the line, he’s just won a fifth election and he just might have a majority in the new Knesset to pass such a law, upending 70 years’ precedent,” he added.

Israel’s attorney general is expected to indict Mr Netanyahu in three corruption cases dubbed cases 1000, 2000, and 4000, after he faces a pre-trial hearing in the next few months.

In case 4000, police have alleged that Mr Netanyahu granted regulatory favours to Israel’s leading telecommunications company, Bezeq, in return for more positive coverage on Walla!, a news website belonging to the firm’s owner.

Case 2000 focuses on suspicions Mr Netanyahu negotiated a deal with the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper for better coverage in return for promises to limit the circulation of a rival. In the third investigation, case 1000, police argue that he received expensive gifts from wealthy friends.

Mr Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrong doing.

There have been several leaked reports at his alleged attempts to shield himself from standing trial.

His Likud party did not directly address the details of Haaretz’s report but issued a statement saying: “As part of coalition negotiations, various proposals have been raised, by Likud coalition partners, including the restoration of the balance between the legislative and the judicial branches.”

It added: “The sensational media reports include proposals that were not discussed and biased and misleading analyses ... The principle that will continue to guide the Likud is to maintain independent and strong courts, but that doesn’t mean the court is omnipotent.”

The new law, should it be properly drafted would need to be passed by the Knesset. Mr Pfeffer said that it would likely pass, as the right-wing and religious parties loyal to the the premier hold 65 of the new Knesset’s 120 seats.

The alleged bill would also allow the Knesset to relegislate laws that the High Court strikes down.

Mr Netanyahu’s chief elections rival and his ex-army chief Benny Gantz said the move was “contempt for the rule of law” and “crossing a red line” which they would not turn a blind eye to.

Yair Lapid, an opposition leader and Gantz’s elections partner, said he will be holding a press conference on Monday to discuss “Netanyahu’s attempts to arrange a get-out-of-jail-free card for himself and to turn the State of Israel into Turkey.”

(Source: Independent)

Israel election: Netanyahu set for record fifth term

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu looks all but certain to stay in office for a record fifth term after his biggest election challenger, Benny Gantz, admitted defeat on Wednesday.

With almost all votes counted, both men's parties are neck and neck.

But a coalition between Mr Netanyahu's Likud and smaller right-wing and religious parties could form a 65 seat majority in the 120-seat Knesset.

US President Donald Trump has already offered his congratulations.

Mr Netanyahu tweeted that the president had called him from Air Force One - the US presidential aircraft - on Wednesday.

If he forms a new governing coalition, Mr Netanyahu would be on course to become Israel's longest-serving prime minister, overtaking the country's founding father David Ben-Gurion.

However, he could be indicted in three corruption cases in the coming months.

Mr Gantz's deputy in the centrist party has vowed to make the government's life difficult after the close result.

"We didn't win in this round. We will make Likud's life hell in the opposition," Yair Lapid said.

In a late-night speech to supporters on Tuesday, Mr Netanyahu claimed a "colossal victory".

"It will be a right-wing government, but I will be prime minister for all," Mr Netanyahu told cheering supporters at Likud's headquarters.

"I'm very touched that the people of Israel gave me their vote of confidence for the fifth time, and an even bigger vote of confidence than previous elections.

"I intend to be the prime minister of all citizens of Israel. Right, left, Jews, non-Jews. All of Israel's citizens."

The remaining ballots, cast at military bases, will be counted over the coming days, Reuters reports.

President Reuven Rivlin will then chose a leader best placed to assemble a majority.

No party has ever won a sole majority in Israel's parliament and it has always had coalition governments.

Exit polls had earlier predicted a tight race with no clear winner, and after initial results Mr Gantz also claimed victory.

'Netanyahu's most serious challenge yet'
By BBC Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman, Tel Aviv

Early exit polls were positive for Mr Gantz . Reuters

There were roars of celebration at the election night party for Benny Gantz as the first exit poll was released. His supporters believed Israel was on the brink of a new centre-ground government.

But as the votes were counted overnight, Benjamin Netanyahu's success became clearer. The incumbent PM's Likud party appears most likely to be able to form another coalition government with the help of right-wing nationalist and religious parties.

He said history had given the people of Israel another chance as his supporters, using his nickname, chanted: "Bibi, the King of Israel."

With left-wing and Arab-Israeli parties suffering heavy losses, his win appears decisive, despite the most serious challenge yet to his decade in office.

Why did Mr Netanyahu prevail?
In the end, the prime minister was able to rally his right-wing base to deliver the votes he needed.

During the campaign, he pitched himself as the sole guarantor of Israel's security.

He warned that Mr Gantz would set up a "leftist" government with the support of Israeli Arab parties that would allow the creation of a Palestinian state, which he said would pose a mortal threat to Israel.

Mr Netanyahu also promoted his foreign policy credentials, travelling abroad to meet US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and hosting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

In a final election-day push, he warned Likud's supporters that if they stayed at home and did not vote their opponents would win.

Likud was meanwhile criticised for sending 1,200 observers equipped with hidden body cameras to polling stations in Arab communities.

The Arab alliance, Hadash-Taal, said it was an "illegal" action that sought to intimidate Arabs. Likud said it wanted to ensure only "valid votes" were cast.

What does it mean for the peace process?
Recent weeks have seen tensions flare between Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, and US President Donald Trump is expected to publish his plan which aims to solve Israel's long-standing conflict with the Palestinians soon.

However, ways to revive the moribund peace process were not a main subject of electoral debate.

Many Israelis appear to see little hope in the longstanding international formula for peace - the "two-state solution". The phrase denotes a final settlement that would see Israel living peacefully alongside an independent state of Palestine, defined within pre-1967 ceasefire lines in the occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

In the final days of the election campaign, Mr Netanyahu made a significant announcement suggesting a new government led by him would annex Jewish settlements in the West Bank. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.

Israel's once-dominant Labour party, which sealed a breakthrough peace deal with the Palestinians in the 1990s, had its worst-ever performance in this year's elections - winning just six seats.

The secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Saeb Erekat, tweeted a downbeat view of the prospects for peace.

Dr.Saeb Erakat:
What the early results suggest is that Israelis have voted to preserve the status quo,they have said no to peace and yes to the occupation. The fact that only 14 out of 120 elected members of the Israeli parliament support the two state solution on the 1967.

— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) 10 April 2019

What allegations is Mr Netanyahu facing?
At the end of February, Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit informed Mr Netanyahu that he intended to indict him on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in connection with three cases, pending a final hearing.

Now the election is over, evidence in those cases will be turned over to the lawyers of those involved.

The prime minister is accused of accepting gifts from wealthy businessmen, and of dispensing favours to garner positive press coverage. Mr Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing and said he is a victim of a political "witch-hunt".

A date for the final hearing, at which the prime minister and his lawyers would be able to argue against the allegations, has not yet been set. Mr Mandelblit has said the Supreme Court will determine whether Mr Netanyahu has to resign if he is charged.

There have been reports that Mr Netanyahu will attempt to persuade potential coalition partners to pass legislation that would grant prime ministers immunity from prosecution while in office.

The Jerusalem Post reports that Likud and four other allied parties, who together will control 61 seats in the Knesset, have made it clear that they will not require Mr Netanyahu to resign if he is charged.

What comes next?
President Reuven Rivlin will consult with political parties. Afterwards, a candidate will be chosen who is deemed able to form a government that controls at least 61 seats in the Knesset. The process could take several weeks.

Mr Netanyahu has promised to speedily put together a coalition with his "natural partners". Some Israeli analysts have predicted that this could produce a government that will accelerate the nationalist and conservative policies pursued by the outgoing administration.

The ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, which each won eight seats, have said they would join a coalition led by Mr Netanyahu. The Union of Right-Wing Parties, which won five seats, and the centre-right Kulanu party, which came away with four seats, have also said they would back him.

Avigdor Lieberman, the leader of the right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu party, has yet to announce his decision. The former defence minister has said he will either sit in opposition or support Mr Netanyahu, but not back Mr Gantz.

(Source: BBC) 

Mount Sodom: World's longest salt cave discovered under Biblical landmark in Israel

Site of six-mile cave beneath mount Sodom is close to where Lot’s wife was turned into pillar of salt, according to Bible

Cave explorers in Israel believe they have discovered the world’s longest salt cave, larger than the previous record-holding cave in Iran.

The Malham cave, first partially mapped in the 1980s, is now known to stretch for over 10 kilometres (6.25 miles), through Mount Sodom, Israel’s largest mountain.

The cave is adorned with glittering stalactites and stalagmites formed from salt crystals, and it is close to where the Bible claims Lot’s wife was turned into a pillar of salt upon the “sight of God”, who had descended to Earth to bring destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

Indeed, the cave’s main outlet is close to a salt pillar nicknamed “Lot’s wife,” after the biblical character.

Amos Frumkin, the founder and director of the Hebrew University’s Cave Research Centre, mapped the first five kilometres in the 80s, but two years ago, Israeli spelunker (cave diver) Yoav Negev, the founder of the Israeli Cave Explorer’s club, decided he wanted to complete the exploration.

Last year a team of eight European and 20 local spelunkers spent 10 days mapping the cave, and then a second 10-day expedition this year with 80 local and international spelunkers finished measuring and mapping the cave with lasers.

Efraim Cohen of the Israel Cave Explorers Club stands next to salt stalactites in the Malham
cave inside Mount Sodom ( AFP/Getty )

Boaz Langford, a researcher at the university’s Caves Research Centre, and Antoniya Vlaykova, a Bulgarian cave explorer from the European Speleological Federation, led the expedition.

“What’s unique about this cave, as opposed to other salt caves in the world, is that it’s the longest in the world,” Mr Langford said.

They plan to publish the complete map of the cave in a professional publication in the coming months.

One of the chambers of the cave has been named the “Wedding Hall” due to its spectacular salt stalactites.

There is no official record for the longest salt cave, and such designations are generally decided by consensus among cave researchers after an underground chamber is mapped and published.

Iran’s Namakdan cave, which is about 6 kilometres (4 miles) in length, was identified as the longest salt cave after a study by Czech and Iranian scientists in 2006.

The relationship between the Malham cave and Mount Sodom is closely linked, as the mountain is essentially a large salt block, formed by the shifting of the Earth’s plates at the northern end of the 4,000-mile Afro-Arabian Rift Valley.

The tectonic activity also created the Dead Sea. Over millions of years successive flooding of the deep depression lay down thick layers of salt.

The mountain is covered by a thin layer of rock, but when it rains, the water trickles down into the salt layer eventually carving out the caves and forming the stalactites and stalagmites.

Efraim Cohen, one of the Hebrew University cave explorers, described the process of locating the cave’s entrances from the surface, rappelling down into surface shafts, squeezing through tight passages, and measuring each of the cavern’s serpentine branches with lasers.

Despite the difficult environment, he said the cave’s splendour makes it worth it.

“All the stalagmites and stalactites, their beauty, their colour — they’re really white, they’re shining, they’re amazing,” he said.

Radiocarbon dating of wood fragments found inside the cave have helped date its formation to around 7,000 years ago, making it extremely young by speleological standards.

“The reason why it’s so young is because it’s made of salt,” Professor Frumkin said.

“Limestone caves are much slower to form. They are usually much older. But this one is developing very fast so it’s one of the youngest caves in the world.”

(Source: Independent)

Israeli scientists say they will have a complete cure for cancer within a year

It doesn't seem possible. But they say it's true. A small team of Israeli scientists is telling the world they will have the first “complete cure” for cancer within a year, The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday. And not only that, but they claim it will be brief, cheap and effective and will have no or minimal side-effects.

“We believe we will offer in a year’s time a complete cure for cancer,” said Dan Aridor, chairman of the board of Accelerated Evolution Biotechnologies Ltd. (AEBi), a company founded in 2000 in the ITEK incubator in the Kiryat Weizmann Science Park in Ness Ziona, Israel, just north of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. A development-stage biopharmaceutical company engaged in discovery and development of therapeutic peptides, AEBi developed the SoAP platform, a combinatorial biology screening platform technology, which provides functional leads—agonist, antagonist, inhibitor, etc.—to very difficult targets.

“Our cancer cure will be effective from day one, will last a duration of a few weeks and will have no or minimal side-effects at a much lower cost than most other treatments on the market,” Aridor said. “Our solution will be both generic and personal.”

Called MuTaTo (multi-target toxin), researchers said the drug is essentially "on the scale of a cancer antibiotic–a disruption technology of the highest order."

Currently in development by AEBi under the leadership of CEO Dr. Ilan Morad, the potential game-changer in the world-wide fight against cancer will use a combination of cancer-targeting peptides and a toxin that will specifically kill cancer cells.

The Jerusalem Post reported that the anti-cancer drug is based on AEBi's so-called SoAP technology, which belongs to the phage display group of technologies. With it, “scientists introduce DNA coding for a protein, such as an antibody, into a bacteriophage – a virus that infects bacteria. The protein is then displayed on the surface of the phage. Researchers can use these protein-displaying phages to screen for interactions with other proteins, DNA sequences and small molecules.”

Illustration of a breast tumour.GETTY

A team of scientists won the Nobel Prize last year for their work on phage display in the directed evolution of new proteins – in particular, for the production of antibody therapeutics, The Jerusalem Post reported. “AEBi is doing something similar but with peptides, compounds of two or more amino acids linked in a chain.” According to Morad, peptides have several advantages over antibodies, including that they are smaller, cheaper, and easier to produce and regulate.

According to an article in Elsevier’s Science Direct, peptide therapeutics have played a notable role in medicine since the advent of insulin therapy in the 1920s. “Over 60 peptide drugs are approved in the United States and other major markets, and peptides continue to enter clinical development at a steady pace,” the article states.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates the  global cancer burden to have risen to 18.1 million new cases and 9.6 million deaths in 2018. The IARC reports 1 in 5 men and 1 in 6 women worldwide develop cancer during their lifetime, and 1 in 8 men and 1 in 11 women die from the disease. In addition, every sixth death in the world is due to cancer, making it the second leading cause of death, second only to cardiovascular disease.

Morad said in its infancy, AEBi was essentially “doing what everyone else was doing, trying to discover individual novel peptides for specific cancers.”

But then Morad and his colleague, Dr. Hanan Itzhaki, began attempting to identify why other cancer-killing drugs and treatments didn’t work or eventually failed. And they say they’ve found a way to counter that effect.

Morad said most anti-cancer drugs attack a specific target on or in the cancer cell. “Inhibiting the target usually affects a physiological pathway that promotes cancer. Mutations in the targets – or downstream in their physiological pathways – could make the targets not relevant to the cancer nature of the cell, and hence the drug attacking it is rendered ineffective,” he told The Jerusalem Post.

“In contrast, MuTaTo is using a combination of several cancer-targeting peptides for each cancer cell at the same time, combined with a strong peptide toxin that would kill cancer cells specifically,” Morad said. “By using at least three targeting peptides on the same structure with a strong toxin, we made sure that the treatment will not be affected by mutations; cancer cells can mutate in such a way that targeted receptors are dropped by the cancer.”

“The probability of having multiple mutations that would modify all targeted receptors simultaneously decreases dramatically with the number of targets used,” Morad continued. “Instead of attacking receptors one at a time, we attack receptors three at a time – not even cancer can mutate three receptors at the same time.”

According to Morad, many cancer cells activate detoxification mechanisms when in stress from drugs and the cells pump out the drugs or modify them to be non-functional. Morad told The Jerusalem Post that detoxification takes time, and he’s banking on a strong toxin that will have a high probability of killing the cancer cell before that detoxification occurs.

“Many cytotoxic anticancer treatments aim at fast-growing cells. But cancer stem cells are not fast growing, and they can escape these treatments. Then, when the treatment is over, they can generate cancer again,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

“If it does not completely annihilate the cancer, the remaining cells can start to get mutations again, and then the cancer comes back, but this time it is drug resistant,” Morad said.

Because cancer cells are born out of mutations that occur in cancer stem cells, most of the over-expressed proteins which are targeted on the cancer cell exist in the cancer stem cells. “MuTaTo’s multiple-target attack ensures that they will be destroyed as well,” he said.

Finally, some cancer tumors can erect shields which prohibit large molecules from accessing them. “MuTaTo acts like an octopus or a piece of spaghetti and can sneak into places where other large molecules cannot reach,” Morad said. “The peptide parts of MuTaTo are very small (12 amino acids long) and lack a rigid structure. This should make the whole molecule non-immunogenic in most cases and would enable repeated administration of the drug.”

Morad said AEBi's discovery could also decrease the sickening side-effects of most cancer treatments dramatically, which are the result of drug treatments interacting with the wrong or additional targets, or the correct targets but on non-cancerous cells. “He said MuTaTo’s having a combination of several highly specific cancer-targeting peptides on one scaffold for each type of cancer cell would increase the specificity to the cancer cell due to the avidity effect. In addition, in most cases, the non-cancer cells that have a protein in common with the cancer cells do not over-express it.”

Morad equated the concept of MuTaTo to the triple drug cocktail that has helped change AIDS “from being an automatic death sentence to a chronic – but often manageable – disease.” Today people with AIDS and HIV are carriers of the disease, but they are not sick anymore. And the reason is the combination of drugs they are given.

“Today, AIDS patients take protease inhibitors in combination with two other drugs called reverse transcriptase inhibitors,” The Jerusalem Post reported. “The drug combination disrupts HIV at different stages in its replication, restrains an enzyme crucial to an early stage of HIV duplication and holds back another enzyme that functions near the end of the HIV replication process.”

“We used to give AIDS patients several drugs, but we would administer them one at a time,” Morad explained. “During the course of treatment, the virus mutated, and the AIDS started attacking again. Only when patients started using a cocktail, were they able to stop the disease.”

According to Morad, the MuTaTo cancer treatment will eventually be designed specifically for each person. A piece of each patient’s biopsy will be given to the lab, which will then analyze it to know which receptors are over-expressed, he said. “The individual would then be administered exactly the molecule cocktail needed to cure his disease.”

But unlike with HIV and AIDS, where patients must take the cocktail for the rest their lives, with MuTaTo, the cells would be killed, and the patient could likely stop treatment after only a few weeks.

Aridor said AEBi is in the process of writing patents on specific peptides, which will be a large bank of targeting toxin peptides wholly owned and hard to break.

The company has finished exploratory mice experiments, which “inhibited human cancer cell growth and had no effect at all on healthy mice cells, in addition to several in-vitro trials,” The Jerusalem Post reported.

Next, AEBi will begin a round of clinical trials which could be completed within a few years and would make the treatment available in specific cases.

“Our results are consistent and repeatable,” Aridor said.

(Source: Forbes)

Orthodox Jewish man photographed covering himself in plastic bag during flight because faith forbids him to fly over cemeteries

It is not unusual for people to have rituals when flying on a plane, like wearing a St Christopher chain or keeping their eyes closed until they take off.

But one passenger took his beliefs a step further by covering himself in a plastic bag for the whole of his journey because his religion forbids him to fly over cemeteries.

This was the bizarre sight that greeted plane passengers when an Orthodox Jewish man covered himself under a plastic sheet.

It was believed the man is a Kohein, a religious descendant of the priests of ancient Israel, who are banned from flying over cemeteries.

Many wrap themselves in plastic bags as a compromise measure.

In April 2013, one passenger took his beliefs a step further by covering himself in a plastic bag for the
whole of his journey because his religion forbids him to fly over cemeteries 

The startling photograph, which has now gone viral after being posted on Reddit, shows fellow passengers straining over their seats to get a look.

Beneath his plastic wrapping, the man is dressed entirely in black, and appears to be wearing a Jewish skullcap or 'kippah'.

As a controversial solution - not entirely allowed by those in the Jewish Orthodox - the plastic bag creates a kind of barrier between the Kohein and the surrounding tumah, or impurity.

Rabbi Jeffrey W. Goldwasser, of  Temple Beit HaYam in Israel, explained: 'In orthodox and Conservative communities, Kohanim are expected to abstain from coming in contact with the dead, which includes a prohibition on visiting cemeteries except for the funerals of close relatives.'

Even if they can be secured by a seat belt, the passengers wouldn't be able to reach an oxygen mask or quickly escape the plane in the event of an emergency.

There is also the question of how they can breathe.

Pre-punched holes in the plastic are said to invalidate the barrier, according to Jewish newspaper YatedNe'eman.

Way around it? Israel's Ben Gurion airport is surrounded by small regional cemeteries, dotted in red, creating long concern for Orthodox Jews trying to fly into the airport

'Only if when the kohein is putting on this bag it accidentally rips can there be some leniency,' the article claims.

'Kohanim have a duty to protect their taharah, purity,' according to the article.

'They have been bestowed with extra kedushah which makes them worth of being meshorsei Hashem. At times, there may be extra demands made upon them in order to maintain that standard of kedushah and taharah.'

Some flights go to great lengths to take specific paths to avoid cemeteries.

And passengers can also be made aware in advance if a body will be aboard the plane in cargo.

The photograph, which was posted on the Reddit yesterday, had a caption which read: 'An Orthodox Jew in an airplane with women - so he covers himself with a plastic bag...'

A strict code of conduct prevents Orthodox Jewish men and women from mixing in public, with Israeli airline El Al seeing an increase in the number of religious men demanding to be reseated away from women in recent years.

While ultra-Orthodox Jews do follow to strict guidelines which include gender segregation in public, it is claimed this photograph does not show that.

An El Al Airline plane. The Orthodox Jewish passenger who wore a plastic bag is thought to have
travelled from Tel Aviv, Israel with the airline

One user of the Reddit site wrote: 'This has nothing to do with women. He is a cohen, descendant from the high holy priests of the temple and they are not allowed to walk into or fly over a cemetery, which would render them impure.'

It is not known when the photograph was taken, or what airline the man was travelling on, but it is more than likely it was an El Al aircraft flying out of Tel Aviv, which is surrounded by a number of cemetries, according to internet users.

In 2001, El Al Airlines decided not to allow ultra-Orthodox Jews cover themselves in plastic because 'flight safety considerations do not allow for passengers to board while covered in sealed plastic bags.'

A year later it was reported that flight crew got into an argument with a passenger who attempted to fly wrapped in plastic. The confrontation eventually led the pilot to turn the plane around.

One woman even sued the airline after staff moved her to the back of a plane when an ultra-Orthodox man refused to sit next to her.

PLASTIC PROVIDES BARRIER FROM 'IMPURITIES'
Kohanim (plural of Kohein) are the male-line descendants of the priests of ancient Israel.

Descendants are shunned from flying over cemeteries and being in contact with the dead.

Contact with the dead is believed to inflict him with impurity.

Why a plastic bag?
Some consider that the bag provides a potential barrier from the impurities/dead

How can they breathe?
Pre-punched holes invalidate the barrier

If the kohein is putting on the bag and it accidentally rips some leniency to breathe is provided

Contact with the dead would consequently inflict him with impurity.

Problems:
Flights have been delayed or turned around because of the ensuing safety hazards

The passengers would not be able to reach an oxygen mask or quickly escape the plane in the event of an emergency

(Source: Daily Mail)

Was Jesus really born on Christmas Day? 12 yuletide questions answered

How do Muslims mark Christmas? How do you give someone a maid-a-milking? And what are mince pies?

What is Christmas?
The short answer is that it’s a Christian festival that celebrates the birth of Jesus.

According to the nativity story, Mary and Joseph travelled from their home in Nazareth (in what is now Israel) to Bethlehem (in what is now the West Bank) to take part in a census. Months earlier, Mary had been visited by the Angel Gabriel and told she would give birth to a boy who she would name Jesus, and who would be the son of God. The child was delivered in a stable. Shepherds and wise men brought birthday gifts.

The bible does not specify the date of Jesus’s birth. Some people have suggested it was in the spring because of the custom of sending sheep into the fields at that time of year. “And in the same region there were some shepherds staying out in the fields, and keeping watch over their flock by night.” (Luke 2:8)

So how did it come to fall on 25 December?
In the fourth century, Pope Julius I chose 25 December as the date of the Feast of the Nativity. It took a while to catch on: Christmas wasn’t celebrated in England until the end of the sixth century, didn’t reach northern Europe until the end of the eighth century, and Christmas Day didn’t become a federal holiday in the US until 1870.

25 December is the day that the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches celebrate Christmas, but many Orthodox Christians use the Julian calendar, which runs 13 days behind the standard international Gregorian calendar, for religious festivals. Christmas is celebrated by Orthodox Christians on 7 January in Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova and Montenegro.

So there was no holiday season before the birth of Jesus?
Not as a festival to celebrate the nativity, obviously. But the reason why Pope Julius I picked 25 December was to appropriate pagan midwinter festivals and transform them into a Christian occasion.

In Scandinavia, the Norse celebrated ‘Jul’ (Yule) from the winter solstice (21 December) for as long as it took for large logs to burn out, usually about 12 days. There was plenty of meat as animals were slaughtered so they wouldn’t need feeding over the winter, and home-brewed wine and beer was ready for drinking at Yuletide.

In Rome, Saturnalia – honouring Saturn, the god of agriculture – began just before the winter solstice and continued for seven days. Men dressed as women, masters dressed as servants, and there was much feasting and rowdy behaviour.

In the British Isles, druids cut and blessed mistletoe to mark the winter solstice.

Who is Father Christmas?
Aka Santa Claus and St Nicholas. Nicholas was a 4th century bishop, a rich man who secretly gave gifts to the poor. One beneficiary was a man with three daughters who could not afford dowries to marry them off. Nicholas dropped a bag of gold down the man’s chimney which fell into a stocking that had been hung up to dry. The bishop was persecuted, exiled and imprisoned for his faith. After his death on 6 December, the date became an occasion on which children were given small gifts in his memory and, in some countries, children still open presents on St Nicholas’ Eve, 5 December.

Later, St Nicholas was usurped in popular culture by Father Christmas or Santa Claus. According to legend, FC/Santa travels through the sky on a sledge pulled by eight reindeer adorned with jingle bells to slide down chimneys and deposit presents by the fireplace. The story has endured despite the fact that most homes no longer have chimneys or fireplaces.

In these days of gender sensitivity - when even the archbishop of Canterbury has intimated that God may be gender-neutral - FC/Santa robustly adheres to a masculine identity. This year, councillors in Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, have formally ruled that FC/Santa must be a man after a woman controversially offered to play the role in the town’s parade. This could keep lawyers in business for years.

And it’s been “always Christmastime” ever since?
Not quite. When Oliver Cromwell and his Puritan forces took over England, Christmas was banned. Noting that the date of Jesus’s birth is not in the Bible, the Puritans decided it was all a just a pseudo-Christian gloss for the earlier pagan festivals. In 1644, Christmas was outlawed – no decorations, no mince pies and definitely no decadence. An “Ordinance for Abolishing of Festivals” was passed by parliament in June 1647 banning Christmas, Easter and Whitsun. In the US, where the Puritans were even more, well, puritan, anyone showing a bit of Christmas spirit in Boston faced a hefty fine of five shillings. Some referred to Christmas as “Foolstide”.

Along with the monarchy, the festival was soon restored, and it was the Victorians who really shaped Christmas as we know it today. They instituted carol singing, decorated trees and the exchange of cards. The first Christmas tree was brought from Germany by Prince Albert to the royal household in the 1840s. These days, about 7m real trees are sold in the UK each year, and as many as 30m in the US.

Spending on Christmas gifts reached a peak in 2014, at an average £604 per household. Typical monthly household spending on food increases by 20% in December, and alcohol purchases increase by 30%. Last year, about 1bn Christmas cards were sold in the UK. An estimated £355m worth of unwanted presents will be returned after the UK holiday as Britons try to shed a collective weight gain of 127m kg (20m stone) over the festive period.

One in six people say it takes up to a whole year to pay off the cost of their Christmas splurge, and then the pressure to spend begins piling up again from about mid-October onwards.

So it’s more of a capitalist extravaganza than a Christian festival now?
Perhaps, but Christmas is also a boom time for churches, with many people attending a service over the holiday even if they don’t consider themselves to be believers. Even some hardened atheists find candle-lit midnight mass on Christmas Eve or a children’s nativity service hard to resist.

Church of England figures show that 2.68 million people attended a Christmas service in an Anglican church last year, compared to an average Sunday attendance of 722,000. The 2017 figure was a 10-year high, although only a marginal increase on the year before – and it’s still less than 5% of the population of England.

This year the C of E has launched a digital campaign, #FollowTheStar, inviting people to visit their local church over Christmas.

What about non-Christians – those of other faiths, or of no faith?
Indeed, there are a lot of them. According to the British Social Attitudes survey published in September, six in 10 people either say they have no religion (52%) or identify with non-Christian faiths (8%).

Rather then being resentful of a Christian festival, Muslims often commit to extra charity work over the Christmas period, and some mosques hold special lectures about Jesus, considered in Islam to be a prophet. The festival of Eid al-Fitr, the festival that marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan, is sometimes called (by non-Muslims) the Muslim equivalent of Christmas in as far as it is a time spent with family and gifts are exchanged. The next time Eid al-Fitr and Christmas coincide is 2033.

The phrase “Happy Holidays” has become commonplace as a catch-all for Christmas, Hanukkah (the Jewish festival which falls close to Christmas), and the non-religious. “Chrismukkah” interfaith greeting cards are available for those who want to mark both.

And for those who simply don’t want any part of any festivities, there is always the tax return. More than 2,500 people filled in HMRC online self-assessment forms on Christmas Day last year.

What in the name of Jesus are mince pies?
Today, they are round and sweet, but they used to be oblong and savoury. Mince pies date back to the 13th century, when they were known as mutton, minched, shrid or Christmas pies, and contained principally meat along with suet, fruit and spices. The Victorians made them sweeter, although suet remained part of the “mincemeat” recipe until food companies tuned into the needs of vegetarians and vegans. The average Briton apparently eats 27 mince pies over the Christmas period, but 20% of the 370m bought each year are thrown away. Few people make their own from scratch these days, and why would you when you can choose from chocolate and cherry mince pies, gin mince pies, salted caramel mince pies, chocolate orange mince pies …?

What about turkeys? Well, goose, pheasant, swan and peacocks were the roast birds of choice for the Christmas dinner table for centuries. King Henry VIII was known to eat turkey at Christmas soon after the bird was introduced to England in 1526, but it didn’t become widespread until the 1950s. Now about 10m are eaten in 76% of UK households at Christmas.

Didn’t they try to cancel Christmas?
Not quite. There’s little real evidence of opposition to Christmas as a festival, but there have been many ill-founded media stories about the “war on Christmas”.

The most famous centres on a promotional campaign run over three months by Birmingham city council in 1997-98, called Winterval. It covered Hallowe’en, Bonfire Night, Diwali, Ramadan, Eid, Hanukkah, Advent, Christmas, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and Chinese New Year.

The council was accused of “political correctness gone mad”, even though it hoisted a “Merry Christmas” banner across the town hall, put up Christmas trees in city squares, hosted carol-singing sessions, and the Lord Mayor sent out a card depicting a traditional Christmas scene and wishing recipients a Merry Christmas.

A few years later, Luton borough council was accused of “cancelling Christmas” in order not to offend Muslims. Critics wrongly claimed the council leader had tried to substitute a Harry Potter festival called Luminos for a proper Christian Christmas. In fact, the council’s Luminos festival had taken place over a November weekend three years before the row broke out.

Well at least it’s all over by Christmas night, right?
Not quite. After Christmas Day comes Boxing Day, a public holiday in the UK, also known as St Stephen’s Day. The name refers to a Christmas box traditionally given to servants and tradespeople, containing money, a gift and sometimes leftover food. It used to be a big fox-hunting day and is filled with top sporting fixtures, but mainly it signals the start of the post-Christmas sales for those with any money left over.

And it doesn’t end there. In theory, the Christmas festival lasts 12 days, until 6 January, the day when the three wise men turned up in Bethlehem with gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh for baby Jesus. Traditionally, the celebrations continue and the decorations remain in place until 12th night, also known as Epiphany.

The song The 12 Days of Christmas, which started life as an 18th century rhyme before being set to music by Frederic Austin in 1909, logs all the gifts given to the singer by his or her true love, ranging from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming. One financial services group estimates the cost of the gifts this year at more than £30,000.

How do you pay for a maid-a-milking?
It’s not clear. You can’t call them maids any more, and most milking is done by machine.

What next?
Easter! This is the Christian festival marking the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The gap between Christmas and Easter varies between three and four months, and this time it’s on the outer edge of that range with Easter falling on the third weekend of April. Or, for the resolutely non-Christian, there’s the spring equinox on 21 March. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays …

Reading list

• The Bible – the nativity story is told in the books of Matthew and Luke
• A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
• The Snowman – Raymond Briggs
• Christmas: A Biography – Judith Flanders

(Source: The Guardian)