Odd Times. Odd Reactions.

 

As of Dec 29^th, Israel, number 32 in the world’s list of infections, had 407,285 people infected, at 44,282 per million, with 3256 deaths, 146 people on ventilators, 354 in critical condition, and 37,509 active cases. But Israel has over 5,000 cases a day reported, nearly 6% of all those tested. By comparison, the world had 81,680,270 infections at 10,476 per million, with 1,781,776 deaths at 229 per million, with 105,801 in critical condition, and over 22 million active cases. The USA is #1 in the world with 19,901,603 cases, that's 59,952 per million, with 345,617 deaths at 1041 per million, with 28,943 critical cases and 7,774,362 active cases.

 

Israel, population 9.2 million, has so far vaccinated nearly 500,000 people using the Pfizer vaccine, the only one available as of now in Israel. The Israel Ministry of Health says that 21% of those citizens over 60 have been vaccinated. 150 HMO branches, 22 hospitals, and 11 other centers, have been vaccinating the population. Former Covid-19 czar Ronni Gimzu, head of Tel Aviv’s Ichilov hospital, has opened the hospital’s doors 24/7 to anyone who wanted to be vaccinated.

 

According to the TimesOfIsrael, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the acting head of the Health Ministry’s public health services, hailed the speed of Israel’s vaccination drive, but also noted that the vaccine is only 95% effective, and that COVID-19 could yet mutate problematically — even though the vaccines are increasingly thought to be effective against the highly contagious so-called British mutation.

 

Ynet news reported that “the Health Ministry says communities disproportionately affected by the pandemic are the least prepared to get vaccinated, while the biggest number of inoculated was recorded in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa and others.” Israeli Arab and Haredi cities are reporting the least number of those vaccinated.

 

Amid all of this, starting next week, Israel will launch a massive innoculation campaign, once the medical staff and the 60+ are innoculated. Teachers are now on the list for innoculations. Then the general public. Health officials estimate that most of the country will be innoculated with both doses by the end of February. (This, while some countries, like the USA are struggling to start their innoculation program. Many in the USA reportedly blame outgoing president Trump who, according to a report in foreignpolicy.com, writing about how the Swedish government misread the Covid-19 scale, followed his advisor Scott Atlas’ advice to aim for herd immunity, as Sweden did. Sweden also refused to mandate wearing masks or closing stores and restaurants. Today, Sweden, with a population of @10 million, similar to Israel’s, has a death rate three times that of Israels.

 

One observer pointed out that not everyone who gets Covid-19 gets the VIP treatment President Trump did. Reportedly, President Trump held up the Covid-19 stimulus package until yesterday. This, according to observers, also held up the distribution of the vaccines since the package contained a budget to pay for the vaccine’s transportation.)

 

However, not everyone in Israel is happy with Israel’s rapid and successful vaccination program. Miri Mizrachi Reuveni, CEO of Maccabi, one of Israel’s largest HMOs, told Israel radio’s Reshet Bet that hospitals were receiving the vaccine instead of the HMOs who were the backbone of Israel’s health system. She said that Maccabi HMOs are now innoculating 25,000 people a day and could go up to 40,000 but no higher since Maccabi does not have access to more vaccines. As of now, an HMO member makes an appointment, gets a day and time, arrives and receives the vaccine. At the same time, the HMO’s computers reserve a second vaccine 21 days later for the person to receive the second dose. Pfizer’s vaccine comes in two doses. The first is reportedly 50% effective, but that number jumps to 95% after the second ‘booster’ shot.

 

Reuveni said that the hospitals were not the right venue for the injections since hospitals by definition were for “sick people,” whereas the HMOs were not, so the person coming for an injection to an HMO was not exposed to the same viruses and bacteria that float around a hospital. She said, “There’s a panic, now (of a shortage of vaccines) with people just showing up at the HMO and waiting in line for an innoculation. These people, who showed up without an appointment, took the injections meant for other people, depleting the supply. She also said that the hospitals were using up vaccines that should go to the outlaying towns and cities away from the center of the country.

 

Not so, said Prof Yaaron Niv, a health ministry official, on Reshet Bet radio. The first round of inoculations were for medical staff and then those over 60. The hospitals were given doses of the vaccine to inoculate their staff. Once these doses, he called them “sets,” were taken out of the freezer, where they were kept at -80 Celsius, they had to be used within two to three hours or they were useless and had to be disposed of. Each dose cost 200 shekels (@$62). He said the hospitals were giving those “sets” to people, who were waiting around the hospital in hopes of getting an innoculation, after the hospital staff had been innoculated, rather than toss the vaccines in the garbage, a waste of the vaccines and the money it cost to purchase them.

 

Health Minister Covid-19 Czar Nahum Ash told Israel radio later in the day that there was no shortage of vaccines and no cause for panic. According to the TimesOfIsrael, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein dismissed rumors that stocks of the Pfizer vaccine Israel is using were running low. “I hear all over the place rumors about a grave shortage in the vaccines,” he said. “There is no shortage, and there will be no shortage.” Channel 12 TV news reported that Israel expects to receive a total of 3.8 billion doses by Thursday, Dec 31^st.

 

 This announcement followed TV news reports, like that on Channel 12, showing lines of people over 60 outside an HMO in Tel Aviv waiting for an innoculation without an appointment. Many of them told TV reporters they’d grown tired of waiting an hour on the phone to make an appointment only to have the call disconnected. So, they simply went down to the HMO and stood in line. According to reports, the nurses at the HMOs were not always strict about appointments and anyone who showed up received an injection. One woman in her late 60’s said that she had an appointment and her 70+ year-old husband tagged along with her. She received the inoculation and so did her husband, who didn’t have an appointment. The woman said she was upset to see teenaged Yeshiva students also in line and receiving the innoculations that were meant for the elderly and those at risk.

 

At the Meuchedet health clinic in Modiin, however, the nurses wouldn’t accept anyone without an appointment. “We can’t,” said the nurse. “Because we have to know who is coming and how many doses to save for the second injection. Without people logged in through the computer we can’t do that.”

 

Israel is ostensibly in a lockdown, which will reportedly cost NIS 2.5 billion (@$80 million)a week. However the Health Ministry and the Education Ministry were at loggerheads, with the former wanting to limit the number of children in schools and the latter pushing for all children to be in school. The 

 

Education Ministry won the battle. Children from pre-school through 12^th grade all attend school. One observer said that essentially killed the lockdown. Parents didn’t have to stay home to be with their children but were free to go to work. Israel TV’s channel 12 showed footage of police patrolling popular promenades and rather than writing up fines for 500 shekels ($155) for people outside a coffee shop sipping their beverages, they simply asked the people to go home. Many small stores, who were supposed to be closed, ignored the lockdown. Restaurants are also closed except for delivery. Although Finance Minister Katz says he will allow carry out from restaurants to reopen soon. Traffic on the roads was almost as busy as normal with the police reporting only a 20% drop in traffic.

 

All of this while Israel is in the throes of another election.

 

A game of musical chairs is going on with members of the Likud and Blue and White parties, and a few other parties, said one observer. A few of Likud’s top people have left the party, like Gideon Saar who launched a his new right-wing “New Hope” party. Then came the “bombshell” when long-time Netanyahu loyalist Minister Zeev Elkin left the Likud in a surprising televised press conference saying Netanyahu was a danger to the country because he put his own personal needs, like his trial, above those of the country. Justice Minister Avi Nissenkorn abandoned Blue and White for a new center-left party being formed by Tel Aviv mayor Ron Huldai.

 

According to the latest Channel 12 TV poll, Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party gets 28 Knesset seats, but his former Likud rival Gideon Saar’s “New Hope” party isn’t that far behind with 19. Benny Ganz’s Blue and White has slipped down to 5, if that. Blue and White won 33 seats in the March 2020 election. Many in the Blue and White party are now actively looking for a new home.

 

Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid/Telem still comes in with a respectable 15 seats, even though his number 2 Ofer Shelach left to form his own party bringing with him two members of the Yesh Atid/Telem party. Neftali Bennet’s Yamina shows up with 15. None of the parties are even close to a majority of 61 and deals will have to be made with the ultra-orthodox parties, Shaas and Degel HaTorah, each with about 8 seats. Avidgor Leiberman’s right wing Yisrael Beytenu would get five seats and so would the left-wing Meretz party.

 

Pundits say that each election brings with it a new rising star, a “new hope” for the country. The last was Benny Gantz, who observers say was well-meaning and sincere, but also naive and a “frier” (sucker) who was skillfully manipulated by PM Netanyahu. This round it is Gideon Saar who seems poised to vacuum away Likud support from Netanyahu, seen as responsible for the poor response to the pandemic. Some observers think Saar’s party may become the new Likud.

 

Meanwhile, Israel’s high court is to consider if PM Netanyahu should be investigated for his part in the $2 billion submarine scandal that saw some of his closest confidants indicted on bribery charges. And, Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Lebanon’s Hezbollah terrorist group has said that he has a huge stockpile of missiles that could hit Israel’s major cities with precision. Experts say that this is just Nasrallah trying to stay in the news and that he has no intention of carrying out his threat. Others say that usually, in the past, Nasrallah did what he said he was going to do.

 

Odd times. Odd reactions. History will be the judge of who made the right calls.

 

One correspondent reported a strange story. While going through his late grandfather’s effects, cleaning out his home after the grandfather had passed away, he discovered a journal from1918 and in it a mask used during that epidemic. The journal held a daily record of what life was like under that pandemic.

 

So, what will future generations find that relates to this one? Will the verdict be good or will we all be seen as having lived through a period of recklessness and folly by self-centered leaders more concerned with their own image than the good of their citizens? Time will tell. Meanwhile, experts say, don’t forget to wear a mask.

Vaccines, Policitc and a New Lockdown

 

Three main points. Israelis have started getting vaccinated against the Corona Virus. Israel’s Covid-19 numbers are on a startling rise. The Health Ministry is expected to call for a lockdown starting this weekend and lasting for between three to four weeks. And, Israel is heading to the 4th elections in two years.

Israelis in the front lines of the health sector battling Covid-19 and those over 60 are the first to get the Pfizer inoculation, administered in two doses 14-days apart. According to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, the HMO’s telephones have been “going crazy” with Israelis wanting to make an appointment to receive the vaccine. According to the health ministry, the HMO’s are the main backbone of the Israeli health sector and the ones best suited to administer the vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine must be administered in two doses. Once an appointment is made the HMO automatically makes an appointment for the second dose two weeks later. Israeli news sources also feature interviews with health officials assuring the public that the vaccine will probably cover the new virulent mutations that have been sweeping Britain and parts of Europe.

The vaccine comes as Israel’s Covid-19 numbers have climbed alarmingly. Israel’s infection numbers over 24-hours have passed 3,000 for the last few days. There are now 382,467 infected, with 3136 deaths, and 499 in critical condition. The infection rate is at nearly 5% and rising. Several areas that had been green for the past month have turned orange, and a few turned red. The red zones are mostly those in Israeli Arab villages, where large public weddings have been the norm. Jewish towns with mostly Orthodox populations, like Modiin Elite, as well as parts of Jerusalem have also been declared red zones because of the spike in infections.

The health ministry has mounted a TV blitz encouraging everyone to sign up for the vaccine while extolling the benefits of the shot and explaining there is no danger taking it. Even some religious leaders have come out supporting the vaccine. However skeptics wonder if the message will be accepted by the entire community. As of now, commentators point out, the ultra-orthodox community has ignored regulations to keep a social distance, witnessed by the return of men to study in crowded yeshiva study halls, as well as attending huge gatherings at weddings and funerals. According to the health ministry, this flaunting of the regulations has led to the present outbreak and need for a lockdown.

Nahum Ash, the Covid-19 czar, announced today that the lockdown may start as early as this weekend and last for nearly a month. Schools would also be closed, except for kindergartens and special needs pre-schools. Some politicians oppose closing the schools. During the lockdown, residents would be limited to a kilometer from their homes. Most political party leaders agree that a lockdown is necessary in order to quell the rise in infections. Their agreement is necessary in order to pass an order for a lockdown in the Covid-19 committee.

Israel announced normalization with Morocco this week, the fourth Arab country to agree to normalization with Israel. Many Israelis took advantage of the new diplomatic relations with Dubai to fly their for vacation only to find out that Dubai is a “red” zone and that when they return to Israel they have to go into a mandatory 10-day quarantine. Over 60,000 Israelis flew to Dubai over the last few weeks for a holiday. Even some ultra-orthodox who went there to get married. However, the US State Department on Wednesday issued a warning that no US citizens would be allowed into Israel unless they had Israeli citizenship. And those allowed to arrive had to immediately go to a Covid-19 hotel and be quarantined for 10-days.

The rise in infections comes just as the Knesset dissolved, forcing new elections, the fourth in two years. The present coalition government between PM Netanyahu’s Likud party and Benny Ganz’s Blue and White party lasted only 7 months. According to media reports, the government finally collapsed after Blue and White leader Benny Ganz, who had waged three election campaigns against Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party, each resulting in a draw, before agreeing to join a coalition with Netanyahu in order to forestall yet another election. By joining Netanyahu, something he swore he would never do, many of his supporters lost faith in Ganz. Razi Barkai, talk show host on Israel Army radio’s Galei Tzahal, compared Gantz to Israel’s 3^rd prime minister Levi Eshkol. Barkai said Eshkol was also an ethical man who put the needs of the country before his own ambitions. It is a shame, Barkai said, to see Ganz go.

According to Chaim Ramon, the negotiator between Likud and Blue and White, speaking on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet, on the Kalman & Leiberman talk show, the final straw was Netanyahu’s demand to limit the powers of Minister of Justice Avi Nissenkorn and control the appointment of the Israel’s new prosecuting attorney. Some of Gantz’s blue and white party members staunchly opposed this concession. Netanyahu, they believed, was trying to manipulate the legal system to keep himself out of jail.

Netanyahu is on trial for three counts of corruption. Pundits point out that Netanyahu had hoped to get enough support in the Knesset to pass a bill that would suspend his trial on three felonies until after he’d finished his term as Prime Minister. Pundits also say Netanyahu wanted to have influence over who ever was going to be appointed to prosecute him in the trial. Three Blue and White party members broke party discipline and voted against a move to postpone the dissolution of the Knesset at midnight on Dec 23^rd. The Knesset was forced to dissolve because of a law that insisted an annual budget had to be passed by that date.

A move to postpone that date was defeated by maverick Blue and White voters even though party chairman Ganz had agreed to the postponement. Ganz, according to pundits, thought that the country was in deep enough trouble fighting the Covid-19 pandemic without forcing new elections that would put the country into upheaval and cost an estimated $775 million. This, said the pundits, at a time when Israel’s unemployment had skyrocketed, stores, restaurants, places of entertainment, and bars closed, and many people struggling to even put food on the table. Ganz’s decision to join the Netanyahu government and reticence to go to new elections was caused by his self-confessed patriotism, said the observers, something that also caused Israel Army Radio’s Barkai to compare him to Levi Eshkol. One commentator said, however, that Levi Eshkol never had to face a brilliant politician like Netanyahu.

Tuesday night Netanyahu took to the airwaves, appearing live on all three Israeli TV stations, ostensibly to give a state of the country address, discuss the pandemic and the vaccine program. However, he soon hijacked the broadcast and turned it into a political speech, lambasting Ganz for driving the country to new elections, and blaming the “leftist officials” lead by Avi Nissencorn, the Justice Minister, for scuttling the negotiations that would have postponed new elections. Even the TV stations realized the speech had become part of an election campaign and broke off from the live broadcast when they could, for commercials, or for commentaries.

Recent polls indicate Netanyahu would have a tough battle in the upcoming election. Netanyahu’s popularity has fallen as the electorate blames him for mishandling the Covid-19 pandemic. A Likud party rival, Gideon Saar, recently broke off from the Likud, taking a number of veteran Likud loyalists with him, forming the “New Hope” party. Saar’s new party is expected to garner 20 seats in the new elections with the Likud at 29. Other parties in the running are Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid with 16 seats, Neftali Bennett's right-wing orthodox party with 15 and Ganz’s Blue and White at 6 seats, if indeed that party gets enough votes to even enter the Knesset. Netanyahu’s traditional partners, the ultra-orthodox parties, would not be enough to give Netanyahu the 61 seats he needed to form a government. This would lead, said observers, to another election, Israel’s fifth in a little over two years.

One pundit pointed out that while Ganz may be like Levi Eshkol, caring more about the country than himself, the opposite could be said for Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. Another observer said that Netanyahu’s trial was the real wild card. Should he actually have a trial, assuming he couldn’t find a political maneuver to postpone or cancel it, and be convicted, then Israel would have a new government, one not led by Netanyahu, who has been in office since 2009. Perhaps that’s why Gideon Saar named his party “New Hope.” But then, he still had to beat Netanyahu, something that has been nearly impossible up until now.

Light But No Miracles

Israel has received the first shipment of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. On Sunday, Israel’s president Ruby Rivlin will get the vaccine at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. Israel’s health ministry has mounted a concerted campaign on tv, radio, and in the newspapers encouraging Israelis to take the vaccine. Reportedly, by April 60 percent of the country will be vaccinated. Leading rabbis in Israel have told their followers to take the vaccine when it becomes available. Israel’s medical workers and those at risk, like the elderly in assisted living facilities, will be the first to receive the vaccine.

Yair Lapid, of Yesh Atid, and head of the opposition, criticized PM Netanyahu for posing with the Pfizer vaccines as if he alone was responsible for bringing the vaccine to Israel. “He’s more interested in gaining political capital than is fighting the Covid-19,” said Lapid.

This comes as Israel’s C-19 infection rate has been rising steadily. Nearly 3,000 new infections were reported in the last 24-hours, raising the percentage to nearly 4% of those tested. Israeli health authorities are talking about imposing another lockdown next week. Some Indoor malls have stated they will ignore the government’s closure.

Meanwhile, ‘street stores’ will remain open. to further confuse the situation, the government is talking about opening health studios. Pilates studios have been open for six weeks under the rubric that they provided rehab and helped prevent the virus through exercise.So far between 500 and 600 health studios have closed and some will not be able to reopen due to the debts incurred during the coronavirus closures.

2892 Israelis tested positive for C-19 in the last 24 hours. As of now, 360,630 Israelis have been infected, with 39,209 per million, 139 on breathing machines, 3014 deaths with 722 per million, while 464 critical cases were reported with 71,062 active cases.

Another possible Israeli breakthrough may help prevent C-19. According to Ynet news, “Israeli scientists find ultraviolet lights kill coronavirus. Project leader Prof. Hadas Mamane says TAU researchers discovered it is 'quite simple' to kill virus using cheap and energy efficient LED bulbs, believes technology will be available for widespread use in near future “ The research has shown that a LED bulb,, the sort used in water filtration systems, can eliminate the C-19 virus. The researchers say that the light can be installed in air-filtration systems in elevators, hospitals, supermarkets and other places and kill the C-19 virus as it is exposed to the LED light.

Politics. One pundit pointed out that Bernard Malamud once wrote, “There is no such thing as an apolitical Jew.” In Israel, said the pundit, that adage is in bold and underlined. Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu, facing the 26th week of protests against him, has pointedly ignored his alternate prime minister Benny Gantz who is the minister of defense. Netanyahu appointed a new head of the Mossad, without consulting with Gantz. New elections, according to the Times Of Israel, are inevitable. The government automatically dissolves next Dec 23rd if a budget is not passed. Analysts say there is no chance Gantz and Netanyahau will reach another compromise that will head off new elections. The fourth elections in less than 2 years. Critics say that Netanyahu is maneuvering any way he can to stay out of jail. His trial is scheduled to resume in February.

Popular politician Gideon Saar broke off from Netanyahu’s Likud last week. He has so far attracted some from the Likud and other parties and is now, according to polls, nearly even with the Likud. “Another knight in shining armor” said one pundit. “First Gantz, now Saar.” According to the pundits, Saar is yet another in a long list of politicians who appear on the horizon with talk of reforms. Most, like Gantz, streak through the skies like a meteor and disappear into the far reaches of the universe never to be heard from again. Saar, however, has been around for years and ran against Netanyahu for leadership of the Likud.
 

The government, in an effort to alleviate the harsh economic conditions, has dropped the prime rate on mortgages, saving mortgage holders nearly a hundred dollars a month. But, the dollar shekel exchange rate remains in Israel’s favor. The strong shekels is trading at 3.25 to the dollar.

Israel has been inundated with a severe winter’s rain. Some locations in Israel have received more than 100 mm within a few hours. The Knerret (Sea of Galilee) has risen nearly 4 cm.
"Hanukkah has been weird,” said one youngster. Families have been advised to stay apart. Some children keep their children away from their grandparents as a way to keep them from coming in contact with the C-19. Only a small number of Israelis are ignoring the health ministry regulations.

So far, Jews around the world have been celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of light, where oil candles burned miraculously for eight days without being refilled. These days we have the light, but Covid-19 is still with us, with no miraculous cure in sight.

Light But No Miracles

 

Israel has received the first shipment of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine. On Sunday, Israel’s president Ruby Rivlin will get the vaccine at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem, Jerusalem. Israel’s health ministry has mounted a concerted campaign on tv, radio, and in the newspapers encouraging Israelis to take the vaccine. Reportedly, by April 60 percent of the country will be vaccinated. Leading rabbis in Israel have told their followers to take the vaccine when it becomes available. Israel’s medical workers and those at risk, like the elderly in assisted living facilities, will be the first to receive the vaccine.

Yair Lapid, of Yesh Atid, and head of the opposition, criticized PM Netanyahu for posing with the Pfizer vaccines as if he alone was responsible for bringing the vaccine to Israel. “He’s more interested in gaining political capital than is fighting the Covid-19,” said Lapid.

This comes as Israel’s C-19 infection rate has been rising steadily. Nearly 3,000 new infections were reported in the last 24-hours, raising the percentage to nearly 4% of those tested. Israeli health authorities are talking about imposing another lockdown next week. Some Indoor malls have stated they will ignore the government’s closure.

Meanwhile, ‘street stores’ will remain open. to further confuse the situation, the government is talking about opening health studios. Pilates studios have been open for six weeks under the rubric that they provided rehab and helped prevent the virus through exercise.So far between 500 and 600 health studios have closed and some will not be able to reopen due to the debts incurred during the coronavirus closures.

2892 Israelis tested positive for C-19 in the last 24 hours. As of now, 360,630 Israelis have been infected, with 39,209 per million, 139 intubated, 3014 deaths with 722 per million, while 464 critical cases were reported with 71,062 active cases.

Another Israeli possible Israeli breakthrough may help prevent C-19. According to Ynet news, “Israeli scientists find ultraviolet lights kill coronavirus. Project leader Prof. Hadas Mamane says TAU researchers discovered it is 'quite simple' to kill virus using cheap and energy efficient LED bulbs, believes technology will be available for widespread use in near future “ The research has shown that a LED bulb,, the sort used in water filtration systems, can eliminate the C-19 virus. The researchers say that the light can be installed in air-filtration systems in elevators, hospitals, supermarkets and other places and kill the C-19 virus as it is exposed to the LED light.

Politics. One pundit pointed out that Bernard Malamud once wrote, “There is no such thing as an apolitical Jew.” In Israel, said the pundit, that adage is in bold and underlined. Israel’s prime minister Netanyahu, facing the 26th week of protests against him, has pointedly ignored his alternate prime minister Benny Gantz who is the minister of defense. Netanyahu appointed a new head of the Mossad, without consulting with Gantz. New elections, according to the Times Of Israel, are inevitable. The government automatically dissolves next Dec 23rd if a budget is not passed. Analysts say there is no chance Gantz and Netanyahau will reach another compromise that will head off new elections. The fourth elections in less than 2 years. Critics say that Netanyahu is maneuvering any way he can to stay out of jail. His trial is scheduled to resume in February.

Popular politician Gideon Saar broke off from Netanyahu’s Likud last week. He has so far attracted some from the Likud and other parties and is now, according to polls, nearly even with the Likud in the polls. “Another knight in shining armor” said one pundit. “First Gantz, now Saar.” According to the pundits, Saar is yet another in a long list of politicians who appear on the horizon with talk of reforms. Most, like Gantz, streak through the skies like a meteor and disappear into the far reaches of the universe never to be heard from again. Saar, however, has been around for years and ran against Netanyahu for leadership of the Likud.
 

The government, in an effort to alleviate the harsh economic conditions, has dropped the prime rate on mortgages, saving mortgage holders nearly a hundred dollars a month. But, the dollar shekel exchange rate remains in Israel’s favor. The strong shekels is trading at 3.25 to the dollar.

Israel has been inundated with a severe winter’s rain. Some locations in Israel have received more than 100 mm within a few hours. The Knerret (Sea of Galilee) has risen nearly 4 cm.
Hanukkah has been weird,” said one youngster. Families have been advised to stay apart. Some children keep their children away from their grandparents as a way to keep them from coming in contact with the C-19. Only a small number of Israelis are ignoring the health ministry regulations.

So far, Jews around the world have been celebrating Hanukkah, the festival of light, where oil candles miraculously for eight days without being refilled. These days we have the light, but Covid-19 is still with us, with no miraculous cure in sight.

Still Fighting The War

 

Israel has dropped to #32 on the world’s list of most infected. As of today, according to https://ncov2019.live/data, Israel has 336,846 confirmed infections, that’s 36,623 per million, with 2,865 deaths, at 311 per million, with 10,232 active cases. 99 on ventilators.

However, while Israel has slipped down the chart over the past month, when daily infections fell from 15% of those tested, to less than 2%, the numbers seem to be rising once again. The daily infection rate has climbed to over 1,000 over the last several days. Nachum Ash, the new C-19 czar, has warned that the coronavirus is not going away. He was quoted on Ynetnews saying, “We are still in an emergency situation.”

Prof Shuki Shamir, immunologist at Assuta hospital, and a government advisor, told Razi Barkai of Galei Tzahal Army radio that a third lockdown is inevitable. Prof Shamir pointed out that 80% of the infections come from just 20% of the population. At present, the Israeli Arab community is suffering a high rate of infection, mainly due to the disregard for the health ministry’s regulations, holding large weddings where people mingle and dance without masks.

Prof. Shamir expects a rise in infections since Israel has mixed remote learning with opening up the grade schools and high schools, has opened outdoor stores and even opened 15 selected malls around the country. Prof. Shamir said the problem wasn’t really with the schools or malls but the gatherings at weddings, and parties. When asked by Barkai if enclosed malls wouldn’t be a breeding ground for the coronavirus, Prof. Shamir responded that if the malls were well ventilated, pointing out that many malls had recently installed better ventilators, and if the malls management controlled the numbers of people in the mall at any one time, and if the customers wore masks and didn’t crowd together in the stores, then the infection rate shouldn’t rise drastically.

Barkai then pointed out the Israeli well-deserved reputation for impatience, not wanting to wait in line, wanting to be social, and in general being rowdy. He mentioned a recent TV report with video of high school students dancing without masks. Prof. Shamir said that one of those students could infect 20 in that group, and then those twenty could infect their siblings, parents and grandparents and cause a real spike in the rate of infection.

Ido Bruno, CEO of the Israel Museum told Barkai that the museum would open on a limited basis and hoped the visitors to the museum would abide by the Health Ministry’s rules. Both agreed, though, that Israelis do have the unsavory reputation of not wanting to stand in line or abide by regulations.

Israel has also opened up tourists “islands” as they called the Dead Sea resort area and the southern resort town of Eilat. One hotel in the Dead Sea had to close when ten of the employees tested positive for C-19. The hotel was evacuated and throughly disinfected before being reopened. Staff at the hotels must all undergo frequent C-19 tests. Each visitor must provide a document showing they’d been tested and were negative for C-19.

On a positive note, Israel has ordered millions of vaccines from both Moderna and Pfizer. The first batch may arrive by the end of December and be given to medical staff and those over 65. Moderna’s chief medical officer, Tal Zaks, an Israeli, said in an interview in the Jerusalem Post that he hopes by spring the world would be in a much better place.”With enough vaccines,” said Zaks, we should put an end to this pandemic as we now experience it and get back to life as quickly as possible.” Pfizer’s CEO is Albert Bourla a Jewish/Greek business executive who was raised in Thessalonika, Greece and is still active in that Jewish community.

But there are those who still think the C-19 is a big bluff created to allow the politicians to have more power and control. “It is no worse than the flu,” said H, an ironmonger in the Modiin industrial zone. Mid 50’s, medium height, short grey hair with a knit skullcap, H stood in front of his small workshop in a line of workshops, smoking a cigarette. A mask was not to be seen, neither by him, nor by his neighbor, the auto electrician who stood beside a tall stack of car batteries. “It’s all BS,” said H.

On another scientific front, Israeli scientists think they’ve found a possible cure for cancer. According to Nathan Jeffay, writing in the Times of Israel, a team at Tel Aviv university claims they’ve used “microscopic scissors’ to “pinpoint and eliminate cancerous cells.” So far the team has had success with animals and hopes to begin human trials within 2 years. “This is the first study in the world to prove that the CRISPR genome editing system, which works by cutting DNA, can effectively be used to treat cancer in an animal,” said Prof. Dan Peer, a cancer expert from Tel Aviv University, after his peer-reviewed research was published in the Science Advances journal.

“There are no side effects, and we believe that a cancer cell treated in this way will never become active again.” He added: “This technology can extend the life expectancy of cancer patients and we hope, one day, cure the disease.” Dr. Peer thought that this technology could destroy a tumor within three treatments. “This technology can physically cut the DNA in cancerous cells, and those cells will not survive.”

 

 

Dr. Peer thought that in the near future there would be personalized treatments “based on genetic messengers” not only for cancer but for various genetic diseases.”

On the security front, Israel has refused to comment on a New York Times article claiming Israel’s responsibility for the assassination of Mohsen Kakhrizadeh, the “father” of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Kakhrizadeh was, according to Channel 12 news, “An irreplaceable source of knowledge. Channel 13 news said that Kakhrizadeh has been a target of Israel’s Mossad for several years. Kakhrizadeh, both a scientist and a brigadier general in the Islamic revolutionary guard, was gunned down as he drove with his wife through the resort town of Absard, outside of Tehran. Kakhrizadeh’s movements and personal life were so secretive even his age was not public knowledge.

According to reports in the Iranian press, a machine gun operated by remote control opened fire on Kakhrizadeh’s vehicle, followed by a car with security personnel assigned to guard him as it drove through an open stretch of road surrounded by agricultural fields. Perhaps as a diversion, a remotely controlled bomb exploded first in a truck as Kakhrizadeh drove past. The high-powered machine gun cut through the bullet-proof car. Kakhrizadeh fled the car following the explosion and was shot three times by the machine gun. Both he and his wife died in the attack. Some Iranian sources claim the machine gun was controlled by a satellite.

Iran said they would retaliate at the right time. Israeli security experts have said that Israeli embassies are now on high alert and warned that Israelis could be targets, especially as they visit the newly opened countries of UAE and Bahrain. The first flight to Bahrain took place on Dec 1 and flew over Saudi airspace.

In another attack, a convoy of Iranian weapons was attacked as it crossed from Iraq into Syria. Media reports that the Iranian commander of the operation was killed but the Iranians have not confirmed that story.

On the political front, PM Netanyahu is still witnessing protests against himself, now focused on his possible involvement in the “submarine” affair, where several of his associates are are already on trial for corruption in the purchase of billions of dollars of submarines and combat cruisers.

Also, the Israeli budget still hasn’t been passed even though the high court has demanded the government pass one. Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party will call for a vote of no-confidence on wednesday. Blue and White’s Benny Ganz has so far not said if he would support the vote. If he does then Netanyahu’s government falls. Some pundits say Netanyahu would like that as he could try to form a government that would vote for a bill granting him immunity from prosecution. Others say he would rather wait. Should the government fall, new elections could be held as early as March 2021. This would be the fourth election in less than two years.