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 3rd 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 23rd. 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.
