Steering Straight Ahead

 

Was Donald Trump a Russian asset? According to the TimesofIsrael.com, a new book by journalist Craig Unger, American Kompromat. quoting a former KGB spy, Yuri Shvets, who worked for the KGB in Washington DC for years in the 1980s, former president Donald Trump was a KGB asset dating back to that period.

True or false? “Go figure.” quipped an observer. Shvets says Trump was recruited by the KGB who also provided him with laundered money to prop up his business. The TOI article stated “...Trump’s attitude toward Russia throughout his presidency often raised eyebrows. He appeared loath to criticize Moscow on multiple occasions and repeatedly and openly cozied up to Putin.”

However, the article also says that the Trump administration took serious action against Russia, like supplying weapons to Russia’s foe the Ukraine, expelling Russian diplomats and closing Russian missions. One pundit wondered “Were these red herrings to throw off the scent of those investigating Trump?” Perhaps. But the article still raises the issue of Trumps sometimes inexplicable permissiveness when it came to Russia. Another pundit asks, “What would Trump’s right-wing nationalist supporters think of this revelation should it turn out to be true?”

Special counsel Robert Mueller investigated the Russian involvement in the 2016 election and concluded the Russians had indeed meddled in the election but charges were never brought against Trump.

Meanwhile, President Biden has been quite active in rolling back a number of Trump initiatives. Among them freezing the $23 Billion sale of F-35 airplanes to the Gulf states, a sale that Israel had never been happy about. President Biden has also been conspicuously avoiding any contact with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu. Some observers put this down to an old enmity that began when Biden was Obama’s vice president. During that period Netanyahu flaunted his contacts and popularity with the Senate and spoke there without first contacting then President Obama, or even paying a courtesy call.

Whatever the reasons, Netanyahu, who is facing a new election in March, cannot use his close contacts with the US president in his present election campaign. During the last election billboards showed a photo with Netanyahu and Trump together, shaking hands and smiling at the camera. Netanyahu is having trouble this time around. The ultra-Orthodox community has been violently rioting in the streets, resisting the police trying to enforce the regulations that kept the ultra-Orthodox schools closed. This, in the face of a spike in Covid-19 across the country, especially in the ultra-Orthodox community.

Israel’s infection rate in over 9% of those tested, with 631,226 infections, at 68,629 per million, with 4,671 deaths, at 508 per million, with 321 on ventilators, 1,135 in critical condition, and 74,566 active cases. Israel is #27 in the world in infections. The world has 102,137,721 infections with 2,203,114 deaths. The USA is still #1 with 26,338,607 infections, and 443,769 deaths.

Israel is still in a lockdown. Borders closed. Airport closed. Israel’s vaccination campaign is going full bore. According to Ynetnews, “Israel began what has become the world's fastest per capita distribution of vaccines against the new coronavirus on Dec. 19, using the shot developed by the American firm Pfizer Inc. and Germany's BioNTech.

On Tuesday, the government said the inoculations were proving to be highly effective, with Israel not seeing a single serious case of COVID-19 among the more than 6% of the population who have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.” Earlier, the media reported that only 20 out of 128,000 people vaccinated showed symptoms but only one case was serious.

Health Ministry official Prof. Sharon Elroy-Price told Army radio on Thursday that the efficacy of the vaccine against the new mutations is now being tested but results will take another week or so. In Israel, the British variant, that is much more infectious, is the major problem today.

Prof. Elroy-Price also said that the good news was that the RNA formula used in the vaccine can easily be modified to deal with any variant. The bad news was that a third vaccine may be on the horizon if the tests show the current vaccine was not effective enough against the British or other mutations being studied. So far, the Pfizer drug has been proven to be 95% effective after the second dose against the “common” strain of the virus.

Co-incidently, Pfizer CEO Prof. Albert Bourla, appeared in the III Annual Congressional

Holocaust Commemoration hosted by the Sephardi Heritage International, of Washington D.C. Prof. Bourla, originally from the Jewish community of Thessaloniki, Greece, and the child of Holocaust survivors, related how his mother was saved as she was loaded on a truck for transport to the Auschwitz death camp, by her gentile uncle, a German and the husband of her mother’s sister, who had connections with the head of the unit in charge of the prisoners.

Bourla, a scientist, apparently saw the value is using Israel as a test case for the efficacy of the vaccine, considering Israel’s sophisticated delivery system and the high-level of Israel’s scientists. Several Israelis have won the Nobel Prize. Still, one observer, a historian, wondered if Bourla’s involvement with Israel wouldn’t be misconstrued and used to foster anti-Semitism, rather than taken as a wise chose by a scientist to test a vaccine in the best way possible.

Meanwhile, Israel’s hospitals are full to the breaking point. Hospital staff is exhausted. Israel TV showed scenes Thursday night of ambulances, with patients inside the vans, lined up outside the emergency room entrances of several hospitals because the hospitals had no place to put the new arrivals. Some patients waited for hours before they were allowed in for treatment. Elective surgery has been postponed.

Private hospitals, like Hadassah in Jerusalem, are also short of cash. The government has not approved a budget in over two years because of the elections, three so far in that period. However, Minister of Finance Yisrael Katz did grant Hadassah a special sum to tide the hospital over. But this only after a strike by workers was waged outside of Katz’s office. These seemingly endless elections are taking a toll on the entire country. For what each election costs the government they could hire more staff and pay hospital workers what they’re owed. PM Netanyahu, facing corruption charges, has not agreed to step aside and allow a government to form without him. And so far he has not been able to gain enough seats to form a stable coalition. Netanyahu also hopes to stay in power and form a strong enough coalition that would pass a law keeping him from continuing his trial or convicting him.

Now, with the ultra-Orthodox rioting in the streets, and threatening not to join a Netanyahu coalition, if he enforces strict rules against the ultra-Orthodox. According to pundits, the riots will continue and Netanyahu will stand by and watch or lose the ultra-Orthodox support when he tries to form a new coalition.

“But are these ultra-Orthodox rabbis, who lead the community that doesn’t move without rabbinical approval, really representative of what Judaism is supposed to be?” asks one Orthodox observer. One commentator pointed to the 1921 US immigration law that provided an exception to the strict visa quota in place at that time. The exemption provided in the 1921 Emergency Quota Act, allowed for academics and ministers to come into the USA. The Jewish mass immigration was between 1903-1914 when 115,000 Jews immigrated annually. Then came the quota so that from 1925-1934 only 9,000 a year were allowed in. But the Emergency Quota act allowed in a plethora of now famous rabbis under the exception. Rabbis like Rav Moshe Feinstein, (1937) Moshe Solovechek (1929) Joseph Solovechek (1932) Ahron Kotler (1940) and Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson (1940) and his son-in-law Menachem Mendel Schneersohn (1941) the 7^th Lubavich Rebbe. Some were radical fundamentalists, rare even in Eastern Europe where they came from.

Ordinary Jews weren’t allowed in, so the numbers of Orthodox rabbis grew to unheard of proportions. After the war many emigrated to Israel. The result was, according to Professor Jonathan Sarna and Zev Eleff, in their paper “The Immigration Clause that Transformed Orthodox Judaism in the United States,” a provision that reshaped “the trajectory of American Orthodoxy.” Also, why the “American rabbinate remained disproportionately foreign-born so much longer than most other professions did, and why, in the case of Orthodox Judaism, the image of the rabbi as a bearded, accented, immigrant newcomer endured in popular culture well into contemporary times.” “...these rabbis changed the face of Orthodox Judaism in America...transforming its institutional structure, opposing compromises with modernity, banning alliances with non-Orthodox Jews, and (with few exceptions) battling against Zionism… Absent these immigrant rabbis, Orthodox Judaism in America would be far weaker than it is today….and the entire course of its postwar history would have been different.”

While some of these ultra-Orthodox rabbis were relatively moderate, many were the modern equivalent of religious fundamentalists. These are the rabbis who changed the course of history we see today, not only in the USA and Israel, but around the world, according to analysts. Had these zealots not steered the course of Jewish history, we would not be seeing the flagrant disregard for common sense, like wearing masks, and getting vaccinations, that are prevalent in the ultra-Orthodox community today. But, said one pundit, you can’t rewind history and start again. You can only look at what there is today, find a goal to strive for in the future, and try to figure out a way to get there. No matter if the subject is health, politics, or religion.

Gone But Not Forgotten

 

Gone But Not Forgotten

Former President Trump may be gone , and many breathed a sign of relief when his presidency ended, but Covid-19 isn’t.

In the USA over the last decade, the annual death from the flu was between 20,000-40,000. In 2019-2020 there were 22,000 deaths. This according to Niall McCarthy writing in Forbes magazine on Oct 7, 2020, quoting CDC figure. The WHO (World Health Organization) estimates the annual influenza epidemics result in between 250,000-500,000 a year with 3-5 million cases of infection.

Early in the pandemic, the ex-President made the wild and erroneous claim that “100,000” or so people die every year from the flu, the truth was a quarter of that number. That claim was quickly debunked. Twitter hid the ex-president’s post, marking it with a tag stating that it violated its rules about spreading misleading and potentially harmful information relating to covid-19.

So far the world has seen 96,643,566 cases, at 12,388 per million, with 2,066,003 deaths, at 265 per million, with 112,143 critical cases, and 25,257,035 active cases.

In the USA, 24,809,241 cases have been reported at 74,711 per million with 411,520 deaths at 1239 per million, with 28,418 in critical condition, and 9,611,435 active cases. As has been widely reported, more people have died so far in the USA during this pandemic than in World War II.

Health experts blame the ex-President’s administration for first ignoring the seriousness of the Coronavirus and then fumbling the purchase and distribution of the vaccines. Except, critics say, when it came to his own VIP treatment, reserved for only those at the highest levels of power or connected to those levels, once he contracted the disease. Still, once he recovered, he waved aside the seriousness of the disease and kept up advice not to wear a mask and ignore health warnings about gatherings in public, all of which, critics say, contributed to the spread of the disease and startling death rate. To try to halt the spread of the virus, President Biden has issued an order that all federal employees must wear masks at work.

The doctor who touted hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 has been arrested. Dr. Simone Gold, one of the ex-President’s supporters who pushed the ex-President’s claim that

“hydroxychloroquine works” as a treatment for COVID-19, was photographed holding a megaphone on the Rotunda floor during the Jan. 6 insurrection while making a similar claim. The FDA noted in a April 24 statement that it was aware of reports of “serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine.” According to Yahoo News, Gold garnered national attention in July when she organized a press conference on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court to condemn pandemic lockdowns and rave about how “hydroxychloroquine works” as a treatment for COVID-19. Nearly 200 of the mob who rioted on Jan 6, 2020 have been arrested, so far.

Media reports that the ex-President is also planning to start his own political party called the “Patriots Party.” One pundit wrote that “Hopefully congress will disqualify him from ever running for public office again.” This, according to experts, can be accomplished either by convicting him at the impeachment hearings, or, if he is not convicted, then the Senate voting, even by a slim majority, to deny him the chance to run again. Some observers hope the moves succeed. The ex-President did say, as he boarded the presidential helicopter on the day he left office, that he would be back in one way or another. “Maybe as a ghost” quipped one critic.

In Israel, the Coronavirus continues to spread at an alarming rate. 9.2% of those tested had the virus. This, even though Israel is in the third week of a month-long lockdown, that might be extended further. So far, nearly 9,000 people have tested positive for C-19 within 24-hours. Overall Israel has recorded 570,085 infections, at 61,982 per million, with 4142 deaths at 450 per million, a record 308 people on ventilators, with 1113 critical cases and 82,930 active cases. According to Covid-19 Czar Nachum Ash, 30-40 percent of the infected had the newly discovered mutated “British” strain of the virus that is much more contagious than the earlier virus but not more deadly.

Some blame the ultra-Orthodox community for spreading the virus. 92-year-old ultra-Orthodox leader Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, one of the Haredi world’s leading authorities, decided that Haredi schools should be closed for two days. And then had them reopen. As of Tuesday, some 22.1 percent of daily tests from Haredi areas were coming back positive, compared to 9.2% in the general population, according to Roni Numa, head of the ultra-Orthodox desk at Israel’s coronavirus taskforce.

As the epidemic flares up in the Haredi community, the police have tried to enforce the government’s regulations. The Haredi community has resisted violently. Pitched battles were reported on Israel TV

on Jan 19, 2020 when the police tried to close the schools in the neighborhoods of Modiin Illit, Beit Shemesh, and parts of Jerusalem,.

According to TimesofIsrael, quoting Numa, High infection rates among Haredim are partly due to large family size and environmental factors, but experts also blame rule-breaking in large pockets of the community, often supported by rabbis and other community leaders.

Numa told Hebrew-language media that even in the current lockdown, some 15% of Haredi educational institutions were operating, and said that some 12,000 ultra-Orthodox students had contracted the coronavirus in the last month. According to Ynetnews, “hundreds of shuttles were seen unloading children at Haredi schools in the town of Beit Shemesh.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav, who runs ZAKA, an ultra-Orthodox emergency health service, a Haredi version of the Magen David Adom ambulance service, waged an uphill battle for virus vigilance in the ultra-Orthodox community. In an interview in the TimesofIsrael Meshi-Zahav lamented that Haredi leaders were ignoring the warnings.

“There are leaders of the community who have blood on their hands,: said Meshi Zahav. He lost his mother to the virus and is angry at his community for ignoring common sense. He said he tried to convince her not to go to a Hanukkah party and she didn’t listen. Almost everyone at the party was later diagnosed with Covid-19. According to Meshi Zahav, some rabbis give approval to rule-breaking and downplay the virus threat. “People just aren’t absorbing the seriousness of the situation and the leaders are living on a different planet.” He called these rabbis worse than “holocaust deniers.”

So far, Israel’s push for the vaccination has been a success in the general population. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein provided ministry data showing that some 2,365,000 people have so far had the first of the two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and some 692,000 of those have also had their second dose. The number represents close to a quarter of Israel’s 9.3 million citizens and, according to Edelstein, maintains its position as the country with the highest per capita vaccination rate in the world, according to monitoring groups.

The problem is that many in the Haredi community eschew the vaccine. A plethora of disinformation is rampant in the Haredi community, including that the vaccine is harmful to healthy people and especially harmful to pregnant women. On Tuesday, Jan 19, 10 pregnant women were admitted to the hospital suffering from Covid-19, all in extremely serious condition. All of the women were from the Haredi community.

Israel TV’s channel 12 reported that the fine for breaking the Covid-19 regulations were highest in the Israeli Arab community, and lowest in the Haredi sector, even if their contagion rates were similar. Some pundits attribute the disparity to PM Netanyahu’s catering to the Haredi leaders who he needs to stay in power.

Like some in the Haredi community the Israeli Arab community has reportedly been hit with a rash of disinformation and have also stayed away from the vaccine. The media has reported that Israel Arab HMO clinics at the end of the day have been dumping the vaccines they were given because so few Israeli Arabs showed up for the vaccine. This spurred some impatient Israelis, who were not Arab, to go to Arab towns and, through their HMO membership, receive the vaccine there rather than waiting to be directed to their own town or neighborhood.

The Palestinian Authority is not a partner to the Israeli HMO system since the PA is recognized as a separate and distinct entity from Israel with their own government, police, and health system. The PA has also reported high numbers of infection and is battling the contagion. The PA was late in ordering the vaccine and Israel has supplied some of her vaccines, but not much.

The fact that the PA is not part of Israel seems to have been lost on a US Congresswoman. According to Ynetnews, Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib took aim at Israel on Tuesday, calling the Jewish state "racist" for allegedly failing to provide coronavirus vaccines to the Palestinians.” She ignored the fact that according to the “Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority is responsible for the healthcare of its own population and has repeatedly said it is obtaining Russia's Sputnik V vaccines via a UN scheme.” This didn’t stop Tlaib from erroneously calling Israel a racist state. Tlaib accused Israel of "denying" the Palestinians "access to a vaccine" due to, according to Ynetnews, an alleged belief that Palestinians are not equally human.

While many in Israel breathed a sigh of relief when the ex-President boarded Air Force One for his final trip as president, some wondered if President Biden wouldn’t be swayed by the “progressive” wing of the Democratic party, and people like Tliab who lets her own hatred and bias blind her from the truth, much as the ex-President did when facing facts he didn’t find comfortable. How Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu will deal with the new administration is yet another issue. Yesterday, when the media reported that President Biden was reopening negotiations with Iran, “sources at the highest level of the government,” said channel 12 military correspondent Roni Danieli, “have said if that’s the new administrations attitude, there’s nothing to talk about with Biden.”

Observers point out that under the Obama presidency, PM Netanyahu went right to the Senate to plead his case, ignoring Obama completely. How Netanyahu will deal with the new administration in Washington is an open question, especially since Netanyahu faces yet another election, the fourth in 2 years, on March 21^st.

Stand Down But Stand By

 

COVID-19

9388 new Coronavirus infections were reported in Israel over the last 24-hours. That was 7.9% of those tested. Israel has seen numbers of over 9,000 for several days. Today, Jan 14, 2021, according to https://ncov2019.live/data, Israel had 520,060 infected, that was 71,124 per million, with 3,817 deaths, at 415 per million, nearly 250 were on ventilators, and there were 1,054 critical cases and 78,221 active cases. Israel was #28^th in the list of infected countries. Israel is also seeing the effects of a virulent “British” and “South African” strain of the virus that is much more contagious but not more deadly.

The USA was still #1 in infections, at 26,616,324, and deaths reaching close to 400,000. Yesterday the USA recorded a record single day record of 4,200 deaths. The USA has been sluggish to start a vaccination campaign. So far 10 million Americans have been vaccinated, that’s 10% of the elderly/at risk population but only 3.4% of the total population.

To combat the holiday inspired surge in infections, Israel has entered a two-week “total lockdown.” This is Israel’s third “total lockdown” that is being strictly enforced. Schools, malls, restaurants, theaters and all but essential businesses are closed. Residents are restricted to within 1 km (@600 yards) of their homes. Police man roadblocks on the main highways checking to see if the driver has a legitimate reason to be on the road.

However, the investigation is cursory unless a suspicion is aroused, then the police check the driver’s story using a database listing occupation and residence. A stiff fine is imposed on those trying to ignore the regulations. TV reports show long lines of cars during rush hour lined up at the barricades, snaking into the horizon. Israel’s Coronavirus Czar Prof. Nahum Ash, announced today that the lockdown will probably be extended another week in order to quell the spike in infections.

According to Ynetnews, Prof. Ash also said that the “restrictions could be eased if the number of serious patients decreases even if the tally of daily cases remains higher than where it was when the 2 previous lockdowns were lifted.” He added, because of the British and S. African mutations, the number of infections is higher, but “if we see a relatively sharp decline in the number of serious patients, we will be able to come out (of the lockdown) with a slightly higher number of daily cases than last time.”

Israel has continued the massive innoculation campaign. The vaccines reportedly also work on the new British and S. African strain. Over 20% of Israel’s population has so far been vaccinated. The campaign began with those over 60 and has now dropped down to vaccinate those over 45. Prime Minister Netanyahu expects the entire country to be vaccinated by March 20, 2021. (Coincidentally, that is three days before Israel’s fourth election in two years. Netanyahu is trying his best to take credit for the rate of delivery of the Pfizer vaccine and the success of the vaccination campaign.) Israel is vaccinating between 150,000 – 200,000 people a day.

Israel is, according to the media, being used as a global guide for the world not only as a system for vaccinations, but also in the results. Israel’s vaccines are being administered by the four HMOs in the country. All have extensive data bases and are interconnected, making the notification by phone or SMS easy. An SMS message carries a link to a website that allows the person to chose a date and location for the innoculation. The visit is entered into a data base of the HMO and the Health Ministry and should any complications arise the data is recorded and shared. Ostensibly, this gathering and sharing of data is one of the reasons that Pfizer pharmaceuticals, among others, has stepped up the deliveries to Israel, now scheduled to be approximately 1 million doses a week. Moderna Pharmaceuticals has also begun deliveries, but on a smaller scale, about 100,000 doses a week. Reportedly, these Moderna doses will be given to the Army and Police.

Already, according to the Israel Health Ministry, results are positive. Following just the first innoculation, the Israel’s infection rate has dropped over 30%. The current spike, according to health officials, is caused by the recent holiday season. The Hanukkah holiday saw a spike in the ultra-Orthodox community. 34% of those infected come from the ultra-Orthodox community. The Arab community is also hard hit, following the Christmas and New Years holiday, reaching over a 40% infection rate.

Once a those innoculated have received both the first and second innoculation, they will be issued a “green card” that will allow them to go to restaurants and coffee shops and theaters and to travel outside the country. The EU today was concerned about documents like these “green cards” and objected to their use saying it put undue pressure on their countries to meet Israel’s pace of vaccination, something countries like Germany, France and Austria are hard-put to do.

POLITICS

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s trial for corruption and breach of trust has been postponed because of the lockdown. The trial is set to resume in early March, if the lockdown is lifted. Meanwhile, Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino mogul and major philanthropist, passed away this week at aged 87. Adelson was one of Netanyahu’s financial backers. He also started the pro Likud/Netanyahu free daily newspaper “Israel HaYom” (Israel Today). Adelson is to be buried in Israel. Adelson was also a major supporter of President Trump.

As of now, according to the Channel 12 TV news polls, the Likud stands to win 29 seats in the next election but is still short of the 61 seats necessary to form a government. His main rival, former Likud “Prince” Gideon Saar, polls 21 seats. Saar has said he would not go into a coalition with Netanyahu. Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party barely gets 5 seats in the recent polls. Gantz lost the majority of his support when he broke his election promise and went into the Netanyahu government. Many of those who were stalwarts in his Knesset list have left for other parties. Pundits say that as things stand now, another fragile coalition is the best scenario. Baring that, another round of elections should a stalemate occur. The fifth election in 2 years. Netanyahu, according to analysts, gets an A for securing the vaccines and an F for managing the Covid-19 epidemic in Israel.

THE CAPITOL RIOTS

Then there’s Trump and the Capitol riots. One observer said it reminded him of the Conspiracy 7 trial, (a film of that event is now on Netflix) where a Jewish judge, Julius Hoffman, faced the accused conspirator Abby Hoffman, also Jewish. A conundrum that drove some anti-Semites to distraction. The insurrection at the Capitol was not much different. According to press reports, groups like QAnon and the Proud Boys, who were no longer standing down nor standing by, along with other Neo-Nazi groups, were in the same mob as Orthodox Jews. Most obvious was Aaron Mostofsky, a registered Democrat, who was taken into custody in Brooklyn on Tuesday. Mostofsky faces four federal charges, including theft of government property. He is the son of Kings County Supreme Court Judge Steven (Shlomo) Mostofsky, also a registered Democrat.

Aaron Mosofsky was, according to the NY Times, wearing a bullet-proof vest, valued at $1,905, with “Police” written on it, and carried a riot shield, valued at $256. Mostofsky was one of more than 70 people charged since the riots. Reportedly, the Justice Department and F.B.I are pursing at least 170 other suspects, acting on over 100,000 tips. On Jan 6, 2021 Mosofsky posted a video on Instagram labeled “DC bound stopthesteal” According to the NYTimes, Mostofsky’s brother Neil, who was also at the riot but claims he did not enter the Capitol, is the executive director of Chovevei Zion, a politically conservative Orthodox Jewish advocacy organization.

On Long Island, in New York, the Orthodox media’s support for the Capitol mob “roils Long Island Jewish communities,” according to an article in the Times Of Israel.

“One paper banned from two synagogues after running photo of columnist posing triumphantly in front of sea of protesters, others steadfast in support of Trump,” according to Shira Hanau writing in the Times of Israel. Hanau wrote that the day after the pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol, the “5 Towns Jewish Times,” a weekly newspaper catering to the large Orthodox community in Nassau County on Long Island, ran of photo of one of its columnists positing triumphantly in front of a sea of protesters.” The photo was of 5TJT columnist Dr. Gila Jedwab (a dentist), who claims she left before the mob entered the Capitol. One 5TJT staffer, Marcy Behrmann Farrell, the online editor, resigned from the paper saying she could not work for a publication "that places so little value on respect and sees no value in our laws.”

Chat rooms on other Orthodox Jewish publications showed no remorse and were filled with debates. The haredi Orthodox online “Vos IZ Neias” claimed that Antifa, a loose collection of leftist anti-fascists, was responsible for the violence at the Capitol.

Lloyd Wolf, free-lance photographer for the JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency) was covering the riots. He approached two women blowing the shofar (hollow ram’s horn), one wrapped in a tallit (ritual prayer shawl). Wolf said he questioned the women and deduced they were evangelical Christians blowing the shofar like Joshua to bring down the walls of Jericho.

So far six people have died as a result of the riots, one facing arrest committed suicide on Saturday. One of the Capitol police was killed. An attorney asked if that did not make all those involved in the riot guilty as accessories? Even Trump, who incited the riot? Other analysts say that this wasn’t a riot but a failed insurrection. AP (Associated Press) reportedly assiduously avoided calling the riot a ‘coup’ and settled for ‘insurrection.’ Other observers say Trump tried and failed to seize the Capitol and perhaps have his followers force the legislators to void the Electoral College votes, or at least destroy them.

According to legal experts Trump can still be denied any chance to run again for office if such a motion is approved by a simple majority of the Senate. Others say the issue is not so clear. Perhaps, they posit, he must first be convicted at the impeachment hearings.

However, the investigations into how the riot happened, how the mob managed to get into the Capitol, is ongoing. The role of the Pentagon official, Acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller, who dragged his heels sending in the National Guard, saying he didn’t want photos of the National Guard holding rifles, and standing in front of the Capitol building. Ultimately, VP Pence called him and urged sending in the National Guard, although Trump should have been the one to do that.

Then there was the role of some of the Capitol police seen wearing red Trump supporter MAGA hats and guiding rioters around the Capitol building, or the charge that some legislators, like Congresswoman Lauren Boebart,(R. Colorado) were complicit in the riots by texting locations of the legislators. Reportedly, she tweeted “speaker has been removed from the changer.” Boebart also reportedly carries a gun in her purse and refuses to go through the Capitol buildings metal detectors. Speaker Pelosi has said anyone refusing to go through the detector will face a $10,000 fine. According to reports, Secret Service agents are concerned for President Elect Biden’s life and worry an irate legislator may try to assassinate Biden.

Congresswoman Mikie Sherrill (D. New Jersey) said she witnessed colleagues escorting people through the Capitol on ‘reconnaissance’ ahead of the violent insurrection. She notified the Capitol police and the Capitol Sargent At arms. Both the chief of the Capitol police and the Sargent-at-arms have resigned. Some Capitol police have been suspended with pay. There are also reports of police from around the country attending the riots. John Catanzara, the head of the largest Chicago Policeman’s Union, defended those who attacked the Capitol. Other policemen from around the country who were seen at the riot have been suspended.

Time will show who was to blame. Who was complicit. Pundits expect the lengthy impeachment trial of President Trump to take months. And while the trial is expected to impede President Elect Biden’s need to get Senate approval for his cabinet picks, ultimately a vote on their acceptability will be taken.

But, then there’s Lloyd Wolf. His father escaped Nazi Germany, came to America, served in the US Army, and was part of the unit that liberated the Nazi’s Buchenwald concentration camp. Wolf recalls his father’s telling of the brown shirts and Hitler Youth and how frightened he was as a boy. And how relieved he was when he made it to America. According to Wolf “The Proud Boys are the equivalent of Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (Hitler’s street terrorists)... It came to me that this fascist thuggery and oppression is what my father came to America to get away from.”

David Harris, CEO of the American Jewish Committee said, “It was the soft core group, not the hard core group, that allowed itself to be co-opted” and give power to the Nazis. He said that QAnon, the group that claims a deep conspiracy of pedophiles, globalists an atheists, has many of the same classic anti-Semitic tropes: a cabal that is also preying on children. Another observer of QAnon said that “Q” was to be the savior of America and the Christian world. And some thought that “Q” was either Trump or someone close to him.

The inauguration is only days away, and the impeachment is expected to drag on for months. Former FBI head James Comey is against the impeachment because he says it will give Trump exactly what he wants, to be the center of attention. In the news every day.

Pundits worry what else Trump and his followers have in mind. Trump may be out of office by next week but he will not be out of mind for months to come. As one observer said, it’s time for those who really prize democracy to “Stand down” but “Stand by.” And be ready to act before the Proud Boys, the Neo-Nazis and the QAnon followers strike again.

Still Living an Alternate Reality

 

One thing that Donald Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu share is they both live in their own self-constructed alternate reality. Trump continues to deny he lost the Presidential election. According to an article in the Huffington Post, Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen believes that Trump has actually convinced himself he won the election. “I won by a landslide,” Trump claimed on the news, recently, in spite of the fact that the landslide never existed. “He is copying (Joseph) Stalin’s tactics,” said Cohen. “Say something over and over and over and people start to believe it.” But, Cohen wasn’t pardoned by Trump as others were so perhaps Cohen has a jaded perspective.

One of the people who believe Trump is Marc Zell, the American-born Israeli who is head of Republicans in Israel. Earlier this week Zell told Army radio that the election was certainly stolen and the Republicans had won. Today, he told Israel Radio’s Ran Suriel that states like Pennsylvania have appealed to the US Supreme Court with proof that the election was stolen. Zell dismissed the facts that Trump lost the election and that ultimately the election results will be recounted and Trump would come out the winner. Zell, an attorney who immigrated to Israel in the 80’s, lives on the West Bank settlement of Tekoa. He also lives in his own alternate reality, said one observer, who added, 'How can he belief that stuff?' Another said that Zell's law firm may benefit from ties to the Republican party and has to tow the party line.

Netanyahu, on the other hand, is trying his best to copy Trump’s playbook in order not to go to jail. Today, Netanyahu’s attorneys filed a motion to postpone Netanyahu’s trial on fraud, breach of trust, and bribery that is to resume on Sunday. Like Trump, Netanyahu’s attorneys have filed motion after motion trying to either get the cases dismissed or the trial postponed. And like Trump the reason is an election. Israel is set for new elections to be held on March 23, 2021, the fourth election in less than two years. Netanyahu has tried to appoint judges and police officials who would help him get out of his legal troubles, so far to no avail.

One of Netanyahu’s on-going goals is to get a Knesset law passed that would assure him he could stay out of jail until after he was no longer Prime Minister. This is called the so-called “French Law” modeled after France’s one-time President Jacques Chirac who managed to have cronies in the French parliament pass such a law when Chirac was on trial for embezzlement while mayor of Paris (1977-1995). Chirac stayed out of court until after he was no longer President (1995-2007). In 2011 he was found guilty of corruption, for embezzling public funds while mayor of Paris, but given a two-year suspended sentence. Netanyahu is reportedly trying to pull off the same maneuver. But he has to stay in office as Prime Minister to do that. And get a friendly Knesset to pass a law similar to the one that kept Chirac out of jail.

One of the ways Netanyahu is handling that goal is by rolling out a rapid Covid-19 vaccine campaign and taking credit for the over 1.5 million Israelis quickly vaccinated. Netanyahu was on TV boasting of his connections with Albert Bourla, the head of Pfizer, and then showboating when the yellow DHL planes landed at Ben Gurion airport, standing beside the crates of the vaccines as they were unloaded. Then he made certain to have his picture taken getting the very first vaccine in Israel, attending the clinic when the 500,000^th dose was injected, and again when the 1 millionth dose was administered. Other countries showed regular citizens receiving the first dose.

This entire campaign was not only to secure vaccinations for the Israeli public, and for that he should be thanked, but more to show the electorate that Netanyahu was the one bringing in the vaccine and saving lives. “It wasn’t his money,” said Avigdor Leiberman of the Yisrael Beitanu party on Army radio. “We paid for it. The citizens of Israel.” Israel has mandatory health coverage, each citizen must belong to, and pay monthly fees to, one of Israel’s 4 HMOs. (Health Management Organizations)

Netanyahu’s idea, according to analysts, was that he would have the entire country, or most of it at least, vaccinated by the time elections rolled around in the third week of March. But there was a problem with this strategy. It backfired. One observer pointed out the old biblical dictum, ‘Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; A stranger, and not your own lips.’ (Proverbs 27:2)

The news that Israel was going at an incredible pace vaccinating the population, something Netanyahu announced by tweets, posts, emails and press releases, was picked up around the world. Netanyahu’s grandstanding garnered attention internationally. Countries around the world that had also pre-ordered the Pfizer vaccine were demanding an explanation why Israel got the vaccines before they did? Suddenly, this week, Israelis were told that there would be a pause in the program of inoculations.

This came as Israel’s infection rate began to soar. As of Jan 6, 2021 Israel has 458,132 infections, that’s 49,810 per million with 3495 deaths, at 380 per million, 824 in critical condition, and 59,229 active cases. Israeli hospitals were complaining they were running out of beds for sick patients. All but essential surgeries have been postponed.

Israel has also called for a complete lockdown, the third since the pandemic began. This lockdown will last for at least ten days and up to a month should the daily infection rate not abate. As of now Israel is experiencing over 8,000 new cases a day.

30% of the new infections in the last 72 hours have from the Arab population, according to Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet news. Analysts say that the upswing was expected since, like the rest of the world, Christian Israelis held Christmas dinners while both Jewish and Arab Israelis, against health ministry regulations, held New Years Eve parties. While ultra-orthodox leaders called on their followers to get the vaccine, according to the Times of Israel hundreds of Hassidim from the Mea Sharim based Toldot Yitzchak Hassidic dynasty attended a wedding yesterday in the ultra-orthodox enclave of Beitar Illit, disregarding the regulations on numbers allowed to gather, social distancing and wearing masks. The ultra-orthodox population has also shown a sharp rise in infections.

According to commentators, by rushing ahead so quickly, Israel has burned through their vaccine supplies. Pfizer, the news reported, was not going to speed up the new shipments to Israel as had been reported earlier. Critics claimed Netanyahu put his election campaign above the country’s needs. Had he been more modest, and kept quiet about Israel’s vaccination program, perhaps Pfizer would have kept up their timely supplies. Now, in the midst of a serious rise in infections, Israel finds itself in a bind.

After Pfizer’s decision not to accelerate deliveries, Israel turned to Moderna, another company producing the mrna vaccine, to speed up the order Israel had already placed. According to Reshet Bet news, Moderna agreed to send an emergency shipment of 150,000 doses, scheduled to arrive on Thursday, January 7, and another 150,000 early next week. Israel’s corona virus czar Nahum Ash told army radio earlier that this shipment from Moderna was ‘insignificant’ compared to the number of people yet to be vaccinated amid the startling rise of infections. Experts say that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines can be interchanged.

Itamar Grotto, assistant director-general of the Health Ministry, issued a statement recommending that Israel use all of the vaccines they had stored up and give them out as first doses. Grotto claimed this was what the UK was doing. The first dose, according to Grotto, was, by some studies, enough to protect someone even without the second “booster” shot. Other health officials in Israel immediately denounced this approach. Pfizer even said that three weeks were needed before the vaccine doses, and a month, from the first, before both together were fully effective. Grotto, in the past, had made the news when he allowed a wealthy contact to land his private plane in Israel and leave the airport without agreeing to the mandatory quarantine at home. Later that same millionaire held a party on a Tel Aviv rooftop ignoring health regulations of masks and social distancing.

But, how did Israel get the Pfizer vaccines so quickly? Was it because of Netanyahu’s smooth tongue? No, according to Health Minister Yuli Edelstein who told Reuters that Israel paid a premium for the vaccines and thus got them earlier. Another official said Israel paid  @$30 a dose, whereas the going rate for the Pfizer drug was half that on the open market. Edelstein said he and PM Netanyahu agreed to pay a premium to get the vaccine early to ward off the coronavirus and keep the economy afloat. Pfizer replied to queries that they have a fixed price policy.

According to Ynetnews, Edelstein told a TV reporter that had they not gotten their order in early and paid a premium Pfizer would not have looked at Israel, a tiny market, when doling out the shipments. Edelstein said that Israel was pitched to Pfizer as a country with an organized health system that could implement a fast rollout though a digitized distribution network and be used as a template for other countries. Ron Balicer, chief innovation officer of Clalit, Israel’s largest HMO, said Israel has an integrated infrastructure of digital data with “full coverage of the entire population from cradle to grave.” This made identifying and notifying those in health services, over 60 and those at risk, easy to find and thus allowing for the quick delivery of the vaccine.

Israel has also innovated a fluid distribution system. Once the vaccines arrive at Ben Gurion Airport, they are stored in the Teva Pharmaceuticals’ underground facility at the airport. Then a team separates the doses into pizza sized boxes that can be easily distributed to remote HMO clinics.

However, one of the shortcomings of Israel’s vaccination system is cronyism. Netanyahu’s Prime Minister’s office employees were all vaccinated. The upper echelons of the Health ministry were also vaccinated. One cynic wondered if he’d ever get his second shot of the two or would Netanyahu give it to one of his buddies? Another observer said, “I wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.” He added, “Who needs friends if you have protekzia (clout).”

Israel's third lockdown begins at midnight Thursday night. All schools will be closed and only essential services and businesses will remain open. This move will throw Israel into another serious economic bind. Already over 70,000 small business have closed since the pandemic began, according to the Times of Israel, with another 7,500 expected to close in the near future. The Israel Finance Ministry says that the lockdown will cost Israel’s economy @3 billion shekels a week, (nearly $1 billion.).According to Israel radio's Reshet Bet, the head of the Ger Hassidim has called on his educational institutions to observe the lockdown.

According to the Bank of Israel unemployment averaged 15.8% in 2020, that’s about 200,000 unemployed, most due to the pandemic. Israel TV’s channel 12 interviewed a number of small business owners on last night’s broadcast. Most said that they were heavily in debt due to the closure of small business and they’d have to take out loans to pay off their loans they took out just to make their monthly payments of rent, equipment payments, and unemployment benefits.

These small businessmen are not living in an alternative reality. One man, who owned a limousine and mini-bus service, said he had no work because of the pandemic. He worried not only about losing his business but his house. All of this while PM Netanyahu plots how to stay out of jail, and which next photo op was going to get him more votes in the next election. And Trump will go on being president in he own mind for years to come.