Crime of the Century

 Last week an oil spill floated for approximately a hundred kilometers and washed up on Israel’s shores bringing with it tar-laden birds, turtles, fish, and even a suffocated 30-foot baby whale. Israeli authorities are still searching for the source of the oil spill.Meanwhile, Israel has closed the beaches due to the pollution and forbid fishing and selling of seafood due to the danger of indirectly ingestion of hazardous material. Israel’s environmental agency has no prediction how long the beaches will remain closed.  But that is not the crime of the century.

Purim, the Jewish holiday celebrating the Hebrew’s escape from annihilation by the evil Haman in 5th Century BCE Persia, snuck into Israel under the cloud of the Coronavirus.  Last year Purim festivities, reading of the Megillah in crowded synagogues, Purim parties and the sharing of the traditional Purim “seudah” (meal) and raucous mixing on the streets by drunken Israelis, was the super spreader event. Corona had just begun to be noticed, and in Israel only a few thousand people had tested positive and less than a dozen were ill.

A year later, Israel is 26th in the world in infections. 773,335 Israelis have tested positive, at 84,080 per million, with 5732 deaths, at 623 per million, with 760 critical cases and 39,801 active cases. This, while 4.3 million Israelis have received at least one dose and 3 million both doses.  Israel also began vaccinating anyone over 16 in hopes of reaching a herd immunity. However, according to Channel 12 health expert Prof. Uri Barabash, herd immunity will not be reached until children are inoculated. Pfizer, according to Prof. Barabash, is now testing their vaccine on children under 16, but the process could stretch to the winter, at which time herd immunity might be possible.

Prof. Barabash also said that the variants, the mutations, of Covid-19 are the worry now. While the Pfizer and Modern vaccines are proven to be at least 96% effective, there is no precise data on the vaccines efficacy on the newer mutations. Pfizer is reportedly working on a third shot to deal with the S. African variation. But that third shot has yet to be fully tested. Israeli health officials now talk about a new British mutation that has spread through New York and will, they say, probably show up in Israel. More on that below.

But Purim is still a problem. And after it, Passover. Both holidays where Israelis mix. Prof. Barabash expects a spike in infections after these holidays.Israel’s health ministry tried to forestall infection by issuing an odd curfew. From last Thursday night until this Sunday morning, Israelis were forbidden to leave their homes and travel more than a kilometer (6.2 tenths of a mile) from 8:00 PM until 05:00 AM every night, ending Sunday morning.

However,  Israel TV was rife with footage of parties held during the day, when no curfew was in force. Hundreds of revelers were seen gathered in places like Jerusalem’s First Station, in the Machane Yehuda market, and in Tel Aviv’s flea market. Most of those gathered were imbibing carry-out drinks and eating take-away food, standing close, many without masks. Some interviewed said they needed the “break” to get out, gather, after the recent month-long lockdown, and pointed out that they’d received both vaccines so were probably immune. The police reportedly stood by and did nothing, although a police spokesman later said that officers had handed out many fines. Again, this wasn’t the crime of the century.

Israel has kept the borders closed. Tourists are not allowed into Israel. Returning Israelis are limited to 2,000 a day and then they must apply to a special committee for approval. Israel TV Channel 12 interviewed many Israelis who were not allowed back into Israel. Secular Israelis. Israel TV showed scenes of passengers arriving at Ben Gurion airport pushing their luggage carts. Nearly all, if not all, were Haredim. Ultra-orthodox.

The few ultra-Orthodox interviewed at the airport have said they received permission through connections to one or another to the ultra-Orthodox Knesset members, or their staffs.  Many of those ultra-Orthodox, with forged test results, were coming from New York, where the latest Covid-19 mutation was spreading.  A number of ultra-Orthodox people on the plane were caught with forged test results, and 11 later tested positive for Covid-19.

Transportation minister Miri Regev has called these reports “fake news.” An investigation into the charges has been called for, however other media reports say that Channel 12 got it wrong. The pro-Likud daily Israel HaYom said that the figure was about 50% ultra-Orthodox on the flights. Today, Minister Regev has said she was going to allow Israelis to return even for two days in order to vote in the upcoming election. This proposed move has been deemed “political,” a way for Regev, one of PM Netanyahu’s supporters, to bring back voters who will help Netanyahu get re-elected. However, even Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has backed the move to allow Israelis to return to vote.
And these events are  still now the Crime of the Century.

Last week, an unnamed formally ultra-Orthodox  25-year-old woman from the ultra-Orthodox town of Modiin Illit, crossed illegally into Syria from Israel’s Golan Heights Druze border town of Majdal Shams. The woman, who said she was seeking adventure, spoke Arabic, a language she’d reportedly studied. She approached some villagers in Syria asking the way to Damascus. Villagers contacted the military who arrested the woman as a suspected Israeli spy. The Syrian military turned to the woman over to Russia’s military in Syria. Russia is allied with Syria who is fighting a civil war. Israeli analysts dismiss that assumption that the woman was a spy saying the Mossad is much too sophisticated to send a woman to Damascus who had to ask directions of villagers.

Israeli media was awash with the episode. The Prime Minister reportedly contacted Russian President Vladimir Putin to help get the woman back to Israel. This, while some Israelis have been held captive in Gaza for years. Putin apparently responded positively to Netanyahu’s request, and arranged for the woman to be returned to Israel. Media reports that Israel financed the Russian purchase of 100,000 Russian Corona “Sputnik” vaccines. Observers speculate the vaccines will be given to those close to Syrian leader Bashir Assad.
Even this was not the Crime of the Century.

Syrian radio reported that a large contingent of Russian military was scouring a Damascus cemetery looking for a specific grave. The speculation was that the military was searching for the remains of some Israeli soldiers kidnapped during the 1982 battle of Sultan Yacoub between Syria and Israel;  or perhaps even searching for the remains of the Israeli super-spy Eli Cohen.

But, analysts question Netanyahu’s motives.Who was this unnamed woman, and why was she unnamed? The supposition is that she is the daughter or granddaughter of a very important and influential person, perhaps a relative of Rav Kanievsky, the ultra-Orthodox leader of the Ashkenazi “Litai” movement, or that of Degel HaTorah leader Yacov Litzman or some other ultra-Orthodox politician.

What is the Prime Minister’s motive?  Political favors. Netanyahu, who’s Likud party according to the polls may get less than 30 seats, and only be able to mount a coalition of 48 seats, is doing everything in his power to get more votes. The ultra-Orthodox parties have been curiously noncommittal in this round of elections, the fourth election in two years, and according to observers, Netanyahu is worried.

Netanyahu is also still on trial for three felonies. His appearance in court was cut short and then postponed until after the elections. Not the first time elections have kept Netanyahu out of court. Observers point out that Netanyahu hopes to win the upcoming election and pass a law that would keep him out of jail for as long as he is Prime Minister, although Kan TV’s political commentator Yoram Dekel believes the fourth election will be inconclusive and lead to yet another election, the fifth in about two years.

So, what was The Crime of the Century? On Oct 1, 1910, bombs destroyed the six-story Los Angeles Times building. The bombing was the result of a violent struggle between industrialists and unionists with the owner of the Times one of the leading anti-unionists in the country. 21-newspaper employees were killed in the blast and 17 injured, according to journalist Howard Blum’s book “American Lightening.”

The LA Times publisher, Harrison Gray Otis, had been a fervent supporter of the anti-union message, “sending flattering editorials and disingenuous reporting” in support of Patrick Calhoun, the president of the United Railroad, who had been indicted for bribery. Due to Otis’ support, the jury dismissed the charges against Calhoun, who, according to Otis, “had seemingly saved the city” from the vicious unions. According to Blum“The incriminating facts of the bribery case were simply a tedious irrelevancy.” Sound familiar?

Netanyahu has made every effort to appear to be the savior of Israel, according to critics, showing up at every opportunity, at inoculation centers, at the airport where the vaccines arrive, and wherever he can have his photo taken showing him in as saving Israel. As the world learned from Trump, say a thing often enough and people begin to believe it.

Nowhere does Netanyau admit that his actions were part of a team effort. Nor does he explain why mostly the ultra-Orthodox get entry visas while secular Israelis are left to linger outside of Israel. Nowhere does Netanyahu explain why the ultra-Orthodox are allowed to ignore the rules the secular society adheres to, like not gathering in mass, or closing schools. Nowhere does he take the blame for the rise in the infection rate due to those he’s courting, who are among the most infected and the least inoculated.

Nor does he explain why a protest in the Arab Israeli town of Umm Al Fahm against the rise in organized crime and police inaction, resulted in 35 injured including a mayor and Knesset member, when ultra-Orthodox are free to demonstrate in great numbers, attend funerals en mass, or why Israelis protesting outside the Prime Minister’s residence are pepper-sprayed by the police.

So, what is the Crime of the Century? Is it Trump’s encouraging incitement in the Capitol? Trump’s new campaign to become the leader of the Republican party and perhaps lead another insurrection? Is it Trump’s ignorance of the facts that Covid-19 kills and masks saves lives? Is it the public who are “rubes,” according to Trump’s one-time aid, and friend Anthony Scaramucci, speaking on MSNBC? Supporters who are being fleeced by a con-man who is making “more money than he ever made… $300 million off of these rubes that he’s conning after the election with his big lie” that the vote was rigged.

Or is it Netanyahu’s flaunting the truth? Ignoring morality in favor of staying out of jail?Sending  spokesmen like Jacob Bardugo to eviscerate Netanyahu’s critics, according to the Times of Israel, and attack Israel’s top legal officer Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, who filed the criminal indictments against Netanyahu? Or showing unjust favoritism to those groups who can vote for him, at the expense of the public’s health?

In 1910 the Crime of the Century was the bombing of the LA Times.
The question is: what is the crime of the century today?  There are a lot of candidates.
And the answer is still unclear. But then again, we’re talking about an entirely different century.