The Delta variant of Covid-19 is just one of the viruses plaguing Israel and the world.
The Delta variant has caused Israel to rethink strategies. While restaurants and theaters and wedding halls are still open, there are new restrictions going into effect. The Health Ministry announced that starting Tuesday, weddings and celebrations would be limited to 100 people who had to produce the ‘green pass’ that they’d been inoculated, or had recovered from C-19, and also take a rapid C-19 test at the entry to the event.
This is because the number of daily cases in Israel have increased drastically, although no where near the peaks reached last year, while those in in serious condition has remained low.“We are in a fourth wave,” said Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist from the Weizman Institute of science, speaking on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet. “But this wave is different,” he said. “We have over 60 serious cases but this number is much lower than the previous waves.” Israel’s Health Ministry reported there were 808 new cases in 24-hours. “Last year we had between 8,000-9,000 daily cases,” said Segal. In order to stem the rise of the infections, Segal said, Israel needed to vaccinate nearly a million people who as yet have not been vaccinated. Segal said that the vaccine is still very effective against the Delta variant.
So far, Israel has recorded 852,176 cases with 6,450 deaths, 124 in hospital with 66 in serious condition and 6,952 active cases. Israel’s positivity rate is now 1.7. Already 16 people have died of C-19 in July while only 9 died of C-19 in June. 16 people were on ventilators as of Sunday morning. On Friday, Israel recorded 1,118 new cases, the highest over four months.
Another expert takes a different view. Prof. Gabi Barabash, former director-general of the Ministry of Health, said on Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet that the present vaccine was much less effective than originally thought. “The Delta variant is a game changer,” said Barabash. He said Israel still didn’t have enough information to say exactly how effective the vaccine was, or wasn’t, because a thorough examination of the level of immunity of the people inoculated in January and February hasn’t been carried out. Barabash thought a third inoculation could help fight the Delta variant, but it might take as much as six-months before a vaccine to deal with the Delta variant is produced.
Barabash was also critical of the way those entering Israel at Ben Gurion airport were tested.”If we deal with those entering properly, we should be okay,” he said. He also said, echoing what Prime Minister Bennett had said a few days earlier, that “those who don’t need to travel shouldn’t. This is a very dangerous situation both here and abroad.”
Barabash brought up the example of Singapore, a country who was not as concerned with how many people were infected but rather how to live with the Corona virus. “We must wear masks, separate in restaurants, keep social distancing,” Barabash said. “The rise in infections we see now can’t end well.” He thought that England, (now number 7 in infections in the world, with 5,433,939 cases, 128,708 deaths, and 908,281 active cases) was taking a big risk by rolling back all restrictions. “Time will tell if they are right,” he said. Experts in England have warned that young nightclubbers are a perfect mixing vessel for the virus to spread, and even generate new variants.
Israel has taken steps to curb the possible infections coming in through Ben Gurion airport. The list of countries Israelis are now forbidden to travel to has grown with Greece and Spain added to the list. Health Ministry officials say that Great Britain may soon be put on the list. A stiff 5,000 shekel ($1,500) fine is to be imposed on any Israeli caught traveling to one of the “red” countries. Israel has also forbidden travelers to come to Israel unless they have a “first degree” relative. These travelers must fill out an on-line form, found at Israel’s Ministry of Health website, and apply for entry.
Also, those leaving Israel must now also take a C-19 test even if the countries they’re traveling to do not require such a test. Returning Israelis must also provide results of a recent test. Soon, not only a test will be required, but a 4-5 day quarantine, at the traveler’s expense, for those returning from any country. The police will digitally monitor all those who enter quarantine and fine and possible arrest those who break the rules. Meanwhile, to quell speculation, Health Minister Nitzan Howorwitz has said that there are no immediate plans to close Ben Gurion airport. Nearly 40,000 Israelis left Israel on Sunday. It is unclear what their status will be should the country they travel to is declared a red zone. During the first wave, many Israelis were stranded abroad when the airport was closed.
The EU (European Union) Disease Agency anticipates a Delta variant surge in the coming weeks. In the USA, 70 percent of those tested positive for C-19 had the Delta variant. According to the New York Times, Los Angeles County passed a new regulation that masks had to be worn indoors for both vaccinated and unvaccinated residents. However Sheriff Alex Villanueva ,the Chief of the LA County Sheriff’s Department, said he would not enforce the regulations. but rather ask the residents to voluntarily wear masks indoors. Villanueva said the regulations were not backed by science.
In a related story, according to the CCDH (Center for Countering Digital Hate) anti-vaccine and other disinformation stories on social media have been traced to just 12 sites that are reportedly responsible for 65% of the anti-vaccine content. According to the research, these 12 sites reach nearly 60 million people on Facebook, Youtube, Instagram and Twitter. The sites reportedly are behind 73% of the anti-vax content on Facebook and 17 per cent of tweets on Twitter. A notable behind one of the anti-tax sites was Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., whose Instagram account was permanently removed earlier this year,. He is the nephew of the last president John F. Kennedy.
Almost all the others on the list have been active and vocal supporters of former president Trump. Those on the list: Joseph Mercola, Ty and Charlene Bollinger, Sherri Tenpenny, Rizza Islam, Rashid Buttar, Erin Elizabeth, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan, Christiane Northrup, Ben Tapper and Kevin Jenkins. According to media reports in the on-line site “The Hill,” a spokesperson for Twitter noted that the platform has removed over 20,000 posts from the platform and challenged nearly 12 million accounts under its coronavirus misinformation policy.”
The report also stated, “Facebook spokesperson Kevin McAlister told The Hill that the platform has ‘already taken action against some of the groups in this report.’ "Since research shows that the best way to combat vaccine hesitancy is to connect people to reliable information from health experts, we’ve also connected over 2 billion people to resources from health authorities, including through our COVID-19 Information Center," he added.
Even so, according to CNN, US President Biden said last Friday that social media platforms like Facebook are “killing people:” with misinformation surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic.
Another virus sweeping the world is anti-Semitism. Speakers at the recent 3-day 7th Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism, held on July 13 in Jerusalem, warned that the ‘new form’ of anti-Semitism disguises itself as anti-Zionism. According to research, there was a 75% spike in anti-Semitic incidents in the US and a 591% percent spike in the UK following the 11-day war in Gaza. According to a report in the Times of Israel, Conference attendees argued “that a new actor, namely the radical Left in both Europe and the U.S., is fanning the flames of anti-Israel sentiment, inevitably contributing to anti-Jewish violence, alongside the political and social exclusion of Jews.”
Sunday was Tisha b’Av, a 25-hour fast day of mourning, to commemorate the destruction in Jerusalem of both Solomon’s Temple in 597 B.C., and the Second Temple in 70 A.D.. Other tragedies in Jewish history also occurred on that date, including the Jewish expulsion from England and later from Spain.
The courtyard beneath the Western Wall, a remnant of the Temple destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans, is traditionally packed on Tisha b’Av with men and women seated on the stone floor, separated by a “Machitza” a separation fence. On Saturday night, a group comprised of Jews from the Conservative and Reform Egalitarian communities were observing the prayers and reading from the Book of Lamentations at Robinson’s arch, an area around the corner and out of sight of the large gather at Western Wall, when they were suddenly attacked by hundreds of ultra-right wing religious nationalist youth.
The youth were reportedly part of a group called Liba who were opposed to egalitarian prayer and to the establishment of a permanent pavilion at the site for pluralistic prayer, as outlined by then Prime Minister Netanyahau in 2016. Netanyahu ultimately froze the plan under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners who are vehemently opposed to Conservative and Reform Judaism.
World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder said he was “appalled and dismayed by the baseless hatred demonstrated by a group of extremist Orthodox zealots who disrupted the lawful Tisha B’Av service conducted by Conservative Jews at the section of the Western Wall set aside for egalitarian prayer.”
Both Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennet and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid condemned the attack on the egalitarian worshipers.
Meanwhile, an estimated 1,600 Jews went up to the Temple Mount on Tisha b’Av. The Temple Mount, the remaining upper layer of Israel’s first and second temple’s, is the site of the Al Aksa Mosque and the Shrine of the Rock. Jewish worshipers reportedly came to pray quietly and hold a short Torah discussion. The police, according to media reports, have apparently have been allowing such visits for a while. But Omer Barlev, Minister of Public Security, told Channel 13TV news that “if Jews were praying on the Temple Mount, that is certainly against the law.”
The Temple Mount was captured by the Israeli Army from the Jordanians during the 1967 Six-Day War and turned over to the Moslem Wakf who administers the site. Last May, fighting between the Israeli Police and Moslem demonstrators kicked off the 11-day war when Hamas took up the mantle of defender of the Al Aksa mosque.
Israel’s fledgling government nearly had a coalition crises when Prime Minister Bennett came out with statement calling for ‘freedom of Jewish worship’ on the Temple Mount. David Horowitz, editor of the Times of Israel, called the Temple Mount “a religious hotspot.”
Bennett's coalition partners from the Israeli Arab Islamist Ra’am party threatened to quit the coalition if Bennett stuck to that line. A Ra’am spokesman said that the ‘entire Temple Mount “is solely the property of Muslims.” Jordan, Turkey and Egypt reacted angrily on Sunday to news of waves of Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount and clashes between the police and Arab youth shouting “With spirit, with blood, we’ll redeem Al-Aqsa.”
Bennett’s office later clarified his statement, saying Jews have “freedom of visitation rights” not worship, as his comments went agains the current status quo of no Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, thus ending a possible coalition crises.
Yet another virus is man-made, is Israeli, and attacks cellphones. NSO, a Herzliya based hi-tech company, has been accused of developing and selling the Pegasus malware to dozens of repressive governments that use the software to target journalists, activists, and politicians. A group of 17 well-respected international news organizations, like the New York Times, participated in research that exposed NSO’s sale to countries accused of human rights violations.
According to media reports, tens of thousands of phone numbers were accidentally leaked from the NSO data bases showing that countries like Rwanda, Morocco, India and Hungary are using the Pegasus spyware. Pegasus baits a user to click on a link that allows the software to infiltrate the phone and have compete access to the phone’s entire content as well as remotely activating the microphone and camera.
NSO spokesmen say that the company only sells to countries authorized by the Israeli government’s strict policies and stressed that the Israeli government does not have access to their data, claiming that anyone who says differently is propagating a unfounded conspiracy theory.” Amnesty international has urged limits on surveillance in the industry, and Whatsapp say the use of this technology must be stopped.
Reportedly, former Prime Minister Netanyahu encouraged NSO to sell their software to Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu, who has finally vacated the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem for his luxurious villa in Caesarea, is still on trial for three felonies. Last week, the prosecution asked to postpone the continuation of Netanyahu’s trial until September.
