Yesterday's News
UKRAINE
During his candidacy and term in office, former president Donald Trump proved to be the master of the 24-hour news cycle. He knew how to keep his name front and center with his tweets and outrageous statements. But like the crotch grabbing audio clip, most of what he said quickly became yesterday’s news, stored away as a rarely recalled memory.
Ukrainian building after artillery attack
So it seems that the still present Covid pandemic has been pushed aside by the recent invasion of Ukraine by Russia, an event that has already won the headline battle.
While President Biden makes stern-faced pronouncements that the stiff sanctions on Russia will have a deleterious effect on the Russian economy, he also inserted the caveat that no American troops will be sent to Ukraine, and even repeated the caveat for emphasis.
Israel TV commentators pointed out that none of the EU or NATO countries was sending troops to protect the Ukraine. One pundit said that “France has 120 tanks, Britain 150 tanks, Russia over 12,000 tank,” illustrating how poorly prepared the European nations were to confront Russia on the ground.
Another TV commentator cited the initial dip in the US stock market and then a recovery back into the plus side as an example how little the world really cares about Ukrainians plight. Former US President Donald Trump, even went so far as to praise Russia’s President Putin for his invasion calling the move a work of ‘genius.’
Another TV commentator pointed out that, paradoxically, it was Trump who strengthened NATO, an organization even as he wanted to dismantle it. Trump castigated NATO countries for not paying their share of costs. He made a point of telling the NATO officials that the USA, a country that was not in Europe nor directly threatened by Russia, was paying the lion’s share of the NATO budget and was going to cut off those payments. The NATO countries, the TV commentator said, had no choice put to pay their debts an assume responsibility for funding NATO, which they did.
Putin, according to other analysts, has actually given NATO a reason to continue. NATO was formed to confront the Soviet Union. Before the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014 NATO had lost its impetus, said the analyst, since the Soviet Union was no longer in existence. Putin’s expansionist policy pumped new life back into NATO.
Some analysts in the Israeli media opined that Putin has stepped into a deep hole. Once the economic sanctions kick in the Russian people will begin to lose faith in him, they say. Ron Ben Yishai, a veteran Israeli journalist for the daily Yideot Achranot, reported from Kyiv that Ukrainian defense sources told him that they knew Ukraine's army would have no chance against the Russian army but a guerrilla war might work.
Ukrainian defense officials on Friday called on Ukrainians to use Molotov cocktails to fight Russian troops. Some Ukrainian defense officials believe that once Russian soldiers begin to arrive back in Russia in body bags the Russian public will turn against Putin and his grandiose plans for a revived Soviet Union. However, others Ukraine observers say that a guerrilla war similar to that the Afghani rebels used to drive Russia out of Afghanistan would not work in the Ukraine.
According to media reports, about 35 percent of the citizens of Ukraine identify themselves as Russian and that Russian is the primary language in the Ukraine. The Donbas region along the Russian border in Eastern Ukraine contains two Democratic People’s Republics, those of Danesk and of Lubensk, both established in 2014 and peopled by-Russian-backed separatists. Nearly 700,000 Ukrainians in the Donbas region have been issued Russian passports and many now receive Russian pensions. A far cry from a Russian invasion force occupying Afghanistan.
Israel has as yet not taken sides in the conflict since, according to analysts, Israel and Russia have a common border, as strange as that may seem. Israel is fighting the Iranian-backed Islamic fundamentalist forces in both Lebanon and Syria. Russia has troops and advisers in Syria and has weapons in place that could destroy Israeli planes as they attack Iranian-backed militias in Syria. Israel, according to analysts, would prefer not to get on Putin’s bad side since Russia could seriously interfere with Israel’s nearly daily attacks on Iranian-backed rebel positions in Syria.
According to the Times of Israel, PM Bennett refrained from condemning Russia on Thursday, saying only that “These are difficult, tragic times… our hearts are with the civilians of eastern Ukraine who were caught up in this situation…. We know the world order as we know is changing,” he said while speaking at an Israeli Army officer graduation ceremony. “The world is much less stable, and our region too is changing every day.” Bennett glaringly did not mention Russia in his remarks.
Bennett’s remark were much more measured than his Foreign Minister and alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid who said a few hours earlier that the Russian invasion of the Ukraine was “a grave violation of the international order.”
Bennett also called on the 8,880 Israelis now in the Ukraine, (this included 5,840 Israeli citizens registered with the Israeli embassy and over 3,000 family members without Israeli citizenship) to leave .“Protect your lives,” Bennett said. “Our people (Israeli officials) are waiting to receive you at the border crossings in the western part of the country…The door to the State of Israel is always open,” he said.
Ukraine also has approximately 200,000 Jews who qualify for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return.
Since Russia began encircling the Ukraine, Israel has been calling on Israelis in the Ukraine to leave the country, even increasing the number of flights from the Ukraine to Israel.4,300 Israelis fled before the Ukrainian skies were closed
However, many Israelis chose to stay and wait out the crises. Israel radio interviews with Israelis in Ukraine reported that those who are staying found it hard to pack up their families, close down their businesses and flee. One rabbi in Uman who was driving towards the Moldovian border told Israel Radio’s Reshet Bet that he was not as worried about the fighting as he was about anarchy and looting.
Media around the world report that experts expect that Kyiv will soon be overrun by Russian troops. These experts say that pro western Ukrainian president Zelensky will then be replaced by a pro-Russian leader similar to Alexander Lukashenko who has been the leader in the pro-Russian puppet government in neighboring Belarus since 1994.
President Volodymyr Zelensky, a Jewish former TV sitcom star, won over 70% of the popular vote, against Petro Poroshenko, a Ukrainian oligarch and media mogul. This week former President Donald Trump called that Ukrainian election “rigged,” in an obvious hint, according to critics, that
the US election that unseated him was also rigged.
Israeli couple leaving Lviv for Golan
On Monday Feb 21, 2022, the Israel Foreign Ministry relocated from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to Lviv in western Ukraine, and began organizing buses to take Israelis from Lviv on the 2 hour bus ride to the Polish border. Israel has also stationed foreign ministry representatives at border crossings into Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania in order to assist Israelis leaving Ukraine. FM representatives are also being sent to a Moldova crossing. Israeli planes will then take the Israelis to Tel Aviv.
The Israel Foreign Ministry said that staff is in contact with thousands of Israelis instructing them how to reach western land borders where ministry officials await them. The ministry also said that no PCR test would be required for Israelis flying to Tel Aviv.
On Friday, Israel’s Prime Minister Bennet spoke to Ukrainian President Zelensky and said Israel would be sending humanitarian aid in the form of medical supplies and staff and other items.
However, pundits commented on what Zelensky told the media on Thursday, when he said that the Ukraine, a country of 44 million, was alone facing Russia with a population of 144 million. According to the New York Times, Zelensky “…turned to the 144 million Russians and beseeched them to prevent an attack that evoked the darkest eras in Europe since World War II… Listen to reason,” Zelensky said in his radio broadcast, “The Ukrainian people want peace.”
According to commentators on an Israeli channel 12 TV talk show, the lesson Israel learned from the Ukrainian invasion is that Israel can easily wind up in the same situation as Ukraine and must be prepared to stand alone should the need arise.
The open question is: will Putin stop at the Ukraine, or will he continue to press on and try to recapture other countries formally in the Soviet Union? And will NATO and the USA stand up to Russia and perhaps engage in World War III, a war that has all the potential for use of nuclear weapons?
Update: On Saturday, Ukrainian President Zelensky asked Israel to mediate a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia since Israel has ties to both countries.
COVID
Israel is to end the ‘state of emergency’ established two years ago as Covid case numbers fall even as the death rate continues to rise. Starting March 1st, Israel will be open to unvaccinated tourists, with quarantine ending as soon as negative results from the PCR test administered at Ben Gurion are received. Returning Israelis will no longer have to take a PCR test before boarding a plane en route to Israel. Also, a recent Israeli study showed that vitamin D is effective in fighting off Covid.
Israel has also become a laboratory for testing the new Pfizer Oral Antivrial drug Paxlovid that Pfizer claimed reduced risk of hospitalization or death by 89%.
To substantiate their claim, we spoke with Batya,( not her real name) a 60+ American-born Israeli woman who had a pre-existing immune suppression condition when she tested positive for Covid. Within 24-hours after the test she received a phone call from her HMO (medical clinic) confirming that she had tested positive. When quizzed by the physician, Batya explained that she wasn’t feeling well, had a fever and stuffed nose, and a pre-existing immune suppression condition. The physician asked if Batya would be willing to take the still experimental Pfizer Paxlovid drug. Batya agreed immediately.
Within 24-hours, that’s 48-hours from the time she took the test, the physician called back and said Batya had been approved for the drug. Within 2 hours from the doctor’s phone call a taxi delivered the five-day supply of the drug to her door. By then Batya’s symptoms had grown worse. “I had a fever, and was having trouble breathing. My nose was stuffed and my sinuses felt they were filled with cement.” A day after taking the first dose of Pfizer’s Paxlovid drug, Batya’s symptoms had disappeared. Batya continued taking the drug for the entire five-day course. At the end of a week Batya tested negative for Covid.
In Israel there are currently 3,601,904 cases of people who tested positive, the number of deaths has climbed to 10,105, 630 in serious condition, and 108,229 active cases. Worldwide there are 432, 361,851 cases, with 5,949,793 deaths and 65,692,443 active cases. The USA still leads the world with 80,446,580 cases, 969,602 deaths, and 26,814,358 active cases. Following the USA in the top ten are India, Brazil, France, United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, Turkey, Italy and Argentina.
Most Israeli health officials say the end of the pandemic is near but warn that another variant could arise since more than half of the world is as yet unvaccinated. These experts also warn that caution should still be exercised, masks should still be worn indoors, and hands should still be washed.
One pundit reviewed the situation in the Ukraine and that of Covid and said, “Let’s hope that soon both of these issues will be yesterday’s news.” Another critic chimed in, “Given Putin’s penchant for megalomania, paranoia, and expansionist ambition, I wouldn’t bet on it.”
