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.

A Different Conclusion

Israeli media announced two treatments that apparently cure Covid-19. One, from Prof. Nader Arber, head of a research team at Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, discovered that the Crown inhalation treatment using the drug EXO-CD24, inhaled once a day for five days, cured 29 out of 30 moderate to severe hospitalized patients. TV interviews showed them at home after the fifth treatment. According to media reports “This drug can resist all known mutations, as it acts on the cells of the human body and causes them to properly fight the coronavirus.” The treatment has been fast-tracked for phase II and III trials, and has attracted international attention.

Another treatment was discovered at Hadassah Hospital in Ein Kerem using the “Allocetra” drug, developed by Dr. Dror Mevorach. The treatment enters phase three trials and shows 90% effective in serious to critical patients.

In Britain,Oxford University researchers say a common asthma drug, budesonide, is effective in reducing the need for urgent care or hospitalization by 90% when administered to patients within a week of first symptoms

Also, U.S. pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly  announced they’d received FDA approval for emergency use of their drug that was proven 70% effective in mild to moderate cases of Covid-19.  So there is hope for a cure looking to find a different more positive conclusion to those stricken with Covid-19.

Worldwide 108,298,669 people were infected, at a rate of 13,879 per million, with 2,378,875 deaths at a rate of 305 per million, with 99,948 critical cases and 25,654,392 active cases.  #1 in the world was still the USA there were 28,002,240 cases at a rate of 84,294, with 486,922 deaths at a rate of 1,466 with 20,407 critical and 9,584,499 active cases. In Israel, still #27 in the world, with 714,812 infected at a rate of 77,717 per million, with 5,283 deaths at a rate of 574, per million with 972 critical and 64,597 active cases.

An Israeli HMO Maccabi official stated that of 523,000 fully vaccinated Israelis only 4 later became severely ill and none died. Meanwhile, Israel has vaccinated over 3 million people, including those over 16, foreign workers, and Palestinians working in Israel.

Still, according to media reports, the rush to get vaccinated in Israel has slowed down drastically with 2.5 million Israels still unvaccinated, among them 350,000 in the ‘at-risk’ 60+ group. Reportedly anti-vaccination false information has been pouring into the ultra-orthodox community, the most highly infected in the country. Yesterday, a 36-year old Haredi man, with a pre-existing condition, died of Corona. He eschewed the vaccine after reading that the shot could cause sterility, something to be avoided in a sector that considers large families enviable.

Statistics released today in Ynetnews shows that  one in 75 ultra-Orthodox over 65 died of Corona. In the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) town of Bnei Brak every fifth person had Corona, that was 21.6% of the town. The Haredi town of Modiin Illit was higher with 29.9%. By contrast the largely secular cities shows a striking disparity. Haifa had only 4.9% while Tel Aviv had only 4.6%.

The Israel government has gone after what they called the “Coronavirus Conspiracies.” Facebook closed down some of their users disseminating false information about the vaccine, and one ultra-Orthodox rabbi was arrested for his on-line statements.

On Sunday. the nearly six-week lockdown in Israel ended, allowing small stores, barber shops and beauty parlors to reopen. Israel also began to reopen their schools with children in 1-4th grade and 11-12th returning part time to class  The malls still remained closed, although yesterday three malls all in different cities tried to reopen but were shut down by police.

On a positive note, two Americans were rewarded with prestigious Israeli prizes. Singer Stevie Wonder was awarded the Wolf Prize, and producer/director Steven Spielberg was awarded the Genesis Prize, considered Israel’s Nobel.

Then there’s the trials. In the USA the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, and in Israel, the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.  In the Trump impeachment trial, a former federal prosecutor told Fox News that there wasn’t enough direct evidence to convict Trump of incitement. The former prosecutor said the impeachment should have aimed at the charge of  ‘dereliction of duty,’ showing that Trump did nothing during those hours the Capitol had been occupied by a rioting mob.

Most commentators doubt that the senate Democrats have the 17 Republican votes needed to convict Trump of incitement to riot. Some pundits said there was a chain of Tweets and statements Trump made that stretched back to 2016 deriding first Hilary Clinton, his rival in the presidential race, the Democratic party and Democrats in general. He has hinted broadly that something drastic has to be done to Make America Great Again. However, he never came out and explicitly called for an armed rebellion. He danced around like Mohammad Ali when opponents tried to hit him, but always, say legal analysts, dodged uttering the critical phrases needed to convict him.

Observers say that his followers were not as cautious. The Impeachment Mangers making the case in the senate trotted out quote after quote taken from social media that were clearly incitement, clearly showed an intent to do harm or even murder, but Trump, say these observers, never did. According to most analysts, those followers should be arrested, tried, and convicted. They attempted a coup and committed murder. But, as one observer said, stringing together all of those messages Trump sent out in text or in speeches, the messages still don’t add up to the right conclusion, that that directly and unequivocally incited the rioters.

Some hope that the Senate will draw a different conclusion than acquittal since the impeachment isn’t a court of law. Media reports state that Trump still has a large following and there are those in the Republican party who are urging him to run in 2024. Some analysts say that the Senate could obviate that option by voting by a “simple majority” to prohibit Trump from ever running for a pubic office again. However, the same analysts also say that such a decision is on shaky constitutional grounds and the Supreme Court would have to make the final decision, should the court even agree to hear the case. Meanwhile, the impeachment process goes on and those still seething over events of Jan 6 can only hope, probably in vain, for Trump to be convicted.

Israel has their own trial going on. Prime Minister Netanyahu, indicted on three counts of bribery, fraud and breach of public trust, returned to court briefly this week. He denied any wrong doing and called his accusers liars. News reports hint that Netanyahu is worried about one of the witnesses against him returning to court and dropping a bombshell. No names are given but Haaretz ran a drawing of Netanyahu alongside of billionaire Arnon Milchen, who reportedly provided Netanyahu and his wife with hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts of cigars, champagne and even diamonds.

Protestors still gather weekly outside of Netanyahu’s Jerusalem residence calling for him to resign. With new Israeli elections looming, the fourth in two years, some in the anti-Netanyahu camp are hoping for a different conclusion to the next election, to be held on March 23rd. If Netanyahu’s past winning record holds, the results are already foretold, even if Netanyahu is now courting the ultra-right wing Kahanist parties, a move unfavorable to mainstream Likud voters. But, say the pundits, like the new drugs that seem to stop Covid-19 in its tracks, there’s also a chance for a different conclusion to what seemed like an inevitable outcome in the upcoming election.

Some More Equal Than Others

Some people are simply more equal than others in any society. Israel is no different, one pundit wrote in a biting analysis, quoting Channel 12 news statistics that fines are being handed out unevenly for those who break the regulations. For example, in the largely secular city of Tel Aviv 3.5 fines per 1,000 were handed out to those breaking quarantine once tested positive for Covid-19. However, in the near-by ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak only 0.3 fines were handed out.

According to the Israel ministry of health, 25% of all new patients in the hospital come from the haredi, ultra-Orthodox, population. Last week, according to the ministry, 23% of the infections came from the haredi neighborhoods, with 64% of the haredi community infected, while haredim only make up 12% of Israel’s population.

A steady stream of Covid-19 infections seemingly undeterred by the vaccination campaign.

The infection rate in Israel is still high, running at nearly 8,000 infections in 24 hours. That was over 9% of those tested showing positive for the virus.

Israel, #27 in infections in the world, has 672,324 infections, at 73,098 per million, with 4,975 deaths at 541 per million, with 1,120 critical cases and 77,732 active cases, with nearly 300 on ventilators. The USA was still #1 with 27,155,394 cases, at 81,755 per million, with 462,022 deaths ad 1,391 per million, with 23,449 critical cases and 9,784,823 active cases. Worldwide there were 105,029,776 confirmed cases at 13,458 per million, with 2,281,471 deaths at 292 per million, with 106,355 in critical condition and 26,036,189 active cases.

Meanwhile, the rush to receive a vaccination seems to have abated. The health ministry has now opened up to vaccinations for anyone over 16. This, according to a health ministry statement, includes non-residents. So far, between 70-80% of the population over 60 has been vaccinated. But there has been a 252% increase in infections of those under 40. The number of infections among babies and infants quadrupled in December, to 1526, with only 377 in November. But most are asymptomatic. One 18-month old infant was in serious condition and attached to a ventilator.

However, Channel 12 health analyst, Prof. Uri Barabash, worried that 500,000 Israelis over 50 have not yet been vaccinated. The highly contagious “British” variant of the disease is the most prominent in Israel. Should that at risk over 50 group get infected they could overwhelm the already over-crowded and over-worked hospitals. According to an early study in Britain, the Pfizer, Moderna, and other RNA vaccines work against this ‘British variant,’ protecting those vaccinated from a serious case of Covid-19.

Barabash suggested that mobile vans with a health staff visit factories and neighborhoods bringing the vaccines to the people who for whatever reason are not coming to the HMO for vaccinations. He said these vans could be equipped to handle the vaccine and keep them safe. The problem, said Barabash, was bureaucratic. Each health fund was responsible for vaccinating their members. A mobile unit showing up at a factory would create a problem for the health funds whose data was all very carefully and precisely monitored as an innoculation was administered. He thought the health ministry had to step in and solve the problem.

Israel is still running an ad campaign stressing the importance of the vaccinations, though many in the haredi community have stayed away. Some observers say that the haredi community’s ignoring the Israeli regulations is driving a deep wedge between the regular Israeli population and their haredi cousins.

The fact that two haredi funerals were held last week, one with an estimated 10,000 mourners crowded together, many without masks, following the casket down the streets of Jerusalem to the cemetery on Har HaMenuchot (mountain of rest), the other with several thousand along the same route, will ultimately result in a spike in infections in the ultra-Orthodox community. Those infected will spread the infection to others and it will ultimately seep into the non-religious community.

Israel is still officially in a “lockdown” scheduled to last several more days, with shops, schools restaurants and bars closed, fast-food only by phone-in order for delivery, while the airport and border are also closed. Elections only a month and a half away, the fourth elections in two years. Some of the parties are running on a campaign to exclude the ultra-Orthodox parties from being a part of the next government. Media analysts say that Netanyahu, who relies on those parties to stay in power, may be brought down by his close association with these ultra-Orthodox parties.

These analysts also point to the disparity with which the government applies penalties and pressure on the secular segment of Israel compared to the ultra-Orthodox. For example, the police did not interfere in the mass ultra-Orthodox funerals, but when protesters gather in front on Netanyahu’s home, or in Tel Aviv protesting what they claim is a corrupt Prime Minister (some signs call him the ‘Crime Minister), these anti-Netanyahu protesters are met with a forceful police presence including water canons, batons, and arrests.

The fact that the ultra-Orthodox are also not showing up for vaccines has a negative impact on the quantity of vaccines in Israel’s possession. Thousands of doses of the vaccine are tossed in the garbage at the end of the day because not enough people show up to get the vaccinations. Again, many of these are ultra-Orthodox. And the problem is not limited to Israel. Last night, Channel 13 news showed an ultra-Orthodox community in London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood with an extremely high Covid-19 infection rate, especially compared to the general population. The ultra-Orthodox in that neighborhood were shown ignoring health regulations much as they do in Israel. Of course, there are still those in New York City who were Trump supporters and proudly refused to wear a mask even as the Covid-19 tore through their neighborhoods.

Schools across Israel are shuttered, except for special education, but not in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. When the police attempted to close those schools illegally open they have are met with violent resistance, including rocks, resulting in injured policemen. Some of the schools try a clever ploy and tell the police they have permission to stay open since they’re running a school with special education students. One TV report showed the students fleeing a back entrance when the police raided. However, critics say the police raid these schools only rarely, and then only after public pressure, like news reports showing how the schools ignore the health regulations.

According to reports, the rabbis who hold sway over these communities have issued rulings to obey the rules, get vaccinated, and close the schools. However, skeptics say that these rabbis are not really putting their full influence behind these efforts. As one resident of Benei Brak said of 92-year old Rav Kamievsky, ‘He is the boss. What he says everyone does.’ ‘So why doesn’t he give the order to obey the rules?’ asked a commentator.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked why he doesn’t approach the rabbi, and the other ultra-Orthodox leaders, and demand they obey the rules. Netanyahu answered the question on TV last week. He said he called Rabbi Kanievsky and could only speak to his grandson who handles the calls. He never reached the rabbi himself. Critics say that was a lame excuse. The Prime Minister could have the rabbi arrested, or at least brought to him, or demanded to see the rabbi in person. But, say the critics, that would endanger Netanyahu’s standing with the ultra-Orthodox and he needs their support in the next election.

So, Israel is divided, unhealthily. The law-abiding citizens who are also worried about their health, and the ultra-Orthodox who answer to a higher power, who live in Israel but obey a different set of rules and rulers. Should this situation not change, the future looks more like the Sedducees and the Pharisees than anything else.

Some More Equal Than Others

 

Some people are simply more equal than others in any society. Israel is no different, one pundit wrote in a biting analysis, quoting Channel 12 news statistics that fines are being handed out unevenly for those who break the regulations. For example, in the largely secular city of Tel Aviv 3.5 fines per 1,000 were handed out to those breaking quarantine once tested positive for Covid-19. However, in the near-by ultra-Orthodox city of Bnei Brak only 0.3 fines were handed out.

According to the Israel ministry of health, 25% of all new patients in the hospital come from the haredi, ultra-Orthodox, population. Last week, according to the ministry, 23% of the infections came from the haredi neighborhoods, with 64% of the haredi community infected, while haredim only make up 12% of Israel’s population.

A steady stream of Covid-19 infections seemingly undeterred by the vaccination campaign.

The infection rate in Israel is still high, running at nearly 8,000 infections in 24 hours. That was over 9% of those tested showing positive for the virus.

Israel, #27 in infections in the world, has 672,324 infections, at 73,098 per million, with 4,975 deaths at 541 per million, with 1,120 critical cases and 77,732 active cases, with nearly 300 on ventilators. The USA was still #1 with 27,155,394 cases, at 81,755 per million, with 462,022 deaths ad 1,391 per million, with 23,449 critical cases and 9,784,823 active cases. Worldwide there were 105,029,776 confirmed cases at 13,458 per million, with 2,281,471 deaths at 292 per million, with 106,355 in critical condition and 26,036,189 active cases.

Meanwhile, the rush to receive a vaccination seems to have abated. The health ministry has now opened up to vaccinations for anyone over 16. This, according to a health ministry statement, includes non-residents. So far, between 70-80% of the population over 60 has been vaccinated. But there has been a 252% increase in infections of those under 40. The number of infections among babies and infants quadrupled in December, to 1526, with only 377 in November. But most are asymptomatic. One 18-month old infant was in serious condition and attached to a ventilator.

However, Channel 12 health analyst, Prof. Uri Barabash, worried that 500,000 Israelis over 50 have not yet been vaccinated. The highly contagious “British” variant of the disease is the most prominent in Israel. Should that at risk over 50 group get infected they could overwhelm the already over-crowded and over-worked hospitals. According to an early study in Britain, the Pfizer, Moderna, and other RNA vaccines work against this ‘British variant,’ protecting those vaccinated from a serious case of Covid-19.

Barabash suggested that mobile vans with a health staff visit factories and neighborhoods bringing the vaccines to the people who for whatever reason are not coming to the HMO for vaccinations. He said these vans could be equipped to handle the vaccine and keep them safe. The problem, said Barabash, was bureaucratic. Each health fund was responsible for vaccinating their members. A mobile unit showing up at a factory would create a problem for the health funds whose data was all very carefully and precisely monitored as an innoculation was administered. He thought the health ministry had to step in and solve the problem.

Israel is still running an ad campaign stressing the importance of the vaccinations, though many in the haredi community have stayed away. Some observers say that the haredi community’s ignoring the Israeli regulations is driving a deep wedge between the regular Israeli population and their haredi cousins.

The fact that two haredi funerals were held last week, one with an estimated 10,000 mourners crowded together, many without masks, following the casket down the streets of Jerusalem to the cemetery on Har HaMenuchot (mountain of rest) the other with several thousand along the same route, will ultimately result in a spike in infections in the ultra-Orthodox community. Those infected will spread the infection to others and it will ultimately seep into the non-religious community.

Israel is still officially in a “lockdown” scheduled to last several more days, with shops, schools restaurants and bars closed, fast-food only by phone-in order for delivery, while the airport and border are also closed. Elections only a month and a half away, the fourth elections in two years. Some of the parties are running on a campaign to exclude the ultra-Orthodox parties from being a part of the next government. Media analysts say that Netanyahu, who relies on those parties to stay in power, may be brought down by his close association with these ultra-Orthodox parties.

These analysts also point to the disparity with which the government applies penalties and pressure on the secular segment of Israel compared to the ultra-Orthodox. For example, the police did not interfere in the mass ultra-Orthodox funerals, but when protesters gather in front on Netanyahu’s home, or in Tel Aviv protesting what they claim is a corrupt Prime Minister (some signs call him the ‘Crime Minister), these anti-Netanyahu protesters are met with a forceful police presence including water canons, batons, and arrests.

The fact that the ultra-Orthodox are also not showing up for vaccines has a negative impact on the quantity of vaccines in Israel’s possession. Thousands of doses of the vaccine are tossed in the garbage at the end of the day because not enough people show up to get the vaccinations. Again, many of these are ultra-Orthodox. And the problem is not limited to Israel. Last night, Channel 13 news showed an ultra-Orthodox community in London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood with an extremely high Covid-19 infection rate, especially compared to the general population. The ultra-Orthodox in that neighborhood were shown ignoring health regulations much as they do in Israel. Of course, there are still those in New York City who were Trump supporters and proudly refused to wear a mask even as the Covid-19 tore through their neighborhoods.

Schools across Israel are shuttered, except for special education, but not in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods. When the police attempted to close those schools illegally open they have are met with violent resistance, including rocks, resulting in injured policemen. Some of the schools try a clever ploy and tell the police they have permission to stay open since they’re running a school with special education students. One TV report showed the students fleeing a back entrance when the police raided. However, critics say the police raid these schools only rarely, and then only after public pressure, like news reports showing how the schools ignore the health regulations.

According to reports, the rabbis who hold sway over these communities have issued rulings to obey the rules, get vaccinated, and close the schools. However, skeptics say that these rabbis are not really putting their full influence behind these efforts. As one resident of Benei Brak said of 92-year old Rav Kamievsky, ‘He is the boss. What he says everyone does.’ ‘So why doesn’t he give the order to obey the rules?’ asked a commentator.

Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked why he doesn’t approach the rabbi, and the other ultra-Orthodox leaders, and demand they obey the rules. Netanyahu answered the question on TV last week. He said he called Rabbi Kanievsky and could only speak to his grandson who handles the calls. He never reached the rabbi himself. Critics say that was a lame excuse. The Prime Minister could have the rabbi arrested, or at least brought to him, or demanded to see the rabbi in person. But, say the critics, that would endanger Netanyahu’s standing with the ultra-Orthodox and he needs their support in the next election.

So, Israel is divided, unhealthily. The law-abiding citizens who are also worried about their health, and the ultra-Orthodox who answer to a higher power, who live in Israel but obey a different set of rules and rulers. Should this situation not change, the future looks more like the Sedducees and the Pharisees than anything else.

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.