Israel Update Week Ending January 7, 2022
Helicopter Crash, Ganz Meets King of Jordan, Electricity Bill Passes,Covid Update
Defense
The New Year began with Hamas firing two rockets that landed off Israel’s coast; one opposite Jaffa, in Tel Aviv. Hamas claimed the launch was caused by inclement weather. This was the third time Hamas blamed the weather its dispatch of long-range rockets fired at Israel. Unimpressed by Hamas’ explanation, Israel informed Hamas it does not accept this excuse, and on Saturday night, Israeli planes bombed Hamas targets on the Gaza Strip. Talks between Israel and Hamas seem deadlocked. While Gaza has remained relatively quiet, it is not clear it will remain that way for long.
On Monday night, an Israeli Air Force Helicopter crashed just off the coast of Haifa. The aircraft, one of a handful of Panther helicopters assigned to work with the Navy, was on a routine training mission when it collapsed. (The Israeli Navy does not have its own aviation-arm, as does the US Navy.) An initial investigation points to a sudden fire in one of the 25-year-old French-built helicopter engines. The Naval officer who was in the rear of the chopper was able to escape and was rescued. Tragically, the two pilots were unable to escape and died in the cockpit.
Even though over 300 Israelis have been killed this past year in traffic accidents, they remain mostly nameless and faceless, as have the 8,253 Israelis who died of Covid–19 in this country this last year. However, when our soldiers die while serving us — even in an accident — the entire country enters a short period of collective mourning. The tragic crash reminds us that however good our Air Force and pilots can be, flying planes for the military, and especially helicopters, is a dangerous profession.
On Wednesday night, the IDF opened fire on armed men nearing the border between Israel and Syria. The armed men promptly retreated away from the border.
DIPLOMACY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS, & POLITICS
This week, Defense Minister Ganz followed his meeting with Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen by a visit with the King of Jordan in Amman. The meeting was cordial, and for the first time in recent memory, the Jordanians published a photo of the discussion in the Jordanian media. Relations between Israel and Jordan have markedly improved since the current government was sworn in.
Foreign Minister Lapid had a phone conversation with his counterpart American counterpart, Secretary of State Blinken. Their main topic of the discussion was the Iran talks. Blinken is said to have told Lapid that time was running short to reach an agreement. They discussed what could be done to stop Iran from enriching uranium to 90%. One option the pair discussed was use of the threat of snap-back sanctions. The original agreement allowed for any signatory to claim Iran had violated the deal and force all the signatories to return to the previous (i.e., before JCOPA) sanctions on Iran.
The major political news was passage of “The Electricity Bill”. Who knew that legislation titled “The Electricity Bill” could be so controversial! What does the bill whose passage was one of the critical demands of Abbas’ Ra'am party include? The Electricity Bill calls for the authorized electrical hookup of apartments and buildings which were not legally built. Why would we need such a bill? Because a high percentage of the buildings in Israel’s Arab towns are illegal. Why are they illegal? Because no new master plan for city development in these towns has been written in dozens of years. Thus, with no new master plan, Arab Israelis who build on their own land to create apartments for their children often do so illegally, since there has been no mechanism for them to build legally. Today, most of these houses are haphazardly connected to electricity, with wires strung between buildings. The law's final passage will allow the homes of these citizens to be connected directly to the electric grid. When it came time to vote, members of the Opposition all left the Knesset plenum, and have been decrying the law's passage, with claims the new government “is giving away the country”.
COVID–19
The number of daily infection cases tripled this past week, and will likely triple again this coming week. Israel has already passed 14,000 daily cases, with some estimates forecasting as many as 50,000 new cases per day next week. But, only time will tell.
Because of the large lines at Covid testing centers, and the potential inability of the labs to keep up, a massive change in the testing policy was implemented. Starting today, anyone exposed to Covid will no longer be required to get a PCR test. Instead, the newly exposed have been told to take a home antigen test — and if the results are positive, to quarantine themselves; if negative, they may resume their regular life.
There are three massive holes in this plan. First, home Antigen tests have been found to be frequently inaccurate. Second, without centralized testing, there will be no way to keep track of the number of people who have been infected. It will only be possible to keep track of hospital admissions, which are a lagging indicator. For the moment, the number of severely ill continues to grow slowly.
However, the third, and biggest shortcoming in the new plan is that once Israelis are no longer forced to take a test whose results are reported to the government, it is extremely questionable whether they will voluntarily test themselves, or willingly maintain quarantine. Based on recent poll results, the answer is a resounding “No”. When asked whether the average Israeli would test themselves and then report the result, only 10% of those surveyed said they thought Israelis would test and report.
Two groups are still required to undertake PCR tests — those over 60, and those who remain unvaccinated — i.e. the two groups who are candidates for Pfizer’s “Plaxor” pill, tested as 90% effective in preventing severe Covid illness. What does this all means in practice? With no restrictions in place (including no mandated quarantine), and with Israelis jammed together at concerts and other large venues, the government has, in fact, given up on controlling the disease and instead seems to be promoting herd immunity.
The risk, of course, is the number of people who will get severely ill, and who may die. Moreover, immunity from Covid produced by having the disease seems to provide only short-term protection, and possibly no protection whatsoever from any different variant. The government did not want to restrict almost any large gathering, since it does not want to pay compensation. However, it remains unknown what economic harm of having up to 1/4 of the country out sick at the same time will cost.
So, what has this government done to proactively combat Covid? They started giving a fourth shot to those of us age 60+. Initial studies have shown that the new booster returns a person’s Covid immunity to the level it was after receiving the third shot. Tens of thousands of Israelis have already received their fourth shot.
BIRD FLU
Avian flu has developed at several poultry farms in Israel. The disease has spread to birds, killing hundreds of cranes in the Hula Valley, and over half a million chickens. The nature reserve in the Hula Valley is home to 45,000 cranes, and their fate is now in peril. In addition, in another six weeks hundreds of millions of birds make their way over Israel heading back North. Might these birds spread the flu throughout Europe? There is always a fear Avian Flu could spread to humans. Transmission of Avian flu from birds to humans is rare, but not unknown.
ECONOMY
At the end of December 2021, Israel’s foreign exchange reserves stood at $213 billion, an increase of $4.25 billion from their level at the end of November. The level of the reserves relative to GDP was 46.6 percent, which is 17th highest in the world in absolute numbers, and one of the highest in the world as a percentage of GDP.
RenalSense raised $14 million in a Series-A funding round. The company’s leading product is a monitoring system that automatically tracks renal flow, and thus can warn of any changes in kidney function, especially important during critical care.
Tipa, maker of eco-friendly packaging systems, has raised $70 million in a series-C funding round. Tipa’s packaging materials decompose into soil in 180 days, in contrast to the almost never decomposition rate of plastic.
Protai, an AI-powered drug discovery startup, emerged from stealth and announced an $8 million seed financing round co-led by Grove Ventures and Pitango HealthTech. Protai has built an end-to-end AI-based platform that comprehensively maps the course of a disease on the protein level, enhancing the ability to observe cellular function, and thereby improving the way new drugs are discovered. This effective approach enables Protai to increase accuracy in drug discovery and improve the development process, substantially saving time and lowering the costs of R&D.
"Protai's platform is like a unique compass for directing drug discovery," said Eran Seger, CEO and co-founder of Protai. "We are systematically mapping diseases on the protein level to create an entirely new layer of functional information which enables us to identify therapeutic and diagnostic targets to better combat a wide range of complex diseases."
Protai has created the world's largest and most diverse proteomic database with over 50,000 clinical samples by harmonizing large clinical datasets, as well as healthy samples from various organs and indications. This enables Protai to establish a baseline to then accurately simulate biological functional processes for a variety of diseases and accelerate drug R&D through clinical and preclinical stages.
Elbit Systems Ltd. subsidiary Emirates Limited (“Elbit Systems Emirates”), was awarded an approximately $53 million contract to supply Direct Infrared Countermeasures (“DIRCM”) and airborne Electronic Warfare (“EW”) systems for the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft of the UAE Air Force. The contract will be performed over a five-year period.
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Under the contract, Elbit Systems Emirates will deliver a multi-turret configuration of the J-MUSIC™ Self-Protection System together with the Company’s Infra-Red-based Passive Airborne Warning System, providing high levels of protection and redundancy. The Company’s DIRCM systems have accumulated more than 350,000 operational flight hours to date, and are installed onboard more than 25 types of aircraft.
Google has acquired Israel cybersecurity company, Simplify, for $500 million. Simplify was founded in 2015, and is Google’s largest Israeli acquisition since purchasing Waze for $1 billion, in 2013.