Israel Week Ending February 26th

Vaccines succeed but Covid cases remain, Netanyahu losing support according to polls, vulnerable in Channel 13 interview, JNF approves a budget to buy in West Bank land: Hadassah abstained.

COVID-19

Israel has entered into a peculiar Purim weekend, with a curfew imposed from 8:30 PM until 5:30 AM, in attempts to stop large Purim parties from taking place. Since the curfew began Thursday night, tens of thousands of Tel Avivans rushed out to celebrate the end of Coronavirus on Wednesday night. At least that is what they have been told, i.e., that the pandemic is all but over. Unfortunately, that is not the case. 

Israel’s vaccination program has been a massive success, as chronicled in the first peer-reviewed study, just published in The New England Journal of Medicine. The study shows that, on average, the Pfizer vaccine prevents 94% percent of symptomatic illness and 92% of serious illness. The research was done on 1.2 million Israelis, half receiving the vaccine and half who had not. However, despite widespread inoculation, the daily number of newly infected people in Israel refuses to go down. Despite the fact that 4,649,709 Israelis have received at least one dose of the vaccine with 3,274,648 receiving both already. In fact, the numbers appear to be shifting up slightly — and that is before accounting for the impact of all the newly reopened businesses and schools that took place this past week. 

The number of hospitalized Coronavirus patients in critical condition has indeed gone down, but not nearly as much as was hoped. The tally of new daily cases still hovers around 4000+. The problem is two-fold. First, not everyone, including all of those under 16, has been vaccinated. Second, there is no doubt that almost everyone has let down their guard. Somehow, once people receive the first shot, they seem to think they can magically return to their old ‘normal’ lives. 

Unfortunately, leaving aside the fact that the vaccine does not reach maximum effectiveness until up to two weeks after the second shot, people do not appear to understand that 90+% is still not 100%. If you are surrounded by enough people who have COVID-19, you can contract the virus as well, even after getting the vaccine. 

As a tragic reminder that the situation is not under control, two men in their twenties, without pre-existing conditions, contracted Coronavirus on Wednesday, and were dead within hours. Nevertheless, with less than four weeks until the upcoming election, Prime Minister Netanyahu still repeatedly states that we will be able to celebrate Pesach normally, with our extended families. That scenario looks less and less likely each week.

This week it came to light that Israel provided vaccines to several countries, such as Honduras and Croatia. Netanyahu decided to orchestrate these donations without any authorization, Defense Minister Gantz’s insisted on a security cabinet meeting to discuss the subject. When Attorney General Mandelblit demanded Netanyahu clarify under what authority he had acted, so that the AG could defend the Prime Minister’s decision from a court challenge, the giveaway was stopped. 

Netanyahu’s solo decision was particularly problematic, considering the minimal number of vaccines we have given the West Bank Palestinians to date — an assertion against which those who defend Israel at all costs have excellent ammunition. They assert that under the Oslo Accords, providing vaccines to Palestinians on the West Bank is the responsibility of the Palestinian Authority. Moreover, they add that if the Palestinian Authority was not making pension payments to the families of terrorists, they would have sufficient funds to acquire their own vaccines. All of that may be true, but it does not take away from the fact that these people are our neighbors, over whom we do have some control (though one can argue how much). Furthermore, it is undoubtedly in Israel’s interest to ensure the Coronavirus is controlled in the West Bank. Not to mention, neglecting to help them hands our enemies a valid grievance on a silver platter; which is not the brightest idea.

Politics

While the political landscape is mostly stagnant, it is slowly trending away from Netanyahu, with the Likud losing a little support. Based on the below poll, Netanyahu does not have any path to form a government. However, as I have said before, I do not believe the polls are valid since most people I know still have not decided which party will earn their vote. 

Though there is one key factor that stands out. When pollsters asked the public if they wanted Netanyahu to continue as Prime Minister, 58% declared they did not; while only 33% stated they did want Netanyahu to remain in office. This metric included 70% of self-proclaimed voters for Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party. Bennett made waves this week by asserting he would not sit in a government headed by Yair Lapid; a statement Bennett felt forced to make in order to blunt the attacks levied by Netanyahu that casting a vote for Bennett would be a de facto vote for a leftist government. 

With the election campaign not going precisely as planned, Netanyahu agreed to appearances on the two main TV new channels. He was interviewed a few days ago by Yonit Levy on Channel 12, and last night by Udi Segal on Channel 13. While his interview on Channel 12 went relatively well, Netanyahu did manage to get away with several blatant lies. 

On Thursday night, his interview did not go as smoothly. Segal asked hard questions and would not let Netanyahu avoid providing answers. Among the highlights, after Netanyahu tried to say how much better we have done combatting COVID-19 than countries, like Belgium and the UK, Segal pointed out there are some countries that did much better than we have, and gave the example of our neighbor, Cyprus. Netanyahu replied that Cyprus is an island, and we are not. Adding, “We have the Palestinians”. When asked whether or not he should apologize for all the Coronavirus deaths, as Boris Johnson and Angela Merkel have, Netanyahu chose to change the subject. 

Segal asked the Prime Minister why he, who is rich, needed to take gifts from Arnon Milchen and others — questioning whether taking such large gifts was ethical. Instead of offering an answer, Netanyahu attacked Segal for raising such a question — i.e. while he (Netanyahu) works with every fiber of his being to save lives by get millions of vaccines, how dare Segal ask him about gifts.

Another interesting moment of the interview was at the end when Segal asked Netanyahu what he thinks of the #MeToo movement. For a moment, Netanyahu did not seem to know what that was. Then, Segal brought the question home by bringing up Netanyahu’s confidant Natan Eshel, who was forced to stop officially working in the Prime Minister’s office, after being accused of taking photos under woman skirts. Netanyahu replied that Eshel is a friend, but he does not work for him at the moment (not exactly the truth).

Jewish World

After a raucous debate, the JNF board voted to allocate funds to purchase land in the West Bank. The measure passed only because Hadassah’s representatives abstained, allowing the right-wing majority to pass the budget. This is a shame. Hadassah has long ago lost its way. 

Economics

The high-tech sector of the Israeli economy continues to do well, with investments, and even exits, still taking place. This week, My Heritage was purchased for $600 million. OurCrowd, Israel's largest VC firm, issued its first-quarter job index, which showed strong demand for workers; with the demand for workers in its Israeli companies rising by 400%.

Military

The Israeli Air Force finalized its decision to purchase Lockheed Martin’s CH53K helicopters to replace its aging fleet of CH-53 choppers, which have been in service for close to 50 years. The purchase will be part of a more extensive airfare acquisition that includes tankers, and additional fighter bombers.