The Week Ending January 22, 2021
COVID–19
After two weeks of a light lockdown, and four weeks into a stricter one, Israel began to see the first signs of a drop in new Covid cases. The R-rate has dropped below one in the general population for the first time since October. The number of new daily cases is still very high, (over 8,000 a day), as is the hospital occupancy by Covid patients. The current restrictions have been extended until February 1st. The restrictions include: limiting travel to 1000 meters from one's home, schools closed, immediate family only in homes, and only essential workers permitted to work. However, the rules have been largely disregarded. Office workers seem to be continuing to work with everyone deemed necessary. Even appraisers who routinely visit homes to confirm apartments' value for loans and insurance seemed to be considered essential workers.
The current crisis' greatest failure finally came to the forefront this week: the inability to control foreign entry into the country. Israel has only one international port of entry, and as I wrote in the spring, we could have been New Zealand, but we never took control of the entry of people into the country. Finally, this week it was announced that those arriving would have to show a negative Covid test from 3 days or less before the flight. These new rules are not all that comforting as Israeli Channel 13 news showed a segment this past week on how the Ultra-Orthodox were getting fake negative COVID tests to produce when they entered Ukraine to go on a pilgrimage to Uman.
One additional crisis is the dramatic number of severe cases in pregnant women. Up until now, pregnant women have not been vaccinated. The ministry of health has recommended this week that all pregnant women in their third trimester be vaccinated immediately.
In the meantime, Israel's race to vaccinate the population continues. As of yesterday, 2,441,379 people have received at least the first vaccine dose, with 850,000 already with a second dose in their arm. Israel should start seeing the effect of this vaccination in the coming week. Everyone is holding their breath since this will be the world's first real-life test of the vaccines' effectiveness at a country-wide scale. There was a small tempest this week when criticism was labeled at the government for agreeing to share the data of the vaccinations with Pfizer, with critics claiming it violates the international protocol that requires all human trials to be approved by the Helsinki Committee. Most people rightly paid little attention because this is not a vaccine trial, since the vaccine has already been approved. More importantly, almost all Israelis except the anti-vaxers are more than happy to give up some anonymized data in return for receiving enough vaccines for the whole population.
Despite opposition by Israel's Homeland Security Minister, 70% of Israeli prisoners, including security prisoners, received the vaccine this past week.
One continued trouble spot is the Ultra-Orthodox community, where segments continue to ignore the lockdown, keeping schools open, and having large weddings. There have been several violent incidences in which police have tried to intervene. Last night in B'nei Brak, police were attacked repeatedly, resulting in a rare condemnation of the Ultra-Orthodox Vizhnitz Hasidim attackers by Prime Minister Netanyahu and the Ultra-Orthodox Members of Knesset.
Economy
The economic news has not been encouraging this week. The National Insurance Institute released its annual report on poverty. According to the report, the country's median income dropped an astounding 22% because of COVID-19, while the average disposable income fell 4.4%. According to the report, the hardest hit was the middle class, reflecting that the self-employed were hit hardest by the pandemic. Ironically, according to the report, the total number living below the poverty line went down, but that is only because the poverty line itself is a percentage of the medium income.
In the last two days, Finance Minister Katz has been buffeted by criticism. First, the Attorney General attacked Katz's plan for additional Corona relief, warning him that the plan is illegal, due to pre-election law. Last night the leading Israeli investigative show UVDA ("The Fact") interviewed two of the Finance Ministry's senior officials who resigned recently, the Director-General and the Budget Director. Both told how they were ordered to fudge the numbers in reporting plans to show surpluses that did not exist. In addition, Katz, who has no training in economics, finance, or event management, repeatedly refused any professional advice, overriding them at every turn. All of this exasperated by the fact that Israel has not had a budget for two years because of the political machinations of Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Politics
On the right, both Naftali Bennet from the Yamina Party and Gideon Saar's New Hope party received positive press this week. The Schulman's (no relation), an organization of self-employed workers, joined Yamina, while Benny Begin, the son of former Prime Minister Menachem Begin, left the Likud to join Saar. On the center-left of the spectrum, very little has taken place, with Huldai's The Israelis party seemingly unable to gain any traction. The ongoing demonstration against Netanyahu now includes calls for unity among the different parties opposing him. After the previous election and Benny Gantz's actions, that is very difficult to imagine.
Military
Last night according to sources in Syria, Israel attacked in the area of Homs. This attack is only notable as it was the first reported strike in Syria during the new Biden Administration.
Finally, violence continued in the West Bank against both the military and Palestinians by the Hilltop Youth. The death of one member when their car turned over after being chased by police continues to radicalize the Hilltop Youth even further (if that is possible).
