1 Poll Shows Public Less Critical of Government's Response to COVID
Poll shows public less critical of government’s response to COVID; Yamina slips By TOI STAFF Today
The public view of the government’s handling of the pandemic is improving slightly, according to a poll published Tuesday. The Channel 12 poll, also showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party making small gains at the expense of its rival Yamina ahead of the March election. Asked what they thought of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, 50 percent of respondents had a negative view while 47% had a positive view. In a poll published by the channel a month ago, 59% said they had a negative view and 39% had a positive outlook. Asked specifically about the economic aspects of the pandemic, 67% had a negative view of the government’s conduct, while 29% had a positive one — an improvement over the previous poll, which found 72% of respondents had a negative view and 25% saw the government response favorably. Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party, which repeatedly criticized the government on its response to the virus, appeared to be weakening, and is on the verge of dropping down to single digits in projected Knesset seats.
No party leader has a clear path to a Knesset majority. According to Tuesday’s poll, the so-called anti-Netanyahu bloc — made up of parties whose leaders have said they will not sit in a government with the prime minister — has 61 seats; the Likud plus ultra-Orthodox parties bloc has 44 seats, with the presumed Netanyahu ally Religious Zionism adding 5 more; and Yamina, as an undecided factor, has 10. Bennett has declared himself a candidate for prime minister, but has not ruled out sitting in a coalition with Likud.
1 Speaking to Channel 12 Tuesday night, Yamina’s Bennett bashed Netanyahu’s handling of the economy, highlighting the fact that no 2020 budget was passed despite the prime minister apparently claiming so during an interview Monday. “The prime minister sat here yesterday in a festive mood as if he had liberated Jerusalem, when in fact 5,400 people died,” Bennett said, berating what he called Netanyahu’s “patting himself on the shoulder.” “I can not criticize his rhetorical ability, but a million people are unemployed,” Bennett said. “There is a state to manage and it is not being managed.” During the first outbreak of the virus in the spring, unemployment figures issued by the Employment Service spiked as 800,000 people quickly lost work in Israel’s initial lockdown. They have since fluctuated as the country has moved in and out of restrictions and closures. Asked about his party’s falling polling numbers, Bennett said, “After the election, we will see the state of the seats. I need a few more seats to bring about a change of leadership… with 15 seats, it is possible to come and change the leadership in a real way.”
It works: 0 deaths, only 4 severe cases among 523,000 fully vaccinated Israelis By NATHAN JEFFAY 11 February 2021 TOI
An Israeli healthcare provider that has vaccinated half a million people with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine says that only 544 people — or 0.1% — have been subsequently diagnosed with the coronavirus, there have been four severe cases, and no people have died. That means the effectiveness rate stands at 93 percent, Maccabi Healthcare Services announced on Thursday, after comparing its immunized members to a “diverse” control group of unvaccinated members. Full protection against COVID-19 for people who have been vaccinated is believed to kick in a week after the second shot, so the Maccabi data covers all those of its members who are seven or more days after receiving that second dose. Maccabi’s statistics are being closely monitored around the world, for giving the first major insight into how the vaccine performs outside of clinical trials. And they are being widely hailed for indicating that real-word effectiveness is close to the 95% efficacy cited after Pfizer’s clinical trials. “This data unequivocally proves that the vaccine is very effective and we have no doubt that it has saved the lives of many Israelis,” said senior Maccabi official Dr. Miri Mizrahi Reuveni after the new data release. She stressed that among those who have vaccinated and become infected, the vast majority have experienced the coronavirus lightly. Out of the 523,000 fully vaccinated people, 544 were infected with COVID-19, of whom 15 needed hospitalization: Eight are in mild condition, three in moderate condition, and four in severe condition.
Proposed bill: Public-facing staff must vaccinate or be tested to go to work By TOI STAFF Today, 10:27
Health Minister Yuli Edelstein will reportedly promote legislation aimed at reducing the number of unvaccinated people in public-facing workplaces by only allowing in workers who have vaccinated, recovered from the coronavirus, or recently tested negative. According to a report Wednesday by the Ynet news site, the legislation will be promoted in the coming days and is aimed at initially focusing on teaching staff who refuse to get inoculated as children head back to the classroom. Channel 12 reported Tuesday that, with between 10 percent and 30% of healthcare workers still unvaccinated, Israel is planning on making the inoculation mandatory for them, as are other vaccines.
2 Although the idea of legislation to compel or encourage people to get vaccinated has been floated in the past, it has previously been dismissed for not having political support or legal standing. However, Wednesday’s report said officials believe it is necessary in order to encourage Israelis who do not intend to get inoculated to reverse their position. The law will include “restriction on entering the business by an employee who is not recovered [from the virus] or vaccinated, or who did not present a negative result at the workplace, at the place and time to be determined by regulations,” the report said. The report said that the legislation would initially be targeted at teaching staff, medical workers and police officers, but that the legislation will include the phrase that the regulations “shall be determined with due regard to the scope of the people who come into contact with the employee, their characteristics, the nature of the business and the occupation, as well as taking into account those who have a medical justification for not being vaccinated.” The report did not give details on what sanctions those who refuse to get vaccinated or tested could face, nor on who would pay for the testing and how often it would be required. In the past Edelstein has said teachers would need to pay for their own tests if they did not get inoculated. The proposal to compel some workers to vaccinate is expected to face widespread opposition from unions and civil rights organizations. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the proposal was “illegal and infringes on the privacy and choices of the employee.” Edelstein announced on Wednesday that over 50 percent of Israelis age 30-plus have been vaccinated. The minister said that around 4,075,000 people have now received the first dose of the vaccine, with about 2,700,000 also having received the second shot. That amounts to around 44% of the country’s total population having now received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Around 3 million Israelis are not eligible to be vaccinated, including those younger than 16 and people who have recovered from COVID-19, among other reasons. Vaccine hesitancy and skepticism have become a growing concern in recent weeks as Israel’s world-leading inoculation campaign has slowed. The Health Ministry is also pushing to amend public health ordinances to allow it to hand over personal data on who has or hasn’t been vaccinated to local authorities and the Education Ministry, in a bid to boost the vaccine campaign, Hebrew media reports said. Alongside the proposed legal measures, there have been a number of other initiatives to encourage people to get vaccinated, including free food, inoculations performed on forest trails and businesses offering incentives for employees to go and get the shot. On Tuesday, the Magen David Adom emergency service sent mobile vaccination units to inoculate students studying in yeshivas around the country. A number of yeshivas, where men study at close quarters, some in violation of the regulations, have seen major outbreaks throughout the course of the pandemic. “If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said of the initiative in an interview with Channel 12. A senior paramedic told the outlet that the unit could inoculate up to 200 people an hour. To boost the vaccination rates, the Haredi Lemaanchem medical organization was even going into yeshivas that had seen some of the worst violations and mass gatherings, and setting up vaccination initiatives. “We want to turn the ultra-Orthodox areas into [low-infection] areas,” said Rabbi Yossi Erlich, the head of the organization. Additionally, the vaccination programs received the backing of leading ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who has previously faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic and for rulings given to his followers. He has instructed schools to open in defiance of government decisions on several occasions, leading hundreds of institutions to illicitly open their doors throughout the pandemic.
3 Yair Lapid's election challenge: Threatening Netanyahu's Likud without getting too strong Jonathan Lis | Feb. 16, 2021 | Haaretz
Yesh Atid is shaping up to be the second-largest party in the Knesset after the March 23 general election. The most recent opinion polls are giving Yair Lapid’s party 18 Knesset seats, a significant increase from the 12 surveys in December gave the party. This poses a dilemma for Lapid. If he shifts into higher gear and presents himself as a serious candidate for prime minister, he will likely draw strategic voters from parties more to his left. But if Yesh Atid gets too strong, it may leave Kahol Lavan, Meretz or the Labor Party below the electoral threshold, which will reduce Lapid’s ability to form a coalition. Lapid has also shot up in the index of suitability to be prime minister. Last week’s Channel 12 News poll put him in second place, with 23 percent support, compared to 30 percent for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Among those who identified themselves as center-left voters, he came in first by a wide margin, with 46 percent support. But Lapid hasn’t declared that he’s seeking the position. By contrast, Netanyahu has been relating to Lapid as his primary rival, in an effort to present the election as a confrontation between left and right, and not between Netanyahu’s supporters and his opponents. It also marginalizes his rivals to his right, Gideon Sa’ar and Naftali Bennett. Lapid has been conducting a relatively subdued campaign. His party deliberated over whether to ride the anti- Haredi wave that intensified in the center-left because of mass violations of the coronavirus restrictions by parts of that community. Polls and in-depth research show that most center-left voters don’t want Haredi parties in the next coalition. Yet Lapid has avoided pushing this button. “No one thinks that the Haredi parties will join a coalition with Lapid, but we don’t hate Haredim,” said one a party MK. “We felt it was better not to hold quarrelsome campaigns on this issue.” Yesh Atid’s rise in the polls shows that it didn’t need it; the image the party has cultivated has drawn voters angry at the Haredim anyway. “After the huge funerals in the Haredi community we did nothing and we still got votes,” said a party source, who added that it wasn’t proper to attack the Haredim, who suffered greatly during the pandemic and will need assistance from the next government no matter what. The party is focused on gaining strength without undermining the other parties in the bloc. “We have where to grow,” said a party source. “We see two seats of ours with Sa’ar and another seat by Bennett.” The source also said the party is counting on both Kahol Lavan and Yaron Zelekha’s New Economic Party dropping out by the end of the campaign, “and their votes will come to us.” The party is deliberately conducting a “relaxed” campaign, members say. “The public has no patience for politics,” said one. “Sa’ar is conducting a campaign that was forced on him, to distinguish himself from Netanyahu and Bennett, and he and Bennett are attacking each other to get media coverage.” Yesh Atid, a relatively established party, doesn’t need it, they say. The traditional billboards have been replaced with targeted campaigns on social media. “On Facebook we can segment who is likely to vote for us and what interests him. We are using a focused approach to different sectors – students, parents, the self-employed, those interested in religion and state issues.” Yet as one MK noted, the coronavirus restrictions has made the campaign strange. “Yesh Atid’s strength is in the field. We have Zoom conferences, and the feelings are great, but it’s hard for us to get a real feeling for the field.”
The Era of Repression is Over By Maj. Gen Amram Mitzna/ Ma'ariv – February 16, 2021
Nobody disputes the hypocrisy of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, which authorized an investigation into the State of Israel[’s alleged actions] and which completely ignores the war crimes committed by other countries around the world. But along with our harsh words and condemnation, we must also ask ourselves: what next? How should the State of Israel deal with reality when it slaps us in the face time after 4 time? Israel’s occupation [of the West Bank and consequent rule] over millions of Palestinians, the settlements in the territories and the separation between Jews and Arabs all create impossible situations and draw fierce criticism of Israel around the world. On the other hand, Israel’s ongoing ignoring of the need to separate from the Palestinians is liable to cost us a high price. As we know, the Palestinian issue has not been on the public agenda for a long time, either for the left wing or for the right-wing. The current election campaigns, like their predecessors, are focused on the battle to keep the current government in power versus the effort to replace it. At the same time, there is a coronavirus crisis, many homes in Israel are suffering financial distress, and Netanyahu’s trial is underway, making the Palestinian issue appear almost irrelevant. But even if the conflict is mistakenly perceived by the Israeli public and some of its elected officials as being marginal, in the eyes of the international community it is a burning issue—and even a volatile issue. After four years of the Trump administration, during which Israel was protected by the strongest world power, comes the sobering-up stage. Anyone with eyes in their head can foresee the day in which the ongoing occupation and the de facto annexation will come to be at the forefront once again. One after the other, we are seeing the signs that the era of repression is over. The statements issued by the Biden administration and threats from The Hague are just the first indications that the subject is once again back on the global agenda. Neither the threat of prosecution by The Hague nor international criticism—whether hypocritical or justified—should dictate to us what to do. The central issue that should cause the Israeli public lose sleep is under our noses: a situation is evolving that is liable to blow up in our faces. The settlers’ violence against Palestinians in the last few weeks has reached new heights. In addition, we are seeing lone-wolf terrorist attacks in the West Bank, and if we add the difficult economic situation in the PA into the mix, we can see that the next clash is right around the corner, and it will exact a price from us in security, diplomatic, economic and moral terms. Addressing this volatile issue only militarily has proven to be a failure. We must change our thinking and we must internalize that the conflict cannot be managed over time but must be resolved at the negotiating table with the intent of establishing two states. The plans for doing so already exist, they only need to be removed from the drawers and for us to work together with the US and with our new and old allies in the Arab states to reach an historic agreement. Whether the party leaders talk about this before the elections or whether they do so afterwards, it would be best for us all to realize that only a real peace process will protect Israel from his enemies in the region, from the judges at The Hague and from itself.
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