Some 700,000 doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine landed in Israel on Sunday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein on hand at Ben Gurion Airport.
Netanyahu became the first Israeli to get the second dose of the vaccine on Saturday and declared that most Israelis could be fully immunized in around two months.
“This is a great day for Israel, with a huge shipment that has arrived in the framework of Operation Back to Life: a plane full of injections of encouragement,” Netanyahu said. He also revealed that next Sunday an additional shipment would arrive, “and we will start vaccinating the next group: people aged 50-60.”
The development came on the same day that the Health Ministry announced that more than 72 percent of Israelis over the age of 60 had been vaccinated against the contagion.
Under a recent deal, Israel is slated to receive 400,000-700,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine each week until the nation’s entire adult population is immunized.
Accordingly, the Jewish state is on course to become the first country in the world to fully inoculate all its citizens. As of Sunday afternoon, 1.8 million people, nearly 21 percent of the population, had been vaccinated.
The vaccination drive comes as several thousand new virus cases are being diagnosed daily, and amid the country’s third nationwide lockdown. Over 1,000 people are currently in serious condition as a result of COVID-19, the highest level since the start of the pandemic.
Former Israeli ambassador to Egypt David Govrin will head to Rabat in the coming weeks to reopen the Jewish state’s liaison office in Morocco. Govrin will be the temporary charge d’affaires, as the Jewish state sets up its permanent mission to the North African nation in the wake of a normalization agreement signed last month.
Govrin will hold the post until an ambassador is appointed, which is likely to happen only if a new government is formed following the elections in March.
Meanwhile, despite recent speculation, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani said on Sunday that Doha does not plan to join fellow Gulf countries United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in establishing diplomatic relations with Israel.
Israeli fighter planes on Sunday carried out several low altitude flights over Beirut as reconnaissance drones buzzed overhead, in what has reportedly become a daily occurrence. The Israel Defense Forces often carries out surveillance operations over Lebanon, which is largely controlled by Iranian proxy Hezbollah, as well as Syria, where the Islamic Republic has for years been attempting to establish a permanent military foothold.
But the number of low flying warplanes appearing over the Lebanese capital has reportedly intensified in the last two weeks, as Israel has expressed concern that Hezbollah is trying to construct in civilian areas facilities to manufacture precision-guided missiles.
This comes on the background of ongoing Iranian threats to avenge the January 2020 killing of Iranian Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani in a US drone strike in Iraq.
Meanwhile, an Iranian lawmaker announced that Tehran plans to expel United Nations nuclear inspectors unless US sanctions are lifted by February 21. Iran’s parliament passed a law in November to halt inspections of its nuclear sites by the International Atomic Energy Agency and step up uranium enrichment beyond the limit set by the 2015 nuclear deal if sanctions are not eased.
European Jewish groups welcomed the publication of a handbook that outlines the practical applications of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA ) working definition of antisemitism.
The IHRA describes antisemitism in its various forms, including traditional and contemporary manifestations. It has been adopted by a majority of EU member states, along with other countries in Europe and around the world.
The handbook, published this week by the European Commission in cooperation with the IHRA, offers a checklist for the definition’s use across different policy areas, including law enforcement, the judiciary and educational institutions.
“It is fundamentally important to give governments and security agencies the necessary guidelines to implement the IHRA definition so that it has practical use to physically protect Jewish communities from antisemitism,” the European Jewish Congress said in a statement.
After an impressive victory last month, Israeli mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Natan Levy became only the third athlete from the Jewish state to sign a contract with Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world’s premier MMA organization. Now, Levy wants to shatter stereotypes.
The self-proclaimed ‘JewJitsu’ practitioner hopes to be a role model for future generations of Jewish athletes: “When somebody Jewish writes me and tells me they’re inspired by me to do sports, or they’ve been bullied and now feel that they can stand up for themselves, I swear it makes me more happy than winning a world title,” Levy was recently quoted as saying.
- The Media’s New Anti-Israel Slander (James Sinkinson, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Implications for Israel of the Joint Terrorist Military Exercise in the Gaza Strip (Omer Dostri, Begin-Sadat Center For Strategic Studies)
- A New Bee Species is Discovered in Israel (Abigail Klein Leichman, Israel21C)
- Oldest Living Olympic Champion, a Holocaust Survivor, Turns 100 (Justin Spike, Associated Press)
