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Israel is set to begin offering a fourth COVID-19 vaccine shot for over 60s, some at-risk groups and medical personnel, in line with a recommendation on Tuesday from a panel of health experts.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed the recommendation and ordered that officials prepare a campaign to distribute the vaccines, meaning Israel is likely to become the first country in the world to roll out a fourth dose for certain groups.
Public health experts have recommended that the fourth jab be administered to people if at least four months have passed since they received the third shot.
“The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and we are continuing to pioneer with the fourth dose as well,” Bennett said.
Over four million Israelis have received the third vaccination, out of a population of 9.3 million people.
The Health Ministry said on Tuesday that 170 new cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus had been confirmed in Israel, doubling the number of infections.
Lawmakers have renewed restrictions to curb the spread in recent days, including bans on international travel.
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Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem. The two discussed the negotiations between Iran and the major world powers.
“These days are pretty important. What happens in Vienna has profound ramifications for the stability of the Middle East and the security of Israel for the upcoming years. And that’s why it’s such a timely meeting,” Bennett said.
Earlier, the national security advisers of Israel and the US – Dr. Eyal Hulata and Jake Sullivan – held the fourth meeting of the Strategic Consultative Group (SCG). The SCG is a bilateral group aimed at collaborating in the effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.
The meetings come as European diplomats have warned that nuclear negotiations in Vienna to secure a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran are “rapidly reaching the end of the road.”
On Tuesday, Sullivan held talks with President Isaac Herzog, his first meeting on a three-day trip to the region. Herzog’s office said the discussion with Sullivan largely focused on Iran.
“The president underscored the need to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, at any price,” Herzog’s office said.
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The IDF said on Tuesday that it had thwarted a car ramming attempt by a Palestinian terrorist into a military checkpoint in the West Bank.
According to an initial report, the car attacker attempted to ram into a manned military post outside the Mevo Dotan settlement, north of Jenin. The Israeli soldiers at the military post opened fire at the vehicle as the driver accelerated towards them and “neutralized” him, the Israeli army stated.
The assailant’s vehicle then collided with a military jeep that was parked near the post, setting both on fire. There were no serious injuries reported.
Tuesday’s incident is the latest in a series of eight Palestinian terrorist attacks targeting Israelis over the past month in Jerusalem and around the West Bank using knives, guns, and vehicles.
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Antisemitism Watch
Students at a Washington, D.C. elementary school were reportedly instructed by a staff member to reenact scenes from the Holocaust. When the third-grade students asked why the Germans killed Jews, the staff member said it was “because the Jews ruined Christmas.”
The staffer reportedly told one student, who is Jewish, to play the role of Adolf Hitler and to pretend to commit suicide. Another student was told to pretend that he was on a train to a concentration camp and then to act as if he were dying in a gas chamber.
At the D.C. school, the staff member told students not to tell anyone about the reenactment, but the students told their homeroom teacher. The staff member was placed on leave that same day.
The school’s principal, M Scott Berkowitz, condemned the incident in an email to parents and said all students in the class met with the school’s mental health team.
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There is a strong connection between the Jewish state and the country’s small but growing Christian population. In stark contrast to life in Israel, however, the persecution of Christians across the Middle East has over the past two decades prompted an exodus – often driven by state authoritarianism.
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Recommended Reading
- Gray is the New Black (Adi Schwartz, Israel Hayom)
- Human Rights Watch’s ‘Apartheid’ Claims Outrageous (Jerusalem Post Editorial)
- Fatah Brainwashes 4th Grade Girls That Israel’s Destruction Is Inevitable (Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Algemeiner)
- Arabs Should Move Past Contesting Israel’s Jewish Identity, Ra’Am Chief Abbas Says (Aaron Boxerman, Times of Israel)
- Maya, Mohammed Top List of Popular Baby Names in 2020 (Hili Yacobi-Handelsman, Israel Hayom)
