Despite high vaccination rates, Israel is experiencing a Covid surge

• Two months ago, Israel seemed to have nearly stamped out the coronavirus, with case counts hovering at 200 per day. Now, with more than 50,000 active cases, the country is entering a new wave of infections. [The Times of Israel]
• The new rise in case counts — driven by the delta variant — suggests that the vaccine’s effectiveness is waning, particularly against the more contagious variant. [BBC News]
• The daily new case rate has doubled in two weeks, though vaccine shots — which 78 percent of eligible Israelis have received — are showing strong protection against severe cases, seemingly even more so for those with booster shots. 1.1 million Israelis having already received their third vaccine shot.  [The New York Times / Isabel Kershner]
• Experts say the situation in Israel is a warning to the rest of the world. Israel began its vaccine campaign in December 2020, meaning that early recipients have reached the eight-month mark in which some studies have shown  vaccine effectiveness begins to decrease. [Science / Meredith Wadman]
• Israel is now contending with the possibility of a new lockdown. The country also updated its travel list, banning travelers from hotspots and requiring a quarantine for most. [Haaretz]

America Needs to Start Telling the Truth About Israel’s Nukes

Credit...Illustration by Nicholas Konrad/The New York Times; photograph by Rost-9D


NY TIMES

By Peter Beinart


Mr. Beinart writes frequently about American foreign policy and politics.


American politicians often warn that if Iran obtains a nuclear weapon, it will spark a nuclear stampede across the Middle East. Allowing Tehran to get the bomb, Senator Robert Menendez, the current chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, predicted in March 2020, could “set off a dangerous arms race in the region.” In an interview in December, President-elect Joe Biden cautioned that if Iran went nuclear, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt might too, “and the last goddamn thing we need in that part of the world is a buildup of nuclear capability.”

Such statements are so familiar that it’s easy to overlook their artifice. In warning that Iran could turn the Middle East nuclear, American politicians imply that the region is nuclear-free now. But it’s not. Israel already has nuclear weapons. You’d just never know it from America’s leaders, who have spent the last half-century feigning ignorance. This deceit undercuts America’s supposed commitment to nuclear nonproliferation, and it distorts the American debate over Iran. It’s time for the Biden administration to tell the truth.

American officials began hiding the truth about Israeli nuclear weapons after Israeli leaders hid the truth from them. In the early 1960s, writes Avner Cohen in his book “The Worst Kept Secret,” Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion repeatedly told President John F. Kennedy that the reactor Israel was building in the desert town of Dimona “was for peaceful purposes only.” When the United States sent inspectors to the site, the Israelis concocted an elaborate ruse, which included building fake walls to conceal the elevators that led to an underground reprocessing plant. By decade’s end, the die was cast. The C.I.A. concluded that Israel already possessed nuclear warheads.

So Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Golda Meir hatched a deal. Neither Israel nor the United States would acknowledge that Israel had nuclear weapons, and Washington would not pressure Israel to submit them to international oversight. For 50 years now, American presidents have abided by the bargain. Scholars believe that when Israel tested a nuclear weapon in the Indian Ocean in 1979, the Carter administration covered it up. In 2009, when a journalist asked Barack Obama if he knew of “any country in the Middle East that has nuclear weapons,” Mr. Obama responded, “I don’t want to speculate.”

Feigning ignorance about Israeli nuclear weapons makes a mockery of America’s efforts at nonproliferation. Mr. Obama vowed to pursue a nuclear-free world. Yet to prevent public discussion of Israel’s arsenal, his administration helped squelch a United Nations conference on a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East. The Biden administration continues to impose punishing sanctions on Iran in an attempt to force its government to accept inspections more stringent than those required by the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. Meanwhile, Israel, which has never signed the N.P.T., permits no inspections at all.

This hypocrisy leads many around the world to smirk when American diplomats claim to be defending the “rules-based order.” It also empowers those Iranians who claim Tehran has the right to match its regional rival.

Finally, the American government’s deceptive silence prevents a more honest debate at home about the dangers an Iranian nuclear weapon would pose. American politicians sometimes say an Iranian bomb would pose an “existential” threat to Israel. That’s a dubious claim, given that Israel possesses a nuclear deterrent it can deploy on air, land and sea. But many Americans find the claim plausible because, according to recent polling conducted by Shibley Telhami of the University of Maryland, barely 50 percent know Israel has nuclear weapons. A higher percentage thinks Tehran has the bomb.

Even if an Iranian bomb wouldn’t existentially threaten Israel, the United States should still work to forestall one diplomatically. With negotiations with Tehran at risk of collapse, the Biden administration should commit to lifting the sanctions that are crippling Iran’s economy in return for verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear capacity. But if those efforts fail — and the Biden administration faces pressure to wage war rather than allow Iran to gain the capacity to build a nuclear weapon — it’s crucial that Americans make an informed decision about the risk a nuclear Iran poses to America’s closest ally in the Middle East. That’s harder when the American government never publicly admits that Israel has the means to deter a nuclear attack.

The Biden administration is not going to force Israel to give up its nuclear weapons. But that doesn’t mean it must undermine America’s global credibility and deceive its people by denying reality. Perhaps a more honest American discussion of Israel’s nuclear arsenal will breathe new life into the distant dream of a nuclear-free Middle East. Even if that doesn’t happen, it will be bracing, after a half-century of lying by omission, simply to hear America’s leaders tell the truth.

Israel swears in new coalition, ending Netanyahu's long rule

 JOSEF FEDERMAN

YAHOO

Israel's new prime minister Naftali Bennett shakes hands with outgoing prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a Knesset session in Jerusalem Sunday, June 13, 2021.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Sunday narrowly approved a new coalition government, ending the historic 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sending the polarizing leader into the opposition.

Naftali Bennett, a former ally of Netanyahu turned rival, became prime minister after the 60-59 vote. Promising to try to heal a divided nation, Bennett will preside over a diverse and fragile coalition comprised of eight parties with deep ideological differences.

But the 71-year-old Netanyahu made clear he has no intention of exiting the political stage. “If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country,” he said.

The vote, capping a stormy parliamentary session, ended a two-year cycle of political paralysis in which the country held four deadlocked elections. Those votes focused largely on Netanyahu’s divisive rule and his fitness to remain in office while on trial for corruption charges.

To his supporters, Netanyahu is a global statesman uniquely capable of leading the country through its many security challenges.

But to his critics, he has become a polarizing and autocratic leader who used divide-and-rule tactics to aggravate the many rifts in Israeli society. Those include tensions between Jews and Arabs, and within the Jewish majority between his religious and nationalist base and his more secular and dovish opponents.

Outside the Knesset, hundreds of protesters watching the vote on a large screen erupted into applause when the new government was approved. Thousands of people, many waving Israeli flags, gathered in central Tel Aviv's Rabin Square to celebrate.

President Joe Biden quickly congratulated the new government.

Much of the opposition to Netanyahu was personal. Three of the eight parties in the new government, including Bennett’s Yamina, are headed by former Netanyahu allies who share his hard-line ideology but had deep personal disputes with him.

Bennett, 49, is a former chief of staff to Netanyahu whose small party is popular with religious Jews and West Bank settlers. As he addressed the raucous debate, he was repeatedly heckled and shouted down by Netanyahu’s supporters. Some were removed from the chamber.

Bennett, an observant Jew, noted that the ancient Jewish people twice lost their homeland in biblical times due to bitter infighting.

“This time, at the decisive moment, we have taken responsibility,” he said. “To continue on in this way -- more elections, more hatred, more vitriolic posts on Facebook -- is just not an option. Therefore we stopped the train, a moment before it barreled into the abyss.”

The new Cabinet met briefly, and Bennett recited a prayer for new beginnings and said it was time to mend rifts. “Citizens of Israel are all looking to us now, and the burden of proof is upon us,” he said.

Bennett, a millionaire former high-tech entrepreneur, faces a tough test maintaining an unwieldy coalition of parties from the political right, left and center.

The coalition, including a small Islamist faction that is making history as the first Arab party to sit in a coalition, agree on little beyond their opposition to Netanyahu. They are likely to pursue a modest agenda that seeks to reduce tensions with the Palestinians and maintain good relations with the U.S. without launching any major initiatives.

“We will forge forward on that which we agree -- and there is much we agree on, transport, education and so on, and what separates us we will leave to the side,” Bennett said. He also promised a “new page” in relations with Israel's Arab sector.

Israel’s Arab citizens make up about 20% of the population, but have suffered from discrimination, poverty and lack of opportunities. Netanyahu has often tried portray Arab politicians as terrorist sympathizers, though he also courted the same Arab party in a failed effort to remain in power after March 23 elections.

Bennett, who like Netanyahu opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state, made little mention of the Palestinians beyond threatening a tough response to violence. He also vowed, like Netanyahu, to oppose U.S.-led efforts to restore the international nuclear accord with Iran.

“Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,” he said. “Israel is not party to the agreement and will maintain full freedom to act.”

But he also thanked Biden for his support of Israel. He promised to take a different approach than Netanyahu, who has alienated much of the Democratic Party through his antagonistic relationship with then-President Barack Obama and close ties with former President Donald Trump.

“My government will make an effort to deepen and nurture relations with our friends in both parties -- bipartisan,” Bennett said. “If there are disputes, we will manage them with fundamental trust and mutual respect.”

While Bennett’s speech was conciliatory, Netanyahu’s was confrontational. He began by boasting of his achievements, including diplomatic treaties with four Arab states and a successful coronavirus vaccination drive, before belittling the man who is replacing him.

He accused Bennett of abandoning Israel’s right-wing electorate and joining weak “leftists” to become prime minister. He said Bennett did not have the backbone to stand up to Iran or pressure from the U.S. to make concessions to the Palestinians.

“I will lead you in the daily struggle against this evil and dangerous leftist government in order to topple it,” he said. “God willing, it will happen a lot faster than what you think.”

In the opposition, Netanyahu remains head of the largest party in parliament. The new coalition is a patchwork of small and midsize parties that could collapse if any of its members decide to bolt. Bennett's party, for instance, holds just six seats in the 120-seat parliament.

Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank, said the new government will likely be more stable than it appears.

Each party in the coalition will want to prove that it can deliver. For that, they need “time and achievements,” he said. Still, Netanyahu “will continue to cast a shadow,” Plesner said.

The driving force behind the coalition is Yair Lapid, a political centrist who will become prime minister in two years in a rotation agreement with Bennett, if the government lasts that long.

Lapid called off a planned speech, saying he was ashamed that his 86-year-old mother had to witness the raucous behavior of his opponents.

“I wanted her to be proud of the democratic process in Israel. Instead she, along with every citizen of Israel, is ashamed of you and remembers clearly why it’s time to replace you,” he said.

Netanyahu’s place in Israeli history is secure, having served as prime minister for a total of 15 years — more than any other, including the country’s founding father, David Ben-Gurion.

But his reputation as a political magician has faded -- particularly since he was indicted in 2019 for fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes.

He refused calls to step down, instead lashing out at the media, judiciary and law enforcement, going so far as to accuse his political opponents of orchestrating an attempted coup. Last year, protesters began holding weekly rallies across the country calling on him to resign.

Netanyahu remains popular among the hard-line nationalists who dominate Israeli politics, but he could soon face a leadership challenge from within his own party. A less polarizing Likud leader would stand a good chance of assembling the right-wing coalition that Netanyahu had hoped to form.

Israel And Hamas Agree To A Cease-Fire In The Gaza Conflict

NPR

BECKY SULLIVAN

LAUREL WAMSLEY

People gather near the rubble of a residential building 

Adel Hana/AP

Israeli and Hamas have accepted a cease-fire plan that was to take effect at 2 a.m. local time Friday after 11 days of fighting in Gaza.

The Israeli Cabinet voted to accept an Egyptian initiative for a cease-fire, according to a statement from the Cabinet. A Hamas spokesman said, "The Palestinian resistance will commit itself to this deal as long as the occupation is committed."

President Biden said his administration held "intense, high-level discussions hour by hour" with the Israelis, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and others toward the agreement. In remarks at the White House, Biden said he sees a "genuine opportunity" to make progress.

Biden emphasized his continued support for Israel's right to defend itself and said the U.S. would replenish Israel's missile defense system.

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a statement Thursday that he had spoken with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and thanked him for U.S. "support for Israel's actions to protects its civilians and expressed his hope that the ceasefire will be honored."

POLITICS

Biden Lauds Cease-Fire Plan

MIDDLE EAST

Timeline: Israel-Hamas Fighting Has Taken A Dire Toll

Fighting has not yet ceased. After Israel's cease-fire announcement, air raid sirens went off in southern Israel warning of rocket fire, and Israeli strikes were heard in Gaza City.

The damage was vast in Gaza, where authorities say Israeli airstrikes and artillery have killed at least 230 people, including at least 60 children. Gaza's water and electric grids were damaged, and tens of thousands were displaced from their homes.

Israel says militants fired some 4,000 rockets into the country, killing 12 people, including two children, and sending people repeatedly into shelters.

The conflict was the fourth major outbreak of this kind of fighting – rockets and airstrikes — between Hamas and Israel since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip about 15 years ago.

The announcement came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with his Cabinet ministers.

On Wednesday, Biden increased pressure on Netanyahu to move toward a cease-fire. "The President conveyed to the Prime Minister that he expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a ceasefire," the White House said Wednesday.

International officials and aid organizations have expressed alarm at the scale of the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, where about 2 million people live. Gazans are unable to flee Israeli airstrikes amid an Israeli blockade, and Egypt keeps its border with Gaza almost entirely closed.

"If there is a hell on earth, it is the lives of children in Gaza," U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres  said before the cease-fire announcement. "The fighting must stop immediately."

MIDDLE EAST

Families Say The Gaza Violence Is Taking An Immense Mental Toll On Their Kids

MIDDLE EAST

What Does A Path Forward Look Like For Israel And Palestinians?

In the south of Israel near Gaza, where rocket alarms have gone off daily for more than a week and thousands of Israelis have evacuated, those who remain expressed support for the ongoing campaign Thursday, even as most anticipated an imminent cease-fire. Israel said its airstrikes were working to degrade the capabilities of militant organizations.

"Even though we're not people who are warmongers, we are definitely in favor of the ongoing campaign," said Eyal Hajbi, a security official for the regional council that governs the rural communities east of the Gaza Strip, whose council leader had recently met with Netanyahu to urge him to continue the bombardment.

"What has been going on in the last 20 years, and especially in the last decade, is something which we cannot tolerate anymore," Hajbi said.

For Trump, Hamas And Bibi, It Is Always Jan. 6

Demonstrators protested in Karachi, Pakistan, on Sunday against Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip.Credit...Asif Hassan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images


By Thomas L. Friedman

NY TIMES

There are many ways to understand what is happening today between Hamas and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of Israel, but I prefer to think about it like this: They are each having their own Jan. 6 moment.

Just as a mob was unleashed by President Donald Trump to ransack our Capitol on Jan. 6 in a last-ditch effort to overturn the election results and prevent a healing unifier from becoming president, so Bibi and Hamas each exploited or nurtured their own mobs to prevent an unprecedented national unity government from emerging in Israel — a cabinet that for the first time would have included Israeli Jews and Israeli Arab Muslims together.

Like Trump, both Bibi and Hamas have kept power by inspiring and riding waves of hostility to “the other.” They turn to this tactic anytime they are in political trouble. Indeed, they each have been the other’s most valuable partner in that tactic ever since Netanyahu was first elected prime minister in 1996 — on the back of a wave of Hamas suicide bombings.

No, Hamas and Bibi don’t talk. They don’t need to. They each understand what the other needs to stay in power and consciously or unconsciously behave in ways to ensure that they deliver it.

The latest rerun of their long-running nasty show is happening now because both were staring at an amazing breakthrough shaping up between Israeli Jews and Israel Arab Muslims — and, like the pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, they wanted to destroy the possibility of political change before it could destroy them politically.

To understand why I am so convinced of this, I need to take you back about 10 days to the column I was writing before this blowup happened. It began with me reminding readers that I watch trends in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict very closely, because I believe their struggle often foreshadows wider trends in Western politics — not unlike what Off Broadway is to Broadway. A lot of stuff — airline hijacking, suicide bombing, building a wall, lone-wolf terrorism — gets perfected there first and then comes to Broadway.

What I was about to write just 10 days ago was: “Hey, folks! Look what’s opening Off Broadway! Maybe it will come to America!”

And this is what was opening: In the wake of Israel’s fourth election, and Netanyahu’s failure to form a government, an unprecedented national unity coalition was taking shape in Israel — under the leadership of the secular-centrist Yair Lapid and the religious-rightist Naftali Bennett. They were on the verge of forging a cabinet that would include both Israeli Jews and, for the first time ever, an Israeli Arab Islamist party.

Here is the headline in Israel’s Haaretz newspaper online from last Sunday, May 9, just before the latest Hamas-Israel conflict erupted in full: “Israel Coalition Talks: Bennett’s Party Expects to Form Gov’t ‘This Week,’ After Meeting With Islamist Leader.”

The story went on to say that, “Bennett met with United Arab List Chairman Mansour Abbas Sunday, leading members of his party to believe that a government may be formed ‘this week,’ ending Israel’s political deadlock after four elections in under two years.”

The United Arab List, also known as Raam, headed by Mansour Abbas is an Israeli Arab “Islamic movement” party that comes from the same broad realm of political Islam that Hamas does, except that it is nonviolent; recognizes Israel; and is focused on getting Israeli Arabs — particularly Muslim Bedouins — more resources, more police and more jobs for their towns and neighborhoods in Israel, just the way ultra-Orthodox Jewish Israeli parties do.

Abbas had broken away from the coalition of Israeli Arab parties — the Joint List, which is more focused on Palestinian nationalism — and won four seats on his own to push his agenda. And since neither Netanyahu’s coalition nor the opposition coalition that was emerging, led by Lapid and Bennett, had enough votes to form a government, Abbas’s four seats made him the kingmaker of Israeli politics. Netanyahu tried to court him at first, but a small openly racist, anti-Arab faction in Bibi’s coalition (Bibi’s Proud Boys) refused to sit in a cabinet with Israeli Arabs.

That is what gave this emerging opposition national unity coalition an opportunity to put together a broad government that for the first time ever would have included right-wing pro-settler Zionist parties, left-wing secular progressive parties and a pro-Islamist Israeli Arab party — and possibly, eventually, even secular Arab parties.

It would have broken the mold of Israeli politics forever. And that is why the local Jan. 6-style opponents — in Israel and Hamas — were determined to blow it up.

Otherwise, it might lead to more progress and integration between Jews and Arabs, and attempts to address unemployment and humiliation, especially among Israeli Arab youth, and not to aggravate them.

Governing matters. And who leads a government matters — especially in relations between Israeli Jews and Arabs. Think about this: During the pandemic, in March 2020, Haaretz reported that it was Israeli Arab medical workers who were essential for enabling Israel’s Jewish citizens to survive the coronavirus. “According to official figures … 17 percent of Israel’s physicians, 24 percent of its nurses and 47 percent of its pharmacists are Arabs,” it noted.

So, the next time someone tells you that Israel is a purely racist, anti-Arab country, think about those numbers. But the next time someone tells you that Israel is a paradise for its Arab citizens and that they should have nothing to complain about, think about this quote from that Haaretz story. It’s from Dr. Suad Haj Yihye Yassin, who had returned from a long shift saving Israeli Arabs and Jews from Covid-19 at her Tel Aviv hospital and had just heard Netanyahu rule out forming a government that included Israeli Arabs.

“When I come home from the emergency room, after I’ve given my all to treat everyone,” she said, “and hear the prime minister say that we have to form a national unity government to deal with the crisis — but without the Arabs, as if we are second-rate citizens — it hurts. Why is it OK for us to be on the front lines in the hospitals dealing with corona, but not legitimate for us to be in the government?”

That is why it was so important to have a true national unity coalition governing Israel, ending Netanyahu’s 12-year reign as prime minister and fundamentally challenging Hamas’s narrative that the only hope for Israeli Arabs is the destruction of the Jewish state.

And that is why the column I was working on last Monday was planning to say, “Hey, folks! Look what is playing Off Broadway! Maybe that can come to Broadway!”

I was going to tie it together with Liz Cheney’s courageous stand against Donald Trump’s Big Lie and wonder aloud if a breakaway faction of Republicans might one day work with the center-left Biden to actually heal post-pandemic America and help pass the legislation we need to thrive in the 21st century.

But then, around 10 a.m., one of my editors called to ask me what I thought about the fighting that had just erupted inside Israel between Israelis and Palestinians and between Hamas and Israel — and shouldn’t I think about writing an emergency column on that?

I realized that it was impossible to ignore. But in that column last Monday I warned that Netanyahu — who is desperate to stay in power and avoid possibly going to prison if he is convicted in his current corruption trial — was not above “inflaming the situation so much that his right-wing rivals have to abandon trying to topple him and declare instead that this is no time for a change in leadership.”

And within 48 hours of fighting that is exactly what happened. Bibi frightened Bennett away from forming a coalition with an Israeli Arab party, not to mention centrist and progressive Israelis, and Mansour Abbas was put in an impossible situation by Hamas by looking like he was collaborating with Israeli Jews who were hammering Palestinians from Jerusalem to Gaza.

So the alternative coalition talks completely fell apart. Once again, the past buried the future.

Will it always be thus? Too soon to say. Because each also miscalculated the costs of their actions to some degree.