This story is no longer being updated. Follow live updates here.
Israel is in the midst of an extensive vaccination campaign, and is beginning to see a drop in COVID infections and severe cases. Israel exited its third nationwide lockdown, but inbound and outbound flights remain suspended except for special cases. So far, 5,821 Israelis have died of the virus.
Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip have received 30,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and 2,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine donated by Israel. It may take a while still for a mass vaccination campaign to get under way, and many months for it to reach enough members of the population. 1,741 people have died so far in the West Bank, while 555 have died in Gaza.
No new date has been set for the start of the campaign. The postponement took contractors and those involved in the drive by surprise, as they had believed that the budget for it had already been approved
Mar. 3, 2021
Yossi, a 40-year-old from Atlit, has been unemployed for about a year, a victim of the economic downturn caused by the pandemic. But he has no complaints about COVID ruining his life; on the contrary, it’s enabled him to fulfill a dream. For employers, however, it’s been a nightmare.
Until last March, Yossi worked in a packaging-goods factory, but orders dried up and they put him on unpaid leave. Later, the factory itself closed altogether, exactly a week after his wife gave birth to their third child.
Zionism’s tragic mistake, according to one of Israel’s harshest critics - LISTEN
Follow
Feb. 26, 2021
For many long weeks Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his associates have been toiling to persuade the heads of the ultra-Orthodox parties and Religious Zionism Chairman Bezalel Smotrich to revive the rightist-Haredi bloc. With the exception of Interior Minister Arye Dery (Shas), who agreed enthusiastically and for entirely self-interested electoral reasons, all the others turned up their noses. Netanyahu did not give up. He hounded them. “Even Sara got involved,” said one of the partners. “She made phone calls.”
Lengthy and tedious negotiations ensued. Netanyahu demanded a cut-and-paste of the original loyalty oath from February 16, 2020: At that time the party heads signed off that they would not participate in any coalition except one headed by Netanyahu, and would not conduct separate negotiations with anyone else, only via Likud.
Follow
Feb. 9, 2021
A squadron of F-35 stealth fighters, F-15s, refueling aircraft and rescue helicopters – this is the loot with which the air force left a meeting of the security cabinet on Sunday. Together with the army’s more modest pickings, the Israel Defense Forces got an open check of $9.5 billion to spend from the U.S. aid money.
Some $7 billion of that represents what’s left of the $38 billion Washington is giving to Israel over the years 2019-2028. The other $2.5 billion is being made possible thanks to some financial engineering that will allow the defense establishment to delay repaying a loan it has taken by five years.