Yom Shshee, Friday
25 Kislev 5781
December 11, 2020
Image courtesy of rotter.net.
Happy Chanukah!
Photo of the Night
Where and when do you think this photo was taken?
This was the scene at Passport Control at Ben Gurion Airport of people waiting to get into Israel last night. At least people are wearing masks, but as you can see there was no social distancing whatsoever.
Oh by the way, this photo was taken at midnight.
The News on the Israeli Street
The “daily” Corona (Covid-19) update . . .
The following covers the last 24 hours (from 8 am yesterday until 8 am this morning):
352,397 Israelis have been confirmed with the virus since the pandemic began last March.
There are 2,126 newly confirmed cases.
316 are in critical condition—no change
98 of the most critically ill are on ventilators—a decrease of 8
2,961 have died–an increase of 27
There are currently 16,045 active Corona cases in Israel.
Again, a 1,000 person increase in active cases, and a steady increase in daily confirmed cases which exceed 2,000–and the most Corona deaths in the last few weeks.
Dysfunction again . . . is anyone surprised? . . .
The on-again off-again on-again Chanukah nightly lockdown is off-again.
In the end, the Corona cabinet with PM Netanyahu at its head could not summon up the courage to do anything at all to stem the current viral surge and merely decided to punt.
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Punt to where?
Punt to 2500 confirmed daily cases–at which time, they agreed to do something.
The Israeli public just has one word for this ridiculous spectacle: pathetic.
A green passport . . . or not? . . .
The Health Ministry goal is to vaccinate 60,000 people a day with the Pfizer vaccine. After Israelis receive their second shot, they will receive a “green passport” which will allow them to do such things as avoid lockdowns and quarantines.
On the other hand, the Health Ministry is proposing that people who refuse to be vaccinated not be allowed to fly, and be denied entrance to restaurants and cultural events (unless they can provide a negative test result in the previous 48 hours).
Already today, before anyone has been vaccinated, some disquieting information about the virus is leaking out here such as that people with allergies should not get the vaccine, and that the vaccine may not stop one from being infected but merely slow the onset of symptoms. Also, it is being reported that 23% of the FDA panel in the U.S. that approved the virus voted against approval or abstained.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Morocco Joins the Normalization Bandwagon
There seems to be no end to President Trump’s largesse. He agrees to sell 50 F35s to the UAE in return for normalization with Israel, and he promises to take Sudan off the terror list in return for normalization with Israel.
Now, he has taken the extraordinary step of declaring Morocco’s sovereignty over the Western Sahara region . . . again in return for Morocco’s normalization with Israel.
There is seemingly no price President Trump will not pay to bring Arab normalization with Israel.
In this case, the move is remarkable in that Morocco has always been seen by the Palestinians as a bulwark against Israel despite Morocco’s long association with Jews and Israel.
As I sit here this morning typing this blog in Ashdod, I’m looking out at King Hassan II Park which abuts our home on two sides. It is a park named for the Moroccan king who facilitated (not without a price) the movement of tens of thousands of Moroccan Jews to Israel back in the 1950s.
In fact, some of our best friends here in this neighborhood are some of those Moroccan Jews.
But back to the present where Moroccan King Muhammad VI has actually taken a risky step, but seemingly made the same choice at the leaders of the UAE, Bahrain, and Sudan. That choice is to relegate the Palestinian issue to a secondary concern outweighed by other more important factors.
In Morocco’s case, the King is counting on the fact that Moroccan nationalism over getting the U.S. declaration about the Western Sahara will quieten the outrage sure to be expressed by pro-Palestinian elements in the country.
Yesterday, Moroccan FM Nasser Burita underscored all of this when he declared: “Anyone who criticizes this agreement is against Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.”
One last item is that the normalization agreement with Israel is a thumb in the eye of Iran which has been the main supporter of the Polisario group seeking Western Sahara’s independence.
In any case, and despite all the doubts about normalization, it is good to have Morocco on the normalization bandwagon.
At least for now—because who knows what will happen when President Trump leaves office.
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.