New Mexican highlights Israel's successful vaccination strategy

In this blog issue:

COVID and SFMEW
Israel’s successful vaccination program
Changes in New Mexico Members of Congress

1. COVID and SFMEW

We’ve been quiet for many months now, but it doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy from time-to-time. If there is any bright side to the COVID pandemic, it is that the antisemitism masquerading as anti-Zionism has been significantly reduced since March, 2020, so we’ve been able to take a deep breath (with our masks on) while socially distancing.

We’ve had a couple of disappointments:

1. NM Senators Heinrich and Udall were two of only four senators in the United States Senate (along with Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren) who didn’t co-sponsor the bipartisan resolution (S. Res. 709) congratulating the UAE, Bahrain, and Israel on the Abraham Accords. This resolution had 95 co-sponsoring senators plus the original sponsor, meaning only Udall, Heinrich, Sanders, and Warren felt the resolution was too one-sided. We wonder how they justify being anti-peace and anti-normalization?

On the plus side, we are grateful that our three New Mexico members of the House of Representatives (Haaland, Torres-Small, and Lujan) all joined in being peace- and normalization-oriented by co-signing the equivalent House resolution (H.Res. 1110).

2. In the winter issue of the New Mexico Jewish Link the editor published a supposed rebuttal to SFMEW Chairman Halley Faust’s op-ed from the fall issue laying out the case why someone can be Jewish and antisemitic. The gist of it: the op-ed by Stanley Hordes “on behalf of the Jewish Voice for Peace” has many factual errors, and clearly displays the antisemitism discussed in Faust’s article. This JVP article should never have been printed in a Federation newspaper. More on this in a subsequent blog posting.

3. We spent a lot of time and effort studying and critiquing the Santa Fe New Mexican’s coverage of the murals controversy from a year ago. We found the New Mexican, through a lack of in-depth reporting and re-printing antisemitic mural “cartoons,” perpetuated antisemitic claims by JVP, Santa Feans for Justice in Palestine, and the Red Nation. In short they were, among other things, reprinting Palestinian propaganda as if it were fact.

Unfortunately to date we’ve not been able to get a meeting with the editor of the New Mexican about its January and February, 2020 coverage. We haven’t given up – stay tuned for more on this in a subsequent blog posting. In the meantime, you can read the 37 page report written by Brian Yapko and Halley Faust by following this link: SF New Mexican Murals Critique Jan-Feb, 2020.

2. Israel’s successful vaccination program

On Tuesday, January 12, 2021 the Santa Fe New Mexican published an excellent commentary article from Bloomberg News on the success Israel is having with its vaccination program. Whenever they publish something positive we should congratulate them. At the same time we need to make sure a clarification is published – either through your letter to the editor or your own op-ed.

Overall the article is factual and direct. Zev Chafets, brought up in Pontiac, Michigan, made aliyah to Israel after graduating from the University of Michigan (Go Blue!). He is a well-known columnist, former participant in peace negotiations for Israel, and former aide to Menachem Begin. He has strong pro-Israel credentials.

The one clarification that should be made is related to the end of the article where he calls for Israel to vaccinate the Palestinians in the West Bank. He calls it an “ethics and humanitarian concern.” He’s right, but the blame for Israel’s not doing so lies squarely in the lap of the Palestinian Authority.

We repeat: there is nothing wrong with Chavets’ plea. At the same time New Mexican readers are unlikely to understand the nuances associated with this plea, and we have already seen media and NGOs (e.g., Amnesty International, the Guardian, the Washington Post, and PBS) which claim Israel is purposefully withholding vaccine from the West Bank Palestinians. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The legality. First, let’s be clear, the Oslo Accords and specifically the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement specifically stipulates that “Powers and responsibilities in the sphere of Health in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be transferred to the Palestinian side.” Article 17, sections 1 and 2, state:

Powers and responsibilities in the sphere of Health in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be transferred to the Palestinian side, including the health insurance system.
The Palestinian side shall continue to apply the present standards of vaccination of Palestinians and shall improve them according to internationally accepted standards in the field, taking into account WHO recommendations. In this regard, the Palestinian side shall continue the vaccination of the population with the vaccines listed in Schedule 3.

At the same time, article 6 indicates that the parties should work together regarding epidemics:
Israel and the Palestinian side shall exchange information regarding epidemics and contagious diseases, shall cooperate in combating them and shall develop methods for exchange of medical files and documents.

The reality. Until early January the Palestinian Authority (PA) had not requested any assistance from Israel, indeed it refused assistance offered by Israel. Originally the PA on its own attempted to make a deal with the Russians for their vaccine. Osama al-Najjar, a PA senior health official, announced the deal in December: “Four million doses of the Russian coronavirus vaccine are expected to arrive…by the end of [2020] or the start of 2021…” This past Monday the PA health ministry “approved the controversial Russian Sputnik V vaccine for use in the West Bank and Gaza.” According to a Times of Israel report on January 13, the PA just on January 11 announced a deal for 2 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

As CAMERA reports, “Efforts to coordinate Israeli-Palestinian cooperation on procuring vaccines for Palestinians was reportedly damaged by the Palestinian decision to cut off all coordination with Israel.” The Jerusalem Post reported on December 21, 2020 that “the Palestinian leadership refused to even talk to Israel when the latter was ordering vaccine doses, let alone coordinate a complex rollout operation.”

Israel has supplied tons of Covid-related medical supplies to Palestinians in both the West Bank and Gaza. Israel never said they wouldn’t assist the PA in securing COVID vaccines if asked.

Israeli Arabs, full citizens of Israel, are being offered vaccinations at the same rate as Jewish Israelis.

The lies. Some sources, like the Guardian, claim that “jabs go to settlers” instead of to West Bank Palestinian denizens. But what the Guardian calls “settlers” Israel considers full Israeli citizens who live over the “Green Line” in the disputed territories, living under Israeli rule as a result of the internationally supported Oslo Accords. It is clear: settlers are not getting vaccines in the place of Palestinians.

As mentioned above, the Palestinians went their own way to procure vaccine. Further Israel has been vaccinating Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem. Why is it that the Guardian and Amnesty International infantilize the Palestinians by taking away their responsibility – their agency as adults and as the governing body of the Palestinian area A in the West Bank. [Of course, Israel and the PA have no control over Hamas-controlled Gaza.]

Take Action

Write a letter to the editor (letters@sfnewmexican.com) of the New Mexican praising their inclusion of the Zev Chafets article, and clarifying that the Palestinians have their own agency in getting vaccine for their population: they are bound by the Oslo Accords agreement to handle vaccinations. It’s fine for Chavets to ask for humanitarian help from the Israelis, and Israel is happy to help the Palestinians – if only they’d stop rejecting Israeli help and ask for it. Further, Israel is vaccinating Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem and are governed by the Israeli authorities. But Palestinians who live in the West Bank (known for thousands of years as Judea and Samaria), which is governed by the PA. Unfortunately the Palestinians have cut off most relations with Israel over the past few years.

Original article published January 12, 2021 in the Santa Fe New Mexican:

In just 21 days, Israel had inoculated 20 percent of its 9.3 million citizens and permanent residents and, even more significantly, 70 percent of its initial target group — medical personnel and people over age 60.

These are astounding figures. The U.S. has managed to inoculate about 2 percent of its population. Germany, Italy and France have yet to reach 1 percent percent.

After receiving his own second dose of the vaccine, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that a massive airlift of vaccines would begin, allowing everyone 16 and over to be immunized within two months. Israel, he said, “will be the first country in the world to defeat the virus.” Conveniently for Netanyahu, that victory coincides with the Israeli election scheduled March 23.

Having failed to control the virus’s spread and enforce successive lockdowns, Netanyahu framed the vaccination program as his personal achievement. He bragged that the vaccine is being supplied as a result of 17 telephone conversations he conducted with his dear friend, Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, the company providing the lion’s share of Israel’s vaccine.

Netanyahu’s foresight and persistence certainly deserves credit. But Bourla also saw an opportunity as he recognized that Israel’s uniquely personalized and fully digitized community health system could provide near real-time information on the vaccine and its efficacy.

All Israelis are insured by one of four national health maintenance organizations, whose clinics and hospitals are spread throughout the country. They are competitive, but the price of membership, copayments and treatments are regulated and uniform. So is the subsidized “basket” of medication, procedures and treatments. These are decided by a national board of experts. Medication is bought by the government and centrally distributed via a single company. All medical records are online, available to hospitals, doctors and the Ministry of Health.

This makes Israel especially attractive to Pfizer and other vaccine producers. HMOs know who has been vaccinated and in what order of priority. They know who has returned for a booster shot and who has opted out. Israel knows the ages, medical conditions and other demographic information of a heterogeneous population. And all this data is held by the Ministry of Health. It is a treasure for testing efficacy of the vaccine among various groups and the relative amount of vaccine needed for efficacy. Israel will be likely to be the first country to know the level of coverage needed to achieve herd immunity.

Distribution has been a model of efficiency. Vaccinations happen seven days a week in most places and even late at night. While it is a civilian operation, the army is vaccinating its own soldiers and helping with tracking and tracing infection and some logistics.

Israel’s government doesn’t publish the number of vaccines it has received or what supply is coming. We know that 2 million people have received a dose of the Pfizer vaccine and will receive their second dose starting this week. According to Netanyahu, an unspecified “millions more” are in the pipeline. Last week, Moderna, whose chief medical officer is an Israeli, sent an initial shipment of 100,000 doses. Israel is also working on a homemade vaccine that could be ready by the summer.

If things go according to plan, Israel will reach full vaccination within a couple of months and be left with a surplus. Other countries, including Cyprus and Denmark, already have expressed interest. So far, however, official policy is that Israeli citizens come first.

Among those citizens are roughly 2 million Arab-Israelis who, for reasons ranging from a lack of trust in the government to a disbelief in the seriousness of the virus, have lagged far behind the Jewish population in getting inoculated. Authorities, starting with the prime minister, have launched an aggressive public information campaign to encourage vaccination.

The Palestinian Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank have so far not received Israeli vaccinations. Gaza is ruled by Hamas, which is unwilling to accept help from Israel and is relying on international beneficiaries. Until recently, the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank has insisted it will supply itself from other sources as well. But on Saturday, the Palestinian foreign ministry declared that Israel, as occupying power, “is obliged to provide vaccines against coronavirus to the Palestinian people, at a time when it provides these vaccinations to its citizens.”

Ethics and humanitarian concerns aside, it makes sense to vaccinate the West Bank, given tens of thousands of its residents commute to jobs in Israel and mingle with the general population. If Israel finds it doesn’t wind up with a surplus, Netanyahu should make an 18th call to Bourla to get the vaccine for the West Bank.

It detracts from his credit in vaccinating his own citizens that Netanyahu has ignored this issue. Some of his hardline supporters oppose giving aid and comfort to a people they regard as the enemy. But Netanyahu should be magnanimous in victory. It will offer him an opportunity to rehabilitate his image in post-Trump Washington. Even more important, it is a chance for Israel to save lives, and perhaps change hearts and minds, in its nearest, and most distant, neighbor.

Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine. This column was written for Bloomberg Opinion.

3. Changes in New Mexico Members of Congress

Here are the changes in our Members of Congress:

Senate:

Tom Udall retired. Our Santa Fe/Nambe-based House member Ben Ray Lujan has taken his place in the senate. Ben Ray has been a staunch supporter of a strong US-Israel relationship. We look forward to working with him for many years to come.

House:

Congressional District 1 (CD-1 – Albuquerque area): Deb Haaland was re-elected. She has been nominated to become President-elect Biden’s Secretary of the Interior. Assuming she is confirmed by the Senate, her replacement will be determined by a special election of nominees from the Democratic and Republican caucuses. You can find out more about this process here.

Congressional District 2 (CD-2 – the southern half of NM): One-term Democratic congresswoman Xochitl Torres-Small was defeated by her opponent from two years ago, Yvette Herrell (Republican) 46.3% vs. 53.7%. The seat has been mostly Republican with two exceptions in the recent past. Editorial note: this race is an illustration of why fundraising amounts are not always an indication of probability of election success: Torres-Small raised over $8 million, while Herrell raised a little less than $3 million.

Congressional District 3 (CD-3 – northern New Mexico including Santa Fe): Democrat Teresa Leger-Fernandez won the general election against Republican Alexis Johnson 58.7% vs. 41.3%. SFMEW was proud to have introduced the four top Democratic primary candidates to our membership back in January and February of 2020, including Teresa Leger-Fernandez.

Both Herrell and Leger-Fernandez wrote positive pro-Israel position papers before the general election. We look forward to working with our two new members of Congress, as well as whoever replaces Deb Haaland.

New Contact Information on our Members will be found on our website in the near future.

SFMEW is a beneficiary of the Jewish Federation of New Mexico. We appreciate their help and encourage you generously to support them.