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https://reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-israel/israels-covid-vaccination-pass-opens-fast-track-to-normal-life-idUSKBN2AL036Coming exactly a year after Israel’s first documented coronavirus case, Sunday’s easing of curbs was part of a government plan to open the economy more widely next month, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is up for reelection.
“We are the first country in the world that is reviving itself thanks to the millions of vaccines we brought in,” he tweeted. “Vaccinated? Get the Green Pass and get back to life.”
https://technologyreview.com/2021/02/19/1019264/a-leaked-report-pfizers-vaccine-conquering-covid-19-in-its-largest-real-world-test/the vaccine is able to cut covid-19 illness and deaths by more than 93% and also provides the first large-scale evidence that the vaccine may prevent most infections, including those that don’t cause symptoms.
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https://bbc.com/news/55800921
Suspect that depends on your definition of “normal.” Cross-border travel for Israel and most nations remains severely restricted. My plans to visit Toronto last spring remain in cold storage - despite being vaccinated.
A few related tidbits from Monday’s WSJ: (1) 25% of Israelis say they have no intention of ever being vaccinated, (2) Israel’s population is small compared to ours - roughly that of New York City, (3) Israel early-on entered into a diagnostic data-sharing plan with Pfizer which likely improved its access to the vaccine, (4) Israel outbid other nations for the Pfizer vaccine, paying 2-3 times the price paid by the U.S. & most European nations.
Also - (Unrelated) Israel is rumored (WSJ) to have acquired for the adjoining Palestinian population a substantial supply of Russia’s Sputnik vaccine as part of a secret Israili-Russian prisoner swap. Israel declines to comment. Russia has had some good reviews of their vaccine and is leveraging its use for political advantage globally.
FWIW
Now to put things in some perspective: The Muslim Uighur population in China is 12.1 million. Many of them are being imprisoned by China in literal concentration camps: https://bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-55794071 Yet from what I read on liberal sites like Common Dreams, the coverage of abuses against Palestinians is about 40 times that of Uighurs.
Then if you look at the populations of other Middle Eastern countries, you'll see how small Israel is relatively speaking: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Middle_Eastern_countries_by_population
A country like Saudi Arabia has a population of 35 million, and has its own history of human rights abuses, notably towards women and African migrant workers: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Saudi_Arabia
I'm not saying the treatment of the Palestinians doesn't deserve attention. But the amount of attention and the kind of attention it receives does venture into the realm of antisemitism much like the attention to Jewish bankers and media moguls on the right-wing. One big for instance, is the fact that Zionists and the Likud party's supporting the settlements in the West Bank is confused with all Israelis and Jews in general. That is no more true in Israel than it is that every American supports the GOP's or Trump's policies towards immigrants or the Mexican border. Many Jews and many Israelis do not support Bibi's West Bank policies, so to lump them all together as one monolith ideologically is prejudiced.
Boycotting Israel is not antsemitic--- depending on one's motivations, right? If one simply hates Israel because it is a Jewish homeland, well, then you're just a prejudiced moron piece of shit. BDS exists BECAUSE no other means of pressuring the regime to change its policies has worked. We have a precedent, in Apartheid South Africa. There were many tournaments that Gary Player could not compete in. (South African citizen.) It was bad for him, and looked very bad for that regime. (I don't believe he suffered in any way.) It was a long haul. The boycott did not work instantly, nor in a single decade, even. It took longer than that. And there needs to be sufficient recognition of the problem, too: treatment of Palestinians on their own land. Emphasis on their own. Although not connected to BDS, it is worth mentioning that the adjacent Kingdom of Jordan has for many years refused to take in any more Palestinians. The logic of that decision is not to give Israel an "easy out." Let the international community see and pay attention: The promised Palestinian State is still not a reality.
With tongue in cheek, the musician Dan Bern played with a band in his early days called "The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy." Still makes me giggle.
There are reasons--- good ones--- why Jews are so visibly successful in our society. No one should denigrate Jews for being Jews. Wherever they might live. My argument is with the Israeli STATE apparatus. To which, someone might retort: "then why target all of Israeli society with the BDS Movement?" ... The response is: "Let them wake up and actually DO something, more than they're doing, to effect the needed change."
We can't be everywhere, all at once. In my career, I made paying attention to the "Palestinian Issue" a justice priority. If you saw my Facebook feed, you'd see that I recognize and share the news with others about injustice wherever it is pointed out. It's not much, but I AM retired. And we all deserve that, when the time comes.
Boycotting Israel is not antsemitic--- depending on one's motivations, right? If one simply hates Israel because it is a Jewish homeland, well, then you're just a prejudiced moron piece of shit. BDS exists BECAUSE no other means of pressuring the regime to change its policies has worked. We have a precedent, in Apartheid South Africa. There were many tournaments that Gary Player could not compete in. (South African citizen.) It was bad for him, and looked very bad for that regime. (I don't believe he suffered in any way.) It was a long haul. The boycott did not work instantly, nor in a single decade, even. It took longer than that. And there needs to be sufficient recognition of the problem, too: treatment of Palestinians on their own land. Emphasis on their own. Although not connected to BDS, it is worth mentioning that the adjacent Kingdom of Jordan has for many years refused to take in any more Palestinians. The logic of that decision is not to give Israel an "easy out." Let the international community see and pay attention: The promised Palestinian State is still not a reality.
With tongue in cheek, the musician Dan Bern played with a band in his early days called "The International Jewish Banking Conspiracy." Still makes me giggle.
There are reasons--- good ones--- why Jews are so visibly successful in our society. No one should denigrate Jews for being Jews. Wherever they might live. My argument is with the Israeli STATE apparatus. To which, someone might retort: "then why target all of Israeli society with the BDS Movement?" ... The response is: "Let them wake up and actually DO something, more than they're doing, to effect the needed change."
We can't be everywhere, all at once. In my career, I made paying attention to the "Palestinian Issue" a justice priority. If you saw my Facebook feed, you'd see that I recognize and share the news with others about injustice wherever it is pointed out. It's not much, but I AM retired. And we all deserve that, when the time comes.
https://haaretz.com/world-news/.premium-why-are-jews-protesting-china-s-uighur-genocide-louder-than-muslims-1.9021203
https://theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/04/why-do-muslim-states-stay-silent-over-chinas-uighur-brutality
The other irony is by boycotting the entire state of Israel's businesses, it can hurt Palestinians sometimes too. Sodastream is an interesting example:
https://npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/03/27/471885452/when-500-palestinians-lose-their-jobs-at-sodastream-whos-to-blame
I think a more nuanced response might work better. Consider the difference here between, say, companies that want to create products to address climate change and those that say support GOP politicians that are anti-environment, anti-immigrant and anti-labor. Should a company like Ben & Jerry's or First Solar be treated the same as an Exxon in a boycott? Obviously, there are complexities. But divestment and boycotts can and should work in certain cases. It did ultimately benefit South Africa. But there remains much hypocrisy regarding trade with authoritarian regimes like China. Would it not make more sense in certain cases to boycott the bad companies while rewarding the good or at least neutral?
But Sodastream? Palestinian employees, right? My objection in that case is that they've located and are doing business on occupied land. They have no right to be there in the first place. The PA must get its act together, too, no doubt. But so far, they've not had the chance to screw everything up, on their own. Hamas and Fatah need to form a unity government, one way or another. Hamas = "terrorists?" But they WERE popularly elected, I recall.
BUT: it reminds me that many years ago in California, Filipinos were allowed to come and pick the asparagus crop. Stoop-labor, one by one by one! But they were not allowed to bring their wives. ... Years later, when that prohibition ended, many towns enacted "sunset laws." Blacks and Asians were required to be inside, in their homes, by sunset. I've seen a picture from as late as the 1950s on the door to the Hotel Stockton: "No dogs or Filipinos allowed."