Kurz, who was visiting Israel with his Danish counterpart to discuss a trilateral vaccine pact, credited Netanyahu for putting it into action early in the Covid-19 outbreak. After lectures and a visit to an open gym for those who were vaccinated or recovered from Covid-19, Austria, Denmark and Israel announced an alliance to guarantee the long-term supply of vaccines.
“I will never forget the beginning of the year 2020, when we received a call and Bibi Netanyahu told me that this virus would be a great threat to the whole world, to Europe, even if we don’t know it at the moment,” said Kurz. “You were perhaps the reason why we acted so early in Austria, when the first wave hit us hard in the European Union.”
Netanyahu recognized early in the pandemic that vaccines could save not only Israel, but its political future.
For years, Netanyahu has proclaimed himself as the man who transformed Israel into a global technology powerhouse. Now, as he faces a fourth election in two years and an ongoing corruption trial, the prime minister is publicizing his record of turning Israel from an “initial nation” to a “vaccination nation”.
Netanyahu has made Israel’s treatment of the pandemic and, especially, his robust vaccination campaign: appearing almost every night at televised addresses for the country in the first weeks of the pandemic, obsessively negotiating vaccines with pharmaceutical companies, receiving the first doses in Tel Aviv . airport and be vaccinated during prime time on TV.
As Israelis head to the polls on Tuesday, life is starting to look normal again, with schools running and restaurants open again.
The question now is whether voters will credit Netanyahu with this return to normality enough to shake up the political stalemate that has engulfed the country in the past two years.
“In politics, you judge the leader by the outcome, how the leader dealt with the crisis and the outcome,” said Aviv Bushinsky, a former media adviser to Netanyahu. In the case of the vaccine program, he added, “Israelis are very happy”.
A strong start overturned by waves
The coronavirus pandemic accompanied a political crisis in Israel. The first increase in infections occurred last March, just weeks after the country’s third election in a year and while Netanyahu was building a coalition with his rival who became partner Benny Gantz.
As the Austrian chancellor noted, Netanyahu acted quickly to combat the outbreak, publicly warning about the dangers of the virus and effectively shutting down Israel before the country registered its first death.
Mobile cabins deployed on the streets allowed Covid-19 tests to be easily accessible. Some people with mild cases of the virus were sent to state isolation facilities, usually converted hotels, to recover. Passover, one of the most important Jewish holidays, where families gather in large groups for a large seder dinner, was essentially canceled after Israelis were banned from meeting in groups or traveling.
In May, after nearly a year and a half of political stalemate, Netanyahu finally had his coalition government in place, with an unprecedented number of ministers and deputies. And with infection rates plummeting, the government has begun to allow public life to return. Israel seemed to have ended the first round on top. While countries like Italy recorded tens of thousands of deaths until May, the death toll in Israel at the time was less than 300.
But as people went back to restaurants and events like weddings, the virus did, too.
In September, Israel had the worst rate of new infections per capita in the world, and the country was involved in a political dispute over who was to blame.
Professor Eran Segal, of the Israel Weizmann Institute of Science, praised the government’s initial response, but told CNN that the mistakes started after the first blockade. The reluctance at different points to impose targeted restrictions at the local level, especially in ultra-Orthodox and Arab neighborhoods, may have helped the spread of the virus even more, said Segal.
“Probably for a number of reasons, I imagine there are many political reasons, we have not been successful in containing spreads where they occurred,” said Segal.
Segal also criticized the government’s litmus test during the summer for blockages – 800 critically ill patients would simultaneously trigger a shutdown. If Israel had enacted blockades earlier, there would have been fewer fatalities and a shorter overall blocking period, he said.
The comment marked a remarkably different tone from that of President Reuven Rivlin just a few days later, when the Israeli head of state offered a direct apology to the nation.
“I know we haven’t done enough as a leader to deserve your attention. You trusted us and we disappointed you,” said Rivlin. “You, citizens of Israel, deserve a safety net that the country gives you. Decision makers, government ministries, policy makers must work for you and only you – to save lives, to reduce infections, to rescue the economy. I understand the feeling that none of this was done satisfactorily. ”
With the end of 2020 approaching, with Israel facing a third wave of infections, the Israeli Knesset gave up on attempts to pass a budget, leading to the dissolution of Parliament and triggering this year’s elections. Critics of Netanyahu, who included his coalition partner Gantz, suspected that the prime minister never intended the current government to last long, and now the Israeli leader could see his political salvation coming.
Bringing Israel ‘back to life’
At first, Netanyahu pushed for Israel to be one of the first countries to receive Covid-19 vaccines, boasting of being in regular contact with major pharmaceutical companies and their CEOs.
Although he signed an advance agreement with Moderna, it was the special agreement with Pfizer – and its Jewish CEO Albert Bourla – that secured Israel’s position as a global leader. Israel paid a high price and received the vaccines quickly and, in return, is giving Pfizer access to data from Israel’s centralized health system to study the vaccine’s effectiveness. Israel did not detail the exact price per person who paid for the Pfizer vaccine, but a parliamentary committee revealed this week that the country has already disbursed 2.6 billion shekels ($ 787 million) for “multiple vaccine transactions” and expects to spend a similar amount amount to more in the future.
But Netanyahu is doing everything he can to own the vaccine program and its success, making it a central part of his new positive and uplifting “back to life” campaign – a marked departure from previous elections, Bushinsky said.
“In recent years, Netanyahu’s campaign has always tilted or used the fear campaign that if Netanyahu is not around, the Iranians will develop the bomb, or Hamas will get stronger, or Hezbollah will attack,” Bushinsky said. “I think this is the first election that Netanyahu participates in that he is not using the campaign of fear, but the campaign of hope.”
Time and luck were also on Netanyahu’s side. With the vaccination program starting in late December, Netanyahu had at least three months between the first injection and election day – enough time for the majority of the population to be vaccinated and start to get a taste of normality under the “green pass” program ” from the country . https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/israel-vaccine-green-pass-wellness/index.html
“Some say that Netanyahu, God touched him, that he is very lucky,” said Bushinsky. “Imagine if the elections were a few months ago, when most people were not vaccinated.”
Tzachi Hanegbi, a cabinet minister who has served alongside Netanyahu for decades, said he thinks the Israelis will reward Netanyahu for the way he handled the virus.
“I believe that after the year of the crown people were really exposed to the prime minister’s capabilities to get Israel out of Covid-19 with new expectations, vaccination that everyone is entitled to and millions of Israelis are already free from the crown. I believe that this will reflect in the result “, said Hanegbi.
Netanyahu, said Hanegbi, has an “inner feeling that you are there because God sent you to save the people of Israel and lead you through difficult times”.
“I think that gives him the power and support of the people. It’s called charisma.”
CNN’s Oren Lieberman contributed to this report.