A-G institutes lengthy approval process for providing vaccines to foreign states
Procedure must include consultation with Foreign Ministry, Finance Ministry before receiving final okay from cabinet or security cabinet
Any plans to donate COVID19 vaccines to foreign countries must go through a lengthy inter-ministerial approval process, according to a legal opinion Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit published on Monday.
However, the government has already donated about 22,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine against coronavirus: 5,000 each to the Palestinian Authority, Guatemala, Honduras, and the Czech Republic, and 2,000 to Rwanda, KAN reported.
The Prime Minister’s Office froze the vaccine aid plan last week, following questions of its legality. National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat asked Mandelblit for his opinion in light of indications that some Israeli organizations may petition the High Court of Justice against the initiative.
The National Security Council had coordinated the entire vaccine donation plan, but Mandelblit released a five-page response on Monday, saying that, according to the State Property Law, the Health Ministry’s chief accountant must approve the transfer of vaccine doses, and that approval must be backed by the ministry’s legal adviser.
The process must include a consultation with the Foreign Ministry over the list of countries to get the doses and the Finance Ministry over budgetary matters. Then,
the cabinet, security cabinet or another forum of relevant ministers must grant final approval, Mandelblit said.
“The handling of the subject must take place with full legal accompaniment, in the internal legal matters and in all connected agreements with foreign countries, from beginning to end,” Mandelblit wrote. “This
is because our subject has clear legal aspects in contracts with foreign countries and contracts between the state and vaccination companies that are under foreign and not Israeli law, as well as matters of damages that could expose the country financially.”
Any further vaccine donations must undergo this process, the attorney-general said.
An official with knowledge of the vaccine aid initiative said: “This is a chance to strengthen Israel’s relations with key countries and show a positive side of Israel. It was only a symbolic gesture, though an important one.”
The vaccines in question are made by Moderna, while Israeli citizens have only been receiving the Pfizer vaccine, and some of them are near their expiration date, so the thought was to donate them rather than have them go to waste.
Doing so would be far less costly than many of Israel’s other humanitarian endeavors, like sending emergency medical and search-and-rescue teams to disaster zones around the world, the official pointed out. He noted that countries receiving the vaccines picked them up themselves.
As for the procedural claims, the official said that when Israel sends emergency aid around the world, the decision is generally made by the prime minister, sometimes in consultation with the foreign minister or defense minister, but not the lengthy process as Mandelblit described. In this case, the PMO sent the list of countries to the Foreign Ministry on February 14, and did not get a response.
Still, the PMO plans to comply with Mandelblit’s letter.
Among the countries on the PMO’s list for donations of 1,0005,000 doses, which still have not gotten their vaccines, are Mauritania, with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations, Chad, Ethiopia, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, the Maldives, San Marino, Uganda, Cyprus and Hungary.
“We’re sending vaccines to countries we have friendly relations with,” a senior official said, when asked if the vaccine aid was a sign Israel and Mauritania are on a path to normalization.
The Palestinian Authority said on Tuesday that PA cabinet ministers and senior PLO officials have already received coronavirus vaccinations.
The security detail of senior officials, including those working in the offices of PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh, have also received their shot, according to the PA Ministry of Health.
Members of the PLO Executive Committee aged over 65 and cabinet ministers have received the vaccine, the ministry said.
“Workers of the Central Elections Commission who are in direct contact with the public in the preparation for the elections” have also been vaccinated, the ministry added.
It confirmed that the PA had sent 200 vaccines to Jordan.
The doses were sent to Amman at the request of the Jordanian Royal Court and with the approval of the office of Abbas, the ministry said.
The PA ministry said that it has so far received 12,000 vaccine doses, of which 2,000 were sent to the Hamasruled Gaza Strip.
It said that 9,800 doses for the West Bank were sufficient to vaccinate 4,900 people.
According to the ministry, 90% of the total number of vaccines in the West Bank were given to medical teams working in intensive care units in public and private hospitals, as well as workers at COVID-19 treatment centers, and employees working at the ministry offices in Ramallah and Nablus.
The ministry added that vaccines were also given to “embassies of some
countries in the State of Palestine.”
The statement came a day after the Palestinian Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) group demanded that the PA premier form an investigation committee to scrutinize the process of vaccine distribution in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
“Despite repeated calls, available information and observations indicate that many persons have been vaccinated in breach of the prioritization criteria, which gives priority to the medical staff, the elderly and the sick,” CSOs said in a statement.
“The [PA] government continues to ignore the calls to disclose its COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan and the list of persons who received the vaccines, both from medical staff and others. It continues to refrain from announcing the mechanisms, measures and points of distribution, and from holding accountable those who abused their public positions. This creates an environment for nepotism and selfishness.”
The group also accused the PA government of failing to make public the details of the process of purchasing the vaccines, the exporting companies, the detailed budgets and specific delivery dates.
“The CSOs believe that the disorganization in managing the vaccine distribution file and the absence of a clear and publicized plan shall have severe repercussions on the Palestinian society,” it cautioned. “Available information and observation reveal that the process is conducted within a framework of cronyism and contacts, giving priority to personal interests at the expense of public interest.”
after Hendel informed the attorney-general that Netanyahu’s chief of staff, Natan Eshel, had sexually harassed a female Netanyahu adviser.
“I cannot forget his moral failure back then,” Hendel said. “He decided to support power because it was convenient to him. I see it again now with the way he relates to Yifat by mocking her. It’s not respectful for a prime minister to act that way. If someone else would have said ‘Shashot,’ there would be an uproar.”
Hendel said Netanyahu’s comments also showed how the prime minister repeatedly avoids taking responsibility.
“For years, he has taken credit for whatever has gone right, even if done by others, and blamed others for what has gone wrong, even if it was done by him,” he said. “The vaccines are him. The economic crisis is [the fault of] others.”
Israel is going into a fourth election in two years because
Netanyahu preferred initiating an election over passing a state budget, Hendel said. Shortly after the outgoing government was formed, Netanyahu already decided to topple it and acted accordingly, he said.
“I did everything possible to make the government work, except lying on the floor to be dragged over,” Hendel said. “I initially thought Netanyahu finally decided to be statesmanlike. But it took him two weeks to decide otherwise, and since then there have been problems. This election is a failure for him. A mayor with no budget is removed from office. Any company executive who fails four times would be fired.”
Hendel, who ran with Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s Blue and White Party in the last three elections, said the lesson that must be learned was that Netanyahu can only be replaced by the Right, and that is why he joined Gideon Sa’ar’s party. He said he could have joined Naftali Bennett’s Yamina Party, but he wanted to be on a list committed to replacing Netanyahu.
“My choice was based on who could bring change,” he said. “Sa’ar was the man who was most determined. You don’t make the same mistake twice. I hear Bennett and I don’t hear change. If Bibi can form a government with Bennett, I think Bennett will join him.”
A new poll broadcast on Channel 13 on Tuesday night found that New Hope had fallen into a third-place tie with Yamina at 11 seats, behind the Likud’s 27 and Yesh Atid’s 19. Another poll, broadcast on Channel 12, predicted 28 seats for Likud, 19 for Yesh Atid, 14 for New Hope and 12 for Yamina. Meretz did not cross the electoral threshold in Channel 12’s poll.
Hendel said he hopes Netanyahu will be able to end his political career in a respectful manner. He said that after his successes in bringing high speed Internet to the periphery and other reforms as communications minister, the next challenge he wants is to reform the police as minister of public security in the next government.
“The police have failed in providing security to people, and Bibi cannot blame Yifat Shasha-Biton for that,” he said. •
Pindrus later walked the comment back, saying the choice of the word “shiksa” was “out of place” and apologized for his statement. “There is no doubt that anyone who converts according to halacha, even if it is an IDF conversion, is a convert,” he said on Channel 12. “I apologize to those who were converted according to Halacha and were harmed by the things [I said].” The MK,
however, maintained his strong opposition to the High Court’s ruling. “Judaism is a religion, not a political game,” he said. “Neither the High Court nor the United Torah Judaism faction can define what Judaism is. “
Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern, who as the former head of IDF Manpower Division established the military conversion system, said more than 14,000 soldiers have converted under the auspices of the IDF.
“Many of them have children, and some have grandchildren,” he said. “Pindrus should be ashamed for what he said. I have yet to meet someone who returned from a meeting with God and was told that studying in the yeshiva where Pindrus studied gets you more points than serving in a combat unit and risking your life on behalf of the Jewish people.”
Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid also criticized Pindrus.
“What female soldier who served in the IDF is he talking about,” he asked on Twitter. “The combat soldier in the Karkal Battalion The border police at checkpoints? The soldiers keeping watch on the Gaza Strip These wonderful young women you call ‘shiksa’ are saving your life.” •
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March, but it will take nine months to complete delivery of all the doses.
Israel is scheduled to start vaccinating 120,000 Palestinian workers next week and has provided the PA with 2,000 vaccines, with a pledge of an additional 3,000.
Israel is inoculating the Palestinians with the Moderna vaccines it received nearly two months ago and that have remained in storage since then.
The PA has also received 10,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
The United Arab Emirates has sent 20,000 doses to Gaza.
India understands the importance of combating COVID19 by ensuring that people throughout the world can be inoculated against the virus, and it has a large role to play in that endeavor, Singla told the Post.
“Vaccines for COVID-19 would not have any meaning if they are not supplied in bulk to the rest of the world,” he said. “For that, huge manufacturing capacity is needed, something we have in India.”
India is in the process of developing additional vaccines, Singla said.
“There are two indigenous vaccines in India that are in Phase 3 of their trials,” he said. “There are others in Phase 2.”
“In addition, in keeping with our philosophical approach,
we have also given a call at the World Trade Organization for temporary waiver of intellectual-property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in the greater interest of humanity in view of the unprecedented nature of this pandemic,” Singla said.
Reuters contributed report. to this •
Kyrie Irving is right. It's time for the National Basketball Association to change its logo by patterning it after one of its most notable Black players.
The only place where Irving might be wrong is in his choice of player.
The Brooklyn Nets guard on Wednesday launched the discussion with an Instagram post of a modified logo that featured late Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant as the logo model. Lakers star Jerry West served as the model for the NBA logo that Alan Siegel created in 1969 – though the league doesn't officially recognize it's West.
Half a century later, Irving thinks it's time to update the logo.
"Gotta Happen,” he wrote to his more than 14 million followers on Instagram, “idc what anyone says. BLACK KINGS BUILT THE LEAGUE."
During a postgame interview, Irving added more context about his proposal to feature Bryant as the logo.
“As a native Black man, as a native Black king,” Irving said, “I think it's part of my responsibility to continue to push our generation, our culture, forward.
“I know that it probably was met with some people that love the idea and some people that don't like it.
“He was the standard for our generation, and he will continue on, and I want that to be something in history that is changed forever, that our generation was part of that change.”
I understand Irving's sentiment. He is smart to seize on the timing with Bryant's popularity still sky high barely a year removed from his tragic death in a helicopter accident at age 41.
Bryant would be a fine choice, even though he has a complicated and controversial past that included a sexual assault case. But there are other choices that should be considered because the logo is a big deal with a complicated history and its fate and future deserved careful consideration. It shouldn't be decided by a Twitter poll or any popularity contest of the moment. There should be a committee made up of past and present players, league executives and historians who can discuss options.
Former NBA commissioner David Stern never acknowledged the logo was based on West, even if everyone knows it is. But now there's no going back. Removing a player as the logo would create a maelstrom of controversy.
There's no question the logo must remain a player. And there should be no question it needs to become a Black player.
The NBA is overwhelmingly Black. According to a 2020 study by the Institute
for Diversity and Ethics in Sports, 74.2% of the league's players identified themselves as Black or African-American as of November 1, 2019. But no one needs a spreadsheet to tell us what we already know. Black players are the backbone of the NBA and their contributions should be recognized and celebrated at the very least through the important symbolism of the league's ubiquitous logo.
You won't get much argument from West on this issue, either. He has never embraced being the logo and suggested during a 2017 ESPN interview it should be a silhouette of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's skyhook or Michael Jordan flying through the air or LeBron James dunking. ESPN went so far as to create some cool logo prototypes.
Irving, like any human, is subjectively biased to his own experience. He's 28 and grew up watching and admiring Bryant. Come on, how can you not love a player known as the Black Mamba?
I grew up in Los Angeles in the 1980s hearing about how great Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain were. I watched Abdul-Jabbar's beautiful and poetic skyhook, which Pat Riley accurately called “the greatest offensive weapon in sports.”
Magic Johnson helped save the NBA and was the happiest and most enthusiastic athlete I've ever watched compete in any sport. If there was a way to capture his smile and joy in silhouette, he might serve as the prototype for any logo in any sport on the planet.
But Jordan was the best basketball player I ever saw. When you consider his offense, his defense, his jaw-dropping athleticism and his dominance in the biggest of moments, he's a tough act to follow.
In a 2015 interview with HuffPost, West first suggested Jordan as the new logo, even if he was loath to admit why. “I hate to say it's not a Laker, but Michael Jordan,” West said. “He's been the greatest player I've ever seen.”
Of course, paying royalties for a player's Iikeness could be an issue. The NBA doesn't pay West — it's an unlicensed image. And getting the rights to use Jordan's image would probably cost more than the combined net worth of Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Scrooge McDuck and Tony Stark.
I don't know who the new logo will end up being. Any of these players make sense. Abdul-Jabbar is the all-time leading scorer. But James will probably pass him. Jordan was simply magnificent.
And then, of course, there's Bryant. The timing could be perfect for making him the logo. The NBA has been one of the savviest leagues when it comes to public relations, and announcing a new logo will be modeled after Bryant during his May induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame may just be too good of a shot to pass up.
Wouldn't that be a perfectly fitting statement for Bryant's legacy?
(Detroit Free Press/TNS)
To my friend Anat Hoffman (regarding “A letter to a friend abroad,” February 28),
I am very sorry that some “yeshiva student” threw hot coffee at your back during your organization’s monthly Rosh Chodesh protestpalooza at the Kotel. It really wasn’t nice of him to ruin your tallit and drench your siddur. But please don’t equate one yeshiva student’s rudeness with all the injustices taking place in Israel against women. What about the recent brutal murders of Israeli wives in front of their children by their husbands? Or what about the ongoing “agunah” problem in Israel and the rest of the world? Is the lack of respect that Women of the Wall get the only injustice that should be brought up by our brothers and sisters living outside of Israel?
Also, please do not pretend to know what is a betrayal of our Jewish tradition and Torah values. Strutting around once a month dressed in a tallit and tefillin costume in front of the Kotel backdrop of your stage is not Jewish tradition or Torah values.
Trying to get the Israeli government approval and subsidies for your branches of Judaism is not Torah values. Face it already, the Reform and Conservative movements of Judaism in America are dying. How many of your “temples” are empty and closing? That is why you accept non Jewish spouses as your so-called Jews. Your brand of Judaism is a cancer that is killing off American Jewry (70% of all Jewish marriages in America are mixed marriages).
And you want to import that cancer to Israel? No thank you, ma’am.
Finally, if Jews in the Diaspora want to influence what happens in Israel, I suggest that they all make aliyah and vote. Heaven knows we get plenty of opportunities to vote in this country.
NORMAN DEROVAN Ma’aleh Adumim