How we can stop killing each other

COVID-19 is a dangerous, infectious disease and people are responsible for spreading it.

Bloomberg reported on Friday that the virus is still killing more people in the United States than guns, cars and the flu combined. Also, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said that while vaccines remain effective against the Delta variant, their protective ability is weaker than health officials had hoped.

“We do not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less,” he said. “Whoever hoped that the vaccines alone would solve the problem, they are not. What is necessary is a strategy that brings as many vaccines as possible on the one hand and, on the other, also understands the limits of the vaccines.”

The prime minister laid out the steps necessary for slowing the spread of the Delta variant in Israel on Wednesday: masks in closed spaces, vaccination and social distancing.

“From this moment on, everyone is wearing masks indoors,” Bennett said during a press conference. “However primitive they may seem, they are the best protection against the Delta variant.”

Bennett accused those who do not put on their masks in closed spaces of being lazy.

“It’s not just you hurting yourself, you are hurting everyone,” he said.

While the Pfizer vaccine appears less effective at stopping the spread of the Delta variant, it continues to stop serious disease.

The Health Ministry reported Saturday that more than 1,000 new cases

the Jewish people and its failure to complete an eighth decade of united sovereignty, in comments he published Saturday night.

“Twice we failed and lost our Jewish state: This time we will preserve it,” vowed Bennett in remarks he posted to Facebook Saturday night.

The prime minister made several references to the historical loss of united Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel in ancient times during the last election campaign and period of coalition negotiations, arguing that holding more rounds of elections would endanger the modern Jewish state.

“The Jewish people twice had a Jewish state on the Land of Israel, and both times we did not succeed to complete the eighth decade as an independent state, because of internal wars and baseless hatred,” wrote the prime minister.

The Kingdom of Israel of the 11th and 10th centuries BCE split into two parts 78 years after King David took the throne, while the independent Hasmonean Kingdom of the 2nd and 1st centuries BCE was conquered by the Romans after 73 years of independence.

“Now that we have again, for the third time, an independent state, and we are in its eight decade, we must do everything we can to protect it – forever,” wrote Bennett.

He said that as a child, he never understood the Talmudic statement that the Second Temple was destroyed by “baseless hatred,” but that today he understood all too well, in reference to current political divides and societal schisms.

“At the time of the Roman siege on Jerusalem, the nation was divided, each group entrenched itself in its own position and burned the food stores of the others as part of the internal power struggle, so the Romans had a much easier task,” wrote Bennett.

“The bitter end we all know, and until today every year on this date we mourn the awful destruction – which a people with a little more baseless love, restraint and listening could have saved us from.

“In the end, we are all brothers, and we live in the same home,” the prime minister said. “If we argue less and listen more, perhaps we will not all have our appetites satiated but we will succeed in protecting our home and achieve a lot more. We don’t have to agree but we must not hate each other.”