They handled it poorly at first, then imposed strict lockdowns, which lead to protests. Different communities have responded differently. Religious groups ignoring lockdown, but also living in larger households, lead to higher rates of infection there, leading to stricter and longer lockdowns. This was seen as discrimination, leading to more protests and non-compliance in these communities. Surveilance and checkpoint systems originally designed for the occupation were repurposed to impliment the lockdown, leading to privacy and rights violation concerns. Lockdowns also came at a convenient time for the government, amidst protests over corrution.
Their response has mainly been shit, swinging back and forth between the most and least extreme options because the government didn't know what they were doing. They don't want to inconvenience people because they can't afford to alienate voters, but also can't afford to be seen as failing.
Vaccines are their off-ramp to the crisis, eliminating Covid as a political issue. They have the resources and the international political capital to make it happen, while most others don't.
There's also rumours they had to buy a bunch of vaccines to give to Syria as part of a prisoner exchange last weekend.
Israel's been interesting in all of this.
They handled it poorly at first, then imposed strict lockdowns, which lead to protests. Different communities have responded differently. Religious groups ignoring lockdown, but also living in larger households, lead to higher rates of infection there, leading to stricter and longer lockdowns. This was seen as discrimination, leading to more protests and non-compliance in these communities. Surveilance and checkpoint systems originally designed for the occupation were repurposed to impliment the lockdown, leading to privacy and rights violation concerns. Lockdowns also came at a convenient time for the government, amidst protests over corrution.
Their response has mainly been shit, swinging back and forth between the most and least extreme options because the government didn't know what they were doing. They don't want to inconvenience people because they can't afford to alienate voters, but also can't afford to be seen as failing.
Vaccines are their off-ramp to the crisis, eliminating Covid as a political issue. They have the resources and the international political capital to make it happen, while most others don't.
There's also rumours they had to buy a bunch of vaccines to give to Syria as part of a prisoner exchange last weekend.