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Health

Israeli Knowledge Suggests Potential Waning in Effectiveness of Pfizer Vaccine

Israeli Data Suggests Possible Waning in Effectiveness of Pfizer Vaccine

As Israel struggles with a new surge of coronavirus cases, its health ministry reported on Thursday that although effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine remains high against severe illness, its protection against infection by the coronavirus may have diminished significantly compared with this winter and early spring.

Analyzing the government’s national health statistics, researchers estimated that the Pfizer shot was just 39 percent effective against preventing infection in the country in late June and early July, compared with 95 percent from January to early April. In both time periods, however, the shot was more than 90 percent effective in preventing severe disease.

Israeli scientists cautioned that the new study is much smaller than the first and that it measured cases in a narrower window of time. As a result, a much larger range of uncertainties flank their estimates, which could also be skewed by a variety of other factors.

Dr. Ran Balicer, the chairman of Israel’s Covid-19 National Expert Advisory Panel, said that the challenges of making accurate estimates of vaccine effectiveness were “immense.” He said that more careful analysis of the raw data was needed to understand what is going on.

“I think that data should be taken very cautiously because of small numbers,” said Eran Segal, a biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who is a consultant to the Israeli government on vaccines.

Nevertheless, the new estimates are raising concern both in Israel and elsewhere, including the United States, that the vaccine might be losing some of its effectiveness. Possible reasons include the rise of the highly contagious Delta variant or a waning of protection from the shots over time.

Israel launched an aggressive campaign with the Pfizer vaccine in January, and the country has achieved one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with 58 percent of the population fully vaccinated. At the start of the campaign, government researchers began estimating how much the shot reduced people’s risk of getting Covid-19.

They published their results in May, based on records from Jan. 24 to April 3: They estimated that the vaccine was 95 percent effective in preventing infection from the coronavirus in the country. In other words, the risk of getting Covid-19 was nearly 100 percent reduced in vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated ones. The researchers also estimated that the vaccine was 97.5 percent effective against severe disease.

From a peak of over 8,600 cases a day in January, cases plummeted in the following months until only a few dozen people were testing positive on a daily basis across Israel. The vaccine most likely played a part in that drop, along with the tight restrictions that the government imposed on travel and meetings.

Israel began relaxing its restrictions in the spring. In late June, the cases surged again. Now, over a thousand people are testing positive each day, leading Israel to restore some restrictions this week.

Updated 

July 23, 2021, 2:47 p.m. ET

Some of the people that tested positive for the coronavirus in the new surge were fully vaccinated. Epidemiologists had expected such breakthrough infections, as they do with all vaccines.

Researchers at the Ministry of Health took another look at the effectiveness of the vaccine, limiting their analysis to the surge from June 6 to July 3. In that period, they estimated, the effectiveness of the vaccine at preventing infections was down to 64 percent.

More recently, they ran another analysis. This time, they looked at cases between June 20 and July 17. In that period, they estimated, the vaccine’s effectiveness was even lower: just 39 percent against infection.

Still, they estimated that the vaccine’s effectiveness against serious disease remained high, at 91.4 percent.

If a vaccine has an effectiveness of 39 percent that does not mean that 61 percent of people who got vaccinated were infected by the coronavirus. Instead, it means the risk of getting infected is 39 percent less among vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated. So even at that lower percentage, the data shows that vaccinated people have significantly less risk of getting infected than unvaccinated people.

The small number of people in the latest study means that the true effectiveness might be lower or higher. Making the numbers even more uncertain is the fact that the new surge has not yet spread evenly across the whole country. Travelers who have picked up the highly contagious Delta variant have brought it back to neighborhoods where vaccination rates are relatively high.

Understand the State of Vaccine Mandates in the U.S.

The new outbreaks have yet to swamp communities of Orthodox Jews or Arab Israelis, where vaccination rates are lower. That imbalance may make the vaccine seem less effective than it really is.

Also, the ages of people vaccinated vary significantly during the different time periods studied. For example, the people who got their vaccines in January were different than those who got them in April in one major respect: They were over 60. If more people who got vaccinated in January are now getting infected, it may not have to do with the vaccine itself, but with their advanced age — or some other factor that researchers have yet to take into consideration.

Still, the new estimates have prompted some researchers to ponder what might be happening to the vaccines. The Delta variant grew more common in Israel in June, raising the possibility that it might be good at evading the vaccine.

In Britain, where Delta began surging earlier in the year, researchers estimated the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the variant, based on a review of everyone in the United Kingdom who got vaccinated up till May 16. On Wednesday, they reported in the New England Journal of Medicine that it is 88 percent effective against symptomatic Covid-19.

Another possibility is that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is gradually becoming less potent. The Ministry of Health researchers found that people who were inoculated in January were having breakthrough infections at a greater rate than people vaccinated in April.

If the vaccine is indeed waning after six months, the implications can be enormous. It can influence the Israeli government’s current deliberations about whether to give people a third shot. Dr. Segal says that if the vaccines are indeed losing some of their potency, then it might be wise to roll out boosters to fight the Delta-driven outbreak.

“If a third booster is safe and if it seems that it really would give a benefit, I think this is something we should definitely do as quickly as possible,” he said.

Dr. Balicer, who is also the chief innovation officer at Clalit Health Services, said that he and his colleagues are working on their own study on the effectiveness of the vaccine in Israel, using Clalit’s health care records to take into account such confounding factors.

“I think there is definitely some waning, but not as much as hypothesized based on the crude data, and it’s not just waning to blame,” Dr. Balicer said. “We are now trying to figure it out in a clean way.”

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World News

Israeli spy ware used to focus on telephones of journalists and activists, investigation finds

Israeli spyware used to target phones of journalists and activists, investigation finds

An Israeli woman uses her iPhone in front of the building of the Israeli NSO group in Herzliya near Tel Aviv on August 28, 2016.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

According to a comprehensive investigation by the Washington Post and 16 other news organizations, private Israeli spy software was used to hack dozens of smartphones belonging to reporters, human rights activists, business people and the fiancé of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The military-grade spyware was reportedly licensed by Israeli spyware company NSO Group. The investigation found that the hacked phones were on a list of more than 50,000 numbers in countries known to monitor people.

The list of numbers was made available to the Post and other media organizations by the Paris-based nonprofit journalism organization Hidden Stories and the human rights group Amnesty International.

The NSO Group denied the results of the report in several statements, arguing that the investigation contained “unconfirmed theories” based on “misleading interpretation of leaked data from accessible and overt basic information”.

The NSO Group also said it would continue to investigate all credible allegations of abuse and take appropriate action.

NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware is licensed to governments around the world and can, according to the report, hack a cellphone’s data and activate the microphone. NSO said the spyware is only used to monitor terrorists and other criminals.

Read the full report here.

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World News

A Fragile Israeli Coalition, With Some Underlying Glue

A Fragile Israeli Coalition, With Some Underlying Glue

JERUSALEM — A new Israeli government united in its determination to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but in agreement on little else, is set to take office Sunday under a right-wing leader whose eight-party coalition includes the left and, for the first time, an independent Arab party.

It looks like a recipe for chronic instability.

Even Sunday’s confidence vote in the Knesset, or parliament, that would usher in the first change in Israeli leadership in a dozen years is not a done deal, given the razor-thin majority of Naftali Bennett’s coalition with its 61 seats in the 120-member chamber. But every indication is that the votes to make Mr. Bennett prime minister are locked in, absent some 11th-hour drama.

A signed coalition agreement was formally presented to the Knesset secretariat Friday, the last step before a vote and the swearing-in of the new government.

Survival will then become the issue. Israel’s parliamentary democracy veered in a presidential direction under Mr. Netanyahu. In the end, his increasingly dismissive style had alienated too many people, especially among nominal allies on the right.

Agreement to return to democratic norms may be the underlying glue of the unlikely coalition.

“The parties are disparate, but they share a commitment to reconstitute Israel as a functioning liberal democracy,” said Shlomo Avineri, a prominent political scientist. “In recent years we saw Netanyahu begin to govern in a semi-authoritarian way.”

After agreement was reached Friday on the government program, Mr. Bennett said: “The government will work for all the Israeli public — religious, secular, ultra-Orthodox, Arab — without exception, as one. We will work together, out of partnership and national responsibility, and I believe we will succeed.”

Success will require constant compromise. “They will not deal with the highly contentious issues between left and right,” said Tamar Hermann, a professor of political science at Israel’s Open University.

In practice, that means a likely concentration on domestic rather than foreign affairs. Israel has not had a budget in more than two years of political turmoil and repetitive elections. Mr. Bennett, a self-made tech millionaire, is determined to deliver higher standards of living and prosperity to a population weary of such paralysis.

The delicate questions to be deferred or finessed would include any renewed peace negotiations with the Palestinians and any major settlement expansion in the West Bank.

Although Mr. Bennett was once a leader of the main settler movement in the West Bank and has called for the annexation of parts of the territory Israel captured in 1967, he seems certain to be constrained by centrist and left-wing members of the coalition and by the pragmatism that survival demands.

Establishing good relations with the Biden administration, a priority, and improving relations with America’s majority liberal Jewish community, another significant goal, will also require centrist restraint.

“Hard core people of the right, we have the evidence, become more centrist in office,” Ms. Hermann said. “Bennett was not prime minister when he made his pro-settlement statements.”

Mr. Bennett, 49, like other prominent members of the prospective cabinet, has waited a long time to emerge from Mr. Netanyahu’s shadow. Yair Lapid, 57, the incoming foreign minister, and Gideon Saar, 54, who would become justice minister, are other prominent politicians of a generation weary of being sidelined by the man many Israelis had come to dub the King of Israel. They will not want to return to the shadows.

Mr. Lapid, a leading architect of the coalition, would become prime minister in two years under the deal that made an alternative to Mr. Netanyahu possible — another incentive for him to help make the government work.

Still, it may not. The parties, ranging from Mr. Bennett’s Yamina party on the right to Labor and Meretz on the left, disagree on everything from L.G.B.T.Q. rights to public transportation on Shabbat.

They will come under withering, constant attack from Mr. Netanyahu’s center-right Likud party. It is conceivable that Mr. Netanyahu will be ousted from Likud at some point, whereupon the right-wing members of the coalition may return to their natural alliances.

Understand Developments in Israeli Politics

    • Key Figures. The main players in the latest twist in Israeli politics have very different agendas, but one common goal. Naftali Bennett, who leads a small right-wing party, and Yair Lapid, the centrist leader of the Israeli opposition, have joined forces to form a diverse coalition to unseat Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.
    • Range of Ideals. Spanning Israel’s fractious political spectrum from left to right, and relying on the support of a small Arab, Islamist party, the coalition, dubbed the “change government” by supporters, will likely mark a profound shift for Israel.
    • A Common Goal. After grinding deadlock that led to four inconclusive elections in two years, and an even longer period of polarizing politics and government paralysis, the architects of the coalition have pledged to get Israel back on track.
    • An Unclear Future. Parliament still has to ratify the fragile agreement in a confidence vote in the coming days. But even if it does, it remains unclear how much change the “change government” could bring to Israel because some of the parties involved have little in common besides animosity for Mr. Netanyahu.

“It’s not going to be easy,” said Avraham Diskin, a political scientist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “I really doubt that Lapid will become prime minister two years from now.”

Among measures the prospective government has agreed on is legislation that would set a two-term limit for prime ministers. In effect, this would preclude Netanyahu redux.

Four ministries will be shut down, including the digital and strategic affairs ministries. Mr. Netanyahu had a cabinet so large and unwieldy he could argue that he had to make decisions himself.

The prospective government will also pursue legislation designed to make it more difficult to change Israel’s basic laws, which serve as the constitutional foundation of the country in the absence of a constitution. Mr. Netanyahu, who had been indicted on fraud and other charges, appeared to seek a curtailing of the powers of the Supreme Court and immunity from prosecution as prime minister.

The presence of Raam, an independent Arab party, in government, will affect policy to some degree.

The disparities in living standards, education, and access to land between Israeli Jews and the Palestinian citizens of Israel, who account for some 20 percent of the population, has become a burning issue. Violent clashes between the communities last month were the worst in two decades. Tensions remain high.

The government looks set to allocate almost $10 billion to close gaps between the communities over the next several years, freeze demolitions of unlicensed homes in Arab areas, recognize three Bedouin villages in the Negev desert, improve public transportation, and increase policing in disadvantaged Arab communities suffering from drug dealing and violence.

The posts promised to Raam to secure its support include deputy minister in the prime minister’s office and chairman of the Knesset committee for Arab affairs.

But tensions could flare at any moment. Most immediately, a nationalist march through Muslim-majority areas of Jerusalem’s Old City has been rescheduled for Tuesday. The original Jerusalem Day march last month was canceled because of Hamas rocket fire and clashes between the police and Palestinian protesters.

The issue remains highly sensitive, charged with the same emotions that led to a short war last month, despite efforts to agree on a less sensitive route for the march. The political adroitness of Mr. Bennett and Mr. Lapid will be quickly tested.

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Politics

Biden speaks to Israeli, Palestinian leaders as violence escalates

Biden speaks to Israeli, Palestinian leaders as violence escalates

A member of the Palestinian Civil Protection walks amid the rubble of a building in Gaza City that houses the Intaj Bank, affiliated with the Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, on May 15, 2021.

Mahmud Hams | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden spoke to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday amid mounting violence.

During a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, the president reiterated his support for Israel’s right to self-defense against rocket attacks by the Hamas militant group in Gaza and condemned attacks in cities in Israel, according to an advertisement published by the White House.

“The president noted that this current period of conflict has tragically claimed the lives of Israeli and Palestinian civilians, including children,” the ad said. “He raised concerns about the safety of journalists and reiterated the need to ensure their protection.”

Netanyahu told Biden that Israel “is doing everything it can to avoid injuring those who are not involved in Hamas” and that “those who are not involved” have been evacuated from the 12-story building in the Gaza Strip, which housed the offices of The Associated Press and Al Jazeera. Three Israeli heavy missiles collapsed the building on Saturday.

“Netanyahu thanked the President for the United States’ full support for our right to defend us,” read an ad in the appeal published by Netanyahu’s office.

The President spoke with Abbas about the tensions in Jerusalem and the West Bank and their shared interest in making Jerusalem a “place of peaceful coexistence for people of all faiths and backgrounds”.

“The President also underlined his strong commitment to a negotiated two-state solution as the best way to achieve a just and lasting solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” read a reading from this call.

The extraordinary fire in Israel and Gaza has become an urgent early test of Biden’s foreign policy. The President worked in the Oval Office for some time on Saturday. He usually works on weekends at Camp David or his home state of Delaware.

The news that media offices had been destroyed sparked international outrage and shock and prompted the White House to act before the Biden ads were published.

United States President Joe Biden speaks on Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) Response and Vaccination Program from the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington May 13, 2021.

Kevin Lamarque | Reuters

The Biden government has “directly advised Israelis that ensuring the safety of journalists and independent media outlets is paramount,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki wrote in a tweet on Saturday.

The Associated Press president in a statement on Saturday said a dozen AP journalists and freelancers had evacuated the building prior to the strike, but “a terrible loss of life” was narrowly despite Israel’s warnings that the building would be hit been avoided.

“We are shocked and appalled that the Israeli military would attack and destroy the building that houses the AP office and other news organizations in Gaza,” said Gary Pruitt, AP President and CEO. “They have known the location of our office for a long time and know that journalists are there. We have received a warning that the building will be hit.”

“This is an incredibly worrying development,” said Pruitt of the airstrike.

Al Jazeera’s general manager accused Israel of trying to silence the media and condemned the air strike as a war crime and called on the international community to hold Israel accountable.

“The destruction of the offices of Al Jazeera and other media organizations in the Al Jalaa Tower in Gaza is an obvious violation of human rights and is internationally viewed as a war crime,” said Dr. Mostefa Souag, Acting General Manager of the Al Jazeera Media Network, in an article on the news agency’s website.

“We call on the international community to condemn such barbaric acts and the targeting of journalists, and we call for immediate international action to hold Israel accountable for targeting journalists and media institutions,” Souag said.

“The aim of this heinous crime is to silence the media and hide the immeasurable slaughter and suffering of the people of Gaza,” said Souag.

At least 139 people, including 39 children, were killed in Gaza. And eight people were killed in Israel when the conflict escalated.

Senator Bob Menendez, DN.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called in a statement on Saturday for “full accounting for actions that have resulted in the death of civilians and the destruction of media companies.”

“All political and military leaders have a responsibility to uphold the rules and laws of war, and it is of the utmost importance that all actors find ways to de-escalate and reduce tension,” he said. “This violence must stop.”

– Reuters and Associated Press contributed to the coverage

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Politics

Israeli normal says stopping nuclear program will likely be robust

Israeli general says stopping nuclear program will be tough

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei speaks during a televised address on March 21, 2021 in Tehran, Iran.

Anadolu Agency | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

As Iran increases uranium enrichment to 60%, a short jump to 90%, world powers are trying to persuade the Islamic Republic to take a break.

Meetings aimed at returning both Iran and the United States to some form of the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action resumed this week in Austria.

While Israel is not part of the talks, it is a major player in the drama that could quickly escalate.

Israel and its Arab allies, including the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, want the US to increase pressure on Iran by strengthening the JCPOA to address terrorism, missile development and so-called “Iranian expansionism” throughout the Middle East Include east.

Iran and Israel were embroiled in a shadow war that intensified over the past month. An explosion disrupted one of the Iranian nuclear power centers in Natanz. One of the Iranian spy vessels was hit by an explosive device in the Red Sea. and at least two Israeli-owned cargo ships were targeted.

Iran’s decision to increase uranium enrichment came after the explosion in Natanz, which the Islamic Republic of Israel has blamed.

Israel has vowed to destroy Iran’s nuclear program if all else fails, and they have experience in this area.

Forty years ago, in June 1981, eight Israeli F-16s took off, flew over the Red Sea, spanned the Jordan-Saudi border and dropped their bombs on the Iraqi nuclear power plant in Osirak days before it should get hot. It was called Operation Opera and one of the pilots was General Amos Yadlin.

“Saddam and Assad were surprised. Iran has been waiting for this attack for 20 years.”

General Amos Yadlin

Former head of the Israeli military intelligence service

In 2007, Yadlin, as chief of the Israeli army’s military intelligence, helped plan a second operation. This was aimed at Syria’s secret nuclear power plant. Operation Orchard was also a success – the target was completely destroyed.

Yadlin said that if it comes down to it, this time around will be very different: “Saddam and Assad were surprised. Iran has been waiting for this attack for 20 years.”

Yadlin said the Iranian program is “much stronger and more dispersed” while the nuclear programs of Iraq and Syria are concentrated in one place. The Iranian nuclear program is in dozens of places, many of which are buried deep under mountains. In addition, it is not clear whether intelligence agencies know all the details about the locations of the Iranian program.

“Iran learned from what we did, but we also learned from what we did and now we have more skills,” said Yadlin.

Military planners in Israel say that regardless of the Vienna talks, they have five strategies to stop Iran:

  • Option 1: Push for a stronger deal between Iran, the US, Russia, China, France, Germany and the UK.
  • Option 2: Show Iran that the sanctions and diplomacy costs are too high to continue on the current path.
  • Option 3: What is known in Israel as “Strategy C” – with covert attacks, secret actions and cyber attacks. Essentially try anything but war.
  • Option 4: bombing the Iranian nuclear program.
  • Option 5: Push for regime change in Iran. This is the hardest strategy.

Given the strength of the Ayatollahs – their control over the military, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, and a powerful force known for their brutality – the Basij internal rebellion is a long shot.

Retired Israeli General and Executive Director of the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University (INSS) Amos Yadlin attends a meeting of the Security Conference on Manama Dialogue in the Bahraini capital on December 5, 2020.

MAZEN MAHDI | AFP | Getty Images

However, according to Ali Nader, an Iranian analyst with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, the regime has become increasingly unpopular domestically, and protests have broken out in the country in recent years. The main reason for these protests is a stalled economy hit hard by US sanctions, which serve as the main US lever against Iran in the Vienna nuclear talks.

“The US has the Iranian economy completely under control,” said Nader. In 2018, Iran had cash reserves worth more than $ 120 billion. Due to sanctions, this inventory fell to around $ 4 billion in 2020, according to estimates by the International Monetary Fund.

The first thing Iran wants during these talks is for the US to relax sanctions and freely sell oil to Asia and Europe. Iran is circumventing sanctions and increasing supplies to China, according to the International Energy Agency, which oversees oil production and deliveries.

Iranian oil shipments to China reached record levels in January. Nader believes that by stopping the US doing more to enforce these sanctions, it is signaling that it is ready to make a deal.

The big question for the talks, however, is who has control over what becomes a chicken game.

Henry Rome is watching the negotiations as an analyst for the Eurasia Group. He doesn’t expect a breakdown or breakthrough as both sides try to get the other to take the first step.

With Iran due to elect a new president in two months’ time, Rome said: “Iran does not want to be viewed as desperate. The Supreme Leader would prefer to wait until after the June 18 elections before even making concessions. ”

“Iran play a weak hand, but they are very good at it,” said Rom.

Yadlin is nervous that the US will be too eager for a deal and give away too much. Repeating what he calls are the mistakes of the 2015 deal. Yadlin points to Iran’s successes in enrichment and reaches the symbolic 60% mark.

“The first deal is proving to be a problem. See how fast they’re moving,” Yadlin said. “You could have enough enriched uranium to get you to two or three bombs quickly.”

While there is still some work to be done in terms of delivery methods and weapons, Yadlin has no doubt that they have the knowledge to make atomic bombs.

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World News

Blackout Hits Iran Nuclear Web site in What Seems to Be Israeli Sabotage

Blackout Hits Iran Nuclear Site in What Appears to Be Israeli Sabotage

A power outage, apparently caused by a deliberately planned explosion, struck Iran’s uranium enrichment facility in Natanz on Sunday in what Iranian officials called an act of sabotage, which they suspected was carried out by Israel.

The blackout added new uncertainty to diplomatic efforts that began last week to save the 2015 nuclear deal, which the Trump administration had rejected.

Iran did not say exactly what caused the blackout at the heavily fortified site that was a target of previous sabotage, and Israel publicly declined to acknowledge or deny any responsibility. But American and Israeli intelligence officials said there was an Israeli role.

Two intelligence officials, briefed on the damage, said it was caused by a large explosion that completely destroyed the independent – and heavily protected – internal power system that powers the underground centrifuges that enrich uranium.

Officials, who spoke of a classified Israeli operation on condition of anonymity, said the explosion severely affected Iran’s ability to enrich uranium and that it could take at least nine months to restore Natanz’s production.

If so, Iran’s leverage in new talks the Biden government is seeking to restore the nuclear deal could be severely affected. Iran has announced that it will take increasingly stringent measures, which are prohibited under the agreement, pending the lifting of the sanctions imposed by President Donald J. Trump.

It was not immediately clear how much, if any, foreword the Biden administration received on the Natanz operation, which took place the same morning that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III visited Israel. But Israeli officials have made no secret of their misfortune about Mr Biden’s desire to revive the nuclear deal, which his predecessor renounced in 2018.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Agency, described the blackout as an act of “nuclear terrorism” and said the international community must face the threat.

“This morning’s action against the Natanz Enrichment Agency shows the defeat of those who oppose our country’s nuclear and political development and the substantial gains made by our nuclear industry,” Salehi told the Iranian news media. “The incident shows the failure of those who speak out against Iran and negotiate easing sanctions.”

Israel, viewing Iran as a terrible adversary, has previously sabotaged Iran’s nuclear work with tactics ranging from cyberattacks to outright assassinations. Israel is believed to have orchestrated the killings of several Iranian nuclear scientists in recent years, including an ambush against a key developer of its nuclear program last November.

Israel neither approves nor denies such acts on political grounds.

The explosion in Natanz came barely a week after the United States and Iran, in their first major diplomacy under the Biden administration, participated in the new talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the nuclear deal abandoned by Mr Trump, the it as “the worst deal” and a giveaway for Iran.

Talks to rescue the deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), are slated to resume this week.

It was not immediately clear how the Natanz incident might affect this. But Iran now faces a complicated calculation of how to react, especially if it concludes that Israel was responsible.

“Tehran faces an extremely difficult equilibrium,” said Henry Rome, Iran analyst at Eurasia Group, a political risk adviser. “It will feel compelled to take revenge in order to signal to Israel that attacks are not free.”

At the same time, Rome said: “Iran must also ensure that such retaliation does not make it politically impossible for the West to press ahead with the re-entry of the JCPOA.”

Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesman for the civilian nuclear program, told Iranian state television that the power supply at the Natanz facility had been cut. He said there was no loss or damage. But Iran has sometimes offered such assessments immediately after the sabotage in order to revise them later.

Malek Shariati Niasar, an Iranian lawmaker who serves as spokesman for the parliament’s energy committee, said on Twitter the outage was “very suspicious” and pointed to the possibility of “sabotage and infiltration”.

The blackout came less than a year after a mysterious fire devastated another part of the Natanz facility, about 155 miles south of Tehran, the capital. Iranian officials initially downplayed the effects of the fire that destroyed an above-ground facility for assembling centrifuges, but later admitted it had caused significant damage.

The blackout came a day after Iranian officials praised the inauguration of new, advanced centrifuges housed in a site built after the Natanz fire.

Some Iranian experts rejected initial speculation that a cyber attack could have caused the blackout. The Natanz complex has its own power grid, several backup systems and security layers to prevent such an attack from shutting down its system abruptly.

“It is difficult to imagine that it was a cyber attack,” said Ali Vaez, the Iranian project manager at the International Crisis Group. “The likely scenario is that it will target the facility either indirectly or through physical infiltration.” The intelligence officials said it was actually a detonation of explosives.

While there is no direct dialogue between Iran and the United States during the talks in Vienna, the other participants in the agreement – Great Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia under the chairmanship of the European Union – take part in a kind of shuttle diplomacy.

One working group is looking at lifting the Trump administration’s economic sanctions, while another is looking at how Iran can return to conditions that limit the enrichment of enriched uranium and the centrifuges required to manufacture it.

Iran has said its nuclear ambitions are peaceful.

It has also said that while it intends to steadily resume the nuclear activities banned under the agreement, it could easily reverse course if the sanctions are lifted.

On Saturday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani celebrated the new centrifuges that will reduce the time it takes to enrich uranium, the fuel for atomic bombs. But Mr. Rouhani also insisted that Iran’s efforts were not aimed at making weapons.

“When the West looks at the morals and beliefs that exist in our country, they will find that they should not be worried and sensitive to our nuclear technology,” Rouhani said in remarks by Iranian news agency Mehr.

The new centrifuges were inaugurated on Iran’s National Nuclear Day, an annual event to demonstrate the country’s advances in nuclear technology despite its economic isolation. The celebrations even included the debut of a music video in which scientists in white robes stood next to centrifuges holding photos of murdered colleagues.

Secretary of Defense Austin was in Israel on Sunday for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the country’s Secretary of Defense Benny Gantz.

It was unclear whether they were discussing the Natanz attack.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Gantz said, “We will work closely with our American allies to ensure that any new deal with Iran safeguards the vital interests of the world and the United States, prevents a dangerous arms race in our region, and protects the State of Israel . “

The United States and Israel have a history of covert cooperation dating back to the administration of President George W. Bush to disrupt Iran’s nuclear program.

The most famous operation under this collaboration, code-named “Olympic Games”, was a cyberattack that became known during the Obama administration and deactivated nearly 1,000 centrifuges in Natanz. It was believed that this attack slowed Iran’s enrichment activities by many months.

The reporting was written by David E. Sanger, Eric Schmitt, Lara Jakes, Gerry Mullany and Patrick Kingsley.

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Business

Covid variant from South Africa was capable of ‘break by means of’ Pfizer vaccine in Israeli research

Israeli data suggest mass vaccinations led to drop in severe Covid cases, CDC study finds

An Israeli health worker from Maccabi Healthcare Services prepares to deliver a dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2021.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

The coronavirus variant, first discovered in South Africa, may evade some of the protection provided by the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine, according to a new Israeli study that has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Clalit, the largest health organization in Israel, examined nearly 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19 after receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. They compared it to the same number of people who were infected and not vaccinated.

The researchers found that the prevalence of the South African variant known as B.1.351 was about eight times higher in patients who received two doses of the vaccine than in those who were not vaccinated. The data, released online over the weekend, suggest that B.1.351 may “break through” the vaccine’s protection better than the original strain, the researchers in the study wrote.

“Based on patterns in the general population, we would have expected only one case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Professor Adi Stern, who led the research, told The Times of Israel. “We can say it’s less effective, but more research is needed to see exactly how much.”

CNBC asked Pfizer to comment on the study.

The new data comes as public health officials are increasingly concerned that highly contagious variants, studies have shown can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, could slow global advances in the pandemic.

Last month, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a terrible warning, telling reporters that she feared the United States was facing “impending doom” as variants spread and daily Covid-19 cases rise again, threatening to move more people to the US send hospital.

“I’m going to stop here, I’m going to lose the script, and I’m going to think about the recurring feeling I have before the impending doom,” she said on March 29, so much promise and potential where we are and so much reason to Hope, but right now I’m scared. “

Israel launched its national vaccination campaign in December, prioritizing people aged 60 and over, healthcare workers, and people with comorbid illnesses. By February, it was the world leader in vaccinations, vaccinating millions of its citizens against the virus.

In January, Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health signed a collaboration agreement to monitor the real effects of its vaccine.

The researchers found that the study’s main limitation was sample size. B.1,351 only made up about 1% of all Covid-19 cases, they said. B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in Great Britain, is more common.

As the variants spread, drug manufacturers tested whether a third dose would offer more protection.

In February, Pfizer and BioNTech announced that they were testing a third dose of their Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response against new variants of the virus.

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Business

Sanctions Are Reimposed on Israeli Billionaire Granted Aid Underneath Trump

Sanctions Are Reimposed on Israeli Billionaire Granted Relief Under Trump

WASHINGTON – The Biden administration on Monday again imposed financial sanctions on an Israeli mining executive who reached out to a team of lobbyists to ease measures during President Donald J. Trump’s last term in office.

The reversal came after a series of complaints from human rights activists, members of Congress and activists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in which businessman Dan Gertler secured access to mining rights for decades through what the Treasury Department called “a” during the Trump administration corrupt deals where the Congo had more than $ 1.3 billion in revenue from the sale of minerals.

In mid-January, just before Mr Trump stepped down, Mr Gertler secretly secured a one-year license from the Treasury Department freezing the money he had deposited with financial institutions in the United States. The license also effectively ended a ban on Mr. Gertler from doing business through the international banking system. The Trump administration imposed these sanctions in 2017.

The Biden administration is now endeavoring to reinstate these conditions, although Mr Gertler has likely already withdrawn some of the previously frozen money from the United States.

The Foreign Ministry said Monday that Mr. Gertler was “involved in extensive public corruption” and that the Treasury, in consultation with the Foreign Ministry, was reversing its actions.

“The license previously granted to Mr. Gertler contradicts America’s strong foreign policy interests in fighting corruption around the world, particularly US efforts to fight corruption and promote stability in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” it said a statement from the US State Department Monday. “The United States will continue to promote accountability for corrupt actors using all the tools we have at our disposal to promote democracy, uphold international norms and place a tangible cost on those who try to improve them.”

Alan M. Dershowitz, an attorney and lobbyist who helped Mr. Gertler call for the sanctions to be lifted, said he was disappointed with the Biden government’s action.

“This decision was made unilaterally, without Mr. Gertler having the opportunity to provide evidence that he met all requirements and was behaving properly,” said Mr. Dershowitz. “We are in the process of reviewing all of our options.”

Mr. Gertler has worked in the Congo for more than two decades and has signed a number of contracts for the export of diamonds, gold, oil, cobalt and other minerals. The Treasury Department said in 2018 that he had “amassed hundreds of millions of dollars in fortune through opaque and corrupt mining.”

Mr. Gertler had promised American officials that he would comply with global anti-corruption rules in order to obtain the license that the Treasury Department had granted him in January. But officials in the Congo said the sanctions exemption would undermine efforts to fight corruption and help the new democratically elected president limit the continued influence of the country’s former leader Joseph Kabila, an ally of Mr Gertler.

“The restoration of sanctions will allow the Congolese and US anti-corruption efforts to get back on track.” said John Prendergast, co-founder of The Sentry, a nonprofit human rights group that was among more than a dozen and had asked the Biden administration to revoke its license. “Dan Gertler’s corrupt partnership with former President Joseph Kabila has cost the Democratic Republic of the Congo dearly in terms of lost resources, lost services and ultimately lost lives.”

In 2019, Mr. Gertler hired Mr. Dershowitz, who served as Mr. Trump’s attorney, and Louis Freeh, a former FBI director, to act as lobbyists to urge the Treasury Department to lift the sanctions.

Mr. Gertler was granted the license after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin directed the agency’s acting head of the Agency’s Foreign Assets Control Office to take the move, despite several Trump-era State Department officials overseeing United States’ African relations were opposite The New York Times when they hadn’t known such a move was imminent and that they were against it.

After the grant of the license became public, employees of Mr. Gertler said that part of the reason he was given special treatment was because he had played an unknown role in supporting US national security interests. Tax officials and representatives of Mr. Gertler would not describe the specifics of the support.

The same Treasury office that licensed Mr. Gertler in January revoked it on Monday, yet another sign of how unusual this series of events was.

Activists in the Congo who have worked for years to ensure that the wealth produced by mining minerals in the nation – one of the poorest in the world despite having some of the most important mineral reserves in the world – hoped the action would make further progress Combating corrupt businesses that have understaffed the people there.

“This will give the government here a reason to hold Dan Gertler and his staff a little more accountable,” said Fred Bauma, member of The Struggle for Change, a human rights group in the Congo. “It’s good news from the new administration in the United States.”

Democrats in Congress, who urged the Treasury Department to reverse the action, also praised the move.

“If well-connected international billionaires like Gertler believe that there is a chance they can get away with their corrupt actions, they won’t be stopped from doing so,” said Senator Ben Cardin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said in a statement.

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World News

Israeli Courtroom Says Converts to Non-Orthodox Judaism Can Declare Citizenship

Israeli Court Says Converts to Non-Orthodox Judaism Can Claim Citizenship

JERUSALEM – The question of who is Jewish and who is not has always been the subject of debate in Israel. Since the state’s inception, the government has largely turned to the Orthodox Jewish authorities, who do not consider converts to more liberal forms of Judaism to be Jewish.

But on Monday the Israeli Supreme Court struck a symbolic blow for a more pluralistic vision of Jewish identity: it granted foreigners converted to conservative, also known as Masorti or Reform Judaism, rights to automatic citizenship within the State of Israel.

The decision was mostly symbolic, as typically only 30 or 40 foreigners in Israel convert to Reform or Masorti Judaism each year, according to the Israel Religious Action Center, the rights group that led efforts to obtain the court verdict.

But the ruling has disregarded some of the monopoly Orthodox rabbis over issues of religious identity that are central to frictions in Israeli society. It also ignites a long-running debate about the relationship between the civil and religious authorities of Israel – and particularly the role of the Supreme Court.

Israeli law has presented the court as a bastion of the country’s secular and liberal elite, acting without democratic legitimacy. And although the court delayed the decision in this case for years in the hopes that parliament would vote on it instead, the court’s critics made political capital out of the decision as early as Monday evening.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s party, a regular opponent of the Israeli courts on charges of corruption, quickly cited the decision as a reason to vote for the party and “ensure a stable right-wing government that will restore the sovereignty of the people.” . “

Israel’s “Law of Return” gives foreign-born Jews or anyone with Jewish parents, grandparents, or spouses the automatic right to claim Israeli citizenship. Those who convert to non-Orthodox Judaism in another country have been able to obtain Israeli citizenship for decades.

Despite the small number, the court’s decision made a big difference to the activists and plaintiffs who first brought the case to the Supreme Court in 2005 and to the Orthodox authorities who opposed them.

“It’s a tremendous sense of relief, gratitude and satisfaction,” said Anat Hoffman, the executive director of the Israel Religious Action Center. “This judgment really opens the gates for Israel to have more than one way to be Jewish.”

One of Israel’s two chief rabbis, Yitzhak Yosef, called it a “deeply regrettable decision” and said conversions to reform and conservative communities were “nothing but fake Judaism”.

“Public officials are expected to work quickly to correct this legislation,” he said, “and the sooner they do so, the better.”

The news is particularly sensitive ahead of next month’s general election, Israel’s fourth in two years. The struggle between the secular and religious communities of Israel was a key feature of the pandemic and a source of debate in the election campaign, as was the role of the Supreme Court.

“It’s a big deal because there has been a dead end on this matter for 15 years,” said Ofer Zalzberg, director of the Middle East program at the Herbert C. Kelman Institute, a Jerusalem-based research group. “And it comes just a month before an election, so it’s dramatically politicized and touches people in visceral places: Who are we? What is our identity And what are our freedoms? “

Mr. Zalzberg said: “This has already sparked a backlash in a large constituency that denies the court’s right to make decisions about what the Jewish collective identity is about.”

There are still restrictions on the marriage of non-Orthodox converts to Judaism as this area is controlled by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, which does not recognize Reformed or Conservative Judaism. There is no civil marriage in Israel.

For non-Orthodox Jews, however, the Supreme Court decision was a moment of qualified relief – both within Israel and within the Diaspora.

“It affirms that Israel is a home for all Jews,” said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, the joint head of an international association of rabbis practicing Conservative Judaism, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. “The ruling is an important step in ensuring freedom of religion in Israel and recognizing the diversity of the Jewish people and practices in Israel and around the world.”

Within Israel, the vast majority of Jews are either Orthodox or secular, but liberal rabbis said the number of non-Jews seeking conversion to more liberal currents of Judaism had already increased.

Rabbi Gregory Kotler, a reformist rabbi in Haifa, northern Israel, said he had received around 20 new inquiries in a matter of hours.

“I almost didn’t want to answer your call,” he said with a laugh, “because I thought it was someone else asking for conversion.”

The Israel Religious Action Center stressed that any new potential convert would go through a rigorous conversion process that would take two or three years.

Orthodox critics “will say we are Jewish lite, they will say terrible things about our conversion,” said Ms. Hoffman. “But it’s not true. We demand that they become part of our communities. “

Gabby Sobelman and Isabel Kershner reported from Jerusalem and Elizabeth Dias from Washington.

Categories
Health

Israeli information counsel mass vaccinations led to drop in extreme Covid instances, CDC examine finds

Israeli data suggest mass vaccinations led to drop in severe Covid cases, CDC study finds

An Israeli health worker from Maccabi Healthcare Services prepares to administer a dose of the Pfizer BioNtech vaccine in Tel Aviv on February 24, 2021.

Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images

Data from Israel, which vaccinated the vast majority of its elderly population with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, suggests that mass vaccination has prevented people from getting seriously ill, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While clinical studies have shown the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine to be 95% effective at preventing Covid-19, the Israeli data provide early insight into the vaccine’s effectiveness in an uncontrolled, real-world setting.

The study, published Friday in the CDC’s weekly report on morbidity and mortality, found that among the most vaccinated portion of the Israeli population, the percentage of patients requiring ventilation has dropped dramatically, suggesting a reduction in the serious illness.

“Taken together, these results suggest a reduced rate of severe COVID-19 after vaccination,” wrote researchers from Ben Gurion University in the Negev, Tel Aviv University and Maccabi Healthcare Services.

Israel launched its national vaccination campaign in December, prioritizing people aged 60 and over, healthcare workers and people with comorbid illnesses. By February, according to the researchers, 84% of the population aged 70 and over had been fully immunized with the Pfizer-BioNTech two-shot vaccine. Only 10% of the population under the age of 50 had been vaccinated at any one time, the researchers said.

The researchers compared the number of Covid-19 patients aged 70 and over who needed a mechanical ventilator with those under 50 who needed a ventilator. The researchers said they needed a ventilator, a medical tool that helps patients breathe, to measure severe Covid-19.

Between October and February, the number of patients aged 70 and over who needed a ventilator decreased. At the same time, the number of people under the age of 50, a generally unvaccinated population, who needed a ventilator, the study found. The country began using gunshots on mostly elderly people on December 20. A second round of shooting followed three weeks later.

The researchers noted some limitations to the study. Israel put in place a strict national stay-at-home order on Jan. 8, weeks after the vaccination campaign began, which could have resulted in a decline in seriously ill patients who would have needed ventilators. The introduction of new variants of the coronavirus could also have affected the data.

The researchers said their results are preliminary, “important evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 at the national level in Israel”.

“Getting COVID-19 vaccines to eligible individuals can help limit the spread of disease and potentially reduce the incidence of serious diseases,” they write.