Israel Gets First Delivery of Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine

Israel on Wednesday December 9, received its first batch of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declaring that the pandemic’s end was “insight” and vowing to get the first jab.

“This is a great celebration for Israel,” he said on the tarmac at Ben Gurion airport, near Tel Aviv, as a fork-lift truck started unloading the cargo from a red and yellow DHL air freighter.

The shipment was the first of eight million doses ordered from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its partner BioNTech.

“The end is in sight,” Netanyahu said about the disease which has infected 348,948 Israelis and killed about 2,932 people.

“What is important to me is that Israeli citizens get vaccinated,” he added.

“I want to serve as an example to them and I intend to be the first to be injected with this vaccine in the state of Israel.”

The Pfizer vaccine has yet to receive the necessary regulatory approvals for use in Israel but Netanyahu said he expected it to receive clearance “in the very near” future

A southern man has been arrested on suspicion of threatening a series of right-wing political and public figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin, the Israel Police said Thursday morning.

Police said in a statement that a complaint was filed Wednesday night against the man, 22, from the upscale town of Omer, near Beersheba, over social media threats against Rivlin.

An investigation revealed that he has also sent similar threats to Netanyahu, as well as to Public Security Minister Amir Ohana and Transportation Minister Miri Regev, both from the premier’s Likud party.

No more details were immediately published about nature or the content of the threats.

The suspect was to be brought Thursday for a remand hearing at the Beersheba Magistrate’s Court. Police said in the statement that they “view with severity any suspected criminal offence against public figures.” Police added that they were “working to distance the suspects involved in such crimes from the public.”

The development comes amid a recent crackdown on online threats against the prime minister.

Last month, the Ashdod Magistrate’s Court convicted a Beersheba man who threatened Netanyahu on social media. In June, Asher Ben Dor wrote on Twitter, “Anyone knows about preparations to assassinate the prime minister? It seems the time has come, it seems to be that it has become unbearable.”

The 39-year-old reached a plea bargain with state prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty in exchange for an amended indictment that dropped one of the two charges against him for issuing a threat.

In June, an Ashkelon man was indicted for posting threats to Netanyahu on social media. Tzvi Sabag, 57, was accused of penning Facebook posts with direct threats against the premier in November 2019 and also threatening his son, Yair Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has recently made several complaints to police over threats to harm him and his family.