Zev Chafets, Columnist

Israel’s Vaccines Are Political Currency For Netanyahu

Benjamin Netanyahu is fighting an election campaign almost solely on his vaccination record. The vaccine diplomacy is mainly muscle-flexing

February 26, 2021 at 5:00 AM UTC

By Zev Chafets

Zev Chafets is a journalist and author of 14 books. He was a senior aide to Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin and the founding managing editor of the Jerusalem Report Magazine.

A booster shot for his election campaign.
Photographer: YONATHAN SINDEL/AFP

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Israel has recently made news with what is being called vaccine diplomacy. Giving out small portions of its surplus Covid vaccine to at least 19 favored countries -- including Hungary, the Czech Republic, Uganda, Kenya and Mauritania – may appear an extraordinary humanitarian gesture or at least a form of strategic outreach. It is better viewed, however, as a mix of geopolitics and domestic engineering from Israel’s embattled prime minister.

Israel is less than a month away from its fourth national election in two years; a victory would make it Benjamin Netanyahu’s sixth term as prime minister. Many Israelis are suffering from Netanyahu fatigue. Polls suggest that his Likud party, now fractured, will win considerably fewer Knesset seats than it did a year ago.