Imagine that you made an agreement with the mafia. Imagine that you were finding it increasingly difficult to meet your obligations. You know what will happen if you fail to come through. What would you do? What wouldn't you do?
Now imagine that you made an agreement with people much more powerful than the mafia. Imagine that you made an agreement with some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, who are deeply connected to the other richest and most powerful people in the world. You're finding it increasingly difficult to meet your obligations, and they are not pleased. What would you do? What wouldn't you do?
The Israeli government, under the personal direction of Benjamin Netanyahu, made an agreement with drug oligarchs. Their principal obligation was to inject nearly all of Israel's 7 million adults with an experimental drug, dubiously referred to as a vaccine, and for the Ministry of Health to share the medical data of these citizens with Pfizer.
You can read the details here and the contract is available here.
In order to fulfill its end of the deal, Netanyahu and the Ministry of Health under his charge needed to convince everyone to get injected.
At first this was relatively easy. Israelis were afraid of covid, beaten down by a year of draconian edicts, and desperate for a light at the end of the tunnel. After months of hearing about vaccines that would soon be available, which would presumably protect them and obviate the need for any restrictions, they waited with bated breath for these vaccines to arrive. They were assured that these vaccines would be safe and highly effective, and trusted the government to cut no corners.
Needless to say, they were unaware that the government had actually sold them out as guinea pigs to a foreign corporation. That detail went unmentioned.
In spite of this, surveys showed that upwards of 70% of Israelis were leery of being injected with this new vaccine. They wanted to wait until others went first and it was truly proven to be safe and effective. That would take quite a bit more time, but they were willing to wait. Deep down they understood that they were guinea pigs, and they were rightfully uncomfortable.
But deals were made, and deals must be kept. Netanyahu and the establishment engaged in an enormous propaganda campaign to convince Israelis to vaccinate. Public figures, beginning with Netanyahu himself, went on camera getting vaccinated (or perhaps pretending) to set an example and reassure the public. Establishment medical professionals insisted that the vaccine was safe and urged people to get injected as soon as possible.
The media celebrated Israel's stunning victory in receiving millions of doses of this precious drug before nearly anyone else, without mentioning what Israel had really offered in return to make this possible. Israel would be the first country in the world to achieve herd immunity through mass vaccination, and the first country in the world to return to “normal”. Israelis have a deeply ingrained need to prove themselves to the world. Fear of being injected with a new drug was replaced with national pride.
Although nearly three quarters of the population had been concerned about the vaccine just a short time ago, it quickly became prohibited to express such concerns. People who continued to express perfectly legitimate, responsible concerns were pilloried as “conspiracy theorists” and “anti-vaxxers”.
Medical professionals had to choose between expressing concerns or continuing to be employed. After all, the Ministry of Health had signed a contract with Pfizer, and a deal is a deal. Predictably, most medical professionals chose to continue to be employed. How else would they pay their bills and take care of their families? Those who had concerns tended to express them off the record, if at all.
Religious Jews cared less about national pride than doing the right thing according to the Torah. They were not lining up to vaccinate nearly as much as the general population. This presented a problem.
No problem. Prominent rabbis were recruited to urge everyone to vaccinate. This is the religious equivalent of a celebrity endorsement. It is fair to speculate that incentives were given or pressure applied in some cases, considering the high-stakes deal with drug oligarchs. It quickly became the “established” position of “most leading rabbis” to vaccinate, as they were following the “established” position of “most leading experts”. Many others followed in tow on that basis.
Israelis lined up to vaccinate. The government celebrated. The media celebrated. The Ministry of Health celebrated. Doctors danced before the camera. People took pictures of themselves getting injected and shared them with the world. Rabbis took pictures of themselves getting injected and even said blessings. Religious Jews joined the party and began lining up to get injected. It became a deeply religious experience for everyone.
Religious Jews who continued to express concerns were now smeared not only as conspiracy theorists and anti-vaxxers, but heretics and murderers according to Jewish law. No one would want to marry the children of heretics and murderers, so they quickly became quiet.
Everyone was pleased. The government rewarded its citizens with a temporary loosening of the draconian restrictions.
Then something bad happened. Some people died very quickly after getting injected. The establishment dismissed any connection to the vaccine. These people died from other causes. It was entirely coincidental. Don't worry about it. The vaccine is safe. Establishment medical experts hammered this home, and the media broadcast this day after day, entirely complicit.
Netanyahu and the establishment bragged about how quickly Israelis were getting injected, more than any other country in the world. People jammed the phones trying to get an appointment. They waited outside clinics hoping there would be leftover doses. The propaganda campaign was an unbelievable success. Pfizer was surely pleased.
But more bad things happened. Elderly people, who were among the first to be injected, began dying with disturbing frequency. They were going to die anyway, we were told. They had lots of underlying conditions that happened to kill them shortly after they got injected. It was a coincidence. Many of these deaths were conveniently blamed on covid. It takes time for the vaccine to kick in, we were told.
All these people made it through ten months without getting sick, but just after getting injected they happened to die from covid, before the vaccine could kick in. What a tragic irony! If only they could have been vaccinated just a little sooner!
This spin worked, and old people continued to line up to be injected. They certainly didn't want to wait just a week too long as these unfortunate people did. Children and grandchildren urged their elders to get injected. The concerns of their elders were quickly dismissed. The experts had spoken. The rabbis had spoken. What did these old people think they knew?
The vaccine campaign was opened to younger people. Tragic stories continued to roll in, though they were rarely reported in the media. When they were, any connection between the sudden death of healthy people and the injection they had recently received was dismissed. In many cases, the fact that they had recently been injected with a new drug went entirely unreported in the story. Wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong idea, after all.
But people aren't stupid. People also talk, especially in Israel. Word gets out. Stories of tragic events were widely shared on social media and other forums. Brave medical professionals and rabbis spoke out, warning people that the vaccine might not be nearly as safe as they were being told. Families of victims were warned not to blame the vaccine, but some of them did. There were too many coincidences, too many inexplicable tragic events.
The propaganda campaign continued in full force. Netanyahu paid a personal visit to health clinics to celebrate the vaccine and urge people to get injected. It was a matter of saving lives. It was a race to beat the virus. Unmentioned was the contractual obligation to present sufficient guinea pigs to Pfizer, nor any potential fallout from failing to come through. Surely that had nothing to do with it.
Israelis continued to line up for injections, even as the tragedies continued to pile up. The establishment and the compliant media blamed it all on new strains of covid, which had conveniently appeared just when people started vaccinating en masse. The explosion in new “covid cases” and deaths in a matter of weeks had nothing to do with the vaccine. It was because of these new strains. The only way to survive would be to continue vaccinating en masse.
Many Israelis believed the propaganda and continued to line up. But increasing numbers became skeptical.
Netanyahu and the government continued to impose restrictions on the public, which would remain in force until the cases went down. The only way to accomplish this would be for people to continue to vaccinate en masse. The choice was clear: vaccinate, or remain under house arrest indefinitely, possibly even forever.
Many Israelis relented under the pressure, and got injected for this reason alone. Not because they wanted this drug in their bodies. Not because they had made an informed, objective medical decision. Because they wanted to be let out already, and this was their only hope.
To further turn attention away from the issues of basic human rights, informed consent, and medical ethics, the establishment turned citizens against one another. Deals were made with certain segments of the religious community for restrictions to be largely unenforced. The media was only too happy to publish pictures of religious Jews violating the restrictions in large numbers. They wrote article after article attacking religious Jews. Five such articles appeared in a single issue of the Jerusalem Post on Friday, January 29.
Didn't these supposedly pious Jews care about human life? Didn't they care about other people? Didn't they care about the Torah? No. They were disgusting people, disgusting citizens, disgusting Jews, and everyone should hate them. The government should crack down on them, fine them, jail them, close their institutions, crack their heads open. Whatever it takes. Lives are at stake.
Many secular Jews, and even religious Jews from other segments, eagerly jumped on this sanctimonious bandwagon of hate. It's THEIR fault people are getting sick and dying. It's THEIR fault we have to be stuck at home and impoverished.
This worked to some degree; self-righteous hatred is a great unifier. But this distraction could not remain effective for too long. The tragic post-injection “coincidences” continued to pile up, and Orthodox Jews could not be blamed for that. People were learning that these restrictions had little basis in science and could not be justified.
More and more people were realizing that the enemy was not their fellow citizen – despite their many disagreements – but the people in charge. They refused to be played against each other and began to unify in protest against the government. It would take time for them to overcome deep prejudices against one another, but it was happening.
This scared the hell out of the establishment like nothing else, for it was the only thing that could end the charade.
The propaganda campaign was ratcheted up. More new strains of covid. More fear. Greater urgency to vaccinate. More extensions of the lockdown. More distant rays of hope, but only if people behaved and complied. More slander of conspiracy theorists, and anti-vaxxers, and selfish murderers. The mayor of Lod even announced that those who refused to get vaccinated would be denied municipal services and should just stay home.
But all this manipulation and tyranny was working less and less. Instead of people desperately lining up to get injected, the health clinics became ghost towns. Unused doses were going in the garbage. The clinics contacted citizens with the great news that they could come in anytime for an injection, no appointment necessary.
The government announced that younger and younger people, even teenagers, would now be eligible to get injected. Hurry up and join the party! It's your turn now!
Israel's citizens are beaten and impoverished, but they are not broken. They have been through worse. Their elders, many of whom suffered unexpected deaths after getting injected, certainly suffered worse. They were fooled for a long time, because they never imagined it could happen here, but they can't be fooled forever. They are waking up. The truth is coming out. Groups are forming. More people are going public. People are changing their minds about getting injected. They don't want to be the next tragic coincidence.
The establishment has a big problem now. They made a devil's deal with some of the richest and most powerful people in the world, who are close with most of the other richest and most powerful people in the world. These people are surely not pleased that Israel's vaccination campaign is sputtering. The obligations are not being fulfilled.
Imagine that you made a deal with not just the mafia, but the mafia times a thousand. Imagine that you were finding it difficult to meet your obligations. What would you do? What wouldn't you do?
We're about to find out.