Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked (Yamina) on Tuesday morning tweeted: “We beat the fake Corona disaster, reality will defeat the next fakes, too.” Strange wording? Makes you think the minister believes the Corona crisis is fake news? Somebody probably made an emergency phone call to Shaked, who quickly erased the bizarre tweet and posted a clearer version (possibly after having had her first morning coffee):
For all those who rushed to jump (on her tweet), I sharpen the wording. The Corona is raging in Europe. Thanks to the Prime Minister’s quick decision to give the booster shot early, and the proper management of the entire system, the prophecies of rage in Israel have not come true. There are many more citizens who have not taken the booster, it is very worthwhile to do so now.
Then, about half an hour later, Shaked posted yet another clarification, possibly because she had her second cup of coffee by then and received a few more concerned phone calls:
The Corona is not a fake. As a partner in the management of the Corona crisis, who stood at the forefront of the Hasbara, pushed for early vaccinations, including in schools, and for the early application of the green pass, I cannot be suspected of having different intentions. My inference was solely regarding the prophecies of rage that predicted the collapse of the healthcare system – which did not happen – thanks to the proper management of the pandemic.
We checked Wiki’s definition of Hasbara and came back with this:
Hasbara is hard to translate into English, but roughly means “explaining.” It is a communicative strategy that “seeks to explain actions, whether or not they are justified.” As it focuses on providing explanations about one’s actions, Hasbara has been called a “reactive and event-driven approach.”
In other words, good, old-fashioned propaganda. And if Minister Shaked sees herself as having stood “at the forefront of the Hasbara,” she probably did it after her morning caffeine libation.
The claims about Israel’s success facing the Corona compared to its European friends are absolutely on the money, though. As of Tuesday morning, there are only 161 Corona patients in critical condition in Israeli hospitals, out of whom 107 are on ventilators. Only two Corona patients have died over the past 24 hours.
Bulgaria, with only 7 million residents (Israel has 9 million), has reported 334 daily deaths, according to a tweet that Shaked shared. Bulgaria has seen 25,408 deaths since the start of the Pandemic; Israel: 8,124.
Greece is reaching 800,000 Corona patients, with 16,361 deaths. Hungary experienced 31,521 deaths; Turkey 72,314; Poland 77,760; Ukraine 73,390; Russia 249,215; Germany 97,167; the UK 141,862; France 117,965.
In other words, after all is said and done, Minister Shaked is correct in praising the PM for going ahead with the booster shots. The local term is Kol Hakavod. This is not intended to discount the groundbreaking role of former PM Benjamin Netanyahu, without whose efforts Israel probably would have looked a lot worse.