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dard refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 46 degrees Fahrenheit).

So far, more than 10 million have been infected with coronavirus in India – second only to the United Sates in total caseload.

By August, the country is hoping to inoculate 300 million frontline workers, elderly, and vulnerable people.

The Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine maker, is producing the AstraZeneca and Oxford vaccine locally, having taken on a huge risk to manufacture the vaccine months before approval from regulators.

“It’s a great day for India and the world, because this is going to be the most affordable vaccine, that will be equitably distributed as much as possible across the globe,” the institute’s CEO Adar Poonawalla said.

Poonawalla said the vaccine would be sold initially to the Indian government for $2.74 per dose – around what it costs to produce. It’ll be priced between $3 to $5 per dose for export, and at $13.70 for the private market.

India’s coronavirus vaccines are an important alternative for developing countries, which may not be able to afford the more expensive vaccines made in the West or have the cold storage capacity to transport vaccines that require ultra-cold temperatures, such as the ones devel-

For now, though, the vaccines produced in India will not be exported. They are only going to be provided to the government of India – not even private hospitals or the private market will be able to obtain those vaccines.

India already has a vast, established network under its Universal Immunization Program, which inoculates about 55 million people per year. The vaccines should be able to be distributed within the week.

Across Asia, a growing number of countries have started vaccinations to combat coronavirus.

In China, regulators last week approved the country’s first homegrown coronavirus vaccine, developed by state-owned pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm.

The Chinese government aims to inoculate 50 million people ahead of February’s Lunar New Year celebrations. The country has already administered 4.5 million doses of experimental Chinese vaccines since June under its emergency use program, which included frontline workers such as health care workers and customs officers.

Japan, on the other hand, has told its citizens that inoculations will begin in late February. Frontline medical workers and the elderly would be the first groups to receive the vaccinations.

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U.S. & Israel Vote Against UN

Budget

The United States was the only country to vote with Israel against the United Nations’ (UN) annual budget in protest of the body’s wide-

spread anti-Israel bias.

The vote in the General Assembly to approve the annual $3.231 budget passed easily, with 167 voting in favor and only the U.S. and Israel objecting. Key to the U.S. State Department’s decision in opposing the budget was a line-item funding an event marking 20 years since the World Conference against Racism in Durban.

While organized in order to combat racism worldwide, the UN-funded conference rapidly deteriorated into a festival of anti-Israel hatred, as the Jewish State was repeatedly likened to Nazi Germany and other rogue regimes. The rampant anti-Semitism led then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to order the U.S. delegation to leave early after organizers issued a declaration defining Zionism as racism.

After the UN refused to defund the event marking 20 years since the Durban conference, U.S. Ambassador Kelly Craft announced that she would vote against the budget in protest. The United States “called for this vote to make clear that we stand by our principles, stand up for what is right and never accept consensus for consensus’ sake,” said Craft.

“Twenty years on, there remains nothing about the Durban Declaration to celebrate or to endorse. It is poisoned by anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias,” she added.

Israeli envoy Gilad Erdan thanked Craft for voting against the UN’s budget, predicting that the Durban Conference “will become another meeting demonizing the Jewish state – it will be used once again to slander us and to launch false accusations of racism against Jewish self-determination.”

“Today we must all speak out against commemorating the disgrace that was the Durban Conference,” Erdan added. “Israel opposes any measure aimed at allocating a budget for this purpose. We all know that such funds will not be used to support human rights but to spread even more anti-Semitism and hate towards Israel.”

Charedi Population to Double

A new report highlights the charedi sector’s rapid growth, finding that Israel’s charedi percentage of the population is likely to double within 16 years.

Zarif’s Slander

The conclusions came as part of a survey commissioned by the Israeli Democracy Institute, a leading left-leaning think tank. The report used data from the Central Bureau of Statistics, government ministries, and the National Insurance Institute to study the charedi community in a range of areas including employment, education, and lifestyle.

Israel’s charedi sector numbered 1,175,000 people, 12.6% of the general population, and a rise of 2.6% since 2009. The community is characterized by rapid expansion, with its 4.2% annual growth almost double Israel’s average of 1.9%.

Key to the aforementioned growth is the high charedi birth rate, with the average family having 6.5 children. However, researchers found that the overall charedi birth rate is on a downswing, noting that it dropped from 7.5 children in 2003.

“It is highly probable that the future will bring a decline in the ultra-Orthodox growth rate, due to lower fertility rates and rising age of first marriage,” read the report.

Even so, the high fertility and retention rate mean that if current trends continue, the charedi population will double in size every 16 years. In contrast, the general Israeli population is expected to double only every 37 years, and the Jewish non-charedi population every 50.

The charedi community’s rapid growth can be seen in their growing numbers in Israel’s school system. Fully 25% of Jewish Israelis between grades 1-12 are charedi, with a consistent 3.5% annual growth since 2013.

While charedi children continue to populate Israel’s education system, graduation rates remain wildly uneven between boys and girls. The percentage of charedi girls taking the state matriculation exam rose to 55% from 31% in 2009; the number of males dropped during the same period from 16% to 13%.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is alleging that Israel will soon attempt to murder American troops in Iraq as part of a “false flag operation” designed to plunge the region into war.

According to Zarif, Israel is targeting U.S. troops as a means to force the U.S. to declare war against the Islamic Republic during the final days of the Trump administration. He added that such an attack would be “transparent” and warned that it would “backfire badly.”

“New intelligence from Iraq indicate[s)] that Israeli agent-provocateurs are plotting attacks against Americans — putting an outgoing Trump in a bind with a fake casus belli [act justifying war],” Zarif tweeted.

Zarif’s remarks came a day after a slew of high-ranking Iranian dignitaries threatened the U.S. and Israel during a ceremony marking the one-year anniversary of the assassination of Iranian General Qassem Sulemeini. The Quds Force commander had been killed by a U.S. drone strike last January as he left the Baghdad airport on his way to meet with the heads of Iranian-backed militias.

At the memorial, Iranian Revolutionary Guards Commander Hussein Salami threatened the U.S. not to go to war on Iran, saying that any attack on Tehran would receive a harsh response. The commander of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force, Amir Ali Hajizadeh, warned that if war breaks out, Iran would not distinguish between the American bases in the region and the Arab states that host the American forces.

“If something happens here and a war breaks out, we will not distinguish between U.S. bases and the host countries. Naturally, the very same Arab countries in the region will bear the brunt,” said Hajizadeh.

The U.S. currently has large military bases in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.

A Murderer Celebrated?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his security detail were left red-faced after it turned out that the premier had unknowingly taken a picture with a convicted murderer.

Netanyahu had arrived on Friday to the Israeli-Arab city of Umm El-Fahm to take a picture with Abd al-Wahhab Jabarin, who is said to have been the millionth recipient of the coronavirus vaccine in Israel. Netanyahu highlighted Israel’s rapid inoculation campaign during the visit and called for the entire Arab community to increase their lower-than-average vaccination numbers.

“We are breaking all of the records. We brought millions of vaccines to the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said. “We are ahead of the entire world…with our excellent HMOs.”

But on Sunday, it came out that the 66-year-old Jabarin had recently served out a 20-year prison sentence for a double murder he committed. The revelation is said to be a major security blunder, as the prime minister never should have been allowed to get so close to someone who did time for serious crimes.

Commonly, anyone slated to meet with Netanyahu is required to undergo a background check. Speaking with the press on Sunday, Umm El-Fahm officials said that they were astounded to see that Jabarin made it through the stringent security precautions and assumed that the Shin Bet security service knew of his criminal past.

“This is a serious foul-up if a killer was allowed to get so close to someone like Netanyahu without his bodyguards knowing,” noted Menachem Landau, who previously headed the Shin Bet’s Executive Protection Department. “I assume that heads will begin to roll in the near future.”

Meanwhile, Jabarin was enraged at the publicity, complaining in a radio interview on Sunday that he is now known to the entire country as a murderer despite all the work he invested to rehabilitate his name.

“The truth is that I was offended. Why hurt me because of Netanyahu? I am an honest person. The crime was done 30 years ago,” Jabarin said. “It is good that he came to Umm El-Fahm, but it is not nice what they did to me this morning. I sat in prison 21 years ago. I did not

choose this meeting.”

Another Iron Dome to the U.S.

Israel handed the United States the second of two Iron Dome batteries over the weekend, 18 months after signing the purchasing agreement.

The battery was delivered by the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) in the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development (DDR&D). It will be used to protect U.S. troops from short- and medium-range missile attacks.

“The delivery of the Iron Dome to the U.S. Army once again demonstrates the close relations between the Israel Ministry of Defense and the U.S. Department of Defense, the effectiveness of the system against various threats, and the excellent technological capabilities of Israeli industries,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

The battery is the second such system received by the U.S., with the first having been delivered in September. The Pentagon had signed a contract with Israel’s Defense Ministry in 2019 to purchase two Iron Dome batteries to protect troops deployed within rocket range of adversarial terror groups.

Each unit includes missiles made by Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd., an advanced radar system from the ELTA defense contractor, and a command-and-control center developed

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Produced by Israel’s Rafael, Iron Dome uses advanced interceptor missiles to shoot down incoming projectiles in mid-air. The cutting-edge system was developed with U.S. financial aid in order to protect Israeli communities adjoining the Gaza Strip from incessant Hamas rocket fire and has since proven itself repeatedly in battle.

“In the coming year, the Iron Dome system will complete 10 years of operational activity, with over 2,400 interceptions,” said Israeli Missile Defense Organization head Daniel Gold in the announcement of the delivery. “The very fact that we are handing over the first battery, a year after the agreement was signed, is an achievement in itself.”

Will Israeli-Arabs Support Bibi?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is banking on the Israeli-Arab community to enable him to remain as the country’s longest-serving leader.

With the upcoming Knesset elections in March approaching, Netanyahu has unveiled a large-scale campaign to convince Israeli Arabs to cast their vote for the Likud. While the effort appears to be a lost cause, as the community largely identifies with their Palestinian neighbors, Netanyahu believes that the campaign can earn the Likud between 3 and 5 Knesset seats.

According to political pundits, the collapse of the Arab Joint List party grants the Likud a unique opportunity to pick off Knesset seats from its remains. A union of four Arab parties, including the communist Hadash faction and the Islamic Movement’s “Ra’am,” the Joint List had gained an unprecedented 15 seats in the previous election but disintegrated due to ideological differences.

Now, Netanyahu is pulling out all the stops, making frequent campaign stops in Arab cities and promising to dedicate budgetary funds to Israel’s non-Jewish citizens. The effort is a sharp turn from the virulent anti-Arab campaign Netanyahu ran during previous election cycles, famously warning that “they are coming out to vote in droves” on election day in 2015 and calling Arab lawmakers “terror supporters” last year.

Netanyahu kicked off the campaign with visits last week to Umm El-Fahm and Taibe, two Israeli Arab cities near Hadera that are renowned for their fervent opposition to the Jewish State. While the sojourns were ostensibly to promote more residents to vaccinate against COVID-19, Netanyahu publicly called on the locals to vote Likud at the ballot box.

A few days later, Netanyahu said at a Likud secretariat meeting that he would earmark billions to fight crime in the Arab community. Tackling violent crime, said Netanyahu, would allow the aforementioned sector to integrate into Israeli society and serve a key national interest.

Netanyahu also suggested nominating an Arab minister in the government, the first in Israel’s history. According to the premier, the Likud stood to gain from the widespread support in the Arab community regarding the peace deals Israel recently signed with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Morocco.

“I’ll sit tomorrow with [Public Security] Minister Ohana to bring [about] a plan against crime and violence in Arab society,” Netanyahu said at the meeting on Saturday evening. “For many, many years, the Arab public was outside the mainstream. Why? For no reason. People are working. Let’s go to the end. Be part of Israel’s complete success. This is what I would like to see in the next election.”

He added, “Arab citizens can see the great things that we have achieved. We signed four historic peace agreements with Arab nations that have changed the face of the Middle East and of Israeli society,” Netanyahu touted.

Netanyahu’s Revised Charge Sheet

Prosecutors issued a revised indictment against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after a judge said that the previous slate of charges was too broad.

In the investigation known as Case 4000, Netanyahu is accused of granting billionaire Shaul Elovitch billions in regulatory benefits for his telecom giant Bezeq in exchange for favorable coverage on his Walla news portal. Prosecutors allege that the illicit quid pro quo constituted bribery and breach of trust.

In December, judges ordered prosecutors to issue an amended indictment, ruling that the existing charges weren’t sufficiently specific regarding the criminal aspect of Netanyahu’s behavior. The original document had failed to list every instance of alleged criminality, arguing instead that the multitude of items added up to a general “pattern of criminality.”

On Sunday, the State Prosecutor’s Office filed a new indictment that detailed the various instances in which the prime minister is said to have ordered favorable media coverage from Walla editors.

The revised indictment lists 315 times in which Netanyahu and his close associates pressed Walla to alter media content. According to prosecutors, the prime minister was directly involved in 150 of the requests and was fully aware that the remainder constituted an illegal transactional relationship with Elovitch “at a considerable scale and in a consistent manner.”

The hundreds of instances include requests from Netanyahu to feature diplomatic events in which he participated, to bury negative stories about him and his family, and to junk an interview he granted Walla on election day in 2015. A significant amount of Netanyahu’s direct involvement was dedicated to smearing political rival and Yamina faction head Naftali Bennett, such as reporting that his wife worked as a chef in a non-kosher bakery.

Apart from planting positive articles about Netanyahu while besmirching his rivals, the new indictment alleges that Walla “self-censored against the background of the demands.”

Netanyahu and his allies celebrated the revised indictment, alleging that the aforementioned actions constituted common behavior characteristic of every spokesperson and spin doctor. Saying that the “balloon of Case 4000 has burst,” Netanyahu pointed to the charges as “proof” to his contention that left-wing prosecutors had criminalized attempts to engineer positive media coverage in an “undemocratic” effort to remove him from power.

“The prosecution barely managed to find 10 media requests from the prime minister to Walla in four years, an average of one request every half a year, during a time in which 10,000 articles were written about the prime minister in Walla,” Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Netanyahu, Shaul Elovitch, and his wife now have until January 11 to respond to the revised rap sheet. A hearing on the matter will take place on January 13, with the trial to begin in mid-March.

Netanyahu also faces criminal charges in a similar criminal probe known as Case 2000, which revolves around his attempt to pass legislation shuttering the right-wing Yisrael Hayom daily in exchange for favorable press coverage by Yediot Aharonot. In Case 1000, Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of breach of trust and fraud for accepting jewelry and champagne from wealthy friends.

The IDF in 2020

A summary of the IDF’s activity during the 2020 calendar year paints a picture of a military struggling to battle the coronavirus while engaged in relentless warfare on multiple fronts.

In Syria, the IDF, and primarily the Israeli Air Force (IAF), continued its “war between the wars” to prevent Iran from establishing itself on its borders. This effort includes contiguous intelligence gathering to foil attempts by Tehran to transfer “game changing” weapons to groups such as Hezbollah while targeting Iran’s infrastructure in Syria and Lebanon.

According to the figures released by the IDF, Israeli warplanes flew more than 1,4000 combat sorties over the past year and conducted 50 airstrikes along with 1,000 combat missions by transport aircraft. Drones and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) clocked 35,000 flight hours in an indication of their increasingly important role, while helicopters flew for 400 hours.

While the IDF battles Iran in Syria and Lebanon, soldiers in Judea and Samaria continued operating in the West Bank, where 10,000 troops guard Israeli citizens from Palestinian terror. Two civilians and one soldier lost their lives over the past year to terrorism, the lowest figure in Israel’s 72-year history.

The fatalities included Rabbi Shai Ohayon, who was stabbed to death in August in Tel Aviv, and Sgt. First Class Amit Ben-Ygal, who lost his life after a terrorist dropped a cinderblock on his head during an arrest in May. The most recent attack occurred in late December when Esther Horgan, a 52-year-old mother of six, was bludgeoned to death while jogging in a northern Samaria forest.

There were 60 total terror attacks in 2020, a rise from 51 in 2019, lower than the 76 in 2018 and 75 in 2017. Palestinian terrorism remains at bay in part due to the nightly raids by IDF troops in Arab villages, with the military conducting 2,277 arrests in 2020, down from 2,328 in 2019; 3,173 in 2018; and 3,627 in 2017.

Another reason for the low amount of security-related deaths was the military’s effort to locate and shutter illegal weapons laboratories. The IDF prioritized eliminating attempts by Palestinian terror groups to manufacture homemade rifles, with troops closing 50 workshops, a significant rise from 14 in 2019 and four a year prior.

Meanwhile, the IDF played an important role in combating the coronavirus pandemic, establishing the national contact tracing center that is overseen by the Home Front Command. More than 3,000 reservists were called up for the effort, while hundreds of civilian contractors were hired to staff the military’s hotels for coronavirus patients. At the height of the crisis, the IDF took command of the charedi cities of Bnei Brak and Elad, distributing 380,000 packages of food and supplies to residents in lockdown.

In addition, the Home Front’s information hotline fielded 1.4 million phone calls, while the IDF’s website was visited 7.7 million times.

PA Woos Biden Administration

The Palestinian Authority is hoping that changes to its notorious “pay to slay” policy will allow it to reset its ties with the U.S. under the Biden administration.

The PA suffered a barrage of shockers during President Donald Trump’s tenure, watching its annual funding slashed by hundreds of millions of dollars and its Washington, D.C., embassy shuttered. Surrounded by solidly pro-Israel figures such as Amb. David Friedman, Avi Berkowitz, and Jason Greenblatt, Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moved the U.S. embassy, and declared that West Bank settlements do not violate international law.

But with Joe Biden replacing Trump, the PA hopes that it can mend its fraying ties with the United States. With less than a month to go before Biden enters the White House, the PA has embarked on a strategy designed to woo the new leader of the free world.

In an interview with the Times of Israel, senior PA officials revealed that its campaign is based on its willingness to pull back on the stipends it affords convicted terrorists. The policy that generously rewards jailed murderers and their families has long rankled both Israel and the U.S., leading Congress to condition annual aid on ceasing such payments in 2018.

But in November, the PA announced that it would alter how such payments work. Rather than calculating the monetary reward based on how many Israelis the recipient killed, the sums would be based on each prisoner’s financial need.

While sparking severe criticism amongst the Palestinians, the change is designed to demonstrate to the Biden administration that the PA is serious about combating terror. Ending the “pay to slay” policy would ensure that Ramallah does not run afoul of the Taylor Force Act, which cuts U.S. foreign aid until salaries to ter-