We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 January 2024
Watch and Listen
On December 9, 2020, Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and minister of health, Yuli-Yoel Edelstein, waited at the Ben-Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv to greet the first shipment of Pfizer vaccines (Fig. 1). In front of the cameras, the prime minister assured the citizens of Israel that he would be the first in the country to get the vaccination. He was not happy with the visual result, apparently, because the next day the two revisited the airport to welcome the second shipment and get a second photo-op (Fig. 2). A comparison of the photos makes it clear that the second picture was taken because the second carrier was an El Al aircraft. Rather than the yellow-and-red colors of the DHL plane that dominate the visual record of the first visit, the second one has the blue-and-white Israeli flag painted on its vertical stabilizer. In addition, in the first photo-op the two politicians stand on a portable staircase, watching from a distance as the shipment is removed from the aircraft, whereas in the picture taken one day later Netanyahu and Edelstein stand closer to the boxes, and the prime minister's left hand tightly clutches the ropes that are wrapped around the packages.
On the evening of December 19, after the Sabbath was over, Netanyahu was the first person in Israel to receive the vaccine against Covid-19. Edelstein was second. The event was broadcast live at prime time on all the Israeli TV channels (Fig. 3). It was evident that the syringe used to inject the prime minister's right shoulder was not carefully discarded following its use. Contradicting safety rules, Netanyahu's personal physician, who had given him the vaccine, put the syringe's cap back on, suggesting that the medical device was spoken for and that the idea to preserve it was already in the air. A month later, on January 18, 2021, Netanyahu posted a short video on social media revealing that he had indeed saved the syringe; it was installed inside a transparent case and displayed in his office. This triggered my thoughts.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
