In a recent report, a group of researchers at the University of Tel Aviv observed an increase in expressions of anti-Semitism in the wake of the pandemic. As Cary Nelson notes, claims that Jews or Israel are somehow responsible for or exacerbating the pandemic can be found on the pens and lips of the European far right and far left, as well as of journalists and officials in Turkey, Iran, and other Muslim countries. Similar slanders have also appeared in a recent letter from four physicians published in the British medical journal the Lancet, accusing the Jewish state of inflicting a coronavirus crisis on the people of Gaza:

Following the pattern modeled for years in the international BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement, [the letter’s authors] make no realistic suggestions about how to improve Gaza’s fragile, decaying infrastructure and instead concentrate on demonizing Israel. Nor do they hold Hamas leaders responsible for their indifference to the general health and welfare of Gazans [or for using] iron and cement smuggled from Egypt [to build] attack tunnels [rather than] hospitals.

Oddly enough, . . . the blockade [of the Strip] actually provides a measure of protection from the pandemic. Travel to and from Gaza has long been severely restricted and comprehensively monitored both through the blockade maintained by Egypt and Israel and by Hamas itself. . . . In response to the pandemic, the border crossings are largely closed to personal travel. If Gazans continue to test the limited number of people entering the country and to isolate not only those who test positive for the virus but all entering Gaza, it may be possible either to prevent or to delay quite substantially the spread of the pandemic into the general population there.

The absolute priority for Gaza, therefore, is containment, a strategy in which [the letter’s authors] seem to show no interest, perhaps because it gives no grounds for condemning Israel. For better or worse, containment is Hamas’s responsibility.

[But the authors] treat the pandemic as the fated outcome of the original sin of the founding of the Jewish state. In succumbing to these political convictions, they fail as physicians to offer any of the advice doctors should offer. . . . Either [they] do not know the appropriate medical advice to offer, or they are so blinded by hostility to Israel that they cannot communicate it.

Early Friday morning, Israel attacked military installations near the Iranian cities of Isfahan and nearby Natanz, the latter being one of the hubs of the country’s nuclear program. Jerusalem is not taking credit for the attack, and none of the details are too certain, but it seems that the attack involved multiple drones, likely launched from within Iran, as well as one or more missiles fired from Syrian or Iraqi airspace. Strikes on Syrian radar systems shortly beforehand probably helped make the attack possible, and there were reportedly strikes on Iraq as well.

Iran itself is downplaying the attack, but the S-300 air-defense batteries in Isfahan appear to have been destroyed or damaged. This is a sophisticated Russian-made system positioned to protect the Natanz nuclear installation. In other words, Israel has demonstrated that Iran’s best technology can’t protect the country’s skies from the IDF. As Yossi Kuperwasser puts it, the attack, combined with the response to the assault on April 13,

clarified to the Iranians that whereas we [Israelis] are not as vulnerable as they thought, they are more vulnerable than they thought. They have difficulty hitting us, but we have no difficulty hitting them.

Nobody knows exactly how the operation was carried out. . . . It is good that a question mark hovers over . . . what exactly Israel did. Let’s keep them wondering. It is good for deniability and good for keeping the enemy uncertain.

The fact that we chose targets that were in the vicinity of a major nuclear facility but were linked to the Iranian missile and air forces was a good message. It communicated that we can reach other targets as well but, as we don’t want escalation, we chose targets nearby that were involved in the attack against Israel. I think it sends the message that if we want to, we can send a stronger message. Israel is not seeking escalation at the moment.