Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke at the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, stating Israel's decision to keep the country open and prioritize COVID-19 booster vaccines was the right decision.
The State of Israel is on the front lines of the search for vital knowledge. We developed a model, which fuses the wisdom of science with the power of policymaking," Bennett said.
"To bring economies back to growth, children back to school and parents back to work, lockdowns, restrictions, quarantines – cannot work in the long run. Our model, rather than locking people down in passive sleep mode, recruits them to the effort," he said on the anti-lockdown policy of Israel's government.
"Right from the start, Israelis were quick to get vaccinated. We are in a race against a deadly virus and we must try to be ahead of it."
"In July we were the first to learn that the vaccines were waning—which is what brought a surge in Delta cases."
"It was then when my government decided to administer the third dose of vaccine, the booster, to the Israeli public. It was a tough decision, given that at the time the FDA hadn't yet approved it. We faced a choice to either drag Israel into yet another set of lockdowns, further harm our economy and society; or to double-down on vaccines," he said.