“Netanyahu understood months ago that the development of a vaccine was the only way that the world and Israel could resolve the COVID-19 crisis — and the only way he could win the elections and survive," a high-level political source who asked to remain anonymous told Al-Monitor. "He was so focused on this that it was scary: he did not let up, did not stop, was really obsessive. He didn’t even blink vis-à-vis the ultra-Orthodox camp about inoculating people on the Sabbath — and no one turned it into a crisis.”

The source, who was privy to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions and behind-the-scenes lobbying, compared the prime minister to an “attack dog.” Netanyahu personally supervised the financial negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, including late-night phone calls to the CEOs of the Pfizer and Moderna companies and to the relevant Israeli health and finance officials, working to cut through red tape and allocate the necessary budgets.

In his words, “Netanyahu viewed the vaccinations as the be-all and end-all. It was the most important thing to him. Anyone who knows him knows that Netanyahu always has something of high priority on his mind and everything else has to wait. And the vaccination issue is a good example. He studied everything about the disease, on a real scientific level, and stubbornly held on to those vaccinations like a drowning man — even when those around him did not believe that it would be possible to develop a vaccine in such a short time period.”

On Dec. 19, Netanyahu became the first Israeli citizen to be vaccinated against COVID-19 on camera, kicking off Israel’s admirable vaccination drive. As of this morning, Jan. 5, 1,370,000 Israelis had been inoculated — a record-setting number. And of course, Netanyahu gets the the credit.