With Covid still rampant across much of the world, a Mideast flare-up, and progressive politics dominant in the US, what’s on in the next 100 days?

If a week is a long time in politics, 100 days is a standard measure of time for new politicians and agendas. With Covid still rampant across much of the world, a Mideast flare-up, and progressive politics dominant in the US, what’s on in the next hundred days?

Binyamin Rose

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

Another Muslim nation will join the Abraham Accords and normalize ties with Israel.

I wouldn’t set my stopwatch; it could take 200 more days, but I make this call for three reasons:

1. Assuming Israel emerges with the upper hand from its military campaign in Gaza, that projection of strength will encourage another Muslim nation to step forward, (as opposed to the conventional wisdom that Israeli concessions bring peace).
2. The Biden administration may schlep someone along to induce Israel to re-engage with the Palestinian Authority.
3. China views the Abraham Accords as a boost to its ambitious global economic agenda, and Muslim nations in the Far East want to curry favor with China.

Yochonon Donn

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

...will be the first regular start of a school year in two years. Let me go out on a limb here and issue the bold prediction that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will try to steal Mayor Bill de Blasio’s thunder and take the credit. The city’s economy will be open then, and the two will issue competing executive orders when it’s safe to shop here and unmask there.

The love-hate relationship — and none of us really know if the professed love was ever real — between the two personalities has cost lives during Covid. But here’s my prediction: It will still be part of New York in 100 days.

Binyamin Rose

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

Expect Annalena Baerbock to become the new household name in Europe, as Germany votes on September 26 to elect a successor to Angela Merkel, who is retiring after 16-years as chancellor. Baerbock, a former trampolinist, is head of Germany’s Green Party, which leads in most polls as Germany appears ready to lurch to the left. The Greens have matured politically and broadened their scope since their formative days in the 1970s as an environmentalist party, and define themselves as a “tolerant, liberal left.” Baerbock says the Green Party will closely align itself with Biden administration policies. Baerbock herself is “evenhanded” on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but some Greens have staked out decidedly anti-Israel positions. If Baerbock wins and Germany takes a more forceful role in the Middle East, expect European pressure on Israel to ramp up.

Yochonon Donn

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

New York City will be slightly less progressive. Yes, AOC’s tweets will still get 250,000 likes and Bernie Sanders will still have a higher favorability than Rudy Giuliani, but the last eight years of nonstop progressivism will hit its first speed bump.

The Democratic mayoral primary is in a little over a month, and the two front-runners are Eric Adams and Andrew Yang, both of whom are cut from a more moderate cloth, relative to the others. A victory by either will signal that while celery juice and artisanal bread may make brisk sales in the coops of Park Slope and Greenwich Village, the city will live to see another day.

Omri Nahmias

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

President Biden has set himself the ambitious goal of vaccinating 70% of eligible Americans by July. So far, the trend in America has echoed what happened in Israel. The initial waiting lines extended around street corners; people were willing to travel for hours to get to vaccination sites — all of this disappeared overnight as soon as the vaccination rate neared the 50% mark.

How do you get 20% more of the population to vaccinate to reach the much-touted “herd immunity”? That may turn out to be a bigger challenge than the shortages faced during the initial rollout.

The goal — to declare victory over the virus by July 4 — may have been set by Biden, but it’s shared by Democrats and Republicans alike. Ohio governor Mike DeWine, a Republican, came up with a creative (some will say too creative) plan to encourage vaccination: every week for a period of five weeks, a lottery of $1 million will be held between everyone who vaccinates in Ohio. All in all, $5 million of federal aid money, just to encourage people to vaccinate.

But with all due respect to the governor’s entertaining solution, Biden might find out that a 70% inoculation rate is an unreachable goal given the hesitancy among large segments of the population — which even the temptation of a sweet million may not overcome.

Gedalia Guttentag

IN THE NEXT 100 DAYS…

Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon will be plotting the next move in her campaign for Scottish independence. It comes in the wake of the SNP’s victory in the elections for the devolved Parliament last week, giving fresh impetus to the pro-independence movement to press for a second referendum. Since the UK left the European Union, polls consistently show a narrow majority for independence in pro-EU Scotland. For the dwindling Jewish communities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, England has always felt distant. But if Scottish independence becomes a reality, a hard border between the two countries will make that feeling a reality.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 861)