[rsynnott]

Honestly, a big factor here is likely simply the testing infrastructure. They're reporting a 7 day average of about 90k cases per day. Most countries with 9 million people do not have the testing infrastructure to accurately show that (eg when Ireland, a country of 5 million people, was reporting 20k+ cases per day at the peak, the government health advisors' view was that it was likely to be twice that or more in reality).

The important thing is what happens with hospitalizations and deaths at this point. Ireland passed through its peak without overwhelming the hospital system, and with no real increase in deaths relative to the past few months, with a likely higher real case count per capita (assuming that the numbers Israel are reporting are accurate). But we have a somewhat higher vaccination rate than Israel, and in particular virtually universal vaccination of over 65s.