Netanyahu adviser tells ‘Post’ PM won’t be quarantined

Paluch said that while she did go to the Knesset on Thursday to prepare the prime minister for the vote for Knesset speaker, she did not have any real contact with Netanyahu.

The matter is currently being checked, and if it is found that Paluch was in close contact with Netanyahu for 15 minutes, he would have to be quarantined. If Netanyahu, who has repeatedly tested negative for the virus, tested positive, he and his entire staff would have to be quarantined, as would Blue and White leaders Benny Gantz and Gabi Ashkenazi, who spent eight hours with him overnight on Saturday night negotiating entering his government.

But Paluch said it was very unlikely that she had passed the virus on to her boss.   

Paluch’s husband tested positive for the coronavirus before she did. She said he got it after visiting Ichilov Hospital. She said that both she and her husband felt well and had minimal symptoms.

Speaking before she got the positive test, Paluch said she did not think she would test positive.

Paluch is one of Netanyahu’s few female advisers. While most of the closest advisers to Netanyahu are in their 20s, she is a haredi (ultra-Orthodox) grandmother with many grandchildren. She is considered especially close to his wife, Sara.

A veteran of the Israeli political scene, Paluch once organized a visit of MKs and reporters to Ramallah to meet with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. She ensure that a lunch at the Mukata presidential compound would be strictly kosher.

British prime minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the virus and is quarantined. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s wife Sophie Gregoire Trudeau said Saturday that she has recovered from being ill from COVID-19 disease caused by the new coronavirus. She and her husband had been self quarantined.