Who’s at fault for Israel’s third coronavirus wave? – analysis

There are three major fingers to be pointed when it comes to who is at fault for Israel’s third COVID-19 wave and they should be directed at the prime minister, the police and the public.
Prime Minister Benjamin NetanyahuNetanyahu “lied to all of you,” Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz said Monday night in his address to the nation. He said that Israel’s leader “led the entire nation astray.”As Israel prepared for its exit from the second lockdown, Netanyahu said he aligned with the Health Ministry and that the exit strategy could take as much as six months to a year because, this time around, the reopening of the economy would be done slowly.The exit would be “graded, responsible and careful,” based on clear metrics for transition from stage to stage, he said. Recall, the Health Ministry recommended that when the reproduction number (R) – the number of people that one infected person will pass on the virus to – reached an average of 0.8 or less, restrictions could be reduced. When it was at 0.8 to 1.1, the status quo would be maintained, and when it surged above 1.1, restrictions would be tightened. It also recommended two weeks between phases to best gauge the impact on the rate of infection.For nearly a month, Netanyahu stood behind this plan, stressing to the coronavirus cabinet and the public that Israel would halt or move backward if the numbers of newly infected people rose too high.

“If we see that there is an increase again, which is now happening in European countries, we’ll be compelled to reimpose some of the restrictions,” the prime minister said in mid-October at a coronavirus cabinet meeting. At a November 4 meeting he said, “We also know that there is a certain increase in morbidity, so if we see next weekend, towards the big third stage, that there is an increase in morbidity, we will have to stop and maybe even tighten the restrictions.”But while infection rose – the R is currently between 1.1 and 1.2 – the prime minister did not close down. Instead, he aligned with those ministers that pushed to open more.Israel opened street shops on November 8, strip malls on November 17, sent fifth and sixth graders back to school on November 24 and highschoolers on November 29. The country launched a mall, museum and marketplace pilot program a week ago that has led to mass gatherings – yet, with minor alterations, it continues. Speaking at the start of the winter season of the Knesset on October 12, Netanyahu promised that Israel would roll out rapid testing across the country. He said that Israel was developing tests would provide results “in less than minutes – in seconds. This, of course, is a revolution.” But those rapid tests, which “we are investing in – a huge investment,” Netanyahu said, and are part of a collaboration between Israel’s defense establishment and India, are yet to be seen by the Israeli public.Netanyahu said those tests would open up the world of tourism and culture – two areas of the economy that remain miserably shuttered and suffering. In addition, Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein stressed more than once that by winter Israel would be screening around 100,000 people a day. Israel has, with difficulty, reached 60,000 daily tests.Another aspect of the exit strategy was substantially increasing fines on events and parties, illegally opened schools and those who fail to wear masks. As recently as November 24, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Healthy Ministry said in a joint statement that they would “promote the raising of fines” as part of a strategy to stop climbing infection. The fines remain the same.It is true that Netanyahu did not act alone. Ministers have each taken their turns asking for changes to the Health Ministry outline, from Finance Minister Israel Katz who pushed to open all businesses too early and too broadly, to Transportation Minister Miri Regev who pressed for the resumption of salons and beauty parlors and to increase crowding on public transportation from 50% to 75%. But populism should have been shut down by Israel’s supreme leader.After all, at the Knesset, Netanyahu committed to insisting “that we maintain the health of the citizens of Israel, and that we open the economy only in a safe, careful and gradual manner.“If we act precipitously, if we capitulate to the pressure of every sector, we will very quickly come to another lockdown,” the prime minister said. “I say honestly, populism won, and the citizens of Israel lost. We have learned lessons from the exit from the first lockdown, and I hope others in this parliament have learned them too.”But it seems the Knesset and the government did not learn and neither did Netanyahu. Although Netanyahu took responsibility for the rapid opening of the economy, saying that he was pressured by the public and that next time he would not listen to such pressures, he succumbed once again.Moreover, as has been stressed by health officials, it is not the act of opening the economy that leads to infection. It is opening in an uncontrolled and disorderly manner.After the first wave and again now, schools opened without a requirement for students and teachers to be regularly tested, for example. So far, only around 25% of educational staff have been screened. This means that an outbreak in the country’s schools is highly likely.It was Netanyahu who refused to hand over epidemiological tracking to the Israel Defense Forces, delaying our ability to get the program on track for far too long. It was the prime minister who surrendered to the ultra-Orthodox, who let them fly to Uman and open their schools while refusing to lockdown their red cities as the virus burned across them. “Netanyahu has used the fight against coronavirus as a personal self-glorification campaign, presenting every step as his own personal accomplishment,” Gantz said Tuesday, “as if it this weren’t a massive joint effort, shared by the Health Ministry, the Interior Ministry, the Education Ministry, the Economy Ministry, and, of course, the Defense Ministry and the IDF.”Netanyahu again took credit for Israel’s few coronavirus successes in his address on Wednesday night. But if he is going to celebrate these wins, then also must take responsibility for the country’s many coronavirus failures. The prime minister can spin it however he wants during his evening TV appearances, but as his alternate asked: “Does anyone believe him anymore?”
The PoliceFor decades there has been under-policing, negligence and discrimination by Israel Police against Arab society, which left the community in what some have called a state of emergency. Since the beginning of the year, 82 Arab citizens have been murdered in Israel in circumstances related to violence and crime. Of those, 64 of the murders were done using a firearm – many of them illegal.Already at the start of the pandemic, “there was no trust in the police and no policing for the benefit of the community,” Amnon Be’eri-Sulitzeanu, co-CEO of the Abraham Initiatives, told The Jerusalem Post. “There was a lot of suspicion, a lot of alienation.”In the first wave, as the Home Front Command and the police entered Arab communities to help them reduce infection, the sector at first found it refreshing and comforting. Be’eri-Sulitzeanu said that “for many of the Arabs it was comforting. They felt, ‘the government cares about our lives.’ But that eroded very fast.”Some 41% of new daily cases are from within the Arab sector, whose members continue to host mass weddings and other gatherings. They return from red countries and fail to isolate. The police are aware of the tension and are reluctant to confront the population because they know that if they try to enforce against the virus, riots could erupt. The police want to stay out of trouble, Be’eri-Sulitzeanu contended.“I hear a lot of criticism within the young community that when the police are in town, they give parking tickets and marginal enforcement, but they won’t deal with the hard-core issues, including coronavirus.”
The Public The author Aldous Huxley said that, “There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”While the government has zigzagged in its policies and plans, health officials, including those at the World Health Organization, have by and large maintained that there are three core actions the public can take to stop the spread of coronavirus. These include wearing masks, social distancing and maintaining good hygiene.People who choose to break these rules put themselves and their loved ones at risk, as well as all Israelis. Prof. Arnon Afek, deputy director-general of Sheba Medical Center told the Post that while it is easier to point fingers at the government – and he believes the government is guilty – the public should hold up a mirror to itself. “Each of us has only to take care of ourselves and our family,” he said. “We are also to blame.”
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