Israelis know how to do many things, but handling good news is not one of them.
Jews in general, and Israelis in particular, are so accustomed to bad news, depressing news and worrying news, that when there is finally some good news to report, they don’t know exactly how to deal with it.
Products of an often tortuous Jewish history and living in a very tough neighborhood, Israelis have been conditioned to look for dark clouds even in the sunniest of skies.
We hear good news and suspect someone is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. That’s just who we are: always worried about what will be coming next, what is lurking around the corner, not wanting to somehow jinx the good news by relishing it for too long.
But sometimes we can afford to revel in the moment. There is a time to fret, and a time to refrain from fretting; now is a time to tone down the fretting, at least when it comes to the coronavirus.
Israel passed two important milestones in the battle against COVID-19 on Sunday.
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On that same day, the vast majority of the country’s schoolchildren returned to school. No more Zoom, no more parental admonishments to children to get back to their screens, no more being cooped up in a room with a computer. Back to school – at least for two months until summer vacation. A glorious day for both child and parent alike.
But no sooner had the masks come off outside, and the kids went back inside to their classrooms, that reports emerged of a new Indian COVID-19 variant. Forget the British variant, or the South African one, or even the Brazilian mutation: This new Indian variant was now in our midst and threatening to set the coronavirus clock back.
The seven cases of this new variant discovered in Israel were covered widely in the press, as if the media wanted to say: “Don’t get too excited, we are not out of the woods yet.”
Even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while announcing Monday on Facebook the purchase of millions of more Pfizer vaccines, could not resist tamping down the enthusiasm a bit by mentioning the possibility of “surprises,” such as “coronavirus variants that the vaccines cannot overcome.”
But the variants are so far under control, so let’s enjoy the moment. Let’s enjoy the return to normalcy – faster than most other countries in the world – without spoiling it with fear-mongering about a new mutation.
Former coronavirus czar Ronni Gamzu told The Jerusalem Post earlier this month that Israel should not obsess about the variants, that viruses are always mutating, and that policy should not be set on the basis of “what if a new variant strikes.”
A new variant may very well strike – and if it does, then adjustments will need to be made and new policies considered. But we are not there yet, and until we get there it is irresponsible to fan the flames of concern with endless questions about “what if.”
None of this means that Israel should let its guard down or rest on its not insignificant laurels in the fight against the pandemic. Requirements to don masks indoors should remain in place, and the gates at Ben-Gurion Airport should not be flung wide open and everyone allowed in without restrictions. Israel still needs to retain its vigilance.
But with that vigilance, we should also recognize that our situation – compared to most of the rest of the world – is pretty good. Israel has the highest percentage of fully vaccinated people in the world; its economy shrank last year less than that of the US, or the average of EU and OECD countries; and the COVID-19 morbidity rate of 689 per million people is significantly less than most other developed countries.
All of that is good news, and explains why Israel is now able to begin returning to normal. It’s time to enjoy it – at least for as long as we can.
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