Tunami or Not?

Tsunami or Not?

Back in the middle-ages Jews survived the black plague, that killed almost a third of the European continent’s population, and estimated 75-200 million people in Eurasia. But not the Jews. Because of their adherence to hygiene while many of their neighbors, whose hygiene was pitiful, fell to the epidemic, the Jews survived. Hand washing, before eating, after the toilet, upon rising from bed, was a Jewish thing dictated by the rabbis. The result was pogroms across Europe as the Jews were blamed for causing the plague by witchcraft or well-poisoning. By 1351 there had been 350 incidents of anti-Jewish pogroms and 60 major and 150 minor Jewish communities had been exterminated. (The surviving Jews migrated eastward to Poland and Lithuania.)

Back in the 1930s and 1940s, two famous Catholic priests incited their congregants with anti-Semitic rants. One in the USA and one in Poland. The former, Father Charles Coughlin, a Canadian-American Roman Catholic priest based near Detroit, known as the ‘radio priest,’ used his weekly radio program to roil his listeners to near apoplexy. One of the most influential men in the US at the time, he also had his own newspaper espousing the same anti-Semitic, anti-Communist and isolationist views. His audience reached millions and was a key factor in FDR’s reluctance to join the British in their fight against Nazi Germany. He was forced off the air in 1939 because of his pro-fascist and anti-Semitic rants. The Japanese, military allies of the Nazis, broke FDR’s resolve when they bombed Pearl Harbor leaving the beleaguered president no choice but to go to war.

The second was Cardinal August Hlond, Archbishop of Gniezno and Warsaw in 1946. The war was over. Poland was in chaos. Armed militias roamed the countryside. In a 1936 pastoral letter, Cardinal August Hlond called Jewish people ‘the vanguard of godlessness, Bolshevism, and subversion,’ but also prohibited attacks on Jews. After the war, The Soviet Union was moving into Poland and many of the newly installed government officials were Jewish communists. Cardinal Hlond was virulently opposed to godless communism as were some of the largest armed militias. The result was the Kielce Massacre where over 40 Jews were murdered in a “pogrom” on July 4, 1946, by a mob and nearly a hundred injured. Hlond never addressed the pogrom. (https://vimeo.com/ondemand/rescuetraineng)
That pogrom and others sent Jews who had survived the Holocaust fleeing Poland for to the West, many to Israel.(https://vimeo.com/ondemand/tomanheroorthief)

Last Wednesday, according to the Time of Israel, Rick Wiles, the anti-Semitic Florida pastor who previously said that the effort to impeach US President Trump was a “Jew coup,” and would “kill millions of Christians” went on his TruNews website and blamed the spread of coronavirus in synagogues as a punishment of the Jewish people for opposing Jesus.
Sounding like Father Coughlin, Pastor Wiles said, “The people who are going into the synagogue are coming out of the synagogue with the virus,” Wiles said. “It’s spreading in Israel through the synagogues. God is spreading it in your synagogues! You are under judgment because you oppose his son, Jesus Christ. That is why you have a plague in your synagogues. Repent and believe on the name of Jesus Christ, and the plague will stop.” He also mistakenly claimed the CODVID-19 started at the AIPAC conference in early March even though the first outbreaks were in Washington state.

In New Jersey, according to the JTA, “A New Jersey man sent Facebook messages to Gov. Phil Murphy and others threatening to harm Orthodox Jews for violating state coronavirus restrictions.” The man, Anthony Lodespoto, 43, or Howell, NJ, was charged with making “terrorist threats during a state of emergency.” He allegedly used “Facebook’s direct messaging feature to threaten the Jewish community of Lakewood,” saying he would take a baseball bat and punish the offenders. Lakewood, an ultra-orthodox enclave, like New York Cities Borough Park and neighboring Crown Heights has seen a sharp rise of confirmed CODVID-19 cases.

Blaming Jews, as we see, is nothing new. Neither are pogroms. Nor massacres. Admiral Dr. Anne Schuchat, who is Jewish, (and consulted on “Contagion” with Debra Winger and Matt Damon) is deputy director of the CDC (Center for Disease Control). She said in an interview that people should fear “the virus” not “the foreign.” She said, “It’s important in the pandemic to avoid stigmatizing any one group — travelers, immigrants, some populations in our community, anyone in this situation. The virus does not discriminate. We need to work together to tackle it.”

But there is some basis to the claims that Jews are spreading the virus, at least in Israel. (nearly 4,500 infected, 15 deaths, nearly 80 serious cases.) Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have been flagrantly ignoring the requests for self-quarantine, small group gatherings limited to no more than ten, and keeping a two-meter distance one from the other.

According to an Israel TV report, nearly half of those hospitalized in Israel with the virus are ultra-orthodox. When the leaders of the the ultra-orthodox community were first approached by the Israeli government to tell their followers to follow the Ministry of Health’s rules, they waved away the advice. “God will protect us if we learn Torah,” said the Goan HaDor (Genius of the generation) Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, a leader of the Lithuanian Haredi (ultra-orthodox) community.
Today, however, the hard-line Eda Haredit told their ultra-orthodox followers to follow the health ministry’s rules or commit a ‘big sin.’ The notice was published as a poster since the ultra-orthodox supposedly have no tv, do not listen to the radio, have no internet and have limited access to apps on their mobile phones. News is word-of-mouth or posters on the wall.

“New York City’s orthodox communities are at the center of the outbreak (13% of all confirmed cases) with thousands of cases reported and a growing number of deaths,” according to Ynetnews.com. “Almost every Haredi home has a least one family member sick with the virus.” Many communities have ignored rules to self-distance. A disproportionate number of orthodox Jews are infected in Great Britain. (5% of fatalities but only 0.3% of British citizens.) The majority of orthodox Jews in Strasbourg are reportedly ill while in Belgium, with a large Haredi population, 85% are expected to contract the disease with 17,000 requiring hospitalization, 550 to perish.
USA’s official medical expert Dr. Anthony Fauci stated the mortality rate in the USA might reach between 200,000-300,000. Pundits speculate that it is only a matter of time before anti-Semitic rants become more prevalent.

The great depression, and Hitler’s solution to Germany’s problem, at least expel the Jews, brought Father Coughlin to a vast audience. One only hopes that in these trying times the Jewish people are not made a scapegoat once again for the ills of the pandemic. If the economy teeters and falls, one analyst said, there’s no telling who is going to take the blame. It won’t be the first time, said another analyst, that Jews were blamed, persecuted, and eventually expelled, citing as far back as Babylon, the dispersion after the destruction of the Second Temple, the Crusades, the Inquisition, the pogroms in England in 1190,(150 killed) the pogroms during the black plague, all the way up to the Nazis, and beyond. A long history with dark chapters.

The solution is to forestall the spread of the virus, find a cure, and a vaccine. Jews are usually at the forefront of these discoveries. What we need is another Dr. Waldemar Mordecai Haffkine, a Jewish scientist, who discovered the vaccine for both cholera and the bubonic plague. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=268U0Odzcsg.

In the feature film “Contagion” it was Dr. Ian Sussman (Elliot Gould) who bucked bureaucracy and found the vaccine to stop the pandemic. Let’s hope another Sussman or Haffkine shows up, soon.
Once this crisis if over, said an observer, things will go back to normal.

Minister for War against the Plague

A Minister for War on Corona?

Israel’s infection number has passed 3,000, with 13 deaths. (Israel’s Pop. @9 million). Not bad considering a country like Switzerland, Pop. 8.5 million, that has over 12,000 infected and 500 dead. Or the Netherlands, Pop. 17 million with 8,600 infected and over 1,100 deaths. Belgium, Pop @11 million with 7,284 infected and 1,049 deaths. Or New York City Pop. 8.6 million with 23,000 cases, 365 deaths.

As the guy falling for the top of the Empire State Building told a secretary who had her head out the window and asked him how he was doing and he answered, as we all know, “So far so good.”

Personally, I like the old-time comedian Heni Youngman’s schtick. “How’re you doing?” someone asked him. “Better,” he answered. “Better?” the questioner asked. “Yeah, better you shouldn’t ask.”

Israel is gearing up to meet the challenge of the virus. Reportedly, the Mossad has secured 100,000 testing kits. Israel is scouring the markets to buy more inhalation machines. If the infection rate continues to climb, say, experts, physicians may have to choose which patient gets the oxygen and which doesn’t, and dies. Not a pleasant choice. One Israel is trying to avoid.

So far, with a world population of 7.8 billion, the world total of those infected has climbed to over half-a-million and the end is not yet near. According to the data, 191 out of 195 countries have been infected.

However, total deaths, 22,000 deaths so far worldwide, are only a fraction of those who perished in the Spanish Influence of 1918 (Jan 1918 – Dec 1920) where half a billion people were reportedly infected and 10 percent, approximately 50 million, died of the virus.

Today, according to Johns Hopkins University date, “The current global mortality rate now stands at around 4.5%.” Also, according to the World Health Organization, “A variety of factors affects the mortality rate: geography, the quality of health care, age of the population, lifestyle and underlying conditions. In China, the mortality rate for CV-19 has been 4%. In Italy, it’s about 10%. In Iran, it’s about 7.6%. In Germany, it’s less than 1% and in the U.S., where the outbreak is just getting underway, it’s about 1.5%.

"The mortality rate generally drops as testing rises and more patients are identified. But epidemiologists caution that the reverse can be true as U.S. hospitals get inundated and run out of necessary equipment, like ventilators, to treat patients who might have otherwise been saved. They also say it takes weeks for the virus to infiltrate a community and several more before people are sick enough to die. So it will be several months before the true mortality rate can be quantified in the U.S. or elsewhere.”

According to the WHO, “Many scientists think, or are at least hopeful, that the mortality rate will fall as more people are tested and mild cases that have previously gone undetected are identified.”

In Israel pundits have said that the Israeli defense forces should take over the management of the virus.

The ministry of defense has the manpower and technical resources at its disposal that do not exist in the private sector. For that reason alone the proposed appointment of former chief-of-staff Gen (res.) Benny Gantz is a wise choice, say the observers. The ministry of defense has been likened to an old-boys network. An outsider has to struggle to get things done. Gantz, once the star of the army, has an inside track. Coupled with another former chief-of-staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, who is slated to become Foreign Minister, consolidating the considerable resources of the defense establishment should be manageable.

Gantz has run into both criticism and praise for his move to join Netanyahu. Gantz said that in this time of crises a national unity government was imperative and he was not going to stand in the way of fighting the war against the virus based on personal considerations. Some analysts laud him for this path. Others say that he was just looking for a way to become Prime Minister, (he would take that position after 18-months in a rotation agreement). Others say that by alienating his Blue and White partners Lapid and Ya'alon, who now become part of the opposition, Netanyahu will be hard put to pass any legislation in the Knesset. (Gantz says that's why he became Speaker, to get bills assigned to a committee and passed quickly.)

Whatever the reasons, a national unity government will soon be established, assuming Gantz and Netanyahu reach terms, which seems likely, and the business of government could carry on. A budget could be prepared and passed. Resources could be tapped to fight the plague, and the country could unify in the war.

Gantz is to become Minister of Defence, after he gives up his temporary role as Speaker of the Knesset, and Ashkenazi Foreign Minister. Gantz’s scaled-down party, the group left after the disintegration of Blue and White, will garner approximately 11 ministerial seats. Avraham Rabinovitch, political commentator for Channel 12, thought this a bloated and inordinately expensive government that would have over 30 cabinet posts. He also didn’t think Gantz would fare any better than others who trusted Netanyahu. Men like Avigdor Leiberman, and Moshe ‘Bougie’ Ayalon who were cast out by Netanyahu and became his fierce enemies.

However, Gantz also gets the Justice Ministry and has sworn that democracy will be protected. His proposed Justice Minister, Chili Trooper, said on Israel TV last night that there would be no French Law passed, referring to the law passed in the French parliament to ensure that indicted PM Jacques Chiraq would not be prosecuted until he finished his term in office.

Should Gantz really be a patriot and have the countries best interests at heart, or was he out for himself.

Time will tell. If he becomes the general leading the war against the virus and succeeds in keeping that plague from overrunning Israel, he will have justified his dismembering Blue and White. If not?

He’ll be tossed out by Netanyahu like others before him. And the country will still be faced with a pandemic managed by amateurs.

“

UPDATE: GANZ JOINS NETANYAHU
Blue and white party splitting up.
Benny Ganz joined a national unity government with Netanyahu.
He will first run for Speaker of the Knesset instead of Yair Lapid's suggested
candidate. Ganz will then become the Foreign Minister for 18-months and then become Prime Minister in a rotation agreement.
Moshe Yaalon has announced he is leaving Blue and White along with Lapid. Both will join the opposition. Pundits point out that Ganz is worried about the country during the crises and is willing to compromise for the good of the country. Analysts point out that Blue and White really had no chance to take the reins of the government. The coalition was too narrow, mixing Arab parties with

right-wing politicians like Avigdor Leiberman. One analyst said on Israel Radio that Ganz checked the foundations of his building and realized it wouldn't stand in even a mild storm.

                                                                    On The Front Lines

                                  Gil at his hardware store in Avnei Chen (Kaizer) neighborhood, Modiin

Even storekeepers are on the front lines these days in the “hot” neighborhood of Avnei Chen (Kaizer), Modiin. The neighborhood has a population of 12,000 and nearly a third have been or in quarantine.

This is not farfetched. In N. Italy a storekeeper died after contracting the virus at work. Whoever thought shopping or getting into an elevator would be a perilous activity.

The number of those with the virus in Israel has climbed to 2,495, so far. The number climbs as more people are tested. Israel has opened drive-in test centers in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Beer Sheva, Haifa and soon Modiin.

Israel, population 8.7 million, has more infections than countries like Turkey, pop. 80 million, (2,433 infected), or Poland, pop. @38 million, (1,085 infected) or Japan, pop. @130 million (1,307 infected), or USA states like Michigan, pop. 9.9 million (2,295 infected), or Illinois, pop 12.6 million (1,865 infected) and is closing in on California, pop. 39.5 million (3,158 infected.)and Washington State, with a surprisingly small population of only 7.5 million (2,588 infected). Hard to believe, but true. (see

https://ncov2019.live and Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU)

gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com

gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com (statistics from March 26, 2020 at 11:30 am Israel time))

Still, far from New York state’s pop. 19.5 million (33,013 infected, with 278 deaths). Israel has only five deaths, so far, mostly octogenarians or older, except one was a 67-year-old woman with “severe underlying health issues.” 41 Israelis are in serious condition, two critical. In the Palestinian territories, 64 infected, most in Bethlehem, with one death, 9 infected have been reported in Gaza, one of the most densely populated places in the world. But these are early days. The Palestinian Authority has asked for help from Israel and the world.

But, much to the chagrin of most health professionals, two nights ago Prime Minister Netanayu caused a mini-panic when he predicted 1,000,000 infected in Israel with 10,000 deaths. These predictions flew in the face of most estimates which were a fraction of those numbers. Prof. Gabi Barbash, former director-general of the Minister of Health is a health expert commentator on Channel 12 (Keshet) news nightly broadcasts. When asked about these numbers he looked pained, even angry, saying the numbers were erroneous and it was irresponsible to say such things. Up until then, Barbash had been an unofficial spokesman for the Health Ministry.

Pundits claim that PM Netanyahu makes this claims to frighten the public. As the media nightly seeks Britain’s PM Boris Johnson for health updates, PM Netanyahu, who is only a caretaker until a new government is appointed, has assumed the role of the General in charge of the War against CODVID-19. Critics claim Netanyahu is using the crises for his own gains, mainly to postpone his trial for corruption, bribery, and breach of trust, or have the charges dismissed altogether. An uproar over his tactics has resulted in charges of “anti-democratic behavior.”

An article in Thursdays Yideot Achranot, Israel’s most popular paper, online opined that much of the

crisis in Israel could have been avoided had PM Netanyahu allow the Ministry of Defense to handle the crises not the Health Ministry and the PM himself. Columnist Yossi Yehoshua wrote that “Netanyahu won the political battle, but Israel lost coronavirus war.” He wrote: “because Netanyahu didn’t want to give an upper hand to his political rival Neftali Bennet (Minister of Defense).” Bennet called for mass testing, for the infected to be removed from their homes to dedicated recovery centers, both moves recommended by the WHO, “The Health Ministry opposed.” The Ministry of Defence, wrote Yehoshua, is now converting simple at-home respirators to a more effective model. But they could have started earlier, had Netanyahu allowed them to. “The prime minister and the health minister have waster valuable time, let us hope it will not cost us human lives.”

In his efforts to stay in power, PM Netanyahu played a trump card. One of Netanyahu’s followers, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein had been ordered by Israel’s High Court to hold new elections for speaker of the Knesset, allowing someone else to set the legislative agenda. Edelstein refused. Analysts say that Netanyahu wanted Edelstein in place to help pass a bill dismissing charges against Netanyahu, or at least postponing his trial until he was out of power. Allowing a Blue and White appointee might result in a bill doing the opposite, demanding a vote to determine if a sitting PM charged with three felonies can stay in office.

Previously, Edelstein had avoided even opening the Knesset to avoid a vote until so ordered by the court. Yesterday he resigned rather than call the vote, risking a “contempt of court” citation by the High Court. The court-ordered Labor Party chief Amir Peretz, as the senior Knesset member, to become temporary speaker and supervise new elections for the speaker today. The High Court did not punish Edelstein, but Chief Judge said that Edelstein’s actions were a threat to democracy.

Netanyahu’s backers have been harshly critical of the High Court. Some claiming the court was run by leftists. According to the Jerusalem Post, right-wing Transport Minister Bezalel Smotrich tweeted the High Court "continues to ... irresponsibly deepen the constitutional crisis that we are in the midst of." "Over time, the Knesset will not remain indifferent to the High Court's gross interference in its affairs and it will put an end to this," warned Smotrich. "There seems to be no one in the right-wing camp who does not understand today, courtesy of the High Court, that this must happen, and quickly." Smotrich also warned of civil unrest if Israelis are locked down in their homes.

But, according to the Jerusalem Post: “Blue and White's number two, MK Yair Lapid, accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of "sending Yuli to burn down our democracy." He said MKs on the Right should be condemning Edelstein. Blue and White MK Moshe Ya'alon added that if Netanyahu was a private citizen, he would have been arrested by now for "inciting a rebellion."

Even some die-hard Likud supporters saw this move by Edelstein as akin to anarchy. “We must respect the rule of law,” said Yamina’s Minister of Defense Neftali Bennet, a Netanyahu appointee. Benny Ganz, Blue and White leader, who has a paper-thin majority to gather a coalition together, has said “The future of Israel as a democracy is at stake.”

Ron Ben -Yishai, a veteran and well-respected military correspondent for Yediot Achronot, wrote yesterday that “During previous crises, a sense of unity and external threats brought the country back from the brink, but now both the left and the right are entrenched in their positions strengthened only by their mutual hatred.” In his opinion piece, Ben-Yishai says that another major crises is emerging among the two major events, the coronovirus pandemic and the ongoing political stalemate. “As emotions run high the danger of violence increases….we might see the eruption of a civil war. The threat is exacerbated by the continuously eroding public trust in the government and its leader and the growing extremism and deepening rift between the right-wing, religious bloc and the center-left and Arabs.”

Protests have already begun in front of both the Knesset and the Prime Ministers office calling for Edelstein to hold the elections for the speaker, and for Netanyahu to step aside. Ben-Yishai had a dire assessment of this development, “Political demonstrations have already begun, with the center-left Israelis protesting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political maneuverings and his supporters, in turn, protesting the moves by the "anyone but Bibi" camp. We can expect to see a rise in the level of violence in such demonstrations, deteriorating into increasing verbal and physical attacks and even the use of weapons.” Violence has happened in the past, Ben-Yishai reminds us. Peace Now activist Emil Grunzweig was murdered at an anti-government demonstration 37-years ago. Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin was assassinated by a right-wing activist in 1995. And what Ben-Yishai doesn’t mention is the civil wars in Israel’s history, from the sons of King David through the fall of the Second Temple.

“The external enemy is a microscopic virus but those on the left see a real threat in the attacks on democracy and the rule of law that the right is perpetrating,” wrote Ben-Yishai.

Last night, Wednesday, March 24, at 5pm Israel time, the new restrictions came into force in the Corona fight - without imposing a full closure. Public transport will be significantly reduced: the train will be completely disabled, but one-quarter of the bus lines will operate to allow workers to get to their place of employment so they can stock drugs and food. Also: Synagogues will be closed. Residents only allowed 100 meters from their homes, unless it is to go for food or drugs. Fines for ignoring the rules range from 500 to 5,000 shekels. ($137 - $1,370)

The struggle over the Speaker of the Knesset is almost over. The vote for a new speaker may be postponed until next Monday, but no later. Pundits say that then, a vote to strip Netanyahu of power will be held. Then Blue and White can enter a national unity government with a Likud but not Netanyahu. Meanwhile, Netanyahu remains Prime Minister and skeptics are likening the situation to the dangerous one that brought men like Italian dictator Mussolini to power.

The Dangerous Hiccup

These days, even a hiccup, a runny nose, or a cough can be a cause for concern. People

begin to wonder if any of these are the precursor to the CODVID-19 overrunning their

immune system. Norman Lear, in a TV interview, said he came up with the idea of the popular TV

sit-com All in the Family by thinking about his own family in Brooklyn when he was young.

“They lived on the edge of their nerves and the top of their lungs.”

Today, the virus is turning a lot of people into members of Norman Lear’s family.

Trepidation over stepping into an elevator, not because the elevator’s brakes might fail,

but because of a lurking glob of CODVID-19 on a button or railing or floating in the air from

the last occupant. Now, people bring napkins to the elevator, use the napkin to push buttons, then stand in the center of the car careful not to touch anything, and even lift up a sweatshirt or t-shirt to cover their mouths. Who knows what works.

A guy is walking through the park and sees another guy, well-dress, normal looking, sitting on

the bench waving his arms. The guy walking past stops. “Why’re you waving your hands?” he asks.

“To keep the elephants away,” the guy on the bench answers.

“Elephants?” says the other guy. “They’re no elephants in the park.”

“See,” says the guy on the bench. “It works.”

These days we see a lot of guys on the bench waving their arms. Malaria pills with bleach. Monolaurin. Vitamin concoctions. Many things that keep the elephants away, until they don’t.

One of the top officials in charge of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO). “We’re still seeing the virus going up very, very rapidly, even in hard-hit places like Italy, for example. These countries still have months of this challenge in front of them.” He says that the pandemic is just reaching Africa, and expects an “exponential growth.”

“But the big question, of course, is what’s going to happen when this really starts to take off in those low-income countries where they don’t have as much medical capacity such as in Africa.

It’s one of those things that you don’t want to imagine because the numbers could be so grave. The population distribution could help. Is the humidity and the temperature going to help make a difference? I would hope so, but look at the situation in Singapore, that’s a hot, humid country. So the situation in these countries could be very difficult.”

Still, Aylward is optimistic. “We should be emerging from a bad wave of this disease across a large swathe of the planet.” “And then,” he asks, “A lot of that is going to depend on what we as countries, as societies, do. If we do the testing of every single case, rapid isolation of the cases, you should be able to keep cases down low. If you simply rely on the big shut down measures without finding every case, then every time you take the brakes off, it could come back in waves. So that future frankly, may be determined by us and our response as much as the virus.”

And the big question right now is “Are countries going to use this time during these shutdown periods optimally?” Because if you just shut it down your societies, your economies and hope for the best… This is guerrilla warfare against a virus, the virus is just going to sit you out, it’ll just circulate quietly among households and then you’re going to let them all go again and phoom there’s no reason it shouldn’t take off again unless you’re ready for it.” He said that young people are too cavalier about the virus. “Ten percent of the people who are in [intensive care units] in Italy are in their 20s, 30s or 40s. These are young, healthy people with no co-morbidities, no other diseases.
We don’t understand why some young healthy people progress to severe disease and even die and others don’t. We don’t have clear predictors.”
When asked what should a country's first priority be after a lockdown, he said, “Test, test, test, test, test. Not test, test, test, test, test everyone, but test the suspects, test the suspects, test the suspects. Then, effectively isolate the confirmed cases. The third piece is the quarantine piece.”
Now we come to Israel. The USA we know has been far behind the testing curve. But Israel has started testing. And because of the results of the tests, the number of those infected has been rising steadily. Israel now has nearly 1,700 cases, 31 in serious condition, three deaths. Dr. Ron (not his real name), an Israeli physician who worked as a small hospital on Israel’s coast was recently transferred to a large hospital in the center of the country. The small hospital “Became a corona hospital,” he said. “Now I don’t even have a chair in my latest position.” He said, “The quarantine is giving us time to get the equipment to test people. That’s the goal now.”
Drive-in testing centers have opened up in Tel Aviv and Haifa, although Dr. Ron said he wasn’t sure you could just drive in without being sent for the test. If you have a cough or sniffles, don’t think you need a test, he said. The normal, everyday viruses are still around. Not every hiccup is a coronavirus case. Until it is.

Let's clear the air.

The situation is dire. But maybe not.
According to Johns Hopkins Corona Virus database, compiled by assembling information from databases like the WHO, CDC, ECDC, NHC, DXY, 1point3acres, Worldometers.info, BNO, state, and national government health departments, and local media reports, as of  March 23, 2020, at 13:09 pm, the current statistics are these:
349,211  infected worldwide
15, 308 seriously ill
100,165 recovered.

In Israel, the numbers are rising by the hour. So far, 1,278 infected, 23 in serious condition and one octogenarian Holocaust Survivor dead.

Yet, according to some scientists, this pandemic will not destroy the world. A Times of Israel story on March 13th ran the headline:

Nobel laureate and Stanford professor Michael Levitt unexpectedly became a reassuring figure in China at the peak of the coronavirus pandemic. Now he assures Israelis: statistics show the virus is on a downturn.

Levitt predicted the China downturn and said he doubted that more than 10 people would die in Israel. Another epidemiologist, Hagai Levine at Hebrew University, said that the virus can be contained but the health authorities have to act and act fast. According to Shay Arkin, professor of Structural Biochemistry at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, "You're not going to see a million people die from this virus." He said that the new coronavirus is ’80 percent identical’ to the 2002-3 SARS that petered out within a few months. On the whole, according to Arkin, the virus causes a mild respiratory tract infection. But the elderly are the exception.

Israel has put the country under voluntary quarantine. The idea of the quarantine is to allow the virus to blossom in those people who are infected, and then hospitalize them. By keeping a "safe distance" those infected are less likely to infect others, especially the elderly. The current government is discussing a full quarantine of men over 70 and women over 65 since these are the groups most vulnerable.

Israel has set up temporary testing stations in parking lots in a few locations around the country. 5,000 tests were carried out within the last 24-hours. The increased testing accounts for the higher number of infections discovered. Ten days ago only 300 people were infected. Today the number is 1,238.

But there are shortages of masks and other equipment. This is a direct effect of previous governments paying scant attention to the needs of the Health Ministry, building new hospitals, putting in new equipment, at the expense of what in the USA would be called "pork-barrel" legislation. Money diverted from health to roads in the west bank and new settlements. Money diverted to pay for yeshiva students who do no army service and, if married, receive child support payment and pay no taxes.

As the epidemic rages, the political battle for control of Israeli politics goes on.  Something that directly affects Israel's ability to go to war with the Codvid-19 virus. Although Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party gained a narrow majority in the third election, 36 seats to the 34 by the rival Blue and White party headed by Gen. Benny Ganz, Netanyahu could not form a coalition of 61 seats that would allow him to take over the government. Ganz, taking a historic, some pundits say desperate, step has sought and received support from the 15 seat United Arab party. The first time a candidate reached an agreement with the Israeli Arab sector. This gives Ganz a theoretical 61 seat coalition. With 61 members of Parliament supporting him, Ganz was charged by Israel's president Ruby Rivlin to form a government.  

However, PM Netanyahu, who has made nightly appearances as the leader of the war against the Cornonovirus in Israel, is not willing to step aside quietly. Netanyahu, who was to go on trial in two weeks for fraud, bribery, and breach of trust, managed to get his trial postponed until May because of the crises. Netanyahu has also skillfully maneuvered the Speaker of the Knesset, Yuli Edelstein, a Likud appointee, to keep the Knesset closed, thus denying the Knesset members from forming committees to deal with important matters, like electing a new speaker of the Knesset and setting up a special committee to deal with the epidemic. And approve a new budget.

Netanyahu claims he is a patriot out to save the country. Others in his party tell the media, in words that are nearly identical in each interview, that Netanyahu's rival, Ganz, is seeking to take control by strength and not through a democratic process, even though Netanyahu essentially lost the last election. To make matters worse, without a functioning government there is no budget. The one being used is temporary and frozen. A new budget can only be drawn up by the new government that must then be submitted to the Knesset for approval. Without the budget, the Health Ministry cannot order supplies and equipment to deal with the emergency. Lack of an approved new budget hogties any real progress across the board.

Netanyahu is willing to enter into a "national unity crises government" but only if he is the first to take over as Prime Minister in a rotation agreement where first Netanyahu and then Ganz would become Prime Minister. Ganz has rejected the idea twice before after each of the previous two elections that ended in a stalemate, saying he would not be in a government with an accused felon. Netanyahu has lashed out at Ganz as anti-democratic for not agreeing to allow the Likud, and Netanyahu, as the first PM.

Yair Lapid, number two in the Blue and White party, in an interview on Israel radio this morning, said, "Why doesn't Netanyahu decide to become second and Ganz first? Netanyahu could become the Minister for Fighting Corona, something he's good at." 

So far, no coalition has been formed. No national unity has been formed. Netanyahu has succeeded in pushing off his trial until May and now he is reportedly going to appeal to the court to drop the trial altogether because of the crises. Some pundits think that Netanyahu is using the crises to stay out of jail. Former PM and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said just that both on Israel TV Saturday night, and this morning on Israel radio. He accused Netanyahu of using this crisis for his own personal cold-hearted reasons. Mainly, said Barak, to stay out of jail.

Meanwhile, the numbers of those infected keep climbing. There is no government, hence no budget. And it is possible, as cynics speculate, that Netanyahu will stall any unity government talks until the country heads to the 4th election in a year. That election process would push Netanyahu's trial even further down the line. And, say his critics, he may be able to sneak in a bill suspending his trial indefinitely, or having the Minister of Justice, a Likud appointee, drop the charges altogether.

CORONA COUP?
Here's a question: If PM Netanyahu is so concerned about the safety and security and health of the nation and thinks a national unity government is crucial now, why does he stand like a statue in the way of such a government and allow his rival Benny Ganz from taking over as PM with Netanyahu second? As of now, Netanyahu demands to be first. He has for the last three elections and national unity negotiations following those elections that failed to produce a government. As a patriot, he should step aside.

However, critics say this would not be in his playbook that envisions Netanyahu from dissolving the Knesset and then have his Minister of Justice, a Likud and Netanyahu supporter, dismiss the trial Netanyahu is facing fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. As a patriot, he could step aside, but as a practical man he needs to stay as PM in order to stay out of jail.
Some are calling this the Corona Coup. And warn US President Trump may try to copy Netanyahu using the virus as a way to suspend democracy and stay in power. Israel has, so far, nearly 1,000 infected and suffered the first death, an 88-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Israel's health system is being tested. There is no government to decree more money for the crises because there is no government. The country is still functioning on the temporary budget of over a year ago.
The likelihood is that the number of infected will double as Israel ramps up the testing of those suspected of having the virus. This will not be the end of the world or the end of Israel but will surely test the system.
Now is not the time for dithering. Someone has to explain to Netanyahu he needs to step aside. But, so far, no one has.