When IKEA, the popular furniture chain, was allowed to reopen in Israel during the COVID-19 crisis, other superstores and small shops who were still shuttered demanded also to open. This brought about an easing of restrictions. Even beauty parlors and barbershops reopened this week. All employees and customers were to maintain social distancing, wear masks, and check for fevers. The pressure then mounted on the government to open the schools and other shops while the indoor malls remained open.
On Monday, the government announced that kindergartens and grades 1-3 in schools would reopen on May 3rd. By May 15th most of the restrictions on the population are expected to be lifted.
HMO's are expected to assume the task of performing the COVID-19 tests. A reporter on Channel 12 TV news asked how were those people who suspected they had the virus but did not have a car were expected to arrive at the HMO? If these people took public transportation and it turned out they were infected they may infect everyone on the bus.
Channel 12 health commentator Dr. Barabash said that the wisdom of opening up the country wouldn't be determined for at least ten days, the incubation period of the virus. Barabash hoped a new wave of the virus wouldn't appear.
As for IKEA, the furniture chain's Israeli franchise is owned by a partnership between Matthew Bronfman, a son of Edgar Bronfman (former CEO of the Seagram's company), and Yacov Shalom Fisher, an Israeli businessman.
Yediot Achranot, the Israeli daily, connected the IKEA opening to Health Minister Yacov Litzman, a member of the Gur Hassidic movement, the world's largest Hassidic sect. According to that newspaper, Shalom Fisher, as he is called, is a Gur Hassid. Other websites dispute that Fisher is a Gur Hassid, but confirm that IKEA has donated 1.3 million shekels (@$400,000) in recent years to the Gur movement.
According to the blog Ashdod Net, Bronfman and Fisher are the biggest donors to the Gur Hassidic movement. Ashdod net claims that IKEA's controlling shareholders Bronfman and Fisher contributed over 1 million shekels (@$300,000) to the Gur Institutions Association in 2017. Between 2014-2016 IKEA-Israel donated 283,000 shekels(@$80,000) to Gur. The website claims that the Admor, Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the head of the Gur Hassidim, his family and his entourage, spends his annual holidays in Shalom Fisher's home.
According to that website, Litzman's Gur Hassidic movement also received donations from the Tempo soft drink company, Strauss, Tnuva and others. Both Litzman's Health Ministry and IKEA deny any favoritism in allowing IKEA to be one of the first stores to open in Israel. This, when pictures of shoppers at IKEA were lined up waiting to get into the stores, albeit with masks and at a safe distance, and other shops were shuttered.
Yesterday, Yaacov Litzman has resigned from his position as Minister of Health and been given instead Minister of Housing. As Minister of Health Litzman resisted restrictions of large gatherings at weddings and in synagogues until, according to pundits, he realized the error of his ways.
If the reports are true, Litzman was acting under orders from the head of the Gur Hassidic movement, since among the ultra-orthodox, especially Hassidim, the Rebbe of the group gives orders and those who follow these orders ignore them at risk of expulsion from the group or community.
Now, Litzman has been handed the Housing Ministry. Reportedly, he was advised to take this ministry by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-orthodox Shas political party. (Deri is a convicted felon who served time in prison for graft and corruption while Interior Minister in a previous government, also run by PM Netanyahu.) With Litzman as Housing Minister contractors within the ultra-orthodox community, analysts say, may receive favorable terms for housing developments. And, say these analysts, the ultra-orthodox community will receive priority when new housing becomes available.
Yesterday, Israel's Ministry of Finance allowed a grant of 6 billion shekels (nearly $2B) to several large chain stores who claimed they should be compensated for the forced closure due to the virus. One of the demands of the businessmen was that the companies should be paid 10,000 shekels (@$3,000) per employee. However, TV news commentators stated that most employees worked at minimum wage or part-time, and only very few received 10,000 shekels a month in salary. The commentators claimed that these businesses were trying to recoup losses they'd suffered not by the COVID-19 but by internet competition that undercut their often high, sometimes outrageously high, prices. Some cynics speculate that these businessmen contribute to PM Netanyahu's Likud party.
Then there is the question of Netanyahu's upcoming trial for three felonies. The trial is to be held on May 27th. However, Attorney General Mandelblit, who brought the indictments, said in the media that he fears that Dan Eldad, the temporary state prosecutor appointed by Netanyahu acolyte Justice Minister Amir Ohana, is trying to ignore the rule of law. Mandelblit claims that Eldad has been subverting Mandelblit. And worse, shortly after taking office, launched an investigation into a company then run by Benny Gantz, coincidently the candidate who was running against Netanyahu for Prime Minister. Mandelblit also said that Justice Minister Ohana is bent on ousting him, perhaps with the help of Netanyahu, and has asked Eldad to reopen an investigation about a case where Mandelblit was under suspicion of misdeeds but was cleared.
The new coalition agreement between Netanyahu's Likud party and Benny Gantz's Blue and White gives Netanyahu veto power over the appointment of a permanent state prosecutor as well as the successor to Mandelblit as attorney general. Likud will also control the committee appointing high court judges. According to reports, this has led Mandelblit to believe that Netanyahu is behind the efforts of Ohana and Eldad to oust him. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. Pundits believe that having influence over the Knesset judicial committee, and the appointment of both the state prosecutor and the attorney general might allow Netanyahu to somehow slip out of the charges against him.
Historian and political commentator Yuval Harari said in a recent op-ed piece in Yediot Achronot that at the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, Netanyahu had tried to stage a coup under the guise of managing the health crisis. "An unelected prime minister...tried to close down parliament and rule by emergency decree without any parliamentary supervision," Harari said. Harari tweeted that his move was turning Israel into a dictatorship.
In an interview with the Times of Israel Harari said the coup failed because there was enough resistance from other parties, the media, and public demonstrations against dissolving parliament. According to Harari, Netanyahu realized he had to make a deal. Had there been no resistance he would have kept on ruling under emergency decree without any parliamentary supervision. "Very often coups try to hide their real nature," said Harari. Tanks in the streets and taking over TV stations are not always necessary.
Where is Benny Gantz in all of this? observers ask. The man who said he would never sit in a government with a thrice indicted prime minister has seemingly turned into a powder puff, say these observers. Netanyahu has control of all the major judicial posts. Gantz is slated to become the Minister of Defense. His Blue and White partner Gabi Ashkenazi will become Foreign Minister.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak has called on Gantz to leave the coalition before it is formalized by the Knesset. According to Barak, Netanyahu will never fulfill promises he made to Gantz. Or the public. Hopefully, said one observer, should Gantz stay with Netanyahu, he will be a better minister of defense, protecting the country, then he was as a candidate for prime minister.
To underline the gravity of the present situation, historian Harari is concerned that not only will the virus return but will return in a mutated version, creating even more havoc worldwide. Given this dour prediction, said a pundit, an honest stable government seems an enviable, if not essential, alternative.
On Monday, the government announced that kindergartens and grades 1-3 in schools would reopen on May 3rd. By May 15th most of the restrictions on the population are expected to be lifted.
HMO's are expected to assume the task of performing the COVID-19 tests. A reporter on Channel 12 TV news asked how were those people who suspected they had the virus but did not have a car were expected to arrive at the HMO? If these people took public transportation and it turned out they were infected they may infect everyone on the bus.
Channel 12 health commentator Dr. Barabash said that the wisdom of opening up the country wouldn't be determined for at least ten days, the incubation period of the virus. Barabash hoped a new wave of the virus wouldn't appear.
As for IKEA, the furniture chain's Israeli franchise is owned by a partnership between Matthew Bronfman, a son of Edgar Bronfman (former CEO of the Seagram's company), and Yacov Shalom Fisher, an Israeli businessman.
Yediot Achranot, the Israeli daily, connected the IKEA opening to Health Minister Yacov Litzman, a member of the Gur Hassidic movement, the world's largest Hassidic sect. According to that newspaper, Shalom Fisher, as he is called, is a Gur Hassid. Other websites dispute that Fisher is a Gur Hassid, but confirm that IKEA has donated 1.3 million shekels (@$400,000) in recent years to the Gur movement.
According to the blog Ashdod Net, Bronfman and Fisher are the biggest donors to the Gur Hassidic movement. Ashdod net claims that IKEA's controlling shareholders Bronfman and Fisher contributed over 1 million shekels (@$300,000) to the Gur Institutions Association in 2017. Between 2014-2016 IKEA-Israel donated 283,000 shekels(@$80,000) to Gur. The website claims that the Admor, Yaakov Aryeh Alter, the head of the Gur Hassidim, his family and his entourage, spends his annual holidays in Shalom Fisher's home.
According to that website, Litzman's Gur Hassidic movement also received donations from the Tempo soft drink company, Strauss, Tnuva and others. Both Litzman's Health Ministry and IKEA deny any favoritism in allowing IKEA to be one of the first stores to open in Israel. This, when pictures of shoppers at IKEA were lined up waiting to get into the stores, albeit with masks and at a safe distance, and other shops were shuttered.
Yesterday, Yaacov Litzman has resigned from his position as Minister of Health and been given instead Minister of Housing. As Minister of Health Litzman resisted restrictions of large gatherings at weddings and in synagogues until, according to pundits, he realized the error of his ways.
If the reports are true, Litzman was acting under orders from the head of the Gur Hassidic movement, since among the ultra-orthodox, especially Hassidim, the Rebbe of the group gives orders and those who follow these orders ignore them at risk of expulsion from the group or community.
Now, Litzman has been handed the Housing Ministry. Reportedly, he was advised to take this ministry by Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, head of the ultra-orthodox Shas political party. (Deri is a convicted felon who served time in prison for graft and corruption while Interior Minister in a previous government, also run by PM Netanyahu.) With Litzman as Housing Minister contractors within the ultra-orthodox community, analysts say, may receive favorable terms for housing developments. And, say these analysts, the ultra-orthodox community will receive priority when new housing becomes available.
Yesterday, Israel's Ministry of Finance allowed a grant of 6 billion shekels (nearly $2B) to several large chain stores who claimed they should be compensated for the forced closure due to the virus. One of the demands of the businessmen was that the companies should be paid 10,000 shekels (@$3,000) per employee. However, TV news commentators stated that most employees worked at minimum wage or part-time, and only very few received 10,000 shekels a month in salary. The commentators claimed that these businesses were trying to recoup losses they'd suffered not by the COVID-19 but by internet competition that undercut their often high, sometimes outrageously high, prices. Some cynics speculate that these businessmen contribute to PM Netanyahu's Likud party.
Then there is the question of Netanyahu's upcoming trial for three felonies. The trial is to be held on May 27th. However, Attorney General Mandelblit, who brought the indictments, said in the media that he fears that Dan Eldad, the temporary state prosecutor appointed by Netanyahu acolyte Justice Minister Amir Ohana, is trying to ignore the rule of law. Mandelblit claims that Eldad has been subverting Mandelblit. And worse, shortly after taking office, launched an investigation into a company then run by Benny Gantz, coincidently the candidate who was running against Netanyahu for Prime Minister. Mandelblit also said that Justice Minister Ohana is bent on ousting him, perhaps with the help of Netanyahu, and has asked Eldad to reopen an investigation about a case where Mandelblit was under suspicion of misdeeds but was cleared.
The new coalition agreement between Netanyahu's Likud party and Benny Gantz's Blue and White gives Netanyahu veto power over the appointment of a permanent state prosecutor as well as the successor to Mandelblit as attorney general. Likud will also control the committee appointing high court judges. According to reports, this has led Mandelblit to believe that Netanyahu is behind the efforts of Ohana and Eldad to oust him. Netanyahu has been charged with fraud, bribery, and breach of trust. Pundits believe that having influence over the Knesset judicial committee, and the appointment of both the state prosecutor and the attorney general might allow Netanyahu to somehow slip out of the charges against him.
Historian and political commentator Yuval Harari said in a recent op-ed piece in Yediot Achronot that at the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, Netanyahu had tried to stage a coup under the guise of managing the health crisis. "An unelected prime minister...tried to close down parliament and rule by emergency decree without any parliamentary supervision," Harari said. Harari tweeted that his move was turning Israel into a dictatorship.
In an interview with the Times of Israel Harari said the coup failed because there was enough resistance from other parties, the media, and public demonstrations against dissolving parliament. According to Harari, Netanyahu realized he had to make a deal. Had there been no resistance he would have kept on ruling under emergency decree without any parliamentary supervision. "Very often coups try to hide their real nature," said Harari. Tanks in the streets and taking over TV stations are not always necessary.
Where is Benny Gantz in all of this? observers ask. The man who said he would never sit in a government with a thrice indicted prime minister has seemingly turned into a powder puff, say these observers. Netanyahu has control of all the major judicial posts. Gantz is slated to become the Minister of Defense. His Blue and White partner Gabi Ashkenazi will become Foreign Minister.
Former prime minister Ehud Barak has called on Gantz to leave the coalition before it is formalized by the Knesset. According to Barak, Netanyahu will never fulfill promises he made to Gantz. Or the public. Hopefully, said one observer, should Gantz stay with Netanyahu, he will be a better minister of defense, protecting the country, then he was as a candidate for prime minister.
To underline the gravity of the present situation, historian Harari is concerned that not only will the virus return but will return in a mutated version, creating even more havoc worldwide. Given this dour prediction, said a pundit, an honest stable government seems an enviable, if not essential, alternative.
