Amazing. According to a poll conducted by Israeli pollsters 74% of the Israeli people think temporary Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did a good job handing the COVID-19. In fact, it was a few people in the Health Ministry who fought with their incompetent Minister and demanded the closing of schools, restaurants, and synagogues. According to media reports,
Netanyahu made a statement that if the virus returns it could "end humanity."https://www.timesofisrael.com/if-it-reinfects-virus-could-end-humanity-netanyahu-reportedly-warned-mks/Do scare tactics work?
Some analysts say that scare tactics kept people indoors and paranoid about some microbe killing them. Others point out that the population was loaded up with such fear that those in charge were the ones you had to trust (Trump excluded). At least in Israel. And that savior, say some critics, was Netanyahu. Now, these critics point out, if Netanyahu isn't supported, the world may come to an end.
While Israel is coming out of the lockdown, and life returning to normal, with masks and social distancing, that isn't to say that a second wave, perhaps much deadlier, of COVID-19 won't come back in the fall, according to health officials in the USA. In fact, the US health agencies are preparing for just such an eventuality. This time, if the virus hits, they'll be ready. Netanyahu won't be leading the fight worldwide. But, say his critics, he may take credit for it.
Veteran observers say that former Prime Minister, and war hero, Ariel Sharon pulled something similar when he initiated the withdrawal from Gaza.He was nearly under indictment for the Greek Island Affair (his son took the fall instead and went to jail).
However, say these observers, while this withdrawal was going on and the country on the verge of war the question arose, "Which judge has the courage to indict Sharon when he is the warrior needed to defend the country." And indeed, these observers say, Sharon was never indicted.
Sharon was, in the opinion of some, the tutor and role model for disgraced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who was jailed for bribery, and Netanyahui on how to steal and get away with it. Olmert wasn't as good a student, say the pundits, as Netanyahu.
Back in the day, when Ehud Barak ran a campaign for PM called "Tzav Shmoneh" (the call up notice reserve soldiers get during a war ordering them to their units). Again, scare tactics. Now, say the pundits, here's Netanyahu who goes to trial on May 24th after having avoided any interference by the High Court, even when he engineered a change in the basic law, essentially allowing two Prime Ministers under a questionable rotation deal that should have been struck down, sailing into his fifth term as prime minister."A shandah," cry his critics.
Others compare what's happening with Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, who confessed to lying to the FBI twice, and is now free of any charges, to Netanyahu to perhaps discern what he has in mind. Netanyahu, say his critics, has postured that he is so essential to the well-being of Israel, if not the world, that the courts should either dismiss the charges against him, or look so favorably upon him that he is judged innocent, or atleast not guilty, of any of the indictments against him.Sharon did it, say the sages. Flynn did it with help from the Donald.Bibi will probably do it, with help from, of all people Gantz.What a world, they moan.
Others question the inefficiency and unpreparedness of the Health Ministry when faced with the epidemic. Analysts say that the Health Ministry was the neglected child for years.Monies that should have gone to hospitals and medical facilities were drained from what should have been the Health Ministry's budget and given to favorite sons, settlements, ultra-orthodox day schools and yeshivot, roads to nowhere, who kept the coalition afloat.
Social Welfare budgets were also drained before they were even submitted. One jokester asked if the public remembered the song, "Where have all the flowers gone?...."Now says the jokester, the lyrics are "Where has all the money gone?"And who was the PM during these financial shenanigans?
"Need I say?" asks the jokester. "Well I will. It was Netanyahu.
Twenty years of neglect. And a microbe erases all the misdeeds.The microbe that now will end humanity. Go Figure."
Twenty years of neglect. And a microbe erases all the misdeeds.The microbe that now will end humanity. Go Figure."
