Corona’s back, a little
Israel has seen an uptick in COVID-19 cases. According to Ynet news, over 800 cases have been reported in the last week compared to only 300 cases in the two preceding weeks. However, most of the cases have been among school children and teachers. According to the Ministry of Health, 36 percent of those from 0 - 18 who tested positive were asymptomatic. These children attend school and unknowingly pass on the infection.
Schools reopened approximately two weeks ago, the normal incubation period of the virus is between 36- hours to two weeks, and experts say that we are now seeing the expected results of opening the schools. Israel also eased most restrictions on movement and gatherings, allowing the reopening of synagogues and permitting weddings up to 250 people, while stressing the necessity of masks, washing the hands, and social distancing. However, the beaches in Tel Aviv and the parks around the country filled up. Restaurants opened. Some hotels opened. Fewer and fewer people were seen observing the health regulations. “Tel Aviv?” said one person interviewed. “It’s as if there is no corona and never was. Life looks back to normal. No masks. No social distancing.”
The health ministry expected the results of the end of this lockdown to lead to an increase in infections.
But Israel’s economy was suffering from the lockdown. Nearly a million people were unemployed and collecting compensation. School closure meant parents had to stay home. Some critics asked what was worse, allowing the virus to run rampant and swallow the results, or watch the economy implode.
On an international level, the COVID-19 has had devastating effects with economists speculating about an outcome. The NYTimes said, for the USA, the virus caused a “rip in the fabric of the economy that won’t be mended easily.” According to that report, the USA entered a recession in February after 128 months of expansion. Israel’s economy fares no better.
Israel’s current policy to contain the virus has been to shut down isolated pockets of the virus, specific schools and to quarantine the students and staff. As of now over 130 schools have been shuttered and nearly 18,000 teachers and students put into quarantine. These numbers pale in comparison to other countries like the USA, Brazil and the UK. Or to the total shutdown 3-month Israel experienced.
As of now, in Israel, 18,049 cases have been reported with 298 deaths, and 23 patients on ventilators.
The number of cases has risen but the death rate has tapered off and the numbers on ventilators has steadily dropped from a high of well over a hundred. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein warned that without social distancing, hygiene and masks Israel could face another wave with 5,000 people on ventilators. Statistically, once on a ventilator, the fatality rate is over 80 percent.
The ministry of health says that many of the children were infected on public transport and then spread the virus to classmates and teachers. Ran Saar, head of the Maccabi HMO in Israel, told Galei Tzahal radio that most of the infected are not sick and are in the age group that won’t get sick, or at least not dangerously ill. He pointed out that the elderly are still at high risk. “But, I don’t see a new wave of COVID-19,” he said.
Meanwhile, Prof. Amit Shira of Bar Ilan University released a new study that showed that the elderly are not only at risk of the virus but of life-threatening depression. According to the study 14% of the elderly were experiencing extreme depression due to the extended shutdown. He said the elderly were suffering from lack of social contact in all its forms due to the lockdown. Prof. Shira said alternatives were needed to involve the elderly in society and few were available. Most of them were intimidated by Zoom and Skype and other social media.
Prof. Shira did not mention, at least on the radio, the Israeli start-up unipercare.com that was used to allow patients in isolation at Tel Hashomer hospital to communicate with their families. (Transparency: we have family working with Unipercare. That’s how we know about it at all.). Unipercare has also been used successful among the elderly in Israel and now in the USA among Holocaust Survivors and others in the Jewish community, and beyond.
Black Lives Matter. Israelis also participated in protests in sympathy with the George Floyd demonstrations held across America, and the world. Several thousand people gathered in Tel Aviv to protest discrimination. In Israel, the police have been criticized for using deadly force unnecessarily. Last week an autistic Israeli Arab was shot and killed when police thought he was brandishing a knife. A few weeks before, a mentally ill man was shot under similar circumstances. Police are being encouraged not to shoot to kill if possible.
However, in Israel,
deadly attacks on police are not uncommon. Experts say that nervous
police and army troops open fire when they feel their lives are in
danger, which they often are. Observers point out that hardly a week
goes by that an army check-post isn’t attacked by a man, or woman,
with a knife, or a policeman attacked, or a car used as a weapon to
ram a police barricade. In contrast, one observer pointed out the
Clint Eastwood film, “Unforgiven.” Eastwood as William Munny explains how he is so
deadly in a gunfight in a crowded saloon with a dozen people shooting
at him. Munny explained that most of the people were nervous,
frightened, firing wild, while he took his time and calmly dealt with
the situation. He also explained, “I was drunk most of the time.”
Not a prescription for Israel’s police and army. But something to consider.
The Black Lives Matter protests in Israel are not likely to become as prevalent and persistent as those now taking place in the USA, said one observer. The NYTimes wrote that “Other protests flare and fade. This movement (Black Lives Matter) seems different. Already the massive gatherings for racial justice across the country and now the world have achieved a scale and level of momentum not seen in decades.”
On the Israeli political front, a recent poll shows that Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud party would garner 40 Knesset seats if elections were held today, while his once rival now coalition partner Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz’s party would only get 12 seats. With those numbers, said the commentators, Netanyahu no longer needs Gantz to form a government. There is speculation that Netanyahu may do something to dissolve the coalition and call new elections. This while he is standing trial for three felonies. “You can’t make this stuff up,” said one observer.
Netanyahu may also be implicated in the ‘Submarine’ scandal. Case 4,000 involving kickbacks and bribes to the German Thyssenkrupp company over a $2 billion order. But Netanyahu is still intent on annexing up to 19 settlements in the West Bank on July 1, 2020, even though the USA has asked him to go slowly, and the EU and UN have advised against the annexation. The Palestinian Authority has cut off ties with Israel over the prospective move and Jordan has warned of a break in diplomatic relations.
To those living through this historic period, plagues, social unrest, political turmoil, an observer said,
“This reminds me of Einstein’s explanation of the theory of relativity. Sitting on a hot fire, a minute takes forever. Sitting next to Marilyn Monroe the minutes passes like a snap of the fingers.” Another added, “Living through history isn’t the same as reading about it in a book.”
