What now?

The COVID-19 cases in Israel has broken yet another record. Over 1,900 cases in a 24-hour period. Over 360 people have died so far and over 200 are in critical condition, nearly 60 on ventilators. The government is talking about reimposing a general lock down to quell the outbreak. So far nearly 45,000 Israelis have been infected. Three of Israel's largest hospitals have reported they are over capacity. Others reportedly are at 82 %. The government announced that no COVID-19 tests would be administered to those asymptomatic. While other countries have fared far worse in pure numbers, Israel's infection rate has become a problem. The blame is laid at the doorstep of the government. Critics say that the bloated cabinet cannot make decisions. And the decisions they do make are unclear to the general public.

An estimated 5,000 demonstrators gathered in front of the Prime Minister's residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem the other night calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Netanyahu. "Bibi Go Home" read some of the signs. Others "Crime Minister." As David Horowitz wrote in his opinion piece in the Times of Israel, the people have lost their trust in Israel's leadership to steer the country through this crises.

Israel's unemployment rate has risen to 21%, over 800,000 people. The media is rife with interviews of people who are in financial trouble. One of the channels had an interview with a women with five children who was being evicted. Another interview with a taxi driver in Eilat, a tourist destination with no tourists, who said the recent and late to arrive relief check he received from the government would leave him with @$40 to last for a month after paying rent, property tax, income tax, value added tax, and buying food for his family, if he could. Another interview with a guy running a small sandwich shop who had no business and had been fined twice, at $140 a pop, for stacking tables outside his restaurant. Horowitz called these fines "block-headed."

Social workers are on strike for better pay. Hospital workers are threatening a strike. Critics say while the country has a high unemployment, up fro 4% to the present 21%, Netanayhu was busy fighting with the finance committee. Not over the salaries for the social workers. Not over compensation to the unemployed, who had been promised 7,500 shekels (@$2,200) but had not received nearly that amount.
Netanyahu was fighting for a personal tax exemption of $270,000 which he received.

Some analysts say that the problem is that the Finance Ministry cannot accept the fact that under the present situation Israelis cannot afford food. One person interviewed said he had a friend with a family and an empty refrigerator. The critics say that bureaucrats have a nice salary and pension and are inured to the sufferings of the general public.

Amir Haskel, a former air force general and one of the organizers of the protest on Balfour street, said the protest was meant to coincide with the storming of the Bastille in Paris in 1789. He wrote, in his twitter account, that "231 years ago the French revolution broke out with the motto 'Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. We see to add to that 'morality and justice."

Carrying torches protestors stormed the barricades. The protest turned violent. Police and protesters clashed. Water canons appeared. 50 protesters were arrested, most were later released and three were put on house arrest. One protester was 88 years old. An old Palmach fighter who had been a hero of the war of liberation in 1948. He told Razi Barkai on Galei Tzahal army radio that his daughter drove him to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv to protest. "This is not the country I fought for," he said.

In an apparent response to the protest, the first violent anti-government protest Israel has seen in decades, Netanyahu appeared on TV last night with what was, according to critics, a panacea to the protesters. He promised a stipend to every taxpaying citizen of @$220. Appeasement, said his critics. Paying rich and poor, said another. He encountered resistance from the Finance Ministry who wondered where the 6 billion shekels would come from. Others wondered why a more reasoned approach wasn't taken, using the Bituach Leuimi (Israel's social security administration) and the income tax authority's data bases, and provide money only to those in need and not to those who didn't need. Bibi, said one pundit, was running scared.

Netanyahu said, in response to the critics, that he'd been a Finance Minister, and made the economy a success. He was in touch with leading economists on how to handle the current crises and he would succeed. Coincidentally, Stanley Fisher, former Governor of the Bank of Israel, now assistant head of the Federal Reserve, was in Israel last week. Some speculate if Fisher wasn't called in to advise Netanyahu, and if so, what his advise was, and if Netanyahu followed it.

Another criticism of the government is that a COVID-19 administrator was to have been appointed to manage the crises but so far no one has. Commentators say the reason is those asked to take the job, two former generals, said they would not be autonomous but would be forced to be subservient to the Ministry of Health, a body, most agree has been less than successful managing the crises. Most agree that Netanayhu has been the de facto administrator of the fight against the pandemic. And while his early moves were successful, the second wave has found him wanting. A Channel 13 poll said that 68% of the public thought he was doing a bad job facing the pandemic.

Israel's National Security Council head Meir Ben Shabbat said, "The disease is spreading rapidly. An increased critical ill rate threatens the health system's capacity." He said that "additional manpower is needed immediately." He said that the Finance Ministry should approve emergency payments to the hospitals for more staff and equipment, since both are in critically short supply.

Izhar Shay, Science and Technology Minister, had a way out of a complete lock down. Earlier in the day his chief science advisor Prof. Schwartz had been on Israel Radio's Reshet Bet with a plan. Let people go to work. But they would be in lock down from seven at night until they went to work the next day. But, have a complete lock down over the weekend. Shay apparently took Schwatz's advice and presented this plan to the Corona Cabinet. The plan was not received enthusiastically, however, an emergency cabinet meeting was called on Thursday. There, the ministers agreed to impose a full national lock down on the population during weekends, shutter kindergartens, close restaurants (except for takeout and deliveries), limit indoor gatherings to 10 people and take a number of additional steps in an effort to halt spiraling corona virus infections, according to Hebrew media reports.

Netanyahu, in a TV appearance the other night, admitted he'd made mistakes. That opening up the country too early had caused the current wave of infections. Swimming pools were opened, at first only in hotels and then also the municipal pools. Gyms were reopened. Bars and restaurants but limited to only 20 people indoors. The new regulations will close the gyms, again, and the bars, again, and the pools, again, in hopes of reining in the virus. The economic impact will be harsh. Those establishments that are closed are still liable to pay rent, taxes, and employees, even a skeleton staff. The government's promise of relief came, according to critics,  too little and too late.

Former Army Chief of Staff now Defense Minister Benny Gantz, leader of the Blue and White party, has called on the government to turn the management of the war on the virus over to the army. "That's what the army does, fight wars," he said in a TV appearance. Pundits say that politics would stop that idea dead in its tracks. Netanyahu would not turn management of the war over to Gantz, his alternate prime minister, nor would he turn it over to an administrator. Netanyahu will hold the reins himself. For good or bad.

Until he can't, say analysts. The protesters claimed Netanyahu was not invested by the people to serve since he was under indictment for three felonies. He shouldn't have been allowed to run, said one protester. He should have resigned, said another. He doesn't have the right to be prime minister, said another. But he is. And then there's his trial. The pandemic and the economy have diverted the public's attention from his trial. The US administration, said the media reports, was not interested is supporting Netanyahu's plans for annexation "at this time." So that card too has been put back in the deck.  One radio commentator reminded the public that there was still a fourth case hovering over Netanyahu's head: Case 4,000. The $2 billion submarine purchase deal where Netanyahu's cousin, also his personal attorney, and another former general, are facing an indictment for taking kickbacks worth tens of millions of dollars from the German submarine manufacturer ThyssenKrup . The commentator speculated that this case, too, would eventually engulf Netanyahu as well.

The protest organizers have promised another demonstration. How many can the government survive before it becomes clear that a change is necessary. What that change is, who knows? Perhaps Netanyahu will turn his office over to Gantz, the alternate Prime Minister. In the mean time, most of the pundits ask the same question: "What Now?" But no one but Netanyahu seems to have the answer.