On Sunday, Israel eased some restrictions from the lockdown imposed a month ago after infection rates hit nearly 9,000 over a 24 hour period, a rate of 15% Covid-19 positive test results. However, with the lockdown, the infection rate has fallen precipitously to less than a 5% positive infection rate.
Israel now has 302,832 people infected with Covid-19, that’s 32,925 per million, with 2,190 deaths, or 238 per million. The USA, by comparison, has 8,342,665 infected, or 25,160 per million, with 224,282 deaths at 676 per million.
Israel’s pre-schools and kindergartens have reopened. Travel restrictions for only up to 1 kilometer from home have been lifted entirely. Airports have also reopened. Also, the restriction against having guests in your home, or in synagogues, have been removed, but still limited to ten indoors and 20 outdoors. Restaurants are still closed but carry out is now permitted, not only deliveries. However, most schools have remained closed with classes only on Zoom. The government’s Covid-19 Czar Ronni Gamzu said on TV last night that people still had to remain vigilant, wear masks, keep social distance, and observe proper hygiene.
Razi Barkai, on his Galei Tzahal army radio show, criticized Prof. Arnon Afeck, who is on the government Covid-19 committee, for caving into political pressure by Haredi parties by allowing pre-schools and kindergartens to also open in the “hot” spots, or Red zones.
While most Haredi rabbis have come out in favor of the health ministry restrictions, including the closing of schools, yeshivot and limiting synagogue attendance, Rav Chaim Kanievsky, the 92 year old leader of the non-Hassidic “Litai” Ashkenazi community, told his followers to send their children to school in direct contravention to the government guidelines. According to Channel 12 TV news, the rabbi said that he’d asked for a date when the yeshiva students could return to study and received no reply so he acted on his own. This move set off a tidal wave of commentary across the media. Rav Kanievsky also ignored PM Netanyahu who warned him not to open the Haredi schools. Hundreds of ultra-Orthodox elementary schools with tens of thousands of students opened Sunday morning in open defiance of government restrictions. According to the Times of Israel, several politicians, including two government ministers, called for any institution that flouted the rules to lose its public funding.
Afeck said that Rabbi Kanievsky has called on his students to observe the regulations when they return to school. Sari Rot, of Modiin Elite, told Barkai that families live 12 to 13 persons in an apartment and when they’re locked in they spread the virus among themselves even if they observe the health regulations.
Some Haredi yeshiva students interviewed thought they had achieved a ‘herd immunity’ rate since most of the students had been infected and were thus immune. But Razi Barkai asked on Israel Army radio’s Galei Tzhal, what happens when these students go home on the weekends, or to visit their families, or hang out in town drinking coffee, as they are wont to do. Or just to go to the local grocery store for supplies or cigarettes? They spread the virus. On that topic, Haaretz thought “Netanyahu caved to the ultra-orthodox paving the way for a third lockdown.”
A lengthy article in Haaretz contained interviews with 16 leading Israeli physicians and hospital heads. The conclusions were, 1.) We have to learn to live with Covid-19. It will be with us for a least a year. 2.) On a scale of 1 – 10 where was Covid-19? Most said around 4. 3.) All thought a lockdown was a mistake. “And the policy for dealing with it is fundamentally wrong.” Prof. Asher Alhayani, former CEO of Meuhedet HMO said, “Even before the first lockdown, I said, ‘Friends, it won’t help, more people will die from the lockdown than from the coronavirus.” He said it helped at first but “the virus is here, and we have no idea when a vaccine will arrive.” He said poverty caused by the lockdown also kills. And creates heightened anxiety. And that every time the lockdown is lifted the numbers of infected skyrocket. He stressed a logical and practical approach.
Almost all those interviewed thought that politics were now determining how the pandemic was fought. Dr. Ariella Levkovich, and infectious disease specialist said, “...the decision makers’ behavior is characterized by cowardice and a lack of creativity. You can’t force nine million people to be locked in their homes like dogs in a kennel.” She thought that if the Haredi community was trying to achieve ‘herd immunity’ than they should be separated from the rest of the general population while this experiment goes on.
Dr. Shmuel Rochberger, specialist in internal medicine said, “What most worried me has been the unanimous agreement. The senior Health Ministry staff all spoke in the same voice. Today, I understand that the person setting policy and silencing every other voice is the prime minister. He’s not allowing any dialogue, and I say that with pain. I supported Netanyahu. I persuaded others to vote for him. Today, I am deeply ashamed of that.” Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, director, Ben-Gurion University School of Public Health, Beer Sheva, said, “The lockdown is an admission of failure. Prof. Gamzu has said so explicitly. It was a political decision.” Davidovitch said, “It’s time we found a way to live with the virus. If we follow the rules, avoid gatherings and adjust our activities wisely and effectively, by moving some of them into the open air for example, we will be able to reduce infection dramatically.” Dr. Gili Ofer-Bialer, of Maccabi HMO said, “Reality shows that this is a disease we’re going to have to live with.”
The restrictions on protests was also lifted. Saturday night saw thousands gathered outside Prime Minister Netanyahu’s residence, and tens of thousands protesting around the country, calling for the prime minister to step down. One unsubstantiated statistic put the number at over 200,000 nationwide.
A number of protesters were arrested. Some of the protesters were hit with pepper spray, bottles and eggs. According to the media, since the protests began months ago only one counter-protester has been arrested, while scores of anti-Netanyahu protestors have been arrested and issued fines. Netanyahu has been indicted on three felonies.
Amos Gilad, former head of Israel’s military intelligence, thought that Netanyahu should also be investigated for involvement in the $3.2 billion submarine affair. Gilad said he was personally informed of the purchase of the submarines without the necessary three bids required by law. The purchase was made, anyway, without bids, and the contract was awarded to the German ThyssenKrupp AG company. Two of those involved in the purchase, both close to Netanyahu, have been indicted for bribery and receiving kickbacks. “These things don’t happen without the commander knowing what’s going on,” said Gilad. He thought a police investigation, not one run by the defense ministry, should be opened into Netanyahu’s part in the affair. He worried that some in the defense ministry may have been involved in the scandal and would try to cover up the facts.
Critics say that Netanyahu’s attacks on the legal system and protests against him, coupled with the destabilizing effects of the virus, are major causes for deep polarizing atmosphere that has settled over Israel and fear the violence may yet turn deadly. Netanyahu’s popularity is slipping quickly. One protester outside Balfour street said he was a liberal, but would even vote for the right-wing Yamina party’s Neftali Bennett if that would mean Netanyahu was out of office. “As long as we get someone honest, I don’t care who it is.”
In the USA, Rupert Murdoch of the Fox News empire, has said that President Trump would lose the election because of the way he handled the Covid-19 pandemic. In Israel, Netanyahu’s handling of the pandemic has cost him support even among those who once voted for him. Pundits wonder if both Netanyahu and Trump are looking at their last days in power. But pundits have been wrong before.
