Tight closure - or mass disaster: Surrender to populism left Israel with two bad choices Israel today

A press of political and sectoral pressure, accompanied by heavy media and public pressure, led to a promiscuous exit from the first blockade - and turned the second blockade into Swiss cheese • The government, the Ministry of Health and Prof. Gamzo have one last chance to recover

Israel is still among the countries where the corona epidemic is spreading at the fastest and most alarming rate in the world, and as expected, there is also a steady and continuous increase in the number of patients in critical condition every day.

The police are working to comply with the instructions in the Ramat Viznich neighborhood in Haifa // Photo courtesy of the police spokeswoman

There is no longer any doubt that Israel is in a state of health emergency, and that the corona is hitting us very hard non-stop, and the morbidity figures are only growing.

Until now, all the actions of the corona commissioner, Prof. Roni Gamzo, with all his good intentions and despite his statements, have not been helpful in any reduction in the morbidity and spread of the epidemic in Israel.

This, after the government made a bitter mistake when it smashed to pieces Gamzo's demand to close only in red cities, and thus also the chance of Israel not to enter a national and general closure.

The government's decision to impose a closure on Israel during the Tishrei holiday period was made, among other things, after the directors of the country's major hospitals warned the government and the prime minister that without immediate drastic measures, Israel could reach a catastrophic situation as in the first wave in Italy, Spain and New York.

The heads of the Ministry of Health also recommended a full closure without compromises and without handshakes throughout the country, following which a government decision was made that adopted their position. 

However, following a series of political and sectoral pressures and media and public pressure, some of which were really irresponsible and unburdened, the government and the Ministry of Health began to disintegrate and perforate the closure, such as approving prayers in synagogues and continuing activities in private workplaces.

It is a series of reckless and hasty decisions in which the heads of the Ministry of Health and the government surrendered, which led to a breakthrough in the strength of the closure, the public's trust and a willingness to comply with the already severe restrictions of the Corona. 

Whereas the day after Rosh Hashanah and even before Yom Kippur, it is necessary to make an urgent mental calculation and tighten the closure provisions, in order to try and increase the chance that Israel can be saved from the continued meteoric rise in coronary heart disease and mortality.

This step should also, unfortunately, include a total ban on prayers inside synagogues, a ban or almost complete reduction of non-essential jobs, and much increased enforcement on the implementation of restrictions, including the new restrictions on how to hold demonstrations (but not anyway Prohibition on demonstrations, a ban that has not been applied since the outbreak of the plague).

From the dawn of history dealing with a new epidemic that has no cure and vaccine is as public, social and political as it is medical and health.

The ability to deal with the epidemic always depends on the full trust of the public in the decision makers, full transparency of the information about the epidemic and fair decisions that take into account the protection of public health, but also the protection of livelihood, society, mental health and democracy.

And in these tests even today, for more than half a year since the outbreak of the plague in Israel, the heads of the Ministry of Health and the government have repeatedly failed, and the public's trust is only cracking.

If the management of the Ministry of Health and Prof. Gamzo do not recover and show leadership and determination, they may completely lose control of the spread of the corona in Israel and there may be a terrible health, social and economic chaos that has not been here since the establishment of the state.

And this may have been a cry for generations.