The appointment of the ambassador to the United States, the pressure for an invitation from Biden, the vaccine fiasco, the disappearing ministers, the inclusion of the dead and a voluntary closure: two months for the change government, and it is already clear that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett did not enjoy it. .
1) When Levant has something to tell us but is afraid of criticism, he releases a message shortly before Shabbat.
That way he can be slowed down in his home, and be quiet that at least from the religious and traditional right he will not get too big on them.
For Bennett, timing is the message.
And here, we were informed on Saturday evening of the appointment of Mike Herzog, the president's brother, to the position of Israeli ambassador to the United States.
"Mike is the right person at the right time," Bennett tweeted about him in the appointment announcement, even though he's not really the man he dreamed of.
Bennett desperately wanted to be represented in Washington by a figure more identified with the national camp, such as our former ambassador to the UN, Ron Proshour, or at least someone who was not painted in too bright left-wing shades. Next, he needs someone to easily run with to plan and execute the political moves already in the pipeline.
Mike Herzog, Dudi Vaknin
At one point, Bennett agreed to compromise on half-and-half: he would appoint someone on his behalf by the time of the rotation - for a partial and lame tenure - and Lapid would in turn be free to appoint whoever he wished.
Lapid was not prepared to consider this either.
Levant was left with no choice, for the simple reason that he knowingly waived the right to determine the identity of Israel's ambassador to the UN himself as part of the agreements with Lapid. .
2. Lapid will therefore be free to cook with the help of his ambassador and his confidant political moves over the Prime Minister's head, and Bennett will remain without any political influence even after the rotation: Evidence not only of Bennett's marginal weight within the government, but also of his low political and international status. Bennett is not counted. Biden in the White House, and it is highly desirable that this happens by the end of the month. According to a report in IDF waves, Bennett refused Lapid's offer to help coordinate the meeting.
He also understands the significance of a foreign minister proposing to help the prime minister arrange a meeting with the president of the United States.
The humiliation in the body of the proposal.
U.S. President Joe Biden, API
"Come on, Netanyahu, let Levant replace you as prime minister for two months to take care of Corona," Matan Kahana tweeted a little less than a year ago with the arrogance typical of "right-wingers." Wanted and received: Exactly two months from the date of the formation of the government, and the administrative catastrophe is clear. The partners who came to work leave him alone: Saar, Elkin, Michaeli, Abbas - they are the Teflon of the Delta Wave. It does not concern them. Lieberman and Lapid do not come to the cabinet discussions so as not to be identified with the omissions. The man who boasted that he could eliminate the corona within five weeks, who devised the "Zero Infection" program, which published a book on "how to defeat an epidemic" - had to face humiliated eyes in front of Israeli citizens and promise at most "gain time". "Informing" Israeli citizens about additional budgets and standards for hospitals - without necessarily having manpower or rooms available for new beds - is kind of like telling fighters in the middle of a battle: "Calm down, convoy of supplies on the way." This is not in line, this is abandonment.
The word "victory" disappeared from Bennett's short speech on Wednesday, and along with it also disappeared the simple word: "vaccines."
And the reason?
There are not enough of them in the country today.
A third booster dose is urgently needed for the entire population, but Bennett hints to the 50s that they will not build on it, and the medical staffs do not have vaccines either.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (Archive), Oren Ben Hakon
The warehouses are empty, the shortcomings are great.
When talking to government officials, they pull time with relatively small numbers, several hundred thousand vaccines that may have been ordered and may arrive "in the near future."
To think that a little over two months ago Israel was on the verge of an agreement that could guarantee it tens of millions of vaccines for the coming period.
Bnei Gantz and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit believed from their arguments that there was a prevention. Naftali Bennett thought they would not be effective enough in any case. The history of the shortage and failure.
4. In the "Holy Grail" of Monty Peyton, there is a scene where people walk around from corpses in a plague-stricken city, and call out to the residents: "Get your mates out!".
I was reminded of this grave indifference to mass death when I listened to Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked in an interview on News 13, in which she explained that the government had decided to "live alongside the corona," even if it means "to keep the sick in a difficult situation and contain the dead."
They will contain the dead, and you, the citizens of Israel, have prepared the dead, because the Israeli government has given up the fight: it has given up zero contagion, given up "we can in five weeks take down all this business."
She even gave up the tweezers, for those who remember.
We are no longer an island country.
Minister of the Interior Ayelet Shaked, April 2021, Oren Ben Hakon
5. This is not a mouthful;
This is a conscious policy, and we should address it: the Israeli government, which is unable to bring enough vaccines, is unable to declare a closure, if and when necessary.
Because closure means an admission of total and disgraceful failure, and it is not certain that those who bragged in the first act are able to bear the humiliation in the third act.
But the deep reason is that the immediate closure means a coalition crisis, because its price is estimated at NIS 2.5 billion per day.
Now calculate for yourself how much a closure will cost that will last about a month.
If the amount you received came out close to what was promised, for example, to Mansour Abbas, the real caliphate of the caliphate government, you already understand the meaning: the budget is falling.
Checkpoint in one of the previous closures (archive), Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
But at the current rate of infection and morbidity, a closure will still be, because people will understand for themselves that it is a man to his own soul, and it is better to close at home.
Workers will make a bridge until the end of the holidays, parents will prefer to wait with the frames for children until after Sukkot, adults will not leave the house.
It will be a popular closure.
You could call it a "voluntary closure" or a "voluntary closure," but the government will not be there for you.
We will not receive challah, no compensation, no grants. Because officially - there is no closure. The demand for the return of grants will also not be left to you. Medically, not organizationally, not financially.
Take care of yourself, because the change government only keeps to itself, and its historic right to be photographed as a souvenir with Biden at the White House so that it can be shown to grandchildren who have enjoyed it a bit anyway.