It was a week that the government was happy to delete.
For the first time since its establishment, senior officials, from Prime Minister Bennett, through the alternate Lapid and Finance Minister Lieberman to Interior Minister Shaked, find themselves under widespread public attack on how they conduct themselves on the most central issue that should be on their agenda.
The current government is being examined differently from its predecessors.
When Netanyahu and his ministers tried to deal with a new global epidemic, with very little information about it and no medical ways such as vaccines or drugs to overcome it, the group now running affairs from the sidelines did not stop criticizing and presenting the government and leading it as a resounding failure.
Now that they are in power, it turns out that there was no cover for the criticism or scholarly advice that was scattered everywhere.
Bennett and senior government officials are right when they claim that the seeds of the catastrophe for the current outbreak were buried in Netanyahu's days as prime minister, and that they were not the ones who introduced the Variant Delta at the gates of Israel.
But as those who then pretended to understand the epidemic, the ways it was conducted and spread, and even more so its treatment, it did not really matter.
This week it became clear that as in many other areas, this is an amateur group that has no idea how to navigate the giant ship.
The frighteningly climbing numbers attest to this most of all.
Most of the arrows were absorbed this week, mainly by Ayelet Shaked, after she said that the government's policy is to contain the seriously ill and the dead. An unfortunate remark, which Shaked also withdrew from her and apologized. There are things that are not said even if the reality is clear to everyone. In every military campaign, human life is at stake, whether soldiers or civilians. Not every civilian killed in a terrorist attack goes to war. What is it if not the death of the bride? But there is a difference between doing something, or avoiding doing something, and declaring it out loud.
The policy behind Shaked's remarks, assuming that this is the government's policy, is that the strategy of getting out of the crisis goes through vaccinating the population. First and second vaccine for those who have not yet done so, and third for everyone else. No closures, no purple characters and no restrictions. Vaccines - a lot and fast. After the third vaccination campaign began at older ages, soon even vaccinated people at the age of 40 will be able to get the impulse shot, and later also at younger ages.
In other words, the current government is pursuing the exact same policy, but exactly what its predecessor did, from the moment vaccines were invented. The difference is that Netanyahu had to invent the wheel and make excuses and incentives to persuade the giant pharmaceutical company to send its containers to the small country in the Middle East, while Bennett got everything ready. The drugs have already been purchased and are ready for distribution.
Bennett's people boast that the current government is the first in the world to distribute the third vaccine, even before the US Drug Administration approves it.
This is true.
But here, too, it is a direct continuation of the same path that Netanyahu stepped on earlier.
After most of the Israeli population was vaccinated in the first and second doses, Netanyahu insisted on purchasing more than 6 million vaccines, saying even then that a periodic vaccination would most likely be needed to keep the antibody level effective over time.
The budget is not a political vaccine
Not many then understood the need he was talking about.
The extent of morbidity in Israel fell during that period and stood at almost zero.
Even the then deputy prime minister, Bnei Gantz, did not understand the need and stopped the purchase of vaccines.
Already a month ago, Netanyahu announced that the population should be vaccinated quickly with the third vaccine and blamed the government for leaving the millions of vials in warehouses in Europe.
So the operation of the third course started first in the world, but a month late. Like anything to do with managing the corona crisis in the current government. Bennett has announced his desire to add beds in medical centers to increase the capacity of corona wards. But until now, no shekel has been transferred to hospital administrators for this purpose. Nor to the education system. Currently, the education system is supposed to open up without any special budgeting for capsules, distance learning or condensing educational staffs. In the state budget, which has already been approved by the government, there is no expression of the corona crisis. The Ministry of Finance has already announced that they will not repeat the outline plan if a closure is decided, but they have also not prepared any alternative outline for those who may find themselves at home without a job.
The translation of the crisis into the political system will be immediate. If until now it was clear that if the budget passes a final reading in November, the government will be able to last for many more months, then such an assessment, even among senior coalition officials, is cracking. If the mistrust between the government and its elected officials deepens, it will collapse into itself even after the budget is approved.
This mistrust is well felt and is beginning to seep in right now, despite the shroud of media protection surrounding the government.
When Bennett calls on the public to refrain from flying abroad and at Ben Gurion Airport congestion records are broken, this is just a small example.
A more significant event is the absence of senior ministers Yair Lapid and Avigdor Lieberman from the corona cabinet discussions.
The magnitude of the opacity transmitted by their reactions when caught in their perversion cannot be described;
The most significant event that takes place in the State of Israel on their shift, and even earlier.
A rolling event that topples spaces, destroys the economy and leaves masses without a livelihood, without their deceased loved ones, with psychological difficulties for them and educational for their children.
And they do not find it appropriate to give a shoulder and shoot them for what was supposed to be the task of their lives right now.
Reida Rinawi Zoabi // Photo: Oren Ben Hakon,
Were silenced
Ayelet Shaked fell in the interview, but it happened because she was interviewed. Everything else - Lapid, Saar, Lieberman, and even Health Minister Horowitz - simply disappeared. The government is embarking on a vaccination campaign that requires the cooperation of the public, but whoever pretends to lead it has simply chosen to evaporate. This is not just opposition criticism. This criticism is also well heard in the corridors of power; Senior ministers who see what is happening at the top of their government and want to pull hairs out of desperation. How can party leaders evade what should be their main task at this time, they ask.
Torch, they say, has hundreds of thousands of followers on Twitter and Facebook. How is it possible that in a week like this he posted countless posts about visiting Morocco, the Olympics and even one in which he attacked Smutrich, but not a single post devoted to the call to get vaccinated? And where is the Minister of Health? After all, Yuli Edelstein, they claim, was interviewed almost every day. The public has questions.
Leaders need to stand at the forefront. But almost everyone prefers to run away, lest failure catch up with them.
Gideon Saar, for example. Tens of thousands supported him, he sang in the government, did anyone hear him talk about the corona? Whoever wanted to be prime minister does not utter a single word about the worst crisis in the country? As stated, these are not words heard from the Likud or the ultra-Orthodox factions, but from sources in the government. If the crisis worsens, it seems to be just the beginning.
Ophir Akunis of the opposition expressed the situation well when he called the government's policy a "default".
He was in no hurry to align with the Ministry of Health when he was a minister in the government.
More than once I challenged them, asked tough questions and demanded that they present the ministers with the full picture before making a decision.
In one case, he even received a remark from Netanyahu, who called on him during one of the cabinet meetings to moderate his remarks.
According to Akonis, "The words of senior Ministry of Health officials must not be accepted as written or worded. However, there must be some involvement, or at least interest in what is happening in the huge crisis plaguing Israel. A guiding hand. Everything is late, a little and irrelevant. "
Stability before security?
A new and fairly anonymous MK also managed to drive the political system crazy with an unfortunate statement that probably hides an even more unfortunate reality. Riida Rinawi Zoabi claimed in an interview with the news "here" in Arabic, that the government did not respond this week Hezbollah firing on Israel's border settlements due to the residency of REM and Meretz coalition. She also noted that if Netanyahu was prime minister today, the response was harsh opinion much.
Government Both Bennett and others were quick to deny. They argued that the government never makes political considerations when it comes to national security. It is quite reminiscent of Netanyahu's claims that there are no foreign considerations related to his criminal law. This time, the foreign considerations do not concern one form of reform or another in the judicial system, but the security of the residents of Israel.
The thought that political stability dictates security policy is disturbing.
From a sleeping apartment.
It has always been troubling, since the government was formed that relies on the prime minister and desperately needs a joint list to pass the budget. Not only Netanyahu, Begin or Sharon, but also Rabin, Peres and Ben-Gurion.
And the media, as usual, is silent.
Does not indicate for the most part, as usual, the dangerous absurdity.
Does not emphasize that Hezbollah, against which Israel went to total war only 15 years ago, has once again raised its head, violated Israeli sovereignty on the northern border, and the Israeli government is sleeping on its nose.
It is true that not every shot is responded to.
Crowds of travelers in the north and aspiration for a routine life are also a consideration.
But the thought that perhaps this time comes into further consideration, requires thorough clarification and incandescence.
Against dragging feet
The fact that a government was formed in Israel has returned social activists and various agenda promoters to activity after two years of stagnation.
Seven years ago, Rabbi Shai Firon, who was the Minister of Education, and Yair Lapid, the then Minister of Finance, established the ultra-Orthodox state current.
Its establishment stemmed from a constraint - an order from the High Court that before harming ultra-Orthodox institutions, an alternative must be established on behalf of the state. However, it soon became clear that the educational product was in great demand.
Today, tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox children study in state-ultra-Orthodox institutions, where they also study at the LIBA. The establishment of even one such institution, and in all cases the founders of those schools were the parents.
"The fact that there are no ultra-Orthodox in the coalition can serve as a fertile ground for success. The government should raise this flag, which may lead to the integration of many ultra-Orthodox in the employment market. For some reason both the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Finance do not lead.
She says that "the success of the state-ultra-Orthodox institutions will stop the decline in ultra-Orthodox dropouts from academic studies, and this is in the clear interest of the state."