Bibi aide: Stop whining
Gov’t hit as out of it while virus rips Israel
JERUSALEM — With an unprecedented new surge in coronavirus cases battering Israel’s economy, one of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s closest confidants was dispatched to a TV studio recently to calm the nerves of a jittery nation. Instead, he dismissed expressions of some of the public’s economic pain as “BS.”
The flippant comment by cabinet minister Tzachi Hanegbi is symptomatic of what critics see as a bloated, out-of-touch government. It also has become a rallying cry for anti-Netanyahu protests spreading, like the virus, across the country.
One out-of-work Israeli erupted in anger during a live television interview, berating Netanyahu and warning the country is “going to burn” if aid is not given soon.
It is a dramatic turn of events for Netanyahu, who claimed credit and was widely praised for Israel’s successful management of the early stages of the crisis. Now his approval ratings are plummeting, and public health experts warn that Israel is close to being unable to cope.
Israel has recorded nearly 38,000 confirmed cases of the virus and over 350 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
At the start of the pandemic, Netanyahu moved quickly to close the country’s borders and impose strict measures to contain the virus. By May, Israel was among the first in the world to reopen its economy. Netanyahu boasted on TV that other countries were looking to Israel as a model.
But the exit strategy appears to have been bungled. Now facing a drastic surge in confirmed COVID-19 cases, the country has begun reimposing restrictions, such as limits on public gatherings. Critics warn the government waited too long to respond.
“The management of the corona crisis is a humiliating national failure, it is dangerous and without precedent,” opposition leader Yair Lapid said last week. “People are furious, and they are right to be furious.“
Two months ago, Netanyahu had sounded optimistic.
After three costly and inconclusive elections in just under a year, he had managed to convince his chief challenger, retired military chief Benny Gantz, to join him in an “emergency” government with a mandate to tackle the coronavirus. Despite steep criticism, they established the largest government in Israeli history, arguing that its 34 ministers — some with dubious job titles and responsibilities — were essential to provide stability in uncertain times.
By late May, as the number of infections subsided, the country triumphantly reopened. The new government got distracted by ambitious plans to annex parts of the West Bank in the face of international criticism.
“We want to make your lives easier, to allow you to go out and get some air, to go back to routine as much as possible, to drink a cup a coffee, and to have a beer as well. So, first of all, enjoy yourselves,” Netanyahu said at the time.
From just a handful of cases, contagion spread. Authorities now report record levels of more than 1,000 new cases a day, higher than any peak in the spring.
Experts charge that Israel let its guard down.
Ran Balicer, a professor of public health and member of the national epidemic management team, said Israel reopened too quickly and slammed the brakes too late.
“For weeks we have been seeing the illness spread in Israel at one of the fastest rates in the world,” he wrote in the Haaretz daily. “A large proportion of experts believe that the critical time for intervention, for
A violent vandal on a Brooklyn subway on Sunday took out his aggression on a pair of train car windows, the latest incident in what MTA officials consider to be an unsettling trend.
A man was witnessed kicking the windows on two doors at the ends of adjacent cars on a Q train as it approached the Atlantic Ave.-Barclays Center station just after 5 p.m.
The train was pulled from service due to the damage, and the vandal fled the scene. the ‘final braking point,’ is right before us. And the problem is that it is coming at a time when we don’t have enough effective tools to halt the spread of the illness.”
Israel, like other countries, is struggling to balance containing infections and protecting the economy. Unemployment shot up to more than 25% during the first surge and many jobs have yet to come back. Small businesses, the self-employed and particularly the dining, entertainment and tourism industries are warning that another largescale shutdown will be a death blow.
In the face of an angry electorate, Netanyahu’s support has tumbled. A poll on an Israeli television station found just 46% of respondents approved of Netanyahu’s job performance, down from 74% in May.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials last month reported a spree of smashed windows on the No. 7 line. Transit crews found 32 broken train car windows on the line between May 1 and June 28, a steep increase from the two smashed windows reported during the same period last year.
MTA officials worry the vandalism on the Q train Sunday may be the latest in a citywide trend of subway vandalism.