In private discussions on Thursday night, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett expressed his objection to continuing the nationwide lockdown due to the coronavirus, which he said prevents people from going to work and extensively harms businesses.
Bennett also said he wants to increase testing for the virus, which he claims is severely lacking. Due to the shortage, according to the defense minister, people returning from abroad are still not being tested and responsibility for the task should be transferred to the IDF.
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In Bennett's estimation, "The delay to the testing mechanism necessitates policies of sweeping quarantines that are causing immense damage to the Israeli economy and the livelihoods of millions of workers and business owners in the private sector. We need to transition from broad policies to pinpoint policies. Overall responsibility for the testing apparatus must be transferred immediately to the IDF and Defense Ministry.
"This is the only way to quickly jumpstart the rate of testing, the rate of analysis and rate of their precision. Without this we won't be able to release Israel from the comprehensive general lockdown which is devastating for the future of Israel, without risking revivifying the pandemic."
Bennett also lambasted the Health Ministry, which he said was "rooted in an ideology that doesn't believe in centralizing the testing as a means of exiting the crisis. The Health Ministry doesn't particularly believe in the importance of the tests (a golden calf in their words), and as a primarily regulatory body, it isn't built for quickly establishing an effective mechanism for testing in times of emergency.
The lack of belief in the importance of the tests is akin to a brigade commander refusing to receive intelligence on enemy deployments before an operation. The current weakness of the testing array prevents the Health Ministry from testing the elderly in nursing homes, people returning from abroad, and in general people with high fevers and coughs or relatives of carriers, who still aren't being tested, and therefore also aren't sent to the quarantine hotels."
An official close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded harshly to Bennett's comments.
"In a state of emergency, a government minister is expected to behave responsibly and hold discussions in professional forums within the government and not the media. The prime minister, who is managing the fight against the coronavirus in the best and most responsible manner together with experts in Israel and abroad, is letting all the ministers express their opinions on the matter to the fullest in government discussions.
"It would be appropriate for the defense minister to tend to the tasks given to him by the prime minister, which still haven't been carried out, instead of constantly using the media to attack the prime minister and the government of which he is a part," he official said.
On Wednesday night, which marked the beginning of the Passover holiday, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj. Gen. Eyal Zamir also addressed the matter of responsibility for the testing mechanism.
"It is an extremely complex process; from the moment a civilian is tested in his home or in one of the drive-through testing facilities, to the moment the test passes through the chain and comes back with a clear answer," Zamir said. "Our special operations branch is working to stabilize this [process], and I believe that if we assume responsibility we'll be able to reach the objective stated by the prime minister: 30,000 tests per day."
Zamir clarified that his intention was not to replace Magen David Adom (Israel's national emergency response organization) or the civilian labs, which he said were doing "excellent work." His focus, he said, was mainly on two endeavors: creating a unified system and database to expedite a wide scope of testing; and utilizing the IDF's logistical apparatus to quickly transport tests to the labs. "In these areas we have an advantage, and we want to use it," he said.
In response to Zamir's comments, meanwhile, Health Ministry Director Moshe Bar Siman-Tov told Channel 12 News on Thursday night: "I don't know one person in the IDF who is familiar with the details, with an emphasis on familiar with the details, who says the IDF can carry out more tests than what we are doing."
According to Bar Siman-Tov, the global shortage of the materials needed to perform the tests was behind the delay in increasing the number of tests in Israel.
"We are using the Mossad, Sayeret Matkal and all the possible bodies in an effort to find these materials. We are working hand in hand with the IDF on the matter," he said.
