For the past several weeks, senior health officials have been sounding the alarm over the government's conduct; they have lamented its lack of decisiveness.
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"The government has not done a thing," one professor said. He warned that "if the government fails to act, the spread of the delta variant could become enormous."
Various other senior officials and medical staff have been criticizing the government's lack of direction, but the ministers have time and again just kicked the can down the road by putting off a decision on reinstating the life-saving coronavirus restrictions. This could have deadly consequences.
Not long ago, the man who now sits at the helm – Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – came out with a book called "How to beat a pandemic." In that book, he leveled harsh criticism over his predecessor Benjamin Netanyahu, when he was still in office, because of what he considered Draconian measures, even though those very steps made Israel a role model for how a country could overcome this contagion and recover.
So what's going on? Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton has issued new directives ahead of the new school year, only to be lampooned by health officials who said they are riddled with shortcomings that "still have to be resolved."
Yes, this same education minister tried to make sure gyms would remain open during the height of the pandemic and has even clashed with health experts on live television.
And there is also Eli Avidar, a newly appointed minister who until recently was all but an anti-vaxxer and even appeared alongside such groups in protests. He considers the private individual's rights to be more important than national responsibility, and many on the Left are like him, including those who refuse to get vaccinated on ideological or anti-establishment grounds.
They are a well-organized group that has spread their deep disdain for healthcare regulations. They have shown their strength at the height of Tisha B'Av when they staged massive protests in Tel Aviv to resist new restrictions.
They marched to Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz's home and reminded him that they are his voters and demanded that he torpedo the government's new restrictions through his powers. They have every right to protest, but the government ministers have no right to forsake Israelis' personal security and disregard the professional advice of experts just because of political pressure.
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