In the past few days, debates and arguments in the polarized Israeli society about each sector's responsibility for spreading coronavirus have only grown worse.
It seems as if every part of the Israeli societal mosaic – Haredim, Arabs, secularists – are busy blaming each other for violating public health regulations and turning Israel into one of the countries seeing the fastest spread of COVID in the world. Each one of the various sectors is unable at looking at the own minorities among themselves that violently flout the lifesaving rules of the battle against coronavirus. Every day, we are seeing the number of patients in serious condition, patients on ventilators, and fatalities go up. We in Israel are at ground zero, and there is no doubt that Israel is in the midst of a public health emergency. Now is the time to avoid party politicking, schisms, and to overcome the serious disputes among ourselves. This is the time to stop setting ourselves up to fail and finding others – only others – to blame for the outbreak merely because they aren't us and aren't like us. The virus, after all, doesn't distinguish between secular and Haredi Israelis, between Right and Left. It attacks and kills everyone.
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Israel is now in a war for public health, much like a security emergency. The government needs to demonstrate the courage and determination that have been lacking in the past few weeks and announce that it is tightening restrictions significantly. This will reduce the rapid spread of the virus. We must all show the unity, brotherhood, and partnership that we Israelis are able to summon up in other kinds of emergencies. That is the only way to cut down on the number of new cases and succeed by international standards, as we did in the first wave.
The government's decision to declare a lockdown throughout the High Holidays was made after directors of the biggest hospitals in Israel warned the government and the prime minister that if drastic steps were not taken, Israel could find itself in a catastrophic situation, similar to what happened in Italy, Spain, and New York during the first wave. Top Health Ministry officials also recommended a full lockdown, without compromises or exemptions, nationwide. At first, the government adopted the health officials' recommendation. But then, due to political pressure from various directions, including the public and the media, the government and the Health Ministry punched hole after hole in the lockdown. Thus, they once again damaged the public's faith and willingness to follow difficult rules.
Four days before Yom Kippur, we must look inward as a nation and issue much stricter regulations in an attempt to give Israel more of a chance of avoiding a meteoric rise in infection, confirmed cases, and deaths. Sadly, that requires that we ban prayers inside synagogues, reduce nearly all on-site presence at non-essential workplaces, and step up enforcement of these public health rules. Yes, that means limits to protests, as well.
If the government and its leader, the directors of the Health Ministry, and national coronavirus coordinator Professor Ronni Gamzu don't wake up, they could lose control of COVID entirely, and a terrible public health disaster could befall us. Now is the time to act as the Bible commands us to: "Therefore watch yourselves very carefully." (Deuteronomy 4:15)
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