Prudently Tried-and-True

"These are bad, mad and uncertain times — for all of us humans. To stop a virus that scientists acknowledge they do not yet fully understand, all of human interaction is being remade."

"And as it happens, here in Israel, this rapidly, radically altering framework for our daily existence happens to coincide with an ongoing political crisis, in which our war on the coronavirus killer is being directed, and directed well we broadly think, by a deeply controversial politician. Netanyahu is a leader who has always been divisive, who the state legal hierarchy alleges is corrupt, and who has led an assault on core institutions of our democracy in the past two years as he faced off against police investigators and state prosecutors. Netanyahu is also a leader some of whose reasonable measures to thwart the spread of the disease — the closure of most court functions, for instance is not unique to Israel — just so happen to serve his narrow interests as well."

"When his carefully selected ministers and party allies send most of our judges home, when they introduce the monitoring of all our phones, and when they suspend the activities of the parliament that is meant to provide at least some oversight of his government, Israel finds itself in the midst of two crises."

"I think it’s the virus we should be more worried about."

David Horovitz, founding editor, The Times of Israel

In this Saturday, March 14, 2020 file photo, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrives for a speech from his Jerusalem office amid the coronavirus crisis. (Gali Tibbon/Pool via AP, File)

This is a prime minister fighting for his political life and his legacy. As the longest-serving prime minister Israel has ever had in the short history of its re-emergence from the historical record, no one can deny that this is a man whose acumen and intelligence has served the country extremely well. That old adage warning about the dangers inherent in changing horses midstream certainly applies here, as Israel, accustomed to facing existential challenges on an ongoing basis, is now faced with a dread and sometimes deadly virus threatening to diminish lives, destroy the economy and compromise its already-complicated politics. 

The emergence of the noval coronavirus out of Wuhan, China, its spread throughout the east and in this world of interlocking globalization and communication, its swift contamination in Europe, Oceania, North America and the Middle East, fast approach in Africa, has spelled out unforeseen panic out of a situation that had been foreseen by science, but ignored by politics. Since mid-January, news of mass quarantines in China alerted Israeli political leaders, public institutions and other officials to an oncoming storm.

The focus was how to manage a crisis that would migrate globally and hit Israel just as it would most of the countries on Earth. Nothing quite fixes the mind, individual and collective, as does a threat to longevity. And it is not as though this country in particular hasn't faced many such events heralding doom, which resolve, skill and the will to endure allowed Israel to subdue those threats, time and again. Living on the cusp of threatening disaster has hardened its population against vulnerability and fear, made it more resolute and capable of surviving.

The response was rapid and rude to the very idea of a nation united in adversity, with some believing the reactions were too emphatic, and others that they failed to go far enough. As Israel's second largest trading partner after the U.S. with a flow of goods and people between the two countries significant, three weeks before the first case was diagnosed in Israel, direct flights between China and Israel were suspended. Then, a woman repatriated from the cruise shop off the coast of Japan brought the first case of COVID-19 to Israel.

Health officials re-directed passengers on a flight from South Korea, sending them home when it became evident that among the tourists were individuals who were coronavirus positive. Proactive responses to the anticipated arrival of the novel coronavirus were exercised, with each day new announcements, recommendations, even while Israelis were in the throes of a tense third election in a year. When the government understood that the virus was firmly established in the U.S., issues of the economy, security, family connections arose.

In stepped U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence managing the U.S. domestic coronavirus response, asking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to impose a global ban on all travellers entering Israel; handing the administration an avoidance of singling out the United States. Leading to Israel's ban on entry of all foreign nationals; the first country to enact such a preventive step. Directives requiring all Israelis to remain at home with limited exceptions, and surveillance will ensure that they will. The measures taken by Singapore and Hong Kong, quite similar in nature, proved hugely successful.

Israel was intent on 'flattening the curve', the best scientific medical advice in getting a step ahead of the infectious novel coronavirus. "We want to be like South Korea, not Italy", said the prime minister, in defending his directives. The intention, to control the rate of contagion to ensure overload is avoided and with it the breakdown of the national health-care system. Community transmission prevention is a critical tool in flattening the curve, controlling the spread, not preventing something that cannot at this stage be 'prevented'.

"This is a war. We have to adapt to a new way of life", Mr. Netanyahu has informed his public. And wars are what Israelis are all too familiar with. This is a man who has many enemies, detractors whose deepest wish is for the prime minister to be convicted of the charges pending against him. This is also a man who had distinguished himself as a brilliant manager of crises, an eloquent public speaker. This man's intuition bolsters an impressive intelligence capable of assimilating complex detail, then to translate it into terms anyone can understand.

As a tactician he has few peers to manage diplomatic issues and the nation's security. So what a shock when in the aftermath of three inconclusive elections, President Reuven Rivlin tasked Benny Gantz, the Blue and White party leader, intent on unseating Mr. Netanyahu, to make an effort to form a governing coalition, effectively sidelining Benjamin Netanyahu and his 'right wing' bloc. In the intensity of the coronavirus crisis, Prime Minister Netanyahu has appealed to Mr.Gantz, to form a coalition government. The measure of the man will be seen in Mr. Gantz's response.

People wave Israeli flags, inverted Israeli flags and banners during a protest outside the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, Thursday, March 19, 2020, accusing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to cement his power and undermine Israel's democratic foundations. (AP Photo/Eyal Warshavsky)