Only a short while ago, after the appointment of Professor Gamzu to lead the Israeli response to the Corona virus crisis, there was new optimism that the crucial leadership of the strategy in the fight against the virus would be taken out of the political morass and finally be handed over to a professional.
But it was too early to assume that politicians would be willing or able to stand back and not grab this opportunity to exploit a crisis for their own benefit.
Starting with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who keeps uttering the uncontrolled nonsense about the crisis, one time to tell the people that we do large amounts of testing, and that the second wave has stabilized and Israel is doing great, and another time to tell us that the “illness rate” is higher than ever and that many more people could die.
Then there is Edelstein who is still declaring all kind of decisions such as closures and limitations, while he has no idea what he is talking about and should have been told immediately with the arrival of Gamzu, to shut up.
But a more serious problem concerns the behind-the-scenes political wars that are being fought and where Gamzu should have stepped in much more forceful.
A blatant example is the decision by Arye Deri, Interior Minister, to allow 17,000 students (of which 12,000 Yeshiva students) to enter Israel, even though none of these students are Israeli. And this after five months in which no foreigners were allowed in at all! Gamzu criticized the idea but in the end claimed it was made before he received his appointment and he did nothing to reverse it. Does anybody doubt that heavy political pressure was exerted on him, that in fact prevented him from making the right decision, but forcing him to allow politicians to decide?
And the fact that, as a result of the ban on entry of foreigners, there are dozens of Israelis whose partners are foreigners who got stuck abroad when the entry ban was announced, are still not allowed in the country, even though most of those foreigners are residents of Israel and some have small children who have been deprived of a parent for months. Of course there is an additional difference between the Yeshiva students and the others. The latter are not Jewish………
And now the flooding of Uman by followers of the Rabbi Nachman is coming up whereby thousands of Israelis travel to Ukraine. While there still is hope that Israel (meaning Gamzu) will prevent this dangerous and useless endeavor, the political pressure here will be likely even stronger. Maybe the Ukrainian president will save us by forbidding the “pilgrimage”.
The Corona virus cabinet holds discussions and afterwards everybody feels the need to give his version of the discussion, and pushes his views with as much authority as their titles can muster, while the Corona Czar was appointed exactly to prevent the spread of contradictory “decisions” and have the Israeli government speak with one voice: Gamzu’s voice.
If new restrictions are required, the order should come from Gamzu. If more testing needs to be done, Gamzu should make sure it gets done. If an epidemiological test scheme has to be set up, Gamzu is to make sure it gets done.
For now, the situation has not changed when comparing it to a couple of weeks ago. One moment we hear from one official about a general closure in the second half of August. The next we are promised that the limitations of weekend openings by stores will be rescinded.
And the public is still left confused, and above all without a grain of trust in the “leaders” that look out for themselves and their political allies only.
The public is aware that the situation is still precarious and most decisions regarding the Corona virus will be (albeit sometimes grudgingly) accepted, but the lack of trust in the decision makers makes motivation to do anything or agree to restrictions, recede very quickly.
Gamzu has to reign in the political nobodies that are fouling up the decision making process. He needs to put his fist down and force the government to fall into line, including Netanyahu, who makes decisions only based upon if it suits him or not (like diverting attention from the “Bolsheviks” at his door). Only then will the public see that indeed someone is in charge, someone who has both the knowledge and the determination to do what is right, and they will follow his lead.
Of course, it is important and advisable that Gamzu consults with others both in the medical arena, the economic arena and the social; arena. But it MUST be him who makes the decisions. And politicians had better step aside.
It sounds like Utopia…………….
