Netanyahu Is Harming Israel In Ways Its Enemies Were Never Able To

 

Israel has a population of 9,197,590-- 96th biggest population in the world. On Friday, Israel announced 5,784 new COVID cases. On Saturday it was another 9,201 cases and yesterday 3,926 more, bringing the total to 231,026 cases, 24th in the world. Israel has 25,118 cases per million Israelis, the worst in the industrialized world-- worse than the U.S. or Brazil or any European country-- by far. Israel is full-on into a second wave: the Netanyahu Wave, fully engineered by the Israeli prime minister for the sake of his tenuous political fortunes (and so as to keep himself and his wife out of prison for crimes unrelated to his pandemic crimes).

And by the way, that 9,201 cases announced Saturday? That would be equivalent to 300,000 new cases in one day here in the U.S., which most of the world considers the country that handled the pandemic worst of all. And the U.S. has never topped 80,000 in one day-- let alone 300,000.

What Trump has brought to the U.S., in terms of national disunity, Netanyahu-- a similar character of low moral standing and authoritarian proclivities-- has brought Israel. The country seems to be falling apart. It goes beyond just the way Netanyahu has handled the pandemic... but that's terrible enough for a country that rightfully prides itself as being one of the most scientifically and technologically advanced on the planet. But brilliant scientists can come up with whatever they come up with, only to run headlong into a Trump-like or Netanyahu-like government with politicians who have their own agendas. In Israel, like in the U.S., decisions about the pandemic were made not because of science or public health, but to serve the interests of Dear Leader. Period.

Times of Israel:

A key ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed on Thursday that the protesters against him were paradoxically happy about the virus surge that has resulted in almost 7,000 cases per day amid an increasingly stringent national lockdown that critics claim is aimed at preventing the demonstrations.

“The demonstrators are counting on this chaos, on this anarchy... They are quietly happy about the 7,000 patients [diagnosed per day],” Likud MK Miki Zohar told Army Radio, arguing that the protesters-- many of whom ostensibly oppose the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak-- believe a severe health care crisis would bring about Netanyahu’s downfall.

“This is a serious accusation and it is authentic,” insisted Zohar, the coalition chief. “They think that if they stand up and demonstrate, they will cause everyone to break the guidelines and the disease will spread.”

“Of course the [government’s] idea is to get to a situation where people are praying in the open air in numbers that do not exceed 20 people,” Zohar continued. If the protests also ceased, “the worshipers would understand the situation” and accept the limitation on synagogue prayer, he claimed.

The interview came ahead of the implementations of tightened restrictions and after a day of acrimonious debates in the cabinet over whether to allow anti-Netanyahu protests during the lockdown, with the Blue and White party insisting a government could not order protests against it to disband. Ministers also argued over how much to restrict prayer gatherings, with Haredi parties Shas and United Torah Judaism pushing to leave synagogues open, even if new limits on numbers of worshipers are imposed.

Under a final compromise reached late Wednesday, synagogues will close beginning Friday, reopen in a limited capacity and with worshipers divided into small groups for the 25 hours of the Yom Kippur fast, then close again on Monday night. A similar compromise was reached on protests, under which demonstrators may gather within a kilometer (0.6 miles) from their homes. In both cases, gatherings may include no more than 20 people at a time who must stay two meters apart.

A special compromise was reached allowing for continued protests outside the Prime Minister’s Residence on Balfour Street in Jerusalem, where demonstrators have gathered regularly for months to call for Netanyahu’s resignation.

Analysts in the United States have cast doubt on the idea that demonstrations cause coronavirus surges, after analyzing protest rates and virus rates there. Research does appear to suggest that indoor worship has led to a number of so-called “super-spreader” events globally.

One of the organizing groups behind the anti-Netanyahu protests said Thursday that it would begin to demonstrate against the Blue and White party for the role it played in limiting the protests and in helping turn Israel “into a dictatorship.”

“We will go back to demonstrating on your head,” the organization said in a statement. “We hereby inform Benny Gantz, and the justice and foreign ministers [Avi Nissenkorn and Gabi Ashkenazi]: If you aid the destruction of democracy, we will persecute you, demonstrate against you, you will remember for a lifetime those who turned Israel into a dictatorship.”

Meanwhile... just another day in Netanyahu's Knesset:

Miki Zohar, the Likud Party whip and widely considered to be a crook and one of COVID's top allies in Israel: "I have argued in recent days that there are those who want these demonstrations to continue because they want there to be morbidity."

Eli Avidar, one of the most brilliant and accomplished members of the Knesset: "You are mentally ill!"

Zohar: "You’re one of the most idiotic people I’ve seen."

So, while Trump tries bribing Sudan's corrupt government to recognize Israel in return for being taken off the U.S. supporter-of-terrorism list, Israel marked Yom Kippur with 1,512 patients in the hospital with COVID. 749 of them are in serious condition, nearing the 800-patient threshold health officials have warned would lead to a collapse of the Israeli health system. Of those, 196 patients are on life support.

Can a collapse of the hospital system happen in the U.S.? Hospitals have been overrun in some of the states with Trumpist governors-- particularly in parts of Texas, Florida and Arizona-- but if the U.S. gets hit with a second wave comparable to the one Israel is in the midst of, the collapse of the hospital system-- if Trump is still in office-- is not just possible; it's inevitable.