As I am writing this, the betting is that Benny Gantz and Benjamin Netanyahu will reach an agreement about a government of national unity. There remain a few issues unresolved, and perhaps unresolvable except with transparent masks put over them.
But it’s not yet done. And may never get done.
The first item on the nightly news was that an agreement had been reached, and only needed to be signed.
Then an hour later we heard that there was a problem in the procedures to appoint judges, and that Gantz had ended the conversations.
We also read that Bibi’s Justice Minister had worked to firm up the appointment of a man close to him, against the advice of the Attorney General and Chief Prosecutor of Netanyahu.
Benny Gantz has asked the President to provide him with another two weeks to form a government.
One of the problematic issues has concerned the Health Minister, Yaacov Litzman. He’s insisting that he’ll keep his job, and the Prime Minister is supporting him. But he’s a figure worthy of some consideration.
Currently, the 71 year old Haredi, together with his wife, is kept in isolation due to being diagnosed with Coronavirus. That doesn’t prevent him from “working,” more or less, and communicating with others.
From all signs, his rule over the Health Ministry has been something of a facade. He appears at crucial meetings, and his illness has caused ranking members of the Health Ministry, and the Prime Minister, to enter quarantine. His occasional public comments have been meager, hard to comprehend, with a mixture of religious and health themes. Apparently it’s the professionals who run the Health Ministry, with the slightest inputs from their political “boss.”
Litzman has acquired publicity for several actions where he has used his political weight.
One concerns his efforts in behalf of a religious teacher, indicted for sexual harassment, in Australia, and sheltered in Israel for years under claims of being too infirm to stand trial. Professionals differ on her diagnosis, but Litzman has worked in support of those claiming that she is mentally impaired.
Another concerns his efforts in behalf of religious Jews, not Israeli, who died overseas from Coronavirus, and whose families have insisted–in some cases with private airplanes–on their burial in Israel. Litzman has prevailed in some cases, against the advice of professionals in the Health Ministry.
And he is accused of violating his own Ministry’s rules by attending a group prayer meeting in a synagogue, several days before being diagnosed with Coronavirus.
Why does Bibi keep him in office? Apparently out of concern for his right-wing block, and a concern that the Gantz-Netanyahu government will not last and Bibi will need the Haredim to keep his own place in the political maneuvers.
Another issue concerns the commitment of the government to absorbing into Israel areas of the West Bank, or imposing Israeli law upon them. Likud and its right wing partners want to do that prior to the American election, which might mean that support by the American government disappears with a Democratic victory. Blue and White opposes the move. One wonders if Bibi himself supports it, or will work to postpone indefinitely anything likely to upset Palestinians and all their friends in international politics, as he has done in the past.
There have also been squabbles about who will be the Speaker of the Knesset, and the powers and personalities of several ministries.
Not involved in the negotiations, and closer to the issue of Coronavirus, are the promises of the Prime Minister to provide a grant of 500 Shekels to the aged, to all children up to four in a family, and to the handicapped. The issue will be expensive, is opposed by the Finance Ministry, and requires legislative and/or administrative manipulation to authorize it. It would come along with billions of shekels in expenditures for emergency aids to a variety of the entitled–individuals and organizations–including putting Bnei B’rak and other ultra-Orthodox communities into hotels, and away from other family members who live in small and crowded apartments.
Actually, very few individuals have agreed to leave Bnei B’rak, and the police are operating on the basis of cooperation.
Our Coronavirus story is focusing on Haredi communities. They include Bnei B’rak, Mea Shearim, Modiin Ilit, Beit Shemesh, Beitar Ilit, El Ad, and others. While most individuals have complied with Health Ministry advice and regulations, there are elements led by extremist rabbis that continue to study and pray in sizable groups, congregate in the streets, and resist efforts by police to control them. Bnei B’rak is currently in the headlines. It’s in the Tel Aviv metropolitan area, with a population over 200,000, and elected leaders who have sought to minimize its problems. It’s been put in a communal lockdown, with police enforcement of who can enter and leave, and efforts to move those who are ill, and those who have had contact with them, out of crowded homes and into hotels or other facilities.
Overall are signs of optimism, focusing on country-wide indications of new infections, the numbers of those seriously ill, and the incidence of deaths. While numbers grow, the rates of growth seem to be slowing. Optimists speak about lessening controls after Passover. Others speak about continuing for a month or two. Work continues toward developing medications and vaccines.
Overall, as measured by deaths as percentage of those infected, we’re at one half of one percent, which is a tenth of the comparable figure worldwide.
Time is confusing. One day for us is the same as the next, or the one before. Our week is no longer measured by the days when we used to go to the gym, or weekends when we’d visit the kids and grandchildren.
The Prime Minister, Health Ministry personnel, and major rabbis have indicated that there’ll be no conventional Passover. No visiting. Stay away from grandparents. Keep your Seder to only those family members actually living with you.
From this afternoon until after the Seder, it’ll be forbidden to move beyond 100 meters from one’s home. No intercity travel, and already long lines on the highways as police check addresses and turn back travelers going from one city to another.
We’ll see how this goes over.
However you do–or don’t do it–may you all have a good Passover.
Republished from San Diego Jewish World