Prime Minister Naftali Bennett formally revealed his government’s strategy for tackling the coronavirus pandemic in a lengthy Facebook post on Saturday night: Avoiding lockdown at almost any cost in order to keep the country’s economy open.
“Our goal is simple,” Bennett wrote, “to preserve the health of the citizens of Israel while maintaining the economic future of the State of Israel.
“One consideration we face is reducing morbidity and mortality. But there are other considerations, including the livelihood of Israeli citizens, the education of Israeli children and the preservation of Israel’s economic future,” he said, stressing that locking down Israel would only happen as a “last resort.”
Bennett said it is the responsibility of the people to preserve their own lives and the lives of their loved ones by getting vaccinated, wearing masks in closed spaces, and not gathering.
The government, he said, would take seven “important steps” to combat the virus:
1 - Vaccinating anyone who wants to get the jab.
2 - Increasing the capacity of the hospitals by providing more staff and additional funding to help repair a system that was neglected for many years.
3 - Protecting the most vulnerable elderly in the country’s nursing homes and geriatric centers.
4 - Opening a private market for rapid and home testing.
5 - Increasing enforcement on wearing masks, isolation and adhering to Green Pass regulations.
6 - Preparing a way to run schools in full alongside the virus.
7 - Expanding the Green Pass to include kids between the ages of three and twelve - meaning more testing, more virus carries discoveries and less infection.
Bennett said locking down is like asking Israelis to stop driving to avoid road accidents.
“It is possible to bring the number to zero deaths from road accidents by banning driving on Israeli roads,” he wrote. “But we all understand that we must live and allow movement in Israel. The same is true with the Delta virus: routine life is part of life, and we must balance all of our needs responsibly.”
He admitted that people will ask him, “Are you not consciously allowing hundreds of people to die from coronavirus?”
But according to Bennett, closures have a direct cost in human life.
He said the previous three closures had a price tag of NIS 200 billion and therefore if the country continues the policy of closures and “destructive restrictions on the economy, we will simply become economically impoverished.”
The money spent on closures was taken from other important purposes, Bennett stressed.
“How many lives of soldiers will we lose if we cannot afford to equip them with modern anti-aircraft guns because we have spent the money on lockdowns?” Bennett asked. “How many children and adults can we not provide life-saving surgery? … How many classes in science, math or English can we not fund? How many elderly pensions will we not be able to provide?”
The prime minister noted that the Delta variant entered Israel before he was in office and that he did not know when the pandemic would end.
“More difficult days are expected,” Bennett said. “If we act in solidarity and help each other, we will overcome the Delta.”