The public should be mature enough to understand that no government anywhere has a magic wand that can make COVID-19 suddenly disappear. Such an expectation is juvenile.
By JPOST EDITORIALPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatened of a total lockdown as coronavirus infects 2,369 Israelis(photo credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)
We will, at a certain point in time, all be able to emerge from our homes. Toddlers will again be able to go to playgrounds, children to school, lovers to the movies, the faithful to prayer, parents to work, and grandchildren to the homes of their grandparents.We will not be prisoners of our homes forever. This contagion will be defeated, like others that have plagued humanity in the past.And this is a message our leaders now need to communicate: not only a message of fear, but also one of a plan and a strategy. Call it a message of hope.It is clear why, for the last number of weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov and others have sowed fear that if Israel does not take drastic action, if it does not show discipline, then the grisly images of bodies piling up in Italy and Spain could happen here as well.But now, with most of the country abiding by the rules, the government spokesmen must communicate a plan, an exit strategy. You cannot lock up an entire nation for weeks on end without providing some kind of horizon.Okay, the young can infect the old, the germs spread exponentially, the lockdown measures are needed so the health system is not overrun. We get that. But when does it end, or – more precisely – what are the signs of an end in sight? People can cope with great difficulty, if they know there is an expiration date, if they know that at a certain time it will be over.While no government can tell us when this virus – which it does not control – will dissipate, it can tell us what are the signs of that dissipation.In other words, the government needs now to talk to us, not only scare us into obedience. Because if it doesn’t, then people – fed up with being cooped up in their homes – will take matters into their own hands and look for ways to violate the regulations.As Amnon Shashua, the co-founder and CEO of Mobileye, said in a media interview this week: “The population can cope with difficult situations, but you need to talk to the people as equals and give them an exit strategy. There isn’t any exit strategy right now.”According to Shashua, “If you say that we are going to have three difficult months – that the country will hand out grants so that the economy doesn’t collapse, but after that it will all be over – people will be able to accept that. Right now the fear is that the decision-makers don’t understand what they are doing. They know a quarantine is required, but what next?”
Yes, what next?The public should be mature enough to understand that no government anywhere has a magic wand that can make COVID-19 suddenly disappear. Such an expectation is juvenile.But the public has the right to expect from its government a plan to navigate through the crisis, and that it will share the details of that plan, not only the restrictions it entails.In June 1940, just two days after France fell to the Nazis, Winston Churchill gave a speech to the House of Commons that has gone down as one of the greatest ever delivered in the English language.It was a masterpiece because it was an honest account of the situation, it used fear to motivate people to action without paralyzing them, it showed an understanding of what the people were going through, and it revealed a supreme confidence in their ability to prevail.It also included a sublime finish: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that, if the British Empire and its Commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘This was their finest hour.’”The coronavirus, as bad as it is, is not World War II. Yet much can be learned from Churchill’s classic speech. Yes, remind the citizens of the difficulties and their duties, but also give them hope in their ability to rise above them and prevail.The coronavirus has sown fear among us all. Our leaders – with an exit strategy – must now provide us with hope.
