Had we acted a month ago, we would still have a solid grip on the pandemic. Although it may not be too late to chart the right path, it looks like the march toward a fourth lockdown in September is all but inevitable. For six full weeks, the Coronavirus Cabinet and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett ignored health experts who warned that the fourth wave of infections, caused by the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, could wreak havoc in Israel despite the success of its vaccination campaign.
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They warned that it could claim the lives of hundreds of Israelis, as well as inflict a heavy toll on Israel's economy, which is why the government wanted to avoid instating COVID restrictions in the first place.
And yet, government officials are not the only ones to blame for this disaster. We, the public, are also at fault. After the country reopened mainly due to the success of the vaccination campaign, we began to act as if the coronavirus never even existed.
Even when Bennett reinstated the indoor mask mandate (without properly explaining the need for such a move or properly enforcing it, of course), many of us made the conscious choice to ignore it, despite the fact that it has been proved that masks save thousands of lives and allow the economy and education to continue relatively uninterrupted.
For over a month, the Coronavirus Cabinet refused to impose restrictions on Israelis who returned from abroad, which could have significantly reduced the spread of the Delta strain in the country.
As much as the cabinet's refusal to instate such restrictions is inconceivable and unforgivable, so is the behavior of returnees from abroad who failed to follow the few guidelines that were in place.
Bennett called on the public, over and over, to get vaccinated, because it is crucial in fighting the pandemic, and rightfully so. And yet, he has failed to convince the one million unvaccinated Israelis to get inoculated for the sake of their own health, their family and everyone else. Even the government's third vaccine campaign, for Israelis over the age of 60, is not progressing as fast as the prime minister had expected.
A million Israelis bear the responsibility for refusing to lend a helping hand in the national effort to curb the pandemic. Refusing to get vaccinated is destructive and selfish, especially in a country where vaccines are readily available and free of charge, in contrast to the much of the world, where citizens long to receive their doses, begging for their governments to vaccinate them.
The government's dangerous indifference and the public's selfish irresponsibility have most likely made the fourth lockdown unavoidable.
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