Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked doesn't have what it takes for national leadership. She made that clear with her miserable remark that Israel "needs to know how to accept severe cases and severe deaths because this is a pandemic, and in a pandemic, people die. This is happening all over the world right now." People die. It happens.
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I admit I did not expect much from this ragtag government, but it has turned out to be far worse than I could have imagined. Even in areas where it was expected to function, the government has shown little leadership and nothing seems to function, to a point bordering on negligence. The people expected quiet, the kind of quiet humming you hear when everything is running smoothly. They did not expect to hear crickets.
It's no wonder this is the case. From the outset, it was clear this government was incapable of handling the most basic of challenges presented by daily Israeli life and international policy. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, his fellow party member Shaked and New Hope leader, and Justice Minister Gideon Sa'ar should not be blamed for joining forces with the Left-wing and the Arab parties. They should be blamed for lending a hand to the establishment of a body, which although commonly referred to as a "government," is unable to function as such when faced with national, diplomatic, and health-related challenges and crises.
No, there is nothing specifically wrong with Naftali Bennett. The reason he cannot serve as prime minister and do everything the role requires is that he does not have the public's approval to do so. As a result, he lacks the power necessary to lead according to a specific framework. It's just that simple. The difference can be seen in the leadership that has been demonstrated in this current fourth wave of the pandemic. There is no comparison between the leadership we saw from former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and what we are now witnessing under Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz.
Another explanation for this failure is that in the two important fields of security and health, and who knows what they have in store when it comes to the economy, is the total loss of the compass that has characterized the State of Israel.
A few months ago, British-American historian Neil Ferguson wrote that the three countries that had the most success in contending with the pandemic were South Korea, Taiwan, and Israel. He claimed these three countries could be characterized as generally paranoid for historic reasons.
There are moments in the history of a nation in which the people become panicked. These instances are recorded in history books. Were it not for the "paranoid" national enlistment at the right time, we wouldn't even be here to contend with the pandemic.
In contrast with Israel, which is able to enlist its strength in times of crisis, there is Europe. There we have seen failure and oversight, inaction, and the inability of bureaucracies and authorities to function. Authorities there have largely treated the horror and neglect with indifference.
Government officials are present yet unaccounted for when it comes to the struggle against the coronavirus, and they have made the public indifferent to the cause. The political and industrial silence has put the country in a coma. The question is: Will we ever wake up?
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