Israel needs to prepare an "exit strategy" from the lockdown after Passover, increase the number of coronavirus tests, and be ready for another possible outbreak next winter – there really isn't anything new in the interim report from the Knesset's Special Committee on Dealing with the Coronavirus Pandemic. Obviously, the issues raised in the report are already on the government's agenda. But in this instance, how they are framed is more important than the content itself. This is still mainly a committee of the opposition that is opting to present "harsh criticism" (through press releases, of course) about the government's conduct while it is still at work at the height of the crisis.
And while it often uses the word "failure," and talks about the failures of the Health Ministry or other government "failures," it blatantly ignores the fact that when decisions now being held up to criticism were being made, there was total uncertainty about the whole situation.
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For example, the committee describes a failure to have enough ventilators ready: from the day China announced the virus outbreak (Jan. 20) to the day the Health Ministry director general appeared before the committee (March 26), Israel did not sufficiently increase its stock of ventilators, the committee feels. But coronavirus was declared a pandemic only at the beginning of March. In January, no one envisioned a pandemic that would require the acquisition of thousands of ventilators.
But as if it weren't enough that the committee is expert in interpreting things retroactively, it also insists on discussing its insights as the event is still unfolding. Two weeks after the epidemic reached Israel, the committee had already been appointed and was holding meetings. Two weeks later, it had already probed, researched, reported, and announced that the situation was very bad. The committee did not find it appropriate to document the government decisions that saved the country from a major disaster. There are no figures, for example, about Israel's low mortality from coronavirus.
At the time the report was published, Israel had one of the lowest corona mortality rates in the world, at 0.56% – compare this to Germany (1.5%) or South Korea (1.74%). Other comparisons to international data were entirely absent from the report, as was any mention of Israel closing its borders early, which the members of the opposition describe as a "hysterical" move.
Just before the report was unveiled at a press conference, MK Ayelet Shaked informed everyone present that Israel was in possession of some 3,000 ventilators for the treatment of corona patients. Not even that caused MK Ofer Shelah to retreat from any of his statements. Because an atmosphere of crisis, of failure, of problems, cannot be created using the true numbers. Of course, none of this is taking place in a vacuum.
The committee, eight of whose 10 members come from the ranks of the opposition, was established – like the rest of the committees in the new Knesset – in a maneuver that for the first time in Knesset history ignored the size of the factions and used "blocs" to determine who would sit on it. The committee, as part of the opposition's shadow government, does not see itself as a supervisory entity, but rather as a replacement for the government, but in the Knesset.
At the start of the meeting in which the report was unveiled, Shelah explained that he would overstep his authority as committee chairman and recommend actions to be taken.
Without hesitation, he explained: "We do not have the keys to corona," meaning, "We aren't the ones who are responsible for implementation. The government is the one responsible." Thus, with zero responsibility, the committee gave itself 100% authority.
The report came out at the most politically-fraught time possible: just before it looked like a government would be formed. The committee rushed to make public its "conclusions," knowing that it had not only an iffy mandate, but little time. Because when a government is formed, Knesset committees, including the corona committee, will be re-appointed. Will the conclusions be different?
