The Israeli tourism industry was outraged Sunday over a government decision to extend mandatory quarantine for vaccinated Israelis who return from abroad and update the list of foreign destinations categorized "red" due to high COVID numbers every 24 hours.

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The Health Ministry decision could see the list of red countries change daily, which would make it hard for Israelis who want to travel abroad. Should their destination of choice be designated red while they are there, Israelis will be required to self-quarantine for seven full days upon returning to Israel.

The Prime Minister's Office said Sunday that "The list of red countries will be evaluated daily and updated frequently. In the next few days, additional countries will be added to the list according to the parameters of the Health Ministry."

In response to the decision, tourism workers planned to hold a demonstration on Monday. A march was slated to leave from Gate 32 of Ben-Gurion International Airport at 11 a.m. Tourism workers are demanding compensation for the decision that they argue will cause financial hardship for those who make their living in the sector.

Tali Noy, VP of Sales and Marketing at the ISSTA travel agency, discussed the government's decision and the increased rate of vaccination in Europe, saying, "We hope that the new restrictions, if there are any, will be for a short time. It looks like Europe is stepping up the boosters, so the current wave [of COVID] on the continent will end quickly.

"In the meantime, we aren't seeing that Israelis are rushing to cancel their travel plans and want to enjoy their vacations as long as possible. Some of that is because flights are very inexpensive," Noy said.

Nir Mazor, VP of marketing at Aviation Links, said, "The government's intention of declaring more destinations 'red' every 24 hours is an intentional attempt to sabotage flight reservations and make them almost impossible. Needless to say, a decision like this hurts the national vaccination campaign effort, which the government and the Health Ministry are supposed to be trying to lead."

According to Shirley Cohen Orkaby, VP of Marketing and Sales at Eshet Tours, the government's new policy "effectively cancels the differentiation between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, thereby reducing any incentive for Israelis to get vaccinated. This is a disproportionate decision, one that is out of line with other countries."

Ziv Rosen, CEO of Gulliver Group, said Israel "is the only country in the world acting this way and it's clear there's no reason for it, if we really understand that we need to learn to live with COVID. We've already seen that it's possible to fly safely, with COVID testing and clear instructions."

Meanwhile, professional tour guides were up in arms over Transportation Minister Merav Michaeli's remark Sunday that it would be "legitimate" to shut down the tourism sector if worker were compensated, and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman saying that tourism workers should "find new professions."

"The mask has fallen. This government is out of touch and heartless, and isn't noticing that tens of thousands of citizens have been left without any income. A government that doesn't understand that it caused this. The ones who should 'change profession' are the failing transportation minister, whose failure citizens feel every day as they sit in traffic, and the finance minister who leaves Israelis to their bitter fates. We are law-abiding citizens who love the country and serve as its ambassadors. As the entire economy opens up, we're being left behind," industry workers said.

Oded Marcus, one of the leaders of the fight to reopen air travel, said, "The incoming tourism industry employs over 200,000 people. The tourism and finance ministers closed down our jobs on July 1, 2021, and aren't compensating us fairly! We'll fight to survive. It's incredible – Lieberman and Bennett want to shut down a sector that contributes so much to Israel. The only one who should change professions is Lieberman."

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The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the restrictions on movement aimed at curbing its spread have had an impact on the number of Israeli employees and their average salary.

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The number of employment positions stood at 3.252 million in November, a 13% decrease compared the 3.74 million who were employed in the same month in 2019.

According to a Central Bureau of Statistics report, the hospitality and food services sector saw a 63.4% decrease in the number of employee positions. The arts, entertainment, and recreation sector, recorded a 53.3% decrease, compared to the 17.9% recorded in the commerce sector.

In November, the average employee salary stood at 11,525 shekels ($3,510), an increase of 9.9% over the previous November, when the average salary was 10,483 shekels ($3,193).

The CBS compiled its report on average wages and employment based on the number of workers employed in that month and the total wages they were paid.

Average wages increased 15.2% in April 2020 compared to March, following the first lockdown. Following the end of the second lockdown in October, average wages increased 2.1% over the previous month. Part of the reason for this increase is that the earnings of employees who had their jobs terminated tend to be lower than the national average.

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Tunisian President Kais Saied has denied claims that he made anti-Semitic remarks this week while trying to calm youths after days of unrest.

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Saied's statement was in response to allegations by the Conference of European Rabbis that he accused Jews of being responsible "for the instability of the country."

The CER statement, issued Tuesday, said such talk "constitutes an immediate threat for the physical and moral integrity of Tunisian Jewish Citizens." The organization asked the head of state to retract his words.

The statement, relayed by some Israeli media, caused an uproar, forcing Saied to address the allegations, which his office firmly denied.

In a statement Wednesday night, his office denounced the "propagation of false information," saying it amounted to "calumny."

Saied visited M'nihla-Ettadhamon, outside the capital Tunis, on Tuesday to speak directly with youths after a spate of vandalism and looting in several towns.

The Tunisian president, wearing a mask, was not always fully audible in the recording posted by his office of his encounter with the youths.

The groundswell of anger grew out of economic and social ills and failed promises of opportunities that flowed from Tunisia's revolution 10 years ago, The unrest began amid a four-day lockdown that started Jan. 14 – the day Tunisia marked its revolution.

"The president mentioned no religion and there was no reasonable motive to deal with the question of religion in the context of protests," his office's statement said.

It said the president spoke with the chief rabbi of Tunisia, Haim Bittan, to reassure him that Tunisian Jews enjoy "the solicitude and protection of the Tunisian state, like all other citizens."

Saied also used the occasion to underscore his fervent defense of Palestinians' rights "to their land," referring to Israeli-occupied territory, while saying that position is not linked to religious freedom.

There are an estimated 1,500 Jews in Tunisia, mainly on the island of Djerba.

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Israel's third nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus will cost the economy a minimum of 5 billion shekels ($1.55 billion), the Bank of Israel estimates.

The lockdown is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. Sunday and last at least two weeks. The Bank of Israel assesses that each week the economy is shut down will come at a cost of 2.5 billion shekels ($775 million).

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However, this is projected to be a less expensive lockdown than the two previous ones, according to the central bank. The first lockdown, which began in March, cost the economy 5.4 billion shekels ($1.67 billion) per week, and the second lockdown around the time of the High Holidays cost 3.2 billion shekels ($993 million) per week.

The Bank of Israel projects that the lockdown that starts on Sunday will affect the economy by 10%, compared to the 20% hit it took in March-April and the 12% hit in the second lockdown. The bank reported that during the summer, when businesses were operating under COVID restrictions, the economy was running at 95% capacity, which caused a loss of 1.3 billion shekels ($403 million) each week.

Officials with the Bank of Israel explained that at this stage, the restrictions for the third lockdown were less severe than the previous ones.

"Businesses that do not deal with the public will continue to operate on a partial basis, and the school system for younger grades will operate as usual," officials said.

"It's likely that businesses continued to prepare to operate under pandemic conditions. The October lockdown came during the holidays, when business activity drops anyway. But now the lockdown will take place during normal business days," the officials added.

Over the long term, the Bank of Israel officials said, the lockdowns will continue to affect the Israeli economy. Officials pointed out that the direct losses of the lockdown itself did not include bankruptcies and ongoing payment of unemployment benefits, and did not take into account losses that could not be assessed financially, such as restricted freedom of movement or loss of time with family.

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Finance Minister Israel Katz has big dreams. No visitor to his office doesn't receive a detailed briefing on "regional peace trains" that will leave from Israel, travel through Jordan and reach Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States. No one misses his lecture on building an island off the coast of the Gaza Strip that will bring peace to the region, and ports that will make Israel into a global trade nexus.

Slowly and tenaciously, Katz promotes his dreams, but then he opens Haaretz and reads that he's the "worst finance ministry in Israel's history," watches the evening news and sees analysts claim that his ministry is falling apart as people in senior positions leave, that the credit rating will be a smack in face for the Israeli economy, and other awful predictions. It infuriates him.

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"Look at what happened here with the credit rating. For days, analysts and politicians predicted and hoped for a drop in the rating, and then the wonderful news came that it wasn't being lowered. So instead of the analysts admitting they were wrong and wiping the egg off their faces, they claim that the credit ratings agency got it wrong.

"There are biased commentators who are out of date. They don't understand anything. They are joined by politicians like [Yesh Atid leader] Yair Lapid, who said, 'Of course the rating will drop.'

"Maintaining our credit rating is a certificate of merit for the Israeli economy and a purple heart for Israel and a winning answer to all the pundits. On Friday, I knew that at 11 p.m. when the New York Stock Exchange closed, S&P would put out the message, and I saw the analysts sitting in studios and predicting a drop in the rating and a collapse of the economy. Maybe hoping for it, too.

"I heard left-wing commentators respond in a way that is so typical: 'The ratings company doesn't understand the numbers and doesn't understand anything, it doesn't read articles every week.' It's just bizarre, these commentators. They have no shame.'

Q: What does Israel maintaining its credit rating mean for the general public?

"It's hugely significant. The best way to explain it is to think what would have happened if it had been lowered: money in Israel would become more expensive. Today, money is raised in the international market, people receive long-term loans at minimal interest, and money can be allocated to businesses and people on credit, so we get cheaper money. There is room to breathe.

"Keeping our credit rating is also a measurement of market stability. They look at our ability to recover in the future, at stability, at whether Israel will return to a path of growth – and find that the answer is 'ye.' These are serious companies who talked with the experts in the ministry and with me, not the gossip and false hopes of commentators who held a day of mourning when the rating didn't drop. These companies dropped the ratings for England, Italy, and Canada. They don't give anyone special treatment.

"Maintaining our credit rating means that what we're doing about COVID is right. The amounts we're spending on aid to the self-employed, salaried workers, business owners, are right. In July, when the number of COVID cases started to rise, I got up thinking that we needed to build a safety net for the unemployed. By then, we had been extending the aid each month.

"I said in a meeting of the ministry management, 'Let's give people a safety net until next June that we'll update as things develop.' This safety net costs 90 billion shekels [$26.8 billion], and later we added another 10 billion [$3 billion] to it. But it means that the unemployed, the self-employed, and business owners will get grants based on clear criteria."

Q: If you provide a safety net like that, why should people go back to work?

"That's a marginal issue compared to this great act of giving. A few days into the second lockdown hundreds of thousands of people were out of work. Now they know they have a safety net. The unemployed don't want to be unemployed; anything who thinks people want that is wrong. When the market gets back to work, the unemployed will go back to work. Beyond that, we put in a new incentive: someone who was unemployed for 75 days and returns to their work will receive a four-month grant to top off their earnings. We give incentives for people to go back to work instead of punishing those who don't by not giving them money."

Q: There are a lot of experts who expect Israel's credit rating to drop six months from now because of the situation in the market.

"I'm not making prophecies. Don't forget that this is the worst economic situation in the history of the country, and we're dealing with it well."

Q: Why do the commentators come after you? Is it all political arguments between Right and Left?

"Absolutely, nothing else."

Q: How many unemployed are there in Israel?

"A couple of weeks ago we hit a record number for this go-around, which was around 850,000 unemployed. The record the first time was 1.4 million. When I took on the job, there were 1.2 million. That's a high number. But we gave employers incentives to keep on staff. Employers learned to managed, and people learned to work from home. At the same time, I fought to reopen the economy. Every time businesses opened, they brought workers back. This time, we reopened faster.

"The number of unemployed is a direct result of the extent of the lockdown. If the entire economy opens up, we'll see a drop in unemployment. In August we were already down to 450,000 unemployed, and then the number of cases rose again and so did unemployment. We're handling it.

"I want to build an administration that will be in charge of professional training. We'll take people on furlough, keep paying them, and give companies and employers money to train them and take them in. A person who earned 6,000-7,000 (~$2,000) a month will earn 10,000 (~$3,000) after being trained."

Q: Can we say that when COVID is over, there won't be unemployment?

"Definitely not. If I said that, I'd be joining the commentators who predict the future. We need to be realistic. The trend, the process, and the data indicate that when we come out of a health crisis, the economy takes off."

Q: You like to present yourself as a bulldozer, but might the Finance Ministry not demand mercy, too?

"One of the reasons why I'm attacked is because of the mercy I show. They realized that I see the people, the weak ones and the little ones. The new aid program is adjusted to and touches them. I'm attacked because the ministry turned into a ministry that hands out aid. The way the commentators see it, if there aren't a million people screaming and going hungry in the streets, it won't be a good economic policy. People aren't restive, because people are getting money. I am implementing Menachem Begin's approach – a free economy with social sensitivity. Because of my social sensitivity I'm attacked."

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Q: You have an image of being out of touch, unlike former Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon.

"Forget about image. What I've done for the periphery in all my government roles, no one else ever did. Bringing train service to Sderot, to Netivot, to Ofakim, to Beit Shean, to Migdal Ha'emek, and Afula has had the biggest socioeconomic impact they've ever seen."

Q: There are a lot of shops with 'For Sale' or 'For Rent' signs. Things don't look good on the street."

"I fought for the street front shops, I lobbied for them, until they were allowed to open. They don't have a lobby or an organization. And look at how happy they are now, they have customers and long lines.

"No one accuses me of closing businesses. The situation closes businesses. The current economic situation is the worst one in the country's history. The real test will come when the crisis is over. We'll help them in other ways."

Q: Business owners are collapsing because of people who shop from abroad online. What do you think about that?

"I'm not changing the terms of competition. If you want to buy from abroad for less money, I can't tell you no. Everyone has a right to make their own decisions. However, I expect the people of Israel to buy 'blue and white.'"

Q: How much taxes will we all have to pay to cover the COVID expenditures?

"This year, we won't raise taxes, and I promise that next year, they won't go up, either."

Q: How would you rate the government's handling of the COVID crisis?

"The first time around, our handling of the illness was very good, but the handling of the economic fallout was less good. In the second wave, the economic approach was better, but the heal care missed the mark. Since the last lockdown the health care has gone back to a high level."

Q: What do we need to do to avoid another lockdown?

"I said … that the government should be in charge of one decision only – to open or close thing. You can't run after every loose end. I suggested opening almost everything, other than event venues, where there is a real problem of people hugging, dancing, and eating. I suggested we determine an index made up of a few parameters that would decide when it's time for a lockdown."

Q: That sounds like removing responsibility from the government.

"No. We'll be in charge of oversight, there will be enforcement. But the government needs to decide on a central goal and not chase after every business. That's leadership."

Q: What do you think about the issue of vaccines?

"It should be said that Israel took immediate action with Moderna and Pfizer. They are in an immensely strong position. The entire world is waiting in line. India has 1.4 billion people. The US alone is 600 vaccinations. We're only 9 million, and that gives us a disadvantageous starting point, but comparatively, we're in a good place."

Q: We wasted a lot of money on a deal with Pfizer, and in the end, Moderna's vaccine is more effective.

"I'm familiar with the deals. We didn't waste money. At a time when you're spending 100 billion to fight COVID, a few million more isn't a lot. I told the prime minister that money was no obstacle."

Q: How much have we spent on the vaccines?

"The details are secret, but we need as many vaccinations as possible. I told the cabinet that we aren't in close enough contact with the Russians, and they have a vaccine, too. The prime minister said he agreed and called [Russian President] Putin. It's the American administration that could shorten the timeline and give us vaccinations from their quota, The Americans are supposed to get 600 million vaccinations. If they gave us 4 million, we'd be in good shape."

"We need to be in a situation in which we aren't squashed in line. The prime minister's conversations with the CEO of Pfizer shortened the line. There weren't a lot of options. If we hadn't made deals with these companies, would anyone have forgiven us?

Q: What about reopening cultural venues?

"They had rotten luck. Every time they were about to open, a decision was made to close down. Why did that happen? Not because there is more infection there. They submitted plans that would allow them to reopen, with oversight, but they were at the back of the line. That's why I'm saying we need to reopen nearly everything, and not randomly.

"Even now, the Health Ministry has never supplied data about how much spread there is in every sector. So I say, let's determine a maximum for everyone. We'll say what cannot be opened, and open everything else. Cultural performances, too."

Q: You say harsh things about the Health Ministry.

"I look at reality like it is. I back the Health Ministry on health issues, so we don't find ourselves losing control. But within the frameworks we set up, I argue with them all the time about reopening things. We present numbers, against an absence of data. I fought to open businesses that don't admit the public. Now it sounds inconceivable that they weren't allowed to operate. The damage to the economy was 8 billion shekels [$2.4 billion] in two weeks.

Q: Let's talk about politics. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz claims there was no reason not to submit a state budget back in August, and certainly not to postpone it until December.

"I announced that I was going to present a budget for 2020 quickly and was moving along with the budget for 2021 … The cabinet will pass the budget by December, and then we'll submit it to the Knesset for the legislative process. If Blue and White doesn't forbid its ministers to talk to us, we'll have dialogue. We will submit the budget to the prime minister, and I suggest to Benny Gantz that I present them to him as well, and then to the cabinet. No process could be quicker or more professional."

"The question of the budget has become a bargaining chip for the rotation for Blue and White. It turned out that after all the formulations in the coalition agreement, they forgot to close the loophole of dissolving the government over the [lack of] a budget. So they are focusing on it. Suddenly they become experts on the budget, suddenly they know that we need a two-year budget. It's all nonsense. I'm the finance minister, I present the budget. Want a political argument? Please, have one."

Q: Why didn't you present a budget in August?

"The coalition agreement that was signed about presenting a budget in August wasn't realistic."

Q: Will there be a compromise that will avoid an election?

"If that doesn't happen, it will be solely because of an internal political dispute in Blue and White.

Q: What do you think about Yamina gaining traction in the polls?

"It's natural. The people are right-wing. The government is leading the handling of the COVID crisis, which includes both public health and economic aspects. There are a lot of difficulties, and naturally the bitterness works for the opposition. But we aren't holding an election yet. If there is one, things will change.

"I also think the Left will find a candidate [for prime minister] and the election will be between two camps. The first time, Yamina didn't make it past the minimum electoral threshold, and then they changed their leadership, and ended up with six seats.

"Naftali Bennett should have joined the current government and needs to be a partner in the next one. He might have more than the six seats he got in the last election, there were Likud satellite parties that had more seats than that. They're a satellite party, not an alternative to a Likud government. The better Bennett defines things for himself, the better he'll do in an election. Since 1977, the Right hasn't had an alternative besides the Likud. Either we lose, and the Right stays in the opposition, or we win, and the head of Likud is the prime minister."

Q: You've declared a few times that you want to be prime minister. Do you still want to?

"Yes. The day Netanyahu steps down, there will be a race for leader of the Likud. I've held nearly every job – transportation minister, foreign minister, finance minister. I have the experience and I have the ability.

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"If there is no budget, we'll go to elections," Gantz warned.

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"I'm not willing to be held hostage to anyone's political situation. I will not accept a government that does not collaborate, does not function. My priorities lie with the State of Israel, not with myself," the former IDF chief asserted during a Blue and White faction meeting.

Israel has not had a national budget for almost an entire year, a situation Gantz's party wishes to end promptly. "If we don't see this happening... we will examine another path to tread on."

Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi, also from Blue and White, however, took a more moderate tone on Tuesday, writing on Twitter: "Netanyahu still has time to change and work with us as partners. If Netanyahu doesn't come around – enough is enough, it's over. There's no point."

Finance Minister Israel Katz (Likud) slammed Blue and White over "attempts at blackmail."

"All blackmail attempts by Blue and White and the attempts to link budgets to politics are unacceptable to me. I am personally in favor of stability and the existence of the government, but not in this way," Katz railed.

"I reject their ultimatum outright and I say, do you work for the country or for your political considerations? Do you want elections? Then I will make sure there are elections. We are not afraid… we will beat them again," he threatened. "But it is not in the interest of the state to hold elections. They should straighten up and act for the sake of the citizens of the State of Israel."

Meanwhile, a new Channel 13 poll on Tuesday showed Netanyahu's Likud party losing ground to former defense minister Naftali Bennett's Yamina Party.

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"I'm not worried about the polls," Netanyahu said on Monday following the Yamina's successful showing. "I never do well in the polls, only on election day," Netanyahu told Israel Hayom.

Swiping at the former defense minister, Netanyahu added: "I noticed that Bennett sided with [Yesh Atid Chairman Yair] Lapid in the no-confidence vote against the prime minister. He should decide if he's right or not right. I think that astonished a lot of people; it astonished me as well. I can understand a vote to disperse the Knesset, but to vote for Yair Lapid as prime minister? A brotherhood alliance.

"I said the moment we impose a lockdown, we will have preceded Europe and it would follow in our footsteps. That's what happened. You won't hear that on the news, not a chance. They'd rather run stories on Antarctica, about finding three penguins there," he said.

The Channel 13 poll showed Yamina with 24 mandates and the Netanyahu-led Likud with 27. The poll also showed Yesh Atid-Telem headed by Lapid with 21 mandates. The Blue and White and Yisrael Beytenu parties stood at eight mandates apiece.

United Torah Judaism received seven mandates, Shas received eight and Meretz six. According to the poll, the right-wing-Haredi bloc has 66 mandates, compared to 54 seats for the center-left bloc together with Yisrael Beytenu. The polls also showed four parties failing to pass the electoral threshold: Labor, Derech Eretz, Habayit Hayehudi and Gesher.

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The chains are throwing their weight behind an initiative by small, independent business owners who last week decided to resume operations in defiance of the government's lockdown.

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The ARFCC member businesses will open nationwide, with the exception of cities and towns coded red under the Health Ministry's stoplight plan. These cities include but are not limited to Ofakim, Or Yehuda, Elad, Ashdod, Beit Shemesh, Betar illit, Bnei Brak, the red neighborhoods of Jerusalem, Kiryat Malachi, Rechasim, and Ramle.

The planned opening will apply to member stores located on city streets as well as in shopping malls and open-air shopping centers.

The shopping malls run by the Azrieli and Ofer corporations are not included in the list of businesses that plan to open.

The association assesses that some 35% of member businesses, or approximately 6,300 shops, will open their doors.

"Many city leaders have instructed their city inspectors not to fine these stores. In a number of local authorities, inspectors have been furloughed to avoid them fining stores. We are in contact with city mayors and with owners of more shopping malls and shopping centers, so we can expand the number of stores that will open on Sunday, Oct. 18.

"We're drowning. We can't breathe. It's been proven that trade doesn't spread [the virus] – it's time to open!" the association said.

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Starting in March 2020, the unfolding coronavirus crisis began making itself felt in the Israeli economy and budget activity. It has had major effects both on government expenditures and government revenue from taxes.

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The deficit for the first nine months of 2020 has reached 102.4 billion shekels ($30.2 billion), compared to 31.1 billion shekels ($9.1 billion) for the same period of 2019. In the past 12 months, the national deficit has grown to 9.1% of the GDP. In September, the government brought in 23.9 billion shekels ($7 billion) from the local market, as well as raising half a billion shekels more abroad.

In September 2020, government expenditures totaled 43.2 billion shekels ($12.7 billion). Since the start of 2020, the government has spent some 300 billion shekels ($88.4 billion), 42.9 billion shekels ($12.6 billion) of which went to fighting the COVID crisis.

Government revenue for September 2020 totaled 28.3 billion shekels ($8.3 billion). Revenue for the first nine months of 2020 stood at 233.7 billion shekels ($69 billion), nearly 10% less than in the first nine months of 2019.

In related news, mandatory quarantines cost the economy 2.6 billion shekels ($767 million) in September, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee was informed on Monday.

In a meeting of the committee, a group of senior officials from the manufacturing sector led by president of the Israel Manufacturers Association Dr. Ron Tomer, threw their support behind an initiative from committee chairman MK Zvi Hauser to shorten quarantine for essential workers to 10 days, and quarantine for non-essential workers to 12 days.

The IMA presented the committee with figures showing that 7% of workers in essential sectors were in quarantine. The representatives told the committee that more than half of Israel's industrial companies had reduced output and that 48% were struggling to keep up with orders because of an employee shortage due to quarantine.

"Israel's system of quarantine is killing the economy," Tomer told the committee.

Economist Eyal Toledo of the Finance Ministry's Budgets Department told the committee that the ministry had updated data which indicated that shorter quarantine times would save the economy some 750 million shekels ($221 million) per month.

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"It also depends on technology we develop," Netanyahu said.

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"We are making a great effort to develop a vaccine for COVID. The problem is that there are 120 main entities that are also trying to. We are developing our vaccine at the [Israel Institute for Biological Research] in Ness Ziona, but it will take time. There are three or four companies that have gotten there, but all the countries are standing in line. When I'm trying to do, along with the Health Ministry, is use our special difficulties to try and move us up in line, so the citizens can get vaccines in time. I'm pretty optimistic," the prime minister said.

Netanyahu said that the government would decide on when and how to ease the lockdown according to a gradual plan that would be agreed upon and evaluated.

"Reverting to this situation is difficult because we see all the criticism, but the right decisions must be made," he told faction members.

On Monday, the Knesset began its winter session amid bitter coalition infighting as well as the COVID crisis.

At the plenum's opening session earlier Monday, Netanyahu, President Reuven Rivlin, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin, and Opposition leader Yair Lapid all spoke. Due to COVID, there were no guests other than President of the Supreme Court Justice Esther Hayut.

The Knesset was due to vote on a no-confidence measure in Netanyahu proposed by Yesh Atid. To pass, 61 MKs must vote for it.

However, Blue and White would not be voting in favor of the no-confidence measure, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said.

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"It's a public relations move and not an action that has a chance. However, the loss of the public and the leadership's trust should be a warning light to the prime minister and the cabinet members," Gantz said.

Gantz also insisted that a budget for 2021 would be passed in December.

Lapid spoke at a meeting of his own Yesh Atid-Telem faction on Monday, saying that any MK who didn't vote in favor of his no-confidence measure was a "coward."

"I'm sorry, I don't have a gentler word for it. This government is incapable of handling the [COVID] crisis. This prime minister has failed to handle the crisis. Anyone who knows that and doesn't vote no-confidence is simply a coward," Lapid said.

"The Blue and White people know this government has failed. That's not a political statement. The numbers prove it. Unemployment proves it. The resignation of all the upper echelon of the Treasury proves it. The public doesn't have a scrap of faith in the government. There is no chance of this government handling public health and the economy properly. Gantz and [Foreign Minister Gabi] Ashkenazi are saying that. [Naftali] Bennett is saying that. [Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor] Lieberman is saying that," Lapid said.

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The group includes some 60,000 business owners from all parts of Israel. Barelko explained that while business owners had understood the need for the first lockdown, in March, the government had failed to help them and not provided them with any financial assistance.

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"They tried all sorts of tricks and did everything possible to give businesses a hard time," Barelko said.

"I'm not a COVID denier and I'm not talking about opening up event venues, but opening small businesses so people can put food on the table. By the end of this year, 100,000 small businesses will close – the most serious illness is the economy. People are losing homes, there's no vision, no exit plan, and no help," he added.

"Therefore, we are protesting and we'll open on Sunday. The ones who decide if that's legal or not are the courts. I sent a letter to the prime minister and haven't gotten an answer. We need to give people hope," Barelko said.

When Israel Hayom asks Barelko if the business owners are afraid of being fined, he responds, "Most businesses open today are doing it underhandedly. Cafes have become 'bakeries,' stores have become convenience stands. We'll bring whatever fines we get to court."

Sagi Blank, a dog trainer from Rishon Lezion, intends to go back to work on Sunday.

"In my field, there are people who really need our services. Scared of fines? I'm scared my landlord will throw me out on the street."

Amir Rotem, who owns the Pundak youth hostel in Jerusalem, has a café up and running, as well as a gallery and a dance club.

"I intend to operate symbolically," Rotem says. "I'll sell frozen margaritas and toasted sandwiches at the entrance. It's more a matter of rebellion than revenue, because right now my debt is sky-high."

Attorney Roee Cohen, president of LAHAV - the Israel Chamber of Independent Organizations and Businesses, said in response to the business owners' planned action that "Small businesses are being held hostage. Again, the government [on Wednesday] voted to keep a decision in place to close small businesses with up to 10 workers that don't have contact with the public, while dozens of people are allowed to gather in enclosed spaces. There is no reason for this bizarre decision."

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