Prime Minister Netanyahu held A Sunday evening press conference together with Corona Commissioner Professor Ronni Gamzu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein regarding the upcoming lockdown that the government is issuing for all residents of the country. The Prime Minister began by praising Israel’s actions during the first wave of Corona back in the spring when Israel went on lockdown early and shut the economy down early.
The lockdown is now set for three weeks, with the potential to extend it. It is set to begin on Friday at 2:00 p.m. in order to give families time to prepare for Rosh Hashanah. The public sector will function in a scaled-down fashion similar to the way it did in March and April. The private sector will continue to work as usual under the purple standard, but without any receiving hours, aside from services that are deemed to be essential.
Health Minister Edelstein says the public will be allowed to gather and Daven on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, in a “very limited” fashion. The rules on public prayer have yet to be unveiled.
Excluded from the rules will be supermarkets, pharmacies, and deliveries, that will continue to work unabated.
Groups of up to 10 people will be able to gather in a closed room and 20 people outside. There will be a travel ban of 500 meters from one’s house, but sports will be allowed for people to perform on their own further away.
Netanyahu spoke about why the government is choosing to lockdown now. “I asked Professor Gamzu and others, when should the government wave a red flag, and they answered when the health system waved a red flag. The health system waved that flag on Thursday. High-ranking officials in the Health Ministry warned us that if we do not take drastic steps then we would be facing catastrophe.”
Netanyahu continued, “We are not talking about a crisis in terms of the number of beds or ventilators, but a crisis in terms of the amount of medical staff that we have on hand who can treat patients. We have added additional staff, but it is simply not enough to properly care for all of the patients who are in serious condition. They have also warned us about a sharp rise in the number of serious patients, which has brought us to a death rate that we have not seen until now. With winter coming, we will be facing a double threat of both Corona and flu season. Thus, we are preparing ahead of time. Both the doctors as well as the financial experts have said, that if we need to close down, the best time to do it is during the holidays, as the economy slows down now in any case.”
“This will not be the holidays that we are used to,” said the Prime Minister. “We will not be able to celebrate with our extended families.”
The Prime Minister added that the government is aware of the hardship that the lockdown will cause. “This will be hard on all of us. Many people will be harmed because of if, especially small business owners. I have instructed the Finance Minister to put together an aid package for everyone who will financially suffer from the lockdown and that will be done by Thursday.”
Netanyahu concluded by saying, “This is exactly the correct balance between worrying about people’s health and worrying about the economy. This lockdown is less stringent than the original one. It is our estimate that we will be able t achieve the desired epidemiological result as well as the economic one. I expect everyone to fall in line with the decision, and I ask that all of the citizens of Israel accept it.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
Is it not hard enough to have an epidemic ? Now the regime needs to impose a North Korean style police state on top of it ?
These measures do nothing. By now the truth is quite clear- this virus hits and does its thing no matter how much any government meddles with it.
The biggest outrage is that the Israelis themselves already tried this in March and it obviously failed. They should know better by now. But the nature of tyrannical regimes such as Israel is that instead of admitting defeat they simply double down.
My heart goes out to the poor suffering citizens who are literally being locked into their homes with no end in sight. It was probably not as bad even in Communist Russia at its worst. Rachmana litzlan.
I hope that a considerable number of people could at least leave that crazy country. The rest must be in our tefillos.
and I ask that all of the citizens of Israel accept it.” You are not asking; You are FORCING and not giving a choice, so don’t lie so close to the High Holidays.
Oh BTW:- When you Netanyahu fly back from Washington DC this week from a ceremony which could have easily been done virtual, you must practice what you preach & go into quarantine for 14 days, even over both R’H & Y’K.
What is this line? “It is set to begin on Friday at 2:00 p.m. in order to give families time to prepare for Rosh Hashanah.”
They are not giving us anything. How dare you make them look like anything but what they are, which are apikorsim.
The death rate in Israel (in prior years) in 5 per 1000 (lowest of any industrialized country). In the US the rate is 8 per 1000. Ten or eleven is common is many industrial countries. Even if total Covid19 deaths comes to 2000 in this year, that is 2000 our of 8 million, i.e. i in 4000. of the roughly 40,000 Israelis who would normally die, an extra 2000 is not a disaster, especially since many would have died anyways since Covid19 mortality is largely a function of age (sensational press to the contrary, young people rarely die). In addition, unlike plagues that have come throughout history, 95% of those “infected” do not get seriously ill. In fact, for young people, the annual is more deadly.
These in not now, nor was there ever, a need for lockdowns. The lockdowns and the panic are causing more damage than the disease ever did. Given the lack of scientific evidence supporting the lockdowns, one should ask for the political and social reasons motivating the politicians. Bluntly, there is no more scientific evidence for the Covid lackdowns than there was for Eugenics (which included Jim Crow and slavery in America, the Holocaust in Europe) or Lobotomy (a now discredited medical treatment that did win a Nobel prize).
This now raises the question of the attempt by the medinah to lockdown during yuntuf is in fact sufficient to create a status of “Shaat ha-Shmad” meaning one needs to be mediras nefesh (ready to die, and therefore read to fight if need be).
What about lockdowns on traffic and stores every shabbos.
I’m extremely happy that they’re going to lock down. Since it Will save a lot of lives
They should of did the lockdown 2 weeks ago!!
A lockdown will reduce the infection and death rates although no one knows by how much. The timing over the yom tovim will also minimize the impact on the economy since most of the population would have been home from work and school anyway for a good portion of the 3 week period. To all those who mindlessly say “there is no way to stop it” and “just let the virus run its course”, it is likely it will run right through you and yours.
Stevenn, I think you are dreaming. If lockdowns were effective in the long term, Israel should have been done with covid-19 2 months ago, why is it back? What will stop it from coming back in 2-3 months?
Lockdowns just prolong the pandemic by temporarily reducing/preventing virus exposure to vest majority of individuals that can easily survive it and develop immunity to it that will stop the community spread.
To date only naturally acquired “herd” immunity stopped pandemics. Vaccines usually always come out a year or two later, after the pandemic is already over, thanks to naturally acquired “herd” immunity.
It goes without saying that I feel the pain of being locked in and I hope we have a yeshua very soon but since we have the current circumstances, I’m very satisfied they made this decision to lockdown.
You know, it’s amazing how quickly we forget about people like:
– The Novominsker Rav, ZT”L
– Rav Yisrael Plutchok, ZT”L
– Rav Leibel Katz, ZT”L
and countless others, A”H, who were Niftar from COVID-19. Let me ask a simple question – if you had been told that, by following the Israeli government’s lockdown rules – which WILL allow for davening with a Minyan (albeit not necessarily your first choice of a Minyan) on Yamim Nora’im and Sukkos – you would have saved the life of even ONE of the three Gedolim I listed, would you have agreed to do so? If the answer is “no”, I think you need to do a major Cheshbon HaNefesh.
We have a Klal that we do almost anything – anything – for the sake of Pikuach Nefesh. Why are some of us so resistant to doing so now?
May HKB”H remove this Magefa from us quickly, and IY”H may we be Zocheh to “Techel Shana u’Birchseha”.
an Israeli Yid
a conan doyle – that was a horrible comment which you made. Which amazing country are you in that is better than Eretz Yisroel?
As someone who lives here, I need to stick up for our land.