Maj. Gen. Yossi Bachar, who was tasked in assisting the city of Beitar Illit in its battle against the coronavirus pandemic, ended his position on Thursday as the number of new coronavirus cases in the city dwindled to zero, Yisrael Hayom reported on Thursday.

“In the past five days there hasn’t been even one new confirmed case of the coronavirus in Beitar,” Bachar told Yisrael Hayom. “In the beginning, I felt like someone trying to move a mountain, completely unsuccessful. We can now say that we’ve succeeded.”

Bachar was called to the “battlefront” two weeks before Pesach. Beitar Mayor Meir Rubinstein who didn’t want Beitar to deteriorate into the same situation that Bnei Brak found itself in, turned to Interior Minister Aryeh Deri and requested “someone with experience and leadership ability.”

Bachar was actually originally tasked with assisting the city of Elad and then was switched to assisting the Bedouin population. “I was at the entrance to Rahat [a Bedouin town] when Deri called me,” Bachar said. “He connected me to Rubinstein. We spoke a few minutes before Shabbos and by Motzei Shabbos I was already stationed there.”

“I learned a lot about Chareidim in the past weeks,” Becher continued. “I discovered that they are modest people with derech eretz and respect for others. I needed to explain to people in Kibbutz Be’eri, where I live, that Chareidim aren’t who you think they are.”

Rubinstein told Yisrael Hayom that he feared a catastrophe in his city: “It was a very complex leadership experience. There were days that I feared we wouldn’t make it through safely. It required coordinating between the government ministries, MDA, the Kupot Cholim, the Homefront Command and other authorities.”

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)