ToI Community update: Editor’s note: Why Netanyahu, Gantz should fire third of the gov’t * ABOUT TO START: Exclusive Horovitz webinar * Podcast: Big Brother during COVID

[The Times of Israel]( Dear ToI Community members and Daily Edition readers, In retrospect, it would appear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cheerful [advice]( to Israelis six weeks ago to “go out and get life back to normal, have a cup of coffee… drink a beer… have fun,” was, to put it mildly, premature. The country’s new infection figures have [risen]( higher in recent days than at any previous point in the battle against COVID-19. A key senior health official yesterday [warned]( Israel is now on a “dangerous path” and quit. A top adviser to the government on Sunday [lamented]( that Israel has “lost control of the pandemic.” We don’t appear to have a clear strategy for [testing](. We don’t even have nationally agreed [criteria]( for when to classify patients as being in serious condition, a lacuna that renders core statistics unreliable. Our politicians, typically, are blaming each other. Police officers, in a [mounting toll]( of incidents, are intermittently tazering, beating up and even jailing people for the crime of not wearing their masks. In one notorious case, they terrified a young girl who was wearing her mask, but who had committed the sin of moving it to the side so she could sip a drink. The economy, as per Netanyahu’s May 26 “back to normal” advice, had begun to reopen, and businesses that had struggled through the first wave of the virus — but survived despite inadequate, incompetently administered and often misdirected grant and loan assistance — hoped the worst was over. Now, the economy is being gradually shuttered again, unemployment is at 21% and rising again, and still government assistance is lacking. In the most notorious proof of wrong-headed policy, the Fox fashion chain last month shamefacedly returned millions of shekels it had been allocated in government compensation — allocated presumably because its CEO led an aggressive campaign against officials — after it emerged that the self-same CEO is paying himself and his fellow shareholders a colossal dividend, so robust is the company’s financial health. Meantime, dozens of small business owners, in a [Zoom call]( initiated by Netanyahu yesterday, told him in tones ranging from fury to outrage to despair, that their companies are collapsing, they don’t know what to tell their workers, they aren’t sleeping, they can’t go on. Business owners participate in an online group videochat with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (2nd left, top row) on July 7, 2020 (screenshot: Channel 12) In a sign of how utterly out of touch our leaders have become, one of Netanyahu’s closest colleagues, MK Tzachi Hanegbi, haughtily [declared]( in a Friday night television interview for which he has since apologized, “This nonsense that people have nothing to eat is bullshit. Bullshit. There are a million people who, most of them, until now, have received unemployment payments… There are businesses that were hurt and they’re in serious distress. [But] saying ‘there’s nothing to eat’ is populism.” Hanegbi is one of the three dozen ministers in the largest, most bloated government in the history of Israel. His title? Minister without portfolio. As in, he has an office, a staff, a car. But no actual job — except, evidently, to go on television and insult the people who pay his salary by telling them they’re a bunch of liars and moaners. Talk show hosts Ofira Asayag (L), Eyal Berkovich (C) and Likud Minister Tzachi Hanegbi on the Channel 12 program “Ofira and Berkovic,” July 3, 2020, in which Hanegbi derided the notion that some Israelis have nothing to eat amid the COVID-19 crisis. (Screen capture: Twitter) Netanyahu was rightly [praised](, emphatically so by [this writer](, for the speed with which he recognized the dangers posed by COVID-19, for the alacrity with which he moved to seal Israel’s borders, for the wisdom of his early advice to focus on keeping the elderly and vulnerable away from infection, and for quickly instituting the tracking systems to send Israelis into quarantine if it turned out they had been in close, protracted proximity to a virus carrier. But plainly, Israel reopened too rapidly in late May, without the necessary strategic plan to prevent this unprecedented surge in contagion. Three key blunders, as cited by the former Health Ministry director general Gabi Barbash in a Times of Israel [interview](, were the decision to allow a resumption of large, high-density gatherings where the virus spreads most rapidly, the failure to put in place the necessary testing mechanisms, and the over-rapid reopening of schools, in a country notorious for packed classrooms of 30 kids and more. What’s most troubling as I write these lines is the concern that even amid this worsening crisis, there is still no clear strategy — not for reducing the spread of contagion which, unlike in April and May, is not centered on particular hot-spots but nationwide; not for testing, with the systems said to be overwhelmed; and not for economic relief, with endless buck-passing between the Treasury and the Prime Minister’s Office. Healthcare workers carry out testing at a Clalit health center in Modi’in, on July 7, 2020 (Yossi Aloni/FLASH90) Almost two months ago, the Knesset swore in an emergency coalition — more ministers than ever before, with a single overriding mission: tackling COVID-19. How about a third to a half of those ministers do the decent thing: Give up their ministerial jobs, go back to being ordinary Knesset members, and get on with that important work? How about the extra dozen-plus MKs who [entered parliament]( in recent days at still further public expense, under the so-called [Norwegian Law](, give up their seats and go back to the useful work they were doubtless hitherto doing outside parliament? And how about the remaining ministers stop bickering, get their heads down, and focus on bringing the virus back under control and ensuring the electorate has the tools to recover? This is an entirely serious three-part suggestion that, I submit, nobody could credibly deny would be beneficial. I challenge you, Prime Minister Netanyahu and [newly quarantined]( Alternate Prime Minister Gantz, to implement it, for the good of the people you battled — so tenaciously, through endless election campaigns — to lead. The people you swore so solemnly to serve. 🤝 NOW MORE THAN EVER: Join the ToI Community We are hugely appreciative that so many of you have been joining the Community, and thus helping finance the work of our reporters and editors. If you haven’t yet joined the ToI Community, [please do so now!]( All Times of Israel content remains open to all readers. But if that content matters to you, do please support us — for as little as $6 a month. 🖥 TODAY! ToI Community Webinar with David Horovitz Please join us today, Wednesday, July 8, at 2 pm in Jerusalem, 12 noon in London, and 7 am EDT for an exclusive Community-only webinar with The Times of Israel’s Founding Editor David Horovitz. We’ll discuss recent developments in the region, including rising cases of COVID-19, West Bank annexation, and Israel’s current political uncertainty — and David will answer questions from you, the ToI Community ([send questions here](mailto:sarah@timesofisrael.com?subject=Question%20for%20David%20Horovitz)). We know that this webinar will be very early for many of you, so we plan to provide a recording on our [ToI Community Facebook page]( — or [email us](mailto:sarah@timesofisrael.com?subject=Video%20of%20David%20Horovitz%20webinar) for a direct link to the video recording. Click the image above or the link below to join this webinar on Zoom: [JOIN ON ZOOM]( Password: 817210 🎧 ToI Podcast: Big Brother is watching us always. During coronavirus it’s stepped up As Israel appears to be on the brink of another coronavirus lockdown, on this week’s podcast we speak with Dr. Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler of the Israel Democracy Institute about surveillance methods used to track individuals infected with COVID-19. Tehilla heads the think tank’s Democracy in the Information Age Program and for the past several months has been the Cassandra railing against the Israeli secret service’s role in contact tracing Israeli citizens. It is a sobering conversation, with a troubling look at decision-makers’ technological illiteracy even as they bestow new, wide-sweeping authority on the Israeli secret service to track average Joes. Hear [this episode here]( — and be sure to subscribe to The Times of Israel Podcast on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever you listen. 🙋 Have something to say? We’d love to hear it! Join the discussion on the [ToI Community Facebook group](. Keep tabs on new content and events on our [Community Page](. And don’t hesitate to [write to us](mailto: community@timesofisrael.com) with any suggestions, issues or questions. 🙌 July perks for ToI Community members: - Israeli art live! Our friends at ArtSource are hosting an online studio visit with renowned photographer Daniel Tchetchik on July 19. We have FREE tickets for ToI Community members — just [click here]( and use coupon code ‘ARTSOURCETOI’ - Israeli art on your wall! Explore the gorgeous work of Israeli painter [Dina Kopelman]( and receive 10% off her prints and paintings. Use discount code ‘Summer Sale 2020’ - Whiskey! 15% off at [Milk & Honey Distillery](. Discount Code: timesofisrael_mh-distillery (Israel shipments only; discount on all but Distillery Exclusive Edition) - Beer! 10% off from [BeerBazaar]( ([English](). Discount Code: TOI-COMMUNITY - Giving thanks! 10% off any custom photo bencher at [Let’s Bench](. Discount Code: 10TOI - Judaica! A 15% discount at [Judaica Webstore.](Discount code: TOI_15 - Hebrew! A $100 voucher for a Hebrew course from[eTeacher.]( Be well, David Horovitz Founding Editor, The Times of Israel You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to The Times of Israel's Daily Edition and/or you are a member of [The Times of Israel Community](. If you would like to stop receiving these emails, please click below to unsubscribe. [Unsubscribe]( Email not displaying correctly? [View it in your browser](