200911
11th
of September 2020
Shalom
dear friends. I hope you are well and ready to celebrate Shabbat and a good
weekend – albeit without family gatherings but that will return.
Yes, we
are headed for another lockdown over the High Holy Days. Starting next Friday
we have stringent rules to ensure that our hospitals don't collapse under the
wave of Covid infections. I'm tired of those who believe that masks and
distancing are unnecessary; who babble on about dictatorship over the freedom
of people to infect whomsoever they wish (people who have no idea what it means
to live under a dictatorship); those who insist it is a problem of "the
religious", the usual name for anyone who believes and finally the refusal
of most governments to enforce the rules of engagement in this war on an enemy
far more deadly than Iran.
Professor
Ronni Gamzu has been against lockdown until now but seeing no option over the
holidays he has presented the Covid Committee with as open a solution as
possible. Of course it will not eradicate the disease from our land, but maybe
it will prevent hundreds, or thousands of new cases which will swamp the
hospitals which are in a state of near collapse because the government did not
prepare for or infuse sufficient funds to sustain the influx of patients. If
nothing else is learned from this pandemic it is which leaders are actually
leaders and those who just want to keep their seats.
Zvi has
an expression for the two major groups who ignore the Covid rules – "Those
who believe in G-d and those who have no god" The maskless parties, full
restaurants and bars, beaches and promenades, huge Hassidic weddings, the Arab
weddings and celebrity weddings; street parties without any limitations and all
of the above have caused people like us to fear every visit to a doctor,
supermarket or even walk in the street. They, both sides of the religious
divide, are the reason the system is collapsing and equally the reason that
because they used their political clout to control the PM we are now in a
situation which threatens the economy and our health. Interestingly enough
despite fears, the demonstrations against the PM have not produced Covid
positive people, probably because they tended to be very law abiding and mask
wearing – trouble is they did not produce positive political results either. https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israels-govt-to-decide-high-holy-day-restrictions-today-641816
Diplomatically
things couldn't be better! The Emirates, Kosovo, possible other links all of
which are claimed by leaders while in fact they are the result of many years of
hard work by the underpaid members of the Foreign Service! The fact that the PM
is flying to Washington next week for the signing of the agreement with the
United Arab Emirates has a bitter sweet taste when friends whose parents are
dying are not allowed to come into the country.
Attorney
General Avichai Mandelblitt was chosen for his position by Netanyahu because of
his reputation as a fair and honest broker in all things legal and his long career in the Israel Defense Forces legal system,
eventually serving as the Chief Military Advocate General. It fell to
Mandelblitt to oversee most of the case against the Prime Minister who has
consistently questioned the reliability of the police and judicial system
claiming political sabotage as the reason for his indictment. His attitude
toward the police and legal system have torn this country apart and
delegitimised both in the eyes of the ordinary man on the street. Mandelblitt sees Netanyahu’s inability
to juggle his positions as prime minister and criminal suspect as “essential
incapacitation,” so similar to the words used by Netanyahu when he challenged
Ehud Olmert. Olmert, however, had the moral intelligence to resign.
This
has been a strange week personally. My family, spread all over the world, had
to find a way to cope with our first major milestone since my son Daniel's
tragic death. Monday was his birthday and each of us found a way to celebrate
his life but accommodate our overwhelming sadness. Rachel and I went to the
beach to watch the waves break on the shore, Gideon and Philip chose pensive
quietude, and the New Yorkers went to Daniel's grave to allow the children to
share their chocolate treats with Daddy. Each in their own way, we separated
ourselves from politics and disease and thought only of a wonderful man.
Yesterday
was a typical Israeli day. Our air conditioning has been "on the
blink" for some time but since we will be moving within the next couple of
months we really didn't want to buy a new one. We "managed". However
the 40+ degree temperature in Jerusalem were not conducive to patient suffering
and after the 2nd bucketful of excess water we decided that the
situation could not continue and through a dear friend Zvi called Mohammed, an
airconditioning specialist. In the meantime I went across the road to our local
minimarket to buy a few essentials, came home to put them into the
fridge-freezer to find a lot of very soft ice lollies – yes, the fridge was
also "on the blink"!! After racing with some still frozen fish and
meat to the big freezer I called Yoel who promised to come immediately.
So,
here I was water leaking everywhere – from A/C and fridge – Yoel working to
save our old fridge, when Rachel called and her harassed mother responded
"I'm waiting for Mohammed" we giggled but then Mohammed arrived
together with Zvi and he was not only a delight but incredibly efficient and
solved the problem! As we sat together drinking lukewarm water on the veranda
we discovered that the chances are he played with Zvi's boys when they were
children – Mohammed in Juber Mukaber and Amiad and Leor in Armon Hanatsiv. In
the days before the 2nd Intifada the children used to share a
playground and played together happily. Darned politics.
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