Israel is the only country in the world that is less prepared for the second wave of coronavirus than it was for the first, opposition leader Yair Lapid said Monday at a Yesh Atid-Telem faction meeting.
The management of the coronavirus crisis is “a humiliating national failure, dangerous and without precedent,” he said.
“Netanyahu failed,” Lapid said. “The detached government isn’t functioning. Infection rates are increasing at dizzying speed. The economy is collapsing. Israel is listed in the world as a ‘red’ country. The world is telling us that the government failed in its handling of the crisis.
“You can’t cheat all of the people all of the time. You can’t cheat a sick person and tell them they are healthy. You can’t cheat someone with no money and tell them that they have money.”
Lapid lamented that the government was not differentiating between an arena and a community center in its limitations on congregating.
“By the time they correct their mistakes, a whole sector will collapse,” he said. “The Israeli public is furious because no one understands what the government wants. No one understands the instructions. No one understands why they announce financial packages that never happen and assistance that never comes.”
Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz told his faction: “The public has lost trust in the government’s decisions on the coronavirus because its decisions are based on politics and not on what is best for the public.”
He cited a decision by the cabinet to exempt yeshivot from key restrictions after an ultimatum from Construction and Housing Minister Ya’acov Litzman (United Torah Judaism).
“Decisions can’t be made based on threats of one MK or another,” Horowitz said.
Lapid reiterated what he said at Sunday’s Maariv conference, that if the situation continues as it is, there will be violence in the streets.
“People are furious, and they’re right to be furious,” he said. “This government needs to be put on unpaid leave – and quickly.”
Asked by The Jerusalem Post whether he believes the government will end up applying sovereignty to any land, Lapid said: “First, the prime minister should annex social workers, then self-employed workers. That is the only annexation we need now.”