Israel’s President Admonishes Government over Pandemic Strategy

Israel’s government is facing widespread criticism over the way it has been handling the coronavirus pandemic. Columnists and rank-and-file citizens alike note that following a series of inconclusive elections, disparate political forces were literally forced together into a bloated, unwieldy and backbiting “emergency” coalition to immediately address the pandemic – and it had blown the assignment, with new infections and deaths sharply up after a relatively good start several months ago. The situation has gotten so bad that President Reuven Rivlin, whose role is strictly ceremonial, leveled a harsh critique of the government, saying it was allowing political considerations to interfere with professional responsibilities. “To this moment, Israel has not developed a clear and coherent strategy to confront the virus,” Rivlin charged at a graduation ceremony for National Security College cadets. “We have no single body in place to coordinate the information, the response… or the conversation with the public.” On Thursday, 1,231 new cases were reported, an all-time high.