https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Coronavirus-and-Israeli-electoral-ills-619929
It is unclear which achievement will come first: the formation of a solid, right-leaning government, or the coronavirus vaccine that dedicated, innovative Israeli scientists are busily developing.
The biggest news in the Jewish state this week should have surrounded the Knesset elections. Instead, it focused on a different cause for mass hysteria: the coronavirus pandemic.
Yes, while 16 people in Israel out of a population of nine million are suffering from what all report to be mild-to-moderate cold-like symptoms, the rest of the country is gradually being subjected to home isolation, increasingly stringent directives aimed at preventing the spread of the contagious flu, and panic-inducing warnings about the death toll certain to come.It’s one way to alleviate the nausea induced by the ills of the political system. After all, it was the third time in less than a year that we Israelis were called upon to go the polls. The first two hadn’t worked out so well where coalition-building was concerned.
The nationwide hope, laced with pessimism, was that Monday’s vote would put an end to the deadlock. The only question was which bloc – that of Prime Minister Benjamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, leader of Likud, or that of Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz – was going to garner enough mandates to establish a stable majority government.
Though the months following the September election were relatively sleepy from a campaign perspective – with a weary public loath to going through the whole process yet again – renewed energy entered the scene a couple of weeks ago, when Netanyahu suddenly surged in the polls.