Mid October 2020: Partial Opening After 2nd Wave in Israel

Israel began to reopen today after a month of extensive Covid-19 closures.  Not everything re-opened but the national parks and the beaches opened their doors.  It is probably fair to say that the  beaches were never really closed.  People were attending regularly and, for the most part, police were staying away.  There was an exception that permitted people to go to the beach (but not enter the water) for purposes of "exercising."  So where the police did happen to show up at the beach - groups of backgammon playing bong-smokers suddenly became super active - doing jumping jacks, push-ups and other exercises in the sand.  While the police officers watched and waited...

Another restriction that ended today prevented people from travelling more than  one  kilometer from their  homes.  Except for grocery shopping, drug store purchases, household  necessities, buying a lulav and  etrog, moving, helping a senior family member and a host of other reasons.  So the question here was not whether people were following the restriction but which of the many exceptions they could quickly come up with if stopped by the police at a roadblock.  Failure to come up with a legitimate reason quickly enough could result in a significant  fine.

Schools also opened up from JK to grade 6 across the country, even in "red" areas.  It seems unlikely that this will last for more than a week or two but I guess we will see.  The government opted to open everywhere rather than selectively for fear of acting in discriminatory fashion.  Many of the "red zones" are ultra-Orthodox ("Haredi") areas and the government did  not want to upset the Haredi members of its coalition.  So schools opened up everywhere.  This is likely to lead to a widespread increase in the infection rate which is now running at about 2,000 new infections per day.

Despite these rules limiting openings to elementary schools, the Haredim announced that they would open everything up, through grade 12 as well as Yeshivas for post-grade 12 age students.  They simply announced that they would not follow the rules and so far, the government has not taken any  official action to close these institutions.  We essentially have a "state within a state" in many parts of the country.

Mass demonstrations against the Prime Minister also resumed this week.  There were large scale  demonstrations near the official Prime Minister's residence on Saturday night as well as in Tel-Aviv. While many  of the protesters have been wearing masks, they certainly do not appear to be following social  distancing rules.  Last night, there were several accounts of violent attacks from pro-Netanyahu anti-protesters who showed up at the demonstrations to disrupt and beat anti-Netanyahu protesters.  As  of the writing of this blog, I have no concrete information about who is organizing the counterdemonstrations.  Hmmm....

I should mention, coincidentally of course, that one of Netanyahu's most senior cabinet ministers, Miki Zohar, the Deputy Prime Minister was the subject of a frightening radio interview this week.  Earlier in the week, some audio recordings had been mysteriously released.  The recordings contained discussions with the sitting Attorney General of Israel, Avihai Mandelblit, from many years earlier   The recordings had nothing to do with the current criminal charges against Netanyahu.  In the interview broadcast this week - Zohar threatened that several additional recordings would be  released and there would be an "earthquake of information" released about the current Attorney General if he did not drop all charges against Netanyahu.  When asked if he was making a threat he said "no I'm  making  a promise."   Now I may not be a criminal lawyer, but that certainly sounded like about as open and shut a  case of blackmail/extortion as one could possibly dream up.

In other news, how about some political polls?

On the home front, some new Israeli polls have shown a sudden and  dramatic drop in support  for  Netanyahu.  Current polls put him at about 27 seats (he currently as 36) and put Naftali Bennett at 24.  Overall, the right in Israel is still in position to win an election and form a government.  But there are suddenly options that this would be a different kind of government with substantially reduced power for Netanyahu.  In fact, there are options for a government to be formed that would exclude Netanyahu and the Likud party.  This is the first poll in several years that has shown that  as a real possibility.  At the same time, there is no election currently scheduled and we do not know when one will be called.  So it is all very hypothetical.  I remain skeptical but there are at least some signs that the landscape here may be changing.

In another poll, Israelis were asked about the upcoming U.S. election.  Apparently, 73% of Israelis indicated that they would  prefer Trump.   Among Orthodox and Ultra-Orthodox Israelis, the percentage  swelled to over 90%.  But when Israelis who self-identified as "centrists" or "leftists" were asked, they favoured Biden 55-45%.  So if the President loses on November 3, 2020 as some now expect, he might consider coming to Israel.   After all, Trump just said at a rally last week that he might "leave the country" if he  loses the election.  Maybe if he  loses, he will pardon himself and  come build a new golf course and hotel  complex  near Netanyahu's home in Caesarea.  The challenge for  Netanyahu is that unlike Trump he can't grant himself a pardon.   If Netanyahu loses the next Israeli election, he may have to spend a great deal of time somewhere other than on one of Trump's  golf  courses.   Say, a more confined location.

The weather  is still quite nice here.  So now that  national parks have opened up, a trip to one of them one day this week sounds like a really attractive idea.   We are anxiously awaiting the start of strawberry season over the next few weeks.  As you may know, fruit and vegetables are very seasonal and very local here.  The strawberries are fantastic but it is a fleeting season, lasting from  November through April, or maybe May.  But there are several different types of strawberries - juicy, very sweet and  quite unlike others that I have had, even  at the peak of the farmer's market in mid-summer in Toronto.  Jerusalem Artichokes (See photo above) are now in season so I tried making some soup this week with  a  bunch  of them and it was fantastic.  Recipes available on request.  And there are also some enormous and delicious mangos in season.  Or, of course, you can pick up a $25 pineapple...(ouch!).  

To round  out things, shopping malls, most other "non-essential" stores and restaurants, including outdoor patios, all remain closed even though the airport has reopened.  Travellers to Israel are required to quarantine for 2 weeks unless they are coming from "green countries."  But only travellers holding citizenship or having certain categories of family in Israel can enter the country in any event - and then only with advance permission.  That being said, some countries are  apparently willing to accept Israeli tourists - so there are flights leaving Israel for leisure purposes to Greece, Bulgaria and some other destinations.  No plans to join any of these flights any time soon.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week and the best of health.

Some Improvements in Israel and Some Ongoing Arguments

Israeli Supreme Court

Well here we are in May, 2020 and our Prime Minister is claiming victory over Covid-19.  Okay, not exactly, but at a news conference earlier this evening, he pointed out, repeatedly, how much better Israel has fared than many other countries with similar sized populations.  All because, he argued, Israel took very aggressive steps much earlier than these other countries.  He mentioned Italy, Spain, the United States and others.

Using various charts and  graphs, Netanyahu showed that Israel has seen a tremendous reduction in its infection rate, a reduction in the number of daily fatalities and a reduction in the number of seriously and critically ill patients.

It is true that the steps taken, largely at the behest of professionals working in the Ministry of Health, have helped Israel to fare reasonably well in comparison.  But it is unclear that this means that Israel can now open everything up and pretend that the virus has gone.  If there is a resurgence, everything will have to be shut down again quite quickly.  According to Netanyahu, it will take about two weeks to make that assessment.

In the meantime, the Israeli government has loosened many restrictions.  Malls and outdoor markets will be open on Thursday May 7, 2020.  Visits to see family members, including grandparents are now permitted - though "no hugging" is recommended.  Gatherings of up to 20 people are now permitted.  (Up until now, this was only permitted if it was an outdoor prayer service).  Weddings on Lag B'Omer may be permitted with up to 50 people - though it wasn't clear if the limit will be 20 or 50.  All students are expected to return to schools by the end of May.

People will still be expected to wear masks when they are out  and gloves are recommended though not mandatory.  We took a walk today around Ra'anana.  While there were some people without masks, we concluded that most people were complying.  In some shops, proprietors were following all of the restrictions diligently.  In others, things were a bit looser.  Okay, much looser....But the infection rate in Ra'anana has been reasonably low so it is fair to assume that many people here are following the rules.

Some other cities in Israel have been much harder hit, most notably, Jerusalem, B'nei Brak and some other areas. However, it does appear that things are improving somewhat in most of the country.  It remains to be seen whether this will be a blip or whether it will mark some genuine progress.  The Israeli government has indicated that if all goes well, it intends to permit  gatherings of 50 or more people  - for weddings, funerals etc., by June 17th.  Not sure yet what this will mean for restaurants - though it may be good news for those with outdoor patios.

Today also marked the second day of arguments before the Israeli Supreme Court over whether or not to permit the coalition deal with the Blue and White party to proceed.  Various groups  have brought petitions to the Court arguing against the deal.  I am not going to review all of the legal arguments but I will highlight a few of them.

Under Israeli law, a "Prime Minister" can serve even while under indictment for serious offences.  However, other MKs cannot continue in their posts and ordinary "Ministers" are required to step down if charged with certain serious offenses.  The new coalition agreement contemplates that Netanyahu would serve as the Prime Minister for the first 18 months and would then step down to a lesser position.  However, under current Israeli law, that would require him to resign altogether until the serious charges that he faces were resolved.  The solution that Netanyahu concocted is that he wouldn't still be called the "Prime Minister" but Gantz would be the "Alternate Prime Minister" who would effectively run everything after the rotation date.  But because Netanyahu would still be called the "Prime Minister" he would not be forced to resign.  Israel would effectively have two Prime Ministers which seems to go against Israel's quasi-constitutional Basic Law.  (Israel does not have an actual constitution). 

The Court chewed on this one for a while today.  Ultimately, some members of the Court suggested that they may delay deciding until it actually becomes an issue 18 months from now.  But Netanyahu's lawyers urged the Court to make a decision now.

The coalition deal would also require a freeze on all new appointments in government including a number of key positions which have been dormant for some time.  Netanyahu's lawyers argued that it was all because of Covid-19.  Some of the Supreme Court judges asked how the two were in any way related...For example, the President of the Court asked why Covid-19  would prevent the government from appointing a new Chief of Police.

I have to confess that, as a lawyer, I enjoyed watching a chunk of the arguments.  It was fascinating to compare legal discourse in Canada to that in Israel.  It was a very heated argument at times - and certainly the type of language that was used was much more colourful (and at times informal) than one might hear at the Canadian Supreme Court, most of the time.  My Hebrew is good enough to catch most of it though I probably missed some nuances, some references to previously decided cases and some other phrases common only in Hebrew legal usage.

From what I could gather, there is a strong reluctance on the part of the judges to interfere in the election process.  They do not want to be seen as overriding a democratically elected government formed though a back and forth negotiation process.  At the same time, they are wary of upholding laws that would violate the Israeli Basic Law and chip away at Israel's democracy and commitment to the rule of law.  Towards the end of the hearing, the justices signaled that they needed to hear further arguments about two key issues and gave the Likud lawyers 24 hours to amend the proposed law or put forward better arguments.  It would be really difficult, however, to predict what decision will follow that additional argument.

Changing the topic, the weather here is heating up and the big holiday of Lag B'Omer - national bonfire day (effectively) is approaching.  Beaches are not yet open but just about everything else will be soon - and reopen beaches cannot be too far off.   Many people are now out and about and there is a feeling of some optimism across the country.

For  many, however, a huge part of the Israeli economy is tourism.  So many businesses across the country rely on the tourism industry.  Hotels, restaurants, merchants, tour guides and so many others.  It is really unclear when Israel will be able to reopen its borders to tourists, when the airports will reopen and when things will really turn back to some semblance of normal.

But I suppose that is the same just about everywhere else.  We will all just have to hope that things improve dramatically everywhere, the sooner the better.  Wishing everyone the best of health.