How Netanyahu lost focus, and his coalition lost control, in fight against COVID
PM has always sought to sideline competing ministers and make all the decisions himself; that strategy served him well in the first wave of the virus, but then he got distracted
By HAVIV RETTIG GUR, TOI 19 July 2020,
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wears a face mask to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus as he chairs the weekly cabinet meeting, at the foreign ministry, in Jerusalem, July 5, 2020. (Gali Tibbon/Pool via AP)
The coronavirus pandemic arrived in Israel in mid-February. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seemed up to the task.
He led regular televised briefings announcing each new stage of social-distancing restrictions. At his side, each time, were top officials of the state bureaucracy, especially the directors of the Health and Finance ministries, Moshe Bar Siman-Tov and Shai Babad respectively.
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