4,3,2,1 Earth Below Us
We are headed for our fourth election. Last week the government in Israel dissolved after Netanyahu did not keep his promise of passing a budget.
Big shocker.
I am sure Bibi was thinking that in the worst case scenario he forces the country to another election, and still end up with the same amount of seats.
So he decided to pull Benny Ganz along and didn't keep any of his commitments.
He had no downside.
Then, Gideon Saar, decided to form his own party , taking some senior Likud members with him including Zeev Elkin, one of Bibi's most trusted advisors and staunchest supporters. Elkin got up on national TV and said he could no longer support Bibi as Bibi no longer cares about the country and is only interested in keeping himself out of jail.
So will March 23rd be the end of Bibi?
I doubt it. Just like President Trump, Bibi has a core of voters that will stick with him no matter what. This core will give him a minimum of 25 seats , making it almost impossible for a government to be formed without him.
Stay Tuned.
We are also in the midst of our third lockdown. The number of confirmed Corona cases is over 5500 a day, which is a lot for us. The problem is although we are in the fourth day of the lockdown, I see absolutely no change in people's behavior. It is true that I do not go out to much but, in any case, the traffic seems the same and people are out and about.
We still have 15-20 people in the synagogue every morning ( although the legal limit is 10).
They were planning to make the preschools close at 1 pm ( instead of 5 pm) but the parents basically said no, and the government relented. This worked out well for me.
This time, the entire family didn't have to move in here for a few weeks.
Have I mentioned I like quiet ?
Everyone has had it. Although the numbers are going up, people are tired of the lockdowns. They feel that the lockdowns might be politically motivated and they do not trust the governments motivations anymore. I think it is the same it many places but it is a bad situation to be in.
There was a fellow in the synagogue who said last week that we would need to keep within the 10 person rule. I took a poll of those that were present and we decided we would take the risk of 15 - 20 people. The guy got upset and said that it would be against the law. I told him he would have to do what he felt was right.
He comes everyday.
I am usually not one to flaunt the law but how can a shul that holds 250 people have the same occupancy restrictions as one that holds 20
That is the crux of the problem. Everyone has an excuse for their own bad behavior because a lot of the rules don't make sense and people are not that stupid ( most of the time)
Speaking of bad behavior, It seems that a Haredi owned chain of medical centers was offering to inoculate people in NY before those who were supposed to get the vaccines first. Hundreds of people got the first shot (of 2) before the government shut it down. The owners of the centers said they were following the rules.
We will see.
In any case, I was wondering what those people who got the first shot are going to do about the second? Pretty sure they just got sent to the back to the line.
At least it seems that people in the Haredi community in NY are willing to take the shots. Here also , with the permission and encouragement of most of the important rabbis , the community is taking the vaccine. There was a lot of talk that rumors about the vaccine were going to keep Haredim away but it seems they deem the vaccination important
Perhaps that is because of the horrible statistic I read, that I really hope is not true.
1 out of every 132 Haredim over the age of 65 died of Covid in Israel.
This is a numbing number.
It is more than 3.5 times the amount of the regular population.
Some will say that this was due to the crowded living conditions of that community, that there was very little that they could do, but I would have to think keeping yeshivas open in defiance of the law and hosting weddings with 5000 people couldn't help.
I am now just waiting for one of the wacky rabbis to give an excuse as to why the morbidity rate of the Haredim over the age of 65 is so much higher than the rest of the population.
I am sure that will be interesting.
I will finish up by telling you something you might already know.
Israel is number 1 in vaccinations per capita in the world. They are going so fast that there was talk that they may run out next week but it seems Moderna is shipping in one million doses of their vaccine to keep us going.
I have decided to take the vaccine, even though I heard some hypothetical things that could maybe , someday , possibly, be a problem.
My son in law pointed out that it was weighing that information against the fact that you know for sure Covid can kill you
He put some clarity to the issue.
I will take the shot as soon as I can get it. I want to plan a vacation ( Seychelles??) and get out of here for a while.
This has been a prolific year for me having written almost twice as many posts as I did in 2019. I want to thank those of you who are still reading and I hope your look into my head is still entertaining you.
Happy secular New Year