Do What I Mean, Not What I Say

I never knew that a world wide pandemic would give me so much free time. I guess I never thought about it before. This is my 5th post this month. I hope you don't feel that you are wasting your time reading them but I figure that you have a lot of time as well.

An Update.

Last week, Benny Ganz, decided that enough is enough and he announced he was forming a unity government with Bibi.

Pretty shocking.

The man who promised his voters that he would never sit in a government with Netanyahu, has made Bibi Prime minister once again.

Just last week the thought of entering into a coalition with Netanyahu was so abhorrent to him, he was willing to form a minority government with the backing of the Arab parties.

What a difference a week makes.

Ganz has said that he is doing this for purely altruistic reasons. He saw that his ability to form his minority government was no longer feasible and he could not bring himself to have the country go through a fourth election.

Besides the country is in crises.

It is well known that there is very little difference between the Blue and White party and the Likud. It was understood that a vote for Ganz was really just a vote against Bibi. Ganz didn't electrify his base. He only promised them that he would stop Bibi for being prime minister again.

Promises Promises.

We will now see Ganz disappear with the rest of the one hit wonders who promised things and couldn't deliver. He has proven that he is the political neophyte everyone said he was. Anyone remember the Center party?Moledet? Meretz? ( not a one hit wonder but soon to become forgotten)

Bibi has once again proved that no one plays the game as well as he does. He was even able to get the Labor party to join this grand coalition and was able to banish his only possible challenger from within his party, Yuli Edelstein , to political obscurity. He got Yuli to defy the supreme court and then effectively got rid of him.

Kol Hacavod. The man is a master of the game. He always ends up on the Iron Throne. Lord Baelish has nothing on this guy.

Thankfully , my candidate , Avigdor Lieberman is sticking to his guns and not joining the coalition.

A man of his word.

For now.

As shocking as all this is , it is not the only surprise here in Israel. It seems that the Corona-virus is running rampant in the Hardei communities. I read today that 50% of ICU beds in Israel with Corona patients are filled with members of the Haredi community although they make up less than 15% of the overall population.

Shocking.

The big quesiton is how did this happen?

I will tell you.

I once wrote about the concept of Daat Torah. This is basically a belief that the leaders of this community have a direct phone line to g-d, so they always know how to lead their people.

So how is it that 2 weeks ago, one of their main leaders said that bittul torah ( neglect of torah study) was more dangerous than the virus?

Perhaps he needs to call Bezek ( the phone company) and check the line because clearly he got that one wrong.

I have also read that there are those in the Hardei community that are saying that most Haredim are following the rules and that people are just using this as an opportunity to vilify them. Perhaps.

I do believe that most are following the rules.

The problem is that there are over 1.3 million Haredim in Israel . If 1% decide that they don't have to listen. That is 13,000 people.

You know what happens when 13,000 people that think that they are so pious that they need to risk their lives to pray in a quorum?

You have a situation where the percentage of new and serious cases of the disease hit your community harder than everywhere else.

It also means the disease spreads further and lasts longer for the rest of us.

It means that beds are being filled in the hospital by people who could have avoided it if they put their piety in check for just a second to think of the ramifications that their actions would have on others.

One second of clear thinking.

The only way we beat this is with Achdut ( unity).

I know many of you will say that it is not just the Haredim, others are also defying the lock-down

There are people at the beach and in cafes

That is true to an extent but not to the point that 50% of all new cases are coming from people who went to the beach. They are coming from people who are attending religious functions. Like the 400 who attended a funeral two nights ago in Bnei Brak.

The police were there but scared to do anything. How is that even possible? How did we let a minority group get so powerful that law enforcement is scared to enforce the law? If only there was a politician who would run for office and promise to change things.

Oy

This community ,who is known for listing blindly to its leaders, could have had the least amount of infections if only their leaders would have told their followers that for the safety of everyone they need to stay inside. ( they did eventually say that).

If those leaders would really understand the concept of Achdut, they could have not only saved peoples lives and shortened the length of this pandemic, they could have set an example for all of us on how to behave when the fate of everyone is at stake.

Isn't that the point?

What a wasted opportunity.

To think, all of this because no one checked to see if the phone line was working.