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April 6 2020 Israel and the Middle East News Update Monday, April 6 Headlines: • Cabinet Decides Lockdown in 8 Cities, Jerusalem Areas Amid Passover • Israel Seals Off Ultra-Orthodox Town Hit Hard by Coronavirus • Israel's Number of COVID-19 Cases Rises to 8,430 • Bennett Demands Defense Ministry Take Over Virus Battle from Health • Gantz Asks Rivlin for More Coalition-Forming Time • Eyeing Positions in Likud Govt, Labor Asks to End Left-Wing Alliance • PA Bans Israeli Goods to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus • Ex-IDF Generals: West Bank Annexation Could Cause Collapse of PA Commentary: • Ma’ariv: “‘An Appeal to Netanyahu: Health Ministry Versus the Scientists” - By Ben Caspit, commentator at Ma’ariv • Ha’aretz: “Who Needs Doctors When You Have an Army?” - By Raviv Drucker, commentator at Channel 13 News S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace 633 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, 5th Floor, Washington, DC 20004 www.centerpeace.org News Excerpts April 6, 2020 Times of Israel Cabinet Decides Lockdown in 8 Cities, Jerusalem Areas Amid Passover The cabinet early Monday adopted decisions to allow the government to close off several cities and neighborhoods across Israel and the West Bank to combat the spread of the coronavirus and also step up economic assistance to the battered economy. The cabinet, which met via telephone, authorized a ministerial committee to declare various areas in Israel with high infection rates as “restricted areas,” and gave the same powers to the Israel Defense Force commander in the West Bank. The cabinet statement, issued after midnight Sunday, did not say who the members of the committee would be. See also “Gov't to extend lockdown to more cities facing severe outbreak” (JPost) Reuters Israel Seals Off Ultra-Orthodox Town Hit Hard by Coronavirus Israel put up roadblocks on Friday to seal off an ultra-Orthodox Jewish town badly affected by the coronavirus, but ordered in soldiers to support the residents. Emergency regulations approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s cabinet late on Thursday declared Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv, a “restricted zone” due to its high rate of infections. The new designation allows authorities to tighten curbs on public movement. Police units, wearing surgical masks and gloves, moved swiftly early on Friday to cordon off major intersections around the town and enforce the new rules.“Bnei Brak is on lockdown, as of this morning, and police will prevent any movements in or out of the city,” police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. “People are only allowed in or out for medical reasons or medical support.” See also “Preparing for Passover Amid the Chaos and Bewilderment That Is Life in Bnei Brak” (Ha’aretz) Ynet News Israel's Number of COVID-19 Cases Rises to 8,430 Health Ministry confirmed Sunday that the total number of COVID-19 cases in Israel currently stands at 8,430. A 98-year-old woman, with multiple complex background ailments, passed away on Sunday at Shaare Tzedek Medical Center in Jerusalem from coronavirus related complications, raising the national death toll from COVID-19 to 49. Of the patient toll, 139 people are in serious condition, including 106 patients on ventilators, while 182 people remain in moderate condition. Another 7,515 people have mild symptoms and 546 have made a full recovery. Hospitals are treating 763 patients, while 5,234 people are fighting the virus at home. Another 744 people are currently in specially designated hotels and 1,094 are awaiting a decision on whether they will be treated. Times of Israel Bennett Demands Defense Ministry Take Over Virus Battle from Health Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said Saturday that management of the coronavirus pandemic should be transferred immediately to his office and the Israel Defense Forces below it. “If we want to cope with this [pandemic], if we want to reopen the Israeli economy, then all responsibility for managing the coronavirus crisis — from A to Z — must be transferred to the IDF and the Defense Ministry as quickly as possible,” Bennett said. “We’re in a war. We’re in a tough biological war, against nature,” he told Channel 12. “But it’s a war with colossal logistics. With a million elderly peopleThe Health Ministry should help determine policies. But it’s not designed as an operational hierarchy, he said. 2 Jerusalem Post Gantz Asks Rivlin for More Coalition-Forming Time Blue and White leader Benny Gantz called President Reuven Rivlin on Sunday and asked for an additional two weeks to form a government. Gantz’s mandate from Rivlin is set to end on April 13 at 11:59 p.m. But by law, Rivlin can extend it to April 27, and no president has ever rejected a request for an extension. Rivlin responded that he would consider Gantz’s request closer to the deadline, based on the circumstances and the progress in the negotiations at the time. Gantz’s request ended hopes that a deal could be brought to the Knesset for a vote on Monday. Instead, the Knesset will only approve the agreement and the accompanying controversial legislation after it returns from Passover recess. The Likud and Blue and White exchanged three or four drafts of the agreement on Sunday and were set to negotiate again late at night. See also “Gantz to Ask Rivlin for Extension in Forming Government” (Ha’aretz) Ha’aretz Eyeing Positions in Likud Govt, Labor Asks to End Left-Wing Alliance Israel's Labor Party submitted on Saturday a formal request to dissolve its short-lived alliance with left-wing Meretz, effectively clearing Labor's way to join a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, alongside Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan. The anticipated move drew harsh criticism from Meretz Chairman Nitzan Horowitz, who said Labor's Amir Peretz has "abused the trust of hundreds of thousands of voters, crawling into the arms of the defendant from [the Prime Minister’s Residence on] Balfour Street for a job in a right-wing government." Horowitz also called Labor members to join forces with his party "to form a clear, decisive alternative to right-wing rule." See also, “Labor head ends merger with Meretz, in move toward joining government” (TOI) Jerusalem Post PA Bans Israeli Goods to Prevent Spread of Coronavirus The Palestinian Authority decided on Sunday to ban the entry of all types of Israeli goods and used items into Palestinian markets in the context its effort to curb the spread of coronavirus. In the past, the PA banned the entry of settlement products into Palestinian markets. The decision, issued by PA Minister of National Economy, Khaled al-Osaily, forbids the distribution and sale of Israeli goods and used materials of any kind in Palestinian markets.Osaily warned that anyone who violates the decision, which goes into effect on Sunday, would be held legally accountable. He also emphasized that his ministry, together with the PA security forces, has already been making an effort to implement a law that combats settlement products, which was approved by PA President Mahmoud Abbas in 2010. See also, “Palestinian Authority Minister Arrested for Alleged Illegal Activities” (Hamodia) Jerusalem Post Ex-IDF Generals: West Bank Annexation Could Cause Collapse of PA Partial West Bank annexation would ignite the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories and cause the PA to collapse, the nongovernmental group Commanders for Israel’s Security (CIS) warned over the weekend. “Unilateral annexation has the potential to ignite a serious conflagration,” the group said, adding that “any partial annexation is likely to set in motion a chain reaction over which Israel will have no control, leading to the collapse of the Palestinian security agencies and of the Palestinian Authority.” It issued its statement in an open letter to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz and his party colleague Gabi Ashkenazi. See also, “Are Netanyahu, Bennett preparing Jordan Valley annexation? (Al Monitor) 3 Ma’ariv – April 5, 2020 An Appeal to Netanyahu: Health Ministry Versus the Scientists By Ben Caspit, political commentator at Ma’ariv • Dear Mr. Prime Minister, I’m writing to you after another slew of conversations that I’ve held with many of the people who are fighting in the front-line trenches of the war against the coronavirus. People who are deployed in the hospitals, the clinics, the laboratories, our excellent research centers in the corridors of government. A single question has been asked by all of my interlocutors, like a recurring motif: Where is Bibi? How is it conceivable that the prime minister has failed to understand what is happening here? How is it conceivable that he hasn’t taken the necessary step, a step that should have been taken weeks ago, and hasn’t placed management of the coronavirus crisis in the right hands? • How is it conceivable that he has continued to allow a handful of civil servants, devoted though they may be—people who have never overseen an operation on this scale and who have continued to hunker down behind regulations, bureaucracy, protocols, ridiculous standards and requirements that are applicable when drafting tenders—to continue to oversee the management of this crisis? How is it conceivable that he has failed to understand that those civil servants are focused on trivialities while the Israeli economy is being devoured by a raging fire? How is it conceivable that he hasn’t realized that the only people in the entire world who fail to recognize the importance of mass coronavirus testing are those same civil servants? • I know that this is very hard for you to hear, Mr. Netanyahu, but Naftali Bennett is right. And he isn’t alone. Zeev Rotstein is right as well. And so is Gabi Barabash.
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