Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is home alone. No one there to tell in the evening about the toil of governing. Nobody who just listens when they want to talk about the dangers of the new Omikron variant. The family flew abroad for the Hanukkah vacation – and in addition to the domestic loneliness for the head of government, this vacation trip led to the first major political upheaval since he took office six months ago.
Because this recreational trip of his wife Gilat and the four children does not at all fit in with the politics of the prime minister, who immediately switched to alarm and isolation when the new coronavirus variant appeared. Before the mutant even had a name, he conjured up a national emergency last week at a hastily called press conference shortly before the start of the Sabbath. Around 50 African states were immediately placed on a red list of bans and Israel’s recently reopened borders were closed to the entry of foreigners.
Bennett shouted to fellow countrymen, “I don’t recommend going abroad at the moment. The government and citizens must now show responsibility and be careful.”
Quite a few Israelis changed their travel plans afterwards. But the fact that it was precisely his own family that did not follow the recommendation now gives the head of government at least one credibility problem, especially since in his opposition times he always liked to point out that politicians must set a good example.
Under Bennett’s leadership, Israel survived the fourth wave without a lockdown
Stories from the rubric “preaching water and drinking wine” were known enough from the old leadership under Benjamin Netanyahu. Bennett and his coalition of eight very different parties, on the other hand, had come up with the promise to bring more reason, objectivity and transparency into government action.
Bennett himself has to work particularly hard to earn the trust of the citizens, because his Jamina party only has six of the government camp’s 61 parliamentary seats. The successes of the first few months had given him a boost – the adoption of a state budget, even more the handling of the fourth corona wave. Under Bennett’s leadership, she survived in Israel without a lockdown, thanks to a booster vaccination campaign that was initiated early on.
Bennett was just as determined to counter the omicron danger. It was spread with satisfaction that Israel is once again serving as a model for all others. For example, Chancellor Alexander Schallenberg, who was still in office, called from Vienna to get advice from his colleague in Jerusalem in times of danger. The motto: Israel warns, the world listens.
In Bennett’s familiar cosmos, listening didn’t work. It could be objected that the Prime Minister’s relatives do not hold any office and have a right to privacy, especially since traveling abroad is not illegal, but at most instinctual. But Bennett himself has repeatedly made private matters political – when he accompanied his mother to the booster vaccination for seniors or showed the nine-year-old son at the start of the children’s vaccinations.
Politically, Omikron got the prime minister hard
His attempts at justification now sound unfortunate. We have now “learned more about the variant and in which countries it has spread,” he said on Thursday. In addition, his family changed the travel destination. Mauritius was originally planned, but it’s on the red list. The new destination was not revealed. It was only assured that “all regulations and rules would be complied with”, including the new, three-day quarantine obligation for travelers returning.
Bennett does not escape the accusation of double standards. From within the opposition, the former Likud minister Israel Katz blasphemed about “political lies that are becoming the norm”. And even in his own cabinet, the minister responsible for communications, Joaz Hendel, criticizes Bennett as setting a “bad example”.
So politically, the Omikron variant got the prime minister hard. And the government is starting to soften the initial rigid measures. The cell phone monitoring of potential virus carriers by the domestic secret service, which was ordered in the initial excitement, was discontinued after a few days. When it comes to travel, too, Bennett seems to be sensitive. The TV broadcaster Channel 12 reports that the head of government is considering postponing a business trip to the United Arab Emirates planned for this month due to the Omikron uncertainties.