At the start of the Monday meeting of his Coronavirus Cabinet, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed what he considers a serious problem, leaks:
First of all, I would like to start with the grave incident of the recording of a Corona Cabinet meeting that was broadcast in the media. In all my years as Prime Minister, I do not remember such a thing, neither from a Cabinet meeting nor from the Corona Cabinet, a discussion with the head of the Shin Bet. This is very grave.
This cannot be ignored. I ask all the relevant authorities, including the Attorney General, to enable a thorough investigation. We cannot allow such a thing to take root. We cannot allow this to recur.
Moving on, the PM said:
Beyond this, we are facing a systematic increase in morbidity. We see this not only here, but I regret that we also see it around the world. Various countries have already been forced to deal with this, and we here in Israel as well. Today, we will be presented with outbreak scenarios, but also the recommendations of the team of director generals that I specially convened yesterday, from the ministries of most of the ministers here, in order to bring to us recommendations for action.
Among the possible actions that we will discuss are a dramatic increase in enforcement – including increasing fines, having a centralized enforcement authority under the Public Security Ministry, and mobilizing additional forces for inspection and enforcement.
Second is the use of digital tools. We know that this is a problematic issue, but on the other hand, we know that it has contributed greatly to reining in the pandemic. We will see how we can overcome the problems in order to achieve a lowering of morbidity.
Third is local shutdowns, which is a tool that we have already used in order to forestall broader general shutdowns.
Fourth is things related to restricting gatherings – a very sharp step. I suggest that we consider it. We will see if and when it is needed. And, of course, it has consequences for certain actions that we have approved. We will see if we need them. These are the main headlines, but there are certainly other issues.
