It would be hard to say that the timing is perfect for Prime Minister Naftali Bennett to give an interview. The country is in the midst of a fifth, tough wave of COVID, even confirmed carriers don’t know what strain they have; the new quarantine guidelines for schools is causing controversy and confusion between the staffs of the education and health ministries; and a plan to compensate businesses is also being met with confusion and bitterness. But the Prime Minister’s Office has decided that perhaps because of all this, it’s time to set the record straight.
“I’m being interviewed at the peak of the pandemic, not when it’s behind us, to tell the public that everything is under control. When we see the end, we need to protect the elderly and the children,” Bennett tells Israel Hayom.
“Israel’s management of the Delta and Omicron wave is almost the best in the world, based on a sane Israeli model that on one hand doesn’t deny COVID – we already know it isn’t the flu and causes a lot of damage. On the other hand, I’m not rushing to pull the trigger on the lockdowns that were a key tool here last year. The model is to keep the economy running amid Omicron. We are almost first in the world in the extent of testing, and it works. We were the first in the world to bring in the Pfizer drug,” he says.
