Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was interviewed by the major media over the weekend as the fifth wave of the Corona plague continues to hit hard, and omicron morbidity in Israel continues to rise. “I am being interviewed at the height of the epidemic and not when it is behind us, to tell the public that everything is under control. When you see the end on the horizon, you have to keep the adults and the children,” Bennett said at the beginning of the interview with Israel Today.
“The management of the delta and omicron wave in the country is conducted almost in the best way in the world, according to a sane Israeli model who on the one hand does not deny Corona, we already know that it is not flu and many damages. On the other hand I am not in a hurry “Economics alongside the omicron. We are almost world-class in terms of testing and it works. We are the first in the world to bring Pfizer’s drug.”
As is well known, Israel is in first place in terms of infections. Bennett said: “We are the first with the fourth booster that has now proven itself, and saves lives. With the world’s strongest program for the preservation of the elderly, ‘Magen Avot’. This is the Israeli way – initiative, action, not to send everyone home but to run the economy.”
“I do not deny, there is a tsunami here”
Many parents do not go to work because their children stay at home due to isolation or infection, and overall feel that a worker has a closure, even if it has not been announced so. “I do not deny, there is a tsunami here,” Bennett replied. “I said in advance that we would reach 20,000 and 50,000 verified per day. We were well prepared as a government, we fully compensate the parents for this loss. We increased the payment per day from NIS 430 to NIS 570. All Israeli children will be tested twice a week. It is an extraordinary tool for fighting the plague. “
The prime minister does not regret the book he wrote while sitting in opposition, “How to beat an epidemic.” “In fact, everything I preached to him I do. I said not to go to closures but to tests. I said a hundred thousand tests, they said it was imaginary, but here we are already at 400,000! I said to keep the old people – we run ‘Magen Avot’; when I took office “Everything was dismantled, I said we needed monitoring tools and inserting technology and I installed many dozens of sewer monitoring points. In fact I realize exactly the concept. Whoever wants hysteria – will not get it with us. In this government you really get up in the morning and come to work, do it for seven months.”
(August 2020, Bennett in the Knesset: “Israeli citizens die from within. Israeli ministers, wake up!”)
“I am right, and my positions have not changed”
Are you still right? Bennett was asked, and replied: “I am right-wing, and my positions have not changed. I continue to oppose a Palestinian state and stand up for ours. Even right-wingers sometimes come to me and say, quietly, this is a good government. We agree on 70 percent of the things in government. I feel that this government is really a rescue. “
“At the same time, I say to the right-wingers: ‘Look – the prime minister is a right-wing man.’ I can not answer that the State of Israel has only one capital, Jerusalem, and it belongs to only one state, Israel.
Recently, Defense Minister Ganz met with the head of the Palestinian Authority at his home in Rosh HaAyin, and Foreign Minister Lapid met with the Palestinian Minister of Civil Affairs. “As long as I am prime minister, there is no Oslo, and if there is Oslo, there is no government. I oppose a Palestinian state and also do not allow political negotiations on the line of a Palestinian state.”
“I will not meet anyone who persecutes IDF soldiers in The Hague and transfers money to murderers. My partners – both Ganz and Lapid – have different positions than me. They represent the positions of the left, and it is legitimate as long as we act in the common denominator we have established. “
On the very meetings with Palestinian officials, he said: “No. My predecessor also met Abu Mazen more than once, and more with Palestinian flags in the background. This is not the end of the world. I do not judge my partners, I allow. They have no authority to move in the political sphere. They speak. Economy and I are in favor of strengthening trade between the Palestinians and us. “
“To carry the staff of the emissaries of the leadership of the Jewish state. It is not obvious to me”
At the end of the interview, the prime minister summed up the beginning of his tenure and said what he enjoys: “Saturdays are calm, it is stability and normalcy and in this sense my home is a real fortress. The family absorbs, but I am completely satisfied with the move. “We are an effective government, and that is the greatest privilege I could dream of – to carry the cane of the emissaries of the Jewish state leadership. It is not obvious to me.”
“These days, 80 years ago, a Vanza conference was held. The Germans systematically planned the assassination of the Jewish people. My lesson is that the country should be protected with its nails. Therefore, even if I pay a heavy price, it is a price I pay with understanding.”
(The Knesset approves the formation of the 36th government)