Just yesterday, I think, the 10,000th person in Israel died from Corona.
Each and every one of them is a tragedy, especially for the family of the deceased, but also for their respective communities and for the nation in general.
That being said.
As we approached, and then hit the 10000th death, there were a lot of calls for introspection to see what we could have done differently, what the government should have done differently, to look at if the government is abdicating its responsibility to the people, if the green passport should have been canceled, etc.
I don't think that is fair. The vaccines have been available for anyone who wants them for a long time already. The government encouraged people to vaccinate and protect themselves. The government had a mask mandate in place to protect people who are vulnerable. The government set lockdowns and closures and limitations, and whatnot. For the past year or so, maybe even a little more, few people have been following the rules. Many people have refused to fully vaccinate. From what I read, most of the critically ill and dead of the past year were people not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated. That means they made a choice to not take the protection that was offered. Everywhere I go most people are not wearing masks, and havent been for many months, unless they are absolutely forced to (such as in many supermarkets still) and even then they try to get away with as much as possible after walking through the door and passing inspection. The green pass was only enforced in few places, if at all, and many people refused to play along with it at all.
We can go on and on, but at the end of the day the governments of Israel, the current one and the previous, have done pretty much everything they could to protect the people from getting sick and dying, but the people largely refused to play along, after a certain point. The government can only do so much, and we each have personal responsibility as well to keep ourselves and those around us safe. If we the people won't fulfill our responsibilities, that is on us, not on the government.
People just like to complain and blame the government, no matter what policy they put in place. If they are strict on restrictions, we complain about overreaching government impinging on our freedoms, if they are too lax then we complain that they arent protecting us.
10000 deaths is a tragedy but the government does not bear all the blame, if any. It can be shared equally among us all, including some on the government, and mostly on the victims and those immediately around them.
ADDED:
I just saw this caricature cartoon and think it is very appropriate
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