Showing posts with label lockdown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lockdown. Show all posts
Jan 9, 2022
buying in
I still get a kick out of all the people complaining that the government isnt do anything despite the massive spread of Coronavirus (variant Omicron) and cities all around Israel turning "red" and the government should be imposing lockdowns and strict regulations on events, after complaining when the previous governments did set lockdowns and tight regulations.
This government decided on a different approach, finding a way to live with CoronaVirus without lockdowns except in extreme situations. It seems to me people just want to complain about the government, which is also fine. Lockdown - complain and adhere as little as possible, no lockdown - complain.
Either way, the government has failed from a public perspective with its lack of transparency and clarity and changing the rules so frequently that people cannot keep track of what current rules are at any given time, besides for many of them not making much sense. If the government wants the people to cooperate better and participate more in the fight against CoronaVirus, the rules need to be clear and explained well to the public, and they should make some sort of sense. If you want people to buy in to the system, they need to know what they are buying in to.
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Sep 23, 2021
Police mounted unit SHUTS DOWN Yom Kippur in Melbourne (video)
funny reporting on a difficult situation...
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Sep 9, 2021
Picture of the Day
This is in Ripponlea in Australia, as some members of an illegal Rosh Hashana minyan broke the rules of the tight lockdown. As police found out about the minyan, they surrounded the area for 14 hours as members of the minyan refused to let them in and they waited for the members to come out. Each adult member was fined over $5000. Some members tried to avoid being caught by escaping through various other places of egress, including via the roof.
According to news reports, they have been meeting illegally for a while already, operating under the guise of a legal support group similar to AA.
According to YWN, a community activist justified the minyan saying:
“We have ZERO COVID cases in the heimishe community of Ripponlea. Over 90% of the 40+ age group are double vaxxed. We asked for a legal way to daven outdoors on Rosh Hashanah, citing “bottle shops and building sites’ that are open for 50-100 people, some even spent thousands in the courts to try to push it through – and the government gave us zero. This prompted some people to go early to a shul (5:30am) and locked themselves in – no noise at all. Unfortunately, some local non-Jewish neighbors were up at 5:00AM and filmed some people going in Tuesday morning and sent the footage to the media. Police surrounded the block like there was a terrorist attack – and they did not leave until Wednesday night. This is appalling and disgusting.”
The activist, of course, compared Melbourne authorities to Nazi Germany - there is nothing more Jewish than that:
Melbourne felt somewhat like Nazi Germany this year Rosh Hashana.. as police sieged a Shul for 14 hours
I don't even know what to say. We have all read about how strict the extended lockdowns have been in Australia. This is an example of how strict they have been. A 14 hour standoff? Wow. I guess that gave them enough time to get all the services in (at least one day's worth) before being caught and fined. At least they got their money's worth!
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Sep 5, 2021
Quote of the Day
We repelled the pressures and prevented a lockdown over Rosh Hashana. Continue following the guidelines so that on Sukkos and Simchat Torah as well we will be able to remain open
-- Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
This is funny and true. I expected no lockdown. I do not believe there was ever a serious threat of a lockdown. This government's approach, for good or for bad, has been clearly to try to find a way to leave the country open. A lockdown did not make sense, and the pressure for it publicly only came from people who had no intention of adhering to it anyway. A lockdown for Sukkos also does not make sense, so I am not overly impressed by his warning, but I do agree that the more people follow the guidelines, the better off we will be.
Additionally, the funny part is in saying "continue following the guidelines". Almost nobody is, so I don't know who should continue doing so...
At the end of the day, good job in preventing a lockdown. I wonder if anyone who has been criticizing Bennett and his peers for the past 5-6 weeks about the possible lockdown coming will now praise him for not locking anything down. Everyone screaming over the past month about possible restrictions in travel to Uman while all other travel is open - will they praise him for allowing travel to Uman almost unrestricted?
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Aug 17, 2021
Israel vs New Zealand
Want to know the difference between Israel and New Zealand?
One big difference is the number of sheep in each country. That's not the one I am referring to.
The difference I am talking about is a news report that the government of New Zealand is locking down the entire country for 3 days because one case (1!) of COVID-19 was discovered. the city this person lives in plus another city he traveled to will be locked down for 7 days.
And in Israel we have surpassed the 8000 number of positives per day....
full lockdown of the entire country due to 1 case! Wow!
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Aug 15, 2021
will you adhere to a lockdown?
Internal surveys have shown that 30% of Israeli citizens are confident they would adhere to the rules of a lockdown during the holidays, should it be imposed.
Personally I am surprised the number is so high. And the reason is not because much of Israel does not see Bennett as a legitimate Prime Minister and therefore his lockdown is also illegitimate. The reason is because people have had enough , already a long time ago.
The first lockdown, imposed by then PM Benjamin Netanyahu, in March-April 2020 for Pesach was adhered to very tightly and enforced very strictly. Covid-19 was new, people did not know, everyone was afraid, it seemed very serious, enforcement was tight. Netanyahu's next two lockdowns were hardly listened to. Enforcement was loose and weak and people were not interested - rules were contradictory and often nonsensical and people had had enough. Now is no different, and possibly worse. People are not interested. The religious will mostly not listen because they see the decision as political - if necessary why not now and stop the vacationing instead of during the High Holidays when we need our shuls? That in addition to many not seeing Bennett as legitimate. The general public will mostly not listen just because nobody is interested in that anymore.
Other solutions are needed, and I hope the 30% support for following lockdown rules will show the government that this is not the way to go. Personally I think there will not be a lockdown, but I guess it likely depend son how much the vaccination campaign (new vaccines plus 3rd shot boosters) is successful in bringing the numbers down...
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street survey with Oded Menashe: lockdown during the holidays? (video)
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Aug 2, 2021
different perspectives, different concerns, different priorities
Haredim10 brings the interesting words of the Satmar Rebbe from Kiryas Joel yesterday.
The Rebbe reportedly said that he is concerned regarding the resurgence of the CoronaVirus and the hospitals in the USA filling up again. The Rebbe asked the community to daven - to daven that there should not be another lockdown that would prevent the Jews from going to shul, both in the coming days and in the upcoming holidays of Tishrei.
Personally I would have said, or at least also added, to daven that people should not get sick, the community should be protected, should suffer few or no deaths, and the like.
I guess we have different priorities. Or maybe he assumes nobody from the community will get sick this time around because most already had the virus...
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Apr 26, 2021
it looks like issued lockdown fines might be canceled
MK Moshe Arbel (Shas) has approached the Ministry of Justice with a request to cancel all fines given for people leaving their homes beyond the allowed distance during the October lockdown.
The Supreme Court already ruled that all fines given during the October lockdown to people who left their homes beyond the permitted distance to participate in a protest must be canceled. The right to protest is a basic right in a democracy and the people should not be fined for it. Arbel has petitioned the Ministry to equate people leaving their homes for the purpose of prayer to that Supreme Court decision and any fines given to people who left their homes for the purpose of prayer should be canceled retroactively.
According to Kol Hai News, the Ministry of Justice is considering the request, and is also considering canceling all fines from that lockdown (for leaving home beyond permitted distance). The reason for this consideration is that the police do not have accurate information on the fines and who got fined for what exactly and why they had been beyond the permitted distance.
Arbel is also requesting that should these fines get canceled, anybody who already paid the fine should get his money back. And obviously anyone in the process of legal issues because of the fines (ie added interest, collection agency, hotzaa lapoel, etc) should be released form all that with it canceled.
We all knew it was coming. Nothing surprising here. Break the rules, don't pay the fines and the politicians will get it canceled for you. The rest of us are freiers, suckers, but that's ok, and we knew it already anyway.
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Feb 28, 2021
Aliya LaRegel on Purim
While some people reported being able to get through to Jerusalem today to celebrate Shushan Purim there, most people trying have not been able to get through. The roadblocks have caused tremendous traffic jams on all roads leading to Jerusalem. We tried earlier and Waze took us through some extremely roundabout route and we still got turned around as we got to a roadblock relatively near to Jerusalem.
We only saw a couple of people walking by foot on our route, but reports are coming in from some of the other more mainstream routes that hundreds of people are walking alongside the highways in order to be able to celebrate Shushan Purim with their relatives and communities.
Seeing some of the pictures and videos on Twitter made me think of what "aliyah laregel" must have looked like, in some way.
Though, as admirable as their dedication is, I wonder how important celebrating Shushan Purim with their families in Jerusalem really is that they put themselves and even children in danger walking alongside a busy highway. Unless maybe the roads are empty because of the roadblocks and there is no danger, but that does not seem to be the case. The only time there is a mitzva of aliya laregel is Pesach, Shvuos, and Sukkos - not Purim. Being so desperate to get to Jerusalem to celebrate Shushan Purim, when it isnt even a holiday for them (because they all live outside of Jerusalem) seems weird to me.
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Feb 22, 2021
pointless curfew might be coming for Purim
The government is strongly considering applying a curfew for the Purim holiday - it would likely start this Thursday night and be in place until Sunday morning. The curfew would be from something like the hours of 8 or 9pm until 5am. And maybe also a full closure on red cities.
The purpose of this curfew, should they pass it, would be to put a stop to Purim parties that would be operating against the guidelines.
Based on past performance, it seems likely they will only announce a decision at the last minute.
Unfortunately this is likely going to be meaningless.
First of all, even with a night curfew, people will be able to do whatever they want by day. Even if everyone were to keep the rules of the night curfew, which is a big if, they'll just move their parties to the daytime hours.
Second, if the enforcement of the curfew will be as light as it has been over the past couple of closures then this will just be a waste of time, effort and goodwill. Goodwill? Meaning, the government could earn some goodwill making a gesture to the people - tell the public that the numbers are trending down, so we are not going to lock you down, but please be responsible and follow the guidelines for being and keeping others safe, but it is mostly on you. Now, with curfews that will hardly be enforced, the same will be accomplished, or be not accomplished, but with resentment instead of goodwill. Not that goodwill is overly important, but if they are hardly going to enforce the rules anyway, why make everyone angry and resentful by setting a frustrating curfew?
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Feb 4, 2021
they are fighting over two days?
According to the various news reports, the fight between Netanyahu and Gantz about extending the lockdown is a matter of two days. Netanyahu wants it extended to Sunday and Gantz wants to let it expire tomorrow.
I am not sure why two days is worth a fight, in either direction. Two more days of lockdown is not going to bring down the numbers significantly. What has not worked over the past four weeks or so is not going to suddenly work in the next two days.
And avoiding two more days, one of which has almost all businesses closed anyway for Shabbos, is not going to make much of a difference. Opening up Sunday morning instead of Sunday evening isn't going to save the economy or the kids schooling and mental conditions.
If the fight was over another two week extension, ok, I would get it. But two days, one of which is Shabbos? I don't get the big deal either way.
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Feb 3, 2021
we won't sit at home
It seems that while PM Netanyahu wants to extend the lockdown more, at least to the beginning of next week if not more, Minister Gantz wants the lockdown to end now. According to this news report, Gantz is proposing that the general lockdown be brought to its conclusion on Friday, and then local lockdowns will continue in red cities (as per the traffic light model).
It should be noted that many cities are red or orange, but all the Haredi cities are and they all would be locked down completely while some general cities are not.
The funny part of this report is the response of the Haredi representatives, and only in light of all the news reports from the past few weeks.
They reportedly said they won't agree to this type of lockdown that has the Haredi community stuck at home while everyone else is out and about and getting back to their normal routines.
That is funny in light of the recent headlines and media attacks on the Haredi community? We won't sit at home? You haven't been sitting at home! You haven't been sitting at home while many were throughout this lockdown!
Obviously many in the general public were not sitting at home either during the lockdown, and many Haredim were sitting at home as per the lockdown rules. butt the public perception is that the Haredi community in general was not, so in light of the public perception this is a funny and ironic response.
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Feb 2, 2021
So many hands
On the one hand, if the lockdown (seger) is justified, with the basic numbers hardly changing, how can they not extend the lockdown further. There has not been any real improvement in the situation, so the lockdown should continue.
On the other hand, if the lockdown isn't working, what will extending it by a few more days do? why bother?
On the third hand, if they think theoretically a lockdown should help bring the numbers down, maybe they should try to figure out why it isn't really doing that and fix that aspect of the lockdown.
And on the fourth hand, I am, once again, really happy I am not responsible for making these decisions. There are no good decisions and definitely no popular decisions.
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Feb 1, 2021
Quote of the Day
Unfortunately we are seeing the morbidity rate during lockdown rising. We began the lockdown with 20,000 infections and we rose to 28,000 during the lockdown. Meaning, people are spreading the infection at home and we see that there is no difference between classes that were in session and classes that were not.
-- Minister of Education Yoav Galant
1. classes that were in session and classes that weren't? meaning, some schools were left open? what was the criteria for this?
2. does he realize that the kids don't sleep in school? Even if the schools were open, the kids go home after school and are home for the bulk of the day and night, unrelated to any lockdown. Meaning, the infections at home would happen anyway. Opening schools would not prevent infections at home, but would cause spread of infection from home to home as kids get the virus at home and spread it in school. Not quite sure what benefit he is pointing to with this.
3. Maybe the increased numbers during lockdown point to the fact that not all that many people are staying home all day during this lockdown....
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Jan 31, 2021
Picture of the Day
tens of thousands of people (I haven't seen an official number) paid last respects to Rav Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, who died this morning at age 99. Rav Soloveitchik was an elder Rosh yeshiva and was the last living son of the famed Brisker Rav, Rav Yitzchak Zeev Soloveitchik and the grandson of Rav Chaim "Brisker" Soloveitchik.
The regular complaints of this happening during a pandemic and lockdown have been heard. I guess we'll see in a week or ten days or so if there is a significant uptick of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Jerusalem. Hopefully there won't be.
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Lockdown coming to an end?
It looks like the lockdown is coming to an end.
How do I know this?
Prices of gas are going up.
I noticed what i think is a trend. Whenever there was a lockdown, with basically nowhere to go, they announced a nice decrease in the price of gasoline. And whenever they lifted the lockdown and started to open things up again the price of gasoline went up.
As the lockdown officially comes to an end tonight (though it might still be extended), they just announced an increase in gasoline prices.
Tonight the price of gasoline will be going up by 21agorot per liter.
Please note that I have not performed any scientific study of this phenomenon.
Honestly, the lockdown seems pretty pointless. The enforcement is minimal with occasional random checkpoints on the highway. Stores are almost all open - though in some you have to stand at the door and request things form the shopkeeper. Within the city people can go pretty much anywhere unimpeded, no matter the distance from one's home. The only industry following the shutdown is the schools. I don't get the point of trying to extend a lockdown that isn't really a lockdown.
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Jan 27, 2021
if just for this we had the closure, dayeinu
Walla has the story of a fellow who is a terminal patient and was planning to travel to Switzerland for euthanasia. They can't travel now because of the lockdown and the closed airport. They tried to apply for an exception but have so far been denied.
As sad as it is, as difficult as the situation is, Judaism doesn't believe in euthanasia, as far as I know. Perhaps the entire lockdown and closure of the airport was just to prevent this. Or at least worth it to prevent this. Dayeinu, as we say. I don't know.
I wish him a refuah shleima, or if that is impossible at least as painless and as quick a natural death as possible.
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fighting over new lockdown policies
I don't get what they are fighting about.
In the fight for extending the lockdown by at least another week or not, the Haredi parties are opposed to the doubling of the fines levied for violating the lockdown and the against the ability to issue closure orders against schools or other institutions (eg stores, shuls, restaurants, etc) that violate the closure. Kachol Lavan is insisting the law be passed as is with the fines doubled and closure orders possible. The Haredim have started to compromise, agreeing to the doubling of fines but only a senior officer would be able to levy it, and closure orders would only be possibly given after two increased fines. Kachol Lavan refuses to compromise on this.
We'll see what happens, but I don't even see why they are fighting about this.
Closure orders against schools? The schools that are open are already violating closure orders and don't seem to care or get punished seriously. So they are fighting over whether or not second closure orders can be issued against these schools? Just enforce the lockdown itself! Everyone knows that even if it passes it will never be enforced on any of these schools. Double fines? How about start with the fines already approved in law?
This fight makes no sense, as everything being fought abotu seems irrelevant and pointless in light of the current level of enforcement.
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Jan 24, 2021
airport in lockdown
Today the government is scheduled to hold a discussion regarding the closure of the airport for the next two weeks. This has become a big debate whether it should be closed or not, whether it should have been closed long ago, or not. PM Netanyahu now supposedly wants it completely shut down, especially now because of the mutations, and the government will be deciding today what to do about this.
Personally I think that during a lockdown the airport should be shut down. During normal Corona life perhaps not. Maybe the government should have insisted on testing before flights and upon arrival, but the airport need not be shut down. But during a lockdown when everything else is shut down? Shut the airport as well. People in Israel can't go to restaurants and sporting events and shuls and yeshivas and concerts and whatnot so as to not spread the virus further, why should they be able to go to Dubai or Paris or New York and back and spread the virus there or get it and bring it back with them?
During a lockdown the airport should be shut as much as everything else.
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