Opposition Blasts Netanyahu For Hot Weather

Tel Aviv, June 30 – Opposition leaders leveled criticism at the Netanyahu government today over the heat wave currently hitting the country, with stagnant air and daytime temperatures that have not fallen below 32º C (90ºF) and in some parts of the country have hit 44ºC (101ºF) with oppressive humidity. The leaders called the timing of the heat wave “obtuse” and a demonstration that the government had lost its legitimacy.

High temperatures and hot wind began this past Friday, and relief is not expected until at least Tuesday. Even then, according to meteorologists, although the oppressiveness of the heat will fade, temperatures will remain unseasonably warm at least until the weekend. Strain is expected on power plant capacity as demand for electricity to run air conditioners continues to run high, and the heads of the Opposition parties in the Knesset laid into the Prime Minister for scheduling a heat wave when the IDF has so many men deployed in search of the three teenagers kidnapped by Palestinians over two weeks ago.

“A government led by Labor would never have let this happen,” said Labor Party Chairman Isaac Herzog. “But Bibi, Likud, and Yair Lapid have abandoned the working class and poor. They are out of touch,” he pronounced from his air-conditioned office.

“We need a real government of the people, one that would not allow a few billionaires to control the weather,” added Zahava Gal-On of Meretz. “All of the privatization of the last two decades has spelled disaster after disaster for everyone but a small circle of people in government and business. The people know all about the favoritism and protektzia, and they’ve been ready for a breath of fresh air for years and years,” she said from the hallways of the Knesset, where her party has garnered barely a handful of seats in the last several national elections.

“When Labor was in power we never had such a prolonged hamsin,” said Herzog, using the Arabic word for the phenomenon, and betting that no one would remember precisely what the summer weather was like the last time a Labor-led government was in power more than a decade ago. “In fact I’d wager that our biggest calamities always happen when Likud is in power,” he continued, looking out over the Jerusalem Forest devastated by a massive fire in 1994 when Yitzhak Rabin served as Prime Minister.

This marks the second time this year a spate of extremely hot weather hit Israel. In early June, temperatures as high as 37ºC (99ºF)  were recorded in Jerusalem, where the average for that time of year is closer to 25ºC (77ºF). At the time, however, the Opposition leaders did not invoke the weather to accuse Netanyahu of malfeasance, as they were too busy expressing glee at US Secretary of State John Kerry’s warning that continuing along its present course risked turning Israel into an Apartheid state.