Rivals: Netanyahu Can’t Govern Properly When Quarantined With Nothing Else To Do

“An incapacitated prime minister isn’t something we want as a nation, unless we’re trying to incapacitate him because we don’t like his politics.”

Jerusalem, April 1 – Opposition figures continued to insist today that incumbent Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu must handle too many distractions to govern the country, especially now that he has chosen to enter isolation and can focus only on governing.

Prominent figures in the Yesh Atid, Meretz, Telem, and Yisrael Beiteinu Parties made pronouncements today in the wake of Netanyahu’s decision to self-isolate in response to a staffer testing positive for coronavirus late last week. The various Opposition politicians struck a tune familiar to Israeli politics over the last several years, according to which the premier must step down or be removed from office amid a swirl of criminal indictments he faces for corruption and related offenses, the attention to which will render him unable to focus on his official role as prime minister. The new assertion instead highlights Netanyahu’s need to remain in quarantine, where he will be unable to concentrate on his duties because he lacks anything else to occupy his time.

“We’re going to petition the High Court to order him to resign, at least temporarily,” declared Yesh Atid chief Yair Lapid. “There’s no way he can function properly as prime minister when there’s nothing on his plate but the basic things he can do and has been doing for a while already, such as conduct remote meetings and consultations, issue orders, make decisions, and address the nation via video.”

“The coronavirus outbreak calls for unusual measures,” insisted Meretz Chairwoman Tamar Zandberg. “An incapacitated prime minister isn’t something we want as a nation, unless we’re trying to incapacitate him because we don’t like his politics. And when I say, ‘We want as a nation,’ I mean we in Meretz, who know better than the vast majority of the nation, who aren’t intelligent enough to vote for us.” Meretz’s alliance with Labor and Gesher netted a total of 5.83 percent of the vote in the March 2 parliamentary elections.

Neither Netanyahu nor any of his representatives or colleagues in the Likud Party have addressed these concerns in public, defying calls by Haaretz, Walla, Yediot Aharonot, and The Marker journalists for the prime minister to give the subject center stage and not spend so much time talking to the public about a COVID-19 crisis that has shut down the economy, restricted most Israelis to a small radius around their homes, put tend of thousands in quarantine, killed more than a dozen, and threatens to overwhelm the already-strained healthcare system.

Please support our work through Patreon.