Defense Minister Benny Gantz is pushing for the military to be given the lion’s share of responsibility for any operational aspects of dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
“The Home Front Command is a system that was created to act in situations just like what we are in,” he told other ministers in the coronavirus cabinet, according to a statement from his office. “We demand moving to a model in which decisions are made by the cabinet, the Health Ministry sets regulations and the Defense Ministry is the operational actor.”
His predecessor Naftali Bennett had also lobbied for the Defense Ministry to be given more responsibility, to little avail. On Thursday, Bennett, now in the opposition, set up an alternative “civilian coronavirus cabinet,” made up of non-government officials.
Gantz also pushes for a special certification system to be created for event halls, which currently operate under the same regulations as other businesses. Large events have been fingered as a possible major cause of the rise in new infections.
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 2, 2020
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