Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledges that his government re-opened parts of the economy too quickly.
“Looking back, as part of the trial and error, we can say that the last step was too early,” he says at press conference, referencing the reopening of bars and event halls in a press conference in which he is introducing the government’s economic rescue plan.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a press conference about the coronavirus at his office in Jerusalem, July 9, 2020. (Screen capture: YouTube)
“We are in the midst of a global storm, which [is] growing… The second virus wave won’t skip almost any country.”
“It requires fateful decisions every day, balancing between trial and error. You try, err and fix. That’s how all leaders are operating.”
“In the first wave we had amazing success. The death toll was and remains very low. But the lockdown exacted a heavy toll on the economy.”
Netanyahu says that some of the criticism of the government’s response has been unfair, as the public had pressured it to re-open the economy after shutting much of it down in March.
“We did it because we listened to your struggles. I take responsibility for this step, and I take responsibility for fixing it,” he says.
— Jacob Magid
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From the Liveblog of
Thursday, July 9, 2020
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