Ministers plan, Netanyahu laughs: 6 things to know for April 19

1. Announce first. Approve later: Ministers are irate after the Health Ministry releases a list of eased coronavirus restrictions before they even get a chance to vote on them.

• The Kan public broadcaster reports that Environmental Protection Minister Ze’ev Elkin wrote on a WhatsApp group shared by ministers that “the Health Ministry is making a mockery of the cabinet.”
• Ynet quotes one unnamed minister as complaining, “We’re not a rubber stamp,” moments before logging on to the overnight conference-call cabinet meeting to authorize just about all the announcements that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made to the public in his evening address.
• “Lol government ministers suddenly think they actually have a say in the matter. What do they think this is? A democracy?” mocks The Times of Israel’s Judah Ari Gross.
• Globes’ Tal Schneider recalls a remark made by a senior minister to her several weeks ago, “In difficult moments, Netanyahu decides on his own. Ministers serve no role.”
• Blasting the manner in which the government exit strategy is being drawn up, Haaretz’s Noa Landau writes,  “There was not even *one* discussion of this plan in a full forum of the Israeli government, but Netanyahu has already announced [the new guidelines] and the Health Ministry has already circulated [them]. Someone here has forgotten how democracy works. No less guilty are the ministers themselves, who long ago turned into rubber stamps.”

2. Just smile and nod: Kan’s Michael Shemesh reports that during the overnight meeting, ministers suggested postponing some of the rollbacks announced by Netanyahu until tomorrow or the next day. To which Labor Minister Ofir Akunis replied with a straight face, “The prime minister already announced them, so the government can’t make him go back on what he said.”

• To make matters worse, Channel 13’s Barak Ravid reports that the cabinet meeting was delayed to just before 2 a.m. because Justice Ministry officials had not finished reviewing the proposals announced by Netanyahu.
• Kan’s Shaul Amsterdamski reports that it’s not just the Health Ministry that released an explainer on the eased restrictions only to be forced to delete it minutes later upon realizing that the cabinet had yet to authorize the moves. The Education Ministry did the same, drawing the ire of parents, who still don’t know how they’re supposed to return to work when classrooms and daycare facilities remain closed.
• “It’s about to be midnight and it’s still not clear what can open tomorrow … do they think businesses can open with two hours’ warning,” Meretz leader Nitzan Horowitz tweets. “This is how they show contempt for people’s lives.”
• Zman Yisrael’s Avner Hofstein opines that Israeli reporters should announce that they will no longer cover Netanyahu’s near-nightly coronavirus addresses so long as he continues to refuse to answer questions at the end of them. “The screen belongs to the public and the press is supposed to serve them,” he says.

3. Announce first. Plan later: Much of the media highlights an apparent lack of strategy going into the easing of restrictions, compounding the cross-ministerial false start on the publication of them.

• Channel 13’s Ravid reports that during the Thursday night cabinet meeting, Netanyahu told ministers that the moves they’d be announcing in the coming days would not last very long and that there was not much of a point in dragging on the discussion.
• “We will not end up here with an organized plan. The reality is always changing and no plan will be sustainable for the long term,” the premier said, according to Ravid.
• Yedioth Ahronoth’s Amichai Attali speculates that the virus is not likely to be impressed by the public’s desire to return to work.  “The main driver behind the latest announcement of the easing of restrictions is a combination of the public’s impatience and pressure from power-brokers, as opposed to an organized plan….Therefore, those who want to be sure should remain at home for the time being and watch this test run from their balconies.”
• Haaretz’s Chaim Levinson wonders aloud how it’s even financially worth it for small businesses to open up now given all the restrictions and lack of demand.
• Kan’s Moav Vardi agrees with Netanyahu’s argument that Israel as a whole is faring far better than most countries, but disputes the premier’s assertion that the Jewish state’s “exit strategy” is in line with those around the world. “In other countries (Germany, Austria etc.) the government introduced criteria for easing restrictions, specifying what each step of the rollbacks will include and what the conditions will be to move on to the next step or to move back a step. Here, everything is done in the 90th minute without presenting any plan.”
• In Israel Hayom, Ran Reznik recommends that the government and the media avoid using the term “return to routine” as the reality Israelis will be returning to will be largely new.

4. Leaks on leaks: As usual, the overnight cabinet meeting was plagued with leaks, some of which seemingly came in real time, drawing the ire of participants who urged their colleagues to stop gossiping to the press, but to no avail.

• Based on his live-tweeting on the meeting, Kan’s Michael Shemesh seemed to have been logged onto the call along with all the other ministers, whom he quotes verbatim throughout the five-hour session.
• After Shemesh’s report that cabinet secretary Tzachi Braverman tapped out of the meeting at 5 a.m. was shared on a “PM loyalists” WhatsApp group, Braverman himself responded that Shemesh was “hallucinating.” Moments later, the well-connected Shemesh tweeted out a screenshot of that very message.
• Even before the cabinet meeting, ministers were having a hard time restraining themselves, leaking entire conversations from the cabinet WhatsApp group regarding the government’s “exit strategy.”
• Walla publishes a screenshot of Absorption Minister Yoav Galant urging his colleagues to “respect the prime minister” and stop leaking to the press. Oh, the irony.
• Channel 12’s Amit Segal jokes that the cabinet WhatsApp group has the same dynamic as your average “second grade parents” group.

5. Let’s make a deal: On the coalition-building front, Channel 12 quotes associates of Benny Gantz, who say that the Blue and White and Likud chairmen are “on the brink of a agreement.”

• Channel 13 reports that a breakthrough was achieved on Friday on the issue of the rotation agreement, which has been the main stumbling block in recent days, as Netanyahu has sought to enshrine into law an override clause that would bar the High Court from using indictments against him to keep him from serving as either prime minister or deputy prime minister.
• But with the reports of a deal almost being reached, Blue and White MK Chili Tropper went on Channel 12’s “Meet the Press” and attacked Netanyahu, saying the premier was chiefly concerned with his own political survival.
• Kan’s Ya’ara Shapira reports that Blue and White lawmakers have been told to stress in media interviews that any attempt by Likud to harm the justice system is a red line for the centrist party in unity talks and that they are prepared to advance anti-Netanyahu legislation if the premier does not reach an agreement. Gantz’s former partners in Yesh Atid-Telem tell Shapira that they’re happy to join in such a legislative effort, but demand that Gantz cease his negotiations with Netanyahu in return.
• Army Radio’s Yanir Cozin writes that while he too has received assurances from the parties that they really are close to reaching a deal, he has heard this tune before and urges others to adopt an “I’ll believe it when I see it” approach.

6. No love: As Gantz pushes forward with unity talks, which he insists demonstrate his willingness to place the country ahead of his political aspirations, he receives little love from members of the media across the political spectrum.

• On the right in the Netanyahu mouthpiece Israel Hayom, Yaakov Bardugo scoffs at Blue and White’s negotiation tactics in which the party threatens to advance legislation aimed at curbing the premier’s power after each meeting in which Gantz deems that he’s not being taken seriously. “Unity is not achieved through threats,” Bardugo writes.
•  On the left, Haaretz’s Levinson mocks Gantz’s “naiveté” in negotiating with Netanyahu. “He watches how Netanyahu steps all over his ministers on a nightly basis [with his preemptive TV announcements] and is convinced that the same won’t happen to him.”
• Meretz MK Yair Golan writes that he has a hard time understanding how Gantz can “on the one hand be willing to advance legislation barring an indicted lawmaker from becoming premier while on the other crawl into a government led by that very same accused.” He warns that while he would support anti-Netanyahu legislation, he and his left-wing colleagues will not become pawns for Blue and White.
• To further complicate matters for Gantz, Channel 13’s Barak Ravid reports that European diplomats have sent the Blue and White leader stern warnings that they will not accept his willingness to accede to Netanyahu’s demands on West Bank annexation. Ravid says Gantz’s adviser has explained to the diplomats that the Blue and White leader had no choice but to compromise on the issue, but that he hopes to still be able to influence its implementation moving forward.