At UNGA, Bennett gave a domestic speech to an international audience - editorial

• Author: JPOST EDITORIAL
• Published date: 29 September 2021

Although Bennett went to speak on the premier international stage to an audience that, at least in theory, included leaders from every country in the world, the speech he delivered seemed meant primarily for the few Israelis who tuned in and watched just a few hours before the start of the Shmini Atzeret/Simhat Torah holiday.

There was our prime minister speaking to the world, but instead of even mentioning in passing the issue regarding Israel that – whether he likes it or not – much of the world is concerned about, the Palestinians, he honed in on the coronavirus and emphasized what a great thing it was that he built a diverse coalition.

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Both those issues – the coalition and his dealing with corona – are of interest primarily to a domestic audience, not an international one. One can argue that the coronavirus is an international issue, but here Bennett did not break any new ground. Rather, he tried again to convince his electorate that he is doing a bang-up job managing the crisis.

In the process of patting Israel on the back for its corona policies, Bennett took an entirely gratuitous jab at the Health Ministry professionals and experts advising him on the pandemic.

"Running a country during a pandemic is not only about health," he said in a thinly veiled attack on those, like Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of the ministry's Public Health Services, who have been pushing for more restrictive measures to deal with the newest COVID-19 wave. "It's about carefully balancing all aspects of life that are affected by corona, especially jobs and education.

"While doctors are an important input, they cannot be the ones running the national initiative," he continued. "The only person that has a good vantage point of all of this is the national leader of any given country."

While this may be true, Bennett did not have to travel halfway around the world on the eve of a holiday to deliver that message. If he wanted to take the ministry professionals to task – as he did in that speech and even more so in a briefing with reporters afterward – he could have stayed home to do it.

In fact, he should have stayed home to do it. One waning aspect of American political culture that Israeli politicians and...