Letters to the Editor December 30, 2020: Gantz took a stance

• Author: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
• Published date: 29 December 2020
• Date: 29 December 2020
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Regarding "Thank you Benny, but goodbye" (December 28), Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz's Blue and White Party did not get my vote. But in all fairness, Jeff Barak should have reminded readers about the context of Gantz's agreement to form a government with Netanyahu.

Because the Supreme Court limited contact tracing of the infected to three weeks, absent Knesset Committee oversight, Israel needed a sitting government to deal with COVID-19. Contact tracing, then testing and quarantining of the sick, halted the spread of the coronavirus.

The lockdown, barring of foreign flights and contact tracing stopped the spiraling of the Israeli death rate and gave Israel time to import enough medical ventilators and personal protection equipment.

But Gantz did not have the votes in his coalition to form a government because Hauser and Hendler affirmed they would not serve in a government that relied on the support of an Arab party – whether inside or outside the government. That left Gantz the choice to either partner with Likud or wait for a new election and let Israelis die in increasing numbers for months (as in Europe and the US).

By all reports, Benny Gantz did not trust Netanyahu, but he decided to put the good of the Israeli public first, for which we all owe him our gratitude.

MARSHA DALIN

Modi'in

In his assessment of the final days of Gantz's political career and Elkin's resignation from the Likud, Barak leaves some crucial questions unasked and unanswered.

Netanyahu has served as prime minister for 14 years; he has been fighting his indictments for several of those years. According to Elkin, Netanyahu leads according to his personal interests and has turned the Likud into a personality cult. Could be, but what does it say about Elkin, who has been around since 2006 and served as a minister in Netanyahu's government. What does it say about Elkin that it took him a decade and a half to realize the extent of Netanyahu's core corruption. Elkin was ready to live with the corruption until he sensed that the entire empire was disintegrating.

What does it say about both Gideon Sa'ar and Elkin that they were ready to sit in the citadel of corruption until the going got too hot for comfort and the writing was on the wall?

We need a new cadre of political leaders – not dropouts from the Likud.

YIGAL HOROWITZ

Beersheba

Cash and backlash

Regarding "No surprise $500 m. included for Israel in US federal budget" (December 23), the US Congress has reportedly allocated $500 million to Israel for the coming year. With the warmest thanks, we should decline.

In many cases the citizens of our closest and most generous ally are struggling to survive. When they see huge amounts going to foreign aid, they are outraged. Antisemitism skyrockets as they read about the allocation for Israel, a prosperous country.

It is irrelevant that Israel is struggling, too. It is also irrelevant that we can demonstrate how financial support for our country benefits...