Published: 16 June 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
LIKE A FIRST-RATE burglar breaking into every apartment in a condominium, the COVID-19 pandemic has breached almost every country in the world, catching each one in its own incidental moment of current affairs. Israel is no exception.
If the immediate effects of the corona quake on Israel’s already quaking democracy leave you gasping, save your breath for the long-term effects. The virus has sent the country’s two largest minority groups, the Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox, spiralling off in almost opposite directions.
Some of Israel’s ultra-Orthodox communities have been badly hit by the coronavirus. All of them face an undiscerning, but understandable, public fury. The virus augmented a leadership crisis that may accelerate the entry of ultra-Orthodox individuals and groups into secular education, the professions and civil society.
By contrast, Israel’s corona crisis gave members of Israel’s Arab minority a rare chance to display their civic virtues and win some long-deserved credit. Here is a story that touches my very own kishkes.
In October 2019 I found myself in an emergency surgery room with a burst appendix. As I faded out, cheery voices wished me well in Hebrew and Arabic. I woke up with my life saved and my political ire reinvigorated.
FULL STORY The other Covid-19 effect (Moment)
Photo: Moment magazine
