Tel-Chai Nation

Well, it looks like ultra-Orthodox politician Yaakov Litzman really stepped in it this time, as it's discovered he violated requirements on the Coronavirus crisis for the sake of his own personal "needs":

Health Minister Yaakov Litzman, who tested positive for the coronavirus late Wednesday, allegedly broke his own ministry’s guidelines on social distancing by attending group prayer services in the days before he was diagnosed, a TV report said Thursday.

Litzman’s positive test has forced almost all the Israeli politicians, officials, and health chiefs who are leading the country’s struggle against the pandemic, from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on down, to enter precautionary quarantine.

The same TV station quoted an unnamed senior minister accusing Litzman of having “put all of our lives in danger” by flouting the restrictions. [...]

Witnesses told Channel 12 on Thursday that the health minister, who heads the ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party, prayed at the home of a fellow member of his Gur Hasidic sect last Saturday — three days after government guidelines went into effect barring services from being held indoors. The witness said that while worshipers sought to practice social distancing, they were all together inside for over an hour and a half.

On Monday, after the guidelines had further intensified, barring any group prayer services from being held, whether inside or outdoors, Litzman was again allegedly spotted praying at a synagogue just outside of his home.

“My father prays every day at the ‘Beit Israel’ synagogue in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood [in Jerusalem] and told me that on Monday he prayed there together with Litzman,” another witness told Channel 12. [...]

“In the days that he attended the services, he could very well have contracted the virus or have been infecting others,” a witness from his neighborhood told Channel 12, speculating that the minister would not have disclosed his presence at the prayer services to the epidemiologists. “Some people do not know they should be in isolation or if they had come in contact with him. They will pass [the virus] on and on until suddenly we have the beginning of a catastrophe in the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods of Jerusalem.” [...]

The TV network quoted a senior minister who accused Liztman of “knowingly demonstrating contempt” for his own ministry’s guidelines by failing to follow the rules on social distancing.

The unnamed senior minister said Litzman had “put all of our lives in danger.”

“We’re all taking the greatest possible care [to follow the guidelines] in these days. And yet the health minister, of all people, doesn’t recognize the gravity of the situation, and endangers us all, ultimately harming decision-making,” the minister added.

The minister also told Channel 12 that Litzman’s office was refusing to disclose the results of Litzman’s epidemiological investigation. “They’re hiding [it] from us,” the minister reportedly said.

As a consequence of Litzman contracting the disease, Netanyahu and most of Israel’s other top officials in managing the response to the coronavirus crisis have entered quarantine. Among them are Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov; Prof Sigal Sadetzki, head of public health at the ministry; Mossad chief Yossi Cohen, whose spy agency has been instrumental in obtaining medical equipment for Israel; and National Security Adviser Meir Ben-Shabbat, who has been coordinating the government’s response to the pandemic.

I was wondering if he'd taken a test to see if he had any problems, and I guess this says it all. This disgraceful man, who already has at least a few serious accusations leveled against him, as noted earlier, is unlikely to have done it because he's senile. Rather, it's because he adheres to a lifestyle that puts religion above safety in almost every way. Based on this, it would be very ill-advised to allow him to continue in a political role. He did some truly reprehensible things before, now he's really gone overboard. That kind of person is dangerous to have in a political position.

Labels: haredi corruption, Israel, Knesset, Moonbattery, political corruption