Numerous Arab monarchies and autocracies, including some under serious political pressure, have invoked public health imperatives to secure themselves a reprieve from mass protests. A widely criticized interim regime in Bolivia postponed planned elections in May as part of a slate of emergency measures, including a 14-day national quarantine. From Hong Kong to India to Russia, authorities cited the risk of spreading coronavirus as grounds to disperse anti-government demonstrations and bar large public gatherings.
Crisis management, like war, is politics by other means. The most glaring example of this right now may be in Israel. Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a pliant Justice Ministry postpone his arraignment on corruption charges, while coronavirus-induced paralysis has stalled the formation of Israel’s new government after elections this month. The absence of a functional government has prevented the country’s newly elected parliament from pushing through legislation that could prevent an indicted politician like him from becoming prime minister.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu is playing up his role as commander in chief, staging daily national security briefings alongside allies. “If Trump’s aim is to rally his voters for the upcoming election, Netanyahu’s is to make opposition voters forget the results of the previous one,” wrote Bernard Avishai in the New Yorker.
“Netanyahu, who, for the past ten years, has severely underfunded hospitals, doctors’ salaries, and medical education, has largely succeeded in escaping such criticism by flaunting his mastery of the stringent guidelines imposed by the health bureaucracy,” he added.
Talks to forge a unity government have so far stalled. The prime minister and his colleagues “have shut down parliament, enacted extreme ‘security’ measures without legislative oversight and shelved the courts just as Netanyahu was about to go on trial for corruption,” wrote Israeli commentator Gershom Gorenberg for The Washington Post. “I don’t use the word ‘coup’ lightly. But any weaker description of Netanyahu’s assault on Israeli democracy is a refusal to absorb and report the truth.”
Numerous Arab monarchies and autocracies, including some under serious political pressure, have invoked public health imperatives to secure themselves a reprieve from mass protests. A widely criticized interim regime in Bolivia postponed planned elections in May as part of a slate of emergency measures, including a 14-day national quarantine. From Hong Kong to India to Russia, authorities cited the risk of spreading coronavirus as grounds to disperse anti-government demonstrations and bar large public gatherings.