Naftali Bennett
Naftali BennettREUTERS

Yamina Party chairman and former Defense Minister MK Naftali Bennett called on the government to alter its strategy for handling the coronavirus crisis, pushing for a more proactive approach aimed at “eradicating” the pandemic.

Speaking with Arutz Sheva, Bennett blasted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz, accusing them of failing to work aggressively to end the ongoing crisis.

“The two prime ministers are busy fighting each other,” Bennett said.

The former Defense Minister said that Israel must work quickly to end the pandemic, pointing to the ongoing economic recession – possibly the worst in Israel’s history.

“There are about a million Israelis who have been ‘wounded’ along the way. They are very badly economically wounded, and there is a great deal of uncertainty. They feel like there is no one at the wheel, that there is no one leading the country.”

“The most pressing thing right now is to help them and to crush the coronavirus. We can do this on a short timetable of about three weeks; to set up a system for getting rid of the coronavirus, based on the plan I released back in March. We need to immediately take on the [virus] and carry [the plan] out. We’ve wasted too much time.”

Bennett went on to accuse Netanyahu and Gantz of focusing too heavily on minor political issues, while ignoring the pandemic and the resulting economic crisis.

“The prime ministers are busy fighting each other, and they have put politics ahead of the State of Israel. That is very serious, but right now we need to fix it, to crush the coronavirus, and to start fixing our economy. We have no time, this is urgent.”