As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces major internal crises amid the war in Gaza, he will have to deal with new accusations unrelated to the conflict with Hamas, but rather stemming from the COVID-19 crisis that paralyzed the world almost four years ago. On Tuesday, Israel's State Comptroller Matanyahu Engelman issued a report criticizing Netanyahu's handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Engelman stated that Netanyahu "made major decisions without the approval of the cabinet concerned with COVID-19." He explained that Netanyahu struck a key deal with Pfizer to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Israel exclusively until March 2021, without informing or consulting the cabinet responsible for the crisis. While Engelman appreciates the nature of this move at that sensitive time, he argues that "it should not have been done by one individual."
He also criticized similar measures taken by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who took office in March 2021, noting that he too "made key decisions regarding COVID-19 without consulting his cabinet on the pandemic." Additionally, the State Comptroller issued a second report criticizing the government for its "failure to make any progress in reducing the number of fatalities resulting from traffic accidents each year."
