Plagued by the Coronavirus and Israel's Third Election in Under a Year, This Week Saw Mainly Losers, and No Winners

With the Israeli economy in limbo for more than a year due to three indecisive elections, and with frantic preparations for the brewing coronavirus epidemic, it was impossible to find any winners this week. One after another, international conferences and business meetings were canceled, airline companies canceled flights to an ever-growing list of destinations, and delegations of investors who were supposed to meet local entrepreneurs postpone their arrival to Israel indefinitely.

And just as if to add fuel to an already raging fire, Israeli politicians are using the coronavirus as a platform for political spins. Following the election earlier this week, it seems that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has once again failed to secure the majority he needed to form a steady government. It is convenient, then, that the media should focus on the threat of the corona rather than the chance of yet another election soon.

The Israeli corona policy is among the harshest globally, but it is intended to try and lessen as much of the burden as possible on the already overstressed, understaffed, and underfunded domestic healthcare system. Low public investment in infrastructure and understaffed hospitals will turn wide-spread coronavirus into a domestic nightmare. To flatten the infection curve, Israel is taking steps that may be among the harshest globally, to the displeasure of its finance ministry.

Many Israeli high-tech companies already have lost tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars in recent weeks and months as a result of canceling business meetings or attending international conferences. But the great concern is still one of the unknowns before us: if the borders will truly close, many companies will freeze operations for a few months. This will lead to a new reality that anyone who does not adapt to could collapse.

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