Israel’s Foreign Ministry has decided not to designate the United Arab Emirates as a “red” country despite the Health Ministry’s request to do so, fearing a strain in diplomatic relations.
The change in the UAE’s status to red could damage the newly formed diplomatic relations between Israel and the Gulf state, as well as put a damper on the many business deals, conferences, and meetings between the two countries.
Israeli tourists have been flocking to the Gulf state in large numbers, with about 70,000 Israelis expected to visit over Chanukah, and they would be forced to quarantine upon arriving home in Israel if the UAE was declared red.
Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein spoke about the matter on Thursday and agreed that the Foreign Ministry would be consulted prior to any future decision regarding the UAE’s status.
The UAE has been suffering a surge of coronavirus cases since September, with over 1,000 new cases being confirmed each day.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
So either they don’t believe their own rhetoric about the Wuhan disease, or else they are deliberately endangering the entire public for the sake of diplomacy and politics?! If relations with the UAE are important enough to justify endangering everyone (leshitosom), then how can they claim that this gadol’s levaya, or this person’s livelihood, is not that important? How can they accuse anyone of endangering the public if they are doing the same thing, just because to THEM it’s “important enough”?
@Milhouse
The real answer is that since the government is the body that is making and enforcing public policy abut how to deal with the coronavirus, in most cases there is an presumption of neutrality and best interest for the public at large. That means that the government can really make decisions of what is or is not “more important” when forced to choose (in this case health vs economy).
However, since the same government setting virus policy is the body handling foreign policy, the government is unable to take a neutral stance on what is “more important”. Regarding travel restrictions, those foreign entities would or might see the government actions as a reflection of its foreign policy agenda and not it’s health policy agenda. If the Israeli public was sincere in ITS belief in the government policy, the travelers to UAE would all self quarantine despite the lack of government imposition.
[But that leads to the real point. The public and hopefully the government ministers as well, all realize by now that this whole quarantine & lockdown idea is a foolish sham. It’s not saving lives, just ruining them. Nobody wants to take the blame for an overzealous reaction that ruined the economy and created immense social and emotional distress. Now they’ve created a “vaccine” which has the same symptoms and risks as the virus itself, simply to give those social leaders a green light to go back to normal while saving face]