Drunk, Sober - Corona Brings Us Strange Bedfellows!

It's said that Shakespeare wrote King Lear during a plague year, but what about The Tempest?

Certainly the line "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows”, spoken by someone who had been shipwrecked and found himself seeking shelter beside a sleeping monster, could well be said of Israel and her immediate neighbours in our time of Coronavirus.

Most astoundingly, Qatar Airways has included Israelis in its allocation of 100,000 free flights to medical professionals worldwide. Airline CEO Akbar Al Baker said of the 'thank you' giveaway during a CNN interview that “There is no difference, no barrier in medical fields".

Meanwhile, World Israel News has reported that the pandemic had brought Israeli Jews and Arabs closer together while The Times of Israel told us that  three Arab Gulf states had contacted Israel seeking help in their own war against the common enemy.

All of this has taken place against a background of increased Sino-US tensions in which Israel is walking an increasingly precarious tightrope between the two powers. 

But even as there is unconfirmed talk of Corona returning to several Chinese cities and the general public continues to receive stern warnings about a 'second wave' mutation that could be far more contagious and severe than the first, there are still too many Israelis of all stripes who lack conscience and stroll about, either without masks or wear them - as has already been noted - like fashion accessories to be pulled up hastily should they be challenged.

Yesterday, Tuesday 12 May, we  made our first out-of-town trip since the end of January and spent a very pleasant sun-filled couple of hours in Nahariya. But it was by no means perfect.

More than twenty-four hours on, I'm still worrying about the woman drunk we saw splayed on the pavement, clutching a wine bottle while fast asleep in the middle of the main street, Ga'aton. Should we have called the emergency services? Was she ill or simply inebriated? Were we correct to walk by as though nothing were amiss? 

A plague-beleaguered resort does not need public displays like this. Neither should the municipality be proud that most of the relatively few people we saw were not wearing masks. 

If the authorities don't care, perhaps they should consider the mixed message they delivered in organising the Lag B'Omer parade we spied trundling towards the south promenade as we left town later in the afternoon. 

Never mind, eh?  The shopkeeper where my husband bought sandals was so pleased to make a sale that she gave him an unexpected discount. 

And so home. But not quite yet to bed!

© CoronaFizz (13 May 2020)