I see there is sentiment that COVID-19 is now out of control in Israel and headed to a massive outbreak. (I even received a message from a colleague in India that he received a notification(?) that 40 schools were closed in Israel and that the situation is worsening rapidly). There was even a (since deleted) vile post from someone here expressing happiness over the fact that the US closed down later than Israel, allowing the virus to spread, making it less dangerous in NY now so he can daven with a minyan (as if 20K dead in NY of which reportedly 2K are frum yidden is a worthy sacrifice so he can daven btzibur).
This could not be further from the truth. It is true that Israel had for most of May around 20 new cases per day. And then over the past week the numbers have grown to around 100-130 per day. This is indeed a concerning trend.
90 schools are closed - but this is truly out of an abundance of caution - the total number of cases from those 90 schools is below 500. And they have tested every person from those schools and placed all of them in quarantine. This does not represent a major outbreak - rather a proactive response to prevent a major outbreak.
Israel is more or less completely open - all stores and businesses are operating, obviously with distancing restrictions. Schools are all open. Shuls are open. Kollelim are functioning. IY'H this will continue and we will not see a broader outbreak.
Even just to compare to NY, there are still more daily new cases in NY (200-300 daily) vs. new cases in Israel. To think that NY is in better shape than Israel at this point is laughable.
Very well said, however to add a few points
1) There is no evidence that allowing the virus to spread made it less dangerous in NY
2) There are 4000 schools in Israel. 90 schools isn't a huge number.
3) Many countries that took the total lockout route waited for near total elimination, which it is now evident Israel did not, and that may have been mistaken. See Australia, NZ, Taiwan, HK, Thailand, & Vietnam.
4) There were many unnecessary glitches & irresponsibilities in Israel, although they've definitely far outperformed the US.