Seven months ago, it looked as if Knesset member Yifat Shasha-Biton's political career might be behind her. When the new coronavirus government formed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informed her that he was forced to move her from her post as housing minister — a position she had been appointed to the year before — to the seemingly insignificant position of chair of the Knesset’s Coronavirus Committee. It appeared to signal an abrupt end to her brief political career. At just 47 years old, she was pushed to the back benches of the Likud. From there, it seemed like she was on her way out of politics.
But then, something remarkable happened. Shasha-Biton, who has a doctorate in education (just like Jill Biden), took the lemon and made lemonade. It was the end of the first coronavirus lockdown. People were tired, frustrated and depressed, after living under so many restrictions. The economy was suffering. The anti-Netanyahu protests were gaining momentum because of the prime minister’s mismanagement of the crisis. His rivals accused him of intentionally locking people in their homes, just so that they wouldn’t take to the streets and demonstrate against him. They said the closure was “political.”
