The experts and their charts claim Israel is over the worst of this most difficult third wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
But hospital COVID-19 wards tell a different tale of persistently high rates of contagion and serious cases.
Why, despite a three-week long lockdown, are there so many new cases of the virus every single day?
No one knows for sure. But any Israeli who has ventured out of the house in the past few weeks knows this is not what lockdown looks like.
Israelis from all walks of life has come to the conclusion that their government cares very little about compliance with health regulations, so they chose to work around them.
Israelis leaving the country before the closure of Ben-Gurion Airport
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Restaurants are still offering takeaway services and stores are sneaking shoppers in through the back door. Even schools that should be shut and classes held on Zoom have simply been replaced by privately organized study groups that free up parents to go to their vital - and often not-so-vital - jobs.
And in ultra-Orthodox communities, the religious schools operate quite unimpeded.
As we revel at our small triumphs over a failed system, we must realize that the real loss is ours and ours alone. Our behavior is sure to worsen the health and financial calamity we are facing.
Traffic jams in Tel Aviv as police attempt to enforce lockdown restrictions
(Photo: Moti Kimchi)
Now new and more violent strains of the virus have been added into the mix, and their real impact is still unknown.
Add them to the unforgivable delay in shutting down Ben-Gurion Airport, Israel's primary port of entry, and the underfunded hospitals struggling to meet the growing demand for intensive care, and what you have is complete catastrophe.
The vaccination campaign will probably help to limit the calamity, but vaccines alone will not stop the pandemic and end the pain we are all feeling to a lesser or greater degree.
An IDF medic administers the coronavirus vaccine in Givatayim
(Photo: Reuters)
Israel is not the first country to lose control of the pandemic, but after a year of the global fight against the virus, some basic principles are indisputable and none beyond reach.
Whether we choose the New Zealand model, with a mild and polite approach to its citizens, or China's mitigation through zero-tolerance enforcement, the decision is in our hands.
But we should know that this Israeli mutation of dishonesty and trickery in lockdown will bring cold reality knocking at our doors.