A member of the Israeli cabinet has been criticized for traveling abroad during a wave of COVID. Then she introduced her new baby.

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(JTA) It sounded like a story heard over and over again: A government official criticizes rivals for breaking COVID restrictions, then is caught breaking them herself.

This is what appeared to happen on Friday night, when an Israeli journalist tweeted that Israeli Transport Minister Merav Michaeli had visited the United States, contrary to government recommendations.

Journalists and politicians have denounced Michaeli’s apparent hypocrisy as Israel grapples with a spike in COVID cases. The speaker of the Israeli parliament, one of his political allies, stressed that he had chosen to spend a vacation with his extended family in a village in Israel. Galit Distel Atbaryan, a freshman lawmaker from the opposition Likud party, tweeted that last year Michaeli criticized then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for visiting Washington, DC during the pandemic for sign a diplomatic treaty.

Michaeli, 54, is the leader of the Labor Party.

“Now Michaeli is relaxing in the United States as COVID is still COVID,” Distel Atbaryan tweeted, according to Israeli newspaper Maariv. “Except there’s one difference: she won’t come back with a peace treaty.”

But on Saturday night, Michaeli revealed that she had returned with something – or rather someone – from her trip: a newborn baby.

She and her partner, Israeli comedian Lior Schleien, had traveled to the United States because they had a surrogate child. The announcement came with an added level of surprise, as Michaeli is an outspoken feminist who took issue with the idea that women have an obligation to raise children.

Michaeli posted the news on Facebook, along with a photo of her and Schleien smiling and holding their son, Ori. She explained her decision in the post.

“When Lior first told me ‘Let’s have a baby’ I was sure it was a punchline,” she wrote. “After all, he’s a comedian and we’re talking about me. And it is well known, I had no intention of having children.

But she wrote that out of love for Schleien she accepted that they would become parents, writing: “Over time I saw how much he wanted him, I watched him and I loved him. . And I chose to live with him and take this trip with him.

After Michaeli broke the news, the condemnations became kudos in a country where having children is (almost) universally celebrated and strongly encouraged by the government. Israel has relatively high fertility rates and provides monthly childcare allowances, in addition to subsidizing fertility treatments.

Avraham, the reporter who reported on his trip, tweeted that Michaeli’s staff hadn’t told him why and wished him “a huge mazel tov.”

Distel Atbaryan deleted his previous tweet, replacing it with his best wishes.

“I wrote a tweet that criticized Merav Michaeli for his trip to the United States,” she wrote. “It turns out that she didn’t fly for vacation, but actually for the birth of her first son through surrogacy. I immediately deleted my tweet and I take this opportunity to wish him the best on this trip, and mazel tov.

In her article, Michaeli said becoming a parent hasn’t changed her perspective on motherhood, which she says “turns into a burden on women,” and said having a child shouldn’t be. be considered an obligation. But she wrote that she is happy to be a parent.

“It’s a love story,” she wrote. “Now it’s a three-way love story.”

Schleien’s message was shorter. Above the same photo he wrote: “Meet: Ori.”

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