This week in the Knesset it again became clear that there are politicians who have completely lost the importance and purpose of their mission as member of the Israeli Parliament. The coalition brought to a vote a bill that will give soldiers that complete their army service a partial grant to pay for the tuition costs of higher education. The bill has two main ideas behind it, to convince more youth to choose a combat service while in the army, and to help them go and educate themselves after the army.
In the end, the bill was successfully passed but not before a small change was made (regarding the height of the grant) and the opposition (at least the Likud) decided not to oppose it. However, this did not go without, as it turns out, serious discussions in the Likud faction, because the rule has been up until now, (and ferociously enforced by Netanyahu) that, no matter what, a bill submitted by the coalition must be voted against. And according to Miri Regev, herself a former high-ranking soldier, proclaimed very eloquently, that there will be no stomach aches, not for rape victims, not for single mothers, not holocaust survivors, and not for soldiers. She demanded, in her usual loud, aggressive manner, that the bill must be defeated, no matter what. The supposedly more moderate and civilized Dr. of Philosphy, Yuval Steinitz, also wasted little philosophy on the issue, and proclaimed that whatever will come up, a coalition bill must be defeated. And Netanyahu was inclined to side with them.
Luckily for our soldiers, there were still some people in the Likud faction that thought otherwise and proclaimed that they decided to vote in favor, even in contradiction to the rules the opposition has set for itself. It is unclear if they indeed thought that they should not oppose a bill that is for the best of the population, or they were simply worried about their own political future and that of their party, which might get seriously hurt by the backlash of a nay vote.
Thus, Netanyahu, seeing that he will be losing control over his herd, decided that the faction will en masse leave the plenum before the final vote, thus allowing the bill to pass.
The coalition was exulted and proudly claimed victory, even though they do no longer have a majority in the Knesset.
So the coalition survived to fight another day, but a much more serious problem was exposed by this farce Monday night in the Knesset.
The function of the opposition in a democracy is to present a viable alternative to the coalition in power, so as to replace them when the opportunity arises. But bringing down the current government is not the only task of the opposition, and probably not even the main one. The opposition is to ensure the defense of the public interest, overseeing and criticizing the actions of the government and make sure that these actions are for the good of the public. (Even if this is a broad definition).
The behavior of the Opposition in the Knesset has been decidedly not in the public interest, but only serves the personal and party interests of most of the politicians of both Likud and Religious parties. And we are lucky that the expressions of Regev and Steinitz somehow became public, even though Regev was very quick to claim the remarks were taken out of context and accused the person or persons who leaked them of harming the Likud. It is clear that Netanyahu and his flock of sheep is not interested in anything that is going on in the public realm or occupies the minds of the public. He wants to bring down this government and will not stop at nothing, even if he is clearly harming the public interest. While the nature of parliamentary democracy does leave room for flexibility and bringing down the government is a legitimate goal, harming the public interest while trying to achieving that goal is unforgivable and shows that these politicians have completely lost their way. It is to be hoped that the fact that in this particular instance there at least were some Likud members that were willing to resist the madness, that some “awakening” will bring these politicians back to their main task, which is serving the public, but with a dictator as their leader, chances of events like this week happening again, are slim.
I hope you found this article interesting and I welcome any comments you may have.
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