There is no doubt that what is going on is highly irregular, given that Israel is (still) a liberal parliamentary democracy, and though the fault is not exclusively that of the Jewish opposition parties, and both sides ought to take stock, the strategy adopted by the opposition (i.e., Netanyahu) to constantly delegitimize the government and refer to it as fraudulent and dangerous, and to its leaders – especially Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Alternate Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid – as hypocrites, corrupt and liars, frequently makes it very difficult to hold a reasonable debate on anything.
During the Knesset sitting on June 28, MK Yoav Kisch (Likud) went into a long harangue in which he attacked Lapid, stating “You are the mother of the corrupt, you invented the word ‘liar.’ You are a hypocrite.”
Of what specifically did he accuse the foreign minister and alternate prime minister? He accused him of having referred to the concept of the alternate prime minister in the Netanyahu-Gantz coalition as “corrupt, and a deal between thieves,” while himself assuming the title in his agreement with Bennett. He also accused Lapid of having referred to the extended “Norwegian Law” in the Netanyahu-Gantz coalition agreement (which enabled numerous ministers and deputy ministers to resign from the Knesset and the next in line in their respective lists to enter the Knesset as full-time MKs) as proof that the government was detached from the economic reality, by creating superfluous jobs at a vast cost to the public, but agreeing to an even more extreme “Norwegian Law” in his agreement with Bennett.
Does this make him a corrupt liar and hypocrite? No, it simply means that he expresses what he is thinking instantly, without filters, and without taking into account that circumstances might change, and it is sometimes better just to shut up.
A separate problem is the unbridled attacks by the ultra-Orthodox parties on the government. Without any exceptions, all the haredi MKs attack the government mercilessly, and without any boundaries, sometimes even making total fools of themselves, as when MK Moshe Gafni blamed the current outbreak of the corona pandemic on the new government.
While secular society certainly has reason to be fed up with the haredim over the pooh-poohing by many of them of the COVID-19 regulations, and their refusal to be equal partners in Israeli society, the haredi MKs also have reason to be upset and angry.
They are upset to find themselves in the opposition.
They are angry with Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana (Yamina) for seeking to weaken the ultra-Orthodox and strengthen the National-Religious in the religious establishment.
They are angry with Lapid for his policy vis-à-vis the haredim when he was finance minister in the years 2013-2015.
They are furious with the current finance minister, Avigdor Liberman, for his view that the haredim should spend some time in the opposition – away from power and excessive influence on government policy.
Liberman’s reply, when asked in a TV interview just before the last elections if he would rather see Netanyahu removed, or not sit in a government with the haredim, that “I would take the haredim, together with Bibi, in a wheelbarrow to the closest garbage dump” was undoubtedly unworthy.
Nevertheless, the haredim need not worry about budgets for their institutions and yeshiva students, since the government would like their votes for the approval of the 2021-2022 budget, when it will be submitted within the next three months.
Then there are certain Mizrahi MKs (mostly of Moroccan origin), from the Likud but also from Shas, who attack the “left-wing Ashkenazim” in the new government for being racist and elitist. MK David Amsalem goes so far as to claim that they are the most violent members of the population and the most corrupt, bringing bogus arguments and “data” to prove his point.
Left-wing Ashkenazim are undoubtedly not saints, and there is a lot of hypocrisy among them when it comes to the Mizrahim – but no more than among Ashkenazi Likudniks.
I DON’T believe that the coalition can convince the opposition to change its policy by changing its own conduct in the Knesset, and since it is unlikely that the opposition will manage to topple the government in the near future, there is no urgency that it do so. However, it has the responsibility to try to lower the flames, and I feel that it made some major mistakes in its manning of senior positions in the Knesset.
For example, Mickey Levy from Yesh Atid as speaker is not an ideal choice. As a backbencher he was very boisterous and unruly, though since being elected speaker he has put on an air of stately decorum, and is apparently making great efforts to hold dialogues with some of the more boisterous and vitriolic members of the opposition.
The best choice would have been MK Meir Cohen, also from Yesh Atid. As deputy speaker, Cohen, who was born in Morocco, was always soft-spoken, patient and able to lower flames. The other day, as labor, social affairs and social services minister, he came to the plenum to answer questions, and a dialogue he held with MK Itamar Ben-Gvir – who raised a knotty problem – was relaxed, civilized and productive. Some MKs from the opposition called to him that he ought to change sides. They like him.
Cohen’s candidacy for speaker was thwarted due to accusations of sexual harassment against him by several women at the time that he was mayor of Dimona. He was never tried, but a cloud remains over his head, and the coalition apparently feared a feminist backlash (despite the nine women in ministerial positions).
However, the greatest mistake was appointing MK Idit Silman from Yamina as chairwoman of the coalition and of the Knesset Arrangements Committee. Silman is a relatively new and inexperienced MK, and though she seems to be unflappable, she lacks the know-how to manage an unruly bunch of MKs intent on disrupting the Knesset’s work, with minimal backlash.
Silman is assisted by MK Boaz Toporovsky from Yesh Atid, who has just a little more parliamentary experience than she has, and is rather cocky in his demeanor.
I think that if the coalition wanted a woman to serve as speaker, perhaps Merav Ben-Ari from Yesh Atid, who was an MK on behalf of Kulanu in the 20th Knesset, would have been a better choice. However, Bennett insisted on the job being held by a member of Yamina, even though he has few available MKs at his disposal, and none with experience. What a pity.
The strangest phenomenon in the plenum these days is Ra’am leader MK Mansour Abbas, who was selected as one of the Knesset’s deputy speakers.
The sittings that he chairs are generally calm and orderly. Though many members of the opposition view him as a fifth column who supports terrorists and seeks the destruction of Israel as a Jewish state, they are inclined to refer to him as “the acting prime minister of Israel.” If slights are thrown at him, he remains blasé and replies in a matter-of-fact manner.
The man seems to have the skin of an elephant, which serves him and the Knesset well in these stormy days.
The writer was a researcher in the Knesset Research and Information Center until her retirement, and recently published a book in Hebrew, The Job of the Knesset Member – an Undefined Job, soon to be published in English by Routledge.