Legislating Elections
Evidence that early elections are nearing is the series of
election laws which have been laid before the Knesset to debate
and vote on. During normal times Knesset members prefer to
address various issues, but when elections approach, as would
be expected, an assortment of bills proposing election changes
appear.
For example, it has already been decided that in another few
weeks the Legislative Committee will discuss a request to apply
the law of succession to the proposal to change the law on
direct prime ministerial elections. This bill received approval
in a first reading during the last Knesset, and in order to
continue with legislative proceedings from the point at which
they were discontinued, the law of succession has to be applied
from the 14th to the 15th Knesset.
The 15th Knesset convened almost a year and a half ago, but no
one was anxious to discuss the request to apply the law of
succession. When there are no elections, there is no need to
rush. The fact that a decision was recently made to bring the
succession request up for discussion and a vote shows that the
smell of elections is in the air and anyone who wants to
complete proceedings or make changes better hurry.
Rabbi Shmuel Halpert also tried to make a legislative change
which would allow the minimum voting age to be lowered from 18
to 17. His reasoning was very straightforward: Seventeen-year-
olds will be permitted to vote in the next local elections,
following a change in the law, so why should they be permitted
to vote for the City Council but not for the Knesset? The
second justification was that a 17-year-old is allowed to apply
for a driver's license, meaning in this case the authorities
treat him as an adult, so why shouldn't he be allowed to
vote?
Due to government opposition, the bill was rejected. One of the
reasons given to oppose the bill was that it would be illogical
to bring politics and differences of opinion among the Jewish
people into the schools and the education system. This
reasoning is totally ludicrous since seventeen-year-olds are
very involved and well-aware of politics, and politics are
deeply entrenched in the schools anyway. It would be safer to
assume that the opposition stems from an entirely different
reason: the sectors which would benefit the most from a lower
voting age are the chareidi and national religious sectors and
the Arab sector, and the government heads now in office would
not look favorably on the idea of strengthening the political
potential of these sectors.
On the other hand, Meir Sheetrit (Likud) did manage to pass an
interesting bill designed to encourage greater voter turnout in
the Knesset in a preliminary reading. Election day would be a
vacation day. According to Sheetrit's proposed bill, those who
vote would be given the day off, while those who choose not to
vote would have to pay for this day off by subtracting it from
the number of annual vacation days to which the worker is
entitled. The precise mechanism by which the law would be
applied will be determined in forthcoming legislative
proceedings.
The chareidi sector, as is well-known, does not need a bill to
spur its voters to go to the polls to vote, and does so based
on directives from gedolei Torah who indicate who to
vote for, and everyone goes to the polls to carry out the
mitzvah of kechol asher yorucha. The voter turnout
within the chareidi sector is the highest in the country and is
an object of envy for the secular sectors and parties, for the
call of gedolei Torah is powerful and more binding than
any piece of legislature.
Melchior's Innocence
The bill was before the Knesset for a number of weeks, and was
finally approved on Monday by a vote of 84 to 19. Due to Shas'
decision to grant the government a safety net, the 61 votes
needed to pass the bill were not available until then. Last
week Shas members announced that they would support the bill,
thereby providing the votes to pass the bill.
Following Shas' decision to support the law, once it became
clear that the law would pass anyway, the government decided to
join in supporting the bill, but avoided making its position
known publicly in the Knesset.
Before the final vote last Monday, Arab Knesset members, who of
course opposed to bill, tried to turn the bill into a no-
confidence motion in the Prime Minister in order to delay the
vote until this week. According to regulations, when the
government does not indicate its position on a given bill
before the Knesset, the bill cannot be turned into a no-
confidence motion. The government did not articulate its stance
during the course of the proceedings, but when the votes were
cast, only one minister sat beside the government's table:
Michael Melchior. Melchior is not conversant with Knesset
regulations--to put it mildly--and is unaware of the rules and
procedures. When he was asked by meeting chairman Reuven Rivlin
whether the government had a position on the matter, instead of
ignoring the question and keeping his mouth shut, in his
innocence he replied that the government supports the bill.
Melchior, through his innocence and lack of knowledge (he has
only served as minister and never as a Knesset member), replied
naively to the chairman's question, but his answer led to the
opposite of his intentions. He had come to the plenum to vote
in favor of the bill, but after his reply that the government
supports the bill, the vote was delayed until yesterday when it
was passed. If Melchior had been familiar with the rules and
had understood the significance of what he was saying, it is
very doubtful that he would have answered the chairman. It is
more likely that he would have ignored the question and held
his tongue.
Budget Bypasses Shochat
Members of the Knesset Finance Committee have a surprise in
store for the finance minister. They are trying to prepare the
2001 budget for him, a sort of Shochat bypass route, in light
of the fact that the 2001 budget has not yet been approved even
in a first reading, due to the finance minister's inability to
secure a majority vote.
At a time like this, just one month before the beginning of the
next budget year, the Finance Committee is typically already
deep in budget talks and the arrangement law which accompanies
it, and is in second and third readings. This year, however,
the budget has yet to be approved even in a first reading due
to the sorry political situation which the government is
facing, and the fact that the Knesset effectively has no
coalition.
In the present situation Finance Committee members have taken
the matter into the own hands and have decided to try to forge
agreements among themselves on the budget, thereby dictating a
budget to the finance minister without much consideration of
his preferences or the Finance Ministry's preferences. Almost
all of the members of the Finance Committee agreed to the
arrangement which was put in writing in a memorandum, including
MK's from the right and the left and the chareidi and national
religious factions, along with representatives from One Israel
and Meretz. They decided that negotiations would only be
conducted directly with Finance Committee Chairman Eli
Goldschmidt (One Israel), who would effectively play the role
of finance minister.
Committee members do not intend to change the budget's general
framework. Their intention was not to deliver such a stinging
slap in the face to the Finance Ministry. All they intend to do
is to slice up the pie a bit differently from the way the
Finance Ministry had planned, thus meeting the demands of
various Knesset members. For example, if a majority of
committee members are in agreement that certain budgets have to
be granted for various issues, such as health, welfare,
agriculture, tourism, education, defense, etc., nothing will
prevent them from instituting the requested budget, with all
due respect to the Finance Ministry, which thinks otherwise,
and Beiga Shochat, who had hoped to bring a different budget
before the Knesset for approval.
Knesset members believe that if they reach agreements among
themselves, there will be no problem assembling a large
majority to support the budget since representatives from most
of the factions in the Knesset sit on the committee. They also
claim, and rightfully so, that the agreements that have been
reached so far, prior to the first reading, will shorten the
proceedings and prevent the need for long, drawn-out talks with
sleepless nights as the second and third readings approach, as
has been the case in previous years.
