After many long days of globetrotting and silence on security
matters at home as Kassam missiles rained down on Sderot, PM
Ehud Olmert now realizes that he has to get to work rather
than letting the job rest entirely on the narrow shoulders of
his defense minister, Amir Peretz, as much as doing that may
be worth to him politically. Under the current circumstances
the PM can no longer avoid responsibility, laying all the
blame on Peretz.
Olmert has broken his deafening silence and has begun issuing
threats to the Hamas and the Palestinian Authority. He
convened the cabinet, consulted with his advisors and began
giving orders on military measures. The political games have
come to an abrupt end. Now he must demonstrate himself worthy
of the title of prime minister or go down in history as a
passing politician who accidentally plopped into the Prime
Minister's Office and left as quickly as he came.
Although he still has not found the time to give Sderot Mayor
Eli Moyal a ring, if he takes concrete action Moyal would
probably be willing to forego the courtesy call.
Political expediencies cannot be taken into consideration
during times like the past week, a fact even the opposition
recognizes. The Likud recently rescinded a no-confidence
motion over proposed appointments of deputy ministers, and
Labor's internal battles quieted somewhat.
Following the attack on Kerem Shalom and months of missile
attacks on Sderot, MK Matan Vilnai lodged criticism of
Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who seized the opportunity to
strike out at him to achieve political ends.
But apparently a little birdie told Vilnai that he had
blundered, that this was neither the time nor the place to
score political gains, for at a recent Labor meeting held at
the Knesset he opened with brief remarks that gave full
backing to the Defense Minister.
Dani Yatom as well, feeling an urge to support Peretz during
these difficult times, then summarized Vilnai's remarks by
saying that the whole party stood by the Party Chairman and
Defense Minister.
Vilnai managed to hold his tongue in the coming days as well,
but not Yatom. At a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and
Security Committee the next day Yatom criticized the IDF and
the security establishment, trying to explain that there was
no contradiction between lending his support and lodging
criticism. How could the two go hand-in-hand? Ask Dani
Yatom.
The Knesset: Hard at Work or Hardly Working?
The 17th Knesset got its start just three months ago and it
appears that its members want to break all previous
legislating records. In such a short period of time some
2,000 bills have already been tabled. For the sake of
comparison the 15th Knesset tabled a total of 4,234 bills
during its entire term.
The House Committee is considering a move to put a cap on the
number of bills each MK or party can submit, similar to the
quotas on questions, agenda proposals, no-confidence motions,
etc.
In Israel over 95 percent of proposed laws do not make it
past all of the legislation hurdles and into the law
books.
Knesset House Committee Chairman Ruchama Avraham (Kadima)
supports the idea of limiting the number of proposals MKs can
submit. "It's a waste of paper, money and time," concurs MK
Moshe Sharoni (Gil Pensioners).
Former Knesset Chairman Reuven Rivlin argues that such a
quota would deny MKs a privilege and undermine democracy.
No decision was reached in the meeting but Knesset Chairman
Dalia Itzik (Kadima) said any decision would have to have the
consent of all Knesset parties.
MKs took advantage of the discussion to raise another serious
problem: MKs' attendance in the majority of plenum sessions,
which ranges from poor to very poor. MKs care about their
image and the fact that the large hall is empty most of the
time apparently troubles them. But rather than solving the
problem by simply coming to the meetings and encouraging one
another to attend, they are searching for more creative
ideas.
Avraham proposed making a Knesset regulation requiring each
party to maintain an internal rotation with at least one-
third of party members in attendance at any given time.
David Azoulai said Shas had tried the idea on its own
initiative with little success, since MKs always seem to have
other commitments. Other MKs echoed his concerns that such a
regulation would be infeasible.
In this matter too, like so often is the case, the Knesset
decided not to decide, opting to postpone the issue until the
Winter Session. And if somebody out there thinks they will
reach a decision to require MKs to work a bit more seriously
or to show a bit more respect for the office of MK and the
task they were elected to carry out, he simply does not know
the Knesset members.
