People should be upset, unless you believe the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria do not deserve Israeli rights, at the Likud and Bibi, Smotritch and Ben Gvir and Hatzionut Hadatit, Shas and UTJ... Not for not supporting the government proposal but for voting against the needs of the settlers for the purpose of bringing the Likud back to power. This was the type of vote that should not have been partisan and should have been supported by right wing opposition parties. But the Likud already said explicitly more than once that they dont care about helping anyone right now - not women who need protection from rapists, not settlers, not anybody - their efforts are only to get back to power. People should be upset that they put their own interests before the interests of the country - especially on issues that they have always supported..
But I do not blame them for the failure of the government to pass the Judea and Samaria bill.
This government is chaotic and has a difficult time passing bills because of the competing interests. In the best of times with this government it was a razor thin majority and they had a difficult time passing bills. Every bill was a battle and reopened coalition negotiations and threatened collapse. It is not the Likud's fault, nor Smotritch's nor Gafni's or Deri's fault. It is the government's fault. they have not been able to manage the coalition. This is exactly why 61MK majority governments are very rare - because they have a very difficult time functioning. every MK becomes the king or queen, any and every time a vote is required. A government cannot function for long like that. The government might survive, but it is not getting much done.
Likud et al should have supported this bill, but passing the law is the government's job, not the Opposition's. Bennett, Lapid, Lieberman and the rest of them get the blame for this. They haven't been able to manage their coalition, and they have not been able to get some support even on critical bills from Opposition parties. The Opposition is failing us in the hope of a short term victory, but the Government coalition is failing us worse, as it is their job to pass these bills and run the country, and they have not been able to do that.
And to add a note, I think this experiment has largely failed. At least int eh way it was formed. I would not say that we have learned that an Arab party cannot join a government coalition, but perhaps an Arab party cannot and will not join a razor thin coalition where they (like every other paty) hold the balance of power. if there would be a coalition fo 70 MKs, then maybe an Arab party would also be able to join and make it 74 or 75, but to rely on them for 61 - it wont happen again as the experiment has shown to be futile - the government cannot function like that.
------------------------------------------------------
Reach thousands of readers with your ad by advertising on Life in Israel
------------------------------------------------------
