This mess with the train lines, Shabbos and the politicians involved is still difficult to make sense of. Who did what and who knew what, and which conflicting story to believe...
Another question that has come to mind is how this compares with any work done during the days a Haredi minister was in charge of signing off on similar work permits.
Recently Aryeh Deri was the minister in charge, for a period of time, of signing off on such permits. I have not heard anybody in the news, be it Haredi news media or secular news media, ask if Deri signed off on similar work permits in those days, nor does it seem anyone has looked into it to find out whether that happened or not. Officials in Rakevet Yisrael keep saying that the same type of work has been done on Shabbos for decades, always with permits. The Haredi politicians keep saying if that si true it was kept secret and nobody ever knew about it (though I am not sure how such a thing can be kept secret).
So, where are the people who should be looking into whether or not such work permits were issued during Deri's days as minister? Maybe he refused them, maybe he approved them, or maybe they did not exist. I think this would be a good barometer to determining what was known by whom and when.
And one more thought, Minister Yaakov Litzman has done a lot of great work in the Health Ministry, to the point where the Haredi parties have seen unprecedented popularity and favorable ratings among the general public. Even to the point that Litzman himself has been called the national sweetheart. That status is seriously at risk right now with the train fight raging. It shows how fickle the public really is - do something good for them, and they love you. Do something they don't like and they forget the rest very quickly.
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