By Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D
JERUSALEM — There have been several events worth mentioning.
We have a budget. For the first time in several years. Bibi’s government couldn’t, or wouldn’t pass a budget bill, and continued with partial enactments, providing moneys needed to continue or expand certain services. Now, with a budget approved, the present government evades a limit on its existence, tied by legislation to having enacted a budget.
Will it be a lot more, or not much more? Hard to decide. It will not solve our problems immediately. Traffic will continue to be congested, and we’ll have to wait our turn for medical care. But here and there, either as part of the budget or as separate measures are several things to applaud. Much of it against the ultra-Orthodox. Limited funding, and taxes on their purchase of disposable dishes, which apparently they use to avoid cleaning up on the Shabbat for their large families.
Also favors done for the Arab party in the government coalition. Enacting assurance of some Bedouin towns in the Negev. And some 10,000 Gazans let into Israel to work, some of them allowed to sleep in the country. Meanwhile, some pondering about Gazan requests that the number allowed in be increased to 30,000. So far with no agreement about Israel’s request–or demand–for the return of IDF bodies or the freeing of an individual said to be held in Gaza. The Gazans demand Israel’s release of convicted criminals in exchange. How much should we pay for two dead bodies?
The budget for 2021 passed by the bare majority, 61 to 59, represented by the strength of the wall to wall coalition, and the continued opposition of Bibi and his Haredi supporters. Loud accusations of Bennett as a traitor, perhaps going beyond what gentlemen and ladies should use as their language of political debate. And speeches of up to several hours in length, usually not speaking about the budget, but fulfilling the speaker’s aspirations to filibuster against the enactment. The next day, the budget for 2022 passed by a similar vote, this time 59 to 56.
And internationally, lots of glorious declarations at Glasgow, promising to clean the air and water, and to make the planet more livable. But the time spans for enactment are 8 or 28 years away, depending on which head of state made the declaration and what he/she was talking about.
Our own leader returned home and immediately went into budget negotiations. We’ve heard about the small number of government staff working on climate issues. Who knows?
And newspaper stories about the shallowness of corporate claims to be concerned about the environment. Not talking about their suppliers who are polluters.
Battles, but not yet all out war, between Israel and Iran. Frequent Israeli attacks on Iranian positions and the transfer of weapons through Syria, and attacks on Iranian facilities by cyber, including shutting down the country’s gas stations, as well as Iranian attacks via cyber on Israeli facilities. They have included a hospital and an organization of gays. Threatening to publish information about the outs individuals. Producing a cartoon in Ha’aretz with an old chap worrying about the release of his colonoscopy to the world. The TV speaker is saying, Iranians broke into the Moore institution, while the watcher says, Shit. My colonoscopy!
There’s also a huge commotion about sexual harassment among Israeli gays. The head–or now former head–of the gay organization has been accused, but perhaps not formally, of being forceful in his actions. Days of headline television coverage, interviewing people claiming to have been the object of his stresses, but also indicating that they may not make formal complaints to the police. Is this the effort of the television stations to appear even handed, and protecting gays, as well as women from sexual harassment? Has it gone beyond good taste?
I’ll leave those questions open.
What all of this reflects is politics and governments as usual. Lots of claims, and less action. Our worlds are complex. Hard, or impossible, to curtail pollution, or to provide all that we need. Leaders speak grandly, while individuals, groups, or corporate affiliates continue to operate against what they claim as their intentions. We may be moving ahead, but gradually, or incrementally, while honoring commitments that are at odds with what is proclaimed.
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Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D., is professor emeritus of political science at Hebrew University. He may be contacted via ira.sharkansky@sdjewishworld.com
“Loud accusations of Bennett as a traitor, perhaps going beyond what gentlemen and ladies should use as their language of political debate.”
Not when you consider that Bennett has just formed a political partnership with a party (Islamist Ra’am Party) that, had it existed in November 1947, would have undoubtedly voted against the establishment of the State of Israel.