Members of Knesset as Role Models

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has proposed a law yesterday that would shake up the Knesset. Yisrael Beiteinu submiited a bill, under their series of proposed nationalist laws dubbed "loyalty bills" by which, if it were to pass, the only people who would be qualified to run for seats in the Knesset are people who served in the army or did National Service. I assume this does not apply to ministerial appointments, as those do not need to, even though they almost always do, come from the Knesset.

This would mean, it the bill were to pass, that many current Knesset members, especially from the Haredi and Arab parties, would be disqualified. Such a law would preculude many new immigrants from running for Knesset as well, as when someone makes aliyah above a certain age, or with a certain number of children, they are often exempted from army service. I am pretty sure many in Yisrael Beiteinu as well would be disqualified, as many of them are new immigrants.

MK Moshe Matalon who submitted the actual bill said "Serving the country is part of the Israeli ethos. It cannot be that people who did not serve their country will sit in the Israeli Knesset. Knesset members are supposed to be role models."

Role models? I seem to recall an incident not too long ago in which a member of his own party was unable to control herself in the Knesset... and incidents like that are not all that uncommon.. role models? Hah!