All this horsetrading is precisely why we need electoral reform.
- Tzippi Livni insists on controlling peace negotiations, and the PM has to give it to her, despite having promised not to, because he must form a coalition, and she is willing, for the right price, despite having promised not to join
- Yair Lapid demands only 18 ministers, while the PM insists on more, to be able to keep everyone happy and join, and support, the coalition he must form.
- Yair Lapid and Naftali Bennet can demand the implementation of certain policy items, even before being in the government, whether it is the operation of bus line son Shabbos or changing the rules of the IDF draft or any other policy issue, because Netanyahu's time is running out and he must form a coalition.
- Different parties can blacklist other parties, and it puts more pressure on Netanyahu and makes it more difficult to form a stable coalition.
Netanyahu's job does not need to be easy, and the various political parties are not obligated to negotiate in a way that will make it easy for Netanyahu to form his coalition, but all these reforms and policy items are things that should be debated by the government, researched and analyzed, and voted on. All these demands are what makes the PM too weak to function properly and efficiently, let along in the way his own voters expected him to work.
I am not blaming any one specific politician or party. They all bear some of the responsibility and blame, including Netanyahu himself whose leadership has been left wanting, he has set a very divisive tone, pitting parties and politicians against each other. It is the system that is failing the country. The system is built on this horsetrading, and this is what needs to change.
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All this proves that politicians are not the ones ruling a country - on the contrary, they impede the normal functionning of the State. Israel has now been without a real government for how long? Almost two months? Belgium did without for two years and everything worked fine. The administration is what runs a country. Politicians just disrupt it with unreasonable demands for electoralist reasons. Democracy is a fraud - or at least it has become.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of government is to keep otherwise unemployable power-hunger losers off the street.
ReplyDeleteHere in Canada we have a first-past-the-post system in each constituency. As a result, a party needs to get only 40% of the popular vote in order to have a majority. Since the right is currently at that 40% level the left is screaming about electoral reform and what system do they want? Proportional representation. Aren't they reading the news about Israel?
All this horse trading is actually a very good thing IMO.
ReplyDeleteI see no harm in requiring new elections if nothing good can come of these agreements.
Also, if people want to vote for Livni even after all her actions which shows she is corrupt and only wants power, who is to say they don't want her behaving that way?