They pushed of the vote to continue even though a number of coalition MKs were not going to be present, as they were going to the funeral of Rav Raziel Shevach, hyd, and they once again refused to offset the votes of absent MKs.
Interestingly enough, once again they failed to block the proposal and the coalition successfully passed the law.
For all the inhumane behavior displayed this past week, I must say the opposition is extremely ineffective. They acted inhumane to accomplish something specific, a few times, and they could not even get it done. They are ineffective and it does not seem the bad behavior/middos were even worth it, considering their failure in meeting their goals. If they were going to fail anyway, they should at least have acted decently. Was it really worth it?
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I am not entirely convinced that the actions of the opposition on the Litzman bill were as sinister as they are being portrayed.
ReplyDeleteHasson said that he noticed that enough MKs were missing that the legislation would not pass and he didn't know why they were absent. It is possible that he was telling the truth.
Bayit Yehudi MKs were at the funeral while Shas MKs were at a Deri family event. Vote pairing is arranged in advance. As no one was expecting a vote, arrangements were not made. Even if they did try to pair the votes, the Shas MKs absence would probably not be a legitimate reason for their votes to be paired. I also wonder if the missing Shas MKs would have but the legislation in danger, even if the Bayit Yehudi MKs returned from the funeral.
The opposition manoeuvring was a calculated risk. There was a chance it could have worked and defeated the legislation. As it didn't they are no worse for wear. It does send a message to the Government, especially the Whip that MKs need to stay close to the Knesset if they plan on getting their legislation across the plenum floor.
Now that Deri is claiming that the mini-market bill doesn't do anything, one has to wonder how much of the 'bad middos' all around has been about playing the blame game and nothing more.
The Litzman law is a basic law. That means it requires 60 votes to pass. Vote pairing would not have helped the situation as it would not count towards the total votes. If the Government is tabling legislation that requires 60 MKs in the Knesset, it is their responsibility to make sure they have 60 bodies available for the vote. The opposition caught them unprepared.
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