They have done basically nothing and caused almost no trouble for the government in the past 4 years, and probably even in the past 9 if not more. Netanyahu's [governmental] problems come almost entirely from within his coalition - nothing from the Opposition.
The latest is an announcement of roadworks to take place on Fridays and Shabbos that will force road closures of the Ayalon Highway in the Tel Aviv area. They will be building a bridge - I guess a pedestrian walkway - over the highway, and presumably a project of that magnitude requires road closures that can't be done during the week.
Sure enough, that brought out protest and threats from Deputy Minister Yaakov Litzman. This is a breach in the status quo and is against Jewish values. If the decision is not reversed, there goes the government.
Minister of Transportation Yisrael Katz almost immediately put a stop on the order and said the work will not be done on Shabbos but will be done during the nights when there is less traffic on the roads and the road closures will be bearable.
An anonymous Haredi politician has responded that if they can close roads for all sorts of reasons like parades and marathons and other events causing tremendous traffic jams, it is hypocritical to say the roads cannot be closed for the building of the bridge and it must be done on Shabbos even with no claim of "pikuach nefesh".
This sent the Opposition into a tizzy. As they complained (in many different variation from different politicians but all saying basically the same thing), a small group of haredim are controlling our lives and Netanyahu has given them full control over the government. To that end, they successfully mustered enough signatures to call for a special session of the Knesset to discuss the issue, even though the Knesset is on vacation now.
Being that they have been able to do this twice now within just a couple of weeks is actually impressive. The fact that nothing comes out of such sessions, and that they have found no other way of promoting their agenda and preventing Netanyahu's government form promoting its agenda and from preventing the Haredi parties from wielding the power they do, shows how ineffective they actually are.
Interestingly, and basically a side point, the name of the bridge is to be "Gesher Yehudit". I am not sure what the name signifies, if they named it after someone, or how they chose that name, but I find it ironic that "the Jewish bridge" is the name given to a bridge that will be built on Shabbos and argued about causing much strife.
sources: Kikar, Kipa, Behadrei, Actualic, and others
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How sweet
ReplyDeleteWish for an Opposition
What if the Opposition
is existential threat