Coalition Curiosities

The new government coalition as presented yesterday has some curiosities. The most glaring, for me, are:

 - MK Nir Barkat being left out without a ministry. PM Netanyahu used a significant portion of the campaign with Barkat at his side and Netanyahu announcing that Barkat would be the Finance Minister. Even if that could not work out for whatever reason (other conflicting demands and needs) - he couldn't get anything? Not a single important ministry could be found for him? Weird. I get that promises cant always be kept, and this time lots of promises were broken by lots of politicians - but nothing at all for Barkat after being such a major part of the campaign? Weird.

 - The news reported last night that Barkat was vetoed from the Education Ministry portfolio when Netanyahu was considering offering it to him. The veto was by MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) because he felt that Barkat hadnt treated the Haredi community well when he was mayor of Jerusalem (not sure in what specific manner, but ok). I find it curious that UTJ reps get to determine for the Likud who their ministers and representatives will or will not be.

 - Litzman further clarified his words from last night, putting the blame on Netanyahu for panicking and agreeing to demands for extreme measures to combat the Corona virus. When explainign hsi words and softenign his tone on Netanyahu, he then transferred the blame to "Barsi" - Moshe Bar Siman Tov, the former Director of the Health Ministry who had, until now, received tremendous accolades, even from Litzman himself, for his handling of the Corona crisis in a professional and careful manner. Now he accused Barsi of panicking and being overly extreme. and suddenly Litzman thinks the reasonably good results Israel has had in fending off the virus is despite Barsi's measures, rather than because of. And he did all this on his first day as Housing Minister.

 - Yisrael Katz as Finance Minister? He's a good guy and did a tremendous job as Transportation Minister, but I am not sure why he is better suited than Barkat for the Finance Ministry. If Barkat had to be passed up, why for Yisrael Katz? Why not give Yisrael Katz a different senior position?

  - Minister Litzman became Health minister a few years ago instead of Deputy Minister, when the Supreme Court made them stop the farce of Deputy minister with the standing of Minister. Litzman resigned from that position because of the long-standing Haredi position of not taking ministerial positions so as not to share responsibility for governmental chilul shabbos and other halachic violations. More recently, during the placeholder government when Netanyahu had to resign from all his ministerial positions, Litzman was at risk of losing his deputy position so he was granted a temporary reprieve from the Gerrer Rebbe to become minister again, but only temporarily because of that specific situation.

Yesterday, once again, Litzman was sworn in as minister (of housing and construction) - full minister, despite this being a regular government and not a caretaker government. Is the Haredi ban officially over?

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