With prices in Israel on basic goods, like with many other products, skyrocketing, the government is finally waking up to the news of inflation and increasing prices, despite the focus they gave to fighting the rise in cost of living during the election campaigns. For the past 3 months they havent done a thing except push the judicial reform that they cancelled, along with some personal laws to benefit Netanyahu. And they wake up shocked 3 months later that inflation is still rising and prices are going up even more.

This past week has seen a slurry of law proposals trying to get in under the deadline of the government dispersing.

MK Nir Barkat (Likud) proposed an interesting law, which was rejected.

Barkat is independently wealthy, and he entered politics, originally as Mayor of Jerusalem and then in the Knesset arena, after having accumulated his wealth in a successful career in hi tech and investing. Most MKs and Ministers are not in that situation.

When Barkat served as Mayor of Jerusalem he refused to take a salary. When Barkat moved into the Knesset he wanted to do the same, but the Knesset rules do not allow that. While he technically could have taken hsi salary and then donated it all to charity or to a government program, he didn't want that - he wanted to not receive a salary at all. Barkat has, in the meantime, refused to give the Knesset payroll department his bank information, so they just can't pay him his salary due to a technicality, but Barkat wants ti to be an official option for an MK to refuse a salary.

So, MK Nir Barkat proposed a law that would allow any MK that so desires to forgo his or her salary entirely. Not get it at all. The MK or MInister would also be able to give up other benefits such as the budgets allocated to each MK and Minister for keeping in touch with the electorate. The MK who so desires would be able to decide that his or her salary should instead be passed on to a government program of their choosing from which the public would benefit.

The committee rejected Barkat's bill. Dudi Amsalem, Ministerial Liaison to the Knesset, rejected it saying that anyone who wants can donate his or her salary to whatever charity they want. Nobody has to keep his salary.
source: JPost

I tend to agree with Amsalem and not allow this to become a law. Were it to become a law, pressure would be put on MKs and Ministers all the time to give up the salary or extras because of this or that. Most MKs are not in the same situation as Nir Barkat in regards to personal wealth.

For most of the MKs, this is their job and this is the salary they live on. The money for extra benefits such as office needs and staying in touch with the public is necessary for the functioning of the job. Why should those MKs be regularly pressured to forgo their salaries and benefits? Nir Barkat, and whoever else so desires, can donate his salary and that's fine. There is no need to open the door to pressuring others to follow suit.

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?

it seems to be a trend for non-haredi politicians to have their haredi-involved meetings over cholent...

cute

The news is reporting that an Arab terror cell had planned on assassinating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.

Obviously it did not work out so well for them and they've been arrested and indicted.

However, it does work out great for Nir Barkat. Why he was a target of the assassination plan, rather than senior ministers such as Gilad Erdan, Aryeh Deri, Yisrael Katz, Naftali Bennett and others, or the president Reuven Rivlin, I do not know. But his name tied together with that of the PM as the targets puts him in good company as has people thinking of him as being a prime leader of Israel, on par with the prime minister. That can only help him with his political career moving forward.

I guess nobody wants to be a target, but as long as the plot is foiled, he might as well reap the benefits!

To me there are 2 interesting aspects of Nir Barkat's announcement today about deciding to not run for re-election as Mayor of Jerusalem but to run on the Likud list for Knesset.

And they are:
1. that he has always refused a salary for public office and has taken just 1nis per year as mayor and will continue to do so when serving the public in national office. His decision to only take a salary of 1nis per year as mayor is well known, adding future offices to it is interesting. Barkat by law has to take a salary, which is why he takes 1nis, but he should also donate that 1nis to charity so he can really say he has taken nothing from the public for his service.

2. What happens next in Jerusalem? The recent fake fighting between Avigdor Lieberman and Aryeh Deri and other Haredi representatives put Moshe Leon's chances in question, even though they officially made up immediately after the "fight". Will a Haredi rep recapture the votes of the city residents? Will another secular representative take over where Barkat left off? The mayhem and fighting for the spot will surely keep things interesting for the foreseeable future.

that's Dean Cain, actor that played Superman, visiting Israel and posing with Mayor of Jerusalem Nir "Batman" Barkat..

Barkat is worse than the rioters in Mea Shearim who burn garbage bins and bring a halt to life for the residents. He acts like them and even worse than them.

  -- a "senior official" in the Finance Ministry, regarding Barkat's leading of a strike in Jerusalem

Nir  Barkat is a funny guy...

this is a picture of Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, walking the streets of the city (he was near Shuafat at the time) carrying his licensed Glock gun converted to a carbine rifle... after some concern that Batman was packing unlicensed heat, Barkat's office released a photo of Barkat's gun license.

On the one hand it is cool that Barkat, the mayor, aka Batman, will show himself like this and portray a tough image. On the other hand it is a bit terrifying that this has become necessary..

PM Netanyahu had mentioned to Mayor of Jerusalem Nir Barkat that due to all the security issues he has not really had a chance to see the rejuvenated downtown Jerusalem. So Barkat took Netanyahu to see the night-life, the light rail route and some other important and central locations.

But that is not why this picture earned the title of Picture of the Day.

The reason is because of the seemingly extremely friendly and convivial evening between the Netanyahus and the Barkats. They had dinner together and went for a night out on the town. Considering that very recently we heard about the existence of bad blood between them, due to Zeev Elkin being appointed Minister of Jerusalem instead of the position either being given to Barkat or left open entirely, the working double date with everyone looking so happy is a bit of a surprise.

And no, I don't think he had to do it. I have not heard of Netanyahu or any other prime minister taking a tour around any city, including Jerusalem, to see the nightlife. This was something out of the ordinary, which makes me think the bad blood is behind them.


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