That is MK Merav Michaeli (Labor). The only thing special about the picture is that she is wearing red instead of her traditional black outfits. She shocked everyone today when she appeared in the Knesset in a red pantsuit, which she wore to note the importance of the protest movement...

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According to Michaeli, if Netanyahu puts together a government of 61 mandates, it would include just 9 women - the lowest number of women in a Knesset in many years. Michaeli says this points to "the side of Netanyahu" rejecting the basic principle of gender equality. Michaeli claims that the Labor party is the only party in Knesset that has implemented equal representation of men and women.

This has been spoken about before but the Haredi parties have always found a way to avert it as they are staunchly opposed to including women on their party lists. Even if they would be granted some sort of religious exemption, such a law would help boost female representation among the other parties that already have women included but very few.

The big question, if no religious exemption would be granted, is how UTJ and would deal with such a law. appealing to the Supreme Court is obviously the main first step, but this question is supposing they do that and the Supreme Court upholds the requirement (which itself is not a sure thing).

I see three possibilities, and feel free to add your own, the funnier the better.

1. they comply and add women equally to the men on the list. Not likely to happen, but if forced to, perhaps

2. they comply and add women, but doing so by stacking the list with 60 men in the first 60 slots and then 60 women in the next 60 slots, to fill out the party list of 120 potential MKs. This would be cute, and for them this too would also be a precedent and a massive change, even though they are all in unrealistic spots. What would be even funnier is if the public were to massively vote for UTJ just to get some of the women in slots 60+ into Knesset as UTJ representatives.

3. half the men on the UTJ declare themselves as identifying as women. This could work, but I doubt UTJ would do that, even in jest.

I think it might be worth massively voting for Labor right now just to see what happens with this...

After Aryeh Deri quipped this morning that Yitchak Rabin would be turning in his grave if he could hear Merav Michaeli say that she is the one following in the footsteps of Yitzchak Rabin, Michaeli retorted with a great troll of a response.

Michaeli said "if you really miss Yitzchak Rabin so much come to the memorial ceremony in his memory and tell your voters how together, with courage, you passed the Oslo Accords.."

Ok.

On its own that is a good thing and a good project. These guys who force their way onto other people terrorize the community, and it is not just the non-haredim who suffer but even the general mainstream haredim who suffer from their abuse.

That being said, Michaeli should be sending inspectors to, as well, in addition to the above, ensure that there are enough buses, that the buses are running their routes in a timely fashion, that the buses are not overcrowded. The public transportation system is a mess. Michaeli's goal in this position was always to encourage people to use public transportation rather than personal vehicles, but with the way the pt system is so messed up, that is not going to happen. The reason to fix the public transportation system is not so people give up their cars, even if that is her main goal, but because people need to be able to rely on public transportation to get where they need to go in a timely fashion. If buses dont show up, if they run late, if they are overcrowded and cant pick up passengers, the system is worthless.

Fix the discrimination against women, but also fix the system itself so people, men and women and children, can uses the buses reliably.

no idea who gets credit for this picture

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Nor Minister Michaeli has officially canceled the plans for a new road, prepared by her predecessor MK Yisrael Katz (Likud), formerly Minister of Transportation.

According to Actualic, Minister Merav Michaeli announced cancellation of the road plans, as per the requests of nature activists. It seems the threat to deer in the area is greater than the threat to humans stuck in ambulances sitting in traffic, or waiting for ambulances sitting in traffic. 

Saving the deer is definitely important, but there are solutions. Instead of just canceling the road, solutions should be researched. In some places they build overpasses designed specifically for the animals to cross the new roads safely. Or the road can built raised above the fields the deer like to prance through. The road could be lined by fences and walls to prevents deer from crossing right into the headlights with them instead being directed to other fields or to said over/under passes.

The fact that Michaeli is a feminist has nothing to do with this decision and the local residents quoted in the article derisively calling her a feminist are wrong. They are right for criticizing the decision but it is demeaning and beneath them to bring in her feminist leanings when it is irrelevant.

the worst part of going to Modiin Ilit is getting in and out of the city. The roads are narrow, with a lot of traffic. At night near the entrance it is pitch black (and everyone there wears black coats and hats and pants so the pedestrians are hard to see). There is only one way in and one way, the same way, out, and it is a single lane in each direction. And the city has grown tremendously - it is no longer a small town of Kiryat Sefer with a small number of private cars - Modiin Ilit is a nice sized city (population of about 75,000 residents), with lots of cars and buses. Getting in and out of the city is a nightmare.

MK Uri Maklev (UTJ) today complained to Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli about this. He implored her to accelerate the construction of roads and interchanges into the city, a project that was started a while back but hasnt gone very far and naturally takes some times even in the best of circumstances. Maklev described how bad the traffic is coming in and out at the busy times of the day, with it taking even up to half an hour to be able to leave the city.

Minister Michaeli's response was that people should take public transportation instead of private cars and cut down on the traffic. Michaeli says that the ministry's priority is to encourage the use of public transportation over private vehicles. She says that the number of private vehicle si use in Israel has grown in recent years in an unprecedented fashion and this is because, she says, the road networks were developed tremendously but without improving the system of public transportation, so people bought cars as it became more and more convenient with the better roads and less convenient to use public transportation. The solution for Modiin Ilit, she says, is to increase the use of public transportation over private vehicles.

This is somewhat of a disconnect. People have cars and need to get places where buses dont go or need to get there in a more timely fashion than that which a bus can be relied upon. She should definitely improve the public transportation system, but plenty of people will continue using cars because public transportation cannot solve all the problems. Is Merav Michaeli encouraging the residents of Ramat Aviv to use buses more than cars? What about Herzliya or Modiin? People have cars and they are going to use them. She can make public transportation better so that in the future people will be less inclined to buy cars, but right now the public transportation is not good enough and people have cars.

Regardless of the use of public transportation vs private vehicles, Modiin Ilit needs another way in and out. Modiin Ilit is not a little gated community (though it is essentially a big one), nor is it a small moshav or yishuv. it is a city with a lot of people and even if they were to increase the number of buses, they would still need more than one entrance to the city. The need for another entrance is really separate form the use of cars and buses. Such a significantly sized city cant be locked down like that with just one way out. 

Mary Antoinette said "let them eat cake". Merav Michaeli is saying "let them use buses". this is the modern day, gluten-free, version of Let them eat cake!

how about just solve the problem

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The discussion was regarding 12 new generally Jewish towns in addition to one Haredi city. Minister Shaked said this is necessary and an important decision the government made (based on decisions made by the previous government). The government decision had been made to establish new communities in the south so that there will be a strengthened Jewish presence there. 

Minister Merav Michaeli interjected saying that too do so would be a mistake.

I have seen no explanation why establishing Jewish communities in the south would be a mistake, or a critical mistake as she stressed. I respectfully tweeted my question to her on Twitter, but I dont expect a response.

So, why would it be a mistake?

And to add, where do they expect people to live? Central Israel is stuffed up and too expensive for too many people. Merav Michaeli does not want Jews to live in Judea and Samaria. She does not want Jews to live down south, it seems. I dont know what she thinks about Jews living in the Golan Heights.  So where does she want Jews to live?

Michaeli announced that she and her life partner, Lior Schlein, have had a baby together, via surrogacy, which is what she recently traveled for - to meet and bring back her baby from abroad. As a brief introduction, Michaeli came under some strong criticism when she left Israel as it was against government recommendations and everyone assumed she was traveling for a not very good reason, against recommendations of the government she is a member of.  

Back to the story, Michaeli says she is still of the opinion that she does not see it necessary to bring a child into the world but she saw how much her partner wanted it and therefore she felt it important to join him on that path, even though she herself did not feel it necessary. 

Michaeli briefly refers to painful attempts and fertility treatments, and eventually they landed on surrogacy and now have beautiful baby Uri (Ori?), etc etc etc

A lot of people are criticizing her as being a hypocrite. She was famously opposed to surrogacy, in the past even derisively calling it "renting a uterus". Now she needs one and suddenly she finds a way to justify it?

First, many of the people (that I am seeing) screaming about her are people that should be lauding her for the change - these are people that value building a Jewish family and having children. They should be praising her that despite her past beliefs, she did not let that "hump" get in her way but decided it was time to build her own family and have her own child. 

Second, we don't always have to be so angry at our political opponents. Be happy for her. She brought her baby back to Israel and is starting her Jewish family. 

Third, she shared a very personal journey in what most people who go through it find it very personal, very secret, very private and often very painful. She had a good ending, but she shared publicly what was surely a very difficult period of her life. Have a little empathy, and share a little in her joy.

And fourth, last but not least, we are all humans. None of live pure black and white lives with our ideals and morals laid out and following them to a T. Life is complicated. We all come across experiences and situations that cause conflicts, emotions, difficulties, challenges. Sometimes we have to choose between conflicting ideals. She lays out very clearly that her partner wanted this so badly she put aside her own preferences to share the journey with him. All she is saying is that she is human, just like the rest of us. She at least explained herself.

Is Merav Michaeli a hypocrite because she did something she used to criticize? Maybe, but mostly she is human, a gray human, like most of us. 

  -- Minister of Transportation Merav Michaeli, after Behadrei posted the official government ministerial photograph with the women's faces blurred