When Ben Gvir pulled his party out, Smotritch decided to punish them by resigning from his ministerial position, thus kicking out MK Kroizer from the Knesset, and then Smotritch would take his position back. Taking back the ministerial position would not put Kroizer back in as MK - the Norwegian Law can only be applied once per MK (per Knesset), and Smotritch would have to resign from the Knesset, which he would not do for Kroizer even if he could.. 

They ended up not playing this game because Ben Gvir wanted to keep his guy in despite not being part of the coalition. He negotiated with Smotritch and they worked out a deal by which Smotritch would not resign, thus leaving Kroizer in. Kroizer would commit to voting with the coalition. On any vote he plans to vote against the coalition he would give 48 hours notice, enabling Smotritch to decide whether or not to resign and kick Kroizer out. And additionally Almog Cohen would be left in place as he was not following Otzma decisions anyway and was voting with the coalition even when Otzma decided not to.

Games. 

Others can play games too. 

It is being reported that Minister Yitzchak Goldknopf (of UTJ) is considering resigning from his ministerial position, go back to the Knesset, then take back his ministerial position while keeping his Knesset seat. This would kick his "Norwegian MK", Yitzchak Pindrus from Degel Hatorah, out of the Knesset but Goldknopf is more concerned with getting himself more power in his fight over the Draft Law and taking back his Knesset seat will give him back his Knesset vote.

To that end, his aide, Motti Bebchik, has been checking within UTJ what the ramifications of such a move would be. Bebchik reportedly checked in With Uri Maklev to see if Goldknopf resigns and does this shtick if Maklev (from Degel) would retaliate and also resign his [deputy] ministerial position to kick out Moshe Roth (from Agudath Israel) from the Knesset being his Norwegian MK. And if they do this, Meir Porush (from Agudath Israel) might also resign to kick out his Norwegian MK Yaakov Asher (from Degel Hatorah).

And Degel has warned that if Goldknopf resigns and pulls this shtick leading to the removal of two Degel MKs, they may vote against approving him as minister when he tries to take back his ministerial position. 

looks like it was bring your baby to work day today in the Knesset, as MK Sharren Haskel tried to say her speech from the podium while carrying her baby in a baby carrier... it seems this does not meet Knesset protocol...

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Right, wrong, compromise, don't compromise, I dont have the solutions, but this is getting interesting. I am somewhat impressed that the left wing is, so far, still sustaining the protests at a very high level. People always think the leftists dont really care and are too busy traveling and caring about their money and comfort to protest, etc

Insane and wild

despite voting in favor of Amir Ochana's appoitnment to Director of the Knesset, MKs Moshe Gafni and Meir Porush (both UTJ) put their heads down when Ochana gave his inaugural speech. Seems a little hypocritical to vote for him but then to publicly turn away during his speech, but that's what they did...I am waiting to see if Avi Maoz did the same or not

He is being replaced by Gur chassid Yitzchak Goldknopf, so I am not sure if before too long we will be pining for the days of Yaakov Litzman as MK or if this will work out well.

Either way. what he did to assist Malka Leifer avoid justice and trials (which he admitted to as part of the plea bargain) was pretty horrendous

Litzman was like a yoyo throughout his ministerial career seeing heights  in public surveys as the most popular minister and also seeing lows as among the most reviled. Litzman claims the Left did not like his spodik when he famously appeared at a Corona press conference on a Saturday night in full Gur regalia including the spodik and turned on him. He does not talk about the tough regulations he was imposing on the Israeli public with tight lockdowns and tough mask mandates, and he himself breaking his own rules, as alternative reasons for the turn in public opinion. Like all ministers, or at least like most, Litzman surely did some positive things, especially in his roles as Health Minister (and Deputy Minister) increasing MRis, surprise hospital evaluation visits, free dental care for kids, etc... and some less so. He himself likes to focus on how much he helped individuals, whoever asked no matter from which sector of Israeli society. The Haredi MKs like to treat the position of MK as a vaad bayit of sorts,. where they can help individuals more than helping the public with improving policy, and Litzman did a lot of that, and couches his assistance to Leifer as just helping someone in need, as if it was so innocent even though it entailed pressuring a psychiatrist to change his medical opinion on her ability to stand trial.

I doubt we have seen the last of Yaakov Litzman. He is too accomplished and capable to just ride away into the sunset. 

With the start of what is thought to be a 5th Covid-19 wave, this time of the Omicron variant, Eichler has submitted an urgent request to freeze and suspend the recent tax hike of disposable dishes.

According to Eichler, with the precautions being taken and those requested of the public, it makes sense to encourage the public to use disposable dishes and cutlery, for hygienic reasons, and cut down on the possible spread of the virus. Eichler explains further that the Knesset cafeteria has been instructed to only use disposable dishes for now for this very reason. Eichler says the blood of the rulers is not more red than the blood of the ruled, so it makes no sense that the health of the rulers requires the use of disposables while kids in kindergartens and schools and homes have to be highly taxed discouraging the use of disposables.

According to Eichler the public should be encouraged right now to use disposables to prevent and minimize contagion, and to that end the recent tax imposed should be frozen.

source: Kol Hai News, Actualic

Halevai.

But.

But, Eichler does not say if the Knesset cafeteria is exempt from paying the tax or is being encouraged to use disposables despite having to pay higher prices due to the tax. It sounds like, from Eichler's comparison, that the Knesset is exempt from the tax. Is that the case or do they pay? I would imagine that the cafeteria is probably run by a third party vendor who won a tender for this, and probably has to pay it like anyone else, but that is just a guess.

that is MK Moshe Abutbol (Shas) getting booted from the Knesset plenum last night during a marathon sessions dedicated to passing the budget. Abutbol trolled PM Bennett by pulling out a toy kitten doll and making cat noises (saying meow meow) while Bennett was speaking. 

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hmmmm

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Fridman's inaugural speech in the Knesset was noteworthy by her proudly introducing herself as a fourth generation cat feeder. And she plans to be their representative in Knesset.

 

Yes, you heard correctly. She feeds stray cats. And dealing with protecting the stray cats will be a major focus of her term.

There is nothing wrong with that - it is even a good thing to be merciful to animals - but most MKs say they are going to serve the people and focus on various agendas that are to the benefit of whatever sector is being targeted. This is somewhat unusual as the cats did not exactly vote her in to office...

In a follow-up interview MK Fridman proposed the idea of the establishment of a national authority to deal with street cats. Fridman says that according to the numbers of the Ministry of Agriculture there are 1 million street cats in Israel, though she believes there is actually double that.

She can come by and take all the street cats from my area, with pleasure. We have had more than our share of baby cats born on our porch, along with more than enough baby cats that did not survive that had to be disposed of.... If this authority gets established just for that, dayeinu. Other than that, it seems like an idea that will turn into a big waste of money.

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Waldiger is a new MK form the party Hatziyonut Hadatit

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lots of pomp and circumstance

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Prime Minister Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister Gantz sitting back to back at the 24th Knesset swearing-in ceremony today. Tensions between them have been high, putting it mildly, for a while now...

The two of them look like a couple of little children in kindergarten....

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Why? 

Because the fourth slot in the Labor list for Knesset is a Reform rabbi, Rabbi Gilad Kariv. 

That's not the funny part of this though. 

The funny part is that they said not only will they not sit with him in a coalition, but they also won't count him for a minyan in the Knesset shul. They said they won't throw him out of the shul (would they even be able to if they wanted to?) but they will make sure they have ten men, a minyan, without him, and he can be the 11th and on.

So, no coalition with the Haredi MKs and no mincha either.

Haredim not counting the Reform as part of a minyan is nothing new, so this isn't surprising, but it is cute how they linked the two.

More coming, in the next post, on the coalition issue.

MK Pindrus spoke for nearly two hours form the Knesset podium to filibuster before the vote the other day regarding the budget and elections.

Two hours sounds like it would be mind numbing and boring, but it was anything but. It was enlightening, illuminating, educational and even fun. Besides for divrei torah, Pindrus spoke about issues like vaccines, the Haredi community asking halacha from the Chief Rabbi, Haredim and the State, torah learning and protection, Satmar, Jerusalem, what time the mikvas in Bnei Braq close and much more....

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I didn't watch the entire video of all the speeches in honor of the day for the fight against violence against women, kind of skipped around a bit. I particularly liked MK Abutbol at the beginning inviting Jonathan Pollard to move to Bet Shemesh.. no idea what that had to do with the issue of violence against women, but ok. He speaks again later, so maybe this first speech was leftover from something else. MK Baruchi (at about the 22:20 minute marker) was also interesting. I was impressed by how he could express an opinion opposed to the fight against violence against women - to be fair, he thinks women should not be singled out, not that this violence doesn't exist, but the opposition to violence should be to all violence within the family, including against children and husbands, along with against women.

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