musings on initial election preparations and grandstanding:

1. representatives of the Arab parties have complained to Yuli Edelstein that March 17 elections does not give them enough time to prepare, and they requested a delay.

I say they should be ignored. not because they are Arabs, but because it is a ridiculous claim. They have exactly the same amount of time as every other party to be prepared or not. If they are so disorganized that they cannot be prepared in time, it is their own fault. If they need so much more time than everybody else, maybe it is time to make some changes in their internal systems.

2. Tekuma is grandstanding in their negotiation with Habayit Hayehudi. They are threatening to split off and run on their own.

Unless they make a pact with Eli Yishai, with Tekuma taking a couple seats from habayit Hayehudi and Yishai taking a couple seats from Shas, it is an empty threat. Does Tekuma really think they can, on their own, get enough votes to hit the minimum threshold?

Term Limits.

I am in favor.

But.

As stated previously, I am in favor of term limits. Benjamin Netanyahu has now been prime minister of Israel 3 times. With new elections, he might be heading for a fourth term.

I think we need term limits. 2 or 3 terms. There should also be some qualification for the fact that each term is really defined as 4.5 years yet the average term is probably only about 2.5 years long, due to the coalition system we govern by. So term limits should be for 2 or 3 terms, but it should also take into account length of term.

However, and here is the "but" mentioned above, I am against passing laws designed to hurt or help one specific person.

MK Merav Michaeli (Labor) is proposing a law by whichterm limits would be set, limiting the prime minister to two terms... besides for her other justifications and explanations, Michaeli points out that every other administrative position in the government of Israel has some sort of term limit, including; President, Chief of Staff, Legal Counsel, Chairman of the Bank of Israel, head of Mossad, head of Shabak, etc.

The law should be passed in some format, but not right now. Perhaps shortly after the coming elections would be a more appropriate time, as it would not be directly hurting or helping anybody specifically.
source: Kikar

here are a couple of examples of politics as usual, even despite  an attempt at the appearance of being otherwise.

1. the most egregious is Yair Lapid. He has been a politician just like any other. During and after the last elections, Lapid kept repeating his mantra of new politics, no more old politics. Since then, he has done nothing all that different from the normal politics we have seen. He makes demands, sometimes reasonable and sometimes not, of the prime minister for what he thinks his constituency wants.

I am not sure what is 'new politics' about coming up with a plan almost all the experts are against and say will harm the economy but continues to demand its passage anyway just because he thinks it is better. Add that to all the other issues on which he threatens to resign if his issue isn't passed.

And, Lapid criticizes with great regularity the government he himself is part of.

and then when given an ultimatum by his boss, to stop the kvetching and threats, he says no.

And then he goes back to talking about new politics and how everyone else is old politics.

I no longer know what that even means, if I ever thought I knew.

2. While the haredi parties never claimed to be responsible adults with reasonable expectations, and they never made claims of new politics or anything like that... they still qualify for this.

It seems the haredi parties were approached to replace Lapid's party in the coalition. Alternatively, to go to new elections with a commitment that they would support Netanyahu.

I was actually impressed that they refused Netanyahu's offer. Standing on principle is admirable.

So they announce no agreement. They would give no commitment to Netanyahu, and in exchange were given no guarantee that anything would be different next time around. fair enough.

Yet now they are warning Netanyahu. They are telling him that if he ends up not going to new elections but comes to an agreement with Lapid, then all bets are off and they will refuse to support him after the next elections whenever they will be.

So they refuse to commit to Netanyahu now, putting Netanyahu in a risky position, which is fine. Yet they still demand a commitment from Netanyahu. He has to follow their rules, or else, and they seem to be offering nothing in return.

this is a crazy situation of bureaucratic CYA. A couple years ago somebody died while running a half-marathon in Tel Aviv. It was tragic. It is also extremely rare. Yet in a crazy example of over-regulation, similar to the amount of over-legislation we have in the Knesset, the Ministry of Health decided that from now on all marathon participants must present the results of a stress test in order to participate and run half and full marathons. This is costly, it is a pain in the neck, it is unnecessary and is an upsetting example of over-regulation.

nobody wants to die. And anybody that does - surely there are easier and more successful ways than training for a marathon. I get that they need to protect themselves, but it should be enough to put out health warnings and/or make runners sign a health waiver.

looks interesting

best of luck. serve the country and nation well.

nice song