With almost every passing day, this government crosses a new and unprecedented threshold for cynicism.
Essentially, on account of the "greater goal" as Bennett called it in his speech this week when calling on the sides to stop squabbling, the members of his coalition, on a daily basis, are wasting the ideological assets on behalf of which they shouted, preached, and protested all these years. Soon, nothing of substance will remain of them.
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It started when those who campaigned against Bennett, claiming Yigal Amir was one of his supporters, kinged him as prime minister. Others called the Norwegian law the "jobs law" yet built him up to new heights; joined the man who "knows how to handle the Arabs" in a government that includes representatives of the Islamic Movement; helped the man who promised to diminish the attorney general's powers, pass a law that makes him stronger than ever before.
This is best reflected, perhaps, in the national budget, on behalf of which every party head in the coalition broke the promises they made while in the opposition. It is a budget of tax hikes, harsh cutbacks and bereft of any significant tidings. When looking at the long list of bizarre funds doled out to MKs and parties, one immediately understands why such a pitiful budget was drafted. There was simply no money left.
When Yair Lapid was in the opposition, he said of the Likud government's national budget that the "coalition's money belongs to the citizens of the country. The politicians are kindly requested to remove their hands from the country's coffers." He then swiftly proceeded to trample this principled and ethical notion by helping pass this terrible budget as the alternate prime minister.
Moreover, the manner in which the Bennett-Lapid government has thrown around coalition funds is enough to make any of their successors turn pale. What was once traditionally reserved for political partners to ensure the stability of a coalition, is now handed out willy-nilly and without constraint, proportion and mainly without shame. MKs stood in line with a list of demands – and Bennett, Lapid and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman signed every single check. "The greater goal," after all, supersedes all else.
Every coalition MK will be able to make tens of millions of shekels from the revenue generated by Israeli citizens, organizations and associations that buy plastic silverware, soft drinks or gas. The feral cats, various Arab sector consultants, and public archives officials will all get a fortune after the 30 billion shekels allotted to the Ra'am party, while everyone else struggles to make ends meet.
But hey, what don't you do to keep 60 MKs in a coalition happy.
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