There is a legitimate government in Israel, no one is questioning that, but as the days go by, its big problem is revealed - its legitimacy.
A government, as it is called, is meant to govern.
In so doing, it instills in its citizens a kind of hope, appreciation, and confidence whose fate is in good hands, that someone cares to handle the big issues carefully, sensitively, and wisely.
In other words - that someone up there sees them, manages things, and is not passively dragged after events.
Hospital directors in the Health Committee: "Patients die due to government conduct" // Photo: Knesset Spokeswoman
Does this description fit the current government?
The government of change was established with the declared and principled exclusion of representatives of large sections of Israeli society, but promised that it would faithfully represent their interests.
Instead, it radiates alienation and becomes in their eyes as well as in the eyes of those who have prayed for change into public illegitimate.
Abandon citizens
The government, whose job it is to protect the citizen, chooses the way in which it sheds responsibility for the big issues.
Under the manipulative title "We Prevented a Closure" (which was never really on the agenda) the government handed over the treatment and dealing with the corona to the citizens.
Until the fourth wave, citizens could, no matter what their political affiliation, look up and receive clear instructions.
Some of us did not like the policy, and there were some who supported the government's steps - but there were clear, proactive and decisive steps, which conveyed an unequivocal message: the goal is as few patients as possible and as little economic harm as possible.
Even if it did not always succeed, it was clear that this was the leading line.
None of this characterizes the way the current government treats the two corona waves that have partially fallen.
It will inherit a country with high rates of vaccination, with rates of infection in the floor, with a farm in recovery and with a health system that knows quite a bit about the corona.
Nothing reminiscent of those days of anxiety and uncertainty that characterized the onset of the plague.
But the current government has decided to act differently, resulting in two waves with more than 3,000 deaths, hospitals with a deadly load, deterioration in the services provided to other patients, a confused education system and a de facto part of the economy.
Corona Intensive Care Unit at Sheba Tel Hashomer Hospital, Photo: Yossi Zeliger
The need to preserve the state budget, which was approved only two months ago and contains the secret of government stability - that is, the huge sums of money promised to the Prime Minister - caused citizens to be abandoned to their medical and economic fate, and the social solidarity that characterized the first corona waves dissipated.
As far as the government is concerned, those who have a problem are invited to change professions, and those who fail to finish the month - will be helped by charities.
The white wine goblet or coffee cup that often accompanies the "Everything in Heaven" photos and the finance minister's self-confidence demonstrations have become icons, symbols burned into the consciousness of the opacity of the leadership, a government that has vowed to protect the money that ensures the stability of deer leather chairs.
The voters of the change parties had huge hopes that public trust in the systems of law and justice would be restored and expanded.
There is now a growing suspicion that government officials, and not the "enemies of democracy" from the national camp, are the ones who weakened the system.
And the government of change?
Closes things in chambers, while demonstrating contempt for public calls to investigate and get to the root of the matter.
The "gatekeepers" well know that under the change government they are protected: from an investigation, from a reform that will fix the system.
The rendering journey
Eight months into the government term, and it is already difficult to conscientiously contain the signs of failure.
One espionage case and nine witnesses at the Netanyahu trial tell a story that goes in a clear direction - in vain will you accuse Amsalem or Netanyahu of collapsing public trust in the State Attorney's Office and the police.
The umbrella of protection that Saar, Bennett, Lapid and Shaked spread over the heads of the systems only intensifies the doubts.
Who guards whom, and why?
With the publication of the findings in "Calcalist" by Yoav Yitzhak, and in other places, competition opened up between broadcasters and politicians - who will shout louder how urgent it is to set up a commission of inquiry.
"Government overturns criminal offenses by 'gatekeepers'" NSO offices, Photo: Reuters
However, as soon as the government's IDF realized the possibility that an investigation would endanger the stability of the government, the rendering campaign began.
Our peacekeepers in the various systems, including the sympathetic media, mobilized for the task - to put question marks over the findings, and to produce a picture according to which the use of spyware developed to aid in the war on terror against civilians - is normal.
Maybe here and there they did not ask for the right order, but criminal proceedings were not polluted, it has no bearing on the trial that created the greatest political crisis in our history.
The problem has been neutralized, the government is legal, its establishment is not credited to illegal moves.
But the wise citizen understands - this government was not formed on a proper moral foundation.
A government that contains the dead as a policy, that leaves hundreds of thousands exposed to infection, that protects the budget and does not provide a safety net for the victims, a government that casts suspicions of criminal offenses on the "gatekeepers" - this is an illegitimate public government.
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