This week we watched live how Bennett and Lapid brought the long-awaited and promised "change" to the public in Israel.
Coalition Deputy Chairman Boaz Toporovsky, who serves as deputy chairman of the Knesset committee, on Monday evening alone voted on a series of bills that will be put to a vote in parliament in an unusual format, while implementing Article 98 of the Knesset's exceptional regulations, which shortens the opposition's speech.
Bennett and Lapid sought to restrict the voice of more than half of the public and prevent its representatives in the Knesset from doing filibuster.
Section 98 authorizes the Knesset Committee to prescribe various procedures when the Knesset plenum discusses the Budget Law or when it comes to "other exceptional cases."
The common interpretation given to those "exceptional cases" is when it comes to bills that if they are not passed on time, they will be thwarted.
Bennett and Lapid, Photo: Mark Israel Salem
This is not the first time governments have used Article 98, but this time it was a spectacle as if taken from the Syrian parliament sitting in Damascus. A long line of bills approved "unanimously" - while raising his hand alone.
Parliament has been partially paralyzed for weeks.
The coalition got stuck in a traffic jam and the navigation software went wrong.
Once Prime Minister makes muscle and once Ganz is offended. One day Meretz is angry, and the next day Labor decides that the conduct is not to her liking. While Prime Minister Bennett skips between Moscow and Berlin, he forgets the need for a functioning House of Representatives in Jerusalem.
There is no political glow in the debate over municipal bylaws for local authorities, there is no publicity gain in conducting parliamentary quarrels.
"Elkin Method", Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
And what about the priesthood restriction law?
It is difficult and burdensome to run a coalition and jump between bureaucracies. The conversion reform, which has become a banner of progress and vitality for the coalition and the government, is stuck in the legislative pipeline thanks to cooperation between the ultra-Orthodox parties the next".
Another law, which fell victim to the waiver of the Knesset, is the law restricting the tenure of prime ministers, which was introduced to prevent corruption and tyranny of leaders, but did not pass the coalition filter.
Public representation has become secondary: instead of the Knesset being the nerve center of democracy, the legislature has become a place to arrange jobs and a place to exempt government ministers through Norwegian law.
Knesset Plenum // Archive, Photo: Haim Tzach, GPO
But the most dramatic change in the coalition was in the division of Knesset members in committees.
The Likud, which won the election for about a quarter of the vote, should receive a quarter of the members of each committee.
There have always been subtle changes made to adjustments with the cooperation and consent of the opposition.
Not in this Knesset.
Elkin Method
The method chosen by Minister Elkin to crush the results of the people's election to committees is to "move" MKs from important and significant committees to others.
For example, in their proposal to the Finance Committee, the Likud was granted only two seats - out of 16 seats.
But do not worry, in the Committee on the Status of Women the Likud will get six members, not four.
For example, in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee the Likud on all its members will be represented by two members - just like the "Big Faction" New Hope.
In other words, "democracy" at its best when the left takes over the legislature, and then one can completely ignore the "balances and brakes" imposed on any system of government that has enshrined the principles of democracy.
The Supreme Court, Salah a-Din and the fourth authority, the media, now enjoy having a government, so everything is allowed and the authority is given.
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