Israeli President Reuven Rivlin took an unprecedented step in publicly telling all the politicians vying for places in a new government that it is time they served the people instead of expecting the people to serve them. Of course, he’s absolutely correct. Israel has been without a functioning government for a long time. The people have gone to the polls 4 times, and each eletion has produced nearly the same deadlock results. The Israeli Supreme Court had to intervene to force the acting Prime Minister, Benyamin Netanyahu, to appoint a communications minister. He had ordered one of his cronies to take on the job, but had not done so legally. He obviously knew it wasn’t right. When the court ordered an appointment he gave the job to someone else. His previous appointee didn’t resign. It wasn’t necessary since the job was not given correctly.
Netanyahu still controls the largest bloc of representatives in the parliament (Knesset), and he has another few days to try to put together a coalition. So far he has failed to reach the magic number of 61 votes, a minimum simple majority, by all the “compromise” approaches he has tried. The country hasn’t had a legal budget for nearly two years (one of the original reasons new elections were called for)
Our neighbors, the Palestinian Authority, issued a declaration that they would hold elections soon. PA President Abbas was originally elected for a 5 year term. He’s been in office more than twice that time. Now he’s just decided to cancel the election. His chief rival, the Hamas faction that rules Gaza, has decided that his doing so is all the fault of Israel.
A few months ago I thought American Democracy was in trouble. If I compare it to what is happening here, it doesn’t seem so bad.
Wetherhorn 