July 29-August 3 Knesset Ends Session

Another busy week in Israel comes to an close, as the Knesset ended its summer session, and tried to pass all sorts of laws. The major law that had to be passed was the Budget. Had the State Budget not passed the government would have fallen. However, the budget was passed with very few changes. A number of changes were forced on the government by members of its own coalition. Still, by and large, the budget that was approved reflected the budget presented by Finance Minister Lapid (which translates, of course, into the budget put together by the civil servants of the Finance Ministries.)

The government also passed what is called "The Law on Change of Government". This newly minted law is a misnomer, if I have ever heard of one. The Law on Change of Government includes minor tweaks to the current government system– including increasing the minimum number of votes required for a party to earn a seat in the parliament. In reality, this law should be called "the law to strengthen the government", since every part of the law strengthens the governing coalition– It does absolutely nothing to change all of the basic problems of governance in the country. So far, the new law was only passed through what is called "the first reading". In order for a law to become official it must be passed three times. Expectations are that the law will be changed before ultimately being passed. The government also passed a law to change the status of the law regulating calls for a national referendum before sovereign land is given up into a "basic law".

One of the more absurd laws passed by this recent Knesset session was one allegedly intended to “strengthen writers”. This new law makes it illegal for book chains to discount new books for the first year that they are available. Furthermore, the law also set minimums for author royalties. I am not going to waste the space here describing the utter stupidity of this law– since I hope my readers are smarter than the average Knesset member and will understand how self-defeating this law will prove to be.

The latest item in the news has been the serial farce that the nomination of the new Governor General of the Bank of Israel has become. Two candidates have now been forced to remove themselves from consideration. See my article in the

Finally, the status quo has generally remained constant this past week both in Syria and Egypt. In Syria the killing goes on, with the government making minor gains. In Egypt, the demonstrations and sit-ins by the Muslim Brotherhood continue. The Brotherhood have continued to successfully maintain their line that the only thing they want is democracy. Meanwhile, too much of the world has been falling for it. The people of Egypt seem fed up with the disruption to their lives that the Brotherhood's continued actions are causing.