Friday August 26, 2016

I've Been Thinking:

A massive crisis in Israel was averted on Thursday night.

The crisis was not about peace or economics, not about the Palestinians or security or even about ISIS. And yet, it was a crisis of such proportion that it threatened to take down the government - and nearly did. Prime Minister Netanyahu spent the whole night in dialogue and negotiations to keep his government from falling.

The crisis centered on a simple Latin expression composed of 2 words: Status Quo - which means, things should stay the same. No Changes.
Status Quo. These words are the foundation of the Netanyahu coalition. It has to do with the concept of religious life in Israel, especially the role of government.

In this case religious parties in the Netanyahu government were up in arms because work on the rail lines was taking place on Shabbat.
Two ministers sent a scathing letter to the PM saying stop or we will pull our support from your government because this is a violation of the Status Quo, which is part of our coalition contract.

Israel's ministers of transport and labor said that their contracts allowed for work on Shabbat in Tel Aviv. The religious parties said no way.

Finally, the prime minister stepped in with a Solomonic resolution.
They agreed to allow emergency and safety related work to be done on Shabbat because that work save lives. For instance, major safety improvement on the Ayalon Highway may be performed so that fewer people will die in what has become a deadly roadway. But simply laying track and other non-safety related work will be postponed until after Shabbat.

A near crisis - averted.

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