Eitan Haber
צילום: שלום בר טל
Perks versus morals
Knesset members should think twice before accepting business class upgrade
Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin is concerned for the Knesset’s image, and rightfully so.
In his second term on the job, and being a highly experienced politician deeply familiar with Israel’s parliament, he is seeking to bring the Knesset back to its glory days; that is, to the days (and such days existed) where the State of Israel’s citizens treated the Knesset with much more dignity.
En route to meeting this objective, Rivlin (or his advisors and aides) are making mistakes. Some people claim that he is seeking to curry favor with Knesset members in a bid to facilitate his election as Israel’s next president.
And so, he ruled that from now on, Israel’s Knesset members will be flying business class. Yet the truth is that many people already fly business class at the expense of the public or the companies that send them to travel across the world.
Knesset members will not be the first ones to take the cushiony business class seats. Before them came many members of the public service, including senior officials and not-so-senior ones, who were able to work out some scheme or who based their moves on a flexible charter.
The price of being MK
The truth is that on more than one occasion it was unpleasant to see a not-so-impressive director of a government ministry flying business class, while behind him in the tourist class we saw five or six Knesset members crowding into their seats; elected officials whose eyes were green with envy, as if silently asking: Who is this nobody and why are bureaucratic officials better than Knesset members?However, and this is the most important thing here, Knesset members must think twice before they agree to accept the latest perk offered by the Knesset speaker. There is an issue of appearances here, and the public demands that they make do with little.
And making do with little also means flying tourist class and gaining the sympathy and appreciation of other passengers, even if it comes at the expense of crowding into a smaller seat.
It doesn’t seem right? It doesn’t seem fair? Oh well, this too is a price that Knesset members have to pay in order to be Knesset members.
