The endless forays of senior Israeli politicians and their advisers into political crises reminded me of an event that happened almost exactly 51 years ago: As the U.S. wept over the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, some were competing over how to preserve his memory. One suggested lighting an eternal flame at the Arlington cemetery where he was buried, only to be prompted by one anonymous senator: "Yes, but who will fund the eternal flame-" On Monday I saw the prime minister, the ministers, their deputies, MKs, the political party officials, secretary-generals, the typists and call staff overcome with fury, all troubled by the "Jewish state law" crisis, and I echoed that anonymous senator: "Yes, but who will fund the eternal bickering-" What portion of Benjamin Netanyahu's, Yair Lapid's, Tzipi Livni's and Naftali Bennett's days was dedicated to putting out the "Jewish state law" fire, and what was left for them to deal with their actual ministerial duties? Who will bankroll this clash? It's not a trivial matter. Obviously dealing with politics is a natural and legitimate part of our public servants' daily lives. That is how a democracy works, and it is a good thing. The role of the prime minister is to protect his majority coalition, and the objective of the opposition leader is to take it down. But how much time and emotional and material resources will taxpayers have to cough up, from their own pockets, to fund this motion picture about fighting and reconciling- Sure, right now there is no need for early elections, but we need to find a limit on how much we are willing to spend on preventing them. The situation has almost become a "cost-benefit" analysis. What price did Israeli society have to pay for all the overlooked fields the politicians put off so they could work to postpone the "Jewish state law" vote for another week- From crisis to crisis, Israeli taxpayers are discovering that although their politicians are investing more money and effort, the respite between the vocal disagreements, threats and cursing has become shorter each time. Even the terrible murder in Har Nof in Jerusalem did not lend a feeling of solidarity during the shiva. This needs to end. It could be that the vase has broken and cannot be fixed. The three-way thread has been severed. A man once went to a tailor with a cracked canister and asked him to seal the crack. The tailor took a handful of sand and said, "Let me just weave this into a thread and I'll sew the canister back together." That is what the coalition's hobbled steps looks like -- an attempt to fix a metal object with a thread of sand.
