18 ministers, 20 ministers, who gives a flying filibuster?

Despite two regional civil wars, a brand-spanking new government, high-stakes Iranian nuclear talks moving ahead, internal Palestinian strife, fears of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and African migrants dying by the thousands in the Mediterranean, Israel somehow finds itself in a weird news vacuum this week.

One need look no further than Wednesday’s front pages in the Hebrew media for proof that a sort of semi-cucumber season has descended lovingly upon the land. A Nepalese earthquake, devastating yet minor when compared to the destruction wrought by its older brother, competes for space with worker troubles in Dimona and the Knesset battle over Netanyahu’s bid to expand the cabinet – about as inside baseball as an issue can get.

Even the MKs working for or against measure are bored by it, as evidenced by the look of tired and slap-happy lawmakers during an all-night filibuster to block the bill in a photo tucked well inside Yedioth Ahronoth. The paper tries to inject some excitement into the debate by reporting on the various silly amendments the opposition tried to insert, like moving the government seat to Mount Olympus or taking a break from the discussion to watch an NBA game.

“The all-night vigil began with heckling, continued with the booting from the hall of MKs Robert Ilyatov, Yoel Hasson and Michal Biran, and very quickly turned into a circus,” the paper writes on the ad hoc legislation committee meeting convened on the bill.

In the end, though, all the silly sauce and anger over the issue couldn’t keep the opposition on the ball.

“The win for the coalition came a few minutes after 6 in the morning. The last vote passed like all the others with a majority of 6-5, and Michal Biran presented another revision. Her tired colleagues yelled at her to rescind the request, but that was exactly what [Likud MK Zeev] Elkin was waiting for. He called for a vote at 6:34, and won 6-2, after three opposition members went to sleep,” the paper reports.

In Israel Hayom, commentator Mati Tuchfeld is also surprised anybody gives a flying faction about the issue.

“It’s hard to believe there’s anybody in Israel losing sleep over the fact that the new government hasn’t yet been sworn in or the round of battles over the number of ministers,” he writes. “A month and a half ago, millions of Israeli citizens realized their democratic rights and went to the polls and most of them voted for the right bloc headed by Benjamin Netanyahu. From their point of view, the issue is closed and it seems not many of them are interested – and even fewer are familiar – with the political processes and attendant laws to realize their desire that in Israel should rise a government of rightist factions headed by Netanyahu.”

Even if nobody in Israel cares that much, at least one person outside Israel, a likely Likud voter even, cared enough to weigh in on Tuesday.

Haaretz leads off its paper with a report that President Reuven Rivlin, a former Likud MK, came out against Netanyahu’s plan to freeze the cap on ministerial posts.

“It would be better if they would observe the laws they pass. To break something that has constitutional traits ad hoc is something the public should not support or believe in. It would be better if they would determine once and for all the things that constitutionally oblige us and should not be deviated from in the blink of an eye,” Rivlin is quoted telling the Walla news site from Germany.

Haaretz correspondent Zvi Bar’el uses the paper’s op-ed page to prove subtlety is not his forte, calling Netanyahu’s measure the “abduction and rape of a law,” and comparing the prime minister at times to fictional mafia boss Tony Soprano and at times to a gunman.

“Public criticism? Public opinion? Of the 61 [coalition MKs], one-third of whom are ministers and others deputy ministers, who would dare listen to the public and vote their conscience when a sniper is always perched on the turret of the political fortress, watching and aiming his laser sight at the MKs’ voting hand,” he writes.

Panic in Nepal, part deux

While Israelis were squabbling over the fateful decision of whether the government should have 18 or 20 ministers, Nepalis, still picking up the pieces from last month’s earthquake, were rocked again by another major temblor. As last time, coverage in Israel focuses on the local angle, including parents of surrogate-born newborns once again pleading for help.

“Get us out of here. Please, drop all the paperwork and red tape and do everything to get us out of here,” Israel Hayom quotes two Israeli parents of newborns saying in a video recorded outside a Nepalese hospital.

While most Israeli backpackers left the country after the first quake, those who stayed behind once again made the Chabad House in Kathmandu their disaster base after the second quake.

“Here in the Chabad House everything is calm, but outside it’s hysteria and chaos,” a 23-year-old Israeli backpacker who now has two temblors under her belt tells the tabloid. “When the shaking started we were trekking in a beautiful place, at a river in Pokhara. We didn’t understand what happened. We simply didn’t believe that we were going through another big earthquake. Afterward, when we understood what happened and the magnitude of the destruction, we weren’t only scared, we were in a panic.”

Israel will experience its own kind of earthquake come Sunday, Yedioth reports, when the southern town of Dimona goes on strike to protest the migration of jobs elsewhere.

The paper reports that the city will cease all activities and hold a massive rally against mass layoffs at a nearby Israel Chemicals Plant, which employs someone from one out of every five households in the city.

“The whole city of Dimona will strike,” the paper quotes Mayor Benny Bitton saying at an emergency meeting. “We made a tough decision, but we’re like a fist and will support the workers all the way.”