PARTLY FACETIOUS: New govt in Israel: there’s been no horse-trading

“Netanyahu is out after 12 years…”

“Yes, but the new government has been formed with a razor thin majority – 60 to 59 and the 60 represent eight parties, there will be power sharing after two years and…reminds me of another country.”

“Back off silly, The Khan may have a majority of 8 or less depending on the mood of the coalition parties…”

“Now who is being facetious?”

“Don’t forget The Khan is on the same page…”

“Did you mean the same page but a different book?”

“Don’t be facetious.”

“Well, I reckon Shehbaz Sharif is reading The Brothers Karamazov, note to the wise: there are no nieces in that book, Bilawal Bhutto is reading The Animal Farm where some are more equal than others while The Khan doesn’t read fiction any more so I guess he is reading The Prince…”

“Le Petit Prince, the little prince…”

“No stupid The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli who argued that a hereditary prince must balance the interests of a variety of institutions while a new prince has a much more difficult task as he must first stabilize his power to build a more enduring political structure and…”

“Let’s wait and see what happens, anyway Netanyahu has done a Schwarzenegger and said he will be back.”

“Perhaps, but he is out for now, and don’t forget the latest conflict in the Middle East left many in the Democratic party criticizing Biden for allowing the Palestinian massacre to continue for as long as he did and I reckon this is the very first time this has happened and…”

“Agreed, the world is changing, very slowly, but I believe the general public in Western democracies will eventually force their leaders to amend decades’ long policies that are morally unjustifiable…”

“Right, and the anti-establishment Trump is out, the new man Macron of France is expected to lose the elections, Merkel of Germany is stepping down, and…”

“These leaders never read Machiavelli!”

“Ha, ha, anyway The Khan claims that Western democracies are following the principles of medina ki riyasat – you know they provide equal justice to all, they have a well-developed social security system that more than rivals our ehsaas programme because they have more money, they…”

“Oh shush, enough.”

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021