Way past Purim

Please tell me that your May 11 newspaper accidentally included articles that were meant for the Purim edition – because if they were serious, it means my tax shekels are supporting a bunch of yokels who seem to have no interest in the welfare of our country.

First I read “Foreign Ministry workers threaten to disrupt Trump visit,” which says the ministry wants to make a mess or even cause the cancellation of the visit of the president of the United States.

Is this what we are paying NIS 1.5 billion a year for? To embarrass us? To cut dialogue? To alienate the first friend we have had in the White House in a long time? To make it look like the Arab countries that are going to welcome President Donald Trump very warmly are much more civilized than we are?

I am just wondering if anybody in the Foreign Ministry deserves his or her job because if they have so little regard for the public image and foreign relations of our country, I can think of a lot better things to do with NIS 1.5b.

Then I read “Most of Knesset ethics panel threatens to resign over proposed travel ban,” which states that Likud MK Yoav Kisch proposed that NGOs that reject Israel’s right to exist, lead to Israelis being put on trial for war crimes or deny the Holocaust should not be allowed to fund foreign travel by our lawmakers.

Why should foreign bodies that are hostile to us and work actively to destroy us be allowed to wine and dine MKs? To defend the right of our MKs to be hosted on such trips abroad by saying it is protected by their parliamentary immunity is even more absurd!

I have never quite understood why our lawmakers are held to the lowest, rather than the highest, standards of integrity. Why exactly are they above the law? Why are they allowed to do things that the rest of us would stand trial for? The prime minister is scrutinized for every action he takes, but MKs can act with impunity and without any oversight!

Bravo to MK Kisch for proposing that we put an end to allowing our enemies to have so much access to our decision-makers.

MIRIAM REINFELD

Jerusalem