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(June 8) - The atmosphere at the Knesset yesterday was reminiscent of the start of term at an expensive boarding school. There were seniors and juniors and a lot of good-natured banter and backslapping. The 120 members were greeted at the entrance to the building with a banner proclaiming, "The opening of the 15th Knesset." Each was given a flower, a silk rosette to wear and a certificate from the Central Elections Committee confirming they had finally made it. Some 40 MKs, most of them new, looked bewildered and confessed to being "very excited." Their spouses and children tagged along, even less sure how to cope with the sudden media exposure. Even the new MKs worked out, however, that the best place to be in between plenum sessions is the Knesset canteen, which quickly filled up with a who's who of Israeli politics throughout the generations. Most of those asked to predict how the Knesset will function used words like "stormy" and "Popolitica" after the television talk show which set new levels in bad public discourse. Former Popolitica devil's advocate Yosef (Tommy) Lapid, entering the house as head of the Shinui list, promised that he will not bring the program's behavior into the Knesset. "When I step up to the podium I will not put on a show or do a Popolitika," Lapid said. "I intend carrying out some very serious work." Shinui's bugbear Shas turned up in full force yesterday - all 17 of them with wives and children. "We're back - bigger and better," quipped Shas MK Yitzhak Cohen, and Amnon Cohen, a new MK, promised that "seventeen seats will be translated into the correct relative force whether or not we join the coalition." While much media attention has focused on the Shas-Shinui contrast, another potential cause of acrimony is the presence of Ahmed Tibi, Yasser Arafat's former advisor, in the Knesset alongside members of Moledet. "I entered the Knesset as the envoy of a million Arab citizens in Israel. They - and only they - are the source of my authority," Tibi said in an obviously routine answer to a routine question. "But I can't be expected to cut off my personal relations with the chairman [Arafat]. It would not be humane." he added. Meir Wilner, a founder of the Communist Party who served in the first Knesset and signed on the Declaration of Independence, when asked about the difference between the first Knesset and this one, replied: "Most MKs today do not have an ideology. And if they do it can be summed up as 'Me, money, and the highest possible position.' " Former prime minister Shimon Peres, who is acting Knesset speaker, said his hopes for the Knesset include, "that the members behave themselves."
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