The weekend wasn’t as wild or as weird as past write-ups would have one expect.

In some ways, the Likudiada, an annual retreat in Eilat for Likud members, is not that different from any other weekend at a resort full of Israelis. There’s a stand-up comic and a Mizrachi singer performing at the hotel. There’s the rush to get in some VAT-free shopping. People could be heard singing the Shabbat song Habibi, ya habibi, ha’el hamelech after meals, to which some wore suits and ties, while others sported sweat suits.

There was a giant buffet breakfast, adults relaxing by the pool while kids splashed around, with questionable background music playing, even on Shabbat. Some played backgammon in the lobby and ate sunflower seeds and dried apricots, while others read newspapers.

But, at a regular weekend in Eilat, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara doesn’t partake in the sunflower seeds, MK Yehudah Glick doesn’t get up to give a Dvar Torah (Torah thought), and you don’t bump into Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel hanging out with her kids. Continue reading