cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

There is a known affliction of those who stay up late at night – becoming so tired that everything seems funny – and Education Minister Shai Piron caught it after midnight on Monday.After hours of voting on the panel appointing judges, extending the Law to Prevent Infiltration, increasing the deficit and more, the time came for the government to present its position on a law increasing the penalty for smuggling phones and dangerous items into prisons to up to five years in jail.Since Public Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch was not in the plenum at midnight, Piron was asked to present the bill.An exhausted, but cheerful Piron took the stand and began reading the legislation and cracked up laughing when he got to the words “inserting items into prisons.”MK Moshe Gafni (UTJ) shouted: “What is the connection between the Education Minister and prisons?”Other MKs in the plenum started laughing along with him, and MK Shuli Muallem (Bayit Yehudi) filmed Piron with her smartphone.Deputy Knesset Speaker Moshe Feiglin (Likud Beytenu) joked that he usually has to tell MKs to calm down so the minister on the stand can speak, but this time it’s the opposite. Then, he brought Piron a cup of water.Eventually, Welfare Minister Meir Cohen took Piron’s place, and the bill passed with 31 in favor and 13 opposed.The next morning, one of Piron’s aides was unsure how to explain the events, joking that it was “past his bedtime.”