If I had to choose the word that was used in the Knesset this week, the winner would undoubtedly be 'tapes'.
This was the talk of the day. There were politicians who were reluctant, who refused to comment, and there were those who trampled over the bloody bodies of Mrs. Sara Netanyahu, recorded this week, and her son Yair, recorded from the week before.
I met one of them, an MK from one of the major parties, not from the Likud, at the cafeteria, while they were pouring food onto his plate.
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""This business of recordings is disgusting, and I'm not a follower of the Netanyahu family. But there is a limit," he said. "By the way, in the US, in many states, recording is prohibited," he added.
A few months ago, when everyone thought that the recordings of Noni Mozes' conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu were the biggest story in politics, David Bitan, then the coalition chairman, declared that he was going to submit a bill that would prohibit recording a person without their knowledge. The media was in a frenzy.
The Press Council, of which I am a member, also issued a statement claiming that the result could "seriously harm the work of the media and journalism in general, and investigative journalism in particular.".
After all, recordings are the basis for important journalistic investigations: What will a mother do if she suspects her baby is being beaten by a kindergarten teacher? What will a journalist do if he wants to prove that a business owner is defrauding his customers without documentation?
But Bitan, for his part, insisted. Recording people by a journalist has become a state coup, he said.
And the truth? Both sides are right. Since then, a lot of water has flowed through the Knesset buffet taps. Bitan is no longer the coalition chairman, and it is not clear whether anyone has the courage to pull the law against recording out of the mothballs. What is clear is that the damage to the press and journalists has already been done.
Politicians are afraid to open their mouths to journalists. Eliminate the order of 'off the record' briefings with juicy details.
There are still journalists who can be trusted, those who would never broadcast a conversation that was not defined as an official interview, but they are few.
If the Knesset Speaker - still being recorded this week - cannot gather journalists around his table, talk to them openly and be calm that his words will not be leaked - we, the media, are in trouble.
There are politicians who, on principle, don't invite ultra-Orthodox journalists to briefings. Why? Because they have a reputation for being chatty - and ask Netanyahu, who invited the ultra-Orthodox media for an 'off-the-record' conversation, only to find everything he said, with colorful additions, in the ultra-Orthodox media.
I was among the only ones who didn't trust me, which means I came off as a sucker... so you probably already understand what I mean.
With or without a law against recording, my personal opinion is that, with all due respect to investigative journalism, leaking recordings made without the knowledge of the person being recorded will shoot in the foot any journalist who wishes to continue enriching his readers with juicy details and fascinating color columns - materials that will only be provided if the interviewee can fully trust the person sitting across from him.
