Less than two months have passed since Roni Bar-On was appointed to his new job and he is already sending Yaron Zelekha home. The move is actually appropriate for a finance minister, who is careful to pay off his debts. In so doing, the "friend of" got rid of someone who is not a friend at all. In addition, it also returned the issue of friendship in politics to the public agenda. After all, it was only a short time ago, at his party's convention, that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that he preferred to appoint his friends to the cabinet - "and I'm not ashamed to say so."

Friendship is generally a good thing, not least in politics, where men often behave as beasts of the forest. Nevertheless, the cry should go out: Danger - friendship! Friendship, like love, tends to stir up strife and covers all transgressions. Indeed, only recently it was announced publicly that President Shimon Peres and Vice Premier Haim Ramon opposed the way in which the Second Lebanon War was waged, as they testified to the Winograd Committee.

Nonetheless they voted in favor of it and even defended it on every available microphone. They explained to the committee that as members of the cabinet and friends of the prime minister, they could not leave Olmert on his own. They deferred to their friend's opinion and stood by him.