Madonna and childish behavior
In what normal state does the foreign minister subject his status and prestige to his wife's petty whims?
By Uzi BenzimanIn his book "No, Mr. Commissioner," Professor Itzhak Galnoor describes the seam between the political system and the public service. This is a coarse, ugly seam, with rips that sometimes cause surreal situations that are not without a humorous side.
The operetta played out on the public stage these days, starring the foreign minister, the Israeli ambassador in the United States and their respective wives, fits in perfectly with the theater of the absurd described by Galnoor in his book.
Cabinet ministers of all parties like to complain about what they consider the exaggerated power of officials. They moan that the senior officials are the real bosses of the country, and that the politicians in charge of them are castrated.
They gripe that every initiative they raise runs into a wall of regulations, budgets, thought patterns and work customs that shrink it and frequently evaporate it. They grumble that their authority to change policy and to renovate is blocked by the barricades set up by the civil administration.
This is, of course, a one-sided presentation. Usually the senior officials are a protective wall against the reckless ideas of irresponsible ministers, and against mixing ulterior motives, whether personal or partisan, into the government's decision-making process.
The senior civil servants have a key role in ensuring the public interest. This is the level that preserves and bequeathes to future generations the routine of proper conduct and lawful administration. It resembles the role of senior, experienced hospital nurses' role in ensuring the patients' well-being.
This characterization of the public service is being corroded in recent years, especially because of the corruption in the Likud. The process is inevitable - the moment the Likud decided on a primary election system that renders its elected officials totally dependent on the party's central committee, it opened the door to flooding the committee with shady members who are elected in fishy methods, and to contaminating the political system and public service with germs of ignorance, amateurism and corruption.
This process creates a cycle of corruption, bringing unworthy people to the Knesset and the cabinet. Eager to fulfill the expectations of Likud Central Committee members, these people insert defective implants into the top levels of the civil service, destroying its tissue.
One of the results of this conduct is the farce now being played out between the foreign minister's office and the Israeli Embassy in Washington. In this farce, the slight to the minister and his wife is more important than the good of the state.
Likewise, the tenure of the ambassador and his wife is more important than the norms of administration and good manners.
What normal democracy appoints a man, whose flawed judgment leads him to covertly record his superiors, to the most important diplomatic post? In what normal state does the foreign minister subject his status and prestige to his wife's petty whims?
The personalities of the ministers and their senior clerks is only half the problem. The other half is concealed in the Sasson report about building the illegal outposts in the territories. The report exposes the trend in recent years of appointing political cronies to key civil service positions, for the purpose of carrying out a certain ideology.
The civil servants - including senior Israel Defense Forces officers and lawyers in the State Prosecutor's Office - who helped build the illegal outposts undermined their positions. They preferred to serve the cause of settlement in the territories over upholding the law and its principles.
These officials have acted and are still acting not as a professional administration staff but as ideologues of the settler community. Thus the infrastructure of the state apparatus, on which the quality of the state's services depends, is being destroyed.
This distressing result will be held against the Likud, which instead of pulling itself together to prevent it, intends to legitimize it by the so-called "Jobs Law," a proposal by the Ministerial Legislative Committee that would turn almost every senior public service position into a political appointment.
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Uri Benziman summed it up brilliantly. Its not enough that the Likud party is made up of a bunch of rogues, but our "brilliant" Foreign Minister runs around his shrewish wife like a puppy dog making us look like a bunch of idiots in the eyes of the world. Sharon had the foresight and vision to see that we had to get out of Gaza. Cant he see that we need to get rid of Silvan Shalom and get someone more serious
silvan shalom the fm and his remarkably silly wife have brought shame on the state.send them both packing.go to the riveria or hollywood and do your stargazing there.
What Israel needs is to set up a better system of government. No Political system is good. There are just bad and worse. I suppose any form of government is bad because people are involved. History shows that human nature is rotten. So Checks and balances are required to rein in bad behavior. The members of the Knesset Must be Elected directly by the people. This would make them accountable to the people. And not to only to the party. I have thought about this a lot. Being an ex-American I prefer the US system of government as apposed to the British system. The current British system also directly elects its representatives. Therefore here is my solution for Israel 1. There are 120 members of Knesset. Create 3 groups of 40. 2. Increase the Knesset term to 6 years. 3. Every 2 years 40 members are Elected. 4. 30 members are elected in local districts. 10 are elected as National at large. 5. Locally elected Knesset members are limited to 2 terms. 6. National at large Knesset members are limited to 4 terms 7. Convert the prime mister office to that of a President with determined powers. 8. The president chooses his own cabinet, with a vote of approval from the Knesset. 9. The President term of office would be 4 years. Limited to 3 terms. 10. The Vice president would be elected by the Knesset and would be part of the Presidents cabinet. No more life long positions. No more "No Confidence" motions in the Knesset. No more early elections, The Knesset members are now accountable to the people. If the government does not do a good job, then elections every 2 years would create change. No more Knesset "Mandates? Which is like a blank check to the parties. Local elections would build cooperation instead of confrontation. No more radical Knesset members, they would no longer be able to get elected just from their small group of voters. In order to get elected you may have to represent people that are not of your ideological group. Jews would have to represent Arabs in government, Arabs would have to represent Jews in government, Religious Jews would have to represent secular Jews and vise versa. YOU WILL BEGIN TO HAVE A PUSH TO THE CENTER AND THE EXTREMES. And Israeli democracy would be strengthened.
The Israeli parliamentary political system is a disgrace. I am not saying that other countries do not have their problems either, The US and UK are not perfect and have similar problems. But Israel is a small country, so the problems are more severe. Electing your leaders by party creates the political abuses that occur in the Israeli government. The Knesset members have to be accountable to the party and the central committee. So bribery, extortion, nepotism, demanding government jobs for your supporters and family are common practices. Corrupt and dishonest politicians can keep there seats forever without public accountability. Only loyalty to the Party bosses is needed. The Israeli political system can be described as the worst of communism and the Worst of capitalism (western Democracy) combined. Elected representatives should be accountable to the people. But in Israel they are not. The Knesset members are accountable to their party, not the people. If they want to be re-elected they must toe the party line or central committee line. This system creates life long politicians that have lost touch with the people. Has Shimon Perez (for example, no matter how good or bad he is) ever had a real job in the economy. He is a life long politician that has lost touch with the common people. So have many other people of all the parties, Labor, Likud and others. Army Generals after a lifetime in the armed forces, walk into political jobs for no other reason other than popularity and the potential for helping a specific party. How can Amir Peretz be both a Knesset member and the head of Histradrut at the same time? Does he get 2 paychecks? Can he really do both jobs at the same time? If he can, then what does that tell us of the 2 jobs he has. If you are a Knesset member THAT IS YOUR JOB. You should not be able to have 2 positions at the same time. You can't vote for people in an Israeli election, only a party. You use to be able to vote for prime minister, but it was changed back, because the main political parties lost power. The current system MUST be thrown away. Also, since you vote for parties and not people, you get many many parties, each with a specific agenda. Small one issue parties, Religious parties, Non-Religious parties, so when coalitions are formed, you get chaos in the cabinet. The prime minister is forced to create coalitions and give out cabinet posts to political lackeys that have no loyalty to the prime minister and are most often not qualified to the posts given, where every minister behaves like a master over his fiefdom. This system also causes the political system to be pushed to the extremes of both right and left. The center is often neglected.
Ami, Take a second to re-read my post. I said we should do what is right, WHILE ALSO not giving ammunition to our enemies (who like to pretend that Israel is uniquely evil).
Too often one hears remarks of comparison between Israel and the rest of the planet - remarks like that by proud zionist. When will we be mature enough to do what is right without always expecting to copy an example from others?
Anna, I agree with you that the incident described in this article is a disgrace. However, let's not fool ourselves into thinking that this kind of incident is unique to Israel or that politicians in every country don't try to secure jobs and patronage for friends. We should work against this here in Israel and fight for a clean government, while realizing that this is a universal problem.
This is the kind of manure that makes Israelis look like a bunch of bafoons. If Sivan Shalom had one drop of integrity, he would resign. If Sharon had any inkling of PR, he?d retire Shalom. This garbage makes me want to hide my Israeli passport. I think 90% of this government are a bunch of dufooses. Where is our self-respect?