But that was not the point. The point was that by appointing ministers quite unsuitable to the tasks entrusted to them, Barak did great damage to the interests of the state. You don't entrust your body to a surgeon who is really a lawyer, nor do you entrust your money to a banker who is really a biologist.
YET THE idea of political entitlement was hovering over the whole process of forming the cabinet. The awarding of the ministries more closely resembles a dispute among thieves over the spoils than a responsible process of manning or womaning the ministries which will be responsible for the security and well-being of the nation.
The quarrel that held up the formation of the new government for several crucial days was over the Ministry of Education. Lapid wanted it for his No. 2, an orthodox (though moderate) rabbi. The incumbent, Gideon Sa'ar, desperately clung to it, organizing petitions in his favor among teachers, mayors and what not.
This could have been a legitimate fight if it had been about questions of education. For example, Sa'ar, a fanatical Likud man, has sent the pupils to religious and nationalistic sites in Greater Eretz Israel, to imbue them with proper patriotic fervor. He is also more intent on his pupils winning international capability tests than on education as such.
But nobody spoke about these subjects. It was a simple fight over entitlement. In medieval times, it might have been fought out with lances in a tournament. In these civilized days, both sides use political blackmail. Lapid won.
I AM not a great admirer of Tzipi Livni and her air of a spoilt brat. But I am happy about her appointment to the Ministry of Justice.
Her last two predecessors were intent on destroying the Supreme Court and putting an end to "judicial activism." (This seems to be a problem in many countries nowadays. Governments want to abolish the court's power to annul anti-democratic laws.) Tzipi can be relied on to buttress the Supreme Court, seen by many as "the last bastion of Israeli democracy."
Much more problematical is the appointment of Moshe Ya'alon as Minister of Defense. He inherited the job because there is just nobody around who could be appointed instead. Israelis take their defense seriously, and you cannot appoint, say, a gynecologist to this job.
"Bogy," as everybody calls him, is a former Chief of Staff of the Army, and a very undistinguished one. Indeed, when he finished the standard three years on the job, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon refused to grant him the almost automatic fourth year. Bogy was bitter and complained that he always had to wear high boots, because of the many snakes in the Ministry of Defense and the General Staff. He may need them again now.
His many detractors call him a "bock" -- German and Yiddish for a goat, symbolizing a lack of intelligence. He is an extreme militarist, who sees all problems through the sights of a gun. He can be sure of the allegiance of Israel's vast army of ex-generals (or "degenerals" as I call them).
THE MOST problematical appointment of all is the choice of Uri Ariel for the crucial post of Minister of Housing.
Uri Ariel is the arch-settler. He was the founder of a settlement, a leader of the settlers' organization, the Ministry of Defense official responsible for the settlements. He was also a director of the Keren Kayemet -- Jewish National Fund -- a major arm of the settlement enterprise. He entered the Knesset when Rehavam Ze'evi, the leader of the extreme-extreme Right, was assassinated by a Palestinian hit squad.
Turning this Ministry over to such a person means that most of its resources will go to a frantic expansion of the settlements, each of which is a nail in the coffin of peace. Yet Lapid supported this appointment with all his new-found political clout, as part of his "brotherhood" bond with Naftali Bennett, who is now the godfather of the settler movement.
Bennett's party also gained the all-important Knesset finance committee, which is needed to funnel the funds to the settlements. It means that the settlers are now in complete control of the state.
Lapid's election triumph may yet be revealed as the biggest disaster for Israel.
The brotherhood pact between Lapid and Bennett made it possible for them to blackmail poor Netanyahu and get (almost) everything they longed for. Except the Foreign Ministry.
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