In 1994, Haim Ramon was the flavor of the month in politics. He boldly took over the leadership of the Histadrut, single-handedly, against the position of his party, made sweeping changes, and seemed (rightly) like a natural candidate for prime minister in the not-too-distant future (right after Peres retired).
Then Rabin was assassinated, Peres called the new Histadrut secretary general to the flag, Ramon sat in the chair of interior minister and dug his own political grave. He had a hard time recovering from this political mistake (well, that kiss didn't help either).
The public had difficulty understanding how the enormous commitment to the idea of rebuilding the Histadrut evaporated in an instant in favor of the position of Minister of the Interior and Traffic Law.
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Almost twenty years later, the Minister of Communications is on his way to doing the same nonsense. Gilad Erdan managed to close the old Broadcasting Authority and cancel the television fee. It seemed like it was really in his blood. He sat for hours on end in meetings of the special committee established for the purpose of the law (the Elharar Committee), invested, fought demonstrations, slander, the bitterness of his faction members (which, God forbid, he will not achieve) and even the redemption of a stone - and won.
As in the Ramon case, the part of the justified destruction is over.
Now it's time for the truly difficult task: to stand up to the pressures of the house on Balfour Street, to use every ounce of its political power to build a strong and independent public broadcaster.
But Minister Erdan's head, it turns out, is spinning.
Should I go to New York for the prestigious (and not really important) position of ambassador to the UN? Maybe control all the heads of authorities in the country from the chair of Minister of the Interior? What is better? What will 'upgrade' me more politically?
And the public broadcast, ask the dinosaurs who believed in the sincerity of the minister's intentions, what about it? Oh, that, the minister is probably scratching his ear, is the one that Gamliel revealed will do.
Moshe Kahlon became Moshe Mei (and one of the unpopular rebels in Sharon) into a super brand thanks to one reform that he started and finished. It was an easy reform. Easy.
Kahlon was not dependent on the cell phone companies, and their greed was so great that doing the easy thing earned him world fame. Before Kahlon became a rock star, he also used to admit that it wasn't really hard. The prime minister gave him a rope, the public, the media and the Knesset embraced it, even the Ministry of Finance, there was really no one to deal with.
Kahlon himself was surprised that this turned him into the country's great reformer.
Since then, of course, he has begun to believe what they have told him about him, which is what makes him promise a revolution in banks and housing and what not (according to what he has presented so far on housing issues, his chances of success are similar to Lapid's rental housing plan - may the name avenge his blood).
What mainly worked in Kahlon's favor – in addition to high emotional intelligence – was the fact that once a minister did something that really touched our hearts.
For this alone, Kahlon is now worth ten seats.
Erdan has brought himself, with no small amount of talent, within touching distance of that exact status. It is almost inconceivable that he would give up this opportunity to influence all of our lives in favor of a pseudo-upgrade.
A promotion by virtue of what? By virtue of the non-existent scale in which an Interior Minister is worth more than a Communications Minister?
Just imagine how much Erdan would shake us all up if he said the obvious and right thing: Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for your generous offer. It compensates me a little for all the promises you broke to me, but I give up. I have to complete the reform of the Broadcasting Authority. And by the way, regarding that name you threw at me as a candidate for the new CEO of the Public Broadcasting Corporation, I just wanted to tell you that it is not suitable.
If Erdan does indeed leave the Ministry of Communications, it will not only be a wrong political decision. 1,800 employees lost their jobs in favor of the vision of independent public broadcasting. An entire industry of creators and producers has developed hopes.
The minister who replaces Erdan may have less commitment to the vision and more dependence on the prime minister, who just appointed him. There is hardly a portfolio that preoccupies Netanyahu more than the media portfolio.
You can ask Kahlon about the emergency discussions from moment to moment with questions like who is the new CEO of Channel 10, is he a man from Yedioth?
Netanyahu will probably only appoint a minister who he knows will take his needs into account. This could end up in a weak, political broadcasting authority of the kind that has just been decided to close.
What will Erdan say in his defense? Did I have to upgrade?
• The article was published in Haaretz.'
