As part of the dream deal she made with Bozhi Herzog, Tzipi Livni received two seemingly realistic positions on the job list.
The places are hers, but as of the time of writing this article, Livni has not yet announced to whom she is designating the places and which of her members of the 'movement' will be thrown to the side of the road.
Why is it taking the new candidate for prime minister so long to decide who will get the coveted positions? She is probably seriously weighing the pros and cons of each.
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Oh, yes, and by Friday, two of them, Elazar Stern and David Tzur, could, by law, split from the "Movement" and take with them the millions of shekels of funding for their parties. Is it possible that Mrs. Klein (formerly) planted hope in Stern and Tzur that they might be the chosen ones, that they wouldn't even think of splitting, and after Friday passes, it will turn out that the blame for all this fell on Amir Peretz?
One thing is certain in this whole story – none of the protagonists in this story ever considered for a moment the possibility of running in any party's primaries. This thing called running has completely gone out of fashion.
Only a few years ago, when new 'stars' descended into the political system, they didn't dare not do so the right way. Boogi Ya'alon, Ami Ayalon, Shelly Yachimovich, Dan Meridor, Benny Begin, Merav Michaeli, Uri Auerbach and Mickey Rosenthal - all ran for their place.
Today the political meat market is boiling, but no one even thinks about this possibility. Yoav Galant (candidate for several parties), Manuel Trachtenberg (probably not Kahlon in the end), Michael Oren on the way (Kahlon, probably), Amos Yadlin (it is doubtful whether there will be a party that can meet his expectations), Giora Eiland (will probably say 'no' to Kahlon), Zvi Hauser ('Habib Hayehudi'?) and dozens of other seemingly shiny names are conducting multi-party negotiations with two sharp conditions: a guaranteed place on the list and the potential for a ministerial position.
For less than that, we won't enter.
Only the common people (or serving Knesset members, who enjoy preference anyway) still need to compete. For the first time, the Likud chairman has reservations without competing, and the Jewish Home chairman has arranged reservations for himself for the first time. Kahlon wrote party regulations for himself a la Lapid, such that he will determine alone who the candidates are in both this Knesset and the next Knesset. There is no point in talking about Lieberman and Lapid. In short, the primaries are dead.
Yes, he has quite a few problems, but he would be infinitely better than the line of all-powerful leaders who vainly decide who to be a tribe and who to be a charity. Governance, by the way, didn't add anything to us. Another thing it doesn't really add is votes.
It can create a bit of a sense of momentum, here's this important man putting his chips on this leader, he probably knows something, but in the end, at the ballot box, the weight of the party leader is much more decisive. People vote for Lapid or Kahlon and Yaakov Perry's position on the list doesn't really matter to them.
If our politicians have killed the internal democracy of the parties, then at least they should go one step further – let them announce that they will appoint professional people to ministerial positions, regardless of their presence on the list or their position.
If Lapid is the sole ruler in his party, then where did his commitment to appoint someone who, when she was appointed to the position of Minister of Health, did not know what a health minister was (according to her own testimony)?
In what world is Yael German the minister and Prof. Roni Gamzo, a man with decades of experience in the health system, the CEO? What ties Yair Shamir to the position of Minister of Agriculture? His arbitrary position on the Yisrael Beiteinu list? Does Uzi Landau really have any passion for the Ministry of Tourism?
Lapid, Kahlon, and Lieberman will soon present their new lists. There will be many new people and very little in common (except for an oath of loyalty to the new boss).
Together they will bring in around 30-40 Knesset members to the next Knesset. All three of them have enough room to maneuver in negotiations with the people they are anointing here for the position of Knesset members to at least tell them – friends, don't expect ministerial positions, when we receive the portfolios we will include the most deserving people from outside.
Roni Gamzo could probably be an excellent health minister, without having to pretend that he is a devout believer in Lapid/Kahlon/Lieberman's abilities to be prime minister.
The article was published this morning in Haaretz. http://drucker10.net/?p=2495
