Only 6 months old
Despite promise, government conveys sense of transience
The disparity between the markets' spiritual uplifting and the ebbing of the people's spirits just six months after of the Kadima-Labor cabinet has taken up office, is just one of the paradoxes accompanying it. The government's short life is full of contradictions and disparities.
This was the first government to present a detailed political agenda prior to the elections, only to scrap it a few weeks after taking up office.
It was the first government voted into office since 1991 to finally handle burning internal issues such as poverty, education, crime and infrastructure – but from the moment it was established it has been embroiled in two wars on two fronts, and the third is breathing down its and our necks.
The parties comprising the Olmert-Peretz cabinet are perceived as left-leaning. In practice, however, the cabinet has demonstrated the contrary. Decisions pertaining to military operations are taken at a whim. It is also a government that has killed more Palestinians relative to its term in office than the Sharon cabinet.
A sense of transience
The Olmert-Peretz cabinet has a solid majority in the Knesset, yet despite this it is conveying a sense of transience. Look at its ministers: Don't they look like passersby in a remote train station, sitting on their luggage and waiting impatiently for the locomotive's redeeming whistle to whisk them away from there?
There is no opposition capable of toppling the cabinet, but this state of affairs hasn't prevented the prime minister from fervently searching for partners who would save him from downfall.
During the election campaign Kadima and Labor party representatives created the impression that they would drastically change the way the country was run. It would bring an end to the tyranny of bureacrats who dictated policies to the ministers; they would be replaced by ministers with independent opinions and initiatives who would force bureaucracy to act according to ministerial priorities.
Ministers with initiative? Sitting around Olmert's table? Don't make us laugh. For years Israel hasn't had a cabinet that was so dependent on the bureaucratic system.
Kobi Haber, in charge of the Treasury's budget, doesn't implement the policies of the finance minister, on the contrary. The finance minister makes every effort to extol the wonders of Kobi Haber's economic policies. The same applies to other offices.
Perhaps this is the inevitable cynical outcome of the method by which the keys to this cabinet's offices were distributed: The prime minister distributed portfolios to ministers that least suited them (with a few exceptions).
According to this iron rule Olmert is now assigning a stated go-getter, Avigdor Lieberman, to the post of strategic philosopher. Let Lieberman deal with what he doesn't like - thinking - and not with what he does like – doing.
Keeping ministers on a short leash
This distorted distribution of portfolios is explained by Olmert's need to keep his ministers on a short leash. A minister who is not proficient in matters of his office obviously requires the prime minister's assistance and therefore clings to his shirtsleeve.
This way Olmert has accumulated overt and covert authorities. He is the super minister; yet despite this there is a sense that he lacks authority and that he is unable to convey his viewpoints. He has complained that no one really fears him as they feared Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin.
Olmert is becoming immersed in a childish yearning for an authoritative presidential regime, in which the prime minister can do whatever he pleases. And he can't? Olmert only has to figure out what he feels like doing. But if he doesn't know, the entire government doesn't know.
How sad and frustrating. The incumbent government in office since March 2006 is the first in Israel's history that is not led by one of the two senior and eroded political parties, but rather by new political, modern and promising movement. It was supposed to be a civilian-oriented cabinet. But it's not.
The people don't trust it, neither in peace nor in war, nor in civil services nor in social amendments. They are looking at what was an "agenda" six months ago and all they can see is an empty void. This is a clear indication of a provisional government.
