Power of weakness
Current cabinet's strength lies in its weakness
Weak governments who repulse the public and whose popularity is at an all time low, do not collapse. Not a single minister, from the prime minister to the lowest ranks, has an interest in early elections.
On the contrary: When they look at the opinion polls, coalition members understand how dangerous early elections would be for them, how they would be smitten hip and thigh. The loss of the electoral vote makes the ministers stick together and to their seats as though stuck with cement.
They swallow their pride and quickly settle disputes to avoid, heaven forbid, cracks in unity. Because such cracks are likely to lead to a rift, and a rift could lead to collapse and to the loss of power.
Boo!
This practice has been evident over the last few days as seen in the ritual dance around the approval of the proposed 2007 State budget. The Labor party, for example, submitted a long series of demands for improving the plight of the lower socioeconomic strata, and its heads voiced explicit threats: If the finance minister does not comply with our requests, we shall not remain indifferent to the humiliation. They went boo! And what happened? Nothing.
The Treasury didn't comply with a single one of the Labor party's requests, and the Labor party remained indifferent. It tucked its tail between its legs and at night sought shelter under Finance Minister Avraham Hirschon's apron, in fear that it might be required to draw conclusions from its threats.
Will Amir Peretz, Binyamin (Fouad) Ben-Eliezer and Isaac Herzog now run for elections? Will they do so when their party is expected to get 12 percent of the electoral vote? Are they Shiite suicide bombers?
Olmert's secret weapon
The weakness of the Olmert cabinet is the secret of its power ? and also the secret of the prime minister's power. His two most senior ministers - the defense and finance ministers - have already been attributed the dubious term of "ministers who never were."
The pair passed on the management of defense and economic affairs to the professional ranks in their offices: Perez passed it on to the officers, Hirschon to Treasury officials; Peretz to the General Staff and Hirschon to the director general.
Senior military officers and bureaucratic officials are bypassing ministers who were ostensibly appointed to manage them, who in turn report directly to the prime minister from whom they receive their marching orders.
What nine months ago looked like a series of inappropriate appointments by the prime minister now looks like sophisticated political cunning: The political vacuum has been filled. By whom? By Olmert himself, who has taken under his broad wings the ministerial powers of the Defense Ministry and the Treasury.
Olmert's cabinet has tuned into "Olmert's government" in the literal, simplistic sense: The prime minister is the proprietor who is taking advantage of his ministers' weakness and lack of orientation in order to rule them forcefully. In the absence of true dialogue between the finance minister and the governor of the Bank of Israel, for example, Olmert goes directly to the governor on economic and humanitarian issues such as "monetary interest."
Olmert has emerged as centralizing prime minister to the extent Israel's political arena has never seen. Ariel Sharon delegated several weighty powers to his defense and finance ministers. Olmert delegates crumbs.
The lack of delegated authorities, however, doesn't bother the colorless ministers: They are locked up in Olmert's cabinet and the cabinet is locked up inside of itself.
To expect one minister or another to seriously consider retiring from the cabinet because his stance was not accepted or because of lack of suitability for the post is like asking a fish to jump out of the water? Even murky water? Right onto a dinner plate where it is devoured along with its bones.
