What 100 Qassam rockets were unable to do – one Arcadi Gaydamak did. The Russian oligarch visited Sderot on Friday and offered to fortify the homes of the city's residents with his own money. It was an offer Sderot Mayor Eli Moyal couldn't refuse.
From here things started moving quickly. Moyal contacted the Prime Minister's Office. The prime minister's aides asked him to get rid
of Gaydamak. "I can't," he said. "The residents will kill me."
He was right, of course. In their despair, the prime minister's aides contacted the Defense Ministry. The Defense Ministry has the budget and the tools. The defense minister jumped at the opportunity. It would be good for Sderot (his home town,) and it would be good for the upcoming Labor primaries.
Hence, a cumbersome PR machine went into action with the intent of proving that Gaydamak is not deserving of praise but rather Amir Peretz and Ehud Olmert are.
Arcadi Gaydamak is the cruel mirror through which the terrible weakness of the government is reflected. Of all the Second Lebanon War's shortcomings, the handling of the home front was the worst.
Ra'anan Dinur, the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, convened endless meetings, prepared presentations, issued papers but the home front was not taken care of. Many of those who asked to be evacuated were provided with no solution, and those who were willing to stay behind were provided with no services.
Gaydamak opened up a holiday camp on the Nitzanim beach for the evacuees. The government bit its tongue and followed suit.
The same scenario repeated itself last week in Sderot. Gaydamak responded to the residents' distress by dispatching busses and covering the cost of hotel rooms. The prime minister and the defense minister jumped sky high. The defense minister suggested that residents be given an immediate holiday financed by his ministry. The prime minister was alarmed by the negative image created by the evacuation. He ordered the mayor to work with him only, not with Peretz.
And now it’s the fortification of Sderot. Detailed plans to protect the city – starting with educational institutions and public buildings and continuing with care for the underprivileged citizens of the city and fortifying apartments and homes - have been around for months. These plans have not been executed not because we have a stagnated and paralyzed government that is being dragged along and not because we have a government that has lost its ability to handle emergency situations.
The government is paralyzed due to bureaucratic and legal constraints, because of the small-minded attitude of ministers and officials and because of the lessons learned by these people every day: Those who don't take action don't get slammed. A country that has become accustomed to thinking that every civil servant is a thief should not be surprised when its civil servants prefer passing on decisions to others.
The problem is not money, there's plenty of that. The suffering endured by Sderot residents is disturbing to every Israeli and many Jews in the Diaspora. The easiest way to overcome the sense of guilt is to allocate funds. In recent years, hundreds of aid delegations have descended on Sderot. They all offered to help. Ministers flock to the city every day. They all repeat the same sentence: "There is no shortage of funds."
Nonetheless, Arcadi has the upper hand. Not because he is wealthier or more generous – but because he is quick and shameless.
Ultimately, it will not be Arcadi who will cover the costs of Sderot's fortification; it will be the government. However he has shown us, as he has done in the past, that he is capable of making the government's decisions in its stead. No one has elected him, no one is monitoring him, yet despite this he is the boss.
This is outrageous. Sovereign Israel is turning into a protectorate before our very eyes – it is turning into Arcadia. Had the government done its job as it should have done, Gaydamak would not have succeeded in captivating the nation. At the most he would have bought a soccer team.
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