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Emmanuel Rosen
Photo: Sharon Beck

Our system is ill

Failure to appoint full-time health minister symptom of ailing political system

If we need one clear, sharp and painful example of the serious malady maligning Israeli politics, we can look at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s blatant disregard for the need to appoint a full-time health minister.

 

We can talk for hours and write thousands of words about politicians who are detached from the people and their needs, about the cynicism, about broken promises, and about clinging to power – but we can simply tell the whole story in one sentence: In a state where the healthcare system is ill, and where if you have no money for private medicine you must rely on mercy from above, in such country the PM appoints 30 ministers and invents ministries that do not even exist for them, yet he does not see fit to appoint even one of them to the ministry that pertains to the lives of all of us.

 

The fact that the Health Ministry was forgotten during Netanyahu’s brilliant portfolio assignment effort has nothing to do with amnesia. It is deliberate and certainly not coincidental. The Health Ministry is a difficult, grim, and demanding one; in particular, it does not allow the minister who heads it to reward his associates with jobs.

 

The prime minister is a great hero when it comes to the Iranians and the rest of the world, yet he shakes when he needs to give this job to one of his ministers.

 

It is indeed unpleasant to deal with sick people, crowded hospital wings, and the distress of the elderly. So let’s enjoy life: We’ll assign one minister with improving the government’s computer system and another one to deal with economic peace (the moment we find out what this means,) not to mention a special minister for affairs involving the Iranian threat – because this is the way we are: We will appoint a full-time former general to protect us from the terrible threat of future missiles, but we won’t find the one politician who will take care of a collapsing system that truly threatens our lives.

 

Hurling this important portfolio in the direction of United Torah Judaism, which refuses to have ministers in a Zionist government (do you hear this, Lieberman? There is no loyalty or pledge of allegiance there, but they do get jobs and coalition membership!) serves as further proof that a new government may come and an old one may go, and that the old Netanyahu may be gone and the new one has arrived, yet nothing is new under the sun. These politicians simply disregard us.

 

Barak forgot

There is not even one country in the enlightened and less enlightened world that does not have a full-time health minister. In the United States, which Netanyahu so much wishes to imitate, there are only 12 ministers; there is no minister for threats or for broadcasting affairs, yet it has a health minister. Even in a government that is about one third of the size of Netanyahu’s government of perks, an honorable place was found for this important post.

 

It is possible that Netanyahu will eventually find the sucker who agrees to fill this despised post. However, the bad taste will remain in any case. The taste of politics and politicians who don’t make any effort to prove to us that something changed about them or that they truly care about what hurts us.

 

About 10 years ago there was a premiership candidate here who presented his concern for the old lady at the hospital corridor as one of his campaign slogans. His name was Ehud Barak and he wanted to prove to us how sensitive he was compared to then-PM Netanyahu, who disregarded the elderly and ill.

 

Ten years later, it is no coincidence perhaps that this same politician, Barak, ignored his earlier pledges and crawled into the second government formed by Netanyahu, who among other people disregards that same old lady from the hospital. I’m guessing that Ehud Barak forgot about her en route to yet another glorious term in the Defense Ministry.

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.06.09, 01:25
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