Although the vote for leadership of the Labor Party is still
three months away, doubts over whether it will take place at
all have already been heard.
So far two men have announced their candidacy: Knesset
chairman Avraham Burg and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-
Eliezer. Meanwhile several other candidates are waiting in
the wings, some of them not to be taken seriously (e.g.
Mattan Vilnai) and others who perhaps should be taken
seriously but are currently faltering politically (e.g.
Chaim Ramon and Shlomo Ben Ami).
According to all of the estimates and surveys, Burg is the
clear front-runner in the race and is expected to defeat Ben-
Eliezer by a large margin.
Ben-Eliezer is hoping to benefit from his job as defense
minister. Many previous defense ministers have enjoyed
considerable popularity and Ben-Eliezer would like to make
this work to his advantage, but so far his plans do not seem
to be panning out. According to his support staff he does
not intend to concede to anyone, and will run to the finish.
According to estimates, however, if Ben-Eliezer foresees a
landslide defeat a few days before the vote, he will
withdraw from the race at the last moment, rather than
subjecting himself to the humiliation of only 20 percent or
25 percent of the popular vote. Unless he is sure of making
a respectable showing of at least one-third of the votes he
is unlikely to remain in the race until the finish.
If Ben-Eliezer withdraws, Burg will be left in a one-man
race and will win automatically. Although Chaim Ramon and
Shlomo Ben Ami are assessing their chances, there appears to
be little hope that they will run this time around.
Last week Burg supporters were reminded that the Likud was
in a similar situation before the last elections. Everyone
was talking about a showdown between Sharon and Netanyahu,
but then Netanyahu withdrew at the last minute and Sharon
was left as the only candidate. He won the party ticket and
then later won the race for prime minister.
Burg's supporters are perfectly willing to see such a
scenario repeat itself. Winning the Labor primaries and then
the prime ministerial elections would be a dream come true,
but they are the first to admit that this will not be easy.
Hitting the jackpot as Sharon did is highly unlikely. If
victory comes their way it will not come so quickly and
easily.
Mum's the Word
Knesset chairman Burg follows in Sharon's footsteps in
another area as well: keeping the lid on. Sharon remained
almost completely mute throughout the election campaign in
order to keep himself out of trouble. It is not easy to put
your foot in your mouth while it's closed. Silence is
golden, and indeed it worked, in spite of the rival camp's
efforts to take advantage of the situation.
Burg has also been advised to lower his media profile, and
those who know Burg, with his affinity for the media and his
loquaciousness, know that for him this is a very difficult
task. All he has to do is to maintain his current position,
and victory is his, so his main job now is to avoid
blunders. And it is not easy to make blunders without
speaking.
Last weekend, in the aftermath of the bombing of the
Dolphinarium, for some reason Burg could not resist the
temptation and let a few words slip. Although he was able to
cover up the indiscretion somewhat, the slip did not go
unnoticed.
On motzei Shabbos the Chevra Kadisha of Tel Aviv was
accused of refusing to bury the non-Jewish victims of
terror. The story quickly proved to be totally unfounded,
based on lies and a crude libel invented by the media, but
Burg issued a press statement early Saturday night through
Knesset Spokesman Giora Pordice reading, "The Chairman of
the Knesset denounces the Chevra Kadisha's refusal to bury
the three young, Russian immigrants killed in the brutal
attack at the Dolphinarium in Tel Aviv."
This time Burg the mute had spoken too soon. He failed to
confirm the story with the Chevra Kadisha and the Rabbinate,
and in his haste issued a premature statement to the
press.
It's such a pity that Burg, who tries--usually with great
success--to carry out his job in the Knesset with
consideration for all sectors and points of view, stumbled
this time and struck out at an entire sector of the
population that was innocent of any wrongdoing. If he had
just picked up the phone and made a short call to the Chief
Rabbi, the Minister of Religious Affairs or the Chairman of
the Chevra Kadisha, he would have found that the entire
incident was pure drivel.
Perhaps Burg should be given some credit for his willingness
to admit his mistake. When it began to be clear that the
whole affair was just a pack of lies, Burg was compelled to
launch an appeasement campaign in the media to retract the
false accusations lodged against the Chevra Kadisha, thereby
repairing his original distortion of the facts.
Burg's close followers admitted that this was a minor slip
on his part, but they were pleased that the Knesset
Chairman's announcement had not gained much momentum, unlike
the remarks made by MKs Tomy Lapid and Sofa Landver. Also
the damage control was immediate, leaving the public with
the impression that Burg was responsible for mobilizing the
pacification process and explaining the mistake that had
been made, and the statement of condemnation left little
mark.
One-Minute Discussion
The Knesset press box was the site of a meeting with Knesset-
Government liaison minister Danny Naveh last week. Nothing
new was said there, neither policy changes nor changes in
the Knesset--not even changes in the area of politics, which
seems to be highly sensitive and problematic for the young
minister who was once among Netanyahu's closest associates
and has now demonstrated loyalty to his leading rival, Ariel
Sharon.
Nevertheless Naveh did bring up one item of interest. During
a discussion about proposed laws, Naveh said that the
Ministers' Legislative Committee spends no more than one
minute examining the proposals. Sixty seconds on the clock.
That's the amount of time ministers and their aides invest
in analysis of legislation proposed by their fellow MKs
before voting to pass or reject the proposed law, showing
total disregard for MKs, and insulting their
intelligence.
Under such circumstances committee members vote "no" almost
automatically; later those who made proposals wonder what
was wrong with them. The proposals may be just fine, but the
ministers and their respective staffs simply do not relate
seriously to the piece of paper the proposal is written on,
for how much deliberation can take place in one minute?
Naveh admits that one or two minutes of review is
"unreasonable" and explained that in his capacity as liaison
minister between the government and the Knesset he intends
to let ministers who vote against every bill automatically
know that he would support protests filed against them to
the coalition management. He said he would also support
requests to overturn the decision and to allow coalition
members to support the proposed law despite the position
taken by the Ministerial Legislative Committee which
determines coalition policy on legislation.
During the course of the meeting the idea of abolishing the
Ministerial Legislative Committee and leaving legislating
laws to the Knesset and its other committee was raised.
Naveh of course objected. The government cannot allow
legislation to remain in the hands of Knesset members alone
without offering its opinion on whether a given bill would
interfere with its ability to run the country as it sees fit
and according to the mandate given it by the public.
The High Price of Water
Several years ago a friend of mine told me about a certain
room-and-board educational institution where various
kashrus problems--e.g. worms in the rice and beans,
etc.--were discovered in the kitchen. The students
approached the kitchen management and asked that a
mashgiach be brought in to remove their concerns
about the food. They were certain that such a reasonable
request would be honored right away, but to their surprise
the kitchen manager decided that instead of bringing a
mashgiach in to solve the problems, he would simply
remove the problems from the kitchen, and informed the
students that rice and beans would no longer be served,
leaving no cause for complaint regarding kashrus.
I was reminded of this incident during a discussion recently
held in the Knesset Finance Committee regarding Israel's
water problem and the current water crisis.
Committee Chairman Avraham Poraz (Shinui) suggested an
interesting solution to deal with the water shortage. Poraz
believes the remedy for this crisis situation is . . . to
raise the price of water. If water were more expensive, he
argues, people would think twice about turning on the tap
and would reduce their use of this precious resource.
Instead of proposing quotas for various sectors, importing
water or desalination projects, Poraz simply proposed that
prices be raised until people can no longer afford to use
it, as if the product in question was gold or diamonds. And
if they get thirsty? Too bad. That's their problem.
Just like the educational institution above, instead of
bringing in a mashgiach kashrus to solve the problem,
they punished the students who wanted strictly kosher food
by removing the problematic products. Instead of addressing
the problem of the water shortage and promoting ways to deal
with the problem, a simpler solution was found: just hike up
the prices and consumption will be reduced.
