Ariel Sharon and his associates are very displeased, to put
it mildly, with Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's recent
conduct. If he could, Sharon would have sent his finance
minister packing by now, but, at this stage at least,
Netanyahu enjoys full immunity.
Netanyahu went too far with Sharon. It all started during the
disengagement campaign when Netanyahu announced his support
for the plan but did not lift a finger to help. This
reticence will not soon be forgotten, for Sharon is convinced
that had Netanyahu made an effort to promote the plan it
would have passed, sparing the Prime Minister from
humiliation. And last week Netanyahu lodged subtle criticism
in the media regarding recent events in Gaza.
But in the calamitous political and security state the
government has found itself in, the only glimmer of light is
the economy which, based on official figures, seems to be
improving, although real signs of recovery have yet to be
felt and the number of poor and needy keep rising from day to
day. But economic recuperation, if it exists, is the Finance
Minister's doing. How could Sharon sack the minister
responsible for what may be the government's only
achievement?
Furthermore firing Netanyahu would send a big shock through
the economy, which is the last thing Sharon needs now. All of
the top figures in the world of business and finance, who
Netanyahu has been serving so faithfully, helping them go
from rich to richer, wouldn't let Sharon touch a hair on the
Finance Minister's head.
And of course Netanyahu enjoys broad support in the Likud as
the uncontested Number 2 man, and Sharon would not like any
more shakeups in the party right now.
Knowing all this, the Finance Minister allows himself to say
just about whatever he wants. But Netanyahu knows Sharon is
biding his time until he can pay the Finance Minister back
blow for blow.
Former Diplomats Traveling on Diplomatic Passports
That the State of Israel is a schlemiel state in which
the right hand does not know what the left hand is doing is
already a well-known fact. But periodically we are reminded
that things are worse than we thought.
Former minister Gonen Segev is sitting in jail awaiting trial
after an indictment last week accusing him of helping to
smuggle drugs into Israel. Among other charges, the
indictment says that Segev made use of the diplomatic
passport he still has from the time he was still serving as a
minister.
Segev has not been a minister since 1996. A meeting of the
Knesset committee for the battle against drugs revealed that
the Foreign Ministry does not keep track of former diplomatic
and VIP passports.
Diplomatic passports are issued to the president, the prime
minister, the government ministers and Foreign Ministry
personnel departing on diplomatic missions. Members of
Knesset receive a service passport.
Although the passport bears instructions to return it within
a year of leaving one's post, a Foreign Ministry
representative told the committee that there is at least one
other minister who has avoided returning his diplomatic
passport and is apparently making use of it. Nobody at the
Foreign Ministry was willing to name him.
This is a major failure. A diplomatic passport is essentially
a license to travel around the world and into and out of
Israel without any control or checks, despite claims by a
customs representative that even those who use VIP rooms are
asked to declare their luggage and that nobody receives
discounts.
Oh come on! Would somebody really dare to open a suitcase
belonging to the Prime Minister or the Defense Minister and
start rummaging around through his things? Does anyway have
the nerve to ask the President or the Knesset Chairman what
he has in his suitcase?
And another weak spot: diplomatic passports never expire.
Why former diplomats are given a whole year to return their
passports remains a mystery. The committee chairman, Iyub
Kara (Likud) wanted to require Foreign Ministry personnel to
return their diplomatic passports within 30 days of leaving
their posts just as ministers are given 30 days to return
their cars, and called for computerized tracking to control
the return and expiration of passports. But it remains
unlikely that anything will be done to remedy this failure.
For in the State of Chelm, such problems are slow to
change.
