According to a recent survey by Professor Katz, head of the
most trusted political polling company in the country these
days, Kadima could receive as many as 52 mandates in the next
Knesset elections. Although Prof. Katz notes that the survey
is not entirely accurate (the sample only included people who
declared they would definitely go to the polls on election
day) the results clearly indicate that Kadima is maintaining
its strength and could even continue its meteoric rise.
Fifty-two mandates would pose a genuine threat to democracy.
One party in control of the country would do as it pleases in
government ministries, appoint whoever it wants to appoint,
and make decisions based on its own expediencies, with no
consideration for other sectors in Israeli society.
Even the current situation of the interim government may be
unprecedented, with ministers from a single party running the
government and the ministries. No partnerships, no need to
give an accounting to anyone—no nothing. A single group
in which there is no critical interaction, a group that can
do just about anything it wants.
The law provides for several organizations whose job is to
oversee government activity, but under the present
circumstances none of them seems capable of stopping all the
breeches and they're definitely incapable of requiring
disclosure. They are barely able to demand that regulations
and laws be honored.
The foremost organization whose task it is to oversee
government activity is the Knesset, which is now in its
election recess. The plenum is not in operation, the
committees are barely functioning and MKs are primarily
occupied with insuring their spots in the next Knesset and
managing election headquarters and campaigns. Supervising the
government is hardly their chief concern at the moment.
The next organization responsible for overseeing the
government is the State Comptroller. But the State
Comptroller does not work real-time. He assesses, inquires,
investigates and publishes reports once a year,
which—after a few days of public outcry—are
generally tossed onto a high shelf to collect dust until next
year's report arrives.
The current State Comptroller is sending out signals that he
would like greater authority, including the power to punish
individuals and organizations, but in the meantime things
will be business as usual in the complex world of Israeli
politics.
Another figure whose job is to keep the cat from lapping up
all the cream is the Attorney General. But the current
Attorney General, with all due respect, is not exactly the
kind of person to prevent the ministers—old and
new—from doing as they please in their ministries when
it comes to appointments, long-range decision-making,
channeling resources and even using government ministries for
election campaigning.
Mazuz is considered a weak Attorney General who views himself
more as a servant to ministers than a guardian of purity and
propriety.
Although Mazuz recently disseminated guidelines on what
election activities ministers, deputy ministers and aides are
permitted and not permitted to carry out in government
facilities, everybody knows there is not a single aide who
will not engage in campaign activities at the ministry where
he works.
Suppose a professional aide identified with a certain
minister receives instructions to execute a task related to
the election campaign and the staff the minister oversees. To
carry out the assignment the aide needs a computer, a phone
or other device. Will he leave the ministry and drive to his
party's election headquarters to carry out the task? Nu, come
on.
If the country is on the verge of dictatorship when one party
has been in control for a few months, imagine what would
happen during a whole term lasting several years!
Still, 45 mandates—or even 52—is not enough to
set up a coalition, which requires a majority of the Knesset
(61 MKs). But if a party receives that many mandates everyone
will come groveling at its feet and it will merely have to
hand out a few crumbs to the party or parties that join.
Such a powerful party would decide everything: who gets
funding and who does not, who sits at the table and who goes
hungry, who partakes of the accoutrements of power and who
must prepare to take blows for a prolonged period of time.
This is the real threat placed before the Israeli public,
unless it comes to its senses before the elections, as
everyone predicts (or hopes) will happen, and the mandates
are distributed a bit more evenly among Kadima, the Likud and
Labor.
