The Israeli Pork Barrel

The cafeteria in the Israeli Knesset building may be strictly kosher, but its politics is the epitome of the Pork Barrel kind. Only here they call it coalition building. Each government comprises more and more ministers to "cement" the agreement with lard. Olmert broke his promises, and instead of reducing the cabinet and the very high expenses each minister and assistant minister requires, his government will be the largest ever!

Israeli governments consist of various parties, which are tied together less by ideology and more by need. That's why the religious parties and the most anti-religious parties end up sharing the cabinet table.

The religious parties, especially Shas and UTJ-United Torah Judaism desperately need to get some of the pie to support their various institutions. That's why ideology takes a back seat to the pork. It's also one of the main tensions between the National Union-Moledet & Tekuma and NRP-Mafdal, the National Religious Party, even though they have joined together for the 2006 elections. The NRP was always the traditional coalition partner with whichever party was in power, in order to support its educational system, while the NU is more strongly ideological.

Olmert and his staff have been negotiating with potential coalition partners even before Election Day. They were hoping that the polls would be correct, and they'd have 40 seats, which would give them a commanding 2/3 of the 60+ needed to make a majority of the 120 member Knesset. If that had been the election result, they would only have needed just over 20 more MK's to rule. Not only that, but the other parties would be begging for a chance to join, rather than the situation we now have. Because Olmert received much fewer than he had hoped for, he's in the position of needing support, and the other party leaders are playing poker with him. Every few minutes, there's a different new flash. Now, 7am, Sunday, April 23, the news is:
Kadima-Labor Deal Far from Certain
07:10 Apr 23, '06 / 25 Nisan 5766
by


(IsraelNN.com) The reported decision to grant the Labor party seven ministries is far from certain and could spark a crisis, according to the Hebrew news site NFC. Along with the report of Labor's receiving seven Cabinet portfolios, Kadima also announced that the division of ministries would be one portfolio for every 3.5 mandates.

According to this formula, Labor's 19 seats would earn it only five ministries.

In the end it will depend on who's a better card player, but it's still Olmert holding the knife.

And when he finishes spreading the pork and all the gravy, more than one quarter, that's one out of four, Members of Knesset will be getting extra salaries and perks as ministers and assistant-ministers. That sweetens the deal for all those miss-matched bedfellows. That's how Israeli coalitions include politicians with such different and conflicting beliefs. Their need for money unites them. That's one of the reasons I don't vote, never have, for religious parties.

And more:
Unlike the United States, which has a more "technocrat" cabinet, the Israeli Cabinet is filled with politicians, active, competitive, ambitious politicians. This colors every decision made by all Israeli Governments. Combine this with the "self-appointing" Israeli Supreme Court, and it's very clear why our governments are so corrupt and incompetent.

Government reform must deal with these issues, because they are the core problems.

Until this is done, most Israeli politicians will just keep on fighting for their piece of pork and lick of the gravy.