Why the forthcoming election on October 27 must bring a change of leadership to Israel.
By Neville Berman
In 2001, a book called “Good to Great” was published. Its author was Jim Collins. Jim Collins was intrigued by why some American public companies managed to be more successful than all the other companies competing in the same sector of business. He decided that he wanted to investigate how and why this occurred. Together with 21 researchers, he organized the collection and sorting of data of 1,453 companies that were traded on the American Stock Exchange over the past 40 years.
They were searching for companies whose stock returns had outperformed the general market by at least three times over a 15-year period. A company that met the criteria would be considered a “Great Company”. Only 11 companies met the criteria. Jim Collins then decided to interview the Chief Executive Officers of those 11 companies to find out what made them “Great”. Over 2,000 pages of transcripts of the interviews were recorded.
The book “Good to Great” was the result. The book immediately became one of the most successful business management books ever published. In 2011, Time magazine included the book as one of the 25 Most Influential Business Management Books ever produced.
What became clear from the interviews was that all eleven CEOs agreed that one could not become a great company without taking action based on the following axiom:
“Get the right people on the bus, and get the wrong people off the bus.”
Unfortunately, it appears that in Israeli politics, the exact opposite has occurred. The wrong people are on the bus, and the right people are not on the bus. Let us examine why and how this has occurred.
Israel does not have a constitution. What it has is its Declaration of Independence signed in April 1948. Inter alia it states the following:
“The State of Israel will be open to the immigration of Jews from all countries of their dispersion; will promote the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; will be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens, without distinction of race, creed, or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education, and culture; will safeguard the sanctity and inviolability of the shrines and Holy Places of all religions; and will dedicate itself to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
The Israeli political system is a unique form of parliamentary democracy. In accordance with its Declaration of Independence, all Israeli citizens over the age of 18, irrespective of race, religion or sex are entitled to vote. The electorate votes for political parties and not for individual representatives. The Knesset has 120 seats and serves as the Israeli parliament. The Government needs to control a minimum of 61 seats in the Knesset to govern. As no political party has ever obtained a majority of 61 seats needed to govern, every government of Israel since 1948 has been a coalition government. Membership in the Knesset is based on nationwide elections held every 4 years or after a no confidence motion has forced the government to resign.
Once the vote of the general election is counted, the political parties who contested the election are allocated seats in the Knesset in proportion to the number of votes they received. A political party that receives less than 3.25% of the vote, gets no seats. The minimum number of seats for a political party is 4 seats. In the case of no party being able to form a coalition, new elections are called.
Israel has no senate, upper chamber, or parliamentary constituencies. After the results of the vote are counted, the President offers the head of the leading political party a 28-day window of opportunity to try to form a coalition government. This can be extended by an additional 14 days at the President’s discretion. Potential coalition partners know that without their support, the political party that got the most votes cannot form a government, and the leader of the party will not become the Prime Minister.
The process that follows the voting in Israel is pure bribery and corruption. Potential coalition partners ask for outrageous benefits, such as exemptions from military service, lifetime financial support for certain sections of society, plus huge budgets for the Ministries that they demand to be appointed to. In the end, unqualified party hacks end up as Ministers in the government. The inevitable result is a government of mediocracy, or one that is dysfunctional. The system that produces an Israeli coalition government is totally rotten. The system ensures that Israel is actually a “reverse democracy” in which the small coalition partners dictate terms and conditions to the leading political party in exchange for their support. Unfortunately, the system can only be changed by the members of the Knesset, and it is unlikely that they will vote to end their own lucrative positions.
The head of the political party that forms the coalition government becomes the Prime Minister. The President is elected by the Knesset, for a single 7-year term and acts as the ceremonial Head of State. He has no power to veto legislation passed by the Knesset.
On October 27, a general election will be held in Israel. It is crucial that the wrong people who are now in the Knesset get kicked off the bus, and the right people need to be elected, so that they can get on the bus, and govern the country for the benefit of the people and not for their own personal enrichment.
While Netanyahu has enjoyed a long career as Israel’s prime minister marked by major achievements, he has unfortunately failed to acknowledge those of his policies that have caused enormous damage to Israel both internationally and locally.
Most regrettably:
- He wants to claim credit for everything good in the country, and blame all the problems that he has caused on others.
- He has refused to appoint a formal state Commission of Enquiry to investigate the security failures of October 7, 2023.
- He has divided the country and can no longer bring the unity that the country now desperately needs.
Netanyahu has passed his sell by date, and has nothing to offer but perpetual war, both externally and internally.
In the lead up to the forthcoming election, Netanyahu is acting like the captain of the Titanic who ordered the deckchairs to be rearranged while the ship was sinking. The bottom line is that Israel cannot afford four more years of Netanyahu. He needs to get off the bus and retire.
About the writer:
Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award. In 1978 he immigrated to the USA to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel. He is married with two children and one granddaughter.
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