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Greases a damper

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Twilight of Netanyahu and the growth of the blue-white leadership team signify one thing - the pendulum that has influenced the political system since Ben-Gurion's days has moved again to the opposite pole

Amir Oren

The twilight of Benjamin Netanyahu's presidency, and possibly Likud's leadership, heralds the end of the only rule in the major parties, from which prime ministers come. In the years to come, until a leader who holds an iron grip in public and in his movement's institutions will be only first among equals - not personalities of their political age and up.

Netanyahu, in all his cumulative 14 years in the prime ministership and another six outside it, made sure to maintain a complete floor between him and the ministers. None of them have been appointed prime minister, a role that the law upgrades compared to other members of the government - he must remain MK and not resign in favor of the next candidate in the list to be on constant alert to be prime minister - and that the public image will be set as number 2, a short step from number 1, A kind of vice-president of the American model.

Netanyahu pushed Israel into the whirlwind of elections

Netanyahu, after his bitter experience in his first government, preferred to hand over other party leaders, only non-Likud, or hold them himself, even after the three prime ministers' experience. Everything, so as not to bolster a crown out of the house.

Over the past two years, with the deepening of its fall into the criminal sinkhole, the focus has become personal, as opposed to the Likud. In his two election campaigns this year, his private good obviously contradicted that of his party. Twice she could, in another management, achieve half or even full rule, if only she let go of Netanyahu; And he survived. Netanyahu defeated the Likud. Gideon Sa'ar's challenge demonstrates the choice of Likud or Netanyahu for their party activists.

The Viceroy, just not in the King's narrow eye. Ben-Gurion and Minister, 1948 (Photo: GPO)

David Ben-Gurion and Moshe Sharet shake hands after signing the Declaration of Independence on April 15, 1948 (Photo: Government Press Bureau)

Netanyahu is carried on a well-known pendulum in Israeli politics, from a dominant to egalitarian leadership, from a single to the group. After an authoritative leader, a representative of a softer and more comfortable stream came, and the following oscillation returned the pendulum to the opposite pole.

There was no appeal on Ben-Gurion's debut. No one dared to face him on Mapai heads. The party could be split, on conceptual grounds behind which was also personal rivalry, but not overpowered. Ben-Gurion was not a regular deputy. In his absence, on trips or vacations, he served as minister. Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett, who was widely accepted in the party and the government (even when the title of "Deputy Prime Minister" was awarded to Finance Minister Eliezer Kaplan) as deputy to the king, thanks to the personality and centrality of the political struggle during the years of the state's creation.

This is the case in the public eye, but not in Ben-Gurion's narrow eye, either because he did not trust Sharett's assaults in security and political emergencies or because he did not want to accustom Israelis to the possibility of functioning without Ben-Gurion. When he decided to retire for two years to Sde Boker, Ben-Gurion initiated a "just not a server" move.

The turbulent months of October-December 1953, among them only recently published (transcripts of discussions by the Ministerial Committee on Security), indicate Ben-Gurion's strength, but also his limitations. He was not omnipotent in his party and government. Mapai needed the assistance, active or passive, of the soldiers who wanted to maneuver on the chessboard; and in the government threatened him a loss if any of his party's senior members joined the other party representatives, for consideration or within the intrigue to push him to resign.

Even at the time of the events, it was known that Ben-Gurion, prior to his departure for Sde Boker, was to replace his replacement until Finance Minister Levi Eshkol and not Sharett. Server logs, then written and published in the 1970s at the initiative of his son Jacob, added another layer. Now comes the confidential transcript of the Ministerial Committee on Security and completes the picture.

The main thing is not a server

Passport stained with blood

Sharett, who was in attendance with ISA head Isser Harel, heard from him that the political espionage of the precincts of the roll-call preceded the IDF yielded information they received from Ben-Gurion: Yosef, a clearly refuted second-line candidate led by Mapai. The main thing, not a server.

Since he was not a novice in the political game, and received warm intelligence from the stove through a note (written in Arabic) stole from Ben-Gurion's secretary Yitzhak Navon, he served himself as a recipient of the law, even on the importance of staying in the foreign ministry. Ben-Gurion, who invented the dual role of prime minister who is also the defense minister, did not intend to impose such power on a single politician. Without it, security is doomed to say goodbye; This was his position even after a decade when he transferred the prime minister to the cluster but was shocked to find that he was attached to him as the predecessor of the defense portfolio and did not hand it over to Yigal Yadin, Moshe Dayan or Shimon Peres.

Sharett knew that Ben-Gurion was going to the security file, as a deposit to return to him, Pinchas Levon, who was in office while Sharett was acting prime minister, on a short Ben-Gurion vacation to reflect on his long vacation. As an exercise in demonstrating his generosity, Sharett offered Levon as prime minister. His defense minister, hard to believe, was the secretary of the Mordechai Namir Histadrut - perhaps as a means of strengthening civilian control, and more, of party associates in the army.

Even when all the other nominations were dropped and a minister was elected prime minister, in addition to his foreign portfolio, there remains an equally important issue for Ben-Gurion: the appointment of the chief of staff. The prime minister will be a minister, the defense minister will be Levon, the director general of the defense ministry The service of the trustee to the reclusive leader - there will be a reward. But who will be the chief of staff, who enters the moment Ben-Gurion leaves and becomes the senior, if not security, military figure?

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The third chief of staff, Mordechai McLeef, condoned his appointment, when his predecessor Yadin resigned, for one term. This year was to end concurrent with Ben-Gurion's retirement. Apparently, there was no reason to see that the prerequisite was fulfilled as a repeal. From abroad, to serve as Yadin's deputy, he declared that he was tired of a dozen years of war, in the world and in the country. When she was appointed chief of staff, he was not yet 33 years old.

In fact, McLeeff felt that Ben-Gurion would not regret his adherence to the conditions this year, because he was eager to promote Dayan, the No. 2 chief of staff as AGM head. Officially, Peelkab refused to stay, but Sharett and others realized that persuasion and seriousness would achieve results. In this situation, at the end of November, just a week and a half before the chief of staff's planned term expires, the Ministerial Committee on Security (and besides, bothered to emphasize during those years). It had eight members: one from Pre-Mafdal, two from the general grades and five from Mapa. J, the first four prime ministers (Ben-Gurion, Sharett, Eshkol and Golda Meir) and Levon In another account, the five were all Israeli prime ministers and foreign ministers in its first 18 years.

In this composition, Ben-Gurion was assured only if all of his party's representatives obeyed his line. Defection of one of them to Religious Minister Moshe Shapira and General Zionist Ministers Yosef Sapir and Peretz Bernstein threatened to drop Ben-Gurion's motion for resolution; And on the episode were the peeler retirement and the appointment of Dayan, issues that the retiring Ben-Gurion should not lose.

Shapiro, Bernstein and Sapir focused their efforts on the peeler; If they succeed, your interest will be high. Ben-Gurion was forced to allow his partners to meet with Peeler, along with Sharett, for a final clarification, including a compromise proposal to extend his term in two or three months to keep a new prime minister and new security minister out of office. This idea was rejected, but the test with a peeler, which will determine the continuation that will be discussed at another meeting, remains on December 1. Another week may or may not be a new Major General, and the identity of the next chief of staff is also presumed but has not yet been confirmed.

The three champions recalled as candidates for chief of staff were Dayan, Haim Laskov and Shlomo Shamir. All three were acceptable to Ben-Gurion. . Shamir also filled a similar mission as a Navy commander. The appointment of one would not be interpreted as a move against Ben-Gurion; Just against Dane.

Shapiro had a complaint about Dayan's disrespectful attitude toward religion in the military. Ben-Gurion dismissed it: Everything the chief of staff, the next or his predecessors, is doing in this area, is on the opinion of the defense minister and on his behalf. The main demand of ministers outside Mapai to disqualify Dayan rests on his character and his participation in the first Knesset elections, on the list of Mapa candidates. "There were also with him Permanent Officers Aharon Remez, Assaf Simhoni and Moshe Netzer, all like his sons for Mapai MKs. Their inclusion in the list is intended to show that Mapai, and not only Mapam as the mainstream in the Palmach with Yigal Alon, Moshe Carmel and Yitzhak Sadeh, are prominent officers. Dayan, as partners in the list, resigned before being sworn in and remains in the IDF, but according to his political opponents Of his party, it turned out that there was also residue.

The sting. Ben-Gurion and Dayan in Kiryat, 1955 (Photo: Hans Finn, GPO)

Chief of Staff David Ben-Gurion accompanied by Chief of Staff Moshe Dayan Surveyor of Honor Guard, outside his office in Kiryat Tel Aviv, February 1955 (Photo: Hans Finn, Government Press Office)

David Ben Gurion

Joseph Sapir, who in 1967 joined with Begin - both as Liberal bloc leaders - and with Dayan to the Eshkol government, in order to break the record that prevented the war, he opposed Dane as chief of staff in 1953 "not because of his membership in one party or another." Sapir claimed that Dane "is known to appear as a stingy fighter to one party and against other parties, and is constantly appearing as one. Is it possible to propose such a person for this position, which requires careful grammar and great caution in the relations between various parties on a subject whose exclusion from political debates is the foundation of its national values ​​and values? This is one of the things on which the national value of the military is based, which is not under the influence, considerations or calculations of party politics, both inside and outside, and it is possible that a man known as a prickly fighter for which party will be offered such a position? Can anyone get out of his skin? "

Ben-Gurion disavowed the party affiliation as justifying a disqualification. "Everyone belongs to (some) party," he said, disqualifying only MKs - not "liberty," which he used to publicly cling to Communists. When caught up in Dayan's character as a belligerent and blatant, Ben-Gurion provided a register for screening chief of staff and future explanation For disqualifying champions who excelled in their profession but failed in their relationships with commanders, commanders and counterparts, such as Eric Sharon.

"You could give an example of this: There are two candidates for the post of chief of staff, one sting and the other not sting, but this sting has many other features that fit this role - I would choose the sting," Ben-Gurion said. Yigal Yadin in spite of his sting, but if he was still a Kigal Yadin candidate, with all his talent and perception, except he does not sting, I would choose the non-sting. But I knew about Yigal Yadin even before he was chief of staff, while he was the operations officer, that he was stinging, and perhaps another defense minister would say in different cases, no more here; but I appreciated his ability and perception and not his stinging in this or other cases. Only the fact that a stinging person does not disqualify him for this role yet, if he has other traits that cover this trait, I thought it was a flaw, but not a flaw that offends the role, and should be accepted - hands down - in spite of this trait. About Mordechai Peel and not Moshe Dayan. "

True, Ben-Gurion added, that Dayan "also has an important political outlook and can play a role in political life, in agriculture and in youth as well. This is not a disadvantage, but a virtue. The more human being, the better he is."

Sharett: "He can also play a role in the Foreign Ministry."

Shapiro: "To be Foreign Minister too?"

Sharett: "If he acquires the trust - he can be the foreign minister as well."

Ben-Gurion and Sharet did not intend to prophesy, but their statements came true: Dayan was Minister of Agriculture for Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister for Begin.

Sapir: "If Moshe Dayan had not been the candidate, if they had offered Laskov or Shamir, I would have raised no question, but I know the army should not be handed over to this man. These exchanges are not so good and healthy for the army, but if there was a proposal Otherwise, I would not dare intervene in the affairs of the military and I would remain the same civilian I have always been. When this candidacy comes, the sense of responsibility demands to say everything one feels. Since it is a young, soft-natured army, there is more to care about. "

Ben Gurion: "The main thing is the army, after all. Among the officers who are between the ages of 30 and 40, I will not say that I know all those who are younger, I only know three who deserve this role of chief of staff in the first place, and Moshe Dayan is One of the three. I am sure that a few years later we will have more candidates for this position because in the meantime a younger generation of officers is growing. "

In the first hearing, in a 3: 3 case with two abstentions, one fell away, one of them Ben-Gurion, who did not want to be portrayed as a peeler, a proposal from Mapai partners / opponents to extend the pallets. Especially interesting is the relationship between the Mapai seniors Ben-Gurion is therefore also in favor of Dayan (the future of his life), Lavon "silent as Sphinx" according to other ministers and then joins Ben-Gurion, a minister who opposes Dayan in talks with Ben-Gurion and others in the party supports him in the debate and vote.

The eight ministers who participated in the two debates, and the only official present (except the brief) in addition to them, the government secretary - and later the minister - Ze'ev Sharaf, were silent and did not find that Dayan's appointment was approved not only in the controversy, but in a small majority, 5: 3. Opponents of the Fourth Chief of Staff even refused Ben-Gurion's plea for a recurring vote to ratify the unanimous vote, for a broad support rally.

In one of the instructive moments in the deliberations that distracted him (or the shorthand) from using the repudiated word "you", Ben-Gurion preached to ministers who were active in keeping a peeler and blocking Dayan that they were invading the sector "very gentle." Not only do the state of Israel know - They would know everything, it's not terrible - but know more, and it is spreading, growing and growing. If this is about what is being done in the government or in the government, it is not a great blessing, but not a bad thing. But in the military, especially in a very soft army, it's not healthy.

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"I was worried when I heard that officers were coming to Shapiro. If it is 20 years from now, the state will stabilize, the people will stabilize, everything will stabilize. But it has not stabilized yet, and there is nothing easy about arranging cliques - not parties - in the military. Although the military has discipline, command, and if We'll all win and live 20 years later, maybe I'll tell a little about the difficulties and obstacles. "

So on December 1, 1953. "If we live 20 years later," says Ben-Gurion. He died just wonderfully 20 years later, on December 1, 1973.

And the pendulum moves

Sharett, during the Inter-Gurion, was a weak prime minister who did not hold back the security system. Most striking in the story of the Egyptian business, whether Lebanon was responsible for the act or in default, is that the minister then held exhaustive and in-depth discussions on the issue of diplomatic moves with Egypt and the United Kingdom on issues related to the agreement to evacuate the British army from its base in the Suez Canal - whether as a two-year commitment In 54 - and sailing ships to and from Israel in a ditch and situation in the Straits of Tiran, where Egypt seized the islands near the Saudi coast following a query of "liberty" in the Knesset; And all the while, the prime minister is raising his plans for terrorist attacks in Cairo and Alexandria. It is, and not the failure of the amateurish actions that caused death and imprisonment, the serious defect in government work.

When Ben-Gurion returned to the Ministry of Defense and later also to the Prime Minister, and especially after the removal of a minister and Operation Kadesh, his power was undisputed, until he became bored and nibbled at it with his own hands. Cluster, as his successor, presented a different, intricate, humorous style. No one had ever heard of Ben Gurion refinement or joking, and if he heard - never returned to report. Its relative softness (no man reaches the prime minister and holds it for almost six years without a degree of rigor) has helped the cluster routinely but dropped it in an emergency, in tensions leading up to the Six Day War. Then his party back and alliance with the unity of work were no longer his.

The pendulum moves with Golda, for rigid control - the internal threat was not her, to oust, but to her, to retire - and to a mutual balance within Dayan's hive - the bad boy she had for a good child - Valon, Pinchas Sapir and Dad Stone, Jacob Hazan of Mapam and Israel Galilei Dear Result: Yom Kippur War.

Yitzhak Rabin, in his first term, was a weak political apex in the triangle that also included Alon and Peres, as representatives of Labor Unity and PMI. Begin: Translation: Begin is politically strong and can, in return for peace, return all of Sinai.

In reality, Begin was indeed above his ministers but not so strong. The telegrams of Ambassador Sam Lewis from Tel Aviv from those years are replete with reports of his laxity with Ezer Weizman or Sharon and signs of his reign. He barely survived elections, was forced to hand over the security file to Sharon and was decided in Lebanon. Shamir, after him, overpowered Sharon and David Levy, but considered a temporary leader, who would pass on the premiere to Moshe Arens, until he reached the end of the generation of princes - the one that Netanyahu overtook.

Rabin, again, proclaiming that he would - in other words, not just pilot - the government, was a centralized leader, with a growing tendency for impatience. A police officer, who was a candidate for a state job, was interviewed at one time to meet one of the ministers. In the midst of the conversation, the phone rang on the minister's desk. Shouts came from the earpiece. The minister, who is usually brown, has pale a little. "You see," he finally told the policeman, "no matter how senior you are, there is always someone yelling at you."

Peres, during his two terms, as prime minister in an exchange with Shamir and after Rabin's assassination, served in restrictions that did not allow him to demonstrate personal power. Netanyahu, in his first term, was a weak prime minister, who ruled mainly because of the direct election law, which he was the only supporter of all Likud officials - his disgruntled ministers were powerless to oust. But, one by one, their fallout, Meridor and Levi and Mordechai, reflected the gnawing on his status, until his downfall and loss in Ehud Barak's election. Barak, too, was the sole ruler by direct election, and he also did not stand, lost the majority in the Knesset and landed in the elections against Sharon, a few months after he rejected - under the left wing pressure of the Labor party - Sharon's grooming to join his cabinet as finance minister, with another Likud representative , Silvan Shalom, Minister of the Interior.

Sharon controlled his party more than his government, because Netanyahu left him too small a faction for the most part in the Knesset. Until he doubled it, without direct choice, and then dismantled it in the establishment of Kadima, his power was exhausted. Manny Mazuz, who was with him for up to a year and a half as Attorney General, until the stroke hit Sharon, partially reasoned the closure of his files - but prosecuted his son Omri, who was convicted and jailed - because he believed 77-year-old Sharon had lost his ability and desire to control details, including Those related to his farm and his accounts.

Thus, Israel became the land of eternal election

Ehud Olmert, whom Tzipi Livni decided not to face against the Kadima leadership, on Sharon's hospitalization day, quickly wasted the credit remaining on Sharon's political account after the Gaza evacuation. His criminal entanglement brought Netanyahu back to power, which in 2009 was still tentative - Livni received many votes from him and within the Likud he had competitors, more than any peace - and was stopped by his bombing in Iran, his supreme priority, by ministers from his party who joined others and heads of the defense establishment. Only gradually, and significantly since the 2015 elections, has he become the sole ruler of his party.

As he fades away, as the other contenders await to leap into Netanyahu, who has not dared to provoke Netanyahu, the era of supreme rulers in parties purporting to hold - or at least disagree with - the government is also ending. Like the coming of Magna in England, 800 years ago, the king would have to give up the barons for some of his power.

The same will happen in the Likud, whose leadership will consist of unions and allies, and so it happened in the first place in blue and white. There is not really a quartet there, but two and a half - Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid as heads of medium factions, if each is counted separately, and Gabi Ashkenazi as Gantz backing. Boogie Ya'alon may be bad if he retires with his five fingers, but his weight in decisions is not equal. But the exact number of pilots and navigators doesn't matter - it's important that Gantz, rightly, has no pretension to lead alone. Not yet; It is possible that with the PZM, too, the excessive security will come. Judging by his four years as chief of staff, and nine more as a champion before them in five positions, this will not happen. Gantz will want partners in responsibility and pay in the currency of authority, in fact if not in law.

This is a positive phenomenon. The team is important from the individual; The Cabinet, as in the same discussions on Dayan with Ben-Gurion and Iran with Netanyahu, points out, and has taken a stand against, idle initiatives and wild whims. Group wisdom is the basis for decisions, even if at the top of the scale is someone who is supposed to know all the data, constraints and considerations and decide whether positive or negative. And if a prime minister is questioned, suspected or even accused of serious offenses, what has happened to Netanyahu repeatedly since 1997, in slight remission and diminishing forgiveness, the state is not bound by copper. He moves, if not voluntarily, because then the decree elects, elected or judges, and life goes on, and is expected to improve without it.