news
Political-political
When bureau officials deleted files and left "scorched earth" for the elected prime minister
The suspicion between Shamir and Peres' advisers, the respect given to the associates given by the parties just before the loss of power and one special and noble moment provided by Rabin and Begin.
Just before the inauguration of the Bennett-Lapid government, we went back to the behind the scenes of handing over the keys to the state
Tags
Yitzhak Shamir
Yitzhak Rabin
Shimon Peres
Menachem Begin
Eli Ashkenazi
Saturday, 12 June 2021, 09:33
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on general
Share on general
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
0 comments
Despite its 73 years, Israeli democracy is still considered young and one that seeks to create a tradition of healthy and stable government.
One of the important tests of the political system in a democratic state is manifested during a process of change of government.
This is a sensitive seam line that even in the elderly United States, with a democratic tradition of 245 years, the process of change of government stood a serious test this year, with thousands of supporters of outgoing President Donald Trump storming the Capitol Hill in a rage.
There have been several times when the government has moved from one side of the political map to the other, sometimes gentlemanly and sometimes accompanied by squeaks and suspicions.
We go back to some of the moments when the right and the left exchanged power and the way it was done.
More on Walla!
The Bennett-Lapid government has come to change.
Except in offices and jobs
To the full article
for further reading:
Will the government stand up for sure?
And why in the first?
What you need to know before the inauguration
On Sunday at 16:00, the new government will be sworn in: these are the last coalition appointments
Due to the growing demand for effective pain treatment: B-Cure laser in a special operation
One of those tests was passed by Israel in 1984. After two scorching losses in the election campaign, Shimon Peres won the leadership of the Israeli government. On the eve of the swearing-in of his government Peres was a little hoarse and on his face one could see signs of long sleepless nights. But when he took the podium in the Knesset plenum, wearing a blue suit and an elegant tie, the fatigue seemed to have passed. The complicated coalition negotiations ended and a national unity government was formed.
"Unity government is not a sin," he shouted from the bench at the Mapam who chose to remain in opposition and then swear allegiance to the State of Israel and its laws, and to faithfully fulfill his duties as prime minister.
Swearing Government of Israel 21 September 1984 was unprecedented in Israeli politics, as initially established a unity government National, when the two major parties that made it up, the Alignment and the Likud, established a mechanism of rotation between them - two years of government led by Shimon Peres of the Alignment and then two years led by Yitzhak Shamir of the Likud.
A wedding not out of great love but out of necessity.
Shamir and Peres (Photo: Government Press Office, Hanania Herman)
Almost two months have passed since the elections to the 11th Knesset until the Peres-Shamir government was sworn in.
It was a wedding not out of great love but out of necessity.
When Peres came down from the stand, Shamir passed by on his way to swear as well, and "pressure for Peres to press hastily, casually," news reporters Amnon Levy and Silvan Shalom described.
Despite the same sourness, it was a well-functioning government - it coped well with a deep economic crisis and withdrew the IDF to the security zone in southern Lebanon.
Although there was not much affection between the two parties, there was trust and understanding that the agreements reached should be respected. In it, Shamir was forced to vacate the prime minister's chair after only one year in office, following the retirement of Menachem Begin, and the fact that Shamir remained a senior member of the government - foreign minister and deputy prime minister - made the change of government a less dramatic move.
However, the rivalry between Peres and Shamir meant that they hardly talked to each other and did not make an orderly overlap.
Nimrod Novik, who was then one of Peres' closest advisers, told researchers at the Israel Democracy Institute, who authored a book called "Transitions of Government in Israel," that Shamir's bureau members left behind "scorched earth" and emptied their computers of information.
The chill that erupted between the Peres and Shamir bureaus prevailed among their people even when the time came to implement the rotation, in November 1986;
The teams did not overlap neatly and the computers that had been emptied of information two years earlier had been emptied once more, this time by Peres personnel.
They hardly talked to each other and did not make an orderly overlap.
PM Peres and his Deputy Shamir in the Unity Government, January 1985 (Photo: Government Press Office, Yaakov Saar)
Precisely in 1977 the transition was more elegant; Then it was an unprecedented political event in Israel - for the first time since the establishment of the 29-year-old state, the regime changed. The alignment fell from power and the Likud, led by Menachem Begin, until then the eternal oppositionist, took its place.
This was a new reality and it was not clear to anyone how the change of government would be done. But the leaders of the two parties - Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin - knew how to transcend personal rivalries and old ideological disagreements. The cane transfer process can be used to this day as a school for the change of government.
Even before President Ephraim Katzir imposed the work of the coalition train on Begin, the election results were unequivocal and made it clear that this would be the case. Already at this stage, a month before Begin presented his government, Rabin opened a cabinet meeting on the issue of transferring power to the Likud government and placed the issue at the center of the meeting. The Minister of Justice, Haim Tzadok, presented to the ministers the steps to be taken when changing government and the members of the government were instructed to present summaries of the work of their ministries.
About a week and a half later, while Begin was involved in the coalition formation process, he arrived at the Prime Minister's Office for a meeting with Rabin.
The two discussed the transfer of power arrangements, which included placing contacts on behalf of the Likud in the various ministries and the transfer of information to the new ministers.
Rabin presented Begin with a review on political issues and lingered mainly on relations with the United States.
The article in the newspaper Davar about the overlap between Rabin and Begin (Photo: Official website, Israel National Library)
Conversation between Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Likud Chairman Menachem Begin, 1975 (Photo: Government Press Office, Moshe Milner)
According to the state approach taken by the two, Begin decided not to shake up the public service and did little to replace employees at these levels. "It would be unthinkable to harm civil servants because of their political affiliation," the designated prime minister said.
"We have set a beautiful, effective and exemplary precedent in a democratic society - how the affairs of government are transferred to the government of another party, which won the trust of the people," Rabin said on the day of the exchange of ministers in government ministries. He noted that "Mr. Rabin has historical rights in the history of the people of Israel as chief of staff during the Six Day War." Rabin wished Begin "success in whatever you want, because the success of the government is the success of the people and the state."
As someone who sat on the opposition benches for many years and was sometimes even ignored by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, Begin promised Labor Party chairman Shimon Peres that he would meet with him every week to pass on updates and listen to his advice. "The opposition in the Knesset will know the situation for sure. "That is acceptable in democracies," Begin said.
Prime Minister Rabin and Begin's Exchange Ceremony, 1975 (Photo: Government Press Office, Yaakov Saar)
Even after the "1992 upheaval", when the Rabin government replaced the Shamir government, Yossi Ben-Aharon - the outgoing director general of the Prime Minister's Office - adopted a similar policy: he prepared a document detailing the issues needed to be addressed and the head of the delegation for talks with Syria detailed and met with Rabin and briefed him on the subject.
alongside the change in government arranged also made attempts Lmhtfim - due to the concern that the Rabin government "drying up" construction in the territories, tried Housing and construction Minister Ariel Sharon approved construction plans in the West Bank, but Shamir did not allow it.
just before The transfer of power also provided the ministers with a few more honors for associates - five civil servants were given the conditions of a director general of a government ministry and suddenly also a large influx of applications for the appointment of directors in government companies.
This practice was also carried out in 1977; On the eve of the change of government, Ariel Weinstein, then a Maariv reporter and later a Likud MK, reportedBecause the system is in a hurry to renew the letters of appointment of 200 directors in government companies.
News in the Maariv newspaper that the Alignment Party is in a hurry to appoint directors before the change of government, June 10, 1977 (Photo: Official website, Israel National Library)
On Sunday, we will know whether the Lapid-Bennett government will gain the Knesset's trust, as expected.
If the rotating government model 2021 does become a reality, it will be interesting to see how the change of government takes place and whether Rabin and Begin's state model is restored after 44 years or we may see less pleasant plays in Givat Ram that will make us miss the gentlemen of the '77 revolution.
Share on Facebook
Share on WhatsApp
Share on general
Share on general
Share on Twitter
Share on Email
0 comments
