The writer says these are the only two of dozens of CEOs he interviewed in public institutions and government agencies that he remembers positively. Both were political appointments from different camps, yet both achieved real results, which leads him to argue that talent, intelligence and hard work can make someone succeed in almost any role.
The piece is timed to the start of what he calls the season of appointments, not for sports clubs or cultural bodies, but for publicly funded jobs. He warns that political appointments often rot organizations from within, and that patronage is a standing feature of every government. In his view, Israel’s historic Mapai party created the system by appointing loyalists and blocking qualified outsiders, and Menachem Begin, when he ended his first term as prime minister in 1981, named uprooting “the rule of favoritism” as one of his government’s main achievements.
The author says Begin’s party later became deeply corrupted, and that in the era of primaries many major party activists are there for deals rather than ideology. He cites Minister David Amsalem, who pushed for control over the state companies, as openly preferring political closeness over education or managerial experience when selecting board candidates.
He argues that this is why the coalition is so determined to control posts such as the civil service commissioner or state comptroller, since one could theoretically legitimize desired appointments and the other might not investigate them closely. He says the government has attacked the “deep state,” the gatekeepers, legal advisers and the High Court, while also dismantling Yair Lapid’s professional “directors’ roster,” which had required education and experience. The current government, he says, scattered that list so it could appoint people without suitable qualifications, even as Amsalem claimed in Knesset that even a “housewife” could be an excellent manager. The writer concludes that legal advisers and gatekeepers now need to defend the public interest and public money.
