Israel's security is threatened by incompetent leadership

FINANCE MINISTER Bezalel Smotrich sits among empty seats at the cabinet table in the Knesset plenum. A major part of our problem is the structure of our parliamentary system which makes ministerial assignments a reward for party loyalty and support for the coalition, says the writer.

Pulitzer Prize winner Peggy Noonan, in an opinion piece last week in The Wall Street Journal, stated the bad leadership is a national-security threat. She was, of course, speaking about the situation in the US. In her piece she states: “The quality of our leaders is deteriorating, and we’re so used to it it’s not alarming us anymore.”

In reading that sentence I could not help but see the parallels to our own situation here in Israel and the political process that almost ensures that the people who rise to the top are not necessarily the best people for the job.

No doubt, our recent leadership is not up to the level of those who led us in the past – David Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir, Menachem Begin, Chaim Weizmann, Abba Eban, Chaim Herzog – people who, even if we disagreed with their decisions, we respected their integrity and professional acumen. And more importantly, we never questioned that those decisions were always in the best interests of the State of Israel and not made to further their own political careers.

While the general populace seems to have accepted this situation and normalized it, the fact that this is the case is also noticed by our enemies. After all, everything that goes on here is covered in the worldwide press as if Israel is the most important country in the world. How else to explain the massive worldwide demonstrations against Israel and often against Jews as well who make up just 0.2% of the world’s 8 billion people?

Given that all of this is seen by our enemies makes bad leadership a national security problem. It is what makes our enemies think we are weak and even worse, stupid, for having put some of our leadership in the positions they now hold.

The Knesset building, home of Israel’s legislature, in Jerusalem, on November 14, 2022 (Illustrative). (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

The Knesset building, home of Israel’s legislature, in Jerusalem, on November 14, 2022 (Illustrative). (credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)

What has contributed to this situation and how do we correct it? A correction is needed now more than ever in light of the events of October 7 and the seemingly endless war with Hamas; our inability to get all of our hostages released further highlights this.

Problematic structure of parliamentary system

A major part of our problem is the structure of our parliamentary system which makes ministerial assignments a reward for party loyalty and support for the ruling coalition. As a result, the people who head our ministries are not the best people in Israel for the job, but rather individuals who have “paid their political dues” and are rewarded by giving such people “suits” that are too big for them and “shoes” they cannot fill.

How else to explain Bezalel Smotrich, a lawyer with no economic background, as Minister of Finance? Or Itamar Ben-Gvir, also a lawyer, convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism who was rejected for mandatory service in the IDF because of his extreme right wing political views, now serving as Minister of National Security? Or Uriel Buso, another lawyer with no health management experience, now serving as MinIster of Health. And the list goes on.

WHAT ISRAEL must do after the end of the current war with Hamas, is to restructure the ministerial cabinet so that the next prime minister can pick the best people in the country for each of the positions available.

The finance minister, for example, should be someone from the financial community who has experience in managing relatively large organizations in the sector with experience in world economics and the operation of capital markets. The Minister of National Security should be a person experienced in the public sector, the defense arena and/or have a background in private security involvement with an understanding of national security issues. The Minister of Education needs to be one of the most talented educational administrators in the country with experience in heading large educational institutions. The same should be true for every ministry and, truth be told, Israel has a surfeit of qualified people in each of the sectors involved.

The challenge, of course, has always been to get the best and the brightest to come into the political arena. Generally, when such people are approached, they smile and say they are not willing to deal with the gutter politics that comes with running for office. However, the above approach would make it possible for qualified people to enter government service and have their expertise tapped for the good and welfare of the country, without having to negotiate the electoral swamp.

On the assumption that Israel would be willing to accept this change in the Cabinet structure, the next step, after identifying suitable candidates, would be for a small group of well-respected members of the community to meet with each prospect individually to encourage them to agree to give 2-3 years of their time to the rebuilding of Israel’s political platform. As an optimist believing in the continued success of Israel as the homeland of the Jewish people, I am convinced that these prospects would rise to the occasion and answer the call.

Former US defense secretary Jim Mattis once tellingly said: “The example that America knows how to govern itself is one of the compelling aspects of our national security.”

This is no less true for us here in Israel. Our future is dependent on the world’s perception of Israel as a militarily strong, politically well managed economic powerhouse. Our future security as a nation depends on the public impression that all three of these aspects are believed to be true. It is now our job to make this happen. We can do no less.

The writer has lived in Israel for 40 years, is CEO of Atid EDI Ltd., an international business development consultancy. He is also the Founder and Chair of the American State Offices Association, former National President of the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel and a past chairperson of the board of the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies.