Between Governance and Political Rot

In the name of “governance,” Israel’s government is hollowing out the public service. The attempt to remove the commander of the IDF’s Central Command live on television marked a new low. But long before that, the government had been politicizing every position it could get its hands on.

The consequences are disastrous: chaos in the streets, near-catastrophes on Israel Railways, rising traffic fatalities, an unending wave of murders, a runaway cost of living and more. If the politicization of the public service – and the destruction of its professional ranks – continues, the damage to Israel, to its citizens’ quality of life, and ultimately to their lives may become irreversible.

One of the outgoing government’s signature slogans has been “governance.” Its underlying claim was that although right-wing governments are elected time and again, and although Benjamin Netanyahu – the right’s undisputed leader – has served almost continuously for 15 years, the left still rules through the “deep state”: faceless bureaucrats who supposedly run the country behind the scenes.

Government ministers and spokespeople preached that professionalism and suitability for office were beside the point. What mattered was ideological allegiance – and, above all, personal loyalty to the leader: the relevant minister, the prime minister or both.

The government advanced this agenda through an aggressive pincer movement.

The first arm consisted of bills and government decisions designed to turn every significant public position into a political appointment. Most conspicuous is the politicization of judicial appointments. The mechanism due to take effect with the next Knesset will give politicians unprecedented power to determine who becomes a judge in Israel.

But it does not end there. A series of government-backed bills would allow the government to appoint a broad range of senior officials in the civil service, the military and the police at will – and to dismiss them whenever a new government takes office. Other legislation has created mechanisms giving politicians control over regulation of the media and other sectors.

The second arm has been the ministers’ no-holds-barred campaign to politicize the ministries and agencies under their authority.

The competition is fierce, but several examples stand out. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has acted as the police force’s de facto appointments chief. His interference in promotions – and his rewards for personal loyalty – has reached down to the lowest command ranks.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev has been no less determined. She turned the Ministry of Transport and Road Safety into a well-oiled patronage machine and drove out nearly all its professional civil servants. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi followed suit, packing media oversight bodies with political appointees of his choosing.

And that is before we even address the patronage spree at state-owned companies. Another particularly egregious proposed appointment, blocked for the time being, would have installed Netanyahu’s personal attorney as state comptroller. The list goes on.

This is a catastrophe. Political appointments systematically damage the very core of the public service. They sever the connection between office and competence, replacing professional qualifications with party loyalty. They degrade decision-making in fields where incompetence costs money – and lives. They strip the public service of its institutional memory and drive away its best professionals.

They replace excellence with sycophancy and erode the balance between elected officials and professional experts. Worse still, they open the door to corruption, turn public office into an instrument of party patronage, and shatter public trust in state institutions.

For decades, Israel’s public service – while far from flawless – was guided by an ethos of public responsibility and politically impartial service. Politicization turns it into a party franchise run by apparatchiks whose principal qualification is loyalty to the party and the minister in charge.

If Israel continues down this path, the day may not be far off when even the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is dismissed live on television for issuing a ruling the government dislikes.

Israel is better than that.

Dr. Shuki Friedman is director general of JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, and a senior lecturer in law at the Peres Academic Center.