Israel’s New Government: The More, the Weaker

One of the maxims in many professional fields concerns the nature of force multipliers. If you have one fighter jet and then add another, the power of the combined force is more than double the force of one jet. If you have three workers and add another three, the six workers can do more than double the work of the initial three.

This is probably true in most fields. However, it is not the case in the field of politics, as Israel is about to learn. In fact, in politics the reverse is true. Thirty four ministers — the largest cabinet in Israel’s history — are not a force multiplier. They are a force divider. The more ministers in a government, the less power it has to solve problems. So, Israel’s new government isn’t just the largest ever, it’s also the weakest ever. And it is weak by design. Two leaders — Benjamin Netanyahu of Likud and Benjamin Gantz of Blue and White — will benefit from having a weak government. The weaker it is, the more power they have to determine which way it goes.

Thirty four ministers — the largest cabinet in Israel’s history — are not a force multiplier. They are a force divider

It’s possible I’m judging them harshly by saying it was their intention to weaken the government. I suspect Netanyahu understood what he was doing, while Gantz just went along with it because he had no other choice. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is the result, and that’s a very large, confused government. A government in which one minister holds two portfolios as diverse as “water” and “higher education,” each of which belonged originally to another ministry (energy and education). That is, an office devised not as a tool for directing policies but devised to solve a political problem. In this case, the need to have an office for minister Ze’ev Elkin.

So now Israel finally has a government with many ministers, each of whom controls a fraction of an office, or two, or three. By the time these ministers learn something about these many fractions, the government is going to change. Two ministers are slated to become ambassadors abroad (one already agreed, the other did not). More than one is slated to move to another office in about a year and a half, when Gantz is slated to replace Netanyahu as prime minister. That is no way to devise long-term policies. That is a way to keep politicians busy and make sure they also keep their heads down.

Policies will be set by two leaders: Netanyahu and Gantz. All others are relatively minor actors of relatively little consequence. The more — the weaker.

Could such an arrangement work? Is it good for Israel? As with the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, we are now entering a trial period. There are hopes and fears. There are risks and opportunities. The ministers, no doubt, are going to spend time on turf wars. They are going to adjust to a learning curve because about half of them are new. They will have to make do with less resources (there is an economic crisis), less attention (there is a health crisis), less flexibility (there is a strict coalition agreement). If you tend to believe that most things politicians do is harmful, then this government will be relatively unharmful. Tightly controlled by two leaders, with the possible addition of two (Finance Minister Israel Katz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi), the government will function the way government should function.

Of course, there is also a less encouraging scenario. Imagine more than 30 ministers having to fight for public attention when all they have is a small office and a small budget. Miri Regev, the new transportation minister and former culture minister, wrote the guidebook on this. Be revolutionary, be outrageous, be provocative, use your few resources to buy a loudspeaker and then use the loudspeaker to annoy as many people as possible. That’s how Regev made the minor ministry of culture a highly visible office. Other ministers with small offices could be tempted to imitate her.

The result would be a cacophony of attention-grabbing desperados.

The result would be a mess.

Shmuel Rosner is The Journal’s senior political editor.