Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
career civil servants, and especially the permanent secretaries, to run the ministry. A minister
may or may not take a strong interest in the ministry's business. There are also often ministers
without portfolio who sit in the cabinet without a specifi c assignment. This is often a way for
the prime minister to give an additional benefi t to coalition partners or to include valued in-
dividuals in high-level discussions.
In assembling the cabinet, the prime minister has a fairly free hand in breaking up or com-
bining existing ministries to create additional cabinet positions or create new ones. Cabinets
have tended to grow larger over time for coalition purposes, even to the point that money is
wasted and effi ciency impaired. Those whose careers are upward bound will move to increas-
ingly more important ministries. Here as elsewhere, a central theme of Israeli politics is to
favor long careers and the accumulation of experience.
A common pattern is for the ruling party to retain the job of either foreign or defense min-
ister, or, more rarely, fi nance minister, and give the other two jobs to leaders or top fi gures
in the largest coalition parties. A prime minister may also keep one or even two ministries to
avoid squabbles among coalition parties competing for that job or trying to entice another
party that wants that position to join.
The cabinet meets at least once a week, more often if necessary. Its decisions address the
most important issues facing the country. There is often lively debate in the cabinet, and there
are often leaks to the media. The prime minister may call for a vote to put members on the
record or simply announce a consensus. An offi cial communiqué is released to cover each
meeting's outcome, although many decisions — or at least their details — are kept secret. Most
legislation begins in the cabinet. MKs who are cabinet members or whom the party assigns to
the task then present the legislation to the Knesset for consideration.
Many prime ministers have smaller informal groups of perhaps a half-dozen ministers who
may be called on to plan strategy or formulate proposals. The prime minister can use such a
group to test the level of support for alternative policies. Golda Meir had her “kitchen cabi-
net,” although the term “inner cabinet” is in more frequent use. Ministers of the ruling party
may also meet as a forum for discussion with a more partisan edge. In the Labor Party era the
forum was called the
sareinu
(our ministers') group.
Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu with German
Chancellor Angela Merkel (left) and
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor
Lieberman (right) during a visit to Ber-
lin, January 2010. (Getty Images / Im-
age Bank.)
