Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Former Israeli prime minister and Labor Party
chair Shimon Peres speaking at an assembly of
the Jewish Agency for Israel, June 2004. (Getty
Images / Image Bank.)
In 1978, Yitzhak Navon became the fi rst Mizrahi Jew to become president, and in 2000,
Moshe Katzav became the fi rst president born in a Middle Eastern country besides Israel
(Iran). His presidency ended in disgrace owing to allegations of sexual harassment. Shimon
Peres's election to the presidency in 2007 was seen as a way both to honor the country's el-
der statesman and to restore honor, after Katzav's scandalous conduct, to the country's most
prominent position.
CIVIL SERVICE
The ministries and departments that make up the public sector of the government are run by
the civil service bureaucracy. In the 1950s the post of civil service commissioner was created
to keep the bureaucracy from being politicized. Among the twenty permanent ministerial-
level agencies are the Prime Minister's Offi ce and the Ministries of Defense, Foreign Affairs,
the Treasury, Justice, Education and Culture, the Interior, Agriculture, Industry and Trade,
Transportation, Health, Labor and Social Welfare, Immigrant Absorption, Tourism, and En-
vironment Quality.
The Prime Minister's Offi ce formulates the government's main policies and strategies.
Given the growing complexity of policymaking and the problems faced by Israel, this offi ce
has grown rapidly in size. Its subsidiaries include the National Security Council, whose forma-
tion Netanyahu pushed in the 1990s to copy the American model; other prime ministers have
mostly ignored it. The National Economic Council advises the prime minister on economic
matters. The Government's Press Offi ce deals with media attention and foreign correspon-
dents, a much bigger job than in comparable small countries.
