David Weinberg, Director of the CIC Israel Office, is monitoring developments as Israeli Prime Minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu beings to build his cabinet:
Prime Minister designate Benjamin Netanyahu has begun to line up his ducks – key aides and cabinet members, even as coalition negotiations have just begun and remain murky. This blog will monitor Netanyahu’s appointments on an ongoing basis, and seek to assess the policy directions suggested by the selected individuals.
According to media reports and insider sources, Netanyahu is seeking to bring into cabinet several high- profile, “professional” figures, despite the tight cabinet math that will be forced on him by coalition politics. His first priority is the finance portfolio. Israelis are just beginning to feel the brunt of the global economic crisis, and Netanyahu’s government will have to take drastic, unpopular fiscal steps.
Netanyahu has approached – and reportedly been turned down by – Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fisher, whom Netanyahu sought as finance minister. Fisher prefers to get another five-year term as central bank governor. In the running now for the finance ministry post are former Bank Hapoalim chairman Shlomo Nehama, former finance minister (1996-97) MK Dan Meridor (Likud), former Bank of Israel Governor (and today AIG executive) Prof. Yaakov Frenkel, and Yisrael Beiteinu leader MK Avigdor Lieberman. Former finance minister MK Silvan Shalom (Likud) would like to return to the job, but this is considered unlikely.
Netanyahu is surrounded by a highly-experienced group of economic advisors, who were senior civil servants in the finance ministry when Netanyahu was the minister. This includes former treasury budget chief Uri Yogev, former accountant general Yaron Zilcha, and former government corporations chief Eyal Gabai. With them at his side, Netanyahu can be expected to be Israel’s super-minister of finance, no matter who gets the finance ministry post in cabinet.
Netanyahu would also like an “outsider” as foreign minister – somebody like human rights activist and former deputy prime minister Natan Sharansky, or former UN ambassador Dan Gillerman – but coalition politics will simply make this impossible. He would also like to reach across the political divide and bring in as education minister a revolutionary figure like Prof. Uriel Reichman. The latter is founder and president of the independent Israeli college, the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, and one of the founders of the now defunct Shinui party.
In the meantime, Netanyahu’s coalition negotiating team has a few surprises. It is headed by Netanyahu confident and prominent attorney Yaakov Neeman (who was justice and then finance minister in Netanyahu’s first tenure as prime minister). Likud whip MK Gideon Sa’ar, Likud MK Zeev Elkin, and Netanyahu adviser Natan Eshel (formerly of the NRP) are also on the team. Former Tsomet party MK Eliezer Sandberg – making a surprise political comeback as Netanyahu’s Cabinet Secretary-designate – is onboard as well.
Netanyahu has big plans for the PMO, including the establishment of a much-expanded National Security Council, and a professionally-staffed National Information Directorate to handle all communications and Diaspora relations. Long- time Netanyahu advisors Prof. Uzi Arad (former intelligence chief of the Mossad, and Herzliya Conference founder), Dr. Dore Gold (former ambassador to the UN), and Maj. Gen. (res.) Yaacov Amidror (former head of assessment in IDF military intelligence) are expected to work closely alongside the prime minister on US-Israel relations and strategic matters.
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