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| By Israel Insider staff September 23, 2007 |
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In a sudden move that left most non-Kadima ministers fuming, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assumed virtually dictatorial powers by creating a committee consisting of himself and two of his most obedient cronies with the power to cancel or modify any prior government decision. In effect, it renders impotent any other ministers and leaves the interpretation of any Cabinet decision at the whim of Olmert and his yes-men.
Olmert announced on Sunday the establishment of a ministerial committee headed by himself and including two of his most obedient appointees, Finance Minister Ronnie Bar-On and Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann, that would have unprecedented authority to revoke any previous cabinet decision, of this government or any previous ones.
A Labor Party official, afraid to be named, responded to the move by calling it "a completely anti-democratic decision. The ministers are being turned into puppets."
Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehezkel attempted to rationalize the unprecedented move to consolidate power: "This is a procedure that will allow decisions that were not carried out to be changed. It is not meant to harm ministers or previous cabinet decisions."
According to the proposal for the establishment of the "Ministerial Committee for Monitoring and Supervising the Execution of Cabinet Decisions", passed today, "If the committee feels that a decision should be significantly changed, the matter will be brought before the government or the relevant ministerial committee."
The proposal argued that "the committee will be allowed to alter cabinet decisions, in order to enable their execution. In cases where the ministerial committee sees the need to completely nullify previous cabinet decisions, or substantially alter them, the matter will be brought before the government, or the relevant ministerial committee."
Labor Minister Yitzhak Herzog expressed reservations, but eventually was persuaded to abstain from voting. Shas ministers and Labor Party ministers Binyamin Ben-Eliezer and Shalom Simhon harshly objected and voted against the proposal.
A Shas minister fumed: "There are other ways to monitor the ministers' work without a tool that allows the cancellation of previous cabinet decisions. This makes the ministers' work unnecessary."
Another Olmert crony, Minister Ruhama Avraham, said, "I welcome the establishment of the committee. Since we have reached a situation where, over the past few years and in general, hundreds of cabinet decisions were made and not executed. It is time to take responsibility in the matter and make sure that a government that offers a certain policy actually carries it out."
In response to the ministers' objections, the cabinet secretary's office explained that "the decision is only meant to act as a tool for the good of the ministers. It is not meant, heaven forbid, to harm their authority, but the contrary. Everyone agrees that the situation in which decisions are made and not carried out must be stopped."
"The government must keep its commitment to the public. The new committee will be a tool that will help the ministers do their jobs," it said.
The "Committee of Three" is expected to enable Olmert to execute far-reaching diplomatic moves without concern for Cabinet objections. Olmert is facing stiff opposition in his own party and government for his evident intention to divide Jerusalem and surrender most or all of its Old City, as proposed by another of his cronies, Minister Haim Ramon. |
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