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Sharon with his right hand man, Shimon Peres
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| By Jerusalem Newswire March 30, 2005 |
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From buying votes to handing out ministerial posts as rewards, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was accused this week of behaving like a mafia boss in order to ensure his plan to uproot the Jews of Gaza and northern Samaria succeeded.
Israel's 2005 state budget presented itself as a major hurdle for Sharon's "disengagement" plan after it became apparent a majority of the Knesset plenum would vote it down, causing the fall of the current government.
Sharon took care of the problem, however, by dishing out 1.6 billion shekels ($375 million) to various parties in order to secure their support.
Six hundred million shekels brought the Labor Party into Sharon's government, 290 million secured United Torah Judaism's support, and 700 million shekels was the price for Shinui's 14 votes.
The budget vote was put on hold for three months to allow Sharon to make his deals, stretching an already thin budget even thinner.
After Sharon hinted Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not adequately working to garner support for the budget despite its ravaging, Netanyahu's associates said the prime minister had brought a mafia style of leadership to Israeli politics.
"Sharon and his people are trampling on every democratic norm," one official who declined to be named told Ynet.
Dissention within Sharon's own Likud Party against the disengagement required an alternative solution to cash payouts.
The 13 so-called Likud "rebels" voted against the budget not because they opposed Netanyahu's policies, but rather in an effort to prevent the planned retreat from Gaza and Samaria and expulsion of the local Jewish populations.
To discourage additional Likud MKs from joining the rebels, Sharon made promises of ministerial positions to lower level politicians.
Following Knesset approval of the budget Tuesday night, Sharon made good on his promises and asked his cabinet to endorse the nomination of seven new Likud ministers and deputy ministers and one new Labor Party minister.
However, in a virtually unprecedented slap, the three ministerial appointments were not expected to gain the approval of the Knesset plenum, where Sharon was blasted for political corruption.
In the end, Sharon was forced to withdraw his nominees, settling for awarding seven new deputy ministers, which require no Knesset approval.
"In the underworld, people pay with their lives. In the Corleone-Sharon family, payouts are made with corrupt political bribes that emit a putrid stench," National Union MK Tzvi Hendel said.
"The public's money is groaning under the burden as they make payouts to the crime family faithful, whose only interest is wiping out Zionism, pioneers and those settling the land. The State belongs to the people, and is not their private property," Hendel added.
Condemnation of the move came from across the political spectrum. MK Effi Eitam asked Attorney-General Menachem Mazuz to investigate Sharon for bribery.
Dr. Aaron Lerner of Independent Media Review and Analysis said the financial payouts and political appointments highlighted the illegitimacy of what is now the Expulsion Law.
"The tens of millions of shekels that will pay now for offices, cars, drivers, etc. for the new deputy ministers helps to fortify the view that probably the most important decision in Israel's history in this generation was decided on the basis of tight personal interests rather than national interests," Lerner wrote.
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