Monthly Essay
September 2020
Israel’s Deep State Is Undemocratic, Unaccountable, and Completely Indispensable
By Haviv Rettig GurHow does Israel keep functioning despite constant political turmoil? Meet the opaque group of unelected bureaucrats that the country’s politicians rely on to save it from themselves.
Listen to this essay:
On August 30, a little-known Israeli treasury official named Shaul Meridor resigned his post and sent shockwaves of anxiety through the Israeli political class. President Reuven Rivlin, whose position requires that he stay above the fray of day-to-day politics, decried the resignation as “deeply worrying,” adding:
Responses to September ’s Essay
September 2020
Israel’s Civil Service May Be Necessary, but in a Democracy the Legislature Is Truly Indispensable
By Christopher DeMuth
September 2020
Israel’s Bureaucracy Isn’t Undemocratic, It’s Inept
By Reuven Frankenburg
September 2020
How Israel’s Ministers, and Not its Civil Servants, Made the Tough Decisions that Grew the Economy
By Yechiel Leiter
September 2020
Why Israel Needs a Better Political Class
By Evelyn Gordon
September 2020
If Israel’s Politicians Shape up, the Bureaucracy Will Fall in Line
By Haviv Rettig Gur
