If Israel’s Politicians Shape up, the Bureaucracy Will Fall in Line

There are a great many fascinating insights contained in the responses to my essay on Israel’s civil service. Some differences between the respondents are the inevitable result of different perspectives and experiences. To Reuven Frankenburg’s argument that what looks like cunning fiscal machinations on the treasury’s part actually amounts to rank incompetence, I can only plead the old adage of Yehuda Amichai: from afar everything looks like a miracle, but from up close even a miracle doesn’t.

The responses are broad and deep, shedding new perspectives from deep within the Israeli treasury and from far across the Atlantic. But they all gravitate to a single theme, a theme I wholeheartedly agree with. For reasons of brevity, I will focus on this theme rather than the multitude of points raised, most of which I agree with in any case.

The Israeli treasury is an exceptionally powerful institution, whether we deem it competent or feckless. Frankenburg acknowledges the point when he complains that “major ‘decisions’ are still in the hands of economists with little understanding of the subject about which they are deciding.”