From Zimbabwe to Jerusalem: A Lesson in Governance and Restraint |
To understand how official attitudes toward proper governance have changed in Israel in recent decades, one can look at the flood of appointments now being made and compare them to an episode from my years in the Foreign Ministry.
At the outset, it should be said that the current government is not formally defined as a caretaker government, and technically, restrictions on its appointments do not apply. Yet recent political developments show that it is on its last legs and the polls are unequivocal, as is the public mood: it is clear that this is an interim period, with all the sensitivities that entails. Nevertheless, the government behaves as though it has just been elected and must immediately refresh the ranks.
Back in 2002, when I was Israel’s ambassador to South Africa, budgetary constraints led to the closure of Israel’s embassy in Zimbabwe. It was decided that the countries previously handled by that embassy would be reassigned to neighboring missions; we in Pretoria received responsibility for Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia. For........