There is, of course, the huge military budget, but dare you touch it? When the Iranian nuclear bomb is dangling above our heads (at least in our imagination)? When Netanyahu is promoting his latest scare -- the Syrian chemical weapons, which may fall into the hands of radical Islamists?
You can, of course, reduce the pensions of army officers who retire -- as is the custom in Israel -- at the age of 45. Dare you?
You could drastically slash the immense sums invested in the settlements. Are you that kind of a hero?
As if this were not enough, the high echelon of economic officials is in disarray. The much respected Governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, an import from the US, has just resigned in mid-term. The highest officials in the budget department are at each other's throats.
You would be very brave or very foolish (or both) to accept the post.
YOU COULD, of course, be satisfied with something less elevated.
Education, for example. True, the education ministry is considered a second-grade ministerial job, though it has many thousand employees and the second largest budget, after defense. But there is one big drawback: any success would take years to show.
The outgoing minister, Gideon Sa'ar, a Likud member (and a former employee of mine) has a knack for attracting public attention. At least once a week he had a new project, which attracted lavish publicity on TV. But serious achievements were rare.
From my late wife's experience as a teacher I know that the frequent "reforms" ordered by the ministry hardly ever reach the classrooms. Anyhow, to achieve anything real you would need enormous new sums of money, and where would you get them from?
And will a second-grade ministry satisfy your ego after such a glorious election triumph? You could, of course, enlarge the ministry and demand the return of Culture and Sport, which were split off in order to create a job for another minister. Since one of your basic election promises was to reduce the number of ministers from 30 to 18, that may be possible.
But will your voters be satisfied with your concentrating on education, instead of working for the economic reforms you promised?
ALL THESE unenviable dilemmas boil down to a basic one: who do you prefer as your main coalition partner?
The first choice is between Bennett's 12 seats and the 11 of Shas (which, if they were combined with the Torah Jewry faction, would become 18.)
Lapid prefers Bennett, his far right mirror image, with whom he hopes to enforce his "service equality" program -- canceling the exemption of thousands of Torah students from military service. But Sarah Netanyahu, who rules the Prime Minister's office, has put a veto on Bennett. Nobody knows why, but she clearly hates his guts.
With Bennett as a coalition member, any real move towards peace would, of course, be unthinkable.
With the religious, on the other hand, movement towards peace would be possible, but no real progress towards getting the Orthodox to serve in the army. The rabbis are afraid that if they mix with ordinary Israelis, especially females ones, their souls will be lost forever.
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