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Part Two - The Structure of the Government and its Reduction

Reduction of Government Offices

"We do not crown a king initially except to do justice and make war" –Maimonides, Mishneh Torah.

"The bigger the government, the smaller the citizen" –Dennis Prager.

"Government is not the solution; government is the problem" –Ronald Reagan.

The goal: limited, representative and effective government

Zehut seeks a permanent situation in which the Israeli government is limited as much as possible. This will leave space for maximum freedom of citizens, and will make it possible to serve the citizenry with maximum efficiency in the government's areas of responsibility. Zehut sees a government with no conflicts of authority and without a complicated and wasteful apparatus: an effective government that can discuss, decide and carry out its policies.

The current situation and the problem of governance

In the present Israeli government there are 29 government ministries (!) run by 23 government ministers and 8 deputy ministers. This damaging situation is the result of the years-long habit of splitting government ministries, even creating ministries empty of content, or competing for areas within existing ministries – all of this in order to distribute personal and coalition "honors." It is important to understand that in addition to the large amounts of salary and budget money that these ministries cost us – a problem that other parties have stressed in the past, the deeper problem with the size of government is the problem of difficult governance. Moreover, the habit of increasing government and creating new offices by its nature extends the areas of involvement of government ministries in the citizen's life and reduces liberty.

Solution: the structure of government proposed by Zehut

Below is a list of ministries that are sufficient in our view for the proper and efficient management of the state. Existing ministries included in whole or in part within other ministries appear in parentheses:

The Office of the Prime Minister (including the Ministry of Jerusalem and Heritage[1])
The Ministry of Defense
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora (including the Ministry of Regional Cooperation, the Ministry of Information and the Ministry of the Diaspora)
The Ministry of Justice
The Ministry of the Interior[2] (including the Ministry of Internal Security and the Ministry of Religions)
The Ministry of Education (including the Ministry of Culture and Sport)
The Ministry of Health and Welfare[3]
The Ministry of Finance
The Ministry of the Economy (including all ministries that pertain to the economy: the Ministry of the Economy and Industry, the Ministry of Science, the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Agriculture)
Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure[4] (including the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, the Ministry of Communications and the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety)
The Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and Housing[5] (including the Ministry of Construction and Housing)

What is gained by limited government?

Governance. This is the main benefit. It is important to understand that the role of a government minister is not to be the representative of special interests in the domain of his ministry before and against the rest of the ministers, regardless of overall public needs. On the contrary, he should govern within the bounds of his ministry, take into account all the considerations relating to his decisions, and balance or choose between them, in the best interest of the public that elected him to serve as its emissary. This is also the logic behind unifying ministries that may be considered "natural enemies" - such as transportation and infrastructure in relation to environmental protection.

In the current situation, each minister strives for achievements in the small domain of his ministry, and decisions in overlapping domains are reached as a result of bargaining between two or more responsible ministers. In a reduced government apparatus, each ministry will be responsible for a wide range of domains and the minister who heads it will be required to make considerate and balanced decisions.

Efficiency. The multitude of ministries and ministers creates a situation in which it is impossible to hold a substantive and in-depth discussion within the framework of the government, so that the government has to create sub-committees of ministers on a variety of issues. Hardly any real decisions are made at regular meetings of the Government; and they mostly issue press releases. When the government has only ten ministers, it will be possible to clarify inter-governmental issues during regular meetings. The small number of participants will enable all ministers to make their case and show the impact of the issue at hand on their areas of responsibility. The government will be able to make more informed decisions more efficiently.

Liberty. Eliminating unnecessary ministries in and of itself is a central condition for increased liberty, cultural growth, and awareness of civil liberty in areas such as family, community, culture and sports. However, consolidating fragmented ministries also contributes to civil liberty. A minister in charge of this kind of ministry will more easily see where the public interest requires allowing the citizen, or the economy, to act freely, without the government trying to "manage" it. When no new government agencies are created, there will be no necessity to create new and unnecessary responsibilities for them, with all the bureaucracy and the potential for damage and corruption that entails. In addition, ministers in a limited government will have more than enough meaningful work and will have less interest in making unnecessary decisions simply to create headlines.

Money. Of course, beyond governability, efficiency and liberty, a great deal of money would be saved for the state coffers, or even better – money that could remain in the pockets of the citizens – starting with the salaries of ministers, their deputies, managers and their assistants, through the cost of office buildings and their maintenance, and finally and mainly: eliminating the budgets for unneeded ministries.

Committed to change

It should be clear that eliminating redundant ministries and consolidating existing ministries is not confined to reducing the salaries of ministers and deputy ministers. The in-depth process of consolidating ministries, eliminating redundancy of powers, and releasing areas of bureaucratic "responsibility" back to the public, will involve a reduction of manpower-intensive government systems, will require time for preparation and execution, and will require a demonstration of determination in the face of political and bureaucratic pressure.

Zehut is committed not to settle for the "cosmetic" consolidation of ministries, but is determined to bring efficiency, which is the purpose of all this, to all levels of government bureaucracy[6]. We plan to anchor the distribution of ministries and their authority[7] in Israeli Basic Law and thereby to end the policy of determining the structure of the government in accordance with irrelevant coalition considerations.

How reduction of the government will work – Detail

The current distribution of ministries

The following list shows the disposition of the current 29 ministries.

Ministries to Remain:

Prime Minister's Office, Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Immigrant Absorption.

Ministries to be Consolidated:

Ministry of Economy and Industry, Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Ministry of Science, Technology and Space, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Ministry of Construction and Housing, Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Religious Services, Ministry of the Diaspora, Ministry of Environment and Ministry for Jerusalem and Heritage.

Ministries to be Eliminated

Ministry for Regional Development, Ministry of Development of the Negev and Galilee Periphery, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Intelligence, Ministry of Strategic Affairs, Ministry of Information and Ministry for Social Equality.

Eliminating unnecessary ministries and re-incorporating them into necessary ministries

The following are ministries that can be eliminated almost completely, and it is clear to all that their initial splitting off or creation was done only to grant jobs for political purposes. A large part of the operation of these ministries is harmful or unnecessary in the first place, and we should eliminate them not only for reasons of governance and budget, but also for material reasons.

"Ministry of Social Equality" where the few legitimate and necessary domains of practice should be returned to the Ministry of Social Affairs, while most of them should be eliminated.
"The Ministry of Intelligence and Strategic Issues" which was created and dismantled and created again solely for reasons of personnel, and which creates unnecessary duplication with the Prime Minister's Office.
The existence of separate Ministries of "Peripheral Development, the Negev and Galilee" and "Regional Cooperation" is completely unnecessary. These domains should return to the Prime Minister's Office, which is responsible for inter-ministerial implementation of government policy.
The Ministry of Culture and Sport as a separate ministry really cannot be justified. Its mere existence is harmful to culture and sports, and should therefore be annulled, as detailed in the section dealing with the policy of non-intervention in culture. Its few relevant functions will be returned to the Ministry of Education.

Consolidating necessary ministries

As opposed to the previous category, there are many offices that deal with substantive issues. There is no reason, however, for their separate existence, and they will be consolidated under one ministry. They will deal with the full range of responsibilities currently split across the different offices.

The Public Security Ministry and the Ministry for Religious Affairs will be merged into the Interior Ministry[8]. The Ministry of Information[9] and the Ministry of Diaspora Affairs[10] will be merged into the Foreign Ministry. These four offices were consolidated in the past and were separated for irrelevant reasons.
Zehut believes in minimal government intervention in the economy. Where it is the role of government to help the economy, it will be the responsibility of a single minister, and not a number of different ministries. Therefore, all ministries dealing with the Israeli economy and industries of all kinds will be reconsolidated under the Ministry of Economy. The Ministry of Economy will include the Ministry of Economy[11] and Industry, the economic component of the Ministry of Science Technology and Space, the Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Agriculture[12].
All national natural resources and the entire national infrastructure will be handled by a single ministry, the Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure. This will make it possible for the combined ministry to fulfill its role in full: to achieve a balance between infrastructure and various national assets, between exploitation and conservation, and to end the harmful conflict between ministers. The new ministry will unite the following relevant ministries: the Ministry of Transportation, Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy and Water Resources, Ministry of Communications[13] and the Ministry of Environment.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare will unite all the ministries and authorities dealing with the welfare of the citizen.
In Israel, there is a serious housing crisis currently impacting most of the public. This situation is entirely the result of a lack of policies to deal with the real causes of the crisis, and will be detailed in the chapter on housing. In addition, Zehut expects and hopes for a large and welcome wave of Jews returning to their homeland, as well as a wave of returning Israelis. The combination of all these factors will finally require us to present a real solution to the problem of the housing supply in Israel, and that will be the main role of the Ministry of Immigrant Absorption and the Ministry of Housing, which will be consolidated.

[1] As well as the strategic and intelligence ministries - areas that have been the Prime Minister's responsibility for decades.

[2] Internal security is the responsibility of the Minister of the Interior in many countries, as has been the case in Israel in the past.

[3] It is customary in many countries to unite health and welfare, such as in the United States, Britain, and Japan.

[4] The ministry will coordinate responsibility for all natural resources (including nature reserves), and all national infrastructures.

[5] The ministry will be responsible mainly for solving the housing crisis, and for veteran and new Israelis.

[6] Including eliminating unnecessary rules

[7] Including the elimination of unnecessary ministries.

[8] The Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Religious Services were also under the Ministry of the Interior in the past.

[9] Zehut believes that the obsessive preoccupation of the State of Israel with public relations stems mainly from a flawed policy that demands an explanation, and once the policy changes, the need to explain will also be greatly reduced. In any event, the place of internal public relations is in the Prime Minister's Office, and the place of foreign public relations is in the Foreign Ministry.

[10] Contact between the Israeli government and Diaspora Jewry was in the Foreign Ministry in the past, and their division from it was artificial.

[11] All the incarnations of the Ministry of Economy and Industry from its inception to the present day stemmed from coalition considerations. There is no substantive justification for separating it from the Ministry of Tourism, for example, with which it was previously consolidated.

[12] Agriculture and tourism are undoubtedly strategic sectors of the State of Israel, but as such, there is no difference between them and other strategic economic sectors that are not "entitled" to separate offices.

[13] The media is also an infrastructure, large parts of which are indeed managed by the state.

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