By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM — A strike by civil servants is unusual enough, but work stoppage by employees of a country’s ministry for foreign affairs is particularly so. Yet that’s what’s happening at present in Israel. Being, as usual, ignorant of the facts I allow myself to guess that there’s more to it than meets the eye.
Israel’s foreign minister is Avigdor Lieberman, arguably the world’s least apt diplomat cast in the role of role model. It’s reasonable to imagine that he makes professionals squirm each time he opens his mouth. Though no doubt he has political henchmen in his office, among them the deputy foreign minister, who support and applaud him, real diplomats must be beside themselves.
Employees of Israel’s foreign ministry are said to be very underpaid, unless they serve abroad when they get special allowances, which would justify a claim for better conditions. Nevertheless, I venture a wild guess that this strike may also be something of a protest against the boss. Not being allowed to criticize politicians in public, the civil servants take it out on this one through ostensibly legitimate industrial action.
My guess is reinforced by the fact that one result of the strike has been that President Medvedev of Russia has cancelled his impending state visit to Israel. In addition to its political significance, it was also to have important economic implications. He was planning to bring hundreds of business and professional people with him whose interaction with Israeli counterparts would have been beneficial to all concerned. Most of them would, literally, speak the same language.
From all we know about Lieberman, Russia is among the few countries where he’s persona grata. (When Israel needs to send a minister to talk, for example, to the White House or the State Department, it sends its defense minister Ehud Barak, even though, according to a report in Ha’aretz, even he has now disappointed the Americans, though they deny it, at least in public,)
Medevedev’s visit is bound to have also been a great ego trip for Lieberman. Is it really unreasonable to assume that his staff sabotaged it to teach him a lesson?
The reason that this question is worth raising is because Lieberman has come to epitomize much of what’s bad in the current Israeli administration. His special relationship to the Russians, not least Prime Minister Putin, based on his background and early education, may be due to the fact that he feels at home with them. Does he also seek to emulate their way of manipulating democracy?
Lieberman’s role in the government of Israel points to the danger that he’d like to take it over. Having Russia not only as a role model but also as an ally may suit his purposes. I’m among those who speculate that at the earliest opportunity he’ll merge his party Yisrael Beiteinu with Netanyahu’s Likud, and then either usurp or succeed Bibi as leader and thus probably prime minister. Perhaps the people who work in his ministry think along similar lines and are trying to do what they can to stop him.
Of course, the above is all pure speculation. I’m nevertheless sharing it with interested readers to make them reflect on the grim possibility and contemplate its dire consequences. Pessimism comes easily to me:
Israel is, indeed, a true democracy, but by its very nature a fragile one. Even the slightest suspicion of possible usurpers should alarm us.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. He now divides his time between Canada and Israel.