Price of dismissal
Firing Finance Minister Netanyahu comes with a price tag
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to skip the Knesset vote on postponing the pullout. However, he is determined not to be kicked out of the government because of that.
Netanyahu loves the post of finance minister, and the post loves him. As treasurer, he displays all the qualities he lacked as a prime minister: leadership, vision, the ability to deliver, a determined promotion of objectives, and the ability to rise above selfish, partisan interests and cooperate with exceptional professionals.
Tensions Rise
‘Bibi won’t be fired’
By Diana Bahur-Nir
Prime Minister Sharon not expected to dismiss Finance Minister Netanyahu over his intention to skip Wednesday’s Knesset vote on delaying pullout, political sources estimate. Earlier, both sides traded veiled threats
As prime minister, Netanyahu became entangled with the Palestinians, Americans, the Left, and the Right. His fall from power was received with a sigh of relief by the public.
Meanwhile, Netanyahu as finance minister has improved the country’s economic performance and has pushed it on the path of growth, has undertaken reforms that many in the world thought were unfeasible, has returned Israel to the global investment map, and has drawn popular praise (public opinion polls give him high marks).
Meanwhile, academicians, industrialists, and even the tough critics at the International Monetary Fund also are lauding his actions.
In recent speeches, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has tended to take credit for the positive changes in the economy, but the truth is that the person who initiated, pushed, convinced, and executed the shift was, and still is, Netanyahu.
Bibi walks a tightrope
Sharon has no reason for dismissing Netanyahu over failures to steer the economy. The prime minister also has no reason to fire him over his planned absence from the Knesset vote - after all, ministers often skip important votes and nothing happens to them.
Since Netanyahu withdrew his ultimatum to resign if a pullout referendum is not held, he has been walking a tightrope, leveling harsh verbal objection to the disengagement but refraining from taking any practical political steps against the plan.
However, Netanyahu may still fall off the tightrope. Still, an inadvertent fall is not sufficient reason for dismissal.
Sharon’s reasoning for firing Netanyahu cannot be momentary, artificial, and formal. If Sharon wants to fire Bibi, why does he need to beat around the bush, focus on nuances, and issue statements through close associates?
After all, Sharon views disengagement as his government’s and his tenure’s fateful move. He perceives the plan in historical terms and the possibility it will not be implemented in apocalyptic terms.
Therefore, it is not only his right, but moral duty, to relay the following message at the beginning of the government’s weekly session: "When it comes to the disengagement, which is the hardcore of my policy, I will no longer tolerate criticism by government ministers. I demand that each minister decide whether he is with me or against me. Whoever is not with me will be sent home."
Bye bye, Bibi.
Replacement can be found for anyone
How would Netanyahu conduct himself were he the prime minister? He would have dismissed Sharon from his government had Sharon done to Bibi what Bibi is now doing to Sharon.
When Netanyahu shook late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s hand in Washington, after signing the Wye agreement, Sharon shuddered with anger. Still, he maintained his silence and refrained from voicing public criticism.
Not so Netanyahu, who characterized the disengagement, in a "Yedioth Ahronoth interview," as “oil on the wheels of Palestinian terrorism.”
Under a different administration he would have found himself outside the government the next day.
Netanyahu’s dismissal may cause a serious turmoil in the economy and divert it from its current path. Indeed, Bibi has created a positive brand that carries his name - “The Netanyahu Economy” - and is identified with growth, a free market, and happy investors.
Giving up the brand would hurt the economy - that’s the price the prime minister must take into account when he fires Netanyahu publicly and without bias.
Then again, there are no people, and no finance ministers, who cannot be replaced.
