Anyone Seen Ariel Sharon?

Together with the rest of the government, the Ministry of National Infrastructures today celebrates its first anniversary and, specifically, its own first birthday since inception. With the powers of the Ministry of Finance sharply pruned, many a bright hope was pinned on this, Israel’s second most important economic ministry. Some people would regard it, in fact, as the most important. The ministry was created, out of political-personal rather than relevant national considerations, by the cohorts of Minister of National Infrastructures Ariel Sharon and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Today (Sunday), in retrospect, senior sources in the various infrastructure sectors are thanking their lucky stars that "Sharon did not manage, while bargaining for his cabinet post, to stake a claim to any further spheres of responsibility. Because even as it is, the new ministry is simply not coping with its load".

The ministry presently holds sway over: railroads and roads; energy; water and sewage; and land. These four are not intrinsically inter-related, and any one of them could keep a whole ministry busy full time, for a four year period.

Those dealing in infrastructure matters form the impression that Sharon spends more time on political matters than on the functioning of his ministry. His pet interest, in fact, seems to be what is happening on the other side of the "Green Line" boundary. Apart from that, there is little to show for the ministry’s first year in existence. In the past twelve months, Sharon has been invited to a number of important economic conferences at which, as a key speaker, he was to have expatiated on the affairs of his ministry. It was purely by chance, says a ministry spokesperson, that Sharon failed to attend four such conferences, each time for a different, important reason.

Some "last-minute hitch" prevented him from attending the infrastructures session of the Jerusalem Business Conference, whereupon the session was cancelled. At the last moment, he cancelled his participation in an important meeting on water affairs in Tel-Aviv. His recent announcement that he would not be attending the London Business Conference was one of the reasons the conference was called off. A few weeks ago, he decided to absent himself from the economic conference organised by the "Economist". As regards this latter, the ministry’s spokesperson explains that Sharon had to testify in court next day at his libel action against the "Haaretz" newspaper and had to be properly prepared.

Another symptom is the difficulty encountered by reporters covering his ministry in securing meetings with Sharon to discuss infrastructure affairs. This reporter has been unsuccessfully trying for months to secure an interview with Sharon on the affairs of his ministry, and to elicit pertinent comments from the man himself on this article. Various newspapers, however, are replete with articles on and interviews with the Minister of National Infrastructures, mainly concerning political affairs. Sharon has commented, through his spokesperson: "The impression that I ostensibly engage in political matters rather than in the affairs of my ministry is absolutely incorrect. As to over-involvement in matters on the other side of the "Green Line", my ministry’s activity, I regret to say, is very limited, the powers there residing primarily in other ministries".

The ministry's spokesperson emphasises that the Minister, in fact, devotes a great deal of time to promoting the interests of the Galilee and the Negev, and the interests of minority populations such as the Bedouin in the Negev. (Sharon also assumed the chairmanship of the ministerial committee for Bedouin Affairs, even managing, a few days ago, to obtain a NIS 30 million budget for this purpose from the Ministry of Finance). The spokesperson admits "The Minister dedicates most of his time to the Negev". Most of his press tours are conducted in the Negev and the Territories, and generally concern matters having nothing to do with his ministerial spheres of jurisdiction.

Sharon’s sins of omission and commission, to date

1. The natural gas import project, slated to have been one of Israel’s most important economic projects for the next few years, has made no progress over the past four years. Neither has the Ministry of National Infrastructures managed to push it along, mainly because of indecisiveness regarding future moves and profound differences of opinion with the Ministry of Finance. As far as the Israel Electric Corporation is concerned, these are critical decisions, it is vital that that company soon be in possession of information as to its future means of production.

2. The issue of the Oil Refineries concession isn’t even on the agenda, even though the Ministry of Energy, in Gonen Segev’s time, was already conducting advanced negotiations, jointly with the Ministry of Finance, to settle the matter. Instead, the Ministry of National Infrastructures contents itself with battling the Finance Ministry over the issue of whether or not the company is to be split into two separate companies. Sharon has been unable to impose his point of view, whereby the Refineries should not be split, and the matter has been referred to the government’s adjudication.

3. Like his predecessors, Sharon is ducking any confrontation with Electric Corporation employees. Firstly, he says, the Electricity Economy Law should be put into practise for the next ten years, discussion of a more competitive market being postponed until after that. For the present, Sharon contents himself executing the policy established by his predecessors, namely, introducing competition in electricity production.

4. The Ministry is scarcely intervening at all in the privatisation of the Israel National Oil Company, even though it is the only oil company still under government ownership, and holding significant state assets, such as know-how and a great deal of oil prospecting equipment. Sharon decided the matter would be handled solely in accordance with the policy of the Government Corporations Authority.

5. Sharon acclaimed the Ronen committee’s recommendations with great fanfare. A number of ill-conceived tactical moves, however, very quickly forced the committee to introduce significant amendments in its report, and Sharon had perforce to compromise in favour of various special-interest bodies. The government has yet to approve the report.

6. Sharon must be held responsible for the fact that for the past nine months, the Israel Lands Administration has had no permanent Director-General, and for his handling of Yossi Antwerg’s ultimately abortive appointment to that post.

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