Running on his record

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit says it's an outrage "inexperienced" Kadima rivals are even running.

By GIL STERN STERN HOFFMAN
sheetrit 224.88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
sheetrit 224.88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit says he is absolutely confident that he will win next Wednesday's Kadima leadership race, form a new government and become the next prime minister. But he's got plenty of explanations ready, just in case he doesn't. The fault, if he loses, is not with him, he says pre-emptively, but with the polls, the press, the electoral system and, of course, the Kadima members themselves, who are too shallow to realize that they must elect the most experienced candidate in the race - himself - to save the country from disaster. Sheetrit agrees with comparisons between Israeli politics and its American counterpart in that candidates can move to the front of the pack without necessarily having experience. But he says he wishes the country would adopt the American tradition of holding debates that force candidates to reveal their stances on key issues. "There is horrible shallowness and a lack of seriousness on the part of the press and the Kadima members in a race that will decide who will be the prime minister, a position from which they can cause grave damage to this country," Sheetrit laments, in an interview at a Jerusalem restaurant. "This election shows we are shallower than other countries. I tell Kadima members to check the other candidates' records, and if they prefer one of them, vote for them. If they knew the candidates, I am sure they would vote differently." To that end, Sheetrit has sent Kadima's 72,000 members a 20-page color booklet listing his accomplishments in 35 years of public service from his days as a 25-year-old mayor of Yavne, through to Jewish Agency treasurer, 23 years in the Knesset and minister of finance, justice, education, interior, transportation and construction and housing. He likes to compare his experience with that of his opponents and ask Kadima members whether they would choose an inexperienced surgeon. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz and Public Security Minister Avi Dichter have each been in the Knesset for only two years. Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has held multiple portfolios but she only entered the Knesset in 1999. "Wherever I was, I left my footprints and that's what's really important," Sheetrit says. "Prime minister of Israel is one of the hardest jobs in the entire world. I wouldn't dare run with as little experience as my opponents. I think it's a sin against the people of Israel. To be prime minister, you have to know the country's problems inside and out, or you won't have enough time to fix them before you leave office. That's what happened to Bibi and Barak. They crashed because they lacked experience." He contrasts the failures of Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu and Labor chairman Ehud Barak with surprising praise for his party's prime minister, Ehud Olmert, despite Olmert's broken promises to him about promotions to the Finance and Justice ministries. He says that Olmert, like him, had the necessary experience as a minister, MK and mayor to be prime minister and that led him to success. "Olmert is an excellent prime minister functionally and I think no one disagrees with that," says Sheetrit in a statement whose validity appears somewhat at odds with the polls. "What brought him down was not his work as prime minister but corruption." Sheetrit briefly considered running against Olmert when former prime minister Ariel Sharon suffered a stroke that ended his career in January 2006, but he decided against it, because he was concerned that such a race could split Kadima and prevent it from winning the general election. But Sheetrit did run against Olmert and Sharon in a September 1999 race for Likud leader that looks strange in hindsight, considering that all three men later left the Likud for Kadima and that the police recommended indictments against the two candidates who became prime minister. Sheetrit did surprisingly well in that race, which Sharon won by a landslide. He finished just 2 percent behind Olmert, despite polls predicting that he would fall far behind both of his rivals. POLLS HAVE become the nemesis of Sheetrit, and he pulls no punches when confronted by them. Most polls in the current race have shown him finishing last, but he is determined to prove them wrong. "If people are so sure of the results because of the polls, why are we even bothering to run at all?" he asks sarcastically. "It's because polls have been wrong before, especially in primaries, where it's almost impossible to poll party members. This is a new party with thousands of different members who don't know each other and don't have any glue to hold them together, so any result is possible." Sheetrit cites the 2005 Labor leadership race between Shimon Peres and Amir Peretz and the 2007 Labor primary between Barak and Ami Ayalon. In both cases, the winner, who was predicted to lose by the polls, had the support of Arab and Druse members who do not cooperate with polls and whose voting does not follow a pattern. Sheetrit is said to have the support of thousands of Arab members in this race. Following the Barak-Ayalon contest, MK Ophir Paz-Pines, who finished fourth in the five-man race, proposed legislation banning polls from being published for a certain amount of time before an election. Sheetrit supported it, but the bill did not pass. "I think there is a huge difference between the polls and the situation in the field," Sheetrit says. "The polls are being used as a tool that hurts me. People are voting for candidates based on their standing in the polls and it doesn't matter to them if I am the most experienced." Due to polls indicating that Livni is on the edge of receiving the 40 percent necessary to avoid a head-to-head runoff against Mofaz, she has reportedly begged Sheetrit to quit the race and send his support her way. Mofaz apparently did the same in a conversation with Sheetrit this week in which an offer to become foreign minister reportedly came up. "The other two of them are offering me anything I want for my support," Sheetrit reveals. "But I told them that I am running until the end, period. My goal is not to upgrade myself and to get more power or respect." Another reason that Sheetrit gives for not doing better in the polls is that he has been too busy running his ministry to spend as much time as his opponents meeting with Kadima members. "I've been working very hard in my office," Sheetrit insists. "That's what I was elected for, not to chase after Kadima voters every day. Having a record of successful work is supposed to bear fruit politically. If it doesn't, that's why the country is suffering." THE FACT that the current electoral system encourages politicians to spend an inordinate amount of time seeking reelection rather than governing is one of the reasons that Sheetrit has made electoral reform the focus of his campaign. He was appointed by Sharon to head a commission on electoral reform in 2003. Its findings are lying on a shelf somewhere, unimplemented. Sheetrit says the first thing he would do if he wins the primary would be to propose a bill guaranteeing that every government formed would complete its term in office without fear of getting overthrown. He says that any party that would not vote for such a bill would not be welcome in his coalition. "When our government is unstable, the damage to the country is huge," Sheetrit says. "If I win, the coalition agreement would say we are changing the system, and the first bill the Knesset will vote on will change it. If the bill lacks a majority, I will dissolve the Knesset and go to an election on that issue. Politicians need to be judged on their willingness to give up their jobs for the sake of principle." Sheetrit supports electing the entire Knesset in direct, regional elections. He says he would support bills calling for half the Knesset to be elected that way and half in the current process, but only if people are limited to casting just one ballot in one system or the other. He warns that otherwise, MKs elected regionally would be beholden to multiple parties due to political deal-making. Asked if the current Knesset can pass electoral reforms, he says that only if the prime minister forces it on the MKs, and that he is the only candidate who would do so. The views of the other candidates on the issue are unknown, which is one of the reasons Sheetrit hopes there will be a debate. But while Sheetrit and Dichter have called for a debate, Livni has insisted on all four candidates being included, and Mofaz has demanded that he face off against Livni alone. The lack of a debate has left Sheetrit with the difficult task of reaching out to as many Kadima members as possible to make sure they have the facts about his record, "so they will know what I did, because they didn't get it from the press." He is confident that Kadima members will read the booklet he sent them and decide to vote for him. If not, he warns, the party and the country will face the consequences of electing a less experienced leader. "Kadima can be erased if the winner cannot form a stable government or run it properly, so the Kadima members have a lot of responsibility," Sheetrit says. "That's why experience is important. I think I have the ability to make peace and help make the economy stable - and I have the record to prove it."