Kadima's Prof. Dan Ben-David, slated to replace Mofaz in Knesset, speaks to The Jerusalem Post.
By EHUD ZION WALDOKSdan ben david 88 224(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski)
Tel Aviv University economics professor Dan Ben-David couldn't believe it when The Jerusalem Post informed him on Thursday of Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz's resignation.
At No. 34 on the original Kadima list, Ben-David is slated to enter the Knesset next week.
"I have no news. I am not getting organized in any way. I don't understand why he [Mofaz] would do it," he told the Post.
Ben-David lived in the US between the ages of five and 17 and returned to the University of Chicago, where he earned his doctorate in economics under Nobel laureate Robert Lucas.
Ben-David had nothing but praise for Mofaz and disbelief that he would step down.
"I wish him all the best and I hope he stays. His place is among the leadership in Kadima and I hope he stays. I really hope the news is wrong," he said.
Ben-David had flirted with both Labor and Uzi Dayan's Tafnit party before deciding on Kadima as the best place to implement his program to solve Israel's ills. That program became part of Kadima's socioeconomic platform.
Despite his rather low position on the Kadima list, Ben-David is well known to the powers that be for his controversial theories about the Israeli education system. He has said his research shows massive inefficiencies in the system, such that the results did not reflect at all the amount of money poured into education. Some even accused him of bringing about the series of budget cuts to education in the early part of the decade.
Ben-David has also been praised as an important player in Israel's policy debates on socioeconomic issues, where his papers have been widely cited. He is an internationally renowned economist who has consulted for the World Bank and the World Trade Organization.
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