Netanyahu’s Civil Service chief nominee pulls candidacy

Exclusive: Bar-Zion tells PM withdrawing his candidacy for the job due to intense, unfair criticism by MKs, media; says critics scared of change.

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Bari Bar-Zion, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s candidate to replace Shmuel Hollander as the civil service commissioner, told Netanyahu on Wednesday that he has withdrawn his candidacy for the job due to intense and unfair criticism by MKs and the media.
Hollander himself was often lambasted for his work during the 14 years held the post.
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In a letter to Netanyahu over two months after being nominated for the job, Bar-Zion said he no longer wanted the post.
Bar-Zion, who held numerous senior posts including in the Treasury (when Netanyahu was finance minister) and as head of the Amin company implementing the Wisconsin Plan welfare-to work program in Jerusalem, was director-general of the capital’s bankrupt Bikur Cholim Hospital after it was put into receivership and managed to balance its budget.
Bar-Zion said he had been happy about the nomination, as he thought he could bring about major changes in the Civil Service Commission in a way that would benefit the public.
He said the source of fierce criticism of his appointment was apparently people who feared the changes he planned to make.
“I feel no need to apologize or be ashamed from any of the things I did during my career – the opposite is true.”
But he pulled his candidacy because he realized that if his opponents were so vehement about the possibility of him serving, it would be impossible for him as commissioner to function with such opposition.
“Apparently, too many people enjoy the status quo and are willing to do almost anything” to prevent changes from being made,” he concluded.