90 Days to Elections: Time to Reset the Tables

With 90 days to go to elections, my memory takes me back to early 1985 when I was, for one year, the interim general manager of Luz Industries Israel Ltd., the company that built 354MW of solar-based electricity spread over nine generating stations in the high desert of California between 1985-1990, all of which are still operating today.

We were in the midst of preparing to deliver the first pilot station, which needed a significant amount of steel substructure to support the large concave mirrors that were used to concentrate the sun’s rays and heat the system fluid that powered the generators. At the time, the only company in Israel with the capacity to supply the steel was Koor Metals Ltd., headquartered in Holon’s industrial area and managed by a retired IDF general, Yitzhak Ben Dov, of blessed memory.

I recall vividly that even though we were negotiating purchases that approached $10 million annually (equivalent to $31m today), we had to travel from our office in Jerusalem’s Har Hotzvim tech park to his office in Holon to discuss the purchase. I once asked one of my associates at the company why we were making the trip to the seller rather than him coming to us and the response was: “He is a retired general.” Old socialist Israel for sure.

His office was located on the second floor of a somewhat decrepit building at the Koor site. Ben Dov sat behind a large desk with a long rectangular table arranged in front of him perpendicular to his desk. It was at that table where the “supplicants” sat who were coming to him for his “blessing.” At least that was the impression projected by our having to travel to see him in order to convince him to let us place an order with Koor for $10m at a time when the average factory worker in Israel was being paid the equivalent of $500 a month.

I share all of this because even the arrangement of furniture in the office of the “boss” in those days made a clear statement. He (there were almost no “she’s” at the time in Israel) was king, his subjects were positioned around the table, symbolically at his feet as in days of old, and he dispensed favors to those upon whom he looked kindly.

During one exchange when Ben Dov was being particularly uncooperative vis-à-vis pricing, I challenged him on his unwillingness to consider a reduction of even a tenth of one percent. He responded by telling me that he knew we had no alternative sources, but he did not need to be concerned about making a profit and his only mandate was to keep everybody working. Socialist Israel reared its head yet again. I remember saying that from my perspective, with that attitude, eventually the company will fail.

The Koor Group eventually did fall on hard times, almost going out of business, but was rescued by the Bronfman family of Canada and became a well-managed and profitable entity for a few years following.

Israel today, politically, remains in much the same operating mode. The person at the top no longer sits at a desk with a long rectangular table spread out in front of him. Rather, everyone sits around a long rectangular (not circular) table with the person at the top on one side in the center, often in a bigger chair than all the rest. The supplicants, in this case, are positioned around the table praising the leader and waiting for political favors to be doled out.

In this next election, we need to change the mentality of the leadership and, symbolically, the geography of the meeting room as well. The leadership of the country should be seated at a round table, a table without a head or a central figure. The Prime Minister will need to understand that he or she is not the person doling out favors to supplicants, but first among equals of a group of people with a unified commitment to act responsibly for the good and welfare of all of Israel.

He or she will also have to realize and internalize that government operates differently than the military. The commander of a military unit must be able to give orders and have a reasonable expectation that they will be carried out. The head of government, on the other hand, must understand that he or she rules by the consent of the governed and only with majority support of those chosen to represent the general population.

At the moment, I believe that among those seeking the top job here, Gadi Eisenkot is uniquely qualified to change the table arrangement and lead in the best interests of all of the people of Israel, those with whom he agrees and those who differ. Seventy-eight years after independence, it is time to rearrange the physical furniture as well as the conceptual furniture that rests in the minds of our political leaders. Failure to recognize these facts and act on them threatens our continued success and we dare not let that happen. Hopefully we are up to the task at hand.

Carthago substituenda est!