02 February 2007

Time for the last envelope?

The excuses our current minister of defense is using to hold to the job are nothing short of pathetic:

The office of Defense Minister Amir Peretz says that all major complaints should be addressed to Israel's previous defense ministers, Shaul Mofaz, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and also Ehud Barak, who was prime minister and defense minister when three Israeli soldiers were taken captive by Hezbollah at Har Dov in 2000.
I am astonished that Peretz didn't go back far enough to blame Ben-Gurion and even, maybe, Zhabotinsky and Herzl. After all, they set the basis for the whole enchilada, and Peretz has to bear the blame now. And Mozes, too, should not escape his share of guilt.

The pathetic behavior and the pathetic excuses Peretz is producing by a dozen every day could hardly be explained: after all, no one says he is guilty - it is just that he knows nothing about the job he was encumbered with and, as it naturally follows, should transfer it to somebody that is a bit better informed and qualified.

This remind me the story of the three envelopes:
A new executive, who on his first day of work is greeted by three envelopes on his desk with instructions to open one in the event of trouble. The company runs smoothly at first, but trouble soon arises and the executive opens the first envelope. It advises him to blame his predecessor. That succeeds in the short term, but soon new difficulties arise. The executive opens the second envelope. It advises him to restructure the organization. That again succeeds, but soon the executive is faced with more trouble. He opens the third envelope only to find instructions to prepare three envelopes.
But there is one significant difference: the second step, which involves a restructuring, is completely alien to Peretz. He will not recognize a restructuring if it bites him on the backside. So - let's move to the third envelope, why don't we?

Cross-posted on Yourish.com
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