On October 9, 2021, the Lebanese government did not warn its citizens of the country’s impending shutdown; it simply allowed it to happen overnight.

The country’s two largest power stations ran out of fuel, and by midday, the national electricity grid had completely failed. Hospitals, bakeries, and businesses were forced to rely on private generators—if they could afford to run them.

Power was restored a day later, after the military supplied emergency fuel. But the failure that seemingly switched off an entire country in an instant had been decades in the making.

It was the product of a public system that had become a playground for sectarian appointments, political interests, dubious contracts, and a complete absence of accountability. The lights went out in an instant, but the state had been rotting from within for years.

Israel is certainly not Lebanon, and Ben Gurion Airport is not the Lebanese power grid. But the severe disruptions and baggage delays recorded last week at Israel’s main gateway stemmed from the exact same principle: a seemingly sudden breakdown that laid bare a protracted, deeply rotten process that extends across public service.

Corruption without envelopes

When Israelis hear the word “corruption,” they typically imagine envelopes of cash or a contractor sitting in a police interrogation room. But the most dangerous corruption in public service is precisely the kind that operates in a semi-legal gray zone, or is simply too mundane to make the evening news.

This brand of corruption occurs when a public position becomes a political prize; when personal loyalty to a minister outweighs professional expertise; when an acting official is left in a temporary role for months or even years; when a talented employee realizes there is no point in competing against a candidate with the right connections; and when management prioritizes placating the press over acknowledging and fixing the root problem.

In isolation, each of these symptoms looks minor. Every delayed tender seems temporary. Every departing professional is somehow replaced. The system limps along only because the remaining employees run faster, work longer hours, and cobble together makeshift solutions. And then it collapses.

A state comptroller report published in 2014 found that a quarter of Israel Airports Authority employees had a relative working at the authority. Pinchas Idan — a prominent Likud central committee powerbroker who has headed the powerful airport workers’ union for 40 years — had at least 15 relatives employed at Ben Gurion as permanent staff at the time.

Because Idan’s union wields the power to unilaterally shut down Israel’s main gateway, transportation ministers have historically hesitated to cross him. Consequently, temporary employees with relatives at the authority enjoyed a disproportionately high chance of receiving permanent status.

A second comptroller report, which examined appointments to senior positions at the authority, found that, in roughly 30 percent of the internal tenders reviewed, there was only one candidate. Five senior officials had effectively been filling their positions for years before officially winning tenders in which they ran unopposed.

Operating with independent budgets, statutory bodies like the Israel Airports........

© The Times of Israel