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Yashar! For the Public Service

• •Yashar! looks to the future and sees a state that has goals, planning and the power to execute. A state in which government is built on agreed rules of the game and not on a coalition work arrangement; in which the public service is statist, professional and substantive, and has a positive effect on the life of each and every one of us. A state in which ministers and the professional staff work together substantively and with mutual respect; in which the appointment of senior officials serves as a positive example of "proper administration"; and in which the government is stable and effective.
• •In the Israel of 2048 – the centennial of our independence – a move from survival to momentum. It sets clear national goals for itself and measures itself against them; government ministries are staffed with the best professionals and operate transparently and in coordination; the citizen receives all state services from one place, simply and quickly; and the government focuses on execution and on strategic-national policy. This is a state that respects its citizens, their work and the tax money they pay, and provides them with full value.
• •The task is complex and demands public courage. We are able to carry it out and committed to doing so.

The citizen at the center

• •The state's systems are intended to serve the citizen and to provide an effective, efficient response tailored to them. All decisions will be made under the principle – the state belongs to the citizen and exists for the citizen.

Professionals instead of cronies

• •Appointment to the public service will be made according to competence, experience and achievements - transparently and in a competitive process. The service's professional and non-political independence is a national asset.

Planning will replace impulsiveness

• •We will anchor long-term national planning as a permanent foundation of the government's work, above election cycles.

Accountability and transparency

• •Whoever manages public resources is bound to measurable goals, to monitoring and to public reporting to the Knesset and the citizen.

Anchoring the principles of the public service

• •We will ensure the basic principles of a statist, professional, substantive and operational service. We will regulate the procedures for appointing senior officials in the public service and anchor mechanisms to ensure integrity, avoidance of conflicts of interest and limits on political-party activity.

Senior appointments – a role-adapted model

• •We will adapt the selection method for each role according to its function, its characteristics, and the degree of political influence that is desirable and legitimate. We will classify the senior positions, and for each classification we will assign a distinct appointment mechanism. For example, positions of trust of a defined scope, in which the minister has broad discretion, alongside professional positions that will be filled through a competitive process. The move is intended to restore effective governance to the elected echelon by matching the degree of influence to the nature of each role, instead of a binary struggle of "all or nothing".
• •In the most senior and sensitive positions – the senior appointments committee will have the authority to block an appointment found to be tainted by improper affiliation, a procedural flaw or a breach of integrity.

Human capital reform

• •We will promote a significant reform in the Civil Service Commission, whose core is the transfer of powers and responsibility to the government ministries and a focusing of the Commission on defining rules, regulation, oversight and enforcement.
• •We will lead a human capital reform that will enable the public service to attract, retain and advance the best, with measurable goals. Among other things, we will work to:
• •Mobility and flexibility – we will remove barriers to the transfer of employees and create flexibility and mobility in all directions: between government ministries, between the government and government companies, between the government and local authorities, and between the public service and the private sector. An employee who moves will keep their seniority and the continuity of their rights. We will allow the lending of employees for fixed periods between the bodies, and open entry tracks to middle and senior ranks, with full recognition of prior professional experience, rank and pay – under clear rules to prevent conflicts of interest and cooling-off periods.
• •Flexibility in staffing – we will move from rigid positions to management according to a manpower budget framework. Managers will be able to adapt the team structure to needs, convert positions and hire experts on dedicated project contracts. We will shorten the recruitment and screening procedures and move them to a digital platform.
• •Compensation and performance management – we will update the pay mechanisms so that they are competitive in the core professions in which the service loses to the private sector – technology, artificial intelligence, engineering, economics and law – and we will reward excellence and meeting goals. Alongside this, we will establish a substantive and fair mechanism for dealing with inadequate performance.
• •Development and training – we will establish managerial development tracks throughout the career, expand the cadet programs, and train all employees to work with artificial intelligence tools. We will instill an ethical code and an ethos of service to the citizen.

A binding service standard and reduced regulation

• •We will set a binding service standard for every government service: maximum handling time, contact channels and level of availability. The standard will be published to the public, and a ministry that deviates from it will be required to give the citizen a response and present an improvement plan.
• •We will measure service from the citizen's point of view: waiting times, the number of contacts required to receive service, and satisfaction. Every service will have a citizen feedback mechanism, and each ministry's results will be published on an open dashboard and will be part of the evaluation of its managers.
• •Alongside the digital channels, we will ensure available human service – through a telephone center and service centers shared by all ministries – for senior citizens, people with disabilities and anyone who needs it. No citizen will be left behind.
• •We will fundamentally reduce the bureaucratic and regulatory burden on citizens and on businesses. We will use artificial intelligence tools to map all existing regulation and to identify duplications, contradictions and outdated requirements – and we will cancel what is not needed.
• •Every new regulation will be required to undergo a regulatory impact assessment, and a point of re-examination will be set for it. We will dramatically ease licensing and business-opening procedures: one digital track, binding timetables for every approval, and in defined tracks – failure to respond on time will be considered approval.

Digitization, artificial intelligence and citizen-tailored service

• •We will make the citizen's experience the measure of the quality of public administration: every decision and reform will be judged by the value it provides at the end point – to the citizen, and not by the convenience of the system. We will complete full digitization of government services, so that every service that does not require physical presence will be provided online, end to end. We will synchronize the information systems of the government ministries and anchor the "once only" principle: the citizen will give information to the state only once, and the ministries will share it among themselves – with the citizen's consent and under full protection of their privacy. An approval that one ministry has already issued will not be required again by another ministry.
• •We will deploy artificial intelligence tools to shorten and streamline processes: automatic handling of simple requests, pre-filling of forms, immediate answers to questions and identification of bottlenecks. Employees will be freed from bureaucratic work and will focus on complex inquiries and personal service.
• •We will strengthen the national digital apparatus and give it the authority to set uniform standards for all ministries, lead cross-cutting projects and ensure information security and cyber protection at the highest level.

Digital citizen file

• •We will establish for every citizen a digital citizen file – one secure, personal place in which all of their data will be gathered, all of their rights and entitlements vis-à-vis all state bodies – including the Tax Authority, the National Insurance Institute and the local authorities – and all government services. From the file, all government services will be made accessible to the citizen from a single place, with explanations in plain language of what each right and service means for them.
• •The file will also show the citizen rights that are due to them and have not been claimed, and will make it possible to claim them easily. The citizen will be the owner of their information, and the information will be kept under full protection of their privacy and strict information security.

Anchoring long-term national planning

• •A state is not tested only by its ability to put out today's fire, but by its ability to know where it is going. We will move the state from reactive management of "hand to mouth" to proactive, systematic, multi-year planning, through a permanent institutional infrastructure – above election cycles.
• •We will define Israel's national security strategy within 150 days of the formation of the government, according to the wording of the "National Security Strategy Law, 5785-2025", enacted under the leadership of Lt. Gen. (res.) Gadi Eisenkot. In parallel and in alignment, we will legislate for the first time a framework for economic-social strategic planning: one strategic situation assessment every five years and the formulation of a measurable national strategy, to be submitted for the government's approval. We will anchor in law the National Economic and Social Council as a professional staff body of the government in the fields of economy and society, and the ministerial committee on economy and society as a permanent statutory cabinet headed by the Prime Minister.

From planning to execution – responsibility, measurement and accountability

• •We will strengthen the Prime Minister's Office as the center of government – the body that coordinates, integrates and is responsible for ensuring the implementation of government policy. For each national goal, a leading ministry responsible for achieving it will be designated, and the annual work plans of all ministries will give expression to the national goals. A goal that does not advance according to the milestones will require the responsible ministry to present a corrective plan to the government and the Knesset.
• •We will ensure a professional transition of power: on the eve of the elections a non-political strategic situation assessment will be prepared, to be published after election day, which can feed the building of the government and save precious time. Once a year, the Prime Minister will present to the public, in the Knesset, the national goals and the progress against them – as part of the commitment to public transparency.

Reducing and merging government ministries

• •We will reduce the number of government ministries, so that it is similar to what is customary in advanced Western countries.
• •We will close small government ministries that are not needed and organize the division of labor among the existing government ministries, so as to ensure maximum efficiency and better service to the citizen. We will anchor in law mechanisms that will ensure long-term stability in the government ministries and prevent changes for political considerations.
• •We will anchor in Basic Law: The Government a cap on the number of government members, to prevent inflation in every coalition negotiation, without freezing the map of ministries. We will amend the legislation so that it will be possible to appoint a "deputy minister" with defined powers over content areas within the ministry, subject to the responsible minister – thus political responsibility will be given for areas in the government's priorities, without the need to split the public service or duplicate the staff and mechanisms.
• •We will carry out the move responsibly and in partnership with the employees and their representatives, without harming the continuity of service to the public. Reducing the structure of the government is expected to save hundreds of millions of shekels a year – by closing ministers' offices, merging staffs and preventing "justification of the ministry" budgets – money that we will return to core services for the citizen.

Proper administration, gatekeepers and the fight against corruption

• •We will regulate the professional independence of the gatekeepers – the Attorney General, the State Comptroller, the legal advisers in the ministries, the Civil Service Commission and other bodies. No public servant will be under threat or fear for their position because of carrying out their role of ensuring that government policy conforms to the law. We will anchor a "how to" approach – a gatekeeper who identifies a difficulty in a decision will propose a lawful and professional solution that will achieve its purpose.
• •We will intensify the fight against public corruption: we will expand protection for whistleblowers, strengthen the conflict-of-interest rules and cooling-off periods, and expand transparency – publication of the diaries of ministers and senior officials, data on engagements and budgets, and public information accessible to every citizen.