BGU | MY PATH, Haim Doron, MD

to strike over the issue. The backdrop was bitterness over salary issues and opposition to the “reign of functionaries.” 56 The director-general of the Labor Federation at the time, Aharon Becker, 57 declared a compromise: Soroka would be appointed director-general of Clalit, and since Dr. Tova Yeshurun-Berman was retiring as head of the Medical Division, a young regional physician from the Negev, Haim Doron, would be appointed to succeed her. Clalit doctors agreed to the compromise. In 1965, when Ben-Gurion left the ruling Mapai Party to found the RAFI Party (an acronym for Israeli Workers’ List), I didn’t hide my affinities for the new party and its championship of mamlachtiyut , or “statism.” 58 Although RAFI reunited with Mapai in 1968, I believe the RAFI representative in the Federation, Gad Yaacobi, influenced formulation of Becker’s compromise. After the compromised jelled, I received a telephone call from Shimon Peres -- who wanted to propose me as a candidate for Clalit director-general. I wasn’t thrilled with this scheme. I preferred the post of medical director, in part because I surmised that the proposal was influenced by Peres’ rivalry with Gad Yaacobi. 59 In all my years as a key directorial figure in Clalit, my top priorities were health system matters - considerations regarding the level of the sick fund’s medicine, the purity of its ways, and its stability. The political structure disturbed me, and I did everything I could to reduce its impact. One day, after the resignation of Moshe Dayan from the Begin Government in early 1979, one of the Hebrew weeklies leaked the news that Moshe Dayan planned to run as an independent party candidate in upcoming parliamentary elections. It said “his number-two man on the List would be the chair of Clalit’s directorate -- Haim Doron.” I hadn’t a clue where this tidbit came from, and what I was doing there. Several days later I received a call from Dayan with an invitation to meet with him at the Knesset. He opened our conversation asking, “Are you going to stay in Clalit forever?” I said, “Yes,” and that’s where our conversation ended. I had no intention to get involved in party politics. The backdrop to my appointment as Clalit’s director-general in 1976 was entirely different. After the death of Moshe Soroka in 1972, while he was still serving as director-general, the Minister of Finance, Pinchas Sapir and the secretary-general of the Labor Federation Yitzhak Ben-Aharon agreed to appoint Asher Yadlin, the head of the Federation’s all-powerful Hevrat HaOvdim ("Society of Workers") 60 as the new chair of Clalit’s directorate. This was a purely political appointment. Yadlin served for only a very short time. His political aspirations were purely in the economic direction. When his candidacy for Governor of the Bank of Israel was announced, accusations of corruption during his tenure at the helm of Clalit surfaced. A criminal investigation was opened that closed with Yadlin’s conviction for bribe-taking. When he was taken into custody for interrogation, as second-in-command at Clalit, I automatically became the stand- in for the directorate’s chair, the acting director-general. This was a very difficult period for me. In my outlook on life, which I inherited from my parents, I identified ideologically and spiritually with the principles of Clalit, which were completely contrary to a sordid affair like this. I found it difficult to face Clalit workers who had been 56 Here, Doron was delicately hinting about the Soviet-style corporate culture within the Clalit, riddled with apparatchiks chosen more on party affiliation and party loyalty than actual credentials for the job. 57 Aharon Becker (December 21, 1905 - December 24, 1995) was a labor leader. He was secretary general of the Histadrut, the Federation of Labor, (1961–1969) and a member of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), In 1974 he was elected chairman of the Clalit HMO. 58 Ben-Gurion’s trigger behind his leaving Mapai to form RAFI was personal rivalry between him and his Mapai successor, Levi Eshkol. “Mamlachtiyut” is literally “statism,” which in broad terms, championed putting the state, its governing institutions and the country’s needs, above the party and vested party interests and institutions. It favored rule by the government, which also involved subordinating or dismantling fragmented pre-state constructs. 59 Doron realized Peres’ offer was part of internal struggles between rival RAFI members. Gad Yaakobi had previously been an advisor to Moshe Dayan. Doron did not want to be anyone’s pawn or straw man. 60 Hevrat HaOvdim , or "Society of Workers," was the Labor Federation’s economic arm through which it owned and operated many enterprises that constituted a full third of the entire economy at the height of its power. These included industrial conglomerates, Bank Hapoalim, and the ZIM shipping line. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histadrut

38