determination of the Hebrew community in Palestine at the time was such that actual coercion was rarely needed. The stigma incurred by anyone not doing the right thing was enough to deter shirkers.
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One would think that the state, once established, would have assumed these institutions and functions, with the parties becoming ordinary political groups. But the state machinery was set up by the existing hierarchy, composed of party leaders. The new ministries were staffed by party members, each one of whom owed his job to the party and was loyal to it. The state was superimposed on the party machines; it did not take their place.
The issue of health care is again a good illustration of the pattern. In Israel, everyone agrees that health insurance is essential, that no one should be victimized by disease or accident, that it is the job of society to provide full insurance. (The American attitude in this field is incomprehensible to any Israeli.) It would have been natural, therefore, for a national health service, on the British pattern, to be set up. But health care is controlled by the Sick Funds, which do a good job but are controlled by the parties and give them great leeway for patronage, financial transactions and shady practices. No one (and especially not the socialists) proposes to nationalize health services. As a result, the Ministry of Health does not even try to compete with the Sick Funds. The budget for its operations is much smaller than the budget of the biggest Sick Fund, that run by the Histadruth. The primary function of the Ministry is to transfer state money to the non-state Sick Funds, in the form of subsidies and other allocations, making the Sick Funds ever stronger.
The control of education in Israel is also revealing. Before the state was set up, the Hebrew community had created an outstanding system of education, more or less ignoring the governmental Department of Education. All