After ‘soap opera’ search, Bank of Israel gets a governor

JERUSALEM — An awkward four-month saga came to an end Sunday with the appointment of Karnit Flug as the new governor of the Bank of Israel, the first woman ever chosen for the position.

Many regarded Flug, the bank’s deputy governor, as the natural choice to succeed Stanley Fischer, the widely respected previous governor who stepped down in June, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Yair Lapid locked horns on the appointment.

A series of candidates was announced by the government and then withdrawn, amid scandal and embarrassment, drawing unwanted attention from international media that poked fun at what it called a “soap opera.”

After nearly four months without a permanent governor, Netanyahu and Lapid U-turned to announce Flug’s appointment, saying they were impressed with her performance as acting governor in recent months. They expressed confidence she would continue to help moving Israel’s economy forward “in the face of global economic upheaval.”

As financial experts welcomed the stabilizing effect of finally filling the key position, others applauded the appointment of a woman.

Feminists had accused Netanyahu of going to lengths to avoid appointing a woman, even seeking overseas economists to head Israel’s bank, but some economic experts attributed the prime minister’s resistance to genuine differences in economic ideology.

Opposition leader Shelly Yachimovich welcomed the appointment and, in a Facebook post, applauded Netanyahu’s about-face and his courage to fix mistakes. “I take my hat off before Netanyahu,” she wrote.

“At last, here too it is understood that gender is irrelevant when it comes to professionalism,” said Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who welcomed the appointment. In a statement, she expressed confidence that Flug would succeed in filling her predecessor’s formidable shoes “not because she is a woman, but because she is a worthy professional.”

Congratulations for Flug’s appointment came from other female lawmakers, including Tzipi Hotovely, who called the appointment “a historic milestone for gender equality” in Israel.

A recently published comprehensive study carried out by the Van Leer institute in Jerusalem examined gender inequality in Israel over a decade. It showed that women still lag behind men in many spheres, including employment and wages.

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