A house we don’t leave,” declares Dan Tikhon, who headed the 14th Knesset in 1996-1999, and promises to vote in the Likud primaries to be held the day after tomorrow. “My wife Ludmila and I have been members of the Likud since 1965 and pay membership taxes to the party,” he says. “We voted in all the primaries that were in it. But this does not mean that in the upcoming elections I will vote for this party, whose policies I do not support. I did not vote for her in the previous elections either. In fact, I haven’t voted for her since the 1999 elections.”
Do you have a suggestion for another candidate for Likud leadership, other than Benjamin Netanyahu?
“I am not involved in politics. past tense From the height of my age, 85 and a half, I know that there is never resilience, and even a prolonged reign can someday have an end. Maccabi Tel Aviv in basketball, the state’s team, is no longer a champion and the first channel lost the premiere to the second channel. Even your newspaper, which used to be the most widely used newspaper in the country, lost its premiere to other newspapers.”
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Tykhon, a member of the liberal minority in Likud, will be remembered as the first Knesset Speaker. “It doesn’t give me any advantage,” he says. “What is more important is that I was a member of the Knesset who changed the image of the Knesset from end to end and I am considered one of the greatest reformers in it.”
He does not hide his disappointment with today’s Knesset committees. “I would give the outgoing Knesset committees a score of ‘minus enough,'” he says. “They fall far below the level of the committees in the 1980s and 1990s. The current Knesset plenary can be summed up in two words: ‘chaos’. yelling blasphemy. cursing There is no ethics committee, and what you see from there is chilling. This poses a danger to the continued existence of Israeli democracy, when the legislative and supervisory branches do not actually exist.”
on borrowed time
High school was born in Kiryat Haim Hadouma, a stronghold of Mapai, to Eliezer Sardani (high school in Polish), a man of the third aliyah, who was a member of the labor brigade and manager of the Solel Bona quarries. He is a graduate of the working and learning youth movement, and his fellow core members founded Kibbutz Ein Gedi. He himself did not join them. “I always swam against the current,” he says.
In the mid-1960s, Tikon was elected as the Secretary General of the Merchants’ Association in Jerusalem while he was studying for a bachelor’s degree in economics and international relations at the Hebrew University. At the same time he joined the liberal division in Ghal, which became Likud. With the establishment of the second national Likud government, he was appointed as an advisor to the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Yosef Sapir, who was one of the leaders of the Liberals, and as the commissioner for the industrialization of the development areas and the non-Jewish sector.
With the fall of the national Likud government, Highton remained in the government ministry for another four years and moved to become the adviser of Pinchas Sapir, one of the leaders of the formation. “When Golda Meir was prime minister, Pinchas Sapir was the most powerful man in the country, and he wanted me by his side,” he says. “When the Mapa’inikis threw my belongings out of the room, Sapir gave an order to bring them back. Although I was not from his party, we were very close.
Every Thursday morning I would show up at his house in Kfar Saba, and from there we would go on a tour of the development cities. ‘Content’, that’s what he called me. On this occasion I had the privilege of participating in the establishment of parks for science industries throughout the country. I will be thanked for that in many years.”
When Tykhon, who ran financial companies in the 1970s, was elected to the Tenth Knesset for the first time in 1981, he did not expect to serve for 18 years. “I thought I would serve one term and that was enough,” he recalled. “‘If I don’t get elected again, don’t shed a tear, because that’s the way of democracy,’ I said to my loved ones, who came to celebrate my inauguration with me. But term followed term, I had five of them and always on borrowed time, even though I was at the top.”
According to Tikhon, as a member of the Knesset he did not make concessions, for example to Yoram Eridor who was appointed as Minister of Finance. “Eridor thought that what was in the finance committee before ’81 – would also be after it,” he says. “Then I informed him that what was, will not be. I told him: ‘As the Minister of Finance, you are subject to the Finance Committee, and things are not automatically approved.'”
Along with his activity in the Knesset on economic issues, including the recycling law, the companies law and also his involvement in the legislation of the state health insurance law, Tykhon headed the Israel-Germany inter-parliamentary association in the Knesset. In this context, he received honors from Berlin for his great work to bring the countries closer together. “When the Likud came to power, every time a matter related to Germany was discussed in the Knesset, members of the Knesset boycotted the meeting the next day,” he says.
“Then a decision was made that the relations between the countries will not be managed by the government, but through the association that I lead. I saw the utmost importance in promoting relations between the countries. I estimated that when Germany became the No. 1 economic power, it was impossible to stand against it. When I got there, all the doors would open for me,” he added.
From the 11th Knesset, which was elected in ’84, High School remembers the presence of Meir Kahana. “He was confiscated and ostracized,” he says. “No one sat next to him, and when he would get up to give a speech, the plenary would empty. When we were there, only I would talk to him. One day I offered him to move one seat. ‘If they shoot you, they’ll kill me too,’ I told him, and he laughed. Neither of us could have known that within six years he would be murdered in New York.”
With the Likud’s return to power in ’96, at the same time as the establishment of Netanyahu’s first government, Tykhon was elected Speaker of the Knesset and replaced Shevah Weiss. “I was the speaker of the Knesset, of whom they say he was the best,” he says. “Although I have never used the chair hammer. I had order and there was discipline and mutual respect. This is how I led the biggest reforms in the history of the Knesset, which turned it into a super institution.
Benjamin Netanyahu (Photo: Yonatan Zindel Flash 90)For example, turning Knesset committees into hearing and investigation committees; leadership of the Knesset broadcasts; Establishing a website of the Knesset; Publication of Knesset statements in real time and not six months late. I also worked for the establishment of a new wing in the Knesset building and for the transformation of the old Knesset building, ‘Beit Fromin’, into a museum documenting the history of parliamentarism in Israel.”
With the Likud’s loss in the 1999 elections, Tikon retired not only from the leadership of the Knesset, but from political life in general. He was then only 62 years old. “This was my fifth Knesset,” he explains. “The activity in it was accompanied by very difficult crises with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was clear to me beforehand that he would not support me for another term, to say the least. I had no doubt that he was ordering those close to him not to support me, what’s more, I was the last liberal among the party leaders. Naturally, the prostitutes in Likud loved the prostitutes. I didn’t want to be like some of my predecessors, who, after stepping down from the speaker’s podium, continued as ordinary members of the Knesset.”
As the speaker of the Knesset, Tikon also served as the acting president of the state, Ezer Weizman. “Ezer Weizman had no relationship with Netanyahu,” he says. “He did not tolerate him. Everything went my way. I would fill the only place that did not make it to the president’s residence. Whoever wanted me, came to the Knesset Speaker’s office.”
According to Tykhon, unlike today, during his time as chairman no law was annulled by the Supreme Court. “Aharon Barak, who was president of the Supreme Court during the time I served, was not a fan of mine,” he says. “I warned him that if the court starts canceling laws, eventually the Knesset will take measures against him. ‘If you want to abolish laws, establish a special court for constitutional matters,’ I told him. “You are not above the law and not everything is fair.”
does not spare his tribe
High School is a father of two and grandfather of five. One of his grandchildren, Roi Schwartz-Tikhon, is the founder of the “Noa Tanoa” project for public transportation on Shabbat. High school does not save his tribe from the Knesset Speakers who served after him. “In my view, Yuli Edelstein, as the speaker of the Knesset, allowed the government to overrun the Knesset,” he says. “What happened at the ceremony on Mount Herzl on Independence Day, which is traditionally associated with the Speaker of the Knesset? I would let Netanyahu speak there for 20 minutes? For me, he spoke as a torch bearer, which is exactly half a minute. And not only him. I criticize all the chairmen who submitted to the prime minister’s whims.”
Yuli Edelstein (Photo: Avshalom Sashoni)A last word before the Likud primaries?“Today’s Likud is not the Likud we founded in the past, but as I said, we don’t leave home. I was born in Likud and I will die in Likud.”