OUT OF TIME
In many areas, Sarid simply ran out of time. It was impossible to follow through on the countless hastily launched initiatives. “I need a new envi-ronmental impact statement law immediately,” he would charge his staff. They would work around the clock to produce an imperfect but improved proposal. Then it would sit around for years while other distractions took precedence, and never even be submitted to the Knesset for a preliminary reading. Car emissions pushed concentrations of oxides of nitrogen to new highs, and there were on average three hundred air quality violations a year in the Tel Aviv area. In April 1996, Sarid promised environmentalists that he would circumvent the Ministry of Transportation and use his au-thorities under the Kanovich law to sign new auto-emissions standards into force as soon as a version that his staff approved would reach his desk. Regulations were quickly drafted, but he did not get around to signing them. Eventually environmentalists had to sue for modern motor vehicle emissions standards.[156]
Perhaps the most important of Sarid's unfinished business was gaining formal, statutory authorities to tackle the broadened environmental agenda he had already begun pursuing. This has been the most basic ob-stacle faced by Israel's Environmental Ministry from its inception. New and expanded drinking-water standards were stalled at the Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Transportation did not seem to care about air quality but remained the vested authority for overseeing the inspection of car emissions. The Minister of Agriculture and his Water Commissioner retained the authority to enforce water quality standards. When the Environmental Ministry proposed a map of sensitive karstic and sandy hydrological zones in which no wastewater should be used for irrigation, it was not taken seriously.
No one could castigate polluters in the press like Sarid or make better use of public forums to vilify them. But without full executive powers, his Ministry could only push through a handful of legal actions against water polluters. Sarid was quite aware of the constraints and sought to change the situation, but efforts to convince the Minister of Agriculture to bring the Water Commission to the Ministry of the Environment fell flat. Sarid claims he never had time to realize his vision of an “environ-mental empire” to be built with authority from the Ministry of the
Finally, Sarid's ingenuous faith in the powers of an Environmental Minister inevitably led to disappointments. In other words, if he had not been so ambitious, he might have looked better. It seemed that the Minister was unable to pass up any issue that involved unfavorable envi-ronmental results. Profligate coastal developments, the Trans-Israel Highway, and the Dead Sea Concessions were among the many issues that any other Environmental Minister would have conceded when faced with such poor odds. But many of his assurances—like the one he made to be-leaguered neighbors that the gigantic (and noisy) central bus station in Tel Aviv would not be allowed to open—were empty promises.[158]
Yet even when Sarid failed to attain his immediate objective, his efforts usually produced some favorable result. At the other end of Tel Aviv he tried to ban nighttime domestic flights at the Sdeh Dov Airport and even close down the terminal, which is located adjacent to the Ramat Aviv neighborhood where he himself lives. Once again he was ambushed by the Ministry of Transportation. Nevertheless, he imposed a gentleman's agreement on the airlines: Flights leaving after ten o'clock were to be towed out to the runway by a silent electric cart (Sarid was well aware that every night, delayed passengers “made mention of his mother”[159]). Eventually, the parking area for planes was moved west, adjacent to the sea and away from the residential areas—a small but key step toward im-proved quality of life for thousands of Tel Aviv residents.
In the final analysis, given his point of departure, it is harder to imag-ine a much better Environmental Minister. Sarid left a stronger, more ef-fective, and more confident Environmental Ministry than he received. Israelis' attitudes to the environment were, often unwittingly, touched by the ardor of his three years in office. So were the many corners of the country that were left healthier and cleaner after Sarid's efforts.