An Israeli DOGE? MK Dan Ilouz proposes to follow Musk and Milei against bureaucracy

Likud MK Dan Ilouz announced a proposal today (Wednesday) to create an Israeli version of Elon Musk's DOGE and Javiel Milei's efficiency measures, with the aim of "taking on the system" and freeing up the bureaucracy in the country.

In a speech he gave today before the Knesset plenum, Ilouz said that while Israel is a "start up nation," its government and bureaucracy are still stuck in the previous century and using its methods.

Ilouz said that while the private sector was "racing forward," the bureaucracy "strangles the economy, erecting obstacles, exhausts budgets, and refuses to change. Suffocating regulation, endless forms, convoluted approval procedures, and aggressive unions which hold the economy by the throat."

The Likud MK said that this is not fate, and that leaders in the world "unafraid to clash with the system" such as Elon Musk's DOGE efficiency measures and the government downsizing of Argentinian President Javier Milei.

Ilouz said that the Regulation Authority established by the previous government "is simply insufficient," and he said that when he wanted to introduce an amendment which would strengthen it, "all the bureaucrats from all the ministries" arose and watered it down, to the point that he was now not convinced it's worth passing.

He said that it's time to "deal with the problem at the root" as bureaucracy harms both the individual citizen and the "growth engines of the country."

Ilouz therefore proposed the establishment of a Governmental Efficiency Committee, an independent body which would operate much like DOGE, ending waste, cutting regulation, and ensure that the public service serves the public, not itself. He said that this is no technical step, but rather a "necessary reform" to save the economy.

He said the choice is clear: small government and a growing economy, or the continued foot-dragging and struggle with the bureaucracy.