ABSTRACT
This chapter describes one aspect only of the National Unity Government namely, the organization of the Prime Minister’s Office and the emergence of a prime minister’s staff, during Peres’ term of office as prime minister: September 1984-October 1986. An interesting phenomenon of Israel’s history, one with direct relevance to the national security decisionmaking process the traditional tripartite institutional relationship between the prime minister, foreign minister, and defense minister was non-existent. Unlike Britain, Israel has always had a Prime Minister’s Office, with its own director-general. While the latter is responsible for the administrative functioning of the Prime Minister’s Office as well as for various specialized units attached to it, he is also involved in decisionmaking. In addition to the cabinet secretary and the director-general, one or two additional high-level functionaries in the prime minister’s bureau can have serious input and involvement in the national security decisionmaking process.
