The biggest party in the governing coalition, Likud-Beytenu, has a problem. Several young and “underutilized” members of its list seem not to have gotten the policy talking points that their more senior party leaders are broadcasting. And thus with every new day,  a new scandal, and more confusion about what the exact policy of the government of Israel on some serious issues actually is.

During the last election campaign we were promised that there would be no deputy ministers, re. no wasted portfolios, with budgets, cars, assistants, and lots of hot air. The last government was full of Ministers of Nothing and Deputy Ministers of Even More Nothing.

But I guess the politicians couldn’t keep their promises; which still shocks me every time it happens.

The problem with deputy ministers, despite the fact that they are a complete waste of public funds, is that they have nothing to do. So they talk. And when ambitious yet bored politicians talk they invariably end up causing mischief.

Here are some choice examples from this past week alone:

1. One week after Deputy Defense Minister Danny Danon said the Israeli government does not support a two-state solution and would work against the creation of a Palestinian state, he went on national television and said “The Jewish people are not settlers in the West Bank but Israel will make the Palestinians settlers and Jordan will be the one taking control over Palestinians and that’s it.” One can argue the merits or otherwise of Danon’s latest statement, but the fact is that he is going against his own party chairman, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has gone on record saying he wants US Secretary John Kerry to succeed in bringing Israel and the Palestinians to the negotiating table, and that he does not want a bi-national state. Netanyahu either has to tell Danon to shut up, or he must fire him.

2. Another deputy minister has joined the Danon chorus. “The Palestinians are not ready to have a state of their own. They are not even ready for full autonomy,” Deputy Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Ofir Akunis (Likud-Beytenu) said Thursday. Again, one can argue the merits of this statement, but the fact is that it does not inspire confidence in the Americans and the Palestinians of Netanyahu’s stated policy position: renewed negotiations with the Palestinians for a two-state solution without preconditions.

3. And yet another: Deputy Transportation and Road Safety Minister Tzipi Hotovely [actual Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz says he barely has enough money for new railway tracks but somehow has found enough money to hold a deputy minister], also says there will never be a Palestinian state. “Plans for two states for two peoples have failed even if the international community doesn’t realize it yet,” she said, adding that her solution is  the gradual annexation of the West Bank, beginning with Area C, in which Israel would give Palestinians full citizenship “instead of five Ahmad Tibis [in the Knesset], we will have some more.”

4. And finally, Faina Kirshenbaum, the Deputy Minister of the Interior,  dropped a huge bombshell this week when she said that “Israel won’t attack Syria even if the S300 is delivered.” Strange statement this, as it flies completely in the face of everything the prime minister, defense minister and other senior security officials have been saying for months. So which is it?

All of these deputy ministers have jobs which are a complete joke. Their public comments are diametrically different to the public comments by the leadership of the Likud. If they were Members of the Opposition, their statements would make sense, as they contradict the Likud-Beytenu position. But they’re in the coalition.

So I ask you, who needs ’em?