Well fine, this happens frequently when we get used to reality, adapt to it, and before we get used to it, a new reality occurs. In the 0% VAT bill, there were quite a few flaws and it may well be that it wasn't right for the long term, but in the short term it would have helped young couples that had waited and looked forward to it. I, personally, believe that it was possible to take simpler measures, through location-based grant procedures that have worked in the past and do not require changes or re-evaluations as complicated as the 0% VAT bill (the involvement of the VAT authority, assessors, lawyers, accountants, surveyors and more).
The decision making process in everything regarding the 0% VAT bill was defective from the start: everybody knew its cost and its complexity but the Minister of Finance wanted it and the Prime Minister gave him the green light. En route, the two of them halted the residential construction sector for 10 months, created expectations among young couples, and caused the waste of resources in a desperate attempt to draw up the bill and push it through.
A conclusion is asked to be drawn and perhaps unsurprisingly it is that the leadership of the State of Israel is motivated by personal interests and wars revolving around egos. Personal ego, which is bad and destructive, and everything else is not important.
In the "de facto' announcement about the cancellation of the 0% VAT bill, the Prime Minister preferred superfluous elections, which equal the cost of the plan for a year. The elections probably won't bring any dramatic change, while the 0% VAT bill would have solved problems for 10,000 families. In his personal war (only personal) against the Minister of Finance, the Prime Minister sacrificed the fate of young couples on his personal sacrificial ritual altar.
The Prime Minister's concern for the defense budget is nothing more than cheap and cynical propaganda. To use the money for the purchase of Armored Personnel Carriers (APCs) is terrible cynicism. The Prime Minister wants to say that because of a shortfall in the Ministry of Defense budget, the regrettable incident occurred in which soldiers in APCs that were shelled were killed during Operation Protective Edge. Really (as you say) Mr. Prime Minister. Perhaps it was because of the high salaries and pensions of the IDF's senior officers, the people's army that has for a long time been cut off from the people and become the economy's strongest workers association.
To my mind this does not reduce the responsibility of the Minister of Finance for the chaos that was created. The Minister of Finance, with good intentions, walked into a trap that he should have seen, by not listening to any of the dozens of experts and sages that warned him about the problematic nature of the bill, but he carried on banging his head against the wall while his ego was in the clouds. The Minister of Finance could have pulled his chestnuts out of the fire that the Prime Minister prepared for him and retreated from the problematic bill, and propose a simpler solution of location-based grants.
The results of the measures taken by the politicians in recent days have been bad and destructive for those families that waited for the 0% VAT bill. Not only did they postpone the purchase of their apartment by almost a year, they are today encountering higher prices and again an unstable and uncertain reality.
Anyone with an opinion will say to the Minister of Finance of the State of Israel, and to the Prime Minister, (who was an excellent minister of finance) that the economy, certainty, stability, and continuity are the major keys to development and success. Dear politicians, stop inventing the wheel again and again. Let us households, developers and investors plan our moves for the long term (the complete opposite of your way of behaving which is led by your urge to survive politically). Give us sound and long term laws, an equal and balanced tax system, (it enough to count the number of the latest orders from the Tax Authority in recent weeks in order to understand how everything in our country is temporary). Give us natural laws of economics to work - and if prices are rising then raise the supply. The 0% VAT bill is just an example of the conduct of our State. We were all interested and loved to talk about the subject because it was connected to all of us as most of us are homeowners/ looking to buy bigger homes/ young couples/ parents of young couples. Think for yourselves how many other issues are no less close to you and less comprehensible to you on the government's agenda and how they are being handled.
To end with, I'll try to be more optimistic. After all as a building developer I have to be that way otherwise I have no business purpose. I do so hope that in the coming elections, despite everything, the stalled reality of every topic on the government's agenda will change and our elected representatives will put their egos to one side and begin to work for and promote the interests of the State of Israel and its residents and that these interests will be separated from their personal interests.
The author is the CEO of Shatit Ltd. of the S. Shitrit Engineering Group Ltd.