Benjamin Netanyahu has won a breathing space over the summer. He managed to pass a government decision on the budget for 2011-2012, and sent everyone away happy, sad, or fomenting rebellion like Avigdor Lieberman, Eli Yishai, Isaac Herzog, and others to rest on their laurels or stew in their own juice. Until after the holidays. Until the beginning of October. Then, the budget will be the least of the government and the coalition's worries. The end of the Succot festival will also be the end of the freeze on construction beyond the Green Line. The end of a period in which Netanyahu somehow managed to span the extremes of interests and ideologies of left and right.
Neither Lieberman, nor Yishai, not the Labor Party, will topple a government because of half a billion shekels here or there; not even because of a billion. But every single one of them will topple a government, or resign from it, either because the freeze continues, or because construction in the settlements resumes. The Knesset will start to debate the budget only at the end of the summer recess, in October, by which time we will know what is happening over the freeze, over negotiations with the Palestinians, and over relations with Barack Obama. The Labor Party in or out? Lieberman in or out? Tzipi Livni out or in? The budget really makes little difference.
The government has won, and the country has lost. There is no vision in the budget for the next two years. There are no major decisions, no reforms that will change the face of the economy, no investment aimed at a considered goal. There are no goals. Poverty will continue to run riot, single mothers will continue to suffer from the absurdity that if they go out to work, their welfare allowance is reduced. Healthcare will continue to tread water. There is a little more for education, but there will be no turnaround.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 19, 2010
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