Of biennial budgets and fear
Op-ed: Kahlon is a-f-r-a-i-d of elections; Netanyahu has grown accustomed to not pay for his misdeeds. So Kahlon has flipped and is now in favor of a biennial budget while Bibi remains unruffled by the persistent housing crunch. Calcalist publisher, Yoel Esteron speaks at the Calcalist Annual Real Estate and Infrastructures Conference.
When do politicians spring into action? Judging by the past decade, the answer is exasperating and painful: when their backs are up against the wall and they want to avoid any personal cost they might incur for their idleness.
This is of course an unfair generalization, as there are some honest, intrepid and driven politicians out there – I personally know all four of them. However, it seems that all too many of our public servants get into the act only when goaded by fear. To paraphrase an old election-campaign incitement slogan “They’re a-f-r-a-i-d”.
Before I discuss the topic at hand of this gathering, I deem it necessary to say a word or two about the biennial budget, which has been stirring up headlines in the past week. For months, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon vehemently objected to a biennial budget – unequivocally and outspokenly.
In terms of benefits to the economy, Kahlon knows that there is not one person – aside from Yuval Steinitz – that truly believes in the biennial budget initiative, and that not one country has chosen to adopt such a fiscal framework. Outside of Bahrain, that is.
Politically speaking, Kahlon is convinced that a biennial budget would make him a pawn in Netanyahu’s hands. Until not long ago, Kahlon maintained that a biennial budget would eliminate any leverage he had vis-à-vis the prime minister.
What happened though? Where has his passionate opposition gone? Had the minister suddenly recalled a sacred commitment to the coalition agreement?
This unexpected change of heart stems from a simple and dismal reason: Kahlon has been gripped by fear of early elections, in which, according to polls, his party Kulanu would be reduced to a “mini-Kulanu”. Alongside Kahlon, the rest of the coalition MKs will vote “aye” on the biennial budget, not because Steinitz swayed them with some “logical scientific missile”, but simply because they’re a-f-r-a-i-d.
This fear-effect seems to have engulfed Israel’s housing market as well.
The origins of the current housing crunch are in the latter days of Ehud Olmert’s administration. It has since ballooned into epic proportions on a national scale, and it is steamrolling over young couples, and their parents, for that matter. The shortage in affordable housing has been exacting a heavy toll on Israel’s middle class in the seven years of Netanyahu’s reign, since 2009.
Finance ministers – from Yair Lapid to Moshe Kahlon – came and went during that period, all serving under Netanyahu. I’ve a already alluded to Steinitz’s “merits”, and as regards Lapid – well, he did put his best foot forward, but that didn’t stop him from tripping out of office prematurely. Kahlon equipped himself with a useful “toolkit” and is trying his best, but he is increasingly frustrated from the slow progression of affairs during the recent year.
Why is this happening? Why can we not seem to climb out of this rut?
There are many answers to this question – there are some plausible and well-known economic explanations, and then we’ve got the conspiracy theories on why the players in the housing field are so adamant on keeping prices high.
But I would like to offer a political explanation:
In order to affect change in the housing market, we need the help of the politicians. Unlike Israel’s high-tech, which is not dependant on the government to establish a strong global presence, the housing problem was born in the corridors of power in Jerusalem; in the deep recesses of a short-sighted bureaucracy that failed to take preemptive measures such as removing existing barriers and providing an adequate supply of land for building.
In order to solve this problem, we need a functioning government led by a determined prime minister.
In the past seven years, Netanyahu has come to realize that he is not being held accountable for the awful housing crisis (nor for any other of his failures). There was a brief moment when his heart skipped a beat – during the tent protests of summer 2011 – but that disappeared into thin air. He saw that his impotence carries no consequences. That’s a fact. With a little incitement and a couple of mistakes on part of his political adversaries, he was right back in the prime minister’s seat. Easy-peasy.
Netanyahu doesn’t seem to pay a personal price for his actions, so why should a negligible matter such as the housing plight of young couples and the middle class at large disturb his peace of mind, while he tucks into another bowl of his favorite pistachio ice cream?
Am I pointing the blaming finger at Netanyahu alone? Not in the least. We are all to blame, not just Kahlon and his cronies at Kulanu. We – the citizens of Israel who fail to hold our public servants accountable for their misdeeds, who’ve grown weary of protesting the injustices, and who’ve forgone our dream of ever being able to afford our own house. We are the Israelis who have accepted the state of affairs as if it was predestined.
Netanyahu, his ministers and his eunuchs, are not a-f-r-a-i-d of us. Barriers or not, his motorcade just keeps zooming by, without seeing what’s going on outside the darkened windows. It’s our problem, and as long as Netanyahu believes that the housing crises cannot topple him from his throne, we’re stuck with nowhere to live, and with Bibi.
