All we’ve been hearing from political candidates and parties running for Knesset in the September elections are arguments over who will and who won’t enter a coalition with Netanyahu, ultra-Orthodox or the left-wing.
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We've been shown every strategic dilemma facing the parties and heard every combative politician once uniting, and then splitting up, then uniting again, all in an effort to pinpoint the exact voter preference.
But on one important subject we hear and see nothing from either side of the political spectrum, though it will no doubt become the main subject of discussion one day after the elections, is the economy.
The new government will have to take the economic crisis up before anything else, the huge budget deficit and the cuts it will require will have to be addressed.
Still for now? Nothing but crickets. Will we have to wait until there is a new finance minister, a new economy minister and a new social services minister?
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Prime Minister Benjanim Netanyahu and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon
(צילום: אלכס קולמויסקי)
Will there be nothing but silence until the Knesset elects its finance committee? Only then will we hear the politicians speak?
But now is when we should be hearing what our candidates think.
Israeli is facing one of its most serious financial problem in years: a NIS 50 billion deficit, the health services on the verge of collapse; shortage of qualified teachers due to poor wages; infrastructure in need of repair; transportation in need of upgrade; seniors reduced to poverty; lack of funds for agriculture and environmental protection and a cost of living higher than most other countries.
Has any candidate presented a plan to fix any of this? None, Nada, crickets.
Why should they raise the subject?
Talk of necessary budget cuts in services to the public, or more taxes that will be a burden on the working man, or the inability to assist senior citizens, or the needy or the Holocaust survivors, or the aid recipients, are not conducive to winning elections, so it is up to us to force candidates to address the issue and impress upon them that how they plan to fix the problems is a factor in who we chose to elect.
Only parties with solutions will get our vote.
So to the candidates we say: Don't tell us it is easy to resolve, it is not.
Don't tell us we will not be asked to pay, we will be.
Give us the opportunity to understand your ideology and how it will get us out of the hole in the long run.