The patchwork coalition has decided to sidelines major national matters in favor of healthcare and infrastructure, but the next budget outline fails the public on both counts.
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As the government gears up to debate the long-awaited state budget it seems that it has lost sight of its own goals. After all, we only have a trillion shekels at stake here.
Agreeing on the guidelines by which the coalition was from was a particularly virtuoso act. Skipping over every essential issue, rightists, leftists, Jews and Arabs came together in compromise and succeeded in formulating guidelines that were acceptable to all.
Together, the patchwork government agreed to sideline decisions on Israel's character, on sovereignty, Judaism, and a few other trivial matters, so as to focus on equally important issues, such as healthcare and infrastructure.
No one disputes the latter. All over the world, if there is one thing that the coronavirus pandemic has taught us is that if you don't have your health, you really don't have anything.
Since the global pandemic erupted, we have also become prisoners in Zion, limited in our ability to travel by air, even for a brief summer vacation, and as a result, our roads have become congested to the point of making any drive unbearable.
Then came the budget proposal, but rather than delivering hefty additions to the healthcare and infrastructure budgets, it fails to deliver. Road 5233, of one the most dangerous freeways in Israel, will have to wait a little longer for its crucial upgrade, and private healthcare will be taxed to the tune of 40%.
So just to be clear: public healthcare is facing cutbacks, private healthcare is facing a price hike, and the possibility of traveling abroad for medical treatments is moving farther away.
The government still hopes to tackle the high cost of living, but here it has to deal with powerful lobbies. The cosmetics industry is facing reform, but will the government be able to withstand the pressure over its plan to open the local produce market to competition, while offering Israeli farmer specialty grants.
Given how fast the Finance Ministry folded on its plans to cut the education and defense budgets, the strategy seems clear: the louder you threaten, the more you get, because the most important value this government champions is its survival.
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