100 Days to Lapid and Bennett Governing REVOLUTION!

Yesterday (Tuesday 25-June-13) was the 100^th day anniversary of Yair Lapid's and Naftali Bennett's in office. Israeli media and government has taken a page from the American administration change: promise to make sweeping changes in the first 100 days in office. After all, if you have an agenda and you think you can change how government serves the citizens, you should be able to do something right away.

Just as a refresher: Lapid and Bennett were elected as dark horses with 31 total Knesset seats (as much and Netanyahu's and Lieberman's seats) which was a surprise in the last elections. Their promise to the voters ran from more equitable taxation and social benefits to the middle class... to better negotiation with the Palestinians (mostly economically and foreign relations). The big surprise came in the strength of new votes cast for these two new contenders. Lapid was best known as a TV commentator, taking a left wing position. He was also known as a voice of the middle class which was quickly rising during the 1990's to today. Bennett was a successful high-technology entrepreneur looking to make a change in government. Recently he served as Netanyahu's chief of staff and was reported to somehow offend the prime minister and quietly dismissed. Both Lapid and Bennett were are considered more mainstream (central) than Netanyahu and Lieberman. This fact itself seemed to have drawn strong voter support in the last elections. The Israeli mainstream seem to come out against right wing policy of the government headed by Netanyahu.

Flash back to this 100 day government anniversary. While Lapid and Bennett promised big changes in government policy, reality in taxation and legislation is more complicated. Lapid ran on balancing government spending priorities towards the middle class (and less social welfare handouts.) He claimed unjust support of religious minorities and territory settlers. It seemed to middle class Israelis that right wing payback by Netanyahu went too far. But Lapid found out the hard way how changes in welfare budgets can be delayed indefinitely. Bennett on the other hand promised “equality in responsibility” to the state. This term equates to “make the yeshiva students serve in the army”. Much like Lapid, Bennett found out how difficult entrenched government policies are to change. The religious orthodox community has been shaping government policies to it's needs for years. So two well meaning centrist politicians, no matter how smart or how much popular support they have, can simply go away. It is not that simple or that clear cut – at least not on daily basis. But it is somewhat that way. In the big picture, just about all democracies face the same dilemma. Do what seems right and moral (support the welfare of the poor and weak), or go with popular opinion (and leave the weak at the bottom.) This is one moral dilemma Israelis face today. Stay tuned to changes... they are happening every day.