Can Central Moderate Politics Save Israeli Frustration?

The current Israeli political coalition was elected on serving the “average Israeli”. A kind of answer to the extremist views of the right and left politics of Netanyahu's previous term. But with this central view, come mostly moderate politics. This seems to be the “modus operandi” of the current Lapid/Bennette coalition. The last few elections, Israelis were told to go extreme. Either right or left, the only solutions to the hard problems: Palestinians, economics, equality, and socialism versus capitalism was in strong single minded policies. So came the Netanyahu/Lieberman coalition. While they took extreme right wing policy direction, the really hard issues were not dealt with at all. Palestinian related issues were simply ignored (maybe that was the policy), the economy slowly spiraled downward (maybe the was the fault of international economic dependence), equality in many areas went out the window (an the trickle down theory with it), and the idea that capitalism can save the day no matter what, turned out not such a great idea (even the rich can lose their money and wisdom). So came Lapid and Bennette (together with Livni and Yechimovich) and offered the middle class what seemed to be the right things. The argument was, right wing politics takes care of the fringe population: the orthodox and the settlers. So the “new” middle ground will take care of the majority in the middle.

 Flash forward four months since the elections and the only thing that seemed to be moving forward is more bureaucratic churning of regulations, new taxation and maybe Palestinian policy (dependent on US involvement.) The orthodox are up at arms with new laws requiring most Yeshiva buchers to join the Army. The lower class and less profitable businesses are angry about higher taxes (raised equally across the board.) Middle class social equity protesters, the so called Rothschild or Cottage Cheese revolutionaries, are feeling betrayed by Lapid. The moderate orthodox, “kippot srugot” don't know what to make of Bennette's promises and the resulting work. They pushed his agenda and gave him their votes, but are not sure what can be done for them. The parties left out of the coalition, shaas and the orthodox, are filled with infighting and confused of how to deal with their position as an opposition to the coalition. Basically, there is lots of noise from every corner, with no clear signal about anything.

While it seems like the political world is in chaos, Israelis wonder if central moderate politics can fix some of the mess left by the right policies (of the last four years.) In general, it seems like Israelis believe in middle of the road, moderate policies. In general, Israel has achieved most of it's big successes with steady moderate effort. The strong real estate market, the diverse economy, and dynamic growth in many different sectors all came from years of work and improvement. Some of the success can certainly be attributed to government support (essentially a correct policy.) Some success in developing markets is a bit difficult at first, yet still government policies are adjusted to help in their business. There is also a strong trend in policy development to adopt policies and practices from international bodies and examples from governments around the world. This trend is slowly flowing through many sectors such as banking, technology, trading (import / export), and business services. This internationalization of policies in Israel is creating a level playing field for Israeli entrepreneurs. In a country where marketing internationally innovative products is the lifeblood or growth, this is one piece of good news.

To be continued...