1. Can it possibly be that the prime minister of a country- it doesn't matter which hot country in the Middle East - simply deceives his citizens? Pulverizes the public, crushes it, and sells its economic future in exchange for a quiet life and a few more months in office? Such a respectable person - surely not!
2. Can it be that a prime minister changes his mind every hour? One minute he has money to spare, the next he hasn't. One minute up, the next minute down. In the morning the prime minister talks about the free lunches, in the afternoon he makes a manly call about the critical national need for spending cuts, and at nighttime reverts to being a little politician with a little account book doling out the money anew to his friends?
3. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Finance Yuval Steinitz are by now not even zigzagging. They are slithering about under the influence of vertigo. Whoever bursts into tears receives. Whoever waves his fists gets. Ministers with sob stories receive silk handkerchiefs embroidered with millions to wipe away the tears.
4. Correct to this afternoon, NIS 270 million have already been knocked of the NIS 700 million spending cut. The numbers have not been disclosed, but this amount apparently also includes the NIS 100 million out of the defense budget that Steinitz, in a fit of childishness, imposed on Ehud Barak at the last minute. So we're talking about a net NIS 170 million concession on the spending cuts. Netanyahu really ought to sit down and ask himself if this humiliation becomes him, and what it does to his credibility…
5. The stories that have been emerging since midday today from the Prime Minister's Office speak of Ministry of Finance officials who acted belligerently, who did not talk to ministers or ministries, who imposed severe cuts that made no sense, until the prime minister came along and set things right, for the benefit of the public. The Ministry of Finance is undoubtedly aggressive and brutal, sometimes sordid, but that's its job, that how the keeper of the money box works. There is also no doubt that in the list of the NIS 700 million across-the-board cuts that the Ministry of Finance put together, there is in practice much more than NIS 700 million. This is partly a matter of the ministry throwing its weight around, and partly because it likes people begging its favor, but mainly because the ministry knows that the concessions will come. It therefore always, but always, keeps the "reserve" (that no-one ever knows what it is) sacrosanct.
There is not even the shadow of a doubt, however, that Netanyahu a former finance minister who was no mean manipulator and always knew how to get his way knows all this full well. That being so, why didn't he weigh things up? Why didn't he take a day to think it all over? Why did he rush to talk in praise of cuts that he himself cancelled a few hours later?
6. And perhaps there is really no need to cut the living flesh? We don't really have to cut immigrant absorption, home front defense, public housing, the police, the army. We can make cuts elsewhere. The prime minister ought first to cut his swollen government. No-one will feel it if they get rid of a third of the ministers, and completely eliminate the notion of a minister without portfolio. Let's put an end to the oversized staffs and unnecessary costs.
At the same time, each minister will be asked to cut 2-3% of his budget, how he wants and where he wants. If they have such big hearts as they say they have, they won't cut spending on the weak, but on themselves. For example: since every government minister enjoys the services of 6-8 aides, and sometimes more, not including another few sycophants and ego strokers on monthly salaries, let each minister first of all forego 2-3 aides, and also a few strategic advisers and spokespeople. At least until the economy stabilizes.
Ministers, Knesset members, and senior officials might also take the opportunity to shelve plans for upgrades to the luxury BMW, and stay with their existing official cars. When it comes to planned salary rises because of linkage to this, that and the other, announce that you are giving them up. Let the prime minister stand up and say: Austerity begins at home. The first cuts are on me.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2012
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