The housing cabinet was the new government's big news. The "new politics" promised salvation, nine ministers sitting around a table to create agreed-upon solutions for the terribly fragmented real estate industry. Instead of each minister worrying about his tiny bailiwick, they would work together to help an entire generation seeking the dream of owning its own home. "This is an emergency," we were told.
The result is embarrassing and dispiriting. Minister of Finance Yair Lapid has stopped thinking only about the state treasury, and decided that he really wanted to lower home prices. Minister of Housing and Construction Uri Ariel agreed, so did Minister of Environmental Protection Amir Peretz, and the others.
The goal was the same, but each minister agreed to embark on the campaign only if he would be the one to sign the battle order. Victory should have only one general, swept up on people's shoulders in the next elections.
Instead of creating a united front, and lining up to fight the tough and complex war (whatever the solution), in the past year, the ministers have mainly been involved in stabbing each other, in the back of course. The finance minister against the Ministry of Finance officials; against the Ministry of Construction and Housing; against the Bank of Israel; and so on.
During this entire time, it is hard to believe that the inaction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not deliberate. The man who promised to keep for himself responsibility for housing (remember his promise to appoint Moshe Kahlon to the Israel Land Authority?) will tell us in three years that that is what happens when he does not get enough Knesset seats in the elections. A change in direction, whether led by Lapid or Ariel, merely complicates matters.
It would be better for these to tyros to gouge each other's eyes out. Netanyahu will deal with Labor Party chairman Isaac Herzog on his own.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 19, 2014
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2014