From slogans to brass tacks

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not reveal the makeup of the committee appointed to deal with the country's economic distress until the clock struck midnight on Thursday. That was a real lost opportunity. He should have chosen three or four ministers, including at least one woman, to lead a team of experts and immediately start tackling the claims coming out of the genuine, warranted protests flooding our public squares.

Protesters already suspect that the government is practicing doublespeak and pulling the wool over their eyes. Every new, unnecessary delay increases this feeling of alienation. That ever-popular phrase “haste makes waste” should be ignored, replaced instead by the maxim that tardiness can sometimes serve the devil.

If the first meeting between the committee of experts and protest leaders had taken place Friday, there would be no need to turn this Saturday into the “Red Sabbath” or the “Black Sabbath.”

In tandem with the government's sluggishness, the protest leadership is crumbling. The protest leaders, incapable of producing a list of reasonable demands and points of compromise, seem to have just fallen in love with the act of protesting. They want it all - and not just money. Like everyone else in this country, they know that Netanyahu's emergency plan of national housing committees may be somewhat helpful. It is not the ordinary protesters who are opposed to the law, but those who are overly ideological and seek to turn the government into a construction subcontractor. This is a move that would spell catastrophe for both the economy and downtrodden public. The protest leaders ought to take a tour of eastern European countries still struggling to fix the mistakes and corruption left behind by Communism - this might just open their eyes to why government is a poor entrepreneur and contractor.

The problem is that the protesters lack leadership with real authority. It's easier to speak in (often true) slogans calling for social justice than to get down to brass tacks. And it's not just the protesters who need stronger management. The Israel Medical Association has an elected leadership that is supposed to speak for the doctors. Yet Dr. Leonid Eidelman twice struck a decent deal with Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz and his cronies, and both times the hunger-striking doctor's followers put the kibosh on it.

As someone who navigates the axis between the social-democratic school of Mapai and the liberalism of Ze'ev Jabotinsky, I know that when the leadership of a democratic society loses its authority, violent clashes and political impotence may follow. Anarchy emerges, followed by the dangerous longing for a “strong man.” Perhaps tonight in the camps filling our cities, the protesters will discuss the erosion of authority in our nation.

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