"Suddenly one morning a man wakes up, feels he is one with the nation, and starts walking," popular singer Shlomo Artzi sang [his popular tune] Saturday night to a crowd of 250,000 who had amassed in social protest. With all due respect to Artzi, suddenly one morning a man may wake up and find he has nowhere to go. He can't even afford to buy a ticket to the Shlomo Artzi concert in Caesarea. He won't have anywhere to go not because of the Israeli economy, or even because of the tycoons who endanger the public's pension savings, but because a tsunami of an economic recession is threatening to wash over the world's stock exchanges. Tel Aviv woke up this morning to the stock market results from the Far East. Europe will learn of today's trends in Japan and Israel. Next comes Wall Street. Today, tomorrow or a week from now it will be clear whether this was a small tremor or a massive tectonic rift. Meanwhile, reforms demanded by the protest movement in Israel must get underway, but slowly. When the clock struck midnight between Saturday night and Sunday the protesters appeared willing to engage in dialogue with the government. The following day, its leaders were baffled. Netanyahu had announced a panel of experts, led by Professor Manuel Trajtenberg, to brainstorm strategies for lowering the cost of living, and they didn't know how to respond. They were mostly concerned that padding the panel with 17 ministers from the socioeconomic cabinet would create a barrier between the experts and the prime minister, leading to foot-dragging. The fear grew when it emerged that the experts would only release their conclusions by the end of September. That's too late. It's close to the Jewish holidays. This arouses mistrust, which, warranted or not, is damaging. The government needs to make two decisions and stick to them. First, it must not breach the boundaries of the state budget and second, it must move forward with reforms on the basis of how bad a potential worldwide recession becomes. Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, the man who extracted Israel from the recession two and a half years ago, far ahead of any other country in the world, should be the one to advise the government now. On a practical level, we can't afford to wait until we have a comprehensive plan. Instead, the plan must be approved and implemented in stages. If the government understands that land in the country's periphery should be provided nearly free of charge to young couples who pledge to build their homes there, or to subcontractors willing to commit to a certain price or time frame, then that part of the plan must quickly be approved and implemented. There is no need to wait until the government makes decisions on other matters, such as how to break the heavy yoke of the tycoons, whether to open the cement market to imports to reduce building costs, or how to advance education in Israel. If the government wants to persuade the protesting public that it is serious, it must act fast and approve its plan in installments. Trust is the name of the game.
