At this point in our historic political process there are two critical demands made on us by conditions that are not given to change or delay!
It is imperative that we deal wisely with the developing economic situation and the catastrophe of the inability of our our governments to function effectively. To fix what needs fixing, the educational system ;the water problem; the security conundrum including Gaza, and our large non-working population will need to wait. Not surprisingly these issues are intertwined with economics and poor governance playing a determining factor in each area.
Interestingly, at this moment in political time, as we engage in national elections, the same potential solution may be possible for the two prime issues; economics and governance.
An essential element in dealing with these problem is the potential of what is known in Israel as a National Unity Government. We have had these before with mixed results.
In this case I would add the word secular to this designation. That is to say a government made up of the three major secular political parties, Likud, Kadama & Labor, which after the upcoming elections could well make up an absolute majority in the Knesset (Parliament).
By leaving the religious parties out of the government, rather than courting them, we would avoid paying their exorbitant financial demands for unacceptably large budgets to be devoted to their narrow sectorial interests; thus avoiding wasting large sums for supporting and encouraging the non-working Haradi population and at the same time freeing up those economic resources needed to help mitigate or even stave off a developing catastrophic financial situation.
At the same time, one often mentioned potential contribution to the on-going problem of governance we have been facing for years now. Many agree with the need for a change in the electoral system. It is obvious that the political parties enjoying the greatest benefits from the current system, the many small sectarian parties would not vote for enactment of new electoral policies that would be detrimental to their existence. Therefore the only hope of changing the system is if those parties are left our of the governmental process for at least the time it would take to deal with these two critical problems.
At the same time it is obvious that this kind of government could not possibly deal with the Israel Arab / Palestinian challenge which in any case is not ready for significant intervention at this time.
So be it!
Right now the focus needs to be on the two major challenges mentioned above. Everything else will have to wait its turn and might even benefit from an improved economical and governmental situation.
