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A questionable 'social' alliance By Haaretz Editorial Tags: Israel, budget The debates on the state budget this year are plagued by an extreme and cynical lack of attention to the matter at hand. While the discussions always provide inexhaustible opportunities to politicians, pressure groups, vested interests and lobbyists to draw out the Knesset sessions to the last possible moment in order to achieve something, and there have always been those who took advantage of the opportunity to rack up popularity points, especially just before elections, this time we are witness to a severe lack of responsibility on the part of two senior politicians. It is hard to expect Shas not to turn the budget deliberations into a boxing match. Its most notable activity, supposedly on behalf of the needy and the vulnerable, and which in effect perpetuates the culture of poverty, reaches a peak on the eve of the budget debates. Shas is the country's largest religious party, but behind it there are also ultra-Orthodox Ashkenazi rabbis, and they also dictate Shas' battle targets. For that reason, Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Eli Yishai clings to his demand that child allowances be increased - going against the policy of the cabinet to which he belongs, which has approved a gradual reduction of the allowances, with the aim of reducing dependency and encouraging people to join the workforce. Yishai's behavior is not surprising, but the odd alliance he recently struck with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz is infuriating. The latter two oppose the draft budget because it "hurts the weak." Were it not so clear that they do not reject any means to expedite the government's fall and pave their own, separate paths to the Prime Minister's Office, it might perhaps be possible to listen to their arguments. Advertisement The draft budget is far from perfect and has been criticized by professionals. (Experts have argued against cutting investment in the business sector and in research and development, against its unrealistic growth forecast and against the cuts to old-age pensions.) Likewise, the choice presented to the Knesset by the finance minister, between defense and welfare, is artificial and unintelligent. Barak and Mofaz argue that the budget is not "social" - i.e. social-welfare minded - and, like Shas, they purport to represent a vulnerable constituency. Neither has offered an alternative budget or submitted to the Knesset or the cabinet a policy that is different from what the treasury has to offer, and in effect they have neither edifying comments on any article in the budget nor an answer to the question of how the benefits they are suddenly championing for the vulnerable would be funded. In recent years the term "social" has become synonymous with superficial populism. Instead of offering credible alternatives to the government's economic policy or alternative principles for the allocation of resources and investments, the politicians take the easy way out and make hollow, extortive, tear-jerking declarations. The public has not forgotten Barak's 1999 coining of the phrase "the old lady in the [hospital] corridor," and the gap between his promises and his actions. Mofaz, from whom the public has still not heard a different (or any) agenda, has for some time been wearing the "social" mantle. It would behoove both these men, who see themselves as prime ministerial candidates, to renounce the "social" track and demonstrate responsibility toward the economy and the state. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Tears of joy Shahar Zubari's bronze medal was Israel's first of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. 'Germ of corruption' Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats his prediction that Israel will be wiped off the map.

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