As the year comes to a close, Israeli Knesset members are debating the annual State budget. Cuts have been made in nearly every sector of the economy in an effort to make Israeli business more efficient and Israel as a whole more competitive on the global market. This increased efficiency and competitiveness can only be good for Israel as the global market shrinks in reaction to the recent world-wide recession.
The measures introduced in this year's budget are only a beginning. In addition to cutbacks in government and in public sectors of the economy, other measures must also be implemented. Interest rates must be allowed to find their own levels rather than being maintained at artificially high levels by the bureaucracy, and taxes, which are stifling the Israeli economy, must be drastically cut.
Yet, with only this first of measures being introduced, the Histadrut national labour union has decided to flex its muscles by shutting down the entire country. Every public sector company, from the phone and electric companies to national the transportation infrastructure, health care, emergency services, and most government departments, have been brought to a total standstill.
In reaction to the strikes, Prime Minister Netanyahu responded that the Histadrut has adopted a cynical attitude to economic reforms which can only improve the national economy. These moves, and this improvement, can only benefit labour in the long run, but the Histadrut, with classic socialist wisdom, is too blind to see very far beyond the end of its reach. In Israel, sadly, that reach extends all too far. Nearly every facet of the economy is affected by the Histadrut, and every Israeli suffers due to their own selfishness.
Netanyahu also condemned the Histadrut for turning an economic issue into a cynical political maneuver meant only to advance the political agenda of the left. Let me be very clear about this: Netanyahu is exactly correct on this point.
It is no secret that the Histadrut is a vastly over-politicized movement, having a disproportionately large political effect on the country which is not excused by its nominal representation of organized Labour. The Histadrut, with its formidable organization, continues to exercise wide-spread control over Israeli society, and selfishly protects that control from the politicians who were elected and invested with that control by the people of Israel. They are Netanyahu's greatest threat.
In 1995, when grass-roots activists managed to close down fifty-eight major highway intersections throughout Israel, the leftist clique in control of Israel cried foul. Every leader of the left when screaming to any media outlet that would listen that these activists had overstepped the bounds of democracy by taking the law into their own hands and that there could be no excuse and no toleration for such seditious activities as these. Even Binyamin Netanyahu went on national radio to condemn these actions as "over-stepping the boundaries of legality".
As disruptive as those activities were, the strikes currently underway under the stewardship of the Histadrut are far more destructive. If the Histadrut is allowed to walk away from this outrage unscathed, they will only grow stronger and larger, and be further emboldened next time there is reason for them to be upset.
This strike presents a perfect opportunity for Prime Minister Netanyahu to do some Histadrut-busting. Cut this threat down to size. Neutralize its excessive power and allow the economy to be reformed in the way that it needs, for the betterment of all Israel.
As long as the Histadrut is allowed to run roughshod over Israel and its entire economy, no Zionist government will have the power it needs to right the listing ship of the Israeli economy. Without that power in the hands of the government, socialism, and with it the Israeli political left, will continue to enjoy the greater power in Israel. As the governments of Rabin and Peres have shown, that can be a true disaster.
Copyright 1996. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
