IMRA Weekly Commentary..
07 June '12..
Events this week serve to illustrate the problem with trying to impose a “black-white” approach to a gray world.
A “black-white” approach would take Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s successful defeat of the proposed law (to compensate owners of property occupied by third parties for many years without a legal challenge rather than forcing the third parties to leave) this week as reason enough to walk away from the table.
A “gray” approach also takes into account that Mr. Netanyahu didn’t defeat the bill simply by threatening to fire any minister who dared to vote for it – he provided an ample list of actions to offset or compensate for the stopping the legislation.
This was important on two counts:
#1 There a genuine potential for a significant increase in ongoing Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria thanks to the moves (including transferring some critical decisions relating to construction from DM Barak to a ministerial committee).
#2 The offsetting actions serve to signal the world that despite his enormous ruling coalition, Mr. Netanyahu still is engaged in a very serious balancing act. This “weakness” is his “strength”, as it reduces the world’s expectations with regard to Israeli activities and concessions.
What now?
The beauty of the situation is that with elections expected to be held only late in 2013, performance rather than promises will be the measure of the competing parties and their leadership.
If the announcements end up being empty promises – be it due to red tape or an overtly intentional hiatus, this will be clear well before the elections.
One would hope that someone within the administration would be assigned to monitor this matter in order to make sure that none of the many officials involved in signing off on the tremendous number of approvals associated with construction stages do not unduly delay the approval process.
Then again, there may most certainly be a role for an independent body (perhaps professionals associated with the Yesha Council) to monitor the process in order to provide the leadership early warning of bureaucratic problems.
The existence of the monitoring might discourage government officials from burying projects in red tape while providing ample warning before a wayward bureaucrats’ actions have had a serious impact on construction.
Link: http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=56980
Updates throughout the day at http://calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com. If you enjoy "Love of the Land", please be a subscriber. Just put your email address in the "Subscribe" box on the upper right-hand corner of the page.Twitter updates at LoveoftheLand
.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment