File under: Man Bites Dog - Politician keeps his word.

Regular readers of this space must have by now sussed the fact that there is no love lost between Bibi and myself; not that he would know me from Adam's off ox if he met me on the street, but still.  As a rule, I find that Bibi is, in the words of The Economist, a "serial bungler."  That his government is based on cronyism and that his comb-over is frankly pathetic.  You know the old saw that goes "How do you know a politician is lying? His lips are moving."?  That's Binyamin Netanyahu for me.  Bibi is a brilliant, gifted communicator, this makes him the master of doublespeak.  "Two states for two peoples," he said not long ago.  Yeah, right.

And so, I find myself in the very awkward, very strange position of praising the man for keeping his word.  When hundreds of thousands of Israelis took to the street to demonstrate for a better life I took a look at what Bibi was doing about it and concluded, repeatedly, that he didn't have a clue.

Apparently, so did he.

I say this because what Bibi did was outsource clue-getting to Prof. Manuel Trajtenberg.  Essentially, BN formed a committee (the preferred way for politicians to kill an issue) headed by Prof. Trajtenberg and gave them carte blanche to research the issues that came out of the protests and make any recommendations they saw fit.  He also kinda promised to adopt the recommendations.

And then a man bit a dog, or a politician kept his word. Quickly after the Trajtenberg Committee presented its report Bibi brought the matter before the whole government for its approval, and failed to get it. Undeterred, he engaged in the arm-twisting and politicking he is known for and brought it around for a second time and this time, managed to pass it.  Bibi? Really?

Wow.

On the face of it the main recommendations of the committee are not all that dramatic, but around here they amount to a sea change.  For example:

• Gradually open up all manner of protected markets to imports.
• Get more of the ultra-orthodox to work, mainly by diverting money from subsidized Torah study to more productive types of education.
• Slowing down, ever so slightly, the growth in the budget of the Defense Ministry.
• Increase participation of private firms in public transportation and diminishing the influence of traditional monopolies.
• Actual implementation of the Compulsory Education Law of 1984 that mandates free education for all from the age of three.

There's more but you get the idea.  Not bad I must say.  I don't agree with all of it and I don't think that this will be enough, but it's a good start certainly.

However, I find that I must steal a line from Aladdin, "now for the caveats, provisos, and quid-pro-quos."

1. Manuel Trajtenberg is a  clever man. He knew going in that any recommendations too much at variance with the current government's policies would be ignored, so none do.  We're getting "social justice" that can pass through the Bibi-filter.  Could be worse.
2. It ain't over til it's over. (link) The usual predators in the Knesset are already salivating over how much they'll get in return for allowing the government resolution to be turned into law.  How much they'll water down the better provisions, how they'll insert extraneous garbage to benefit their little band of supporters, etc.  Par for the course, but that is exactly the type of behavior that sparked the demonstrations in the first place.
3. Bibi might just be Bibi.  It might very well be that all this is a complex and sophisticated exercise to convince rubes like me that Bibi listens and wants what we want, and doing nothing.

Praising Bibi.  Whew, that was hard! I'll have to remember not to make a habit out of it.