Today ends the first quarter of 2023 which is the first quarter of the sixth Netanyahu government.
It is unbelievable how in three months magic happened where a government manages to break so many promises in such a short time.
The main thing the government focused on was the legal reform, along with personal legislation (the Deri Law, the Gift Law, etc.), the economy was neglected and as a result the question marks regarding the future of the economy multiplied, reminiscent of Shalom Hanoch's old hit, 'Waiting for the Messiah'.
In 1985, after the days of hyperinflation and the Israeli economy falling into the worst crisis in its history, it became a hit.
A few quotes from the song will prove the brave connection to current affairs: "The stock market has fallen, people are jumping from the roof", "Messiah is in the sky and we are without the money here".
"The public is stupid and therefore the public pays."
And also: "The little citizen is forced to pay big."
Thank God, people here still don't jump off the roof.
And when every economic speech by the Minister of Finance is signed with the words "by the help of God", one can perhaps hope that the Messiah will finally call, but in the meantime what is certain is that the public is paying big.
Public savings, such as the provident and pension funds, have lost approximately NIS 92 billion in value since the beginning of the year, according to a calculation (by De Marker), and in addition, the dollar has strengthened and increased prices and the cost of living.
At least part of the public, the small citizen who supports the legal revolution, is not stupid, but he is certainly naive: high-tech is weakening, money is fleeing and the new technology companies prefer to register in the US and not in Israel.
The dollar is getting stronger, the cost of living is climbing, the governor - and the entire economic elite are warning, but Netanyahu promises that investors will continue to flock here (Photo: Flash 90, Flash 90)
The writings are on the wall
Naive - and perhaps also blind, because all possible warnings are already engraved in any way on the wall.
"Waiting for the Messiah" may have referred to matters between economic and romantic ruin, but the crisis of 2023 is joined by additional troubles such as security matters - close and internal, regional to the north and south and existential - such as the Iranian nuclear issue.
To these must be added Israel's rapidly cooling international relations and of course - the problem the government promised to address: the cost of living.
Who did not warn about what is expected for Israel's economy?
Bank of Israel governor Prof. Amir Yaron warned, so did the former governor and governor, bank managers, heads of the business forum, Nobel laureates for economics, the former US Treasury secretary, economists from credit rating companies, university heads, former economic advisers to Netanyahu and the current heads of finance.
Everyone begged to stop.
Only Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is still sure that the reform is actually good for investors.
Only Prime Minister Netanyahu thinks that this is the time for investors from abroad to come to Israel and do business. And they are alone. It's just that the economy probably doesn't interest them. Because what were Netanyahu and his party members busy with in the first quarter of their term? What did they waste precious time and billions of shekels from the budgets of dozens of government ministries
on Nothing and nothing? After all, the treatment of the cost of living has been neglected, housing prices have been forgotten and even outside of economic matters: international relations have loosened, treatment of the nuclear crisis in Iran has been postponed and internal security is apparently waiting for Ben Gabir's National Guard. International relations are collapsing
. awkwardly by US President Joe Biden.
The one left for medicine is his friend Putin.
"A different league" they promised us - and look what we got.
Moreover, because Biden's position will adversely affect Israel's position in all European countries.
The biggest and most embarrassing tear of all.
While Netanyahu is trying to get pictures with heads of state in Europe, he was rejected by the US, a move that will have an impact on Israel's relations with the world (Photo: image processing, Imagebank GettyImages)
Netanyahu as a Japanese tourist
Netanyahu, who is also not welcome in the Emirates, tries like a Japanese tourist to take advantage of every photo opportunity in Europe.
This week a free trade agreement between Israel and the Emirates entered into force.
Israel was represented at the ceremony by Foreign Minister Eli Cohen and Netanyahu himself.
The Emirates will be represented by the Emirates ambassador in Israel.
In other words, in this picture, those who were absent from it stood out: not a single Emirati minister was seen in Israel's airspace.
And after all this, Netanyahu still fantasizes about peace with Saudi Arabia.
But hey.
Azerbaijan announced this week the upgrading of relations!
It's a shame that Israel's international relations focus on the Netanyahus' weekends in European capitals.
No one is talking about the deterioration of internal security anymore.
The number of deaths in the first quarter of 2023 reached 16.
What is the government doing?
The Minister of Finance is busy with the calls to delete Hawara and then with the failed attempt to delete the weapon that caused the original deletion call.
Perhaps salvation will come from the private militia known as the "National Guard" whose establishment Ben Gabir blackmailed Netanyahu.
I wonder if the heads of La Familia will preside over it.
And what about the nuclear situation in Iran?
This is not my expertise, but you don't have to be a nuclear expert to see that on the day of the order, there may be fewer pilots to attack Iran's nuclear infrastructure.
Netanyahu tried to put the Iranian issue at the forefront of his meetings with heads of state in Europe, only for their part to make it clear to him that the only reason they are on Israel's side and not in Iran's favor is because Israel is a democracy - and to his great embarrassment they brought the legal revolution in Israel to their head.
What can he answer them?
That from the beginning of 2023 the government was busy with more than 100 different legislative initiatives, some of them personal, which were mainly tailored to promote the personal welfare of Netanyahu, his family members and Aryeh Deri?
Not by chance, the government has already won the dubious title of "the worst in Israel's history".
But unfortunately, she even bought this degree at our expense.
On the upcoming Seder night when asked "What will change?"
We can name mainly what has changed for the worse, because at least as far as the Israeli economy is concerned, nothing has changed for the better.
Perhaps there is only a faint hope left that the first quarter for the new government was also its worst - and ours.
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