Babies, bathwater and social justice

October 31, 2011 - 3:07 PM by Brian Blum

Social justice protest Oct 29, 2011 (Jerusalem Post photo)

I’ve taken a lot of heat on this blog for not attending the social justice protests over the summer. While I had my questions about the focus of the demonstrations, I admit that laziness may have been the primary non-mover. But when the gatherings returned to the streets this past weekend, I was much more adamant in my opposition – for two reasons:

The protests, which always were somewhat unclear about their proposed end game, now seem to be all about rejecting the Trajtenberg Commission’s recommendations. The protesters want to re-open and replace the current budget in favor of one that emphasizes social issues and, according to some of the protests’ spokespeople, will do so by increasing the national debt.

I’ve written before about why an unbalanced budget is a terrible idea: just look at Greece this week.

Now, from what I can tell, and I’m certainly not an economist, the Trajtenberg recommendations are well thought out and probably the best compromise between increased attention to social issues and fiscal responsibility.

Why not give Trajtenberg a chance? The Knesset will be trying to pass it in the current session, which opens today. Rather than trying to start over from scratch, why not aim the energy of protest towards ensuring that what Trajtenberg proposes actually get passed.

The newspaper this morning is pointing out that various Knesset factions want to vote on each clause of Trajtenberg, one by one. While that may not be a bad idea in principle, it opens up the process to party politics, pandering and populism as different parties see only what will help their constituent’s trees, while ignoring the national needs of the forest.

Some potentially good news: Daphni Leef , who set the whole tent protests in motion back in July, will reportedly be in attendance at the opening session of the Knesset and plans to remain there, either inside or on the streets she says, making sure her voice gets heard. As long as that voice isn’t a naïve call to bring down the current government rather than work towards concrete economic aims, that could be the best result of the summer’s social upheaval.

Oh, and the second reason I was against this past weekend’s return to the streets? If the turn out is too small – and it was: just a few tens of thousands vs. the hundreds of thousands at the last rally two months ago – the whole enterprise could appear as if it has lost steam and relevancy, allowing the politicians to belittle even more than they have already, casting it as a meek sideshow next to the headlines of Gaza and Iran.

Let’s do our best to ensure that a social agenda stays on the top of the Knesset’s deliberations. But give up on all this talk of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The bathwater may need some more bubbles, but the baby is doing just fine.

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