The anti-capitalist demonstration at the recent Israel Business Conference was mounted by the usual crew: leftist youth and student groups, the Communist Hadash party, gay leftists, the Greens, etc. But it was also sponsored by supposedly “mainstream” organizations such as the New Israel Fund and the Israel branch of the US Reform Movement.

Months ago we warned that failure by Finance Minister Silvan Shalom to enact vital reforms may “lead to loss of control and an inability to tackle the numerous crises” threatening the economy.

And indeed, the crisis is upon us. But rather than deal with the immensely bloated and wasteful bureaucratic public sector or with our monopolies and their costly inefficiencies that impede growth, Shalom blames all our difficulties on external causes (which do indeed aggravate the crisis). He tries to weather the crisis by devising a half-baked deal between workers, industry and the government. If miraculously implemented, such a deal may temporarily pacify labor unrest. But it will leave the more dangerous structural problems unattended, with grave consequences.

The just-inaugurated Lauder School of Government’s conference on Assessing Israel’s National Strength comes at a propitious moment. Israel faces grave problems, and both its internal and external policies seem confused and wavering. It is therefore vital for key government, defense, industry and public figures to reconsider such basic issues as the components of national strength, the strategic environment, and what the peace process has achieved.

By midday every Saturday, the mile-long main drag of Abu Gosh – an Arab village twelve miles west of Jerusalem – is jammed with hundreds of Israeli cars. Abu Gosh’s restaurants, shops and markets are crowded with Israeli families who made it a tradition to eat and shop here when Jerusalem’s Jewish shops are closed for the Sabbath. Even today, when incited Arab mobs are attacking Jewish neighborhoods fifteen minutes drive away from here, this peaceful tradition persists; nor can you discern any tension here, except for that of scurrying waiters and busy cashiers servicing the many customers.

In 1977, after being deposed from a half century in power, Labour politicians and intellectuals bitterly accused a public of being “riffraff” and black-hats of stealing “their” country. An old guard socialist leader suggested the voting public must be replaced with a better one. Since then it has become customary for our politicians and media to blame “the public” for everything, even when it just reacts to misguided and inept leadership.

If we have an extremely autocratic and secretive government, constantly making backroom deals at the public’s expense, it is because the public is not democratic enough. If the shekel falls, “the public” is guilty of a run on the dollar, even when few were permitted to buy it, and banks and large enterprises made massive purchases. When stock markets collapse, the public is blamed for panicking, although banks urged them to buy their stock funds at speculative highs, and markets are routinely manipulated.