Government can no more control powerful economic forces than it can the rise and fall of tides. To effectively fulfill its nightwatchman role—to protect us from internal and external violence and to enforce contracts—government must be kept limited.

I’m amazed that hard-nosed Jewish businessmen in the Diaspora are ready, when it comes to Israel, to suspend their critical judgment and back politically motivated projects managed by notoriously inefficient bureaucracies about which they so bitterly complain when they themselves try to invest in Israel.

The wildest optimist could not have expected that for two consecutive years Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu would manage not only to slash the government budget by very significant amounts but actually shrink our bloated public sector (which employs every third person in Israel) by reducing salaries and eliminating jobs.

That Netanyahu has also begun to tackle one of the thorniest economic problems bedeviling all democracies, the bankrupt public pensions funds, and has also vowed to continue privatizing government-owned assets – including the banks, the ports and the electric and water monopolies – shows extraordinary determination and political courage.

Whoever wins next week’s election will find that Israel is not easily governable, perhaps not at all. It will therefore be close to impossible to implement many of his plans or under-takings. There may ensue a deeper frustration with the political process and even a dangerous despair of democracy.

This is not only because of the obvious reason that made former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pull out of a race he was sure to win – namely, the total dysfunction of a Knesset that is torn into so many factions that only the worst populist measures seem to get it galvanized. It is also because the basically rickety machinery of the Israeli government is moved by the bureaucracy’s own agendas, which often conflict with those of the legislature, or even with the wishes of their titular bosses, the ministers and the prime minister above all.