Having had assisted in the founding of Shinui—I volunteered as a non-party member to manage its US fundraising from its launching in 1974 to its electoral triumph as the united Dash in 1977—I was dismayed, like its many erstwhile supporters, by its failed promise and surprised by its renewed hope.

Common wisdom has it that Shinui’s spectacular gain—from 6 to 15 seats—was due to two major factors. First, the mounting anger at the shenanigans of Orthodox politicians, who in their hubris believed they could play the political extortion game without paying a price, and kept demanding for their constituents ever growing privileges, especially exemption from army service that most Israelis could not stomach. Second, the disenchantment of most Israelis with the left, and its stubborn clinging to its Oslo fantasies and its denial of the disastrous reality it has created.

Tuesday’s landslide victory establishes the brilliant general Ariel Sharon as Israel’s most consummate politician as well. Should he be true to his pledges, articulated in his first 2001 victory speech, to reform the ailing Israeli economy, Sharon may also establish himself as Israel’s greatest social and economic reformer.

There are already those who try to minimize the scale of Sharon’s victory by pointing to the low voter turnout (less than 65%) in Tuesday’s elections. And indeed, as Israeli voters have grown more sophisticated, and as bitter experience has taught them to treat the promises of politicians and government with growing skepticism, more and more of them express either cynicism or disgust. This is not entirely bad. Israeli voters are at long last losing their blind faith in government and are expressing their disapproval of the fact that politics in Israel has become more dirty and brutal than it is in other democracies.

It is sad, but true, that decades after the Declaration of Independence defined this country as “a Jewish state in the land of Israel,” the greatest achievement of a self-appointed group of opinion-shapers who formulated an updated Kinneret Compact, was that everyone who composes such groups agreed to forcefully reiterate the conviction that Israel must remain a Jewish state.

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.