Time for a Shadow Government

Since the election, the government has single-mindedly pursued radical judicial reform.

The protest movement has responded with protests.

But whether you’re pro or con, most everyone can agree that Israel is facing a myriad of other problems that – because of the time and resources being devoted to judicial overhaul – no one is solving.

* Affordable housing
* Affordable groceries
* Insufficient miklatim
* Deaths in the Arab sector
* Mafia
* Bedouins in substandard and illegal living conditions
* Blatant weapons thefts from IDF army bases
* Substandard education across all sectors, including lack of core skills in the Haredi schools
* Insufficient doctors, ambulances, ICU ambulances, ambulance equipment, & medical schools – plus a backlog at all hospitals, all the time
* Inadequate transportation and infrastructure
* Druze relations
* The post office (which totally deserves its own bullet)

This is a partial list of our more easily-fixed problems that the government is not adequately addressing. There are many, many more.

And then there are the more complicated and deep-rooted issues like Iran, Gaza, and the burgeoning Jenin intifada.

Some of these are long-standing problems,  not fair to blame on the current government. But someone needs to fix them.

We need to up our game. And the government – right, left, everyone in between – seems to be too busy with judicial overhaul to focus on these very real problems.

So here’s an idea: If the government is too busy with judicial overhaul to govern, why not enjoin the protest movement to take on some of these responsibilities, like a shadow government? Just start tackling them, one at a time. If the protest movement could fix even one or two of these problems, it would be a big win for the country.

And aside from potentially solving some of these problems, maybe those rising to the challenge would be positioned for the next Knesset. At least we’d know they’re capable of getting what is needed, accomplished.

Or maybe soon, the actual government could start acting like one.