Israelis thumb their noses at US and EU: Housing prices in 'settlements' skyrocket
For those who are new or otherwise wondering why I put 'settlements' in scare quotes in the title to this post, it's because I hate the term. To me at least, it gives an impression of being something temporary, and I cannot think of any place populated by Jews in Israel as being a temporary home. Temporary homes for Jews only exist in the diaspora where we are supposed to pine for our imminent return to the land of Israel, and not in Israel itself. Surely as we sit a few days before Tisha b'Av, the fast that commemorates the destruction of the two Temples, we must understand that our forefathers were not sitting around waiting for their homes to be destroyed, even if they knew through the prophets that it was going to happen. Enough for my soapbox.
Israelis are becoming more secure that in fact the land of Israel - all of Israel - will remain ours. As a result, Jews are snapping up homes in Judea and Samaria as fast as they can be built, and prices are skyrocketing. The picture above is a partial view of Givat Zev, which is right outside Jerusalem, and which has been growing by leaps and bounds, filling more and more of the land that has been considered part of that town before the 1993 Oslo Accords. The picture was taken in April of this year.
But what's more impressive, as you will see in this article, is that Kfar Tapuach, which is not part of a 'settlement bloc' like Givat Zev, has also seen its home prices rising.
The
first time Michal Ronen traveled to her rental apartment in this Jewish
settlement in the occupied Palestinian territories, a firebomb struck
her bus.
“I was so hysterical,” she said. “I thought that happens every time.”
Now Ms. Ronen and her husband are looking to buy a home in Kfar Tapuach.
The
eagerness of Israelis to own a home on disputed land is an increasingly
important political and financial barrier to a comprehensive
Israeli-Palestinian peace based on two neighboring states, critics of
settlement expansion say.
Israel
has said that settlements aren’t an impediment to a two-state solution
because many of them could be exchanged for Israeli territory in a
future deal.
Prices
are rising faster in many Jewish settlements than in major cities such
as Jerusalem and Tel Aviv because of strong demand from Israeli home
buyers. Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu’s government is increasing the
incentives for settlers, despite objections from the U.S. and other
world powers to expanding the settlements.
Israel
would almost certainly have to compensate settlers for moving from any
land included in a future Palestinian state, according to researchers at
the Tel Aviv-based Macro Center for Political Economics. That would
amount to billions of dollars, depending on the number of settlers who
had to relocate, the center estimated.
Indeed. I don't trust 'Peace Now' for anything, so take this with a grain of salt, but look at this graphic.
It should be noted that all of the 'West Bank settlements' noted above are in 'settlement blocs,' areas that Israel says it would keep in any conceivable 'peace settlement' with the 'Palestinians.' The United States committed, during the Bush administration, that Israel would in fact be allowed to keep the 'settlement blocs,' a promise that was reneged upon by the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah.' Congress backed the Bush commitment.
While home prices have risen because people want to move to Judea and Samaria because it appears safe to do so, that 'safety' theoretically ought to exist only in the 'settlement blocs.' None of that explains the meteoric rise in prices in Kfar Tapuach:
In Kfar Tapuach, where Ms. Ronen lives, the price of land has more than
tripled in the past five years, according to data from Israel-based
property website Madlan.
...
Residents
of Kfar Tapuach, a settlement of roughly 200 families near the
Palestinian city of Nablus, said house prices have benefited from the
growth of a university in the nearby settlement of Ariel.
Ms.
Ronen said she and her husband, Yuval, moved to the settlement because
Mr. Ronen studies engineering at the university. They live there with
their three children. “We now really want to buy a house,” she said,
adding that they say it has to be now because prices are “going up
crazy.”
Well yeah, but tripled? Ariel has had the university for many years (although it got university status officially in 2012). And Israel is not like the US where you need a Bachelor's degree to be a plumber.
Yes, some of the rise is explained by straight supply and demand calculations: Under pressure from the self-proclaimed 'most pro-Israel administration evah' Israel has underbuilt even in the 'settlement blocs.' But if people felt they needed to worry constantly about being expelled from Judea and Samaria for a 'Palestinian state,' there would be no demand.
Bottom line: The rise in price is best explained by the fact that Israelis feel secure that their land will not be turned over to the 'Palestinians.' And that's good for everyone. Actions should have consequences.
Lapid wants to exempt first-time homebuyers from 18% VAT...except Haredim
Finance Minister Yair Lapid wants to lower the cost of housing for first-time buyers by exempting them from 18% VAT on new home purchases. Except for Haredim. Lapid says that Haredim 'don't need a discount.'
According to the proposal by Finance Minister Yair Lapid, value-added
tax (VAT) would be eliminated for first-time apartment buyers.
According to Lapid's plan, families who get the discount would have to
hold onto the apartment for at least five years. This measure is
intended to prevent couples from buying apartments for the purpose of
trading in them. VAT is currently 18%.
Lapid's plan would provide the discount to Israelis who had at least
one family member who served in the IDF – excluding most hareidi and
Arab families, both groups that generally do not serve. Hareidi groups
and several ministers, including Housing Minister Uri Ariel,
have urged Lapid to make the plan inclusive. Ariel said he supported
the plan, providing it was inclusive – adding that he himself had made a
similar proposal several months ago.
It is not clear if Lapid's condition would stand up to examination by
the High Court. In the past, National Insurance child allowance
payments were given only to families who had a member serving in the
IDF, or who had received exemptions from service. Arab and leftist
groups sued, and after several decisions by the High Court in the
mid-1990s, the government eliminated the requirement.
However, the Finance Ministry on Thursday said there would be no
issue of discrimination, at least in the hareidi sector – because home
prices there were already discounted, compared to the price of homes in
secular communities. A typical four room apartment that went for NIS
1,235,000 in Bnei Brak, for example, would cost 30% more in neighboring
Ramat Gan – and as much as 86% more in Tel Aviv. The apartments, the
Ministry said, were of similar size, age, and in areas with populations
with similar demographics.
Location, location, location.... That apartment in Tel Aviv is in a fancy new tower in Ramat Aviv or Tzahala. The one in Ramat Gan is in the nicer part that doesn't border Bnei Brak. The one in Bnei Brak is on a dingy, dark street. In Jerusalem, a four-room apartment goes for NIS 1.6 million - if you're willing to wait 2-5 years for it to be built. I wonder if they tried comparing Ramat Beit Shemesh Beit to one of the National Religious neighborhoods in Beit Shemesh....
There's no way this stands up to Supreme Court scrutiny anyway (the Supreme Court could care less about the Haredim but they won't allow discrimination against the Arabs). It just shows again Lapid's visceral hatred for Haredim. Like father, like son.
The Levy Report asserted that Israeli construction in Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria is legal, and that Israel ought to legalize the 'illegal outposts.' When it came out, the media went ballistic, and Prime Minister Netanyahu was urged by 'American Jewish leaders,' to bury it in order to appease the Obama administration. And in fact, that's what happened: the report was quietly buried.
Now, with the mendaciousness of the Obama administration on full display, the government wants to resurrect the Levy Report.
A political campaign to push the government to adopt the report
petered out after Netanyahu was elected to a third term as prime minister in
January 2013.
“It’s our duty to ensure that Justice Levy’s report is
adopted by the government,” Rotem said on Tuesday.
He added that its
passage would repair the damage that had resulted from private attorney Talia
Sasson’s initial government commission report on West Bank outposts, which the
government received in March 2005.
Her report focused on the creation of
illegal outposts and argued for their removal.
In contrast, the Levy
report seeks to authorize them and normalize the treatment of land issues in the
West Bank as much as possible.
The Constitution, Law and Justice
Committee debate may be able to shine a political spotlight on the report, but
cannot advance it legally.
New legislation on settlement building would
need Netanyahu’s support and the initial approval of the Ministerial Legislative
Committee.
Since entering office, Netanyahu has rejected the option of
dealing with issues of Jewish building in the West Bank through Knesset
legislation, preferring instead to use existing mechanisms.
First, it could be advanced as a private member's bill, but that's almost beside the point.
Look, I love the Levy report (if you read the links at the top of this post, I think that comes through loud and clear), and I think it should have been adopted over a year ago when it first came out. But pushing it now, like all the housing announcements for Judea and Samaria this week (which I didn't bother to post because I didn't have the time and I don't believe they will ever happen), makes us look like a bunch of spoiled children throwing a tantrum because we didn't get our way on Iran. If you want to push the Levy Report, please, go ahead and push it, but don't drop it like a hot potato when and if (which is admittedly unlikely) Obama gives up on an arrangement with Iran.
And the same goes for all the housing announcements. Do it because it's the right thing to do and not because of Iran. As Teddy Roosevelt said, "speak softly and carry a big stick."
They support yeshivas, don't they? Haredim to lose all housing benefits
Everyone - and I do mean everyone - in Israel gets a government mortgage to buy their first apartment. Now, the government(specifically the finance ministry under Yair Lapid) is proposing that you not get one unless both spouses work. And that's meant to target - you guessed it - Haredim.
Finance Ministry proposes eliminating all housing benefits for haredim,
shifting priority to veteran soldiers, young couples who both work
Shifting priorities is one thing - eliminating all benefits is something else.
Here are all the details I have on this (along with some more economic plans that no one is going to like).
At the same time, the Finance Ministry proposes
eliminating all housing benefits for haredim (ultra-Orthodox), shifting
priority for affordable housing to veteran soldiers and young couples
with both spouses working. The plan also includes the construction of
55,000 apartments over the next two years; 15% of the new apartments
will be designated as affordable housing, and the construction of
student housing in ten city centers will be moved forward as well. The
construction plans also include apartments for rent, as well as
purchase.
Can't wait to see how else Naftali Bennett and his newfound friend Yair Lapid are going to support yeshivas....
Oh and if you want to be a stay-at-home mother no housing benefits for you either....
'Impoverished' social protesters invest NIS 1,000 each... in a pub
Our 'impoverished' social protesters have invested NIS 1,000 each to open one of the 'revolution's most critical needs: A Tel Aviv pub.
About half the revelers at Bar Kiama (Hebrew for "Viable") were shareholders who had invested NIS 1,000 each, and will be entitled to wholesale price food and drink for life.
"It's my bar," one of them said without blinking when I asked them about the place.
One could say the pub, whose founders include Yigal Rambam and Julian Feder, shows protest activists just wanna have fun. But it also stands for building things and setting an example, reminiscent of the beginning of the previous century, when huge cooperatives were set up here.
The bar's address - on Hamashbir Street, is also symbolic. Hamashbir was the first cooperative in this region, founded in 1916 and named by Berl Katznelson.
Even so, class distinctions reared their head. Oded, a former high-tech lad, boasted he had bought share No. 123. He was immediately silenced by Adi, who said she had bought share No. 21 and even signed the founding document.
The fear of being left out was contagious. If I weren't a journalist afraid of being investigated I would have slapped NIS 1,000 on the table. Another journalist, a serious guy in a button-down shirt, interviewed Rambam at length and decided he wanted to buy a share. The problem was, there were no ATMs in the area.
In contrast to most cafes, the new bar does not use plastic water glasses. As a souvenir I took a receipt for the large coke glass I drank from, inscribed "Love for all and long live the revolution." On the other side it said "Cafe Greg."
"It's all recycled," one of the dozens of owners told me proudly.
UN special rapporteur accuses Israel of 'Judaization'
Every time I see us accused of 'Judaization' - an accusation frequently leveled at Israel by the 'Palestinians' regarding Jerusalem - my instinctive response is "What else do you expect us to do? Encourage Arabs to settle there? It's a Jewish place in a Jewish country."
On Sunday, a UN investigator accused Israel of 'Judaization' in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the Negev. Yes, the Negev. In case you're wondering what the next frontier is if the 'Palestinians' ever - God forbid - get their reichlet in Judea and Samaria (with Jerusalem as its capital).
In any event, here's the story of the UN special rapporteur. Israeli activity against Negev Beduin and Palestinians in both east Jerusalem and Area C of the West Bank “are the new frontiers of dispossession of the traditional inhabitants and the implementation of a strategy of Judaization and control of the territory,” said Raquel Rolnik, a special UN rapporteur on adequate housing.
...
In addition, the Beduin and Palestinians suffer from discriminatory practices, including land expropriation, she said.
In east Jerusalem, Palestinians can apply for building permits on only 13% of the area, Rolnik said.
“The number of permits issued is grossly inadequate to housing needs, leading many Palestinians to build without obtaining a permit,” she said.
As a result, tens of thousands of Palestinians’ homes are at risk of being demolished, she added.
More than 70% of the demolitions in Jerusalem are carried out against Palestinian residents, even though they make up only 20% of the infractions, Rolnik said.
Wow does she sound confused. Does that mean Jews can't get building permits either? (Answer - yes).
In the West Bank, security and administrative measures result in the demolition of Palestinian homes, she said, and also limit Palestinian growth and access to livelihood and services.
Rolnik said she was concerned by plans to forcibly relocate the Jahalin Beduin who live in the area near Ma’aleh Adumim.
Last year, Israel demolished 622 Palestinian structures, including 222 that were family homes [What were the rest? CiJ], she said, and 1,094 people were displaced. “This is almost double the number from 2010,” she said.
The largest number of demolitions occurred in the Jordan Valley, she said.
She also took issue with plans by Palestinians to construct a new city in the West Bank, called Rawabi, because it will not provide affordable housing to “numerous communities living in inadequate conditions.”
Rawabi is Israel's first racist city. No Jews allowed. In fact, some Jewish contractors aren't allowed either.
But here's the coup de grace:
The Foreign Ministry, which assisted Rolnik during her visit, took issue with her comments.
Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said her statements “manifest such a profound misunderstanding of basic realities that one really feels obliged to request the honorable rapporteur to go back to square one and do her homework properly.”
Why did the Foreign Ministry 'help' her? Her 'conclusions' were entirely predictable before she stepped off the plane!(By the way, the part of the article I omitted blames the Israeli government's land policies for the high price of housing here - a problem that mostly affects the Jewish community but she didn't mention that).
In response to the use of an antisemitic slur by Raquel Rolnik, the UN Special Rapporteur on adequate housing, Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor today demanded her immediate resignation. Rolnik utilized the term "Judaization" to describe Israeli government housing policy in the Negev, Jerusalem, and the West Bank. NGO Monitor notes that the term originated with Arab rejectionists and has been promoted by fringe non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that falsely claim the mantle of human rights.
"'Judaization' is an anti-Jewish racist term which suggests that the presence of Jews is alien and unacceptable," says Anne Herzberg, legal advisor for NGO Monitor. "This immoral rhetoric is part of the broader delegitimization campaign that is counterproductive to fostering peace in the region. As with the false 'apartheid' analogy, it is invoked with the same goal to demonize. It is the latest manifestation of the 1975 UN 'Zionism is racism' resolution and the 2001 Durban Conference NGO Forum declaration."
NGO Monitor notes that Article 4 of the Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination "condemn[s] all propaganda and all organizations which are based on ideas or theories of superiority of one race or group of persons of one colour or ethnic origin, or which attempt to justify or promote racial hatred and discrimination in any form..."
NGO Monitor also notes that it is immoral for human rights organizations and UN officials to use phrases such as "Judaization," which explicitly endorses ethnically-based exclusion.
"The term Judaization is immoral and employed for antisemitic goals; we expect that it would not be invoked by a UN Special Rapporteur claiming to operate with a human rights framework," Herzberg adds. "Raquel Rolnik's use of it makes peace more difficult to achieve, and in light of this she should resign immediately."
Well, yeah, but don't hold your breaths waiting for it to happen.
The radical New Israel Fund has admitted that, far from being a spontaneous eruption of social protest, last summer's radical #J14 movement (the local version of the racist #OWS (Occupy Wall Street) movement) was the result of 'painstaking work of organizations, activists, academics, organizations and communities over the years.' I'm sure you're all shocked.
Though it earlier denied having any involvement with this past summer’s housing protests, a message posted to the radical leftist New Israel Fund’s website suggests otherwise.
“On July 14, 2011, something happened,” the statement reads. “The social protest, which erupted in unprecedented public dimensions, was largely the result of painstaking work of organizations, activists, academics, organizations and communities, over the years. During the summer months, tens of thousands of citizens organized themselves in new and existing organizations, virtual and community initiatives, local and national groups. Mapping the initiatives, which were initiated by Shatil and the New Israel Fund, outlines the role of this ‘big bang’.”
The website goes on to list the names of organizations and other initiatives that were established as a result of the housing protest and adds, “We see in the protest a part of the social change in Israel. This is the life work of countless activists, organizations and communities in academia, in the media as well as in the government and the business sector.”
“The struggle for an egalitarian, common and democratic state is a struggle that will determine the character of the state for generations. The protest and the organizations established by it make us more optimistic than ever,” the NIF concludes.
Saul Alinsky and the 'community organizer' in the White House must be proud of them.
"I will always be against violence, but if this government does not pull itself together and work for its citizens, people will understand that they have nothing to lose," explained Leef. "The government is not even trying to show results or real changes... During the last two weeks we have begun feeling angry and insulted because we are simply not being answered."
'Palestinians' create facts on the ground, World is silent
Last week, Israel was castigated by the 'international community' for announcing the construction of 1,100 housing units in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo. Israel was accused of changing the status of the disputed territories, and was condemned by the United States, the European Union, the Middle East Quartet, and just about everyone else you can think of.
But over the past four years, the 'Palestinians' have added more than 180,000 new housing units in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, and no one complains about these facts on the ground changing the status of the disputed territories. Not even Israel.
The number of housing units in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is expected to reach a total of 884,385 in 2011, an increase of about 26% compared with 2007, according to projections by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), which released the statistics to mark Arab Housing Day, observed by the League of Arab States on the first Monday of every October.
This year, the Palestinians are expected to complete 33,822 dwelling units, according to the PCBS. By comparison, Israel completed 33,128 units in 2010, according to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics.
“There is a huge need for construction since there is a deficit of more than 70,000 housing units,” Mohammad Shtayyeh, a former Palestinian minister of public works and housing, told The Media Line.
While settlement building in the West Bank has received the world’s attention, much more residential construction is being done by Palestinians, as foreign assistance creates jobs and put money into people’s pockets. The economy of the West Bank grew 8% in 2010, although the pace of growth slowed in the first half of this year as foreign aid dried up – a development that could slow new construction as well.
In the meantime however, so much building is going one that Palestinians are forsaking private homes for apartment life. For the first time, more Palestinians live in apartments (50%) than in a house (48%), mainly due to a shortage of land but also due to their growing urbanization, particularly in the cities of Ramallah and Nablus.
“Ramallah is different, because of the government and ministries and private sector and the NGOs [non-government organizations], so it has to have public buildings and office buildings. There are some 25,000 people commuting to jobs in Ramallah every day,” said Shtayyeh, who served as minister from 2004 until 2006 and again in 2009 and 2010.
The Palestinians are also currently constructing an $800 million planned city called Rawabi, north of Ramallah, which is projected to house 40,000 people in affordable apartments. But in outlying cities such as Hebron and Jenin, construction is more sporadic and of poorer quality.
The bulk of the 2.5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank (according to US Central Intelligence Agency figures) reside in the PA, which controls some 38% of the territories. With a 4% population growth, there is enormous pressure for new housing. The PCBS estimates that 72% of households will be in need for new housing units to be built in the next decade.
The rest of the article is a sob story about how crowded the 'Palestinians' are, but it's based on the number of rooms and, as anyone who has ever lived in Manhattan knows, what's much more important is room size. In Israel, to be eligible for a government-backed mortgage, you either have to own no real estate in Israel, or you have to have less than 10 square meters per person in living space. Oh - and their average rent is $210 per month. Today, I saw a 3-bedroom apartment in my non-center city neighborhood of Jerusalem advertised for NIS 4,200 per month 'flexible.' With the current exchange rate at approximately NIS 3.7 to the dollar, that comes to about $1135 per month for an apartment that's probably less than 100 square meters.
Hundreds of thousands of Israelis returned to the streets in cities across the country Saturday night to protest the high cost of living, showing the resilience of a social justice movement eclipsed last month by security concerns after deadly attacks in southern Israel.
Police estimated that more than 300,000 people participated nationwide, but media reports from across the country said that more than 400,000 joined demonstrations in more than a dozen cities and towns — the most since the protests began two months ago.
The protest was one of the biggest in Israel’s history.
The mass protest across the country had been planned for weeks and was considered by many to be the grand finale of the street phase of the social dissent that has swept Israel this summer. Organizers initially billed it as a million-person march, but had tried to lower expectations over the last few days, saying that it would be considered a success if the turnout equaled the 300,000 people who took to the streets on Aug. 6.
The police estimated that more than 300,000 people turned out on Saturday night, but a company monitoring the turnout for the Israeli news media said the total was about 400,000, with almost 300,000 gathering in Tel Aviv alone. Tens of thousands more rallied in Jerusalem, Haifa and other cities.
Interesting that Kershner notes that despite an impressive showing of 300,000 protesters, it was below the original expectations of the organizers. However she doesn't mention the possibility that attendance was driven, in part, by the concerts offered.
The police have given the organizers a permit to hold a mass rally at Kikar Hamedina after the march sets out at Habima Square.
Eyal Golan and Shalom Hanoch are among singers expected to appear at the rally. Other performers have also been asked to take part.
While earlier reports in the American newspapers stressed the supposed non-partisan nature of the protests, neither the Washington Post nor the New York Times have been more subtle on that angle this time. Kershner wrote:
On Saturday, the main rally in Tel Aviv began with a march and ended in Kikar Hamedina, a broad traffic circle and park lined with luxury stores. Television commentators noted that not one display window was broken; these Israeli protests, largely driven by the middle class, have been carnival-like and nonviolent.
“This square is filled with the new Israelis who would die for this country, but who expect you, Mr. Prime Minister, to let us live in this country,” Itzik Shmuli, the chairman of the National Union of Students and a leader of the protest movement, said from the stage at the Tel Aviv rally.
Daphne Leef, 25, the young woman who pitched the first tent in Tel Aviv in mid-July and invited friends to join her on Facebook, told the crowd that the fact that her generation had stood up and raised its voice was “nothing short of a miracle — the miracle of the summer of 2011.”
By now Daphne Leef's politics are well known, so despite mentioning "middle class" the pretense of non-partisanship is mostly absent from this report. This is a point emphasized by Arutz-7:
Press reports at around 10:00 p.m. Saturday evening estimated the total number of protesters at anywhere between 100,000 and 400,000. This would be the rough equivalent of the number of people represented by three to thirteen seats in the Knesset.
The protesters are mostly secular people and the participation of nationalists in the summer-long protest wave has gradually lessened, as details emerge of left-wing involvement in their organization. In Jerusalem, Channel 2 reporter Dafna Liel said most of the protesters are secular people. Liel's mother, Rachel Liel, is Director of the New Israel Fund, which has assisted the protests.
Crowd estimates are always inflated and deflated by politics, but this appeared to be one of the largest Israeli rallies alongside the Old City walls in decades. The police gave no figures. Israel's Channel Two put the crowd at more than 100,000. Mayor Ehud Olmert — a principal organizer along with Natan Sharansky, the Russian immigrant leader — announced to great cheers that there were 400,000 participants present.
"I have never been so deeply moved as I am now to see all of you so pressed together here in the streets of Jerusalem, so excited and enthusiastic," Mayor Olmert said. "This is not a political rally. This is the expression of the deep emotional link of the people of Israel to our eternal and undivided capital."
If not overtly political, the rally's sponsors and its participants tended to be conservative. In addition to Mr. Olmert and Mr. Sharansky, the founding committee of One Jerusalem included David Bar-Ilan, who was spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu when he was prime minister; Dore Gold, the United Nations ambassador under Mr. Netanyahu; Tom Rose, publisher of The Jerusalem Post; and Jackie Mason, the American comedian.
A few things stand out. When editorial opinion is skeptical of the cause, the numbers attending are subject to more scrutiny and the political affiliation of the organizers becomes an issue too.
The 105-page report, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, was completed months ago. But its publication was delayed several times as Turkey and Israel sought to reconcile their deteriorating relationship and perhaps avoid making the report public. In reactions from both governments included in the report, as well as in interviews, each objected to its conclusions. Both said they believed that the report, which was intended to help mend relations, would instead make reconciliation harder.
The premise here is that reconciliation between Israel and Turkey are 1) possible 2) a laudable goal and 3) would be possible if not for the Israel raid on the Mavi Marmara. But Barry Rubin writes, that this isn't the case at all:
The “Godfather” film coined a famous phrase: To make someone an offer they can’t refuse. But in diplomacy there’s the opposite phenomen: To send someone an ultimatum you know they can’t accept. An example of the latter is recent Turkish government diplomacy toward (or should I say, against?) Israel.
Its ultimatum demanded Israel apologize for Turkish citizens killed in the Mavi Marmara confrontation, pay compensation, and end all sanctions against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. This is in spite of the fact that those killed were radical Islamist jihadis who openly spoke beforehand of happily dying if they could kill Israeli soldiers and about massacring all Jews. As for the sanctions, they are against a terrorist group openly declaring its goal of genocide against both Israel and Jews in general and which has repeatedly attacked Israel.
Since Israel refused to surrender to this ultimatum, the Turkish (Islamist) government has expelled Israel’s ambassador just as the new, Palmer report on the Gaza Flotilla incident is released. But while the report claims Israel used excessive force–what is the proper amount of force to use on jihadis with weapons who advocate genocide against you?–it also concluded that the blockade is completely legal and that the flotilla activists acted recklessly. In other words, the Turkish regime demands Israel apologize and pay compensation for those who committed an illegal act in order to harm it.
During the negotiations, some high-ranking Israeli officials wanted to apologize; others didn’t. But it became clear that the Turkish regime kept increasing its demands to ensure there would be no deal. It wanted a pretext for bashing Israel and reducing relations. Israeli tourism to Turkey has already plummeted but is still valuable; bilateral trade had actually increased.
While a reconciliation between Israel and Turkey would be a positive development, the deterioration is not due to any Israeli action but to the radicalization of Turkey's government. So while the Mavi Marmara raid is the pretext the Turkish government uses for downgrading its relations with Israel, it is only that, a pretext. By presenting the conflict between Israel and Turkey as a function of the Mavi Marmara raid, the New York Times is accepting Turkey's narrative and putting the onus of reconciliation solely upon Israel.
Senior officials said the administration wanted to avoid not only a veto but also the more symbolic and potent General Assembly vote that would leave the United States and only a handful of other nations in the opposition. The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic maneuverings, said they feared that in either case a wave of anger could sweep the Palestinian territories and the wider Arab world at a time when the region is already in tumult. President Obama would be put in the position of threatening to veto recognition of the aspirations of most Palestinians or risk alienating Israel and its political supporters in the United States.
The (implicit) premises here are 1) the unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state is a good thing 2) opposing it is the same as opposing the democratic aspirations of the Arab world and 3) supporting Israel in this matter is antithetical to supporting freedom and independence as well as isolating the United States diplomatically.
What makes this more disturbing than the article about Turkey is that this doesn't seem to be just the view of the reporters for the New York Times, but the views of some number of America's diplomats. Again let me quote Barry Rubin, who presents a much different (not to mention undistorted) perspective:
Consider that the United States is on the verge of a foreign policy disaster that could easily have been averted by proper statecraft. The Palestinian Authority (PA, technically speaking, along with its Hamas partner) is about to demand that the United Nations break every Israel-Palestinian agreement over almost twenty years, destroy any possibility of serious future negotiation, reward Palestinian intransigence, and generally make a mess of the Middle East.
The specific issue is recognition of a Palestinian state as existing right now. The result, as I’ve outlined previously, would be catastrophic and don’t let anyone get away with pretending that this isn’t a bad thing or won’t make much difference.
A “normal” U.S. policy would have begun pressing the PA to back down from this strategy almost a year ago, when PA leaders began talking about it. Rather than take quick action—or, indeed, punish, pressure, or even criticize the PA for anything it did—the Obama Administration stood by and made disapproving murmurs from time to time.
We are now facing the consequences of the policy of: let’s be weak so people like us; leading from behind; not rewarding friends or punishing enemies,; refusing to use U.S. leverage (Turkey votes against sanctions on Iran? Let’s put them in charge of Syria’s future!); and generally letting other countries walk all over the United States. I’d love to list other examples of similar issues here but don’t want to take your time so you can fill in the additional details.
It is a measure of the Obama administration's incompetence that it isn't clear what America's interests, friends and enemies are. Thus it is impossible for the United States to wield much influence in world affairs.
3) International law again
As noted before, the contents of the Palmer report have been made public and the report found Israel's blockade to be legal and appropriate. The term "legal" is unambiguous. Yet, in the past 15 months there has been plenty of commentary to the contrary. Consider a New York Times "Room for Debate" feature Rethinking the Gaza Blockade from June 2010. Precisely one of the eight viewpoints featured advocated maintaining the blockade as it was. But if it the blockade is legal and appropriate, what is the purpose of this debate? To change the meaning of "legal?" And if the participants don't know international law, why in the world should they be debating?
The International Committee of the Red Cross - an organization that discriminates against the Mogen David Adom and that hasn't demanded its representatives meet with Gilad Shalit - also declared the blockade to be illegal. But it isn't.
I guess what I'm asking is: does international law represent a universal standard or is it infinitely elastic conforming to the diplomatic, journalistic and academic fashions of the day?
What if they held a 'milllion man march' and only 100,000 came?
What do you do when you call a 'million man march' and only about 100,000 people show up? If you're in Israel, you rely on the media to hype it for you of course. Israel Radio reported at 10:00 that there were 200,000 people in Tel Aviv and 20,000 each in Jerusalem and Haifa. Those numbers are well above those being reported by JPost (102,000 at 9:00 and 153,000 at 10:00 - by the way, that link keeps changing), but Israel Radio is treating this as if it's the biggest event of the year. They've interrupted all their broadcasting and are doing non-stop demonstration as if (God forbid) it were a terror attack. My radio is off.
This is probably the only country in the world where the 'Supreme Court' would issue an emergency ruling on Friday ordering the trains to run on Saturday night for the rallies. Yes, really.
The High Court of Justice ruled on Friday that the Transport Ministry would run increased numbers of trains and replacement bus services on Saturday night, to allow people to travel to Tel Aviv to take part in the "March of the Million" protest.
The emergency hearing was the result of a petition filed by attorney Shraga Biran of the 'Awakening In Jerusalem' social movement, after Israel Railways announced plans to close the Jerusalem - Tel Aviv and Beersheba - Tel Aviv lines on Saturday night.
The petition argued that the rail line closures made it impossible for those without private transport to travel to Tel Aviv to attend Saturday night's social justice protest march.
As part of the judgment, made by Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melzar, Israel Railways have placed a notice on their website stating that extra trains will run on the Tel Aviv coastal line and that the Transport Ministry will run replacement bus lines on the Tel Aviv-Beersheba and Tel Aviv-Jerusalem routes.
Pretty funny. What the Israelis will pick up is that Shraga Biran is one of the wealthiest lawyers in the country....
But then this whole 'demonstration' is really just a massive rock concert, isn't it?
Speakers at the rally include protest organizer Daphne Leif and Sherry Tanenbaum. Performing acts included Eyal Golan, Hadag Nachash and stars of the television show Eretz Nehederet.
You remember Daphne Leef, don't you? The poor little rich girl from Kfar Shmaryahu....
Please forgive my utter contempt, but I recall too many anti-Oslo demonstrations in which the media claimed that the number of people attending was less than the number of seats on the chartered buses. I also recall too many times (mostly in 2005) when police stopped demonstrators from reaching the demonstrations and the 'Supreme Court' was silent.
There are problems with the way our economy is run but the leadership of this protest movement sure isn't going to fix them.
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Friday, September 2:
1) Darth Friedman
Lando: Lord Vader, what about Leia and the Wookiee?
Darth Vader : They must never again leave this city.
Lando : [outraged] That was never a condition of our agreement, nor was giving Han to this bounty hunter!
Darth Vader : Perhaps you think you're being treated unfairly?
Lando : [after a pause; nervous tone] No.
Darth Vader : Good. You know it would be unfortunate if I had to leave a garrison here.
Lando : [to himself] This deal is getting worse all the time!
Darth Vader: Calrissian. Take the princess and the Wookie to my ship.
Lando: You said they'd be left at the city under my supervision!
Darth Vader: I am altering the deal. Pray I don't alter it any further
For the last 30 years, Israel enjoyed peace with Egypt wholesale — by having peace with just one man, Hosni Mubarak. That sale is over. Today, post-Mubarak, to sustain the peace treaty with Egypt in any kind of stable manner, Israel is going to have to pay retail. It is going to have to make peace with 85 million Egyptians. The days in which one phone call by Israel to Mubarak could shut down any crisis in relations are over.
It was an outrageous judgment then; the recent terror attacks from Egypt exposed the perniciousness of this viewpoint. Just as Darth Vader expected Lando Calrissian to accept his changing circumstances with equanimity, so does Thomas Friedman expect Israel to act. By Friedman's logic, Israel must keep Egypt happy, but Egypt need not reciprocate.
While Israel paid with hard, irreversible currency when it handed over land to the Arab side, the Arabs paid with soft, completely reversible currency - that is, words and agreements. Now we are hearing claims that these deals were made with the regimes rather than with the “people”; that is, they lack any legitimacy.
In Egypt there are many voices, including among presidential candidates, declaring that the Camp David Accord with Israel must be annulled or at least changed. That is, change the aspects that pertain to “peace” with Israel. Yet if the Egyptians wish to annul the Camp David Accord, will they return the Sinai desert to Israel? After all, they received this territory through the peace treaty between the two states, after failing to secure it through war. Yet for some reason, this is unthinkable for them.
Why is Israel responsible to make everyone else happy for there to be peace?
Syria will be his real test. The arguments for supporting Syrian protesters are easily as strong as those mustered to save the people of Benghazi. After months facing the regime snipers’ machine guns, tanks and torture, demonstrators are openly calling for foreign intervention. And the regime’s strategic sins against the United States are far greater than those committed by the Libyan Nero. Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah — the two terrorist powerhouses of the Middle East — are Damascus’s closest friends. Almost every Arab terrorist group, spawned in the hothouses of Islamic militancy and Arab nationalism, has had a presence in Damascus. The ruling Assad family has been the great enabler of terrorism against the United States — from the 1983 Beirut bombings to the 1996 attack on Khobar Towers, and quite possibly to Sept. 11 via the operational carte blanche given to Imad Mughniya and Hezbollah. Mughniya, Iran’s dark Arab prince who served as Tehran’s liaison with Arab terrorists, and Hezbollah likely aided al-Qaeda in the 1990s. More so than any Sunni-led Arab state, the Assad regime has reveled in its “front-line” hostility toward Israel.
For decades foreign policy “realists” dreamed of severing the Assads and Syria’s ruling Shiite Alawite clan from Iran and marrying them to the peace process. This delusional aspiration — it ignored the sectarian and religious reality of Syrian politics — appears dead. Addicted to viewing the region through a Palestinian-Israeli lens, Obama may finally look strategically at Syria.
Gerecht clearly believes that the United States needs to get involved because the Syrian government isn't just turning its guns against its own people but has been an enemy in war to the United States and its allies.
After six weeks of tent encampments and rallies featuring popular singers that drew as many as 300,000 people into the streets on the first Saturday in August, the Sept. 3 rally has been described by its promoters as a million-person march.
But for now the movement is in a kind of hiatus, with nagging questions about where it will go. The mid-August attack by Palestinian militants that killed eight Israelis near the southern city of Eilat, close to the Egyptian border, followed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza and Palestinian rocket attacks from Gaza, proved to be a major interruption, abruptly changing the public discourse back to the more familiar mode of Israeli security in hostile surroundings.
In addition, disagreements have emerged among the groups that make up the leadership of the protest movement, along with increasing grumbling about some of the higher-profile leaders themselves. The giddy festival atmosphere that first enveloped the social protest has dissipated. The rows of tents at the flagship encampment lining Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv are gradually emptying.
I wish that Kershner had provided more details about the dissatisfaction with the leadership of the protests. Of course the emptying of the tents may just be a sign that summer's over and that protesters no longer have the time.
Despite Kershner's generally positive portrayal of the protests, Challah Hu Akbar pointed out that a feeder demonstration did not go well.
Some 20 activists from southern Israel marched to Jerusalem from the south and are protesting against the cost of living in front of the prime minister's residence.
The new editor of the Jerusalem Post, Steven Linde defends his decision to fire Larry Derfner:
By trying to rationalize the murder of his fellow Jews by terrorists, Derfner – who has always been the consummate journalist for the Post – went beyond the pale. Consequently we terminated his employment.
The move, I stress, had nothing to do with threats to cancel subscriptions or advertisements; it was an editorial decision taken on moral grounds. While politically independent, the Post is a quintessentially Zionist newspaper priding itself on its patriotism and credibility, as well as its balanced reporting and diverse commentaries.
If I'm understanding Linde he's arguing that Derfner's post was similar to yelling "fire" in crowded movie theater. So he, in turn said, "you're fired." A rabbi was recently arrested for incitement, so I wonder if there may have been a legal concern too.
5) Followup
Yesterday I wrote that Ehud Olmert was Netanyahu's successor, which is technically correct, since Netanyahu served as PM from 1996-1999 (I didn't write "immediate"), given the context, I meant "predecessor." Thank to Carl for pointing it out!
Poor little rich girl coming into conflict with more sensible protesters
For six weeks, the media has done its darnedest to keep a lid on a simmering conflict between Kfar Shmaryahu poor little rich girl Daphne Leef and her friends, on the one hand, and the real social protesters who have something at stake aside from a Tel Aviv luxury apartment rental on the other hand. The real social protesters seem to be quite sensible and don't believe that the country's budget has to be busted and its defenses gutted to fix what's wrong. But Israel's Leftist media (much of which is controlled by the 'tycoons') is only interested in Leef and her friends.
Nonetheless, 44-year-old Attorney Yaniv Moyal of Tel Aviv said that the social issues movement has suffered because of the emphasis placed upon 26-year-old Daphni Leef and her friends, after Leef started the protest with a call she put out on Facebook group she created on July 14th.
One of the founders of an alternative tent protest leadership group called “Protest Tents: The National Leadership,” Moyal said the group was founded in the second week of the protests because "we felt that there should be some sort of sane voice to the protests. Other people in the movement are saying that they won't talk to the government t they just want to yell slogans like 'social justice', but how do you calibrate that? They need to speak logically and with more content to what they're saying. We believe that the way is to talk with decision makers and not to say that we won't talk to them."
Though as the member of a rival protest group Moyal would have a vested interest in criticizing the Leef-led core of protesters, his criticism is based largely on what he says has been the media's anointing of Leef and her close circle of friends as some sort of protest royalty in spite of what he says is their lack of experience or clearly defined goals or demands.
"Ever since week 2 of the protests we've had a set of concrete steps laid out and the media has decided to ignore us because they thought we'd ruin the momentum by coming out against the people who started the protests."
"They've [the media] made her [Leef] out to be some sort of god and then this movement broke out all over the country dealing with the government decisions affecting the entire country. The problems we're dealing with are about a worldview in regard to society."
In regard to whether or not Leef and others are inexperienced for the task at hand, he said "just because a child can yell that the emperor is naked doesn't mean that same child has the ability to sew the emperor a new set of clothes."
He also said that he didn't trust the decision-making process or motivations of Stav Shafir and Regev Kuntas two members of Leef's inner circle, saying "I have no idea what their interests are but I think they're just to bring down the government and if we do that, we'll have elections again and woe unto us."
When asked about Leef's announcement that the Trajtenberg committee should resign, he said "this is the approach of a little girl who wants all of these people to resign. The Trajtenberg committee said they won't recommend breaking the national budget, and you can try to influence them or talk to them, but not just call for them to be dissolved."
He added that while it has been his experience in Israel that founding a committee is typically a way for the government to shut up an issue, he does not believe that is the case with the Trajtenberg committee.
Moyal said he and his organization do not stand alone in their dissatisfaction with Leef and her inner circle, saying "no one supports the fact that we are in the sixth week of these protests and haven’t demanded anything or achieved anything and laid out any real demands."
"There are more than a thousand sources of money in this country that we don’t implement because of the financial interests of the wealthy. We are being run by oligarchs. There is NIS 32 billion that we could raise each year by changing the tax code for the w3ealthy. We don’t need to break the budget.
The government and the Finance Ministry should be talking to these people and not to the poor little rich girl, the New Israel Fund filmmaker Daphne Leef. There's probably a deal to be had and it may even be for the good of the country.
Isn't it amazing what happens when you put this sort of thing into a perspective that these kids can understand (Hat Tip: Debbie R).
Oliver Darcy, a recent college graduate, proposes that students with good grades contribute their GPA to their academically sluggish friends. He argues that this is how the federal government takes wealth from the country’s high wage earners and distributes it to the low income earners.
“They all earn their GPA,” said Darcy in an interview with "Fox and Friends." “So we asked them if they’d be interested in redistributing the GPA points that they earned to students who may be having trouble getting a high GPA.”
Darcy, who films his encounters with teachers and fellow students, doesn’t have much luck selling this theory.
He said many students on college campuses support high taxes on the rich, but when put into relative terms, cringed at the thought of spreading around their academic wealth.
In a video posted on Exposingleftists.com, one student said, “If I do give GPA points to students that don’t deserve it, it isn’t fair, I work for what I have.”
By the way, Israel Radio's Keren Neubach went all out on Thursday morning, interviewing 'social protesters' all over southern Israel. We wouldn't want the 'Palestinians' to distract us, would we?
'Palestinians' distract Israelis from social protesters all night long
The 'Palestinians' made sure Israelis wouldn't think about those social protesters by shooting rockets in the middle of the night - around 3:30 am - to keep Israelis' minds on other matters. That was around the time that - having fallen asleep in front of the computer - I pulled myself out of my chair and lay down in bed....
"During a night air assault weapons a storage site in northern Gaza and tunnel used for smuggling and weapons manufacturing in the southern Gaza Strip" were struck, the statement said, adding that a direct hits were identitified.
Palestinian sources claimed an Israeli air strike targeted an Islamic Jihad sports facility, and killed two people there.
'Sports facility'? In the middle of the night? I'd guess that it was an Islamic Jihad training center....
Earlier, the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket that was fired toward Beersheba and two rockets that were fired toward Ashkelon.
A nine-month-old girl was lightly wounded in the hand when a Grad-type rocket scored a direct hit on an empty car south of Ashkelon.
The baby was outdoors with a parent when the rocket struck an empty vehicle nearby, causing the injury. The vehicle caught fire and the baby was taken for medical treatment.
The late evening salvo of more than 10 rockets came after three days of quiet, since Hamas declared Gazan groups would stop launching rockets at Israel on Sunday night.
Earlier Wednesday, at least seven rockets hit near Ashkelon and in Ofakim. The rockets were believed to be fired by Islamic Jihad, supposedly in response to an Israel Air Force air strike earlier in the day that killed a senior operative who the IDF said was planning attacks against Israel from the Sinai Peninsula.
Four rockets struck in the Eshkol Regional Council and another two hit open land near Ofakim shortly after another rocket fell in an open field north of the Gaza Strip near Ashkelon. No one was injured in the strikes.
'Palestinians' shoot 15 more rockets into Israel to distract us from housing crisis demonstrators
'Palestinians' have shot 15 more rockets into Israel between 7:00 and Midnight on Wednesday night, and a three-month old infant has been injured by shrapnel when her home took a direct hit. But 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud AbbasAbu Mazen says that Israel initiated the violence (which started with a 'Palestinian' terror attack last Thursday) to distract attention from the now-forgotten 'housing crisis' protesters on Tel Aviv's swanky Rothschild Boulevard.
Israel initiated the recent tensions in the Gaza Strip to distract attention from the current wave of socio-economic protests in the country, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was quoted on Tuesday as saying.
Abbas, who is visiting Qatar, told the Doha-based Al Jazeera TV network that the protests have stopped because of the Israeli “escalation” succeeded in diverting attention from the weekly demonstrations.
“Israel has been witnessing real unrest and weekly demonstrations calling for social justice,” he was quoted as saying. “These protests could have grown had it not been for the escalation, which diverted attention from the events. Since then, the demonstrations have stopped.”
Yeah right. Israel hired 'Palestinian' terrorists to murder eight Israelis last Thursday to distract attention from the rich kids sleeping in tents in Tel Aviv. What a bleeping moron.
Although the trends were uneven, on the whole, apartment prices in Israel fell in the second quarter of this year, while rents rose.
The average home price fell 6.5% in Tel Aviv to NIS 1.83 million in the second quarter from NIS 1.96 in the preceding quarter, and fell by 0.2% in Jerusalem to NIS 1.53 million from NIS 1.54 million. The drops affected the high-end market more than the low-end market. In Tel Aviv, the average price of a 4.5-5 room apartment fell 15% to NIS 3.06 million in the second quarter from NIS 3.62 million in the corresponding quarter, but the average price of a 2.5-3 room apartment rose 1.4% to NIS 1.66 million from NIS 1.64 million.
The average home price in Haifa rose 10.7% to NIS 801,600 in the second quarter from NIS 723,500 in the corresponding quarter. Prices rose in all market segments; the average price of a 4.5-5 room apartment rose to NIS 1.41 million.
The average home price in the Dan region rose to NIS 1.26 million from NIS 1.24 million, and rose in the neighboring Central region to NIS 1.21 million from NIS 1.19 million, but fell 6.6% in the Sharon region to NIS 1.34 million from NIS 1.44 million.
The average home price in the Southern region fell to NIS 776,700 in the second quarter from NIS 794,700 in the preceding quarter, but rose to NIS 724,500 in the North from NIS 646,400.
Even as home prices fell, rent rose, with the exception of Jerusalem. The national average rent rose 1.4% to NIS 3,103 in the second quarter from NIS 3,059 in the preceding quarter. Rent rose in all market segments. In Tel Aviv, the average rent rose to NIS 4,408 in the second quarter from NIS 4,356 in the corresponding quarter, with rent for 4.5-5 room apartments rising to NIS 7,207 from NIS 6,904.
In Jerusalem, the average rent dipped 0.6% to NIS 3,533 in the second quarter from NIS 3,556, although rent for 4.5-5 room apartments rose to NIS 5,249 from NIS 5,149.
For those looking for a frame of reference, the current exchange rate is a bit over NIS 3.50 to the dollar.
There is a widespread belief in Israel that apartment prices will never fall. Building more housing would only mean that people who are currently living in cramped conditions would be able to move to larger apartments. So far, at least, the trend in housing prices has almost always been upward.
Didn't I just tell you all last week that deep down a lot of Israelis are CommunistsMarxists at heart? Someone in Glenn Beck's camp must be reading my blog.... (Cheryl H? Whoever keeps writing to me from Glenn Beck's website?). But because I'm an Israeli and a little less well known than Glenn Beck, I can make comments like that without this happening.
Peace Now called upon Knesset members to boycott Glenn Beck's August 24 Jerusalem rally on Monday after Beck compared the reported 200,000 people who attended the August 6 housing rally in Tel Aviv to Communists.
In a video clip from Beck's show entitled "Radical leftists protest in Israel" that was posted on his website, Beck mocked the protesters' demands for guaranteed housing, raising the minimum wage, and providing education for children aged three months.
"That worked out well for the Soviets," Beck said when told about the protesters' demands.
He suggested solving the housing shortage by building in Judea and Samaria and questioned where the protesters' funding came from.
"Why even look if there is any leftist global financing involved?" Beck asked.
"Do not look to see if there is any Islamist movement that is joining them."
Beck then spoke about joint efforts between socialists and Islamists in history and noted that Islamists worked together with the Nazis, using the alternative name for the Nazi party, the National Socialists.
Let's go to the videotape.
'Peace Now' director Yariv Guggenheimer Oppenheimer was furious.
Peace Now secretary-general Yariv Openheimer said MKs should not attend the rally and should condemn Beck's comments.
"What he said is very problematic," Openheimer said. "Because of Netanyahu's policies, our only friends that we have left in the world are crazy, racist, extremist lunatics like Glen Beck."
I am sure that many of you are familiar with the word Alinskyite, being a reference to Saul Alinsky, the community organizer and radical activist who inspired the current President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama.
Jonathan Spyer argues that while the leaders of the current protests in Israel are Alinskyites, most of the protesters are not, and will not latch onto the radical ideas of those running the demonstrations. But he urges the government to be responsive to the rank and file demonstrators.
That demonstration leaders and organizers indeed have a political agenda is easy to spot. Many have clear affiliations indicating their hostility both to the current government and to mainstream Israeli positions. Funding is coming from the New Israel Fund and its operational group, Shatil.
Yehudit Ilani, for example, a leader of the protests in Jaffa, is an Israeli-Jewish member of the hardline, Arab nationalist party Balad, which openly supports dismantling Jewish statehood and the ‘”right of return” of Palestinian refugees, that is, Israel’s destruction. The party’s original leader, Azmi Bishara, fled Israel after coming under suspicion of spying for Hizballah and is now openly backing that group from exile. One of its elected members, Haneen Zoabi, supports a nuclear Iran.
Dafni Leef, another protest leader, is an employee of the New Israel Fund. Alon Lee Green, another of the most prominent organizers, is a member of Hadash, the Israeli Communist Party. And so on.
Their motive in promoting social protest is highly political. The Israeli public long ago rejected their positions on the key national issues facing the country, thus consigning them to political irrelevance. They hope social issues will gain them re-admission to the debate. As Dimi Reider, a far-left activist and journalist, explained it:
We have been protesting against the occupation for decades and the number of our support keeps dropping. If we want to reach out to a broad section of the population, we need, at least temporarily, to put the occupation aside.
And yet these manipulators are able to gain an audience only because a large section of Israel’s population, with much justification, feels the burden being placed on them is impossible. Skilled and educated professionals are expected to work for salaries a mere fraction of those earned by their contemporaries in other developed countries. At the same time, food and consumer goods prices in Israel are among the highest in the West. Apartment prices, too, have reached a point where purchasing a property has become a distant dream for many young couples.
This population is not a crowd of freeloaders. Rather, they are the patriotic and responsible young individuals and families on whose commitment the survival and flourishing of Israel depends.
My sense is that the government understands that it must be responsive to the rank and file demonstrators. But it's difficult to tell whether the demonstrators understand that going back to the socialism of the '60's is not the answer. The media only talk to the leaders.
On Sunday morning, as I was riding home from Hadassah hospital in a taxi, the news came on, and the lead item was about a doctors' strike in every hospital in the country. I was reminded of my father's quip from 30 years ago that in Israel, half the country is always on strike, and the other half is watching. (On one trip here, there was a ground workers' strike in the airport, and Dad remarked that there were more ground workers at Ben Gurion than United Airlines - then the largest airline in the US - had in all of the United States). So I quipped to the taxi driver that it was silly to strike because it wasn't going to accomplish anything (they are supposedly close to an agreement).
He came back at me telling me that the doctors are underpaid and it's 'not fair.' I said that they are underpaid, but that's because all the strings are in the hands of the government. The rest of the way home (fortunately by then we had managed to avoid the morning's major traffic jam) he lectured me on the horrors of the private sector. He claimed that during the years when the Histadrut (our national labor union - think of the AFL-CIO, the teamsters and the mafia all rolled into one) ran the country, no one was forced to work on the Sabbath, because the Histadrut wouldn't allow it except for those privileged characters who wanted to and did so at a 700% (I never realized it was that much) premium! Today, he claims, companies use employment agencies to skirt the law and then exclude Sabbath observers from jobs. I don't have the facts and figures to prove him incorrect, but it seems to me that there are other ways to deal with these types of issues aside from going back to socialism.
Bottom line - our overall tax burden is among the highest in the world, and there is nothing that would help us and our economy more than lowering it.
LATMA tribal update: Remembering Gush Katif, Elhanan is interrogated, the raven who would be king
Here's the weekly LATMA update. The three featured skits are a song in memory of Gush Katif, Elhanan is interrogated by Israel's thought police and the raven who would be king.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
