Netanyahu's time is up
Why is it all happening now? After all, 'piggish capitalism' wasn't born yesterday.
By Akiva Eldar Tags: Israel housing protestFive years ago, in a demonstration of lack of faith in their power to change the situation, they voted their grandparents into the Knesset. On Saturday night, Grandma and Grandpa marched alongside them in the city streets, in a moving demonstration of civil activism.
On the eve of the previous election, 19 percent of respondents, aged 18 to 32, to a poll carried out by Maagar Mohot noted that their main source of information on politicians was from the satirical television show, "Eretz Nehederet." Over the past few weeks, they have been persistently peeling away the ironic quotation marks from the term "Yesh lanu eretz nehederet" (We have a wonderful country ). At the time, more than half of them (77 percent of them secular ) claimed not to care about the elections at all. In the next election, they will be the largest settlement bloc of the politicians, and for that we must say mibeira amikta le'igra rama, or to paraphrase the Aramaic - from a deep well to a high rooftop.
Why is it all happening now? After all, "piggish capitalism" wasn't born yesterday. Seven years ago, Shimon Peres, then leader of the opposition, announced that the government's economic policy resulted in "6,000 millionaires and six million beggars." This economic policy did not change after Peres joined the Likud government of Ariel Sharon.
The middle class crumpled under the burdens of the high cost of health, housing, education, food and gasoline under the government of Ehud Olmert as well. The "system" is not new. Their taxes were too high and wages too low then, too, when the head of the opposition stayed in hotel royal suites paid for by Jewish tycoons.
So why are the young people taking to the streets now, on Benjamin Netanyahu's watch? Why did they reject his great plan in anger and derision even before he finished speaking at the special press briefing he convened last week? How is it that precisely now, after Bibi tried so hard to rally the troops around the flag of "the whole world is against us," that Likud voters are sharing tents with leftist women? Why is it that just as he is mobilizing his ministers against the "Palestinian campaign of delegitimizing Israel," young kippa-wearers are walking hand in hand with ponytailed "freaks" in a campaign to delegitimize the government of Israel? How is it that on the eve of the declaration of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and without the settlements, not a single "Judea and Samaria is here" sign could be seen at the demonstrations?
This summer's protests will provide fodder for more than a few sociologists and political psychologists. Im Tirtzu and groups of its ilk have already solved the mystery: The long arm of the New Israel Fund is pulling the strings that are meant to bring down the government and pave the way to a government of the left.
It is true that the NIF, through Shatil, whose Web site describes it as The New Israel Fund's Empowerment and Training Center for Social Change Organizations in Israel, contributed a great deal to empowering Israel's civil society in general and to the fight for affordable housing in particular. The organization does not conceal its aid to the protesters.
On the Web site, NIF Israel Executive Director Rachel Liel "admits" her "guilt," noting: "NIF is proud that it has supported every struggle by civil society in the past decade and is proud to be supporting this struggle - morally, as well as with advice and resources."
But the New Israel Fund is only the fuel additive to the engine of protest. The main contributor behind getting the masses onto the streets and into tents is Netanyahu himself. You cannot fool all of the people all the time. When the prime minister promises two states for two peoples and continues to pour money into the settlements, he loses his credibility even with the right. When the head of state invites photographers to capture for posterity his visit to a supertanker shortly after dozens of police and firefighter families buried their loved ones, don't be surprised when he turns himself into a caricature when he promises to create overnight a "supertanker" to solve housing problems.
How can a young couple who cannot get through the month, month after month after month, be persuaded that the prime minister is genuinely concerned about its situation when it sees the deputy minister for nothing - one of 39 ministers and deputy ministers - standing at his side during a hysterical press conference?
Netanyahu came to divide and found himself uniting; he came to frighten and found himself frightened. History will remember him as the prime minister who contributed more than any of his predecessors to the battle of civil society for peace and security - social peace and economic security. Bibi has done his duty; now Bibi must go.
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- Capitalism is not deals between a government and insider billionaires. - Capitalism is not insane taxation levels to support grandiose agendas or settlement, torah studying, kibbutzim (and welfare.. just saying) Capitalism - Capitalism is not national "insurance" paid by those who will never see a shekel from it. Capitalism has nothing to do with causing these problems. It could be the solution but I doubt anyone will try.
Its this piggish capitalism which has turned Israel from a socialists utopia where the country was bankrupt, we had very high taxes so the government could pay to run just about every big business ( badly ). A country where big businesses and foreign investors didn't want to invest because Israel was not a place to make money and big business cares about big profit not socialism. Those tycoons you hate, they are actually individuals we can be proud of because they say even in Israel you can make it to the very top if you have good business sense and you work hard. being rich is not something to be ashamed of and poverty is a badge of honor. Israel didn't used to have its tycoons because we were a country of poor and not very rich. In an era of a global economy Israel cannot survive if it embraces socialism and is anti free market. You think the likes of intel can't close their operating plants in Israel and relocate to another part of the world tomorrow if they wanted to? In the modern world governments need to court big business because they are the ones who provide all the jobs. Right now unemployment is at its lowest level in 20 years. What happens when we make the big companies and the tycoons feel unwelcome and so they decide to leave .. no more jobs, no more highest tax bracket earners bringing revenue for the government. You want socialism you will have to pay for it through heavy taxes .. tax to highly and those doctors won't go on strike demanding a pay rise, they will take their skills and go to work in the US where they can make alot of money so we will not only loose our richest people but we will loose our most highly skilled. The housing problems, they are not the fault of capitalism or even this government. If you want to live in Tel Aviv or another big city then your always going to pay a premium and the market decides what a property is worth not government unless of course you would like government to own all property and rent them out rather than having any home ownership. If somebody is willing to pay 10 million shekels for an apartment they will same way if somebody is willing to pay $500,000 for a Ferrari government can't decide what a place is worth. The housing problem in general is because the majority of the secular Jews want to live in the centre of the country and on the coast which creates a land shortage and that drives up prices but if we were spread evenly around the country ..( Negev Galilee etc ) it would create market stability and although Tel Aviv will always be extortionate the problem in general will be solved. Natayahu has 39 ministers and deputy ministers because that's the price of coalition government ( every government left and right has a long list of ministers and deputy ministers and the more parties in that coalition the more ministers you have ). Yes in Israel people have problems, they do everywhere in the world and there are some things the government can and should be expected to do but there is also some things which it is unreasonable to expect the government to do and some things which are unrealistic expectations like the idea people will ever find Tel Aviv and affordable place to live. The government will build new homes now but how long do you think that will last? What happens 10 years from now when the proud owner of an affordable home decides to sell ,, you don't think they will sell at a profit. If the government builds Do you think that because of these protests everybody is going to go home and find out their landlord has decided to reduce their rent or that the cost of buying or renting homes will have changed when everybody goes home? ... of course not, these people are not going to leave their tents only to get home and find a nice letter from the landlord saying I have decided to halve your rent. The bulk of these protestors really don't know what they are expecting. Best thing for the protestors to do now that they have made themselves heard is to go home give the government time to look at the facts and make decissions in a calm enviroment where they don't have to think about immidiate survival, give them them time between now and the next election to make reforms and then judge them next year in an election, if they have done a good job then give them another chance if they screwed up then kick them out, The revolutionary atmosphere though has become counter productive.
The Arab Spring is a one day wonder. It is one of those changes that most if not all Arab Counties have seen it before. From time to time a near God appear & dis-apppear in the Arab world and leaves only lies and destruction and more poverty behind. Just remember Nasser ! Go with no legacy to speak about or remembered with !
"If you ask me, they can just keep spinning like propellers,". The government's fate isn't dependent on a rabble.
there are a multitude of problems bibi has not dealt with, and doesn't seem to have a clue on how to begin, and he indeed is the party responsible for answering. the tent protest needs to move on to a specific acheivable agenda and make alliances in the knesset with centrist parties for the future, or start their own.
as well as the right have had their hands in the cookie jar for two long. You need to LIMIT REAL ESTATE SPECULATION. Limit ownership to 2 apts per citizen and one apt for foreign jewish investors. Land should only be held if one is going to build apts. This is inline with the zionist dream not some idea of being a nation among the nations where foreign or domestic speculators buy up huge tracks of land, and such.
Boo
The head of protesters is living in village of millioners Kfar Shmeriyagu. Was it the biggest demonstration in Israel history. Are all of us stupird?
Watch news outlets.
Even people who are for Capitalism see the system is crooked. Rich companies get bailed out, they get to not pay their obligations. Moneys being channeled by government do not reach middle-class, and pension funds are the cow by which companies fund their businesses, monopolies are defended by laws preventing imports, and so on. Nothing to do with Palestinians, and nobody has the slightest suspicion that under left-wing government things would be different. Unfortunately, the only agenda of the left is pro-Palestinians. This is why right-wing voters will have no choice but to continue vote to the right despite our protests. After all, at the end of the day, the option of having (perhaps) a lower cost of living and giving back the Western Wall is not appealing enough. Its really sad, but left-wing parties here care only about conforming to European pro-Palestinian antisemitic ideology, rather than really caring about the middle class economy. Should a party with pro-Zionist policies and more just social economy come in play it might get many votes. Until then, we really have no choice. I want a two states solutions, and I am ready to give back major parts of WB, but not the Western Wall, not Temple Mount, and not historical Jerusalem. This is too much, and beats the Cottage cheese.
No, piggish capitalism didn't just happen yesterday. But the American printing presses have been printing out fresh new dollars for two years now, and the cost of living and inflation have been going up around the world. In chicago housing (rental) prices have gone up 30% in the past two years. Corn prices, cotton, coffee, they've all gone up. But Ha'aretz is either not educated enough to take this into account, or is being dishonest to its readers and spin things for their political agenda, which is obviously getting Netanyahu out of office, and distracting Israel while the world votes on a Palestinian state. Shame on you ha'aretz.
Nonsense - this protest has nothing to do with the US - or the "left" - this is coming from real need, across a large swathe of Israeli society - and it's roots go back to Bibi's privatization policies of his first term - culminating in today's policies of neglect and disdain for working families. Is it true or not that more resources have gone into building the settlements on the other side of the green line than infrastructure in the heartland - that no preparation has been made for a growing domestic population and for those who might return after an Agreement, because there was no intention to bring large numbers of people home - plus even nudge people to move "over there", because that's where new housing stock is.
You have tonadd that one third of Americans are affected by rampant unemployment. 25 million are out of work
You have tonadd that one third of Americans are affected by rampant unemployment. 25 million are out of work
Israel had the 5th highest divides between rich and poor. I have seen first hand how my Israeli relatives have gone from lower middle class to being very close to be out on the street and with no hope of a better tomorrow. The crunch has nothing to do with this. It hardly affected Israel's economy. This has been going on ever since Sharon took power.
Israel is not only a country. Israel is our first & last front to defend ourselves from the enemies who have tried to eliminated us from the face of the world. Only simple minded thinks about Netanyahu differently or close their ears from what Hamas & the like of them are saying !
Dont forget to close the door on your way out.
- Likud, Yisrael Beitanu, and Shas- have only cared about sticking it to Arabs and "leftists" and helping settlers and haredim. That's it. NOTHING else! So they have done that. They have stuck it to Arabs and "leftists" and they have given the settlers and haredim whatever they want. They havent cared about the rest of the country. We can all drop dead. So now we're coming back from the dead.
your common sense wouldn't fill up a kiddy's piggy bank and you insidious bias would make any plumbing system back up. Admit it, your leftist mantra never succeeded and you are one big failure blaming the ever so popular center-right wing population from getting rid of your losing mentality. Defending Israel is not a 2 sided game- the majority of Israel wants peace but will no longer be duped by bloodthirsty arabs and blind as a bad leftists. admit your defeat and either grow up or move away. A real Moshe, you are not.
this govt is as stable as any in recent history, and they will make it all the way to elections...likud, shas, and Ib have no interest in early elections so save your fear mongering for someone that will buy it
Any nation governed by clowns; is called a circus. Sew, buy or borrow a tent. Nutty-yahu is doing a tightwire act in centerring. Why does Nutty-yahu send underlings to talk to people and not speak directly to them? Why is he always giving speaches that don't address any of the issues at hand? And if he speakss; you know he lies because his mouth is moving.
But now I can also say that he's also one of the best things that ever happened for the Israelis! Let's just hope that these demonstrations don't lose their momentum before their purpose is completed...
... it saves money to camp in the open...