Bread of Affliction

All of Israel woke up this week and decided two things: commodity prices are way too high and it's all Bibi's fault. Netanyahu said in response that it's all his finance minister's Yuval Steinitz's fault, but he will quickly take measures to improve the situation. He insisted that measures would be what is best for the nation, not easy populism (they just would coincidentally quiet the protest and immediately satisfy the masses.)

It started on Sunday when Ofer Eini, the Head of the Histradrut, threatened a general strike over rising gas prices, specifically in regards to a new 23 agurot per liter tax. This complaint was then tied to the growing unrest in connection to the rising price of water, public transportation, and bread to create a general narrative that the middle class can no longer make ends meet (far less people seemed to care when it was only the poor complaining).

Within days a national poll declared that due to the increased cost of living 40% of Likud voters would not note for them again and if elections were held today, Kadima would beat Likud by three seats. Soon, prominent Likud MKs including Yisrael Katz and Danny Danon, and Likud mayors were yelling at Netanyahu to do something or face immediate political disaster.

Netanyahu (or Mister Economy as he used to be known) seemed generally surprised at first. He never misses an opportunity to talk about how well the Israeli Economy is doing, how we handled the world financial crisis better than any other western country, or how well the GDP is doing. With all his self accolades, he apparently forgot to notice that most of the country felt like they were being left horribly behind. So, he mulled it over for a couple of days (on the one hand I believe in a non-interventionist government, on the other hand it seems like the country might eat me), met with Eini, and came out with a plan:

During a government press conference in Tel Aviv, Netanyahu announced that the minimum wage will increase by NIS 450 per month, gasoline prices will decrease by 23 agorot, the water usage quota will decrease by 20% and public transportation prices will decrease by 10%.

All of this will be paid for by a 2% across the board budget cut. This seemed good enough for Likud, but not for anyone else, and that is where we stand today.

All in all, it seems great for Bibi. He gets some quick points for slightly easing the load, and gets to cut the size of government which stands squarely within his economic worldview.

It sucks for everyone who will not be getting a wage increase, and everyone who drives less than a couple of thousand kilometers. They are going to get through this with very few gains, and less governmental services (education, police, welfare, roads, everything).

What's also strange is the amount of people who think the whole issue is either a matter of increasing world commodity prices that the government didn't address fast enough, or a couple of bad decisions by the Prime Minister. Even Haaretz seems to think that the problem is Netanyahu wasting money by giving in to demands from every coalition partner, and thus needing to raise taxes to cover the costs, and then faced the wrath of the public.

The real issue is actually the overall understanding of Bibi and Likud that what's most important is a rising GDP, and any goverment intervention is bad and any possible privatization is good. This will always lead to huge income gaps and a diminishing middle class, just like we see in Israel today.

What's strange is that these people who are struggling are the same people who vote for Likud. Perhaps they've finally realized that's not such a good idea.

Here are some ideas of things that would work better and cost less:

• sending every poor family 5,000 shekels;
• significant further subsidies for public transportation;
• improvement of public transportation infrastructure;
• increasing the amount of government-subsidized foodstuffs to include all bulk food (this will also encourage cooking with appliances other than microwaves, which is nice);
  
• changing labor laws to encourage local labor at decent conditions rather than importing, exploiting, and deporting foreign workers;
• appointing the author of this blog to the head of the finance ministry.
  

The author also wishes to express, that while he does support lowering (private home) water prices, he supports any and all taxes on gasoline. He also travels an average of 5 hours a day on government-subsidized public transportation.

Meet Shelley

Labor MK Shelley Yachimovitch appeared as herself on last week's Eretz Nehederet's ongoing sketch "Shabbat Tarbut with Rachel and Naganit", days after a Haaretz-Dialog poll predicted as leader she could bring in more seats than any other candidate, in the wake of Barak's abrupt split two weeks ago.

The sketch is a spoof on the opening of the government sponsored cultural center in the settlement of Ariel which many actors and prominent leftists pledged to boycott causing a brief right-wing backlash (Ariel is in the heart of the consensus!) several months ago. In this version, the cultural center opens in a settlement outpost - a joke pointing out the extent to which the government backs these illegal settlements, while insisting they are against there continued constriction. Rucheil (NOT Rachel!) is the over-the-top settler host, who sings awful but hilarious Hebrew takes on American pop-culture songs, and has an overly controlling / weirdly sexual relationship with her younger, shy, awkward piano playing backup Yokenet.

Rucheil introduces Shelley as the most prominent woman in the Knesset (until I get an offer from Kahane), and praises her for being such a strong woman (since you need to be strong to raise 12 children).

In the more political talk Rucheil jokes about how the Labor party has finally officially closed. Shelley defends her party with the standard replies we heard a hundred times from Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Yizhak Herzog, Avishai Braverman: something along the lines of "The Labor party is not over, we have a lot more to offer". Later adding that she is going to stay in Labor to make sure it is a strong social democratic party, which helps the lower and middle classes, on the model of the modern welfare state.

Rucheil laughs and says, noting that we (the settlers) already have a welfare state.

To round off the skit, Shelley insists that she is going to keep working for social causes, like workers rights. She then turns to Yokenet, and tells her about her right to sit while working (a law which I introduce) and overtime pay. Rucheil objects to Shelley’s comments, and breaks into song screaming "here there are no laws, here there is no government, here I’m the defense minister”. Shelley leaves giving Yokenet here card and the number to Kav La'oved.

All in all it is quite hilarious, and tells us much about Yachimovitch. But it hardly begins to do justice to the progressive force and legislation she has brought to the labor party and the Israeli government in the past two Knessets.

According to her website she has authored 17 passed bills as an MK including The Law of Protection for Employees Who Uncover Corruption, The Salary Protection Act - Pay Slips, The National Health Insurance Law for Returning Citizens, The Lobbyists Law, the Elongation of Maternity Leave Law, and, of course, The Right to Work While Being Seated Law.

She has also been a tireless advocate against (Land privatization: A battle is won but the war rages on), Privatization of government companies (Yachimovich vs. Dankner: Nochi is a jobs terminator) extravagant executive pay (The problem with executive pay) and bigotry (Israel bans Arab parties from running in upcoming elections), while supporting raising taxes on gas and oil royalties Raising gas royalties: (A sea of demagoguery), religious tolerance (Shelly and the ultra-Orthodox) – even toward the ultraorthodox, and education (Education minister: Budget cuts drag Israel closer to bottom)

Interestingly, she did all of this while sitting as a member of a right wing, and then extreme right wing collation. Though she strongly opposed the general direction of the coalition she did not join the group of four "rebel" Labor MKs (Ophir Pines-Paz, Amir Peretz, Yuli Tamir, and Eitan Cabel) whom for months tried to spilt from Barak in protest of labor sitting in the Netanyahu government (Labor 'rebels' inch closer to ditching Barak for new party), before Barak beat them to it.

She instead favored Barak’s approach of working from within - which is probably what allowed her to pass her bills, but also gave some left wing credibility to the vehemently right wing government. This may work against her if she indeed decides to run for leadership of her party. Labor needs to clearly separate itself from these sad years of Barak’s leadership, which points to someone who either opposed him, or has been out of the party, as a successor.

It’s also unclear if party head would be a good fit for her. Not to lezalzel on workers rights laws, but the leader of the Labor party needs to get their hands dirty on the bigger issues of peace process and security which she has stayed relatively quiet about in her Knesset career. The leader also needs to spend too much time dealing with bickering within the party in an often feeble attempt to keep a unified front. All of which will stray her energies from the heroic work she has been doing on the social justice front.

Then again Barak got the nod as chairman when everyone seemed to think that for labor have any chance they need to be strong on security. And look where that got them

Blast Off

We moved here before we managed to decide about something pretty basic:  How should we feel about this country?

Some days we despair, which is easier.  Reading the headlines on Haaretz is kind of like “I’ll have the regular”: give me one feature article about something evil the army did to Palestinians, a side of corrupt politicians bickering over public resources, and a new survey revealing that the poor are getting poorer for dessert.  Mistreating foreign workers and refugees?  Settlement growth continuing unabated?  Lieberman more popular than the Beatles?  No surprises here.  We like this stuff so much we literally make a job of taking nice Zionists from abroad to south Tel Aviv to see that even the holy land has drug addicts and sex work.  If you want to arrange the tour for your Birthright group or family Bar Mitzva trip, shoot us an email.

Convincing ourselves that there’s no hope, that the currents of racism and social disintegration are overpowering, and that it’s pointless to try and fix anything, is simple and seductive.

But, on some days we hope.  It’s harder and a lot more precarious.  But it’s the point of everything we do, the choice to demand ourselves to take moral responsibility, and it might – maybe – have some basis in reality.  Once in a while we remember that Israel has deep roots of (imperfect, but important) social solidarity, and deeper roots into the spirit of the Jewish people (with tzedek, tikun olam, chevrat mofet, and all that jazz).  That it used to be one the most equal societies in the developed world, that it created a (flawed) democracy in a colonial authoritarian wilderness, that we have drip irrigation and Arab-Jewish dialogue and the revived Hebrew language and maybe even a few more things to bring the world.

Earlier this week Bradley Burston wrote in his Haaretz blog that despite the apparent surge in extreme right wing sentiment in Israel, a strong, revived social democratic movement is just around the corner. At the peak of his excitement Burston writes:

There was a time when, for Jews the world over, standing up for a democracy-minded Israel meant standing up for yourself, for what you, in your heart of hearts, believe.

That time is back… 

We read this article skeptically and doubted his case.  But we also stood in shocked disbelief at the demonstration that inspired Burston, unable to accept that more than 20,000 Jewish and Arab Israelis actually appeared on a cold rainy night in Tel Aviv for a last-minute rally in support of democracy (Yes, that is now a cause that needs supporting), listening to activists and MKs from Hadash to Kadima (Avoda being the notable exception), but cheering loudest for Nitzan Horowitz from Meretz when he said he is a Zionist because he believes in the Declaration of Independence and its promise of equality.  And it made us remember that maybe there is something to the old “hope” thing, התקווה as it’s known.  Maybe.

Reading the news, talking to monit sherut drivers, and just plain living in this country, we are constantly collecting news and opinions, trying to figure it out where this is all coming from and where we’re going. Are we really on the cusp of a new Zionist social-democratic revolution? Or are we about to fall off the hyper-nationalist / religious / fascist deep end? Or something boring in the middle?

No matter how it plays out, HaOsef is going to be trying to make some sense of it.