Rabin
The demonstrations in Tel Aviv on Saturday night had a lot in common with the spirit of the week following Rabin’s assassination. Tweets, signs, and speeches, all shared a rhetoric that was attributed in the fall of 1995 to the “Candle Youngsters” (No’ar ha-Nerot). At some point I realized that many of the protesters were the Candle Youngsters. Many, of course, are younger, and were little children at the time. But still, I think that something of that spirit is hovering over the protest. The ethos that by going out to the streets ad speaking out in the name of a nation you can lead change; and also a sense of duty, of a task unfulfilled. The anger and frustration of the demonstration are, in part, a backlash to the solemnity that characterized the Candle Youngsters. It would be a wonderful historical irony if the Candle Youngsters were to bring Netanyahu down, a mere 16 years after they failed to stop his rise to power.
Tahrir
This is not to deny the effect of the Arab Spring, another splendid manifestation of the power of the people when they go out on the streets. Some people are aware of the connection and proud of it (holding signs bearing the comparison), others are surprise and even offended by it. This debate is important, because it encapsulates Israelis’ attitude to their surroundings. Are they willing to accept that their neighbors are humans who share the same basic concerns they do? Are they willing to concede that Egyptians realized something several months before they did? That they actually might learn something from dialogue and openness to their environs?
Comparisons, as always, are worthless if they do not contain an element of contrast. Tahrir and Rothschild are both the result of personal, everyday strife. I guess it is ultimately impossible to motivate so many people without such concerns. Tahrir had a demand and a target which was straight-forward, measurable and compressible into one sentence. Israeli protest has demands that are complex, draw a plethora of contradicting solutions, and require full-scale change of priorities and procedures, rather than the change of government. You might think that switching from tyranny to democracy would be harder than sticking with democracy and shifting those in power, but the hard truth that Israelis are learning, is that a removal of a single dictator is more visible and measurable than shifting the entire structure of a socio-economic system.
Left or Right
Many are asking if this is a leftist protest, or national. That depends on what you mean by left. The demands for social justice, government intervention in housing prices (and other costs of living) are easily identified as classic left-wing goals. They rely on Israel’s past as a welfare state, and the ethos of its forefathers, Zionists who identified with the socialist dream to various degrees. There is no cause for surprise there.
On the other hand, the multitudes of demonstrators are not all of one mind and voice. There are plenty right-wing conservatives or liberals (in Israel, “liberal” is opposite of social-democrat, not of “republican” or “conservative”). They have either not thought through the means the government has to respond to their demands, or they simply are out to express their frustration. In any case, they are very likely to vote to right-wing parties again, and should the leaders of the protests draw connections to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many of their followers will leave before you get a chance to say “September”. So, whether you are hoping or concerned that this protest will lead to the end of the occupation (depending on your politics), I am quite certain this will not happen, and there is no cause for panic or self-delusion (depending on my politics…).
Forming a Socio-Economic Stance
If there is any cause for optimism, and even here I would be extremely careful, it is in the possibility to diversify and nuance Israeli political discourse, so as to allow people to identify themselves as "social lefties" but "right-winged foreign policy" and vice versa.
Holding a socio-economic opinion is based, as any political view, on one’s personal experiences. What would you do if your health insurance was covered regardless of how much you worked, indeed of whether you worked? is it fair that some people work hard all their lives, and still don’t have money to buy a house or pay for a new pair of glasses? What measures of rectifying this would be unfair to others, who are more well-off? Who is to blame for people being poor, and what is the best way the government can help them get out of it? What is the worst way? The practical solutions can be debated, but people need to form their own opinion on such questions, and debate them with others.
These questions might seem rehash of old, endless and pointless debates to American readers. for the most part, they are unheard in Israel, even amidst the Social Justice Protest. I think such debates are a sign of a healthy political system (not the only sign, of course, and not to idealize the American system in any way), and even more than that – they’re plain interesting! So – I hope a culture of socio-economic debates will linger after the protests are over and forgotten.
Forgetfulness
Yes, despite all the excitement of the past few days, there is still more than a fathomable chance that the protests will be over by September, some changes will be made supposedly in response to the demands, but only enhancing Free Market economy in Israel. By the next elections, everything will be back to normal. Netanyahu is a fan of Reagan and Thatcher. He may well have learned from Thatcher that all he needs is to brave the protests, until they blow over, and then continue with his new financial order.
The Ever-Expanding Israeli Middle-Class
The protesters are right, I believe, that more regulation, planning and intervention could ease the cost of living and aid struggling Middle Class families. But one thing no-one is talking about, is that Israel is consistently dissolving its Working Class. The Middle Class is absorbing more and more households, and this brings down salaries.
Zionist revolution included in its ethos a transformation of the Jewish people from Middle-Class merchants, to working people. This ethos informed the agricultural Kibbutzim and moshavim, as well as industries in the cities. This is rapidly diminishing. I am always weak when it comes to numbers, so I won’t pretend to know them, but most professional schools, training teenagers for industry jobs closed by the end of the previous millenium. Manual labor was gradually handed over to Palestinians since 1967, and when that was no longer viable (starting in the early 1990s), more and more laborers were brought from the Balkans, Africa, China, Thailand and the Philippines. More and more Israelis are getting college degrees, and will do anything but manual labor.
The problem, of course, is that no-one (almost) wants to do manual labor. I’d be a hypocrite advising people to degrade their social status and income, when I’m not willing to do the same myself.
But there are measures the government can take to encourage a creation of a native working class:
- Limit number of working permits for foreigners.
- Increase punishment and enforcement for employers of workers without permits
- Increase punishment and enforcement for employers who do not pay minimum wages.
- Limit number of degrees universities and colleges can award each year (esp. in the “practical fields” of Law and Business Management, but also across the board). There is no point with having so many people who invest three-four years of their lives, and at least $10,000 expecting their degree to improve their socio-economic status, only to be faced with the sad truth that employers are not impressed by a BA anymore. The limit will force Higher Education institutions to set a higher bar (this can be coupled with higher demands for the degree itself), and will discourage people from pursuing a degree without passion. At the same time, more options need to be provided for accessible, and affordable (or free!) non-degree courses for those interested in learning, li-shma, for its own sake. Knowledge is a wonderful thing. Confusing knowledge with a depreciating college degree is bad news for everyone.
I’m not even trying to conceal that I thought more about the last condition than the others. I am in Higher Education, and its problems and challenges occupy me more than other things. But the growing Middle Class is one of the biggest unspoken problems in Israel. Foreign workers stay and raise children, who see themselves as Israelis, and will not continue with the menial labor of their parents. They will pursue college degrees and Middle Class jobs as well. So more foreigners will have to be brought in. The cosmopolitan-humanist in me would like to say, “let them in! who cares?” but things are never that simple in Israel. It can work in the US, although I am not thrilled about it there either, but the US is big enough and its ethos inclusive enough to allow for it. Also, unlike Israel, Americans have conquered their problems of First Nations. Israel will not be able to continue as a state privileging Jews, and discriminating two other groups. I wonder, and I am sure this is not original but have not studied it in depth either, if there are connections to be made between the abolition movement, and a feeling that the threat of Native Americans has been terminally removed.
Heavy Competition
Netanyahu has said more than once that his proposed solution for reducing the cost of living, is opening the market to competition, thus bringing prices down. The practical implications are more import, less produce and industry, less Israelis working in agriculture and factories, and Israel relying more and more on the cheap labor of third-world populations (marketed, perhaps, by elegant European / North-American brands). In addition to the fact that this ties in well with the previous point, it also raises two further problems: a. this is not a solution that enfolds social justice. On the contrary. If the “People Demand Social Justice” as they chanted around the country last Saturday night, it cannot be achieved by injustice to those more remote and more invisible. Second, Israelis should consider very seriously if their stance in the Middle East, Europe and the Global community is such that will allow them to rely more heavily on overseas suppliers. Clue: not if you continue fearing BDS you don’t.