Why We Fight

On the eve of the fast of Tish’a Be’Av, which commemortaes the destruction of Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago, Israel is undergoing one of the worst crises in its short history as an independent state. Protesters have been hitting the streets weekly, sometimes several times a week, for many months now, in a bid to stop the so-called “judicial reform”. The protests have so far failed to stop the government, and yesterday it pushed through a law that curbs the powers of the Supreme Court.

Sometimes, in the heat of things, one can lose sight of the bigger picture. It is true that these protests started because of the “judicial reform”, but the truth is that there is a much deeper meaning to this unprecedented popular uprising. The “reform” was only the trigger. Israeli society is coming apart at the seams because the majority of Israelis are fed up with where the country is headed.

I wrote before about Israel’s “five classes“, to explain how some classes are more priviliged than others because they enjoy excess rights while having less obligations. The top two classes in this respect are the National Religious sector – led today by the messianic right-wing settler movement, and the Ultra-Orthodox sector (the charedim) – which operate as a closed society that contributes very little (no military service, no tax-paying jobs) while receiving excess budgets and privileges.

The majority of Israelis – who serve their country, obtain proper education, participate fully in the workforce, pay taxes, and generally behave as responsible citizens – have had enough. For years they have carried the above two sectors on their backs. Their tax money goes to fund settlements in the West Bank and to support the parasitic lifestyle of an ever-growing number of ultra-orthodox (who have the highest birth rate, by far).

These Israelis are starting to imaging what would happen if their tax money, instead of being spent on the parasitic classes, went to improving the healthcare system, the education system, infrastructure, public services, affordable housing, etc. In short, if Israel spent the hard-earned money of its productive citizens on things that really matter. Israelis have been duped for too long by the false narrative of “we are all brothers” and by the traditional Jewish compassionate attitude to help the needy. They are now realizing that these so-called “needy brothers” will be the end of them, sucking their blood until the very last drop. In a way, the current government – led by Netanyahu, but effectively controlled by the settlers and the ultra-orthodox – is a blessing. It has opened the eyes of many Israelis to the abyss the country is being driven to, and they are waking up.

It is time to say “enough is enough!” The responsible majority of Israelis needs to protect themselves against the tyranny of the irresponsible minority, to take back control of just priorities and to steer the country back on the right course. This is why we fight.

Israel’s Economy and the “Judicial Reform”

Yesterday was a “dramatic” day at the Israeli Knesset. Parliamentarians voted for their candidates in the committee that selects judges. The ruling coalition, led by Netanyahu, did everything in its power to elect two of its members to the committee, instead of the traditional split: one member from the coalition, one from the opposition. This move is part of the “judicial reform” intended to upend Israel’s judiciary system.

In the morning it seemed that Netanyahu had the upper hand and that he would succeed. As the day progressed, it became clear that he would fail, partly because some members of his coaltion would not fall in step with the move. As the voting was a secret ballot, those members could vote with their conscience against this unprecedented usurpation of power, without publicly going against the Supreme Leader.

Regardless of the real deals that went on behind the scenes, what is far more interesting is how the Israeli Shekel traded against the US Dollar yesterday. In the morning, when markets thought Netanyahu’s plot would succeed, it depreciated by 2% in one hour. But then, when it gradually became clear that Netanyahu would fail, the Shekel strengthened back to the original level.

If anybody needed proof as to where Israel’s economy stands with regards to the “judicial reform”, yesterday’s ILS-USD trading provided a crystal clear answer.

Storm in a Teacup

The latest storm in a teacup in Israel is over the Jordanian movie ‘Farha’, directed by Darin Sallam and streamed on Netflix. Angry Israelis, who never actually watched the movie, cancelled their Netflix subscription, and the Finance Minister vowed he would stop government funds for a theater in Jaffa that screened the movie. So I decided to watch it, to understand what the fuss is all about.

The movie (“based on a true story”, we are told in the beginning) takes place in 1948, during what Israelis call The War of Independence and the Palestinians call The Nakba (“the disaster”). Farha is a young teenager living in a remote village and dreaming of going to school in the big city. Her father is the Mukhtar (village leader) who vows to protect the village from the fighting. When the war reaches their village and its residents flee, Farha’s father locks her up in a storage room and promises he’ll be back. Most of the movie takes place with Farha locked up, watching events unfold in the courtyard through cracks in the door.

A family of refugees from another village arrives, and the mother gives birth to a baby boy. When some Israeli soldiers approach, the father hides the family and tries to persuade the soldiers that there are no guns hidden in this house. The soldiers discover the hiding family, put them up against a wall and shoot them in cold blood. A soldier, wearing a kippah (Jewish religious head cover), is ordered to kill the newborn baby, but he is unable to do so and leaves it to die. Farha tries to break the door to save the baby, but by the time she succeeds, the baby is dead. She walks away from the deserted village into the sunset. The End.

The movie is evidently low-budget, and, up to the point the soldiers arrive, excruciatingly slow. The acting is mediocre, and the Hebrew spoken by the Israeli soldiers is so poor it is evident not much research went into making this movie credible. This lack of credibility, needless to say, extends to the plot.

The director obviously had a point to make: Palestinians good, Israelis bad. One may accuse her – and justifiably so – of providing a one-sided, distorted view of the 1948 war. There is no mention of the historical facts that brought about this war. Most of the blame, agree impartial historians, place most the resonsibility for the bloodshed squarely on Palestinian shoulders.

Someone not familiar with the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict who watches this movie, will surely come away thinking that such atrocities were commonplace. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, there were war crimes committed during this war, but these were isolated, non-representative, incidents. Many serious historians, some who cannot be accused of being sympathetic to Israel, have pored over all materials available in archives and reached this conclusion.

While Sallam’s goal is understandable – she’s Palestinian and believes there was a “Nakba” and that this story is true – but I fail to understand the goal of the protest in Israel. This third-rate, obscure movie would have been forgotten quickly, fading into oblivion before one can say “Nakba”. All the protest achieved was give the movie the prominence and exposure it lacked. Sometimes I wonder about who is the smarter side in this war over the narrative of 1948.

A Failed Education System

On 9/11 this year, the New York Times ran a cover story on private Hasidic schools in NYC. The reporters reviewed thousands of pages of public records, translated dozens of Yiddish-language documents and interviewed more than 275 people, including current and former students, teachers, administrators and regulators.

Here are some highlights:

1. In 2019, state standardized tests in reading and math were given to more than 1,000 boy students. Every one of them failed. In the girl schools, 80% failed.

2. Generations of children have been systematically denied a basic education, trapping many of them in a cycle of joblessness and dependency.

3. The schools appear to be operating in violation of state laws that guarantee children an adequate education … but have found ways of tapping into enormous sums of government money, collecting more than $1 billion in the past four years alone.

4. The students in the boys’ schools are not simply falling behind. They are suffering from levels of educational deprivation not seen anywhere else in New York.

5. For many, the consequences of attending Hasidic schools can ripple across time. Students grow up and can barely support their own families.

I recommend reading the full report. It serves as yet another warning for Israel, which has an independent school ssystem offering similar “education” to ultra-orthodox children. These schools churn out men with inadequate life skills, most of whom will take low-salary jobs (if any), condemning their families to a life of poverty and relying on welfare help from the state. Such a system might be sustainable for the small minority of 200,000 Hasidic Jews living in NYC. But it spells a very grim future for Israel, where, this year, more than a third of first-graders are ultra-orthodox children.

No Duties, No Rights

Two of the sections in the constitution of India are named “Fundamental Rights” and “Fundamental Duties”. The first lists rights such as the right to equality, to freedom, and to religion. The second lists duties such as the duty to protect the environment, to renounce violence, and to assist in the defence of the country. Other constitutions and laws around the world have, explicitly or implicitly, similar rights and duties. In democracies, it is commonly understood that there are no rights without duties, and vice versa. A famous philosopher called it ‘the social contract’.

Israel is no different. For example, Israelis have a duty to defend the country, in the form of mandatory military service (2 years for women; almost 3 years for men). And they have a right to vote.

But there is one group of Israeli citizens who are exempt from the duty to defend their country: the ultra-orthodox religious sector. Every year, almost 40,000 men at the age of 18 receive a “deferral” from military service, which after a few years becomes an exemption. There are of course other individuals who receive deferrals or exceptions from the service for various reasons, but no other sector in Israeli society receives such a blanket “get out of jail free card” by merely belonging to a certain group.

Sign reads: “When I grow up, I will be a soldier in God’s army, not in the army of those who rebel against Him!”

Morally, and in my opinion also religiously, this is an untenable position. Ultra-orthodox families live and thrive in Israel because the children of other families protect them, by serving (and sometimes dying) in the army. They do not take part in this duty, but enjoy its benefits.

My suggestion is to remove a right in return for this removal of duty, thus restoring some balance. Israeli citizens will have the right to vote only if they served in the army, or if they have a valid reason for not having served (e.g., medical conditions, have immigrated after the age of conscription, etc.). This will not only achieve some morally justificable balance; it will also decrease the political power of the ultra-orthodox, the very power which created this discrimination in the first place.

Israel Needs a ‘New Deal’ Project

Following the Great Depression, President Franklin Roosevelt enacted the ‘New Deal’ in the 1930s. This included a series of public works programs designed to revitalize the US economy, providing not only employment but also bringing about significant infrastructure progress: roads, housing, industry, utilities, etc.

Israel needs a ‘New Deal’ like project, but not because of the state of its economy. Despite the covid crisis, Israel’s economy managed to grow modestly in 2020, and unemployment is at around 6% (higher than average, but not particularly alarming). Israel needs such a project because of a jolting reminder it received last night.

At 23:36 a minor earthquake (3.7-magnitude) hit Northern Israel. In recent years, there were a few such earthquakes in Israel or nearby, caused by the Great Rift Valley that runs from Lebanon to Mozambique and transverses the eastern part of Israel, along the Jordan River. The last major earthquake in the region occurred in the Red Sea in 1995, but did not cause much damage. The 1837 earthquake in the Galilee destroyed the cities of Tiberias and Safed, causing thousands of deaths. A major earthquake along this rift is long overdue.

Israel is not ready for a major earthquake. Although building standards have improved in recent decades, many buildings in Israel pre-date these standards. Furthermore, these standards are still a far cry from the most advanced standards of, say, California or Japan. In 2018, the Office of the State Comptroller published a comprehensive study on the state of readiness of Israel in case of a major earthquake. The findings were gloomily predictable: no governance for disaster preparedness, inadequate construction of vital infrastructure (airports, ports, gas pipelines), lack of progress in reinforcing school and hospital buildings, a halt in a program designed to reinforce housing complexes (Tama 38), and more.

Israel’s resources are limited. Other issues, e.g., security, will always command more attention and given more priority. The only way to address this lacuna and avoid a tragic loss of life and a potentially debilitating catastrophe, is to define a ‘New Deal’-like project that will be budgeted and executed “outside” the normal course of business. Israel owes this to its citizens.

Police State

Israel is not a police state, but a recent investigative report by Israeli newspaper ‘Calcalist’ shows that it displays some of the characteristics of such a state.

According to this report, Israel Police has been using software from NSO, a discredited Israeli offensive cyber company, to monitor activity on the phones of Israeli citizens. This included protesters against former prime minister Netanyahu, a mayor suspected of fraud, a political aide, and many others. This activity has been going on for years without any disclosure to the public.

NSO Office in Hezliya, Israel

Using cyber technology to monitor phone activity is not illegal per se. Security forces have been using similar methods, such as phone tapping, for decades. What makes this different is the fact that the police circumvented legal procedures that ensure such activities are authorized by a judge and are limited in scope and duration. The police found a legal loophole – use of spyware has not been defined in Israeli law – and used it. Furthermore, it used this technology to spy after Israeli citizens, who are not defined enemies of the state, e.g., terrorists or foreign military targets. It did so, apparently, with no proper legal or parliamentary oversight.

Every Israeli should be alarmed by this news. Such methods should not be used by a democratic state against its own citizens, unless they are legally validated and continuously qualified by proper oversight. After Edward Snowden exposed the extent of surveillance by the NSA against citizens of other countries, the U.S. Senate enacted the ‘USA Freedom Act’, imposing limits on how intelligence agencies collect information about American citizens. Israeli lawmakers should move swiftly to enact a similar law and put and end to this illegal activity.

Chabad and Tefillin

A storm-in-a-teacup erupted in Israel yesterday, about a supposed proposal to outlaw the practice of asking minors to put on tefillin in public. This practice is a one of the foundational outreach activities of the Chabad movement; every Israeli is familar with their tefillin stands on street corners, shopping malls, airport, etc.

Never mind that the uproar was based on fake news. First, this proposed law was submitted in 2005, and was never approved. Because at the start of every new Knesset session all pending law proposals get re-submitted automatically, this proposal (along with thousands others) resurfaced. Second, and more important, the proposal says nothing about tefillin or about public spaces. It seeks to limit preaching religion to minors without the consent of their parents. That’s it.

But let’s assume for a moment there was such a proposal: to ban asking minors to put on tefillin. The backlash from Chabad and others was that there is nothing wrong in “proposing”, to adults and minors alike, to put on tefillin. After all, they’re only asking, they’re not forcing anyone. Sounds innocent enough, right?

Well, not really. Here’s a short personal story. In a conversation with a Chabad friend a couple of years ago he told me about his teenager son, a smart kid, who was thinking about academic studies after completing high school (or, rather, yeshivah). I jokingly said: “let me talk to him, I think it’s a great idea”. My friend’s face went white and he immediately said to me in a stern voice: “don’t you dare speak with him!” The thought of his son talking to anyone about going to university was too horrifying for him to contemplate.

My friend can choose to educate his son whichever way he thinks is best. If he chooses to shield his son from other views about education, that’s his prerogative. There is no way he will allow his son to have such conversations, and that’s fine.

So why is it OK for Chabad adults to approach minors on the street, talk to them about religion and ask them to put on tefillin? If they don’t want others “contaminating” their childrens’ minds, they should refrain from doing the same to others’ children. And if they can’t help themselves and there needs to be a law forbidding this practice, so be it.

Israel Abandons its Citizens

Last year I wrote about the discriminatory policy of the Japanese government, which limited entry to the country to Japanese citizens only. Permanent residents of Japan who are not Japanese passport holders, including people who have lived in the country for decades, were not allowed in. This policy continued for many long months before it was reversed.

Like many other foreign residents of Japan, I thought this policy was senseless and xenophobic. But it turns out Israel has outdone Japan.

For the last month and a half, since January 25, Israel has closed its airport (practically the only entry point into the country). This entry ban includes Israeli citizens. People who were outside the country were not allowed back, unless they received a special permit from a committee, whose rules and decisions remain obscure to this day. Stories abound about people, many from ultra-orthodox communities, who managed to bypass this ban and land in Israel. Athletes competing in sports events are allowed in. But many thousands of Israelis remain stranded abroad.

This pandemic has caused many hardships globally. But I know of no country that has banned entry to its own citizens. Israel has broken the unwritten contract between a country and its citizens, abandoning them in their time of need and providing no recourse.

The most infuriating thing about this policy is that it is completely unnecessary. Most countries have had procedures in place to minimize the risk of infection from inbound citizens: testing before and after landing, mandatory quarantine periods, etc. Unbelievably, Israel did not require testing for inbound passengers until very recently. Only a few short months ago, the government of prime minister Netanyahu encouraged Israelis to travel to the UAE (following the normalization agreement), causing a spike in infections. There are quarantine procedures in place, but their implementation was shoddy and sporadic, rendering them ineffective. Instead of enforcing testing and quarantine rules properly, the easy way out for the government was to close the airport and abandon Israelis to their fate.

Most Israelis give up 3 years of their lives (and sometimes literally their lives) serving in the Israeli Defense Forces. Israel is among the countries with the highest tax rates in the world. The Jewish religion emphasizes the mutual responsibility between Jews. And yet the government disregarded all this. This is unpardonable.

Plan First, Vaccinate Later

Early in the pandemic I wrote about how Israel and Japan were handling the crisis. I called it the “99% and 1%“. I argued that while Israelis are quick on their feet, acting first and planning later, Japanese are meticulous planners that do not embark on anything before thinking it through thoroughly first. And this is why Israelis typically fare better in unpredictable situations, the 1%.

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since March, and the world has learned much about how to fight the pandemic and how to live with it. I do not believe one can compare easily between countries in such a complex, multi-factor environment such as we find ourselves in. But Japan – if one is to believe the official numbers – has fared better than most nations, in terms of infections rates, and more importantly, fatality rates. As the pandemic continued, the 1% became the 99%, the abnormal became the (new) normal, and so Japan has been better at working out solutions to cope with the crisis. Israel, on the other hand, has continued to handle the situation using mostly zig-zagging and ad-hoc solutions.

Now, as the world prepares for vaccination, once again the differences between Israel and Japan are evident. Israel has elbowed its way past other countries to procure enough vaccines and to ensure their fast delivery. The first batches arrived in Israel last week, and vaccination started this week. Medical institutions have been given the green light to go ahead and they immediately set up phone lines for higher risk populations to call in and set up an appointment. Yes, there are glitches and people are complaining about things, but the bottom line is that Israel will probably end up being one of the first countries to vaccinate its entire population. Act first, think later.

Meanwhile, in Japan, things are proceeding at the customary thoughtful and snail-like pace of meticulous planning. Documents such as this one, posted on the website of the Ministry of Health, outline in the finest details how the system will work when it will start working. As for a start date for vaccinations? Dozens, if not hundreds, documents such as this one will need to be produced first, confirmation and validation will need to take place, and only then things will start. Right now, it looks like it will be at least 3-4 months before the first vaccinations will take place. It remains unclear how long it will take to vaccinate the entire population.

True, one cannot compare. Different countries, different population sizes, different cultures… different almost everything. But one can definitely see, once again, how these differences dictate policy and remain true to character, even in the face of an unprecedented global crisis.