One Member of Knesset’s success at bringing down the mobile monopoly in Israel demonstrates that when there is a will, there is a way.
On the minds of 99% of Israelis this week was not the occupation, not the bloated new coalition and definitely not Iran. Israelis were thinking about cellphones.
In what was considered a historic moment, the country’s three oldest cellular phone companies – Cellcom, Orange and Pelephone – got a great sock in the eye, when two sleek new mobile operators entered the market last week, instantly undercutting the giants. With several more virtual companies on the way, the de facto monopoly of three identically-priced and identically awful companies for nearly 20 years is effectively broken.
Israelis are overwhelmed and abuzz; they never believed it would happen. News of the cheaper mobile packages dominated television, radio and print news, grabbing the covers of weekend magazine supplements. All week, regular conversations ran on giddy energy, as consumers planned their sweet revenge on the hated mobile operators.
Israelis had resigned themselves to a life of permanent rage against exorbitant and arbitrary costs, lengthy commitment plans and astronomical exit penalties. In 2011, the revenue on wireless services as a percentage of per capita wages was higher in Israel than for all 27 OECD countries studied.
Then the Minister of Communications (Moshe Kahlon, Likud) set out to revolutionize the cellular market; and he actually did it. The country has been dazzled to witness a modest technocrat take down the omnipotent monsters of money – the one percent. He did it step by step, relentlessly dismantling the cellular companies’ power over consumers, leading up to this final blow.
The whimpering end of the mobile monopoly made me think: Is there no better proof that Israelis have been sedated into believing that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved, when of course, it can? Todd Gitlin, one of my favorite authors, wrote in his book The Sixties that when America drastically expanded its war effort, anti-war activists embraced a policy of exaggerated immediacy: “When doubters asked, ‘How can we get out of Vietnam?’ the quick answer was: on boats.”
There may not be a quick answer to the conflict. It may seem foolish to compare cellphone companies to the great geostrategic political machine of the occupation, singlehandedly charged with saving the Jewish people from existential destruction; that is, if you believe the government’s reasoning about why Israel can never withdraw from Area C, which is conflated with the reason it cannot dismantle five buildings, containing 30 apartments total, in Beit El. Politicians can never face down a few thousand extremist settlers, the argument goes, or a few religious parties in Knesset.
But with revenues of up to NIS 19 billion annually in recent years, the cellular companies aren’t exactly trifling players. Their owners include some of the country’s most formidable financial power-mongers who control enormous segments of Israel’s private sector (Hebrew). Yet MK Kahlon dismissed doomsday warnings of these petulant owners, with their implied economic existential threat, and marched ahead.
There is no terrible wizard behind the occupation either. There is only a thick curtain of tangled politico-security myths and military bureaucracy, smothering our powers of independent thought.
So here’s a modest thought: If one low-key minister with a clear goal and commitment can take down the cellular giants, is it really impossible for the country’s top statesman to end the occupation – say, by just doing it?
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Rowan Berkeley
No, no, Dahlia: not “30 buildings in Beit El.” They’re only proposing to knock down 5 of the 14 buildings that comprise Ulpana. According to the Supreme Court ruling, the other 9 buildings are legal. Each building contains 6 family apartments. You had it right in your original article.
Eyal
This article is a well-written and much-needed dose of optimism to start the week with.
Dahlia Scheindlin
@Rowan – it is actually 30 units, which is what I had in mind, thx for pointing that out – i’ve corrected it here.
Rowan Berkeley
Arutz Sheva etc usually express it as “evicting thirty families.” This creates a maximum sense of pathos.
caden
I know its a dirty word here but its called capitalism. You know, more competition brings down prices.
caden
Has opposed to “crony capitalism” which there is all too much of in the United States, and Israel.
Sol Salbe
Great article as usual Dahlia. I remember an Israeli writer, (cannot remember the name could have been B Michael), explaining that even the Messiah himself on his donkey while talking on the mobile to God above,
couldn’t have arranged for a change in the Israeli mobile phone system, which just about sums up the situation that you describe.
One trivial point: I could have sworn that the US anti-war activist I knew used to write/say: “boats and planes” rather than “by boats”.
Dahlia Scheindlin
Thanks, Sol. It’s just that I was quoting from Todd’s book, so i couldn’t embellish.
Ruth
They broke Bell telephone here in Canada which had a monopoly on all landline and cell phones. Sure, we now have dozens of providers but the prices are virtually the same! We get ripped off equally now by the big guns and the small guys.
Ruth
Here is what the big 3 will do in Israel, they will create satellite companies, seemingly independent from the mothership, offering new no thrill plans to customers. Or they will subcontract the plans to fight off accusations of monopoly. So at the end of the day, they will still be in charge but will throw a few bones to smaller companies. They will hardly lose any profits. That’s what happened in the US and Canada.
So how would the end of the occupation then turn out, will it be farmed out to some other subcontractor?
Aaron the Fascist Troll
“If they can put a man on the moon, why can’t they…?” Come on.
Isaak
I live in USA and I am a customer of giant company ATT. I like this company and never would trust any small “family based” company, becouse there have bad quality services, greedy and primitive. Usually they even dont have own commutate equipment, they are simple a parasite and they exsistance a result of so name demonopolization.I support capitalism , not a socialization, or, even worste, a socialism and communism. I got both of it more than enough in my Latvia for decades of filty ussr rule. Long life Israel USA Latvia and zionism capitalism ,imperialism ,democracy .
isaak
I wish, you all live in North Korea and get a feeling about dreams of justice society without occupation, but with socialism. Die with love.