You’re damn right it’s “political”, Mr. Prime Minister. Next time you’re gonna try to enlist the populace to never-ending hostilities against others, at least make sure they are materially taken care of. Rechavia “Rick” Berman’s weekly feature is all J14

By Rechavia Berman

Sign in demonstration: "Bibi you hog, give back the state" (photo: Oren Ziv/activestills)

The People! Demand! Social Justice! Despite all the spins, all the lies about sushi eaters and hookah smokers, about spoiled privileged whiners pretending to be hurting financially just to topple an economic wiz of a Prime Minister whose foreign and security policy they disagree with, the people refuse to comply with the spin. Some 300 thousand took to the streets on Saturday to keep up the heat on the government in demand for solutions to the spiraling cost of living issues.

This comes after a week in which PM Binyamin Netanyahu spat in the eyes of all the protesters by passing his Trojan horse of a “national housing committees” bill, which will ostensibly release land for construction quicker, but in fact will simply enable the construction of slums without regard to engineering, environmental and infrastructure concerns.

Meanwhile, even Netanyahu’s token efforts to make things better by reforming the dairy market (where the protest wave actually began about two months ago) are running into problems as the racist Yisrael Beitenu is opposing this effort. This, more than the protests themselves, is now threatening Bibi’s coalition. Maybe we’ll have elections sooner rather than later. Knesset Speaker Ruby Rivlin said so, too.

The entire right wing is freaking out. All their websites have been dominated for the past week or more by attempts to dispute the number of protesters, to disparage their motives and to “prove” that this is all about spoiled hipsters who insist on living on Rothschild Boulevard – ignoring the fact that at Likud events across the country, the party’s own constituents shouted out at their leaders that they, too, support the protests.

The far right Kahane followers from the settlements even decided that “if you can’t beat them, join them”, with long-time Kahane leaders Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben-Gvir pitching a tent on the Boulevard and telling the press that “on social issues, I’m more left than left.” Despite this, they proved deeply unable to get with the spirit of social justice for all, trying to bring their divisive rhetoric and reaping the anger and detestation of the majority of protesters on location. Meanwhile, protesters from the right-wing Hatikva neighborhood were making common cause with Arab ones and chanting “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies.”

All this time, Netanyahu is quietly trying to bring about a security crisis. The Israeli Air Force bombed Gaza a couple of times until the desired couple of flying pipe bombs flew out, but Hamas itself cracked down on the launchers. In the West Bank, the IDF is arresting people and carrying out raids deep in Area A. This weekend, an actor from the Freedom Theater in Jenin was arrested, and several hours later the theater itself was raided, as were villages in the Hebron area. Nothing will help Netanyahu more than an outburst of violence on the borders. In this he is aided by the same man foiling his dairy reform – race-baiter extraordinaire Foreign Minister Yvette Lieberman, supreme leader of the aforementioned Yisrael Beitenu party.

Liberman has taken to warning of an impending bloodbath in September, ahead of the UN vote on recognizing the amorphous “Palestinian State.” According to Lieberman, the Palestinians are planning all sorts of devilry and violence. And the fact that the Palestinian Authority is calling on its people not to confront Israel in September? Or the fact that the IDF itself says it has no clue where Lieberman is getting his prognosis? Never mind! Fearless leader knows best. And if the Palestinians don’t rise up, we’ll push and prod and provoke them till they do.

Another fear that may be used to deflect the just aims of this uprising is economic in nature. On Sunday, the Tel Aviv Stock Market dropped six percent before trading was halted. It seems that Netanyahu’s empty boast of having isolated Israel from the dire straits of the global economy (as if people, like yours truly, didn’t lose half of their savings, even though those were invested in very conservative funds, back in 2008) is finally being disproved.

And yet many, too many, still cling to the fallacy that “the protests are not political.” First of all, that’s of course an ignorant thing to say, because all politics is about “who gets what and how” and any demand to change any of that is “political.” What people meant by that is that it is “non-partisan”, and even that’s not completely true. Of course it’s partisan. Netanyahu didn’t just happen to be Prime Minister when this insane spiraling of prices happened – he created it, with a policy of aggressive privatization and reduced taxes for the rich. Even now, he insists that accepting a central demand of the protests, to lower regressive indirect taxes and re-raise direct taxes on high earners and corporations, would be “like a religious conversion” to him. If so, he must go. If his party wishes, as my brilliant colleague Yossi Gurvitz pointed out, it can appoint someone else who is spiritually capable of doing what needs to be done, and retain power. If not, then yes, you’re damn right it’s “political.”

True, many (not all, but many) of the initiators of this protest movement detest Netanyahu’s foreign and security policies as well, but that doesn’t mean their – or our – opposition to his economics is insincere. We on the left detest him on both grounds. The only difference is that we share the economic beef with a lot more of the electorate, who may not realize how one leads to the other, but can feel the bite in the wallet just fine. Tough, Mr. Prime Minister. Next time you’re gonna try to enlist the populace to never-ending hostilities against others, at least make sure they are materially taken care of.

And now, after an immense and diverse crowd cheered as people on stage chanted “Jews and Arabs refuse to be enemies” and polls show a growing number of people calling for reductions in the amounts spent on settlements and on the security establishment, maybe we’ll make some headway on rectifying that outward hostility problem as well. Cause either there’s social justice for all, or there’s no social justice at all.

That’ll do it for this week. The Weekly Holyland Wrap is not responsible for any illusions, sympathies or misconceptions that may have been misplaced on our tours. Please collect your senses and check your comments where appropriate. Thank you for flying the crazy skies.

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Rick’s book, “Jewcy Story”, a popular history of the 2nd Temple Era, can be bought for Amazon Kindle, for cell phone or for PC here.