What Makes the Average Citizen's Life Difficult?
What Makes the Average Citizen's Life Difficult?

                            

Underneath the demonstrations there is a silent concensus that Israel's economy is prey to  a major hazard that is hindering its modern democracy from moving forward. The beast comes in many forms, but essentially its identifying mark is that the rules don't count for beans a good deal of the time and while that is the rule, decent people have to live with it. 

Another  names for it is “Protektsia”, meaning that certain people can jump the queue for housing, jobs and other benefits because of whom they know and not what they know or what they deserve.  Payment is not the norm, but belonging to a particular group or knowing someone in power is. An example is Chevrat Hachasmal, the Electricity Company, where one of the better paid jobs has for years had a strong element of nepotism. 

Another can be seen in supermarkets where employees often belong to one immigrant group.  It is natural for families trying to adjust to a new country to want to look after their own, so the nepotism structure has become part of the scene in Israel, disadvantaging the latest group of immigrants.

Public housing allocation and building permits can also be influenced and have always been, partly because of an over-staffed, inefficient and complicated bureaucratic environment that answers to no one in stark contrast to Israel's hi-tech success that leads the world.

Human greed is  sometimes there ready to meet needs through some palm-greasing. This is the norm in Arab countries and Eastern Europe, but we do not want to finish up as Egypt and so many other countries have, with corruption as the norm.  Israel needs a healthy society.

The heavy taxation regime, although better than it was once, has also created a black economy , a loss to the country.  Your doctor at Kupat Cholim may tell you about the long wait for an operation, but if you want fast service you might just come to his clinic with an envelope, cash of course.  It is not that he wants to avoid tax: he is an educated man who chooses to live in Israel despite knowing of the alternatives.  He simply wants to live decently. His counterparts in many countries have decent salaries, work normal hours and spend leisure time enjoying life. Your repairman may do the same.

The whole country applauded the handling of corruption at the top, but achieving economic prosperity for those who work hard and care for those in need have to go hand in hand with rooting out corruption at all levels, with seeing that everyone gets a fair chance,  if Israel is not to sink to the depths of an ungovernable country. 

There will always be the disadvantaged, particularly when the causes are often grounded in assimilating millions of people in a short time-span, many of whom found the transition to a modern society difficult.  There are also the elderly Israelis who gave of themselves to build the country whilst providing the next generation.

In another generation or two Israel will a regional powerhouse in the Middle East.  Unless steps are taken now to deal with the scourge of endemic flouting of rules, there will be penalties to pay.  As a Jewish nation the last thing that we want is a divided society.  We need the man in the street to have a fair go.

Social justice begins and ends with honesty and fair play.